Continuing my Day of Plagiarism, allow me to pull directly from Alec Meer’s IGN UK review of Fallout 3: “So it’s tragic that the often awful production values make a fool of it so regularly. Whenever you’re really settling into the game and thinking what a wonderful world it is, it goes and does something incredibly stupid and clumsy, and the whole illusion shatters. It’s a truly fabulous RPG in so many ways, but we desperately wish Bethesda had saved the money they burned on unnecessarily hiring Liam Neeson and Malcom McDowell to voice a couple of key characters, and spent it instead on more actors, rehearsals, better script-writers and animators, another proof-reader… Clearly, it’s one of the must-buy games of the year, and it’ll prove impossible not to lose yourself to it for a good couple of dozen hours. If only Bethesda could escape their own bad habits and sloppiness though – then it would have been one of the must-buy games of the decade.”
I have to be blunt: I was very disappointed in Oblivion and I suspected that, given its overwhelming sales, Bethesda employees would make the mistake of thinking they’d done the right thing with that game’s boring, desolate simplicity and pathetic production values. I feared we’d see more Oblivion and less Morrowind in Fallout 3, and while all the reviews are racing each other to rub the game’s feet (even Meer winds up giving it a solid 8.8), these complaints are exactly what I suspected we’d see.
That said, I will be buying Fallout 3 today, despite the growing mountain of games that this holiday release cycle has borne upon my shelf. Why? Not for anything Bethesda did, but rather for everything Ubisoft failed to do.
You see, Far Cry 2 is such an immense disappointment that I’m literally enduring it rather than playing at this point, only a scant week after purchase. I’d expected to forgo Fallout 3 and stick with Ubi’s open world shooter for several more weeks, but I just can’t do it. I crave alternative sustenance, and despite the fact that I worry Fallout 3 will fail to deliver, much as Far Cry 2 has, I am a creature of weak and short attention span. With luck I’ll be wrong and this’ll be more “Morrowind with Guns” than “Oblivion with Guns.”
Tremble before Scout’s upcoming promised review of this title, and if you behave yourselves and play nice, we just pop on with some first impressions.
I do get hints of Morrowind, along with STALKER and the Half Lifes. Mostly I am enjoying the very early scenes. I know this could just be nostalgia coming to bear as I’ve been away from the Fallouts for a while and missed them. As the gameplay sinks in we’ll know more. I will hazard a prediction and say that this will somewhat redeem Bethesda for their Oblivion stumbles. But yeah, it’s got warts but doesn it have personality. I think that’s the big question.
But will it have horse armour?
Maybe Brahmin armor… it’d be amusing to see those two-headed cows running around in full plate.
I heard that the game will not be released in India as the game depicts cow’s,(sacred animal of the Hindu Brahmin community) in a derogatory manner…how exactly is not clear….(I am a Brahmin btw……;-))
Read it somewhere that the studio was hesitant on ground’s of some sort of a backlash.
Sad…..as it seems that Fallout3 really has it going for it.
I have never played the first 2 games, but I am intrigued as to weather this is an Action/RPG along the lines of STALKER.
OR is it a turn based action game…just curious.
I remember reading that too.
Hmmm… I’m guessing that the concern is over the livestock in the game. Two-headed cow-like creatures called “Brahmin” are used for milk, meat, and as pack animals. We’re supposed to assume that they are normal cows mutated by the radiation.
They originated way back in the very first Fallout, when cultural sensitivity wasn’t as serious a consideration because so many games never got a global release. I bet, given the choice of name for the animals, Bethesda and Zenimax decided it’d be best not to risk offense.
This game is most similar to Vampire: Bloodlines, Oblivion, Morrowind, or any other real-time RPG. Its inclusion of V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) allows you to make combat essentially turn-based, but it can also be played as a stat-dependent action game.
I just finished Fallout 3. It is one of the best games I have ever played. kay