Extending into longform content beyond what we've seen makes me super happy! I would watch channels like Wendigoon or Patricians videos a lot and to see the length grow is something I personally would hope for more of. I appreciate your videos a lot, excited to see you delve into Fallout.
I’m glad to hear it! It’s been awhile since I’ve dropped a full-length Fallout video, so I figured it best to drop a completed storyline! I hope you enjoy it!
I was hoping you would return to Fallout, but I wasn't expecting a full story video! What a legend! Looking forward to watching this one. The atmosphere in this game is truly unmatched
YESSSSS ANOTHER 3+ Hour bard upload!! AND ITS FALLOUT BASED?!? Thank you so much, these videos are truly top notch entertainment. You’re a fantastic content creator.
@FlumperIV the more dower/lonely atmosphere and tone of 3 is great for introducing people to the world of fallout. It makes NV a great companion piece since it shifts focus more to the characters and politics of the world. And I find 4 to be a nice blend of the two
Some fans may rant all they want, but Fallout 3's writing has more to it than it seems. Though Vegas is still better, F3 is leagues above F4 in that regard
I'm spamming the comments now (I don't mind giving you more engagements for the algorithm), but if you ever get around to doing New Vegas, this would surely be amazing. Much more satisfying and intriguing story-wise (depending on taste of course) and should be a huge goldmine for great story-driven videos.
@ABardsBallad I not only did, but I'll also do it again to sleep haha Question: Have you tried doing the same for Fallout 1, 2 or New Vegas? I know NV can be reeeeallly long if you consider all steps for the main quest and not rush straight up to the event flags, but Fallout 1 and 2 could be good picks, they have great story progression and atmosphere.
love these longer videos, are you gonna do one for new vegas at some point? not sure if you've played it or not but it would also be cool to see some enderal videos as well at some point. all the best, love the videos
I really appreciate it! :) I would love to play through new Vegas one day for sure! I’d really enjoy getting around to all of the Bethesda based games!!
I was starting to miss the fallout playthrough! But not as much as I miss Bard's Sleep! I don't even know how long it has been since I first commented on a video asking for a new Bard's Sleep video, but it's been 6 months since you uploaded over there!
I was wondering if someone would call it out! 😂 in case you were wondering, I changed the style up because there was confusion to where people thought it was more than just me working on the videos!
Your videos are the best. No matter how many times I've played a game or watched videos your stuff is still fun to watch. I never realized your appearance changes the way your dad looks, thats awesome 😄 I don't understand the modified FEV. They showed dead people along with mutants. Does that mean some people have slight mutations with no signs, or did it kill some people randomly, or did it kill everyone and people figured it out and avoided the water somehow?
The Army training in me when I meet John Henry Eden: *Salutes* Nice to meet you, Mr. President! The Gamer in me after receiving the Vial: You're going to blow this base up with yourself dude! Lol
@@FlumperIV morrowind for me, but you can't tell by my steam hours played. I'm actually doing a new modded run of oblivion. breton spellsword using pre-quest umbra, the mundane ring, and black regalia from SI. She looks as close to my wife as I could get her bc ofc cheesy gamer husband things, but its honestly going great. I remember first learning through trial and error that daedra are weak to shock so I keep that shock spell on cast.
Very good question! I stopped it to focus on completing oblivion, and since then just procrastinated. I wanted to continue the series, but thought that after so long, a 6th part out of the blue might not be received so well. So, I wanted to just drop one big banger for all of the fallout homies! Definitely going to continue with fallout videos and putting them into the weekly rotation!
