How did you discover Fallout ?

I stumbled across a Fallout 2 box in a random store in Marseilles, my city in France.
I have never heard of it before, and from what i remember of the box, i don't even remember what made me by it.
It maybe related with a cheap price, as it was already released a few years before. It was during Georges W Bush first term.
Or i just wanted to buy any game on that day and didn't find a game that interested me more.

Anyway, i wasn't expecting anything in particular, and didn't find the beginning particularly impressive.

Then i was step by step overwelmed by the subversive writting. I wasn't use to see that in video games. Same for the gray area.

You were the chosen One, but for everyone, it was a joke. (take take, every other chosen one, special beings and all of destiny crap)
Everyone looked the same because engine, but it was lampshaded for once.
It broke the fourth wall in a way that sounded right.
Vault City made me wander how i was suppose to take them. They seemed so nice and clean, but it the same times were racist, use slavery without using the word, are full of wrong ideas that you can't do anything agains't.
In the same time, it's the first city when you can actually make significants progress in your quest.
It is full of lampshading and critics about societies, video games patterns and storytelling tropes. (it was far before i discovered tvtropes)
In the same time, the story, the cities, the factions, are partially believable, interesting and entertaining.
I didn't have an opinion about TB, at the time, but i wasn't bothered either.
Then, when i reached the end, i discovered that, not only you could reach the villain HQ without a fight, but you that the main antagonist was the fucking president of the United States, that the vault were just experiments of that corrupted governments.
I wouldn't believe at the time, that the game was american.

At this times, the situation was tense between France/USA, as the former refused to let the latter attack Iraq, as there were no proof of mass destruction weapons (and there is still not) and i though that 200% of americans were triger-happy and supportive of war, whatever the reason or the coutry in front of them. (to be fair, this issue went pretty far, with americans boycotting french cheese and wine, just because we didn't want to kill iraqis on false pretense. Not that Saddam was a saint, but the objective for the war was never prooved and Bush was never charged for his internationnal lies)

I was pretty young and i though all americans were sheep or unallowed to voice other opinions. (i remember that a lot of american TV shows that i saw in France at the time were US military propangada, like NCIS, JAG, Stargate SG-1, depicting americans as happy warriors and peoples from other countries as useless or hostiles)

So it basically introduced me with subversive american contents. Fortunally, i am aware today that there is a lot more subsersive opinions and contents in American Culture.

Now that i am growing up, i even think that american/canadian writters are often more daring and subversive that french writters, at least in movies and tv shows. In France, you always have the same crap TV show, were heroes eat vegetables, never use the F-world, never have sex before wedding, and those with an unpopular opinion are jerks, then bad guys. It's like the french TV show writters are living in an entirelly other country, timeline or alternate reality. Sure, we got very great Movies authors, but most of them are dead or in a wheel chair. (and those that remain or the younger are only seen in selected theater, never at TV)

But at the time, it was basically, for me, the first time (outside of books), that i got involved in a game that dare adress subjects in a way that i found more believable that every other craps i've seen at the time, while remaining entertaining and not too straight.
All of this without taking away any other qualities of the game.

Then i tried Fo1 & FoT and got pretty disapointed that they adressed a lot less subjects, were less funny, and allowed less liberties.
Then i learned to love them overtime appreciating they own qualities. Basically, Fo1 have a far better main storyline with a blurred line between mutants and normies, and more intriguing sci-fi, while Tactics provide a better look into BOS and what could happen if we leave in charge a very powerfull military organization, without control.

I didn't have Playstation (or knew emulators) to try FoBOS, and when i learnt that the Fallout rights were sold, i didn't even try the last 3 episodes until 2013. (i wasn't aware of the Devellopper/Publisher difference. For me, the right were sold, that's it)
Since the writting was what got me into, i found no reason to follow it if it was written by someone else. It was like Steve Job writting a sequel of my favourite Stephen King book. What's the point in reading it ? The setting is a side aspect compared of the author intents.
I gave them a chance when i changed computer and looked for more recent games.

I am quite glad that i tried Fallout New Vegas, as it gave me hope of an upcoming game on the Fallout 1 vein, as its storyline was great, or even better, but i don't think i will find any fallout that pleased me as much as Fo2.
Didn't even played any other games on that satirical vein, but i will keep looking, mainly amongs indies.
(not only the satirical side, but also a game that i could enjoy by its storyline and gameplay as well)
 
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A friend of mine stumbled on a review from Fallout 3 and decided to give it a try. He was so enthusiastic about it and he gave me his copy to try for a day. Needless to say what happend next...
 
Originally, I went to Gamestop looking for Fallout 3. The next best thing was New Vegas. I am really glad they were out of copies of Fallout 3, otherwise I wouldn't have discovered New Vegas.
 
oils65mustang said:
In September of 1997 when it was released, I was at some store, some where. I looked at the disc cover and read the script on the back and thought, eh, might as well try it. Since then I have been hooked. Some times just taking a chance works the best.
Click to expand...

Agreed!

