What video game are you playing?

[wizards8507]

Then there you go, Fallout is the same exact game, just different world/setting...

Well yeah, there's the rub isn't it? Example: Battlefront looks epic. I bought an entire Xbox and subscribed to Xbox Live pretty much for the sole purpose of playing it. Yet I couldn't give a flying fuck about Call of Duty or Halo. Red Dead and GTA are basically the same game, yet one of them is my favorite of all time and the other makes me uncomfortable just to watch someone else play.

 

[ACamp1900]

the music selection on Fallout 3 was excellent too, tho also somewhat limited...

 

[ACamp1900]

Well yeah, there's the rub isn't it? Example: Battlefront looks epic. I bought an entire Xbox and subscribed to Xbox Live pretty much for the sole purpose of playing it. Yet I couldn't give a flying fuck about Call of Duty or Halo. Red Dead and GTA are basically the same game, yet one of them is my favorite of all time and the other makes me uncomfortable just to watch someone else play.

I get what you are saying... I would say Fallout and Elder Scrolls are much closer in FEEL and vibe than Red Dead and GTA are... I can't think of anything Fallout had in that regard that ES games don't also have... aside from maybe the music, which you can just turn off...

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Can anyone give me an idea of the vibe of Fallout? Trying to decide if I want to get on that train for Fallout 4. I'm not really into zombies or anything that makes its money on gore and obscene amounts of violence, but the concept is intriguing even if the whole "radiated mutant" thing is kind of played out. Is most of the game spent fighting monsters or actual people?

Following up on gk's post, the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises share many similarities (both being Bethesda games), but the former tends to emphasize the storylines/ RPG elements, whereas the latter plays more like an action game.

IIRC, you were really concerned that Skyrim would be too "fantastical" for your tastes, and we convinced you that realistic gameplay was very possible. Did your fears prove accurate? Regardless, enemies are even more diverse in Fallout than in Skyrim. You'll fight super mutants, ghouls (zombies), mutated beasts, Deathclaws; but other humans tend to predominate. Post-apocalyptic scarcity and all...

 

[ACamp1900]

Fallout is going to be such a massive game tho that if you get it, dislike it, you can then trade it in for prob close to 45 bucks store credit... so it'll be ~15 bucks lost to find out....??

 

[greyhammer90]

Well yeah, there's the rub isn't it? Example: Battlefront looks epic. I bought an entire Xbox and subscribed to Xbox Live pretty much for the sole purpose of playing it. Yet I couldn't give a flying fuck about Call of Duty or Halo. Red Dead and GTA are basically the same game, yet one of them is my favorite of all time and the other makes me uncomfortable just to watch someone else play.

Bottom line, Fallout is one of the most celebrated IPs in gaming. It's essentially post apocalyptic Elder Scrolls with a dark sense of humor and a big dose of zany.

I don't know if you'll like it because I don't know you, but I will say I think you'd be crazy to enjoy Elder Scrolls and not buy at least one Fallout game to see if you'd like it.

 

[wizards8507]

Following up on gk's post, the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises share many similarities (both being Bethesda games), but the former tends to emphasize the storylines/ RPG elements, whereas the latter plays more like an action game.

IIRC, you were really concerned that Skyrim would be too "fantastical" for your tastes, and we convinced you that realistic gameplay was very possible. Did your fears prove accurate? Regardless, enemies are even more diverse in Fallout than in Skyrim. You'll fight super mutants, ghouls (zombies), mutated beasts, Deathclaws; but other humans tend to predominate. Post-apocalyptic scarcity and all...

Diverse enemies sounds good. Clearing dungeon after dungeon of draugr, draugr, and more draugr got old pretty quickly. If you're saying it's like Skyrim but more RPG-y and less action-y, then I'm all in.

 

[ACamp1900]

Diverse enemies sounds good. Clearing dungeon after dungeon of draugr, draugr, and more draugr got old pretty quickly. If you're saying it's like Skyrim but more RPG-y and less action-y, then I'm all in.

pretty sure he meant the opposite tho... they are both RPGs and very similar, but Fallout is more 'actiony"

 

[wizards8507]

pretty sure he meant the opposite tho... they are both RPGs and very similar, but Fallout is more 'actiony"

Dammit, camp.