Okay.... here's the full story for ya Bard, sorry about the novel below... 😂😅:: I decided recently on another playthrough of Fallout New Vegas. Most of the way through the Big Enpty at time of writing: I always like to have lore background vids playing. Doesn't HAVE to be what I'm playing, but it's often the case I go that way. For a few days, I'd been seeing your Morrowind main quest playthrough on my feed. Having grown a bit tired of Fallout vids I'd seen a dozen times each from uploaders I knew well, I clicked. Morrowind being side-by-side with FNV as my 2nd favourite games to date, only beat by Elite (space sim MMO) and at that, only beat out in the last few years. So for YEARS, my TOP two favourite games were, without question, FNV and ES3. So I watch your video on the main story of Morrowind all the way through. Made a comment regarding on that vid, prior to this one. Aaaaaand now I'm here. Fallout 3's a great game, albeit not one of my favs in the franchise. But that besides, I guess you got a new fan, m8. Haven't looked hard yet, but on the surface, don't see a NV playthrough. I can't recommend it enough if you enjoyed the story of Morrowind or the gameplay of Fallout 3. There are so many branches and directions. It's not easy to make ONE linear vid on THE story of Fallout NV, though... so I can understand your hesitation on the point of time commitment alone. 🙏 I guess the TLDR is:: All in all, thanks much for the uploads, m8. It's wonderful to follow a refreshing take on these stories I've carried in my heart for years. Keep up the awesome work. 😁🙏☕️
This game seems like a catalogue of ways to disappoint your father, who would be repelled by the choices made, like following orders from a poorly disguised “Dr. Braun” with a German accent? I would say in defense of Garza, in context of the circumstances, I’d have grabbed the bottle of alcohol too. That’s no reason to deny him lifesaving medication. But like Braun says, you (the player) can justify it however you want. I think the most interesting thing about this game is the opportunities it gives the player to think about why the player chooses to do the things they do.
Will you cover Fallout 4 as well? That's a good game too, admittedly I prefer Fallout 3's overall storyline, but Fallout 4 is pretty good too. Especially when you find out what happens to your son in the game.
Love Fallout 3. I remember watching my Stepbrother Alex playing it when it first came out, it was loads of fun! Then I played it. I didn't stop for 4-5 years. Lol Still a game I enjoy running through 1-2 times a year. Vanilla then modded. Lol
Oh HELL YEAH man, This is such a fucking banger game!! The amount of time I'd spent in 3 and the DLC's is definitely over 300 hours easily. My man if you haven't played New Vegas..You've gotta
woke up around the 2 hour mark and was realy confused about which game i was hearing affair, cheating , a weird voice which orders us to sow chaos and death. then i looked and it was fallout 3
How do you know that the bottle of alcohol old boy took wasn't medicinal? What if that was what he needed to help himself. Alcohol can act as a blood thinner and help prevent stroke and increase flow in clogged arteries.
dude someone talking out loud about what happens in main quest makes this terrible game even fucking worse purifier that doesn't work somehow explodes with radiation and your dad so quickly jumps to do it the same purifier THAT WAS INACTIVE FOR OVER 200 YEARS at the end of the game has not only build "lethal" radiation inside control chamber it somehow build so much pressure it can explode and kill everyone in the area and the evil force that wants to control the purifier wants to control it - USELESS BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE CODE - for the sake of controlling it while their main core AI wants to use a vial of liquid virus - IN A WATER PURIFIER - to poison ALL WATER ON THE WASTELAND i don't think bethesda knows how water purifiers work and how much virus would they need to poison a river also entire little lamplight where children haven't aged for 200 years it's just terrible not "not that great" - plain fucking terrible
Funny thing mentioning how the Wasteland was barren. It was a purposeful design choice, as they late in development increased the size of the map by about 25% and stretched things out to create more lonely, open areas far from locations. And I think it really works for the post apocalyptic vibes. But the thing I'll also say about it? I felt that the Capitol Wasteland was a lot more Chaotic than Oblivion. Oblivion had more random encounter points on its map (or fixed locations like bandit camps, caves, ruins, etc). But they tended to be isolated from one another. You ran into a Bandit and unless there was like, a patrolling Legionnaire nearby that was it for the encounter. In Fallout 3 though the encounter hot spots are more densely packed around particular areas, and with overlapping areas. So you have a lot more chaos in the wasteland. Seeing... Fire Ants fighting Enclave, or Supermutants coming across a Caravan, etc. Which meant even though the world itself had a lot of "Empty" space... it also didn't feel isolated as much while playing. You saw various things out there, interacting with one another one way or another. As opposed to say every Bandit Camp in Cyrodiil which was basically a self contained encounter with just you vs. them. And a lot of the random encounter zones in Fallout 3 were along the roads that people might follow. Thus making "following the road" a poor idea in general if you wanted to avoid trouble. And then you had Morrowind where the Random Encounter density was (for the most part) a lot higher. Except on the roads. Like you could go from Seyda Neen to Ebonheart along the main road and have no random encounters at all. Or if you did it was probably just one that wandered a bit closer to the road. But the moment you stepped off the main roads you had random encounters practically every 20 yards. Very dense "Wilderness" in Morrowind compared to Oblivion or Fallout 3. As much as people praise the movement options like Hoptoad or Levitation in there the shortcuts you'd take with them lead to a lot more random encounters on average. Basically the Cliffracer Meme was a problem of people's own creations as you hardly ran into them by comparison if you stuck to the roads. Honestly I loved how Fallout 3's Random Encounter design worked. With the clusters that could create chaos, to the fact that quests often added encounters to the "Deck" that you could draw from. Meaning you might not even realize (if you never draw it) the consequences your actions might have had. Or you might run into them quite a bit. Or if you run into them, your own Consequences might run afoul of a random Supermutant patrol instead of you. It's strangely satisfying in a way.
