Swedish PC Gamer reviews Fallout 3

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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With thanks to Tomaten for providing shots (including a shot of your appartment) and translated bits of the review of Fallout 3 from the Swedish PC Gamer, who give it an 81%.<blockquote>I'm going to take the sting out of this review right now. Fallout 3 IS "Oblivion with guns". Whatever I stated in any earlier issue. So, with that said, there is no going back.

Regardless of your orientation, frames of reference and your expectations, you are sitting and screaming inside right now. I know it. But do you scream of happiness or horror? Are you the little naive, new kid on the block that loved Bethesda's last blockbuster to the core, or are you an old dusty turn-based- and topdown purist from No Mutants Allowed and always stated that Fallout 3 will be the spawn of Satan?

No matter orientation- read on, I'm going to take you to the radioactive wasteland. And when we're finished you're going to cry instead. Of happiness or sorrow.
(...)
EXPECTATIONS ON SHAME

The search for my father which has left the "security" of the Vault for his ambition to change the world is leading me deeper and deeper in to what once was Washington DC, the centre of USA's political force. Every dawn in the radioactive wasteland offers new adventures, every night something is lurking in the shadows, ready to devour me whole. And it would all be wonderful if it wasn't for something unidentifiable that just isn't there. Call it "spirit", call it whatever you want. But when the gates to Vault 101 are far away from me, my eyes have become used to the sunlight and almost 15 hours have passed come the thoughts. As if the expectations had gone a bit awry.

Because in Fallout 3 I get almost everything served directly. Bethesda have tried to squeeze in as much as possible on area as small as possible. Substance enough for a lifetime in short-movie format, if you want to. And the result is an anticlimax, too much of the good in too short time. One minute I'm running into a nest of rad-scorpions, while there is a peaceful camp of settlers 30 meters away. Some slavers are walking around with their slaves just around the corner and some raiders just settled down a bit farther away. A quick jog and I'm a nest of deathclaws. It's compressed, maximized and anonymized at the same time. It feels like a enormous orgy where nobody wants to fire away. There's tight and crowded, but no friction nor excitement. Many parts, but no entirety. And this feeling of getting the world pushed in my the face is the single largest weakness with Fallout 3, and every one that loved the original two games will scratch their head, wondering.
(...)
[reviewer's conclusion - NMA] Even if I can't leave my roots as an old Fallout-player when I'm sitting with the third part I do try to let go of the comparison, and the game is suddenly a lot more amusing.

Don't let your frames of reference limit you, but rather try to experience the game on it's own merits. No matter your story, Fallout 3 is for some moments a fantastic game, only limited by the prequels.

81% - Has to be experienced in spite of many small and a few big flaws.</blockquote><center> </center>
 
Brother None said:
One minute I'm running into a nest of rad-scorpions, while there is a peaceful camp of settlers 30 meters away. Some slavers is walking around with their slaves just around the corner and some raiders just settled down a bit farther away. A quick jog and I'm a nest of deathclaws. It's compressed, maximized and anonymized at the same time. It feels like a enormous orgy where nobody wants to fire away. There's tight and crowded, but no friction nor excitement. Many parts, but no entirety. And this feeling of getting the world pushed in my the face is the single largest weakness with Fallout 3, and every one that loved the original two games will scratch their head, wondering.
This sounds... awful. Just... awful.

I have to add I like the reviewer's character design, however. Very classy. <3
 
That's a review? Meaning the game is 100% complete, no more polishing etc. and is ready to hit the shelves?
 
Black said:
That's a review? Meaning the game is 100% complete, no more polishing etc. and is ready to hit the shelves?

The game is in stores in 20 days and 43 minutes, so I'll be damned if its not completely finished already. They probably got their review copy - it sounds as if he played it a lot.

And it actually sounds okay, I am still kinda hopeful.
 
Black said:
That's a review? Meaning the game is 100% complete, no more polishing etc. and is ready to hit the shelves?

That's not really the case for review copies. Hell, Fallout's review copies were bugged compared to the final release.