 

[greyhammer90]

Diverse enemies sounds good. Clearing dungeon after dungeon of draugr, draugr, and more draugr got old pretty quickly. If you're saying it's like Skyrim but more RPG-y and less action-y, then I'm all in.

Id say more actiony, but if you play with VATS you can get it to be pretty RPG-y.

 

[gkIrish]

Diverse enemies sounds good. Clearing dungeon after dungeon of draugr, draugr, and more draugr got old pretty quickly. If you're saying it's like Skyrim but more RPG-y and less action-y, then I'm all in.

There's a decent amount of simple "clearing out" missions (vaults rather than dungeons). But, like Elder Scrolls, they tend to result in some prized possession that I find worthwhile.

I'm like you in that I play a Bethesda game for about a week then put it away for a while. Then I go back to it. Nothing wrong with that. Doesn't mean it's not an amazing game.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Diverse enemies sounds good. Clearing dungeon after dungeon of draugr, draugr, and more draugr got old pretty quickly. If you're saying it's like Skyrim but more RPG-y and less action-y, then I'm all in.

That's exactly what I'm saying. The storylines in Fallout games tend to be really strong; and the choices you make have significant impacts on the world, character interaction, and the ending. After playing Fallout: New Vegas, it made me wish for an Elder Scrolls game with a similarly strong narrative element.

 

[gkIrish]

Id say more actiony, but if you play with VATS you can get it to be pretty RPG-y.

People play Fallout without VATS?

 

[greyhammer90]

That's exactly what I'm saying. The storylines in Fallout games tend to be really strong; and the choices you make have significant impacts on the world, character interaction, and the ending. After playing Fallout: New Vegas, it made me wish for an Elder Scrolls game with a similarly strong narrative element.

I will agree with this. Elder scrolls games are becoming too formulaic for my tastes. "Oh look a fighters/theives/assassins/mage guild" Fallout feels fresh because I truly don't know what I'm going to run into. I could run into a vault where everyone is a clone of the same insane man, I could find a super mutant camp that runs a "pro-super mutant" radio broadcast, or anything in between.

 

[greyhammer90]

People play Fallout without VATS?

Fallout NV was pretty good to play, but yeah 3 was a nightmare without it

 

[ACamp1900]

Between Skyrim and Fallout 3,... Fallout 3 is def the more 'action' game of the two tho... (Note the absence of a question mark)

 

[Whiskeyjack]

pretty sure he meant the opposite tho... they are both RPGs and very similar, but Fallout is more 'actiony"

Id say more actiony, but if you play with VATS you can get it to be pretty RPG-y.

I'd still argue that Fallout is more RPG than Action game, at least as compared to the Elder Scrolls series. For instance, the three major quest-oriented Skills-- Lockpicking, Science and Speech-- are truly limiting factors in what you can access and how (or even if!) you complete certain quests. Skyrim really didn't have anything comparable to that.

And in Fallout, the choices you make matter. Much less so in Skyrim.

FO: NV blurred that line a bit by adding in iron sights, which allowed combat to be much more action-oriented than previously. But I'd still argue that the distinction has merit.

 

[wizards8507]

I'd still argue that Fallout is more RPG than Action game, at least as compared to the Elder Scrolls series. For instance, the three major quest-oriented Skills-- Lockpicking, Science and Speech-- are truly limiting factors in what you can access and how (or even if!) you complete certain quests. Skyrim really didn't have anything comparable to that.

I like that none of those skills are combat-based. That tells you something right there. I agree that one flaw I found in Skyrim is I found myself doing things that my character, by all rights, wouldn't do. I was a sword-and-board knight build with heavy armor but I did things like the Thieves Guild because I felt like I was supposed to, and it wasn't any harder for the fact that I virtually no sneak or other thief-based skills.

One thing I struggle with in these kinds of games in general is that I like to keep a clean game. When I'm assigned an objective, I like to go do it immediately so I have relatively few open quests at one time. Otherwise you come back to the game a few weeks later and it takes you awhile to figure out why you're following a talking dog into a cave.

 

[ulukinatme]

I feel like I should be the foremost authority on all things Fallout (Been following the games since '97 and I've got every title except for the Android game cause my phone is lame), but Whiskey, grey, and ACamp have summed things up pretty well here.