One of the things I always appreciated about the Main Quest in Fallout 3 was... how pointless it was. Really hit the "War, War Never Changes" tagline I think better than any other game. Like Fallout 1, there's a genocidal army on the warpath that you have to stop. While the game tries to go "You know what, The Master has a point..." to an extent. Genocidal army. It's not exactly a morally dubious main quest. Fallout 2, you have the Enclave also out for a purely genocidal plan. And less attempts to "Humanize" them than the Master got in Fallout 1. Instead framing up the likes of Frank Horrigan as a monster and their President Dick as a delusional psychopath out of touch with any semblance of reality (and a shame that people took the clearly out of touch ramblings as "canon" afterwards). Fallout: Tactics, you had the Calculator again on a Genocidal Plan of action. The only attempts of shades of grey in it was R. Lee Ermy's character General Barnakay who was on your side, and also genocidal. So you could still pick him for a "We're evil too" ending but weren't forced to (in fact it was harder to get than the other endings). Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel? Yeah, pretty straight forward Good vs Evil set up there as well with Dominatrix BDSM Raiders and such as I vaguely recall. Then you have Fallout 3. What does James want: Project Purity to work, and restore the wasteland by providing clean water. What does the Enclave want: Project Purity to work, and restore America by providing clean water. There's a tragedy there I always appreciated right down to Colonel Autumn's final confrontation saying things like: "The American people are worth fighting for!" and seeing the wasteland as a whole not as a victim, or an obstacle to destroy or something, but ultimately the people he wants to champion, having rejected any Genocidal plans from President Eden and overridden him. Unfortunately he was raised inside the toxic "Ends justify the means" Enclave and basically can't quite shake it. Not able to bring himself away from the Enclave's modus operandi despite it not really jiving with his goals. In the end it's this massive (for the wasteland's population) conflict that sees an entire society wiped out basically... over two people who wanted the exact same thing. And that's kind of the tragedy of it for me. And why it's so memorable. With Autumn as this almost tragic figure that can't realize that his own methods are dooming him even as he moves forward, sure of the eventual nobility of his own actions. "The Ends Justify the Means". The Enclave's standard that ultimately is the reason for his failure. Well that and despite having no reason to think so in game everyone just knows The Enclave is "Evil" and acts accordingly. Like if Autumn had just shown up at Project Purity and said: "Hey, we have resources you might need to get this running and we want to see your project work"... would James have said no? I mean he would have as James just psychically knows the Enclave (who no one in the Wasteland even knows exists at that point and thinks is just some old pre-war broadcast that no one shut off) is Evil. But in a more reasonable take? Well he had made the same deal with the Brotherhood of Steel before. It hadn't worked out but he had tried it. So why not with another group who shows even more scientific expertise than the Brotherhood? Could have been that simple. But James Psychically knew they were Evil and Autumn confirmed it by randomly shooting someone in the face when James bucked against him, and forced this war between the Brotherhood and Enclave that would see the Enclave utterly destroyed in the region. So I felt it was more tragic than say, "The Master" who is supposed to be sympathetic because he wants to stop infighting among survivors by genociding anything that he couldn't directly control...
