So it came out finally this week and i picked it up the day it came out. I am totally digging it. I have been playing for about 10 hours and have barely scratched the surface of the game. Now i tend to take my time and explore every corner and try and finish up every quest i can in an area before i move on. I have noticed some bugs in the game. One NPC supposedly got killed but i never saw it happen. Also i have accidentally jumped ahead and met characters out of sequence but those are pretty small quarrels with me. I am totally loving the game. I only wish i had an HDTV to play it on i think it would be so much better.
I’ve been playing this a lot over the last few days. Definitely my GOTY.
And I found Dogmeat! (How’d you get all the way from California to DC boy?)
I’ve been lookin for him. I get sad every time i beat a dog to death with a baseball bat hoping its not Dogmeat. I’ll find him one of these days
Just started it; I like it so far, don’t love it but i like it. i did just love the character creation chapter.
Great! This one has been mentioned often as much anticipated. I am wondering if it is worth the buy. Can you tell me how graphic it is? Is it on par with Mass Effect or Oblivion or is it stomach turning gore?
Mass effect no… Oblivion yes, its not a graphical powerhouse, i haven’t seen to much gore yet but i’ve only scratched the surface
So far it does not have quite the story that Mass Effect had but i have been doing mostly Side Quests. The side quests are far better than in Mass Effect. Also the options and ability to change the story archs of the NPC’s are far more vast in this. Early on you have the option to destroy an entire town which effect the story plays out vastly. Also unlike Mass Effect the Fallout world has a closed economy. Meaning if you steal everything a shop owner has they will not be likely to have anything ever again.
on the gore factor it can be pretty bad but its overly bad in a funny way i think.
Graphically its no power house. Better than Oblivion (or what i have seen of Oblivian) Its not as clean as Mass Effect but the world wouldn’t look right if it were. After all it takes placed in a nuked out world.
Hmmm, sounds like one I might try. How much of a click-fest is it? I have tendonitis and can just handle Mass Effect and Oblivion. Anything clickier will be impossible.
I don’t kn ow how clicky it is on the PC but on the 360 its not to bad. You have the ability to “pause” and select shots. It takes action points but they reload pretty fast.
You can play F3 as a shooter (it looks like one, which is what I suspect is confusing some people) but you don’t have to and indeed it isn’t recommended that you play that way.
When you see an enemy hit the key to bring up VATS (the Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System). (It’s the ‘V’ key on the PC; not sure what it is on the 360 or PS3) This pauses the game and gives you the various parts of your opponent that you can target along with the percentages of hitting each. Depending on your action points and weapon you may be able to target several shots (and can even divide them among multiple opponents). When you are done, exit VATS and it executes your attacks (usually it Matrixesque slow-motion.) So a typical battle involves popping out from cover, entering VATS, selecting targets, leaving VATS, executing attacks and then ducking back into cover until your action points regenerate.
This can lead to some amusing fights. Last night I was helping defend a town from a super-mutant attack. The only way into the town was across a small bridge.
Two mutants are charging me across the bridge and I enter VATS. Targeting the first, I see that it is holding a grenade in its hand. I target my first shot at the grenade, my second at its head and my third at the second mutant.
When the attack executes, my first shot hits the grenade, setting it off and killing the mutant holding it. The blast flips the second mutant over the railing of the bridge and my next shot takes its head off as it falls into the water.
You can just point and click but you get fewer criticals that way, the body part targeted is more random and you tend to do less damage. (Since this is an RPG your skills are always running behind the scenes. You may be hitting the target every time but your damage is being reduced by your skill level. If you use VATS your skill determines if you hit at all or not but, when you do, you do full damage.)
[spoiler]Go to Minefield. (If you’re doing the survival guide quest line at Megaton’s store you should be going there anyway.) From Minefield, head straight south and you’ll hit a scrapyard after a couple of minutes. Look around, he’s wandering around there somewhere.[/spoiler]
Thanks for the hint. I did go to Minefield but i missed the other area. The world is so huge that you can do that. It’s amazing how big the world is.
As for the perspective. I noramly travel the world in 3rd person and then do combat in 1st person. I mostly use the VATS system but while i am waiting for my AP points to build up I usually back up and shoot FPS style.
I had one awesome Critical hit against a Super Mutant. I hit him in the chest with an Assault Rifle i think (it may have been a missile) and he got flung into the air. Like Way way up into the air. Like he disappeared into the sky and never came back down. Its been my favorite critical kill thus far. Although one time my character got hung up and i was forced to kill myself. I dropped a couple grenades and shot my feet with a missile a couple times an ended up blowing my self up. My animation death ended up with my arm being blown off and my hand ended up touching my butt.
