Fallout 3 Comments by Kristan Reed

Oh Fucking Shitballs.

Was hoping this would be a 7 or 8 so I wouldn't have to buy it so close to Fable2, GOW 2, Mirror's Edge and Left 4 Dead !!!

Ok now with 10/10 i'm finally reassured that this is just FPS becouse official maximum score on EG for rpg's is 8.

"Besides being an awful looking game artistically"

Oblivion was many things, but awful looking was certainly not one of them.

Not technically, of course, but notice that he specifically says artistically. Oblivion is quite dire in that manner, a generic I-want-to-be-LOTR non-descript high fantasy bore.

Kristan: I liked the review, but wanted more information on the quality of the story. Any reason you decided to go for a "short" review with such a long-awaited game?

How well does Fallout 3 run on the PC? I know it uses the same engine as Oblivion but does it run identically to that game? In other words, will it run as well as Oblivion does now on my current PC, or is the engine heavily tweaked and thus far more demanding?

Another 10 /o\

If Gears and banjo score well, i'm done for :(

@michaelius

Fable II

From the way he compares this game to Oblivion and Bioshock think I'll be giving it a miss. I thought both games were highly overrated. Especially Oblivion which bored the pants off me. I might pick it up when it gets cheap and see what like.

60 hours though? It seems games are either too short or too long these days. Don't really have time to devote 60 hours to one game.

WARNING on saving:

http://www.gameplayer.com.au/gp_document...

Also:

Graphics
The resolution is crisp, the landscapes are impressive, and there are a lot of clever details to be found in the massive world. However, the unrealistic ragdoll physics, often inaccurate V.A.T.S. animations, flat textures, repetitive environments, and poor, emotionless facial expressions combine to make the visual experience decidedly less than stellar.

Control
Having the ability to completely customize the control mapping is a great feature. Unfortunately, the shooter mechanic is clunky. The game plays as if it were a ported PC title; it begs for a mouse and WASD keys.

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The background music, radio function, and sound effects are all nicely captured, but the star-studded voice acting is fairly grating; the silly comments made during fights and the consistently inane conversations detract from the overall sense of accomplishment.

Play Value
There is so much to do in this game it's almost overkill. There is an enormous amount of quests, character development options, factions to join, and territory to cover. If you get hooked, you'll be playing this title for months!

http://www.cheatcc.com/xbox360/rev/fallo...

@huppla

IGN US 9.6
IGN UK 8.8
IGN OZ 9.5

Dear EG. How dare you give a game in a genre that I don't like, a 10! You should be aware of my personal views. I am very fond of lace-making. There's no lace-making in Fallout 3 as far as I can tell - although you wouldn't know it from this review!

For shame.

Can't wait for this!

"Erm, IGN gave it 9.6"

IGN UK gave it 8.8.
Alec Meer did that one so the writing is vastly superior to the godawful IGN US review.

Ah, the master of platitudes. So many words, saying so little. An intuitive interface? How so? What is a transparent and logical levelling system? You gain EXP and level up? Is that worth commending in this "new era"?

"It delights with countless improvements to the Oblivion engine, physics and animation. "
Does it now? I didn't notice that when watching gameplay footage. The animations suck.

"everyone drove fusion-powered cars"
Yet they fought a war over oil. How could they be so stupid? Oh right, that's because originally, the cars weren't fusion-powered. That was a custom job in Fallout 2. Fusion power wasn't commonplace in Fallout's idea of the pre-apocalyptic world.

"The dialogue system is simple and elegant, usually offering positive, neutral or negative responses."
You couldn't even provide an example. In fact, all screenshots in this "review" are months old. How do I know you even played the game?

I have to edit my comment one more time to make it more memelicious: This review is worthless without pics. NEW pics.

"Because combat is so fast and deadly in real-time, you find yourself forced to rely on V.A.T.S. in a measured, strategic fashion."
I.e. as much as possible. When you were scavenging the dictionary for such gems as "embarassment of riches" you apparently forgot to look up the correct use of "strategic" as well.


"Some might find it irritating, initially, that the real-time combat is so fast and loose compared to the average FPS, but then that's the point. It's rarely if ever desirable to fight this way. This bias towards V.A.T.S. also helps Fallout 3 evade comparison with FPS titles"
I see. Real-time combat sucks, but that's OK because it's meant to, don't compare Fallout 3 to games with good real-time combat, that'd be profoundly unfair. Yeah, let's not judge a game on its merits but on how it's "supposed" to be judged.

"As a graphic illustration of choice"
THE graphic illustration, you gotta say. The one official example Bethesda has been willing to provide. Much like Fargoth in Morrowind, I wouldn't be suprised if it was unique rather than representative.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the actual beginnings of real criticism near the end of the review, thankfully quickly negated before it could sway the reader's mind.