Similarly I kind of liked that the Supermutants were the Fallout 1 callback. They come from a vault, where a critical liquid resource is running out for their survival. They start sending people out in the wasteland to look for it. Looking for replacements from other Vaults (Which is why there are so many in Vault-Tec HQ for instance) because they think that's where they can get one. Where they run into an army that they didn't know was out there with a plan to kill them all. And a shadowy figure who shows up to basically reveal the location of their vault and how to get there, leads to their ultimate genocide, etc. Sure they're raving asshats and such. But it's interesting mirror I thought to Fallout 1. Except well... you're the Bad End for them that the Vault Dweller of Fallout 1 didn't have. The Brotherhood of Steel are "The Unity" in that super powerful army that can and will genocide them just for existing (Yes they are bringing the attack against them with their actions, but considering the Brotherhood in game already conducted a Genocide based on "people there are mutated" and we're told that they are actively trying to genocide the friendly ghouls of Underworld merely because they're Ghouls and such... probably doesn't matter).
i absolutely love your long format videos. they make me so happy
Extending into longform content beyond what we've seen makes me super happy! I would watch channels like Wendigoon or Patricians videos a lot and to see the length grow is something I personally would hope for more of. I appreciate your videos a lot, excited to see you delve into Fallout.
I’m glad to hear it! It’s been awhile since I’ve dropped a full-length Fallout video, so I figured it best to drop a completed storyline! I hope you enjoy it!
I was hoping you would return to Fallout, but I wasn't expecting a full story video! What a legend!
Looking forward to watching this one. The atmosphere in this game is truly unmatched
Haha I hope you enjoy it my friend! It’s been awhile so I figured might as well drop the full length story!
YESSSSS ANOTHER 3+ Hour bard upload!! AND ITS FALLOUT BASED?!? Thank you so much, these videos are truly top notch entertainment. You’re a fantastic content creator.
I really appreciate the kind words! I hope you enjoy it! :)
Been watching and enjoying your Oblivion videos the past few weeks! So glad your doing Fallout 3 too! Keep up the amazing work!
I’m really glad to hear it! It’s been awhile since I’ve dropped a Fallout video, so I figured it best to drop a completed storyline!
I did not expect Fallout 3 to return any time soon, and then such a huge drop! I really enjoyed the previous Fallout 3 vids so this will be amazing
I’m really glad to hear that there’s still love for the fallout vids!! 😂 I hope you enjoy it!
@@ABardsBalladi never completed it. Im happy to see and experience it this way
that last journal entry from the MC's parents gave such big "silly goose lovers still crazy about each other" vibes
Fallout 3 is so underrated, can't wait for 5 to come out in 70 years.
nostalgia (for simpler times)
Cheers! I hope you enjoy it!
The writing in the Fallout games (especially new vegas) is amazing
I agree! It’s very compelling and the delivery is amazing!
@FlumperIV the more dower/lonely atmosphere and tone of 3 is great for introducing people to the world of fallout. It makes NV a great companion piece since it shifts focus more to the characters and politics of the world. And I find 4 to be a nice blend of the two
Agreed. Some of the smaller stories in 3 are the absolute best bits of world building in the series.
Love your stuff man, always a treat to watch.
I really appreciate it man! :) I hope you enjoy it!
We appreciate how much effort you make to make high quality and very entertaining videos 👍👏
As long as you all enjoy it, that’s what matters to me! I appreciate the support! :)
Love your vids they've been hitting the algorithm just right
That’s great to hear!! I hope they’ve been delivering nicely 👌
Glad you finished fallout 3, i know its story isn't the greatest but still holds a special place in my heart
Some fans may rant all they want, but Fallout 3's writing has more to it than it seems. Though Vegas is still better, F3 is leagues above F4 in that regard
I'm spamming the comments now (I don't mind giving you more engagements for the algorithm), but if you ever get around to doing New Vegas, this would surely be amazing. Much more satisfying and intriguing story-wise (depending on taste of course) and should be a huge goldmine for great story-driven videos.
I appreciate the spam and the idea! I’d definitely love to start doing new Vegas videos one day!
Bro been cooking one banger after another!