Im getting it for by bros burfday
im cited
Thanks for all the insight! I will have to start dropping some heavy Xmas gift hints. 
Your Cited…did you get a traffic ticket…bad bad Boxy
The visuals are “STUNNING” !!
I stand on top of a Hill or bridge put the controller down and have a smoke or two, It looks that good, (1080p).
Reminds me of KOTOR (ALOT) just without jedi 
Just got my powered armour, and a kick ass robot !!!
Yeah. I defy anyone, when they first step out of the Vault onto that overlook, to not stand there for at least several seconds looking around at the view.
I mean, really. The game looks incredible…
One of these days i will get to enjoy the great graphics. Im still stuck using my “old fashion tv”
Just picked up Fallout 3 this past weekend and I must say I’m really liking it. I was sure I wouldn’t like because it would be too much like Oblivion and I couldn’t stand Oblivion. Glad I gave it shot because I’m enjoying it.
The game keeps getting cooler and cooler. I was walking thru the city last night and was ambushed by a pair of super mutants. One of them was shooting missiles at me. He missed for the most part and i quickly dispatched them. But as i was walking away i was walking a little slower and then my vision when really fuzzy. That has only happened to me briefly before when i came down off a drug and then only for a second or so. This time it stuck around. I checked my status and it turned out that I had a concussion. A stimpack later and i was fine but i thought it was the coolest thing.
I’ve more or less abandoned the main quest and am just wandering around seeing what I can find. There is a lot of interesting stuff out there just waiting to be discovered.
For example, early on I was exploring the area around Megaton (just to see what was out there) when two people ran past me. I follow them to see where they are going but they take cover behind some rocks. I try to talk to them but discover that they are slaves and are “Fleeing” (and so won’t talk to me).
Suddenly bullets start flying and both slaves are killed. I turn around and see two slavers standing there, pretty much ignoring me.
About this point a mole-rat shows up and one of the slavers starts shooting at it. The mole-rat runs off, slaver following.
I walk up to the remaining slaver and try to talk to him but he won’t reply. I shrug, pull out my baseball bat (my main weapon at the time) and pop into VATS. I proceed to hit him three times.
I somehow don’t kill him but I cripple his arm and he drops his weapon. He screams and runs away.
I start to follow but start taking gunfire from his buddy, now on his way back. I duck behind a rock and switch to my shotgun. The buddy runs around the rock and without using VATS I let loose a point-blank shot into his face. His body drops like a rock while his head goes bouncing down the slope about 20 feet away. (Critical headshot FTW!)
I look around and the first slaver is cowering behind another rock. I start towards him and he runs off, yelling “Help! Help!” I run after him and he runs straight into a pack of three mole-rats, which slow him down long enough for me to catch up. A shotgun blast to the back puts him down and I switch back to my baseball bat to finish off the mole-rats. Just another day in the Wasteland.
Then, last night I am exploring cross-country when I see a building on the top of a hill. Since non-generic ruined buildings tend to have things of interest around them I approach to see a ruined white church sitting in the middle of a graveyard.
As I get closer I see movement and use stealth to take shelter among some rocks. The movement is a supermutant, so I pull out my hunting rifle and, using VATS from stealth, kill him in one shot.
Two mutants from inside the church hear the gunshot and come running out. One is another supermutant but the other is a supermutant brute with a minigun. 
They start shooting at me and I start dodging, popping off shots via VATS as I do.
Suddenly I run out of ammo. I switch to my next weapon, which turns out to be a frag grenade. I throw it and miss the brute but it lands near the other supermutant. He yells “Oh sh*t!” and the grenade explodes, killing him but only injuring the brute.
Now the brute and I am exchanging fire but I only have a pistol and am starting to wonder when my last save was when two cars sitting in front of the church, either from the grenade or from stray gunfire, suddenly explode! I’m knocked to the ground while about half the brute sails by over my head. A cheap win maybe, but I’ll take it.
I also like having random NPCs come up to me to thank me for what I have been doing (I’m playing my usual goody two-shoes character) though I have had someone come up to me and warn me to stop asking questions about the missing android.
Overall, I am amazed at how immersive this game is. And have you been listening to the GNR radio? The DJ there will sometimes talk about things you have done in the Wasteland.
Definitely a fun game.