Fallout 3 Explanation

Can someone please explain this game to me... I thought it was just a FPS??

What exactly is this game? Is it a MMO?

 

its an RPG/FPS with a bit of turn based strategy kinda taking place in a post apocalyptic setting.

it runs on the oblivion engine (so it will look and feel a lot like oblivion), but its a FPS with the ability to take the combat into a turn based mode where your shots have an accuracy percentage on landing shots to certain body parts.

or at least, thats what ive heard/read so far.

 

According to the developer, it's an action role-playing game and contains both first AND third person shooter elements.

In any case, the game look FUN and it's gotten really good reviews.

 

kinda sounds like KOTOR too??? So you don't actually get to fight? You just click and tell your guy to engage then it goes 1 shot at a time till hes dead?

sounds lame.

 

No it is not like KOTOR. You play it as an FPS (or third person shooter if you want) though it has RPG elements with the stats you choose. You can also play it with more strategy by using the VATS system which allows you to target specific body parts and watch your shots in slow motion.

 

Wrong. It has the mechanics of an FPS, but with a special system that pauses the game and allows you to target specific body parts; the game then goes into slomo and you can see your shots fly.

 

You can play it as from first person or third person. There is also a "time freeze" (VATS) allowing you to specifically target parts of the body and even targetting the weapon the person is holding with chance of hitting. When you use this, time slows down. This time freeze mode usability is limited to a bar which recovers slowly. If this bar runs out you can still play as first person but the time freeze mode won't be available until it is suitably recovered. Generally you can make 3-4 shots in time freeze mode.

 

Garand you can play the entire game as a FPS (or 3rd person) aka in real time but you can also use a "pause" mechanism called VATS which pulls up a targetting screen that shows a 3D image of the person and allows you to target specific body parts and shows you your percentage to hit that particular part.

Beyond the FPS combat system its an RPG so you have elements of modifying your character's appearance, physical traits (aka you can build a really strong dude that uses baseball bats and hand to hand weapons at the cost of not being very good at bartering, speech or medical skills or you can build a stealth character that has high stealth and speech skills thereby enabling you to not use combat to resolve situations) as well as your personality (aka your karma so either you're evil or good or neutral).

 

This is what I thought originally - I've always hated the clunky "pause, select-attack, watch-fight-with-no-further-involvement" dorkiness of most PC RPGs, but Fallout 3 dosn't really have the same feel. You can play it like an FPS - although contrary to popular belief, even in this mode your shots are still effected by "dice rolls"... but by the way it's integrated, it's difficult to notice. This is the first PC RPG I've enjoyed in a pretty long time; it has a certain accessability that most lack, whilst maintaining a good level of depth.

Honestly, as far as PC RPGs go, this is probably your best bet, if you're looking for some fun gameplay at the same time; something I think that often gets sacrificed (/cough Oblivion) to make room and create purpose for more stats fiddling-ness in a Dungeons-and-Dragons sorta way.

 

Soon, young Grasshopper. Soon.


(Interplay, the original developer of Fallout, are working on the MMO)

 

It plays like a good old FPS.


The FPS combat is excellent, takes a bit of getting used to but it is still amazing.

Get an assault rifle and blow some heads apart. Or even a gatling laser if you are adventurous.


The combat is nothing like KOTOR, at ALL.

 

Yeah, it's a true FPS-RPG, you still have to build your character right (even in first person mode your weapon skills affect things like damage and bullet spread), but the combat action is classic FPS.

Nothing turn-based about it, just the VATS system, which is sort of like ... ok, it's pretty unique, but watch IGN's videos on youtub and you'll get an accurate representation of the gameplay.

 

I, for the life of me, cannot figure out why people feel the urge to outsource the most basic ?uestions imaginable, when, in reality, the time spend outsourcing the ?uestion could've been dedicated to find the answer on-line.

 

~agrees, and feels stupid for answering~

 

If there's one thing more fruitless than asking questions for information already readily available, it's complaining about it when people do.

Not intended to be a flame; just sayin'

 

It´s a great game, it´s Oblivion in Post Apocalyptic setting that´s all and yes with VATS you sort of pause for a moment and get to pick your shot on the enemy in front of you. Great FPS game overall, not lame at all.

 

If that's the case then why can't I play a Mutant Elf?


(I hate the Oblivion comparisons. Two completely different games even though it's the same developer.)

 

FPS/RPG? Is it in any way similar to Hellgate: London then?

 

Fallout 3 beats the crap out of Hellgate: London, even though you can play online with Hellgate. That's going to change soon, though, because the servers are going down next year.

