Fallout 3 [spoilers, etc]

[Hindenburg]

You do know that you can teleport to.. i'm assuming little lamplight... and they'll follow you there instantly?

[Engels]

I just went off and did other stuff and came back in a couple of game days and they were already waiting for me at the Mall station. End-o-quest.

[Rishathra]

Yeah, whenever you have to escort anyone anywhere, do not actually do it.  Just fast travel.  That fucker Hannibal took me on a Grand Tour of the Wasteland, and I was lucky enough to have the alien crash during it, so while I was running around snapping up power cells, guess what magically appeared on Hannibal's hip? 

[bhodi]

Yeah, whenever you have to escort anyone anywhere, do not actually do it.  Just fast travel.  That fucker Hannibal took me on a Grand Tour of the Wasteland, and I was lucky enough to have the alien crash during it, so while I was running around snapping up power cells, guess what magically appeared on Hannibal's hip? 

I tried fast traveling but he vanished and I couldn't find him anywhere. Maybe he was near the mall metro, I'll have to check it out. Maybe I'll just forget him for a while and come back later.

[Bunk]

It took me a while to notice, but they all camp out about three blocks away waiting for you. You would run right by them if you came in from the station, but if you fast travel to the memorial, you miss them completely.

[Rishathra]

They take about half a day to get there, and they show up at the north station nearby.  They also stay there until you talk to them, so if you are waiting at the monument itself, you might not notice them.

[ashrik]

I've been told that fast traveling during escort quests (the ones in which the escort isn't tied to you, as how your father is) essentially leaves the escort to his own wiles in the wilderness.

I've been doing the escort from the Temple of the Union to the Lincoln monument, and if I skip out on them, they never show up. After trying a few times, I found out there was an Enclave detachment far down the road which was trapping them up.

It's the slowest and worst escort quest in the entire game, and it doesn't even give you the courtesy of making the quest official by giving the people a compass icon to track. Goddamn these slaves

[Rishathra]

I've done that quest twice now by fast travelling.  Granted, both times I did it were before I triggered the Enclave, so maybe that becomes a problem.  Still, kill Enclave, then fast travel, then sleep at the memorial for a day or two and they'll show up at the metro exit.

[Tebonas]

I know you people already wrote it, but words couldn't prepare me how much bullshit the ending of the main quest was. I was taking less radiation than drinking from a toilet, and yet I sacrificed my life? If you want to kill the protagonist, fine. But at least make it believable. Jam the door and let him drown in the purified water, let him slip and break his neck when he turns around to do the Terrorist bump with Lyons, let him choke on his victory meal.

That almost ruined an otherwise great game for me. Instead I'll go evil and blow Megaton up now.

[gryeyes]

I know you people already wrote it, but words couldn't prepare me how much bullshit the ending of the main quest was. I was taking less radiation than drinking from a toilet, and yet I sacrificed my life? If you want to kill the protagonist, fine. But at least make it believable. Jam the door and let him drown in the purified water, let him slip and break his neck when he turns around to do the Terrorist bump with Lyons, let him choke on his victory meal.

That almost ruined an otherwise great game for me. Instead I'll go evil and blow Megaton up now.

A good chunk of the dialogue and story is equally stupid. But ya, the ending of death by radiation when 60 mins previously they introduce a radiation immune henchmen is pretty bad.

I promised myself i wouldn't play this game for 6+ months so it was properly moded but i couldn't resist. Superior to Oblivion for certain but still contains many of its flaws. The biggest ones being "everyone can do everything" syndrome that i hate. No choice in character creation matters. No skills outside of 3 will have an actual impact on your game. And you can easily max each of those out at the same time. And the auto scaling world is still present if improved upon. I killed a 2 brute super mutants fresh from the vault at level 3-4 with a hunting rifle. They had a super sledge and a chain gun.

And at no point did i encounter any situation that was difficult to either avoid or outright destroy and i was playing it on the hardest difficulty (Slowly turning it up as i played)

[Jesper]

A good chunk of the dialogue and story is equally stupid. But ya, the ending of death by radiation when 60 mins previously they introduce a radiation immune henchmen is pretty bad.