I had bought some crappy game from EB (that I don't recall now ) and returned it for a swap.
I asked the guy in the shop what he thought was a decent game for the amount of credit I had.... He handed me fallout, I took one look at it and was sold instantly.

Best money I ever spent on a game, still have the same copy.

Unlike FO: Tactics, which I bought when I couldn't really afford. I don't I've ever bothered to play that thing again since the day I bought it.

Even my brother who always was and still is a console gamer, played through both fallout games solo and still thinks it's the best game ever made.
 
I discovered Fallout 2 first (I know...I know.) from my grandfather who also got me hooked onto Wasteland during my childhood. Played the heck out of F2 then he found F1 and passed it along too me.
 
My brother and I got it with a bunch of computer games we bought on the cheap at an outlet mall in Victorville, CA back after the first two games were out. We played those and loved the hell out of them; then when Fallout 3 came out I was still playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

After that I played Fallout 3 16 straight hours the moment the new game loaded in. Never touched Oblivion after that ever again.
 
Discovered it at age 3. My sister had it lying around. Put it on her computer and played it. She was mad when I erased her save on there. So angry lol!. Then afterwards I rediscovered it when I played Fallout 3 and decided to go get Fallout 1 and 2 and play it. Next I'll get Tactics.
 
I was bored. I grabbed my brother's PS3 and gave Fallout 3 a try. Then I bought the complete series. I haven't played Tactics yet, I don't know why but I feel like I wouldn't enjoy it.
 
Do away with that. FOT is one of the best in the series, easily on par with the originals. You just have to remember that it's a Tactical RPG, not a standard RPG, so the meat of the gameplay won't center around growing your characters but rather growing a combat team. But insofar as it's a natural next-step up from each game's combat engine, it's delightfully fun, variably challenging, and unlike FO3 you've gotta look close to find the inconsistencies and canon-breaking contradictions (they're there, but they're not glaringly obvious).

If you've somehow purchases the entire series and you're ONLY wary that you may not enjoy FOT, that means you also bought FOBOS and you enjoyed that. So..... if you somehow slogged through that title and came out the other end content, FOT will blow you away! XD
 
Actually, the inconsistencies of FoT with the Fo universe are really very obvious.
But you can number them, make a list, that would be lower than ten. (in Fo3, the list would never end)
Other than that, it is mostly faithfull not only to the lore, but also the tone, the themes, the general intents.
Also, i don't recall any internal inconsistencies, or lack of logic. (while Fo3 keeps contradicting itself)
 
One of the inconsistencies, the "Military Vault" as mentioned in the intro, would spark a curiousity in any player who had the plot of the previous games fresh in their minds, and remembered that this was not where the Brotherhood originated from. But I wouldn't call that "glaringly obvious". It was a small error that was browsed over in a matter of seconds. The next that I can think of is hairy deathclaws, but you'd have to stop and realize that the intelligent deathclaws of FO2 were ONLY able to speak because they'd been experimented on by the Enclave, and that these couldn't be descendants of those- not because FO2 insisted that the intelligent deathclaws were all killed off, but because this story took place 44 years BEFORE the events of FO2. Again, it took considerable thought to illuminate, so I'd say while a definite contradiction, it wasn't obvious. The biggest one that most seem to hold on to are the weapons using "real world names" instead of disconnected names, and I didn't even realize that difference until I saw complaints about the game.

I'm not saying that the contradictions present in FOT are hidden, I'm simply stating that they weren't obvious. It doesn't take any thought to consider that 200 years is a long time for trees to stay charred and dead and for radiation to linger in hotspots, no matter how heavily saturated with bombs a location may have been 2 centuries ago. The word "obvious" is a massive understatement to how openly FO3 wore its inconsistencies; that was the primary contrast I was making between FOT and FO3.
 
We may run in circle, but if you played the other games and got the lore in mind, then the intro should make you take off your hair.
It is not some obscure details, it is one of the main things of the plot.
The origin of the BOS, is very important, when you consider that those desertors are good guys, while the true heir of the previous gov/military are the baddies (Enclave) The BOS are there in every games. How could anyone not know about their past ?

The head of super-mutant is not a small inconsistency. They are entirelly different creatures. So are the deathclaws.

IMO, these inconsistencies are not numerous but it is 1000% impossible not to notice them.

On the other hand, if you never played other games, FoT doesn't contradict itself.
They miss some precious previous intel, but they kept notes on what they did themselves.
 
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Like you said yourself, this is just running in circles.

I don't know that I understand what inconsistency you're talking about when you bring up "head of super-mutant". You mean the art style depicting Super Mutants as having "stretched" skin and almost melted looking flesh? Yeah, different art styles have the propensity to make things as depicted in older graphical technology look like different things when depicted by something newer. The visual representation here of Super Mutants isn't an inconsistency in the slightest, because that's like saying that the Zergling was inconsistent in-game and across the various cinematics it appeared in the game Starcraft. Yes, they looked different, but that's just what happens when pre-rendered stuff achieves a different appearance than animated sprites. Not saying I loved the artistic liberties taken with Super Mutants in FOT, but that wasn't one of the inconsistencies. If they'd said that Super Mutants weren't sterile (like the much-maligned comment of Marcus in FO2, because many fans didn't realize it wasn't a canon statement and that it was just a joke) in FOT, THEN that would make them "completely different creatures", inconsistent with the lore of the series.

