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(More customer reviews)War...War never changes. But Fallout has over the course of its long-winded history.
It started as a spiritual sequel to 'Wasteland', CRPG that started 'Post-Apocalyptic' gameplay back in 1988 by Interplay, whose division Black Isle is behind seminal CRPG classic such as 'Baldur's Gate' and yes, you guessed it, 'Fallout' and 'Fallout 2'.
After Interplay was disintegrated, some of the people went to Bioware, some of them went on to found Troika, talented but unfortunate developer who met its demise after three original and interesting but very buggy CRPG with dissimal sales. Some of them went on to found Obsidian, yet another talented but somewhat disappointing developer whose track record includes 'Knights of the Old Republic 2', 'Neverwinter Nights 2', 'Alpha Protocol' and upcoming 'Dungeon Siege 3'.
Why am I reciting a history lesson here? When Bethesda acquired the right for 'Fallout' IP from Interplay and released its biggest financial success yet with 'Fallout 3', fans were divided into two distinctive factions and has been feuding over which is better.
Faction Red: Bethesda ruined the memory of the greatest CRPG of all time by dumbing down everything we loved about our precious franchise. It's 'Oblivion with guns'.
Faction Blue: Bethesda successfully resuscitated the dead franchise by streamlining many archaic elements and implementing new refreshing elements. It retains all the core elements from 'Fallout'. We love it.
I personally love all of them and none of them are perfect to feud over petty differences in semantics.
After court-feuding over who's got the right to the entire 'Fallout' series, Bethesda settled with the right to all future single-player Fallout game and right to license the right to Interplay to the development of 'Fallout MMORPG'. So both 'Fallout 4' and 'Fallout Online' are coming; both will be published by Bethesda and 'Fallout 4' will be also developed by Bethesda.
So with the help of creative minds behind the original 2D isometric Fallout games using the same engine and costruction set Bethesda did for FO3, can Obsidian right the wrong by Bethesda? (Bethesda still owns the IP and publishes it.) That has been the question by Faction Red.
If you are a fan of 'Fallout 3', rest assured FONV is exactly like FO3 with nothing taken away with some newly improved elements added. You will feel right at home with the game. Control, menu, movement, combat, Pipboy and VATS are all identical. What's added are new perks system, new aiming system and new NPC companion command system.
Unlike FO3, there are tons more factions now in play and you can choose to side with certain faction with consequences. Faction dynamics play much more intimate and important role, and are tied directly to the choices you have to make (think Morrowind). You cannot possibly satisfiy everyone in FONV. You'll have to actually play multiple playthrough to experience everything. Choices you make will definitely make the differrence in character interaction and will give out whopping 27 unique important quests all littered with different endings with each ending giving you various permutations (think Gothic and The Witcher), unlike the cookie-cutter, same-difference 5 endings FO3 offered. Every time you make someone beneficiary, you will make someone else unhappy. All of your choices will resullt in some type of consequences. There is no more good and evil morality play here. This time, it is a wild wild west. Everyone is a cutthroat. In fact, style of the game is reminiscent of old western movie and FO3 rolled into one.
Dialogues are much more sarcastic and darkly humorous. Voice-works are well-done by many celebrities. Characters are wackier. General tone of the game is morally even murkier and overall darker, albeit humorous on par with the first two games (especially Fallout 2).
Soundtrack once again retains the signature feel of the series by utilizing slew of retro 40s and 50s classic pop music. Orchestral score is once again done by Inon Zur.
While level-cap has been increased to 30, leveling up needs more attention because you cannot be a jack of all trade in FONV; especially in light of new 'Hard-core' mode that is included in the game. You need to hunt and cook / harvest / steal and eat, you need to drink and you need to sleep to survive or pay the consequence. You cannot carry infinite amount of ammo either. You can freely choose whether you want to play as 'Hard-core'.
You can now mod your own weapons on the work bench with more variety and freedom than you were able to in FO3.
Graphics are still competent but are aging fast now. The general tone of the color scheme is changed from green to orange. While Obsidian claims graphic is slightly improved, I think graphically everything looks little bit uglier overall, probably stemming from mismatched color schemes throughout the environment. Sometimes, the world feels like messy crayon artwork from kindergarten wall. But the world is much livelier and you now see some level of active civilization represented by glowing neons of Vegas Strip.
