Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense for why fo3 has more nonlinear missions. I think that this method sacrifices most potential for good storylines though.

I expect you may be mixing that area up with the one where you do the plant the mirelurk beacon quest. The ship area is quite small and a decent chunk of it is completely underwater. If there were a dozen they'd pretty much have to start stacking them!

A character in the quest tells you pretty directly the location of the underwater entrance to the ship, although the game doesn't set a waypoint.

Even if Rivet City was on the way to GNR, which is isn't(After you do the quest for Three Dog he tells you to go to Rivet City! GNR is on the way to Rivet City, not the other way around), does that mean that the developers "obviously" intended you to do every available sidequest there, too? Because if you did that, you would skip the entire GNR sequence by talking to the doctor.

The Android quest requires finding those tapes to figure out who the android is, which means you were on a pretty comprehensive kick. Which was rewarded with some awesome gear. That is how nonlinear RPGs work.

You could be led to Rivet City pretty early if you wandered around the Anchorage Memorial and found Dukov's place. There is the quest there to lead that chick to Rivet City. I think that 'quest' was put there intentionally to lead you there.

My first playthrough I didn't get to Rivet until late in the game. Part of that is because I love the exploration factor in those sort of games.

This thread has me itching for FO 4

thread has me itching to replay 3, might install some mods and give it a go

Maybe there are other Mirelurk on the ship that I'm thinking of which you don't need to fight to get to Pinkerton? My memory's a little hazy. There are a couple areas in the game which are Mirelurk infested so I might just be mixing them up, but I'm pretty sure there are quite a few more Mirelurks on that ship if you go poking around, not that it matters to the original point of contention.

Only if they make it like 3 and not New Vegas. Vegas completely killed the entire wanderer part of the game for me. In every Fallout from the beginning you could just wander and get into tons of fights if you wanted to for xp and gear but New Vegas made it so you could wander for 30 minutes and not find something to fight. LAME!!!! Every other RPG has tons of random enemies/randoms to interact with which makes it tons of fun.

This is why I want a gaming PC so badly. I feel like Skyrim and Fallout are so much better with mods.

Never played new vegas but what you just said was by far my favorite part of fo3

I remember more traps then mirelurks in the broken part of the ship.

Ya this is just my fave part of the entire series and any other rpg Ive played. Vegas was all just storyline so I didnt even get 1/4 of the way thru it. Ive played 3 many times over and its just fun to wander and not even engage in storylines.

yeah the mods for the elder scrolls games are amazing, haven't played anything but vanilla fallout though

People like FO3 and Bethesda games for one thing, open world exploration. While they might lack in areas like story telling compared to bioware, they simply blow everyone out of the water when it comes to creating a world where you are just free to go and do whatever you want to do.

Fallout probably doesnt hold up as well to a modern player, especially considering skyrim is about 10x better but when it originally came out it was the skyrim of its time. Bethesda RPGs, not for everyone, but for those whole love them they scratch an itch no one else can.

While it's certainly possible you made it to Rivet City early in the game, activated that quest, and completed it in that manner, it's incredibly improbable. IIRC, Moira(?) sent me to Rivet City fairly early for the wasteland survival guide quests, but even then, to activate the quest you have to find stuff (that you're not looking for), then swim underwater for a while, then kill what I remember as a mirelurk and a mirelurk hunter, convince the guy to tell you the right stuff, then find the android and pass the right speech checks with him. Anyway, saying that the balance on this game is off because you get the best gun right away is weird, because an incredibly specific sequence of events needs to occur. If you got the gun early, it's because you're either extremely lucky or incredibly good at these games (or using a walkthrough that highlights an easy way to get a really good gun) and the vast majority of the people who play this game aren't either of those.

Hahaha I'm not sure what it means to be 'good' at these games but I do have a habit of breaking Bethesda games pretty quickly. Ironically trying to avoid that is how I ended up at Rivet City so quickly. Most people here seem to have taken off exploring some time between Megaton and GNR. I wanted to stay somewhat directly on the main storyline path to avoid becoming too overpowered so I started out towards GNR directly only doing what was in the immediate vicinity which unfortunately included Rivet City!

I think this was all a mix of taking an unfortunate path that led to exactly what I wanted to avoid (god mode) and also somewhat heightened expectations as I enjoyed Oblivion / Morrowind and Fallout 2 is in my top 3 favorite games of all time. Mentally renaming this game to Oblivion: Post-Apoc mod would probably have made for a more enjoyable experience. Comparing it to a game it's nothing like is obviously just going to lead to disappointment.

Looking forward to giving New Vegas a try. Hopefully this time I won't stumble into god mode so quickly!

Ah, that's right. Moira's wasteland survival quest is how I got introduced to Rivet City. I think a lot of people probably discovered it pretty early on because of that.

New Vegas was better balanced than FO3 for the sheer fact that you are limited to gaining perks every other level. If you're interested in an additional layer of difficulty, I'd recommend playing hardcore mode. It doesn't make the game immensely more difficult, but things like having to ration ammo due to it having weight, having stimpaks take effect over time, and needing a doctor or doctor's bag to repair limbs make it more realistic and give you a bit more of a challenge. Try it.

I personally liked New Vegas more than FO3. Hardcore mode was a good option for them to include in the game. I would also recommend checking out the JSawyer mod if you find it a bit too easy. I know some people avoid mods because they aren't official, but JSawyer was the actual head guy developing New Vegas.

http://www.falloutwiki.com/JSawyer

"JSawyer is a personal modification created by project director Joshua Eric Sawyer for those willing to experience a harder, more challenging Fallout: New Vegas and was released on December 29, 2011. It also includes several technical fixes and tweaks (particularly to the Karma system), that were not included in previous patches. While it is considered unofficial by its creator, it does provide insight into the aims of the lead developer and contains planned tweaks that never made it into the final release or in official patches. "

Best. Game. Ever.

Sorry, didn't read the whole thread, but I was also wondering what made this game so good when I first started playing. The action seemed slow and it had a big learning curve, but then I got my first kill, shot the head right off of one of those four legged creature things and felt instant satisfaction. So what makes this game so good? Beautiful graphics, awesome soundtrack, an immersive atmosphere with great action/RPG elements, tons of hours of gameplay.....oh yea and Three Dog! This game is Badasss!

Pretty much any Bethesda game to me.

Do you like the Star Wars prequels too?

Really not sure how OP could dislike FO3 so much, I was a fan of the original games back in their day and I loved FO3 and FO3:NV, I never finished NV however, as I played it fairly soon after FO3 and was a bit over it by that stage, that said I had completed 2/3 of the FO3 DLC already as well, so being a bit over it, wasn't really saying anything bad about the game.

I haven't really been a "gamer" in over a decade, with most of that time now dedicated to poker.. FO3 is probably one of the 5 or so games I've even bothered to complete in the last 10 years!


I can understand it's not everyone's favourite game and that even not everyone is going to like it, there is no game that is going to appeal to everyone, but I fail to understand how someone can't even comprehend how other people may enjoy a game like FO3

Out of curiosity OP: What games DO you like?