Anyway, circular bickering aside, that's totally irrelevant to the matter of how individuals first came upon the series...
 
Here with Marcus, in Fo2 & FoNV they end up with something different, but having the same purpose in mind.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20050301210424/fallout/images/c/c0/Marcus.jpg
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110222212804/fallout/images/7/76/Marcus_highres.jpg

If you take FOT super-mutants, some of them are random but some of them have physical properties that are never seen in other Fallouts. They didn't try to do the same thing with different result, they started from scratch, forgetting what was originally depicted:

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121222153527/fallout/images/c/c9/FOT_Pump.gif
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121222153527/fallout/images/f/f8/FOT_Toni.gif
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090929071023/fallout/images/d/de/Jim_Grimm.png
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121222153527/fallout/images/2/27/FOT_Chuck.gif

Seeing a so different concept, i can't help but calling this an inconsistency.

But this is appearance.
About behavior and general goals, Micro Forte was pretty faithfull.

Same for the BOS.
Personnally, i think Micro Forte made the best use of the BOS, in the whole series.

But faithfull doesn't mean always consistent.

Anyway, there are inconsistencies.
Some of us think they are obvious. Some of us think they aren't.
I don't believe we could go further than that.
 
Fallout is my first RPG and motivates me learning English in the middle school. In late 1997 I saw a review of Fallout on the local version of PC Gamer magazine and noticed there are guns (especially the minigun) in the pics. I never played RPGs before (only FPS like Doom and Duke3D), since they were "too complicated" and "look boring" for a middle school kid, and the typical fantasy/magic themes didn't appeal to me. So when I saw the post-apocalyptic style and lots of guns in Fallout, I got extremely interested and played the demo from the included CD even if I had almost no English skill at the time. Then I rushed to buy the Prima guide (translated) from local book store and read it through several times, until I got enough money for the game. To this day, I still wonder how I finished FO1 at that time. I remember I clicked through the dialogs about twenty times trying to convince the Master giving up (my first character build totally sucks, but got boosted to nearly all-10 by the radiation bug in 1.0). The save-scumming helped a lot, heh.
 
I hate those newbie introduction threads so I figured this would be a better place to make my first post.

My boyfriend, who's been with the series since forever, introduced me to Fallout. Except he made a massive goof and decided to give Fallout 3 to me first. I imagine I'll expand on my opinions of the game elsewhere on the forum (if I don't just fade off into the background somewhere, which is likely, given that I'm terrified of the Fallout fandom). Long story short, I *deep breath* actually like Fallout 3. It's hard to dislike the game which actually got you into a series, even if now I'm aware of how departed it is from the roots of Fallout. Saying that, it isn't my favourite installment, as New Vegas far outshines it in essentially every way, and of course, the originals aren't even really comparable to it.

Maybe I should explain how my boyfriend enticed me into playing 3 in the first place? It seems strange that I needed enticing at all, given that I love video games... it's just that I've lost a bit of faith in them these days. Anyhow, in 'real life' (sorry for using that term), there are three things I'm pretty much obsessed with: creatures, old decaying/abandoned/destroyed things, and subways. So when someone turns around and says "hey, want to play a game where you can explore the ruins of a city and run around the metro tunnels avoiding mutated creatures?", it's hard to say no. Also, I'm aware that everyone else in the universe hates the metro system in 3, but, uh... yeah...?

Since my introduction to the series, I've been hooked on learning everything about it, though I'm definitely still learning. I apologise in advance for any stupid or incorrect things I say.
 
I suggest you to try out Metro 2033 (and its sequel). It is a FPS/Survival horror, inspired by a book. (i played it. It is both awesome and frightening)
There is also Underrail, an upcoming game, with a gameplay closer to Fallout 1 & 2. (didn't got far, as the game isn't finished yet, but close to it)

Both are post-apocalyptic games that mostly happen in metro and involve creatures & ruins of the old world.

Welcome in NMA.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions!
I believe I already have Metro 2033 installed on Steam, I just never got around to playing it. Can't say I've heard of Underrail, but I'm intrigued.
 
My brothers friends brought down a copy of 3 along with their 360s(they did link ups ALOT before connecting to live) while they were watching tv i slipped it in and played the game to the point of leaving the vault before they decided to leave. A while later i picked up a copy at xtravision which was literally the irish version of blockbusters at the time. I enjoyed it(but never tried the dlc before trading it in which i regret) decided to look up stuff about the series got New vegas bought all the dlc but stopped playing it when my game started to freeze constantly leaving me stuck in the starting area of lonesome roads. My system of choice is the play-station but i do play the odd pc game that interests me(warframe civ 5)
 
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