So it sounds like I am trashing FO3 and praising FONV to no end. Not so fast. FO 3 is still a great game but I like FONV slightly better in terms of the improved gameplay. However, FO3 is much better in depth of contents, presentation and storytelling. Morrowind and Oblivion is still my king of CRPG with much stronger community support. So what is wrong with the game?
Welcome to the bugfest 2010. It's a grand feast of technical mess; frame rate stuttering issue, game crashing and freezing, characters stuck in the environment, disappearing act of characters and items (even save-game files make the cameos in the act) are some of the widely reported bugs across the all platforms. Yes, CRPG and nonlinear, free-formed, open-ended game in gigantic scope as big as FONV will always be buggier than linear, focused games like Halo and Modern Warfare due to virtually impossible task of QA stemming from endless in-game possibilities, and yes, nothing gamebreaking, But there are tons of minor glitches that are annoying and tiresome when you play the game that gives you anywhere from 40-200 hours and upward. This is the buggiest Fallout entry.
Here's a helpful site to alleviate your potential problems.
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Another thing is everything in FONV is awfully familiar with FO3, not necessarily a bad thing in itself. Just don't expect the same kind of awe-inducing wow moment like when you came out of Vault 101 for the first time in FO3 or cinematic end-battle.
If you are not a fan of CRPG or you hated FO3, there's nothing new for you to see here. Just like FO3, this is not a FPS, even with enhanced aiming mechanics. Hit points and damage are governed by your stats. This game will be just as boring as FO3 to you.
If you are a fan of open-world game such as GTA, be warned; FONV is not a open-world action game. It is open-ended, nonlinear, free-formed CRPG that focuses on traversing and finding new places, engaging with different characters, performing quests, dungeon-crawling and "role-playing". There are tons of small, interesting and quite often excellent depiction of personal conflicts and backstories, but there's no 'save the humanity' type of grand plot and cinematic cutscenes between each level.
And if you think 'Borderlands', which is by the way solid and entertaining action game, is better than FO3, stay away from FONV. Customization of stats, leveling up, armors and weapons by themselves do not make action game like 'Borderlands' a RPG. You'll be wondering why your excellent marksmanship repeatedly proven via endless hours of online multiplayer session is not effective in Nevada / Mojave wasteland.
Last, but not least, PC version of FONV utilizes Steam, which is the most popular DRM and the least intrusive DRM currently available in the market. It offers many incentive, convenience and great pricing for older games compared to other DRM, but Steam is still DRM. Convenience of not having to worry about the actual gamedisc by using Steam is nothing compared to not having any DRM so we can install the game and put away our game for display and collection. We won't be worrying about gamedisc if DRM doesn't check the disc every five second during the gameplay if the disc is authentic in the first place. Dual release with non-Steam version after initial release or guaranteed future DRM deactivation patch will surely pacify every morally just legitimate paying customers who genuinely want to support developers but are turned off by hands-on DRM.
So why did I still choose PC version over console version?; GECK, easier patching and community support, because I expected that game like FONV would always be buggy. To Bethesda's credit, the game looks and plays exactly the same on either PC or console, barring framerate, graphics and resolution, so the experience will be identical unlike other CRPGs like 'Dragon Age: Origins', 'Two Worlds', 'Sacred 2', 'Divinity II', and 'Risen' on consoles to name a few.
But to Steam's credit, it's 'one-time only' activation through Steam and it doesn't require for you to keep the disc running in your optical drive once the game is installed. There's no constant Internet connection requirement while you play your game and there's no installation limit. And if you are into social-networking aspects of Steam, you won't have much problems. But if you are turned off by anything other than disc-based DRM, you are warned. I found myself grudgingly and reluctantly giving up to the spell of Fallout series this time but this is only...Read more›
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Fallout New VegasWelcome to Vegas. New Vegas. It's the kind of town where you dig your own grave prior to being shot in the head and left for dead...and that's before things really get ugly. It's a town of dreamers and desperados being torn apart by warring factions vying for complete control of this desert oasis. It's a place where the right kind of person with the right kind of weaponry can really make a name for themselves, and make more than an enemy or two along the way.As you battle your way across the heat-blasted Mojave Wasteland, the colossal Hoover Dam, and the neon drenched Vegas Strip, you'll be introduced to a colorful cast of characters, power-hungry factions, special weapons, mutated creatures and much more. Choose sides in the upcoming war or declare "winner takes all" and crown yourself the King of New Vegas in this follow-up to the 2008 videogame of the year, Fallout 3.Enjoy your stay.
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