I am very impressed by a review whose contents could be entirely made up from previews. No new screenshot, no new example of gameplay, dialogue, story or choice beyond what we've seen months ago. Even all the arguments for why the game is so brilliant are nothing new. I've seen previews that were more substantial than this drivel.

This review gets the Pete Hines seal of approval! 11/10

PS: Goddammit, what's with all those bloody typos!

How come people are moaning about all the good games coming out at the moment. You don't have to buy and play them all as soon as they are released. There will be several barren months ahead after Christmas to pick all these games up. Although I do agree games from smaller devs publishers should release at other points in the year to avoid being buried by the big hitters.

@kangarootoo.

You talk to much sense, therefor you comments are not welcome here! ;)

What the?!?!!?!

From all those horrific previews of yours, I was under the impression that this was gonna be a 6er, at most. Now I'm impressed.

*Reads the article*

"How come people are moaning about all the good games coming out at the moment. "

They are moaning at the obviously 'bribed up' scores these games are getting.

Anyway, I will not be buying this for my console.
Why should I pay twice as much as PC users?
I choose not to.

After reading other (more balanced) reviews, this certainly doesn't seem a 10 or a 9.5 for that matter. A worthwhile purchase none the less.

"the most important thing for now is that Fallout 3 manages to improve on almost everything Oblivion did well"

This strikes me as an attempt to glaze over the flaws and say "it's Oblivion, but better!" Any not a word on how it compares with the old Fallout games. Having read the retrospective last night and it reminded me of why I loved the originals. The exploration was certainly key, as was the combat, but there was also the dialogue. As the article said, "It made you care, deeply, about people who were only a few moving pixels and sentences of expository text." What I want to know is if Fallout 3 does this. Any improvement over Oblivion is great, but are there iconic, memorable characters like Killian Darkwater, First Citizen Lynette or good ol' Harold?

Right, now it feels like this generation has started properly... if theres still people moping about complaining that gaming isnt as good as it used to be now, they need to take those rose tinted goggles off or stop gaming(I have a feeling most of those comments will come from Nintendo fans now).

This gen is shaping up to be one of the best in a long while at this rate.

How come people are moaning about people moaning about all the good games coming out at the moment? You don't have to read their comments, nor do yu have to comment yourself.


"Anyway, I will not be buying this for my console.
Why should I pay twice as much as PC users?
I choose not to."

Thus is the greatness of Fallout 3: It gives you the power of choice!

9.5 or 10, what the fuck difference does it make? It's fucking good.

Also whats with the Oblivion hate? I assume all that's coming from the PS3 fanboys.

mcmonkeyplc: It's coming from people who found Oblivion to be a vapid experience (at least with regards to characterisation and storytelling) and are afraid that these qualities have leaked into a series that is praised for it's dialogue, characters and story. Oblivion was good for having fun in an open world environment, exploring and getting loot/exp, but it was pretty poor when it came plot and dialogue.

Thankyou EG. ( I never thought I would say that ! )
In your face all you naysayers, feel free to Foxtrot Oscar.
I don't know why I'm surpirsed at the score, I would have got the game and thoroughly enjoyed it even if it only scored 5 !
Come on Shopto.net wheres my ltd edition and strat guide ?

@Kreydon

How come you're moaning about people moaning about people moaning then eh? O_o You don't have to read their commen....

Damn it, now I'm doing it too!!!

@mcmonkeyplc

Oblivion is availaible for both the PS3 and 360 so i dont see your point.

9.5 or 10, what the fuck difference does it make? It's fucking good.

Also whats with the Oblivion hate?

Becouse non moded Oblivion was shit and total failure as RPG - becouse no it's not normal that you jump all the way to other town to level acrobatics or shoot spells at trees to level up :D

"Oblivion is availaible for both the PS3 and 360 so i dont see your point. "

He means the diehard nintendo fanboys. In particular: Les.

So really, this is a better oblivion for sure. But questionable on a better Fallout which depends on the feelings of Fallout fans.

I can take that.

Of course, with Kristan, over-rating or under-rating is common! Let's find out on Friday!

Obviously it was written by different people but does anyone else find the relationship between the EG preview and review of this game odd? The preview threw up a number of issues that looked like potential deal breakers for many but the reviewer hasn't touched upon them in any detail where I feel he should have - especially in light of it being giving a 10.

I want this game to be good, I want to buy it but it just seemed odd to me.




.

"Besides being an awful looking game artistically"

Oblivion was many things, but awful looking was certainly not one of them.

Not technically, of course, but notice that he specifically says artistically. Oblivion is quite dire in that manner, a generic I-want-to-be-LOTR non-descript high fantasy bore.

Couldn't agree more. Technically it was outstanding but artistically it was extremely bland, especially compared to Morrowind (and even more so compared to stuff like WoW). This review doesn't say a lot for me. I'm not pushed on the setting and I don't like the sound of the combat so I'll give it a miss.

