Topic: Fallout 3

[MysterD]

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He didnt have the option to go in for me either, which is what I was complaining about. He would be able to go in and no one would have to die, but for some stupid reason you cant do it.

END TALK -- SPOILERS

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Oh, okie. I thought you said you had an option for it at the very end.
My bad!

Yeah, he should've had a dialogue option, yeah -- and Lyons and yourself would've survived; which probably could've got you the "selfish ending" part for one of the pieces of the game's ending since you did NOT sacrifice yourself.

[gpw11]

Where do you get the "Piston Fist"? I think is what it's called.

Sidequest spoilers (sort of) regarding the Power Fist.

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That's not my video but I think I got the Power Fist from Henry's Hideout (near Arfu?).  The thing is that the part of the dungeon I got it in isn't accessible at first. You have to accept the "Riley's Rangers" quest in Underworld in order to get the code to enter a weapons cache there, and it's kind of hidden in a corner of the map.

I have found another one kicking around somewhere, but I have no idea where.

[MysterD]

I reloaded my last save and checked the end out for when....
***ENDING TALK******

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...You decide to do exactly what your dad did and sacrifice yourself for the endeavor (and take in radiation galore), if you decide to help save the world to get Project Purity up and running. Damn, it was touching, gripping, and quite sad.

Gaming cinema at some of its finest moments -- thanks to Lyons' voice-acting.

I tell you, it's only adds to it to hear Ron Perlman (again) narrating the sad ending, too.

[Quemaqua]

I've been playing the game for just over 60 hours now, and I'm a couple levels away from 20.  I either just hit 17 or 18... I think 18.  I'm fairly close to the level cap, I've found 3 or 4 of the unique weapons, I've found Dogmeat and one follower that will actually follow me (though in total I think I've located 3 or 4 of them), and I'm 2/3 to 3/4 through the main story and probably about 2/3 through the sidequests.

This is truly one of the most amazing games I've ever played.  The variety of things to do, the compelling design in not only the main quest but the side stuff and plain old Wasteland wandering... it's stunning that it remains just as interesting to me now as it did 10 hours in.  Everything still feels so fresh.  The different areas of the Wasteland, while similar because it's all typical post-apocalypse desert, feel different because of the varied topography and the significant variety of random encounters.  That's another cool thing I didn't really get at first: even though you don't hit random encounters while wandering around an overworld map (i.e. when you fast-travel), the game does actually have a random encounter system that very closely mirrors that of the earlier games.  The encounters can be combat or non-combat, and you're never really aware of them spawning at all, they feel very much like a natural part of the world, not like a random encounter (I didn't realize they weren't hand-placed until I read about some stuff in the guide, and this is after 50 hours of gameplay... they're really well integrated).  So those keep things really fresh and amusing even when just wandering around for long stretches.  For instance, I've walked two NPCs from one side of the map all the way to the other.  This is a large undertaking, and while it will have some stretches of downtime, you also run across a host of stuff, and it's different every time.  The game doesn't blow its load on them right up front, either.

Anyway... hopefully later tonight I'll have the 2nd version of my music mod up.  It will be much better than the first.

[MysterD]

I'm 2 hours or so into my 2nd run through. This time, aiming to be a evil, heartless bastard.

In The Vault & Megaton...

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I beat the hell out of Butch in the fight before the GOAT; killed Butch and his mom when the Vault 101 was being attacked....

...Outside of there, I accepted the detonator from Burke in Megaton; was not nice in conversation to Lucas Simms.

[Pugnate]

That was nasty. -idol

[PyroMenace]

Dude... what the hell?!

[gpw11]

I hope somebody switched that image on you.

[Pugnate]

You've just been Megatrolled!

[Pugnate]

Also, FO3 has now shipped 4.7 million units.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/927/927608p1.html

Crazy stuff.

[gpw11]

Well, it basically is the best game ever. I'm about level 16 and just got to rivet city for the first time. I've seen a lot of cool stuff wandering around but will probably take some time to advance the story now.

I've also just gotten into making my own weapons.  Damn, some of them are awesome.

[Quemaqua]

Wow, level 16 and just getting to Rivet City?  And I thought I was going off the beaten path.

Also, I guess I'm not packaging the next release of the music mod because it's past 2AM, I have to get up in the morning, but I'm still playing.  So... uh... maybe tomorrow?

[gpw11]

You know what mod this game really needs?  Iron sights.