Ahhh I really appreciate the kind words! I hope you enjoy this one!
@ABardsBallad I not only did, but I'll also do it again to sleep haha
Question: Have you tried doing the same for Fallout 1, 2 or New Vegas?
I know NV can be reeeeallly long if you consider all steps for the main quest and not rush straight up to the event flags, but Fallout 1 and 2 could be good picks, they have great story progression and atmosphere.
Love it. Out of nowhere with the three hour vid. Sign me up!!
Haha I’m glad to hear it! I hope you enjoy it my friend!
1:12:23 Watching this made me burst out laughing, the cutoff from your last gunshot is just too perfect.
love these longer videos, are you gonna do one for new vegas at some point? not sure if you've played it or not but it would also be cool to see some enderal videos as well at some point. all the best, love the videos
I really appreciate it! :) I would love to play through new Vegas one day for sure! I’d really enjoy getting around to all of the Bethesda based games!!
Best Part of the Franchise, man i love this Game so much this is nostalgia pur!
I love it too! So much fun and a great story!
Quality content delivered once again
Even though ive played fallout 3 over a dozen times, I still love your commentary style. Will you be doing fallout new vegas in the future?
I really appreciate the support! :) I would definitely love to do new Vegas one day!
I was starting to miss the fallout playthrough! But not as much as I miss Bard's Sleep! I don't even know how long it has been since I first commented on a video asking for a new Bard's Sleep video, but it's been 6 months since you uploaded over there!
6 months already eh? Time flies! I’ll have to hop on it soon 👀
Oh, so now you have to do New Vegas
Also it's funny to have one big video where your narration style changes from the old ("we") to new ("I")
I was wondering if someone would call it out! 😂 in case you were wondering, I changed the style up because there was confusion to where people thought it was more than just me working on the videos!
Your videos are the best. No matter how many times I've played a game or watched videos your stuff is still fun to watch.
I never realized your appearance changes the way your dad looks, thats awesome 😄
I don't understand the modified FEV. They showed dead people along with mutants. Does that mean some people have slight mutations with no signs, or did it kill some people randomly, or did it kill everyone and people figured it out and avoided the water somehow?
The Army training in me when I meet John Henry Eden: *Salutes* Nice to meet you, Mr. President!
The Gamer in me after receiving the Vial: You're going to blow this base up with yourself dude! Lol
Well done as I was expecting 👏! 😉☺️👍
War never changes 😔
Shoutout to the king, Ron Perlman 👑
Women do.
Dude quit dropping my jaw with these left hooks
Haha I love it! I hope you enjoy this one!
i remember playing this game for the first time. it's pretty good. I'm more of a TES fan than a FO fan, but there's fun to be had with both.
I hear you! I’m in the same boat, I think because I played fallout first, it’s got a special place in my heart, but TES is definitely my #1!
I agree, my favourite game of all time is Oblivion
@@FlumperIV morrowind for me, but you can't tell by my steam hours played. I'm actually doing a new modded run of oblivion. breton spellsword using pre-quest umbra, the mundane ring, and black regalia from SI. She looks as close to my wife as I could get her bc ofc cheesy gamer husband things, but its honestly going great. I remember first learning through trial and error that daedra are weak to shock so I keep that shock spell on cast.
If you don't mind me asking, what happened, why did the rest of the main quest not get separate uploads after Tranquility Lane?
Very good question! I stopped it to focus on completing oblivion, and since then just procrastinated. I wanted to continue the series, but thought that after so long, a 6th part out of the blue might not be received so well. So, I wanted to just drop one big banger for all of the fallout homies! Definitely going to continue with fallout videos and putting them into the weekly rotation!
Okay.... here's the full story for ya Bard, sorry about the novel below... 😂😅::
I decided recently on another playthrough of Fallout New Vegas.
Most of the way through the Big Enpty at time of writing: I always like to have lore background vids playing. Doesn't HAVE to be what I'm playing, but it's often the case I go that way.
For a few days, I'd been seeing your Morrowind main quest playthrough on my feed.
Having grown a bit tired of Fallout vids I'd seen a dozen times each from uploaders I knew well, I clicked. Morrowind being side-by-side with FNV as my 2nd favourite games to date, only beat by Elite (space sim MMO) and at that, only beat out in the last few years. So for YEARS, my TOP two favourite games were, without question, FNV and ES3.