Fallout 3 isn't even gold yet as far as we know, but apparently yes - they're sending out review copies. It's all a bit odd, but whatever.
 
it's pretty common for game companies to send out pre-gold copies of the game for review, they put along with it a list of things that are going to be fixed in the retail version and reviewers are supposed to take them at their word
 
I'm still waiting to see whether or not the pipboy hand will always be the same from the pipboy down still. That was a problem in all of the screenshots I've seen thus far and these don't show that far down the arm.
 
it's pretty common for game companies to send out pre-gold copies of the game for review, they put along with it a list of things that are going to be fixed in the retail version and reviewers are supposed to take them at their word

Yep, but sometimes, people extrapolate that to disprove every single bug/flaw mentioned... and the biggest one here, that the world is too compressed, won't be changed.

I remember hearing something about this before and just thinking, well, I hope they don't mess it up. I still hope they don't, because it's a question of degree & extent, but if they have, it's going to take all the fun out of exploration.... and, uh, with this kind of game what the heck are you left with?
 
Brother None said:
It's all a bit odd, but whatever.

I hear this.

Notice also that all these pre gold copies are in european magazine's hands.

Something's not quite right here.
 
Eh, well, don't mean to be naive since this reviewer is telling us straight out, but that amount of compression seems a little absurd. I'm basically picturing a living room with over a dozen different cultures living in it trying to milk cows in one corner and hunt deer in the other. Although I can't say this is completely untrue, it does sound exaggerated. From what we have seen in the videos so far, and the size of the expected map...hmm...I don't know. For those that have played Oblivion, do you really imagine that the game area is so small that they would cram that much in?

I also agree with the 'not quite right' comment above, and I also like the outfits. :) I even love the masks/hats.
 
Well one of the big criticisms of the wilderness in Oblivion was that there really wasn't much to do (and only a couple of interesting spots). I guess they took that onboard and decided to make wandering the wastes more interesting but I think they went a little too far.
They did say in interviews they got a little carried away making content which I guess is reflected here.
 
I would wager there are hotspots, more crowded places where the reviewer is getting this from - like maybe the heart of D.C., whereas the wasteland backlands are less crowded.

Alphadrop said:
Well one of the big criticisms of the wilderness in Oblivion was that there really wasn't much to do (and only a couple of interesting spots). I guess they took that onboard and decided to make wandering the wastes more interesting but I think they went a little too far.

Now that would be very Bethesdean: taking criticism onboard, removing the flaw by replacing it with an even bigger flaw. They sure did a lot of that from Morrowind to Oblivion.
 
Fallout 3 review said:
No matter your story, Fallout 3 is for some moments a fantastic game, only limited by the prequels.

Surely, THIS is what they really meant:

No matter your story, Fallout 3 is for some moments a fantastic game, which only feels limited if you played the prequels.

So don't play the prequels.

Please ?
 
Ah, well...thanks for the replies. I'll hope for your explanation, Brother None as opposed to yours, Alphadrop. :) That would be a shame if they put so much content everywhere it was almost unplayable, or one big annoyance.

Citizen: "Why don't you leave Megaton for a while?"
Player: "Are you kidding? The traffic is terrible!"
 
I'm sure there are differences between the Swedish PC Gamer and the American one (the one I read), but if the Swedish policy is like the US one, they may really have the final version.

The US version will only give a complete review if the copy they receive the "finished code". In fact, this month they withheld a final grade to the newest Brothers in Arms because they learned at the last minute that they didn't actually get the final version. That being said, there is no Fallout 3 review in the US mag yet.
 
Outbreak said:
Ah, well...thanks for the replies. I'll hope for your explanation, Brother None as opposed to yours, Alphadrop. :) That would be a shame if they put so much content everywhere it was almost unplayable, or one big annoyance.

Citizen: "Why don't you leave Megaton for a while?"
Player: "Are you kidding? The traffic is terrible!"

I agree. An earlier preview actually pointed out how lonely it felt, so I remain cautiously optimistic.
 
ScarcticCG said:
I agree. An earlier preview actually pointed out how lonely it felt, so I remain cautiously optimistic.
I'd much rather have it be vast and lonely with pockets of excitement rather than excitement with pockets of lonely.


EDIT: \/ lol...I noticed the gnome too. I wondered whether she picked it up in the wastes and brought it home or if it was just sitting there. :)
 
they got carried away making content?

like what?

GNOMES?!!1

gnomessk9.png




:crazy:
 
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