Not to mention you can become almost invulnerable to radiation too through perks and chems.

On Escort Quests: i've done "Temple of Union" with fast travel, but did Dad escort from vault to rivet city all by feet (i didn't know i could fast travel lol).

On general difficulty level: i'm doing another character that only uses melee to try something different and explore the rest of the world...unluckily enough, even if he's named "Chuck Norris" and it's almost identical to him, you can't roundhouse-kick anyone in this game  And even more boring, you can't aim locations while in VATS with melee and hand weaponry...quit disappointing.

Still, a lot of stuff yet to discover. This game has some really surprising encounters.

[Sky]

The ghoul mask kinda trivializes the zombie building with the Cthulhu overtones (forget the name). Also, I think my wanderlust messed up another quest, since there seemed to be a lot of build up for almost no payoff. Cooler than a random dungeon, but I did have to wonder if there was any actual point to it.

I also find it ironic that the explorer perk is supposed to show you all the locations on the map. Wouldn't an explorer (like me) find them all by EXPLORING THE MAP? Odd.

[Tebonas]

Ghoul Mask? Still got some exploring to do it seems.

[schild]

Ghoul Mask? Still got some exploring to do it seems.

You might've already destroyed your chances to get it. It's the result of an alternate option during  the Tenpenny stuff.

[Tebonas]

Well, then I'm in luck. I avoided Tenpenny Tower and am just now making my way to the Ghouls. I don't trust them yet and weighing my options, the one I met makes their going into the tower sound like decoy plan to kill all inhabitants.

[Jesper]

Ghoul Mask? Still got some exploring to do it seems.

You might've already destroyed your chances to get it. It's the result of an alternate option during  the Tenpenny stuff.

yeah, you know it's a sad day when you realize that you've alredy blowed up mr. Tenpenny's head, but you still want to try and help the poor ghouls guys.

A nice bug on this quest: after killing tenpenny, i've got friendly reaction from anyone on his tower. After killing the ghouls and coming back to tower, i've had 2 guards hostile: they see me, everyone turns hostile. But when i've sniped them being "hidden", everyone remembered how much they love me and remains friendly.

*EDIT for "blowed UP mr. tenpenny's head"

[ashrik]

Where are these gigantic ASSHOLES going? 

[Lantyssa]

A mirelurk party?

[ashrik]

We walked from the temple of the union alllll the way to Andale. Then trekked due east past the Brotherhood of Steel base to the area where the forcefields were set up around Project Purity. He milled about for a minute before returning to the BoS base and heading north. 3 of them plunged into the river and swam until Rivet City. The other 3 waited on the banks until the first 3 were out and then followed suit. The Brahmin took the overland route because he's not a jerk. At this point they entered the sewers, and my work was complete as that's much easier to clear out and control before they are in danger. From there it was smooth sailing to the Abraham Memorial. Thank God.

Now that it's over, it was all kind of cool. Probably the hardest part of the game for me so far because it was a different play style. I had to act as a scout and range ahead of where I reckoned the group would be headed, and clear it out of raiders, regulators, the Enclave, and Deathclaws. Sometimes when clearing out one group, I'd get the message informing me that the caravan had been annihilated to the man by an entirely different one. Frustrating at times but overall pretty cool. I had to reload so many times to save that suicidal dog, Four Score.

[eldaec]

I've run the main storyline as far as what I suspect is almost the point of no return.

Some general comments:

 - The hellgate devs need to take a look at this game, Fallout 3  is the only game I've ever played that genuinely evokes the feel of a real city; Hellgate felt nothing like London, but this genuinely captures a lot of DC and Northeast Virginia. They only lose points for not making enough of the masonic heritage of Washington, which should have been an obvious resource for the Fallout story.

 - Why is it so hard to turn the good vs evil decision into a real challenge? We're in boy scouts vs baby-eaters territory - just like always.

 - The decision to allow Dogmeat to die (rather than simply fall unconcious) was made by a moron.

[Ingmar]

\
The decision to allow Dogmeat to die (rather than simply fall unconcious) was made by a moron.