So I watch your video on the main story of Morrowind all the way through. Made a comment regarding on that vid, prior to this one.
Aaaaaand now I'm here. Fallout 3's a great game, albeit not one of my favs in the franchise. But that besides, I guess you got a new fan, m8. Haven't looked hard yet, but on the surface, don't see a NV playthrough. I can't recommend it enough if you enjoyed the story of Morrowind or the gameplay of Fallout 3. There are so many branches and directions. It's not easy to make ONE linear vid on THE story of Fallout NV, though... so I can understand your hesitation on the point of time commitment alone. 🙏
I guess the TLDR is:: All in all, thanks much for the uploads, m8. It's wonderful to follow a refreshing take on these stories I've carried in my heart for years. Keep up the awesome work. 😁🙏☕️
Awesome; my night shift starts in 5 minutes; so thats perfect timing 😁
Enjoy the night shift and the video! :)
@@ABardsBallad Ill definitely enjoy *one* of those things 😁 thanks for your work!
This game seems like a catalogue of ways to disappoint your father, who would be repelled by the choices made, like following orders from a poorly disguised “Dr. Braun” with a German accent?
I would say in defense of Garza, in context of the circumstances, I’d have grabbed the bottle of alcohol too. That’s no reason to deny him lifesaving medication. But like Braun says, you (the player) can justify it however you want.
I think the most interesting thing about this game is the opportunities it gives the player to think about why the player chooses to do the things they do.
>enclave
>Tough
Choose 1.
Will you cover Fallout 4 as well? That's a good game too, admittedly I prefer Fallout 3's overall storyline, but Fallout 4 is pretty good too. Especially when you find out what happens to your son in the game.
i want to watch this now but I want to save it for when I go to bed!
Haha either one is cool with me! :) as long as you enjoy it!
Love Fallout 3. I remember watching my Stepbrother Alex playing it when it first came out, it was loads of fun! Then I played it. I didn't stop for 4-5 years. Lol Still a game I enjoy running through 1-2 times a year. Vanilla then modded. Lol
Oh HELL YEAH man, This is such a fucking banger game!! The amount of time I'd spent in 3 and the DLC's is definitely over 300 hours easily. My man if you haven't played New Vegas..You've gotta
This one and New Vegas are definitely some of my favourite games! I love this one dearly! New Vegas is tons of fun too!
@@ABardsBallad Yeah man, 3 definitely holds a special spot in my heart too.
A great week to you my friend.
I will always have a soft spot for Fallout 3 because it led to a fully superior product/work of art in New Vegas!
Me too! It’s the first Bethesda game I ever played! Such a nice and nostalgic time!
Fully superior, except why is it more fun to play Fallout 3?
woke up around the 2 hour mark and was realy confused about which game i was hearing
affair, cheating , a weird voice which orders us to sow chaos and death.
then i looked and it was fallout 3
I just started my 2nd play through
Awesome
Very fitting username! 😂 I hope you enjoy it!
Iam going to Sleep good tonight
Good times 🙌🏽
Yes YES
I hope you enjoy it! :)
Hooray!!!
Yes!!!!!!
I hope you enjoy it! :)
Or lack thereof.
You certainly could zoom through it pretty quickly 😂
How do you know that the bottle of alcohol old boy took wasn't medicinal? What if that was what he needed to help himself. Alcohol can act as a blood thinner and help prevent stroke and increase flow in clogged arteries.
dude someone talking out loud about what happens in main quest makes this terrible game even fucking worse
purifier that doesn't work somehow explodes with radiation and your dad so quickly jumps to do it
the same purifier THAT WAS INACTIVE FOR OVER 200 YEARS at the end of the game has not only build "lethal" radiation inside control chamber
it somehow build so much pressure it can explode and kill everyone in the area
and the evil force that wants to control the purifier wants to control it - USELESS BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE CODE - for the sake of controlling it
while their main core AI wants to use a vial of liquid virus - IN A WATER PURIFIER - to poison ALL WATER ON THE WASTELAND
i don't think bethesda knows