If you enjoy Elder Scrolls games, there's really no reason why you shouldn't enjoy Fallout. In my opinion Fallout is more enjoyable because it doesn't take itself as seriously, meaning there's a lot more humor in the game (Both subtle and apparent). Fallout seems to give you many more options when it comes to endings and ways to complete quests, and I love options, but as someone pointed out not everyone likes to stray from a linear story line. Not everyone enjoys the post-apocalyptic setting, but the reverse is true too. My buddy is a big Fallout fan too, and I tried to introduce him into Elder Scrolls. He played the game one night never to pick it up again. While Fallout 3 and New Vegas didn't have the infinite number of companions that Skyrim had, I liked the fact that the characters were far more robust when it came to dialogue and in the case of New Vegas they had actual quests associated to each of them. Makes it that much more painful when a companion bites the dust on Hardcore mode. I know Fallout fans that will debate to death who the best companions in New Vegas are, or who their favorites are, but no one really cares if Lydia dies in Skyrim. They just recruit a replacement Lydia.

I agree that Fallout has more action than Skyrim, but they're two very different games and both still have plenty of action, it's hard to quantify. I think the difference is that Skyrim has a lot more inhabitable locations with civilized people, while Fallout has a lot of wasteland with roaming mutants and raider types. VATs is a great tool, but the nice thing is you can use it as much as you like or not at all, it's not required. VATs is especially nice for players that aren't big into first person shooters and enjoy more of the RPG element, or for those that prefer to run around in 3rd person mode.

Lastly, I'm not going to go back and look, but someone said that the wasteland mutant genre is played out? Wat?! First off, the fantasy genre has an infinitely greater number of games dedicated to it, which is fine cause I love that genre too. More importantly though, Fallout is pretty much THE game that started the post-apocalyptic, mutant slaying, RPG craze. Every game that has come since is and will forever be borrowing from Fallout. The only game that can really lay a claim to revolutionizing the genre before Fallout is the game Wasteland...and the people that created that game are the creators of Fallout so they're all the same.

 

[ACamp1900]

Honestly, I liked Dead Island much more than most,... that's the zombie Apocalypse rpg done right imo...

 

[IrishInFl]

I am really excited to get fallout 4, then do a no intelligence run.

 

[ulukinatme]

I like that none of those skills are combat-based. That tells you something right there. I agree that one flaw I found in Skyrim is I found myself doing things that my character, by all rights, wouldn't do. I was a sword-and-board knight build with heavy armor but I did things like the Thieves Guild because I felt like I was supposed to, and it wasn't any harder for the fact that I virtually no sneak or other thief-based skills.

Here are all the skills listed from New Vegas, most of which are not combat based: Energy Weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons, Unarmed, Other skills: Barter, Lockpick, Medicine, Repair, Science, Sneak, Speech, Survival. With the Speech skill alone you can often talk your way out of a number of encounters (With named NPCs anyway. Generic NPCs you typically need to fight or flee if they start shooting). Some encounters require a very high skill to talk your way out of them, and a few even require a max Speech to diffuse a situation, but there are times when even Speech won't save you. Same thing with Barter. You can use the Barter skill to net yourself better gains when trading, but it can also be used to convince people in conversations if negotiations are involved.

Science and Lockpick are two similar skills, but both have very different uses at the same time. Lockpick is used on basic containers and doors, while Science is used to hack locked computers and electronic doors as well as having other uses like mixing chemicals or reprogramming robots. Lockpick will get you past most doors, but not all, so you have to decide which you want to work on if not both.

 

[ulukinatme]

I am really excited to get fallout 4, then do a no intelligence run.

Haha, I was just talking to my buddy about that last night. Right now I have the Pip Boy version pre-ordered for my PC, which is how I prefer to play the game. The last time we did a Fallout game though, everyone brought their consoles or rigs to one buddy's house to play together, and that can be cumbersome. I'm opting to pick up a PS4 version now, which I'll do a low intelligence "Hulk" type build on, and then I'll do a normal run on PC when I'm home.

