I decided to give this game a shot. I won't be back online at home for at least a month and wanted something to play to kill the time. I'm about 2 hours in so far. I went through the school and now I'm exploring the first city.

So far, I'm pretty impressed. Some of the writing is still terrible but it's so far past Oblivion that no comparison should be made.

VATS is a great implementation of turn-based fighting into a real-time game. You want to play it like classic Fallout? You have the option. You want to play it as a real-time shooter? Go for it. Personally, I'm not one of those who clings to turn-based games so this is a plus to me. I find myself playing it as a hybrid depending on situation.

Third person perspective is still broken. Not as bad as Oblivion, but not good. Screw you, Bethesda. Fallout is not a first person franchise.

The world so far is pretty impressive. Bethesda did a very good job of recapturing the Fallout world in 3D. Kudos to them for that.

There aren't the cool options of the old Fallout games. No child killing, prostitution (hooking yourself, that is), etc. We all knew that so I won't dwell on it.

Combat choices... Bethesda still didn't get this right. There is no way to avoid combat in much of this game. Weak, really. That was one of the strongest points of the Fallout franchise and it's sad to see Bethesda miss the mark so badly.

I'm playing this on hard. In general, it should be harder than it is. There are a few difficult moments, but overall I'm walking through the first bits without much effort.

Melee combat is still broken. I fought a collection of ants (about 10) that should have kicked my ass. I was hit once by strafing around them with a baseball bat and swinging. Killed every last one of them in about 3 minutes. WEAK.

Overall, this game isn't nearly as empty or lifeless as Oblivion. Some of the parts are actually difficult, as well. Not quite where they should be, but better than Oblivion. I'll keep posting as I play this more.

There's definitely prostitution. Whatchamacallher in the saloon in Megaton does it for 120 caps. Though it's more of a just go to bed while she is sleeping in it sort of deal it's implied.

I too felt melee was broken. Soloing 4 Giant Radscorpions because they can't hit me made me sad. Though there is no child killing at all. I tried to but nothing happened at all. It's far superior then Oblivion ever was. I actually finished it and might start up another char because I did nothign in the north-western area at all.

Edit: Her name is Nova. I also felt that this game is a lot better than Fable 2 was. More immersion, a lot more replayability, and no stupid minigames.

But you can't prostitute yourself.

That's true, I missed that part myself. I was really aching for caps early on....

Edit: I found that a serious problem. I had very serious trouble at the start, no guns or ammo or any armor and no caps to buy anything. Then I did one decision and I got near 4000 caps and ridiculous amount of equipment. Kinda felt very mehish.

Thanks for feedback. I've been giving it a shot too.

So far I'm feeling that the atmosphere and 'feel' of the game is worth the price of admission, but VATS aside, which I think works well, a great deal of the core gaming mechanics are only average to good.

For example sneaking is so-so, combat is forced on you, shooting without VATS is only average, melee feels weak and it's easy to confuse enemies just by jumping around.

Overall I'm enjoying it, but I keep thinking (as I did with Deus Ex many years ago) if someone could just marry this kind of world/experience to top notch polished gameplay we'd be onto a winner.

I dont generally play a sneak character, but Im sure you can play alot of the quests sneaking around and avoiding enemies.

They definitely took out loads of the mature related connotations rife in the previous Fallout games as you mentioned. If they had a choice and time, they probably would have removed the cows/Brahmin reference so it would sell in India. However, this would have probably sold a fraction of what it sold already if they kept it all in.

if you have good Speech you can solve a lot of quests with it, and a lot of quests also reward you if you use sneak and avoid combat (Moira ones) aaaaand if you complete a certain quest early in the game you will avoid combat with ghouls through the entire game. usually most of the combat is with naturally hostile creatures or raiders, but the main quest indeed force you to fight.

even with all the problems and awful melee combat I'm loving the game, much better than Mass Effect, even though ME is a better SHOOTER.

 =p  If you play as a woman she ask 100 caps.

I really love this game :).  And Bethesda improved in a lot of things.  Lockpicking is more fun to do, the level up system is way better (I love those perks),  the quests don't feel that repetive, the setting is really great and I love how they mess with the history of the world like we know =p.

Edit:  And oh yeah the V.A.T.S system is fun.  I thought that I gets boring after some hours but after more than 40 hours playing this game I still enjoy it.


And btw Rocketpig I thought you were a Bethesda hater and a Fallout fan?

I found the quests to be very differentiating from one another. From what I did no 2 quests were the same at all.

Konichiwa, yeah, that's more accurate. I loved F1/F2 and disliked Oblivion. I also believed (and still do, to some extent), that Bethesda just didn't have the developing chops or the chutzpah to do a Fallout game properly.