The main thing I wanted to know is: if you manage to reach the boss at level 1 would he still be level 1? I know the review mentioned this briefly but it wasn't clear to me, sorry. Scaling levelling was absolute balls in Oblivion, totally killed any immersion - I completed it at level 3.

With the levelling topping off at 20 I guess people will need to be a bit more careful about what areas they add points to.
But I suppose getting to that level is part of the fun.
Looking forward to getting the Brotherhood of Steel armor that is on the box art. :D Should be good to keep radiation out.

10 means fuck all on this site these days.

Reading other reviewers' impressions (particularly Alec Meer's over on RPS) makes me wonder what actually motivates giving a perfect 10 to such an obviously flawed game.

I cannot understand all the oblivin hatred. Is it "cool" to hate oblivion? It was an outstanding game never before has there been such an open and involving world and narrative. Most definately a 10 if not oblivion then what desreves it? Fallout 3 sounds great as a result. I was dubious following previews and have some concerns about VATS but if its on a par or even better than oblivion i'm all over it.

kangarootoo
>This comments thread makes me feel disappointed. You would really think that people might, after all this time, finally GET that liking
> games is wholly subjective.

Sure, but, this is the discussions section where people talk about their subjective opion of the game?

"Bethesda has returned to the more familiar progression of awarding players XP for every kill and successful mission, allowing you to level up as you go."

Best thing i've heard, as great as Oblivion was, after a while it got pointless because of this.

"does anyone else find the relationship between the EG preview and review of this game odd?"

"Obviously it was written by different people"

You answered your own question.

10 OVERLOAD

I'm still wary. I enjoyed Oblivion while I was playing it, but it had similar buggy problems that have plagued all the games in the series. I want to believe Fallout 3 has improved on this, but too much reminds me of the negative parts of oblivion - such as the horribly squishy uncanny valley face models/animations. If the artists and animators in Half Life 2 could make great looking faces, then why are so many games still getting this wrong?

Who am I kidding? I'll get this and I'll eat it up. I just worry that, like Oblivion, instead of looking back on all the fun I had, the flaws will bubble to the surface after a while.

Still, I'm glad that at least the core experience proves worthy as ever.

Looking forward to playing this though God knows when Ill have time to fit it in what with all the other great titles at the mo! After Christmas I guess.

How come the preview completely berated the game and this review is nothing but praise? Does it just come down to different reviewer opinions? Have Bethesda fixed the problems in a matter of weeks? Were they not problems to begin with? This must be one of the most sloppy reviews I've seen this otherwise great website pull off.

tl;dr

An explanation, I demand one

My personal bias, my gut instinct, and my 'gamer sense' (Fancy way of saying 'videogame experience') leads me to believe Fallout 3 will provide me with significant entertainment, despite the valid criticisms, despite the (flaccid) review, despite the conceited meta-reviewing which even I joined in with, and certainly despite the score.

If the entire content of Eurogamer could be represented purely as colours or synthetic ambient tones, I would still know as much as I do now about the game and how much entertainment potential it has. Sadly I haven't mastered the 'purple fart' so I have to resort to mere words in order to make a point.

As long as you can ignore the dodgy character animations, the poor textures, the poor way the characters stand/slide/clip into the environment (especially in 3rd person view) as long as you liked oblivion then you will like this.
If any of the above things annoy you then they will drive you mad in this game.

Wow throwing around 10/10 alot these days ? I would at best give this 8/10, it's way too much oblivion like and they could atleast have hired more than 4 voice actors. The gameplay is boring, the graphics are surprisngly bad at some points and it's just not impressive at all.

"I cannot understand all the oblivin hatred. Is it "cool" to hate oblivion? It was an outstanding game never before has there been such an open and involving world and narrative."

Differences in preferences. I can't understand that anyone could honestly think Oblivion was good. But I can't really care less if they do.

OH FFS shut up all of you, jesus wept. If anyone still has trouble applying the 'subjective taste to a minimal level of objective quality' thing (and worse, doing it with snobbery that is utterly undeserved, simply because you played a game 10 years ago), then you have a more serious problem of broken thinking, than FO3 getting a number next to another number.

Damn it, there's too many games and I don't have enough cash, time or....cash.

I fear to say that the 8.8 IGN review seems much better-written than this one.
Unusual for IGN to outdo EG, but there you go.

How can people say stuff like, "I'd give this an 8/10", before they've even played it let alone completed it!?

The phrase "let alone" looks weird when writen down. :/

Unfortunately in this case i side with the UK IGN review more than the EG one.
It's a rare day indeed when i agree with IGN more but unfortunately this game just has too many graphical flaws (honestly don't play it in 3rd person view!) and other inconsistancies to warrant a perfect 10.

"Too bad that headbog/arbiter & co where banned, they could have rampaged through this entire thread with claims of bias and unfairness. "

They were banned? WTF for??!!