Fallout 3 - A New Generation

[Maylander]

My biggest gripe with FO4 was the absurd random quest system. "Save people from bandits" followed by "save the same people from the same bandits". And yes, I'm sure that particular issue can be fixed with mods these days, but that was not the case at release. I very much hope Starfield doesn't have that system.

As for FO3: I enjoyed it at the time, but I struggle to replay it. I can't put my finger on why. I can play through FNV just fine, despite having already played through it way more times than FO3, but there's just.. something in FO3 that makes it difficult. Perhaps it's just the basic gameplay, which got refined for FNV. Not sure.

 

[Carnifex]

Nod, Fallout four was for me a complete let-down, a game I'll never replay. Fallout three and FNV I've replayed plenty of times, and will again. Those two just hit all the right notes for me, I suppose.

 

[JDR13]

As for FO3: I enjoyed it at the time, but I struggle to replay it. I can't put my finger on why. I can play through FNV just fine, despite having already played through it way more times than FO3, but there's just.. something in FO3 that makes it difficult. Perhaps it's just the basic gameplay, which got refined for FNV. Not sure.

Maybe the writing and voice acting? Compared to NV, FO3 is terrible in those aspects.

For the basic gameplay, you can use mods to bring FO3 up to par.

 

[bjon045]

I don't think Synths were ever mentioned by name in the original Wasteland, and FO3 predates Wasteland 2.

Finster is the original Synth created by Cochise. His consciousness is transferred into a purely synthetic cybernetic body. But I think you are correct that the term Synth is never used in the game. It does sound like I was wrong and I'll have to put it down to faulty memory on my side - I had even forgotten that Fallout 3 was 6 years before Wasteland 2! I haven't played Fallout 3 since it first came out 14 years ago.

I think that my memories of Fallout 3 are quite possibly influenced by the time I played it as well. If I had of played Fallout 4 at the same time I would of quite possibly found it a superior game. Fallout 4 has so much more competition these days (open world/post-apoc) and that would of influenced my perception of the game. If I played Fallout 3 now I would quite possibly dislike it or like it much less than I did.

 

[Drithius]

The dialogue options in FO4 make it unsalvageable for me. Every conversation boils down to 3 options that lead to the same end result + a goodbye option. Bethesda may not be the greatest at writing, but they at least tried with FO3 to make dialogue varied. The decision to voice act the protagonist likely restricted development as well.

If I played Fallout 3 now I would quite possibly dislike it or like it much less than I did.

As long as you're a fan of Bethesda's style of world-building (lots of disparate, unconnected buildings/themes that exist solely to fill up space), it still holds up. Although I would definitely recommend the Tale of Two Wastelands mod to overhaul FO3's systems and implement QOL features from FNV (ironsights, weapon mods, etc).