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Wasteland Impresses With Its Subtle Worldbuilding |
Fallout 3 Gives You the Glamorous Apocalypse |
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io9 
11/17/09
Let the nitpicking begin #wasteland
11/16/09
"and, thankfully, staying clear of cliched fake-swearing or language which shows that the writer is trying a little too hard to tell us that this world is different, really"
I wince whenever someone uses "frak" seriously. Sorry, BSG fans. #wasteland
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
11/16/09
It dulls the pain. #wasteland
11/09/08
Jesus, I need to clear up some money on my credit card. Fallout 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Little-Big Planet are three major games I want to tackle, and if one more Totally Awesome Game comes out, and I don't have the game system to play it, I'm either going to shoot somebody or shoot myself. Actually, I'll probably just rob a bank.
11/07/08
Therein I disagree. I don't think it's a bad game by any means, but almost all the charm is gone. The dialog is not as smart, the methods to solve problems not as clever. Even little things like the musical selections prove that they didn't quite understand the charm, but could mimic it with no little skill.
Of course, it's also an amazing game that I'm playing to virtually the exclusion of every other activity, but it's almost a shame that it's Fallout, where Bethesda could have struck out a new IP and really made it golden.
11/07/08
I will buy any DLC you provide for this.
11/07/08
I am RIGHT THERE with you. I've lived in D.C. for sixteen years, was excited to see how they did the map, then realized that they never bothered to even look at a map of D.C. It's very annoying.
Even granting that the "world" of Fallout is different than our world (took that weird turn in the 50s, you get places like "Springvale" instead of Springfield, etc.), the *real* cities and places on the map should be in their real locations/directions.
Think this is a nitpick whine? Imagine playing a game set in NYC and having Manhattan be in New Jersey, and the Bronx being south of Queens on Long Island. Wouldn't matter in terms of gameplay, but it's just a very bizarre game choice.
11/07/08
As I understand it, Fallout takes place in a divergent universe (hence the retro-futuristic vehicles and such.) As such the D.C. your in doesn't have to conform to modern day D.C. at all.
And this seems to be a fairly minor thing to gripe about.
11/07/08
of course, it's just a game and i've played enough games set in d.c. to know that even having the monuments in the right place is a blessing.
11/07/08
I'll still probably grab it.
11/07/08
11/07/08
1. I'm with Dirtybacon -- why all the very intense gore (which is awesome), but when you sleep with a whore, she's asleep and ignoring you, fully clothed, on top of the sheets, and won't even touch you? What, are they afraid of an X rating? Oops, there is no X rating. It's targeting adult audiences anyway, so they should target all that adult audiences crave. Remember, you don't have to BUY the game! You also don't have to play it! They should have a violence and sex set of intensity adjustable levels for those who think violence is great, but sex is sinful or something, but they shouldn't totally exclude it from the game. I guess this is backlash from the GTA sex "scandal." Effin prudish puritans.
2. They might have consulted a DC-area resident for some of their mapping. It sucks. Very bad. I was in the metro station west of Falls Church, and the sign to the tunnel indicated that it was Westward to Falls Church. The rest of the stations are a tangled up mess, with no conformity to anything remotely realistic with regard to direction continuity. I guess perhaps I'm too old school, having done a lot of graph mapping in DND, and dealing with many other games that I had to map out in order to figure out. Basically, in F3, if you enter a metro station, and head half a mile down a track, and exit, you might end up the mapped equivalent of a few miles away, at an exit in an entirely different direction than where you thought you were headed (according to the compass).
I'm perhaps too picky about that, but the game immerses us in a sense of post-apocalyptic reality, and having something as simple as consistent mapping keeps it real. In addition, I live in Falls Church IRL, and it's slightly annoying to see everything misplaced for no good reason (naming, placement, etc.). Since the game is "zoned" in a way different from Oblivion (i.e., to get from one area to the next, you might have to go through a building, subway, or sewer with its own "instance" or "zone"), there's no reason why it should not conform just a bit better to the actual locations of the stations and locations it represents. Heck, I'd have been happy to consult them for free!
