Fallout 3 too similar to Oblivion?

Well, if you consider that Oblivion and Fallout 3 are both essentially mods for Bethesda's role play engine and extensions to GameBryo... yeah, I can see how you would think Fallout 3 was a mod of Oblivion itself.

For me, Oblivion had glaring bugs and/or design decisions in it that made it difficult, or not fun, to play the way I wanted to play; as such, even modded to hell, I played at most a few hours into it. Fallout 3 does not make the same decisions, so as I result I can play it the way I wanted to, and find it a lot more enjoyable.

I definitely feel the resemblance -- after all, it is effectively a "mod;" the core engine got some bugfixes and improvements, but it's not a major overhaul, near as I can tell. It seems that mostly assets and some mechanics changed. But the similarities aren't stopping me from enjoying the game.

I enjoyed the Vault the first time. I suspect, since its just glorified character creation, that I will just blast through it on subsequent playthroughs.

Even though they use the same engine, Fallout 3 feels like a different game to me. Then again, I didn't use melee attacks at all which is probably where the glaring similarities are. That being said, I enjoyed Fallout other then the ending, and I stopped playing Oblivion due to boredom.

i really want to finish oblivion but im getting bored of the frigging gates. i've done like 10 of them now and it's gotten old really quick, there's only so much red my eyes can take and i've just gotten bored and uninstalled it, my character was practically invincible anyway which didn't exactly help matters

so far fallout 3 is ok, though i've only played it for about 10 hours so far so i'll see if it tapers off as well

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Original post by Mantrid i really want to finish oblivion but im getting bored of the frigging gates. i've done like 10 of them now and it's gotten old really quick, there's only so much red my eyes can take and i've just gotten bored and uninstalled it, my character was practically invincible anyway which didn't exactly help matters

Well the real fun is in joining the guilds imo. I think the main quest is kind of boring, but I did complete it. Oblivion is the most captivating game I've ever played... Just talking about it makes me want to reinstall it and play it all over again...Must....resist.....installing....

I could get detailed but the bottom line is I hated oblivion. It's too open-ended, to the point where I feel like there is no purpose when I play. It feels like a fantasy world (not a world that I'm in), I can't stand the levelling system, and I don't like the combat system.

Contrast that to fallout 3 where I am totally immersed in the world and actually care what happens, thoroughly enjoy both combat and levelling, and love the game.

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Original post by Mantrid i really want to finish oblivion but im getting bored of the frigging gates. i've done like 10 of them now and it's gotten old really quick, there's only so much red my eyes can take and i've just gotten bored and uninstalled it, my character was practically invincible anyway which didn't exactly help matters

You realise you don't have to close them all don't you?

IIRC, there's three gates you have to close; Kvatch, Bruma, and Cheydinhal, although that last one might also be an optional sidequest, I can't remember. I may have missed some, but certainly the vast majority of gates are completely optional.

I liked Oblivion except for the fact that the enemies were adapted to your current character level. This took away most of the pleasure in levelling and acquiring new items because it didn't really mean anything, you could finish the game just as easily with your character in level 1 as you could in level 30. Also, in other RPGs (like Baldur's Gate, for example), it feels great to meet a monster you can't kill at the moment but when you return later with a more experienced party you beat him easily.

Does this happen in Fallout 3?

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Original post by tstrimp I enjoyed Fallout other then the ending

Same here i felt the ending was weak, i kind of rushed my play through it though :|. I'll not give the reasons for not liking it because i want to avoid spoilers.

Generally it seems to be more focused than Oblivion, and you do flow along the main quest nicely visiting a good portion of map. But this is also has an affect of making it seem smaller to me. The art and styling is really quite good, while the characters and quests are quite varied and take in a lot of cyberpunk elements well.

I liked the Oblivion engine the first time for expansiveness and fidelty of its environments. But it does feel dated now and while Fallout 3 is an update version it still feels like oblivion in terms of vis, plus some of the effects were not that polished. I didn't really like some of the wind wisp effects, they didn't seem to blend well.

Still well worth a play, makes a refreshing change from fantasy and WWII games, i like cyberpunk though :p

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Original post by Sandman Quote: Original post by Mantrid i really want to finish oblivion but im getting bored of the frigging gates. i've done like 10 of them now and it's gotten old really quick, there's only so much red my eyes can take and i've just gotten bored and uninstalled it, my character was practically invincible anyway which didn't exactly help matters You realise you don't have to close them all don't you? IIRC, there's three gates you have to close; Kvatch, Bruma, and Cheydinhal, although that last one might also be an optional sidequest, I can't remember. I may have missed some, but certainly the vast majority of gates are completely optional.

I made that mistake the first time I played it as well. I think I had closed at least 20 of the dang things before I realized/found out you didn't have to close them all.

I think fallout 3 looks pretty cool, but the amount of language used in the game is making me lean towards not buying it. Just watching the developer videos, the f-bomb was dropped quite a few times. This isn't a big deal for most people, but I can't stand vulgar language in games.

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Original post by Moe This isn't a big deal for most people, but I can't stand vulgar language in games.

Have to admit even i, who wouldn't really care that much, noticed it was quite frequent. But it is a gritty game, if we have heads exploding an 'f-bomb' is probably not really in the same league :p, i'd certainly say it if someone tried to blow my head of with a gatling laser :s

Keep the kids away and enjoy it as an adult respresentation of a post apocalyptic world :p And most, if not all, of the swearing is in context to character you meet i.e. nice people don't swear....that much :p.

