Of Deathclaws & Radscorpions: A Fallout Thread

Congrats!
I need some DC folk to let me know how true this hews to actual topography/landmarks.

Ok, so this is scarily addictive and ridiculously fucking awesome so far. I've already logged 20 hours (school and work obligations gonna nail me next week). Haven't even really touched the main quest yet. The sidequests are mostly excellent and feature a surprising amount of different outcomes. The game feels huge but not stretched thin. The replay value I imagine is ridiculous. I'm super impressed overall, it's worthy of the Fallout name.

i definitely agree with the scarily addictive tag. first time in a long time that i've done that thing where i thought 10 minutes had past and it was an hour. so far i am impressed but not yet blown away. when i first arrived at Megaton and did my early exploring it really did feel like i was just back playing Oblivion, but the more i play it the less i find i can rely on the tactics and the approach i used playing that game, which i am very pleased about.

forks, have i told you recently that i love you? thanks for sharing :D

^co-sign; awesome upload forks, have been listening to all morning while staring wistfully at my unopened copy of fallout 3 and weeping

glad you like it; I went heavy on the morbid. Let me know what it's like to kill wasters while listening to strange fruit.

thanks for that soundtrack forks! it's great.

the only problem with listening to good music when playing video games is that for the rest of your life you will associate those songs with playing a video game and to me that is depressing

Not if the game's good!

Yeah! For me, GTA III and "Penny Lane" are inextricably linked.

blue suburban skies indeed

i find it kind of grim

I have a permanent link with the original Tomb Raider and Substance 1987 by New Order. Still don't know how I feel about that.

Large chunks of Stankonia are forever linked to FFTactics.

according to experts.

So forks, is there a way to play this inside the game (like as one of the radio stations), or do I just need to stream it through the XBOX?

Continued off-topic: (Computer World and Super R-Type for me)

You would want to rip it to your hard drive and then stream through xbox, yes.
The further I get into this game the more vast it feels. Just got a house with requisite robot butler and am on the third chapter of Moira's crazy book and am ready to take some time off from that particular quest batch. I can't walk out the door without some oddball thing happening: robot firing lasers at me, three man merc hitsquad after my bounty, giant crab men chasing me down the street, fire ants that breathe actual fire, mine infested bridges... it's always something new!
I am regularly struck by how uncomfortable I am killing folks who've set up little shelters under bridges or in utility sheds; they see me running up the hill with an assault rifle and of course they're going to start firing. Then I kill them and take all their stuff. And _I_ get the good karma?

Thank god for fast travel.

You would want to rip it to your hard drive and then stream through xbox, yes.

I play my music via an external hard drive using the USB port in the back.

whoa Forks you just made this game sound superb

haha he really did.

I'll make a second disc of this stuff if it's that welcome.

Anybody else notice that the "at-rest" theme background music in the overworld is a direct lift of the theme from Roy Budd's 'Get Carter'?
Compare:

pls make a second disc, if it's not much trouble (not that I've been able to play the game). I'm just greedy : )

I merged your unOST w/the bioshock OST for a slightly less morbid fallout 3 megamix

does this work with pc?

wow this music is excellent. A little AM broadcast processing/compression and it'd be PERFECT.

Christ, I can just imagine wandering thru downtown Portland with this on the player. Alternately surreal yet moribund. Depending on how the election turns out, I just might do that.

Man, for the first time since Deus Ex (!!), I'm afraid I'm playing through the game too quickly. I just can't put it down. I must be 20 hours in, and I'm scared to death it's almost over (and then I glance at the achievements list and see that I'm more like 1/4th in). I just completed the coolest sequence in any video game since, probably, A Mind Forever Voyaging. No exaggeration. So creepy, so cool, and such a cool resolution -- I'm putting the game down for a bit just so I can dwell in the experience.

I'm hopelessly addicted too. I promised myself I wouldn't play for the first half of this week so I can get some work done. We'll see what happens.

GUYS PLEASE STOP TALKING ABT HOW GREAT THE FALLOUT 3 IS SOME OF US HAVE THE RRoD IN

/weeps silently, refreshes UPS.com

how are you dudes playing through, as a goodie or a baddie or something inbetween?

Playing as a pragmatic good guy; willing to shoot a bitch in the face but only if it's absolutely necessary and willing to give purified water to a bum for free as long as I got plenty... but only one bottle.
I'm aiming for that "protagonist of The Road" feel.

Out of self-preservation, I too am trying to limit my playtime so some stuff gets done around the house. About eighteen hours in, but I'm playing kinda ponderously and mostly avoiding fast travel in favor of exploration.

Anybody got any followers yet?

i am also going the ponderous/exploratory route. i lack the self-discipline to stop myself being distracted by everything i wander across so the main quest hasn't seen much love.

i think it;s the kind of game where you benefit greatly from having some kind of character or archetype in mind when you set your attributes and skills. i decided i wanted to be a roguish trader style dude and have realized of late that i am trying to be Han Solo. i haven;t killed anyone that hasn't been trying to kill me, but i haven;t gone out of my way to help anyone without a decent reward being offered, and i will steal anyone's shit, no hesitation.

Interesting. I only steal when I'm absolutely safe and when it's really worth the trouble. I have preemptively killed a few folk; if I have any doubt, you get shot. Apocalypse role playing can be a little discomfiting.

I'm mostly playing a good guy. Tho I've stolen shit and broken into places, my karma is so high at this point that there's no use pretending otherwise.

My guy's about right in the middle. For the most part I choose the heroic option, but I'll go evil if it sounds more fun and it sits OK with me. I have trouble playing as a truly heinous character. I mean, I break into people's places and steal everything that isn't bolted down. I lie a lot and try to swindle money out of folks whenever possible. But I'll give the homeless guys some purified water or help an orphaned kid find a new home. I guess I'm sort of a rogue-ish character with a flickering sense of social responsibility.

did anybody try to set off the bomb at megaton?

that's for the next time thru

Yeah, I def. want to play this as a mustache twirling nefarious villain and start killing children.

Just not this go-round.

you can't kill children in this, I heard, tho I'm sure you were being metaphorical an that

Tranquility Lane was an interesting touch.

Holy shit - Roberto Spiralli has been playing this lately and jjust watching him play is scaring the crap out of me. I'm gonna have nightmares. Am v glad I didn't really watch while he played Dead Space.

just started playing, already uneasy w/some of my "moral ambiguity". so far, though, unbelievably great.

I just did Trouble on the Homefront, and going back there - especially after completing The Waters of Life - broke my heart so much I teared up. When the resolution of Trouble on the Homefront occurred - where there really is no happy ending - I felt so sad. There might have been a better solution for the quest, but I couldn't find one - and what I ended up doing to complete it made me feel awful. It sortof reminded me of the Liquidation Plot in the Brotherhood sequence in Oblivion.

seriously considering playing through initially on hard - think it'd up the desperation vibe and force you to scavenge more thoroughly and run away from dudes

It's pretty hard already just on the default difficulty.

I think I'll get this tomorrow, yes yes

just got this, going to play it all night while waiting for McCain to concede. #

I usually play Fallout games as a smooth-talking evil guy (yeah I know there's no point in being smooth-talking if you're just going to kill everyone) so I think I might do that again.