Anyway, that's an honestly very minor set of complaints. Unless you're a stickler for directional accuracy or games with realistic sexual reactions from characters you have to pay for the sexual reactions you don't get, the game is outstanding, and is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorites.
11/07/08
the mapping is different for two reasons, the game is not set in 2008 D.C. and did not descend from the 2008 D.C. of today. the fallout timeline breaks from ours somewhere in the 1950's and the game takes place several decades after what would have been 2008 in their world. if you take a look at the in game metro maps you'll notice their version of the metro is different from ours which makes sense because the metro work was done after 1950 and therefor theirs would have been constructed in a differnt world than ours. second, d.c. is in fallout after a nuclear war which had a tendancy to reshape some of the land, especially the coasts. still, as a d.c. native i can identifiy with proportional errors like the mall being noticably shrunken by several city blocks.
11/07/08
I got Force Unleashed, Rock Band 2, Little Big planet and Resistance 2 recently. Yet Fallout 3 is the only game that has been in my system for the last week. Heck, Resistance 2 is still in shrink wrap.
It's an absolutely amazing game, something I wish more RPGs were - it's able to deliver so much depth and immersion while still being able to have an enjoyable combat system, something far too many RPGs lack. I can see myself playing it multiple times over and over until I go on to the next game.
The lunchbox is tempting me to start bringing my lunch to work.
11/07/08
I actually don't want to get too into Fallout because I know if I start it up, then all of my other games will go sorely neglected.
11/07/08
Why is it ok to fill a game with exploding skulls and tons of gore... but any hint of canoodling, and everyone flips their shit? I will never understand that double standard, and never support it. Does preferring sex to violence make me such a bad person?
11/07/08
11/07/08
Let's not forget the Mass Effect scandal aka :FOX News exclusive, PORN STAR WARS GAME available to kindergartners!
11/07/08
A healthy, sex-positive culture would give rise to a more tolerant, permissive, and matriarchal society. and we simply can't have that. After all, the war profiteers must be enriched.
11/07/08
it's a falacy to assume that if we replace the patriarcal society we live in with an opposite matriarchal society that intolerance will just dissapear. the majority would simply replace intollerance for one group of things for intollerance of another group of things. this is echoed perfectly throughout history by isolated sectarian struggles. one group is oppresive while they have power. the other group gains power and then begins the inevitable slide into their new role as the oppressors to exact revenge on the group that oppresed them. then revolution and it flips again.
11/07/08
11/07/08
@dirtybacon: good job on starting up a hot topic! Gold star!
@everyone: This is a great conversation... and being io9ers, it's staying civil. woo!
11/07/08
So, I basically have no life.
11/07/08
WHY THE HELL HAS NO ONE MADE A DARK TOWER VIDEO GAME YET.
11/07/08
11/07/08
11/07/08
And let's be honest, it's only 1/2 popular. Lots of people HATE the latter half of the series. When King started loading it up with weird characters and multiple personalities.
And really, if you followed the book story, it wouldn't really be a good video game. You could edit it heavily, but then it'd just be a dark tower inspired video game.
11/07/08
I just with they had it for Mac, you MS bastards!
11/07/08
They all kindly listen to me before turning away from me with a blank look in their eye.. leaving me to wonder off and mumble *stupid kids and their stupid fancy graphics...*
Man, I LOVED me some wasteland.
Though this new Fallout is pretty damn cool, too. :P
11/07/08
That aside, Fallout Tactics is a lot better than people make it out to be.
11/07/08
There are tons of great encounters in the world if you look for them, and a lot of great references to the previous games, as well as Oblivion.
11/07/08
Getting crippled and going back to Megaton was a real pain in the A$$ let me tell you.
11/07/08
11/08/08