 

[ACamp1900]

Haha, I was just talking to my buddy about that last night. Right now I have the Pip Boy version pre-ordered for my PC, which is how I prefer to play the game. The last time we did a Fallout game though, everyone brought their consoles or rigs to one buddy's house to play together, and that can be cumbersome. I'm opting to pick up a PS4 version now, which I'll do a low intelligence "Hulk" type build on, and then I'll do a normal run on PC when I'm home.

I can't even find enough time to play through these massive RPGs the first time, let alone multiple play throughs... never did finish all of Skyrim or DI, and I think I finished the story of FO3 but hardly any of the side stuff...

Do you even husband bro???

 

[ulukinatme]

Honestly, I liked Dead Island much more than most,... that's the zombie Apocalypse rpg done right imo...

I played just a bit of Dead Island, but I think you're talking two different genres in a way. Dead Island is definitely more of a zombie apocalypse game while Fallout is a post-nuclear wasteland game. They're similar in some respects, but the zombie apocalypse style focuses mostly on zombies as the threat, while a post-nuclear wasteland provides a greater variety of enemy like Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Yao Guai, Molerats, raiders, and of course the feral and non feral varieties of Ghouls which are basically zombies.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I agree that Fallout has more action than Skyrim, but they're two very different games and both still have plenty of action, it's hard to quantify. I think the difference is that Skyrim has a lot more inhabitable locations with civilized people, while Fallout has a lot of wasteland with roaming mutants and raider types. VATs is a great tool, but the nice thing is you can use it as much as you like or not at all, it's not required. VATs is especially nice for players that aren't big into first person shooters and enjoy more of the RPG element, or for those that prefer to run around in 3rd person mode.

I may have confused things by introducing the RPG v. Action distinction. I think Skyrim is more of an Action game because it's so combat-focused. Fallout still has plenty of "action", but the story and questing aspects of the game are much more pronounced.

 

[ulukinatme]

I can't even find enough time to play through these massive RPGs the first time, let alone multiple play throughs... never did finish all of Skyrim or DI, and I think I finished the story of FO3 but hardly any of the side stuff...

Do you even husband bro???

Well, to be fair, the last time a Fallout game was released was 2010. I had no kids yet and I was newly married to my wife. I've got 3 kids now, and they definitely take a good deal of time away from my gaming as they should. I maximize my time when I'm playing though, and I frequently abuse the Save feature to avoid backtracking too far if I die. That said I don't anticipate getting in as much play time on Fallout 4 as I've had in previous games, but I'll eventually get both play throughs finished. Monday night is always "Guys night" and we'll be playing Fallout for the next 3-4 months at least each Monday, so that's 60 hours right there at least which will be enough for the main story line and a handful of side quests I wager. Hopefully I'll get to play through both characters and knock out all the side quests though, that's usually my goal.

 

[ACamp1900]

I played just a bit of Dead Island, but I think you're talking two different genres in a way. Dead Island is definitely more of a zombie apocalypse game while Fallout is a post-nuclear wasteland game. They're similar in some respects, but the zombie apocalypse style focuses mostly on zombies as the threat, while a post-nuclear wasteland provides a greater variety of enemy like Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Yao Guai, Molerats, raiders, and of course the feral and non feral varieties of Ghouls which are basically zombies.

totally agree, but zombie apocalypse stuff was mentioned somewhere today so I felt it was worth mentioning... everyone is different but zombies are def right up my ally for fantasy stuff... skyrim and ES games in general are outliners for me as I usually don't touch that genre, in any form, with a ten foot pole...

 

[ACamp1900]

I may have confused things by introducing the RPG v. Action distinction. I think Skyrim is more of an Action game because it's so combat-focused. Fallout still has plenty of "action", but the story and questing aspects of the game are much more pronounced.

I guess that depends on how you play Skyrim... I rarely ever did combat unless forced to, which wasn't too often... for me I think of the huge gun battles in FO and it's hard for me to get 'action' out of my head...

 

[ulukinatme]

I may have confused things by introducing the RPG v. Action distinction. I think Skyrim is more of an Action game because it's so combat-focused. Fallout still has plenty of "action", but the story and questing aspects of the game are much more pronounced.

Ahhh, if that's the case than I agree with those comments. I think dialogue and RPG elements in Fallout greatly influences outcomes and actions, more so than in Skyrim. For that reason "action" is required more often in Skyrim for sure.