From Newsgroup: alt.games.fallout

Boy, talk about déjà vu!

FO3 is a great game, but only because it uses almost exactly the same engine as Oblivion, which is one of the greatest games, ever.

Some of the few changes that I like are:

1. The perks
2. The leveling up process generally
3. The new repair system
4. VATS

Huge slabs of Oblivion are missing, including:

1. Any equivalent of the magic system, which is a huge part of Oblivion, and
a major contributor to its rich gameplay.

2. Any real alchemy and hence reason to collect stuff, other than
workbenches which are a pale imitation. I liked collecting ingredients and making poisoned arrows.

Some of this could perhaps have been included as some sort of suit mods, or adding other functions to the Rad Boy thingie.

The graphics are exclusively (at least so far) unremittingly awful scenes of twisted concrete and dreadful laboratories. Oblivion has many places of real beauty and peace.

Its obviously depressing to spend your life drinking radioactive water out
of urinals to regain health; I found myself wondering whether I cared if I lived or died anyway - its not like there seemed to be much to look forward to.

I am also disappointed that they didn't take out some of the klunkier bits
of the engine, such as dreadful mapping system of Oblivion which carries
over.

BTW, does anybody know the key or command to be holding no weapon at all,
not even your fists, so you are not perceived of as aggressively by NPCs? Or does it even really matter at all?


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From Newsgroup: alt.games.fallout

hold down R for reload, ,that'll holster any weapons
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From Newsgroup: alt.games.fallout

Peter Webb wrote:

Boy, talk about déjà vu!

FO3 is a great game, but only because it uses almost exactly the same
engine as Oblivion, which is one of the greatest games, ever.

Some of the few changes that I like are:

1. The perks
2. The leveling up process generally
3. The new repair system
4. VATS

Personally, I almost never use the VATS as it seems less accurate then
moving the mouse to the desired location and shooting.

Huge slabs of Oblivion are missing, including:

1. Any equivalent of the magic system, which is a huge part of Oblivion,
and a major contributor to its rich gameplay.

2. Any real alchemy and hence reason to collect stuff, other than workbenches which are a pale imitation. I liked collecting ingredients
and making poisoned arrows.

Some of this could perhaps have been included as some sort of suit mods,
or adding other functions to the Rad Boy thingie.

The graphics are exclusively (at least so far) unremittingly awful
scenes of twisted concrete and dreadful laboratories. Oblivion has many places of real beauty and peace.

There is one location with real trees, etc.

Its obviously depressing to spend your life drinking radioactive water
out of urinals to regain health; I found myself wondering whether I
cared if I lived or died anyway - its not like there seemed to be much
to look forward to.

I am also disappointed that they didn't take out some of the klunkier
bits of the engine, such as dreadful mapping system of Oblivion which carries over.

BTW, does anybody know the key or command to be holding no weapon at
all, not even your fists, so you are not perceived of as aggressively by NPCs? Or does it even really matter at all?

I generally unselect the weapon so that my fists show then press the 'R'
key to drop them. I don't think it makes any difference as I quite
often talk to people with a combat shotgun pointing at their face and
they don't seem to care. Supposedly if you don't have a weapon in your
hands you can run faster but I haven't noticed any real difference.


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From Newsgroup: alt.games.fallout

On Jan 29, 4:27 am, "Peter Webb"
<webbfam...@DIESPAMDIEoptusnet.com.au> wrote:

Some of the few changes that I like are:

1. The perks
2. The leveling up process generally
3. The new repair system
4. VATS

I wish VATS was faster though, but there's a snag with my card
or something like that. Latest patch made it fast enough to be
usable though.
Definately VATS is better than trying to aim manually I feel,
but it wears out weapons faster. I just can't track moving
enemies very well. Have a sniper rifle now, and good stealth,
and I'll try using that on stationary targets without VATS and
see if it works.
It does capture a lot of the feel of Fallout 1&2 luckily, but
not all of it. I do not compare this game to Oblivion so any
similarities or differences are not important. The comparison
to Fallout is much more important to me.
The biggest flaw I see so far is the excessive gore. This is not
like the earlier Fallouts in feel, where you needed higher levels
and good criticals, or the bloody mess trait, before you got the
more spectacular deaths. In this game, I had a BB gun remove
a limb at level 1, and a 10mm routinely and regularly causes
decapitations. It's just absurd. Would have been better to not
have that stuff without higher caliber weapons.
The physics engine is as unpredictable as Oblivion. Super
mutants flying high into the air after being hit by bullets, the
decapitated dog that remains standing, tin cans bouncing off
the walls because I wasn't watching where I was walking.

Huge slabs of Oblivion are missing, including:

Missing? You mean never even remotely considered for an
for addition to a science and science fiction based game.
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From Newsgroup: alt.games.fallout

Darin Johnson wrote:

On Jan 29, 4:27 am, "Peter Webb"
<webbfam...@DIESPAMDIEoptusnet.com.au> wrote:

Huge slabs of Oblivion are missing, including:

Missing? You mean never even remotely considered for an
for addition to a science and science fiction based game.

Right on. FO3 is the first RPG I've tried (after playing PC games since
the very early 80') because the others all seemed to deal with spells,
magical traits, and other fantasy elements. I love science fiction but
can't seem to develop any interest at all in fantasy.


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