Trying to keep Dogmeat alive is a time-honored Fallout tradition. Heck, it may be the most Fallout-y thing about the game.

[rk47]

Heehee i don't even to think that much to make it more interesting for dogmeat lovers.
Just have the mutt get badly injured and incapacitated. Then you can either use stimpack on the poor mutt or carry it on one arm to the nearest doc while wielding a pistol.

[ashrik]

Dogmeat was probably the worst part of the game for me. I've no connection with him and he serves no purpose to me, aside from giving a reason to break stealth to rescue his dumb ass when he charges into a room of supermutants or tries to solo a deathclaw.

I first made him unkillable and then simply sent him back to the Vault while I had fun. After a while, Charon got the stay-at-home treatment too.

I forgave Fallout 1 and 2 for having an absolute shit party system because they came out a decade+ ago. What is Bethesda's excuse?

It's like having an escort quest that never really ends.

[Rishathra]

Wow, ashrik.  You mean they actually do end up at the Lincoln Memorial if you follow them long enough?  After they took me waaay west of Vault 106 I just figured the script was broken and they would wander the wastes forever until I fast travelled to Lincoln.

Agree about Dogmeat.  I love dogs.  I love having 'companions' in RPGs, even if they sometimes need some shepherding.  But fuck if he wasn't anything but a burden.  I got no satisfaction from him at all.  I leave him at home with a bowl of strange meat in front of him, and otherwise ignore him.  At least Charon can aquit himself when he breaks your stealth and flies off the handle.

I haven't seen it mentioned much, but one of my favorite parts of this game is President Eden.  Liam Neeson phoned it in, but damn if Malcom McDowell doesn't sell every single line he utters.

"Of course I was elected.  Sweet America.  Of course."
"I'm John Henry Eden, President of the Enclave, President of America, President... of your heart."   

I've run the main storyline as far as what I suspect is almost the point of no return.

You can run it all the way up to Take It Back! without a problem.  In fact, I think (save before because I'm not 100% sure) you can do everything up to entering the rotunda at the very end and you can still walk away.

[lac]

In fact, I think (save before because I'm not 100% sure) you can do everything up to entering the rotunda at the very end and you can still walk away.

That's right.

Dogmeat does have a 'special' use. If you kill him (or he gets killed) you free up the second companion slot. That way you can have both Fawkes and Charon as companions. I don't know if it works out with the other companions since I'm currently having a blast running around with these two.

[Bunk]

I've already installed and used a mod to let you continue past the end of the game. Works pretty well as far as I can tell. Most of the Citidel is useless, because they are too busy cheering for you to go save the day to do anything else, but all the other areas seem to work.

[Rishathra]

I'm not sure if this only works with Charon, but Star Paladin Cross will join you even if you have him already.  No Dogmeat euthenasia required.

[lac]

He will join you when you have Dogmeat, but will he join you after you have both Fawkes and Dogmeat as companions?

[Sky]

Sure, and then Danny Bonaducci joins and you unlock the psychedelic bus.

[lac]

That's one achievement I wouldn't mind missing.

[Rishathra]

He will join you when you have Dogmeat, but will he join you after you have both Fawkes and Dogmeat as companions?

I'm not sure what permutations are possible, I haven't tested any, but I had Charon and a living Dogmeat as active companions and it still allowed me to pick up Cross.

[kERRA]

On my first play-through Cross wouldn't join when I had Charon and Dogmeat with me even though I had max karma.   I can't test with my current run because this time I'm a completely evil bitch.

...I  this game so much!  The man who voice acts Jericho sounds exactly like my father, so it's like running around post-apocalyptic DC with a violent, foulmouthed version of my Dad.  I showed Mom when she visited and she cracked up giggling because Dad is a church deacon who never swears ever and Jericho really does sound just like him.

[schild]

kERRA, I don't mind you staying, but get rid of that furry avatar. Not the place for that shit.

[kERRA]

It's a cartoon avatar from google image search? 

[schild]

I don't think a single soul here would disagree with me. That's furry fodder. No doubt about it.