 

Oh okay, more to Mass Effect then =P

 

in a way its like mass effect with out soo much relance on dialouge ,and a wayyy beter combat system but its the same elements

and in a post acopolystic wasteland setting


but yeah i miss masseffect

and i love fallout 3

 

People compare the two because they are both open-world RPGs using similar game mechanics, the same emphasis on conversation and quests, they are by the same dev, and they use the same engine...

The premise (read: story, world,) and some gameplay is different, but it's a perfectly fair comparison to make - Fallou three may not be just "oblivion with guns", but they are still very similar games.

NOOO, because of a hundred reasons, but mostly because of one single point:

Hellgate london has been widely recognised as having sucked particularly large balls, whereas fallout (IMO) is fantastic.

 

are you familiar with Wikipedia Youtube and Google? try using them next time

ill be flamed for this but these kinds of threads pollute the boards; there are hundreds of thousands of pages about fallout 3 explaining every aspect of it, if only you'd take the time to find the info; there are hours and hours of gameplay footage and tons of video reviews on youtube

thats like me coming on here asking "Hey what's Halo guys? is it a real-time strategy game or what?" ive never played Halo but i can find the answer in about 5 seconds on google or wiki

/rant

 

@anarky

True, but then there are those like me that like like explaining... Though you're right, this forum isn't the place...

~Looks for FO3 forum, in google no less, five seconds later has joined~

Mod sticky on rules for posting new threads?

 

There is no easy easy way to explain the game. It's really hard to play the game as a straight up FPS or a straight up turn based game. The best explanation that I can come up with is that FEAR raped Oblivion and this is the glorious Ba5tard child.

Using VATS (the system that freezes) gives you better criticals and damage and also centers your aim on the desired target, so it's MUCH more effective than doing eveything manually. I would liken it to the slowdown mechanic in FEAR, except that it aims for you, and rewards you with gloriously gory, slow-mo cinematics

However, you can't just use VATS all the time. Every action you take in VATS uses up action points, and once they are gone the game, everything goes into real time. You want to stay close to cover (as you would in any FPS) so you can safely recover your Action Points. If you don't have AP and you have enemies trying to kill you, then you can fight in real time. There are also mines that you can use as traps that shake up the tactical element (drop a mine when you run out of AP, fall back and lead your enemy into the trap).

I'm a big fan of the first two Fallouts but I was looking forward to this game as a Shooter (combat in the first two games was kinda bland). I hated this game for the first few hours that I played, but after getting used to VATS I would have to say that this game makes my top 5 list.

My only disappointment is that the game lacks the gritty sexual themes of the second game. In Fallout 2, you could get married and then pimp your wife out, but there is nothing anywheres near as gritty in this game.

The only gamers that I can't see loving this game are the hardcore Fallout fanboys that don't like the new changes. My brother's best friend hates RPGs but he bought F3 thinking it was going to be shooter and now he's totally in love.

 

LMAO! Fallout 3 is fantastic.

 

Problem with VATS is that your to-hit ratios become really low once you're far enough, even with the sniper rifle. At long range, manually aiming with the sniper rifle is about 100 times as effective, but VATS is so fun...

 

Your intentions are of no concern.

Incurious people bother me, whereby "incurious" is synonymous for "intellectual antipathy and an acute disinterest in self-reliance."

...Thank you, 'Narky, for saving me the spadework.

 

In the interest of constructiveness:

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That's really interesting. Learned lots of stuff, although Bethesda moved the apocalypse back about 90 years. xD

 

This game was also quite different from what I expected. I thought it was just going to be some straight up FPS, but I was a wrong. It's Oblivion in terms of gameplay (well, duh, it's made by Bethesda) and it's a remake of Bioshock in terms of storyline.

 

The only thing that reminds me of Bioshock, is the "Perks" kinda look like "Plasmids". Although, a security woman in Rivet City did tell me... "Would you kindly" "leave now". Heh

 

You wanna make sure you're getting the who-ripped-off-who bit the right way around, you know?

 

Bioshock ripped off of the original Fallout of course... But I'm saying, both games (Fallout 3 and Bioshock) are both about some to-be perfect and Utopian world gone bad.

Lots of things in that game reminds me of Bioshock. Like the idea of a perfect world. The retro old school effects of pretty much everything from loading screen images to old record players or radio you can turn on in game. But I believe all the anime-like characteristics of a bloody killing game just screams "Bioshock."

PS: I HATED Bioshock.

 

Best game EVER.

 

I got the game and finished it and can say it was a preety good game but not as awsome as i expected it to be, although im not saying its bad... Its just not incredibly good

 

^^^Arguably that.^^^

(I still maintain Alpha Centauri is the best game ever*)

^^^Definitely NOT that^^^.


(*)- Even though 'ever' has not happened yet.