Swearing is good for you though. Releases stress apparently especially in the work place. Suppose it depends on your work mates; plus the study was in Australia. Also i'm from Ireland and we tend to be quite colourful with our language anyway :p

I definitely feel it is too similar to Oblivion. Since I got the game, the day after it released, I've only sat down to play it about three times. It's like playing Oblivion, except with the color palette reduce to brown and all the foliage removed. I do like some things about the game (explosives are great, they fixed up container lag, added more keyboard hotkeys for menus), and I can't really say that it's a bad game, but it's just not interesting enough to make me really play it.

I don't really care about the "main storyline", I guess that's why Morrowind/Oblivion appealed to me, but I've felt that there isn't much to Fallout3 other than the main questline. Sure, there's lots of crap to wander around and explore, but it all feels very "same-ish".

FO 3 started out quite promising. However after easily defeating a team of two super mutants, one of whom was wielding a minigun, with just using a low level character, bad armour and a SMG - I kind of lost interest.

It's not that I dont think it will become challenging, but it seems too orchestrated so far. Which might be allright, I suppose, to do in the beginning of a game. But what they did to the super mutants in FO3 kind of feels like what they did to the borg in ST Voyager.

I was disappointed with fall out 3, after loving oblivion and the concept of fall out was always really cool I thought id like it. I did to an extent but it just annoyed me because of a number of reasons spoiling the good bits.

a) essentially its oblivion in future apocalypse world, everything is the same in terms of dialogue, the map and quests guide, inventory. All of which i found "cluncky" in oblivion and it was just the same here.

b) massive bugs, I got stuck in collision detection so many times it was a joke, having to either fast travel or load a new game to get myself out of collision (annoying when you've traveled to a new place and not yet saved or found a fast travel location)

c) the "reputation" of your player can always go wrong. When with the brotherhood of steel i tried to open the door of GNR radio before pressing the intercom and they immediately start shooting at me, getting me stuck in infinite death / load loop and having to go back to an earlier save and re-do some of the game to get back there (and not make the mistake again)

Don't get me wrong i thought fall out was ok, but they could have done so much more. Vehicles would have been really good idea to drive around and more focus on getting a party going round together. Would also have been good to get online co-op so you and friends can become a gang in the wastelands.

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Original post by Demosthenes Does this happen in Fallout 3?

Enemies level up with your character three times in the game. The combat in the game (minus VATS) is almost identical to Oblivion. Just replace the ranged magic spells with guns, and healing potions with random drugs.

The game started off alot of fun. However, after I left the vault the fun factor decreased until I had leveled up my character a few times. Its best if you try to do a few side quests before freely adventuring into the world. I found it most rewarding to play through the main quests. My biggest complaint is that the mini map was not very easy to follow at times. Especially in the city areas. I often found myself turning around at a dead end and back tracking. I do not think I could recommend this game (as a buy) to anyone who did not like Oblivion. If you liked Oblivion, its defiantly worth checking out. Otherwise try it before you buy it.

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Original post by ChurchSkiz I could get detailed but the bottom line is I hated oblivion. It's too open-ended, to the point where I feel like there is no purpose when I play. It feels like a fantasy world (not a world that I'm in), I can't stand the levelling system, and I don't like the combat system.

I actually loved the open-"endedness", and wished it would be even more open-ended at times. But I don't quite understand why you can't feel a sense of purpose when playing. I mean, do games really have a purpose? Isn't a game just entertainment to pass the time? [smile] The purpose is in the enjoyment.
If you don't enjoy the game, it's purposeless.

IMO, the nice thing about Oblivion is that you can decide for yourself how you're going to play it. You can either jump right to the main quest, where you'll be able to follow a strict storyline, or you can just run around in nature going wherever the wind takes you.
I actually had a great time just running around in the landscape finding Nirnroots while taking some side-quests for random NPCs I met along the way.

I hope The Elder Scrolls V is going to be even more immersive and open-ended. When it finally comes out, I'm going to buy a month's supply of food and drink, buy a new PC, tell my friends that I'll be going on vacation, and lock myself in my house for a month. [grin]

I didn't expect the game to be half as good as it is, so I was pretty impressed with it. Oblivion had a huge immersive game world, but the game's interactive design aspects were terrible. Fallout 3 improves the interactive portion really well - it's actually fun to do battle.

I'm a dedicated fan of both Fallout 1 and 2, so seeing the atmosphere reconstructed into a huge detailed world that can be open-endedly explored is a really big deal.

As far as its similarity to Oblivion, I couldn't care less. It's a different game world, with a different purpose. The only thing similar to Oblivion that I noticed and didn't appreciate was the melee combat. There's nothing lamer than trying to nail a little wuss with a giant hammer to have him deflect it with a tiny baton.

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Original post by Moe I think fallout 3 looks pretty cool, but the amount of language used in the game is making me lean towards not buying it. Just watching the developer videos, the f-bomb was dropped quite a few times. This isn't a big deal for most people, but I can't stand vulgar language in games.

Fallout wouldn't be Fallout without bad language. I was actually impressed that Bethesda had the balls to do that. I've developed a new respect for them.

edit: countless typos.

[Edited by - Kest on November 23, 2008 11:19:56 PM]

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Original post by Demosthenes I liked Oblivion except for the fact that the enemies were adapted to your current character level. This took away most of the pleasure in levelling and acquiring new items because it didn't really mean anything, you could finish the game just as easily with your character in level 1 as you could in level 30. Also, in other RPGs (like Baldur's Gate, for example), it feels great to meet a monster you can't kill at the moment but when you return later with a more experienced party you beat him easily. Does this happen in Fallout 3?

Precisely what he said: It isn't fun to level up in Oblivion, it just feels useless to train/level up.

I must've logged a good 20 hours now in the wastelands. (Probably closer to 40, but I don't want to admit to myself that I've wasted that many hours on a game I enjoy only so-so.) I think Fallout3 is different enough from Oblivion to make it worth the expense. I just wish it was more similar to Mass Effect :)