[MysterD]

Also, FO3 has now shipped 4.7 million units.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/927/927608p1.html

Crazy stuff.

You've been so 0wned

[Pugnate]

Oh no.

[MysterD]

Oh, question....

Amata Question

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Can Amata join you as a companion/henchmen?

[Quemaqua]

No, she can't.

Version 2 of the Classic Music Mod is now up.  You can grab it from Fallout 3 Nexus or FileFront.  Feel free to give me a vote or leave comments, especially on FO3Nexus where a bunch of other mods have sprung up.  I feel mine is the best of them because instead of just chucking a bunch of shit on there, I really tried to ensure that every song included added something to the game and wasn't included *just because* it's from the past games.

Anyway, enjoy!  Both entries now with AMAZING PROMOTIONAL SCREENSHOTS!

[Xessive]

Where do you get the "Piston Fist"? I think is what it's called.

I found the one!

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It's in a footlocker at a US Army camp right by Vault 112.

Great stuff Que hehe!

[MysterD]

President Eden spoilers warning...

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President Eden can't be eaten.
He's a frickin' huge computer.

[gpw11]

Fuck, why did I click on that spoiler?


Has anyone gone to the tricycle factory yet?  I don't think it's a quest, it's just a place you can explore.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I've been there.  It doesn't tie into a quest, but there's sort of a freeform thing you can do elsewhere which ends up with its finale out in front.  But that isn't really a quest either, just something on the side you can do.  I've noticed this game has lots of little.... well, I hesitate to call them "emergent" quests, but that seems to be the best descriptor.  Like you don't get a big text thing saying "OMG you got a quest!" but they still involve going from one place to another to do something and then get a (usually smallish) reward.  A lot of other games might give it text and call it a quest, and it ends up being basically the same thing, except that Fallout 3 then has idiots out there saying "17 sidequests is unacceptable!"  Meh.

[gpw11]

Yeah, I've been there.  It doesn't tie into a quest, but there's sort of a freeform thing you can do elsewhere which ends up with its finale out in front.  But that isn't really a quest either, just something on the side you can do.  I've noticed this game has lots of little.... well, I hesitate to call them "emergent" quests, but that seems to be the best descriptor.  Like you don't get a big text thing saying "OMG you got a quest!" but they still involve going from one place to another to do something and then get a (usually smallish) reward.  A lot of other games might give it text and call it a quest, and it ends up being basically the same thing, except that Fallout 3 then has idiots out there saying "17 sidequests is unacceptable!"  Meh.

Discussion on what's inside the tricycle factory:

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Did you get the thing with The Surgeon?  I was suprised to have this unique character in there (that I capped and robbed), but when I hacked into the computer it solved some of my questions...like why every head shot sounding like a landmine going off and why all the enemies I was killing in there's heads would explode after they died.  Inside the computer it basically said that the Surgeon was controlling everyone in the building though a chip in their brains.  There was an option to detonate all the chips, but I'm pretty sure I had already killed every motherfucker in that place. Mmmmmm....details.

The one part I didn't get was the named ghoul in the cell.  No worries, I just killed him anyways.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, this is exactly why the game is the best thing ever.

[gpw11]

Totally.  There's a ton of other little things I've been noticing as well.  Like going through an apartment or hotel and you'll see a scene with a skeleton on the bed or something, some bags and a knife nearby, blood on the wall, and in the bathroom there'll be another skeleton in the bathtub with blood around it's outstretched arm like whoever it was slit their wrists and a note nearby (that you can't read).  Awesome.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, there's an absolute ton of little "stories" like that which play out from scenes.  But what continues to impress me is the sheer volume of little elements that can make a simple trek through the Waste a story with the random encounters, some of which are recurring but usually entertaining, and some that are one-offs that you may never see again.  And you can play this game for 70+ hours and not see anywhere near all of them by a long shot, even avoiding fast travel.  This game was just really well founded.  Even if some of the tech stuff can be a little sticky and there are some problems, the foundations of the design are just so rock solid that nothing can seem to shake it for me.

And variety, too.  Again today I did several things which changed the feel of the Waste itself, gave me a different viewpoint... and saw several unique things that stood out as completely different from everything else I'd run across.  It baffles me.  I really did enjoy Oblivion, but after 100 hours of that, the totally unique stuff you'd come across would basically take a while to come around.  Some stuff felt a little samey, and while there were tons of dungeons, they didn't always have a real payoff at the end.  I won't say every last thing does in Fallout 3, the ratio is so, so far above, and so far above any other really open game I've played like this.  It just seems like the feeling of newness never stops, there really is always something different to see every time you go to a new location.

EDIT - Have you guys even found any of the radio towers dotted around the landscape?  Check one out sometime.  In case you want to figure out exactly what they do on your own, I'll tag this, but you still have to go DO it even if you know already:

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These towers will give you a new radio frequency to tune to, and you then have to wander around trying to triangulate your position to find where it's coming from.  Once you find the location, it's usually a small little hidden spot like a sewer grate or manhole type thing, and inside there's a stash.  And the first one I found was a Morse code signal, so I thought they all would be... no, each one is a different freaking signal so far, ranging from distress calls to just random noises... it's just... awesome.

Also, I'm dying to know if anyone else found this, so I'll just give the clue that it was, uh... "out of this world".  If you've seen it, you should know what I mean.

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Crash-landed Martian ship.  And I got an alien gun with some very limited ammo that's pretty damned powerful, and it's basically just a pistol.  I've only used it a few times, but it's a bit like the plasma pistol, only blue.  Anyway... that was a fucking awesome moment.  I hope some of you guys found that too.  If not, and you read this anyway, there's still a unique way that you'll come across it, and there's nothing in the game documenting where it is that I know of... you just have to wander until you find it.

[MysterD]

Holy crap @ all that stuff, Que. That's pretty cool.

[gpw11]

About your first spoiler:

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I was browsing around somethingawful.com and ran into a thread about the towers.  Someone had translated all the morse code which was pretty cool.  I don't think I've actually run across any yet, although I did start receiving a recording of a Chinese propaganda tape and couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

About your second spoiler:

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There are apparently two of these "encounters". One random, one placed and they're both a bit different.

Now, what exactly do you mean about encounters? Like you'll be in the wastes and an NPC will run up to you with a "quest"?

[Quemaqua]

Well, it won't be a quest or anything so much as just... stuff happens.  As described in the guide:

Aside from your main and miscellaneous quests, there are dozens of smaller tasks, chance meetings, and other activities you can accomplish, depending on your decisions.  They are divided into two types: unique encounters and repeating encounters.

It lists 80 of them.  I think they are placed in the sense that certain things only happen in certain places, but they're random.  Like you might run across a group of settlers fending off a raider incursion according to one of the entries, or you might find a hunter or hunters trying to track and kill an animal, or you might run across a wasteland doctor that'll patch you up and sell you stuff, or you might run across a guy who'll sell you a Nuka-Cola Quantum for 100 caps, and there are two unique encounters I've run across that involve a group of people trying to get to a certain place, and while you can't really do anything with them, if you act a certain way they'll reveal on your map the location that they're trying to get to (or, as in one of these encounters, end up fighting you if you piss them off).  Stuff like that.

[gpw11]

Cool.  You know, one of my major complaints about this game is the way the notes system lacks.  The inventory system is one thing, but it's kind of ridiculous how you find all these people all over asking you to find little odds and ends for them, and you just have to remember it.  If the notes section actually recorded it, things would be a lot easier (for me at least).

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I wish the notes section was better organized.  I don't remember having issues with somebody wanting something and not being able to keep track of it, though.  I'm collecting I think 4 different items for 4 different people, and I know exactly who and where they are when I need to offload my stuff because if I let it go too long my inventory carry weight starts to hurt...

[Xessive]

Fallout 3 Tweak Guide is now available.

It's got some pretty handy tips and tricks to squeeze out some more quality and performance, and even a way to completely disable and remove LIVE. SInce the game is singleplayer-only LIVE is pretty redundant.

EDIT:
It also mentions Que's Classic Music Mod

[MysterD]

Que gets a mention and nod? Cool, man.

Que, did the music come from the GOG Music Soundtracks (MP3) for FO1? FO2? FO: Tactics? OR did you rip it from right out of the game folders themselves?

[Xessive]

I'm really loving this game.

Here's a shot of my character:


I also discovered how to get a haircut!

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Figured I oughta put this in a spoiler tag: when you return to Vault 101 Butch can give you a haircut and you can change your style!

Fallout 3 is fantastic but I'm beginning to feel it's a lot smaller than I originally anticipated. In all fairness I was comparing it to Oblivion. The main quest, at least, seems like it's pretty short. Either way I'm still enjoying it

[MysterD]

Xessive, your dude reminds me of Mr. Burke.

[Quemaqua]

It's definitely smaller than Oblivion, but don't make the mistake of thinking it small.  Sheer size has diminished, but quality (in comparison) has shot through the roof.  Everything there is to do in the game is more interesting, and even though you've only got 17 sidequests, as I mentioned earlier, there are lots of things that might have gotten quest text in other games even though in this one it just ends up being something freeform.  There are countless little things.

But yeah, I've actually been shocked at just how big it is and how much there is to do compared to Oblivion, because while at first I thought it felt smaller, I've come to feel like it's much bigger just because so little is repeated, where Oblivion really felt like a lot of the content was filler.  Filler isn't the right word since it generally seemed appropriate during the course of a normal game, but if you spent a lot of time trying to just play the hell out of it and do a lot of the content, eventually you started to get tired of certain elements.  I have absolutely zero Fallout 3 fatigue right now.  I'm still rabid for it since I'm still seeing new things on a regular basis with very little repetition.  I guess I wouldn't have minded a couple more enemy types, but I'm not complaining.

And that's awesome to see my mod mentioned on that page.  Thanks for linking me to it, X.  The positive comments I've gotten make me really happy.  I only wish the tweak page actually reported the mod's functionality properly, as it only replaces a few tracks -- the idea is to fix a couple problems and make some quality additions, helping the overall depth to be improved while keeping it balanced, not to just throw everything out and add new stuff.  I should maybe email them about that.  Still, they had several other choices and picked mine, so it makes me feel good to know they felt mine was the one worth mentioning.

And MyD, I didn't find enough of a difference in the MP3s from GOG and the stuff in the game to bother going through the motions of conversion.  I just used the MP3s.  I think they did a good job with those... one guy says his songs don't have any popping or hissing or whatever, but I don't know where there'd even have been any of that in the first place since I don't hear it in the game and the GOG MP3s are clean.  Maybe some of those floating around the net are of lesser quality or something, or maybe it's easy to do a bad conversion job.

EDIT - My character has gone through a number of different phases, including the Crazy 88 phase, power armor phase, completely batshit insane phase (I kind of got pissed after this one quest and went a little crazy during my retribution), and my more normal mercenary phase.  Generally I go between the power armor (I've found many kinds now) and the merc armor, usually using the hood you see me wearing with the power armor.  Note also that I grew more facial hair after a while, heh.

[gpw11]

I never really got into Oblivion although I tried for a few days.  This, on the other hand, I just can't stop playing.

I don't really have any good character portraits, but this is a good pic of me and my BFF.

[Xessive]

Xessive, your dude reminds me of Mr. Burke.

Hehe there's good reason for that!

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You see, I killed him. I reported him to Sheriff Lucas Simms. When Simms confronted him, Burke seemingly agreed to come quietly but as soon as Simms turned his back Burke pulled out a silenced 10mm pistol! I took him down before he killed Simms! Then I looted Burke. Nice Tortoiseshell glasses

Any time Que While I'm not too familiar with the classic Fallout music I thought you did a good job with the mod! As soona s I saw "Classic Music Mod" listed there I clicked to see if it was really yours or one of the others! hehe I tried posting a comment but the page kept giving me an error on refresh, so I just rated it

The quality of FO3 is definitely amazing. I have to agree that it's not actually short, it's just shorter than Oblivion (which was considerably long).

The hat I am currently wearing, while similar to Mr. Burke's pre-war hat, is actually a "Shady Hat" developed by Moira Brown to increase stealth by 5 points. Handy when I'm feeling particularly sneaky. I generally wear minimal armour in favour of lighter, quieter gear but occasionally I'll swap into a heavier set.

[gpw11]

I'm advancing the story pretty quickly now. I think I'll probably focus on finishing it off right now, and then maybe start another (way more badass) playthrough in a few months or so where I can really take my time and hopefully experiment with some mods (hopefully once the construction set is out).  There is a ton of shit I know about that I haven't even gotten close to exploring yet though, varying from places I've had marked on my map, places I've discovered but decided to return to later, and even places people have mentioned.  I think I'm 25-30 in and I've never even seen Tenpenny Tower.

[Quemaqua]

I'm 90 hours in now and there's still a fair ton of stuff I haven't seen.  I hit 20 last night and took the "Explorer" perk so that every spot is revealed on my map.  My map wasn't at all barren as I'd done a lot of exploring... I was actually a bit shocked at how many places I hadn't been.

[Pugnate]

Wow Que's dude looks a lot like Russell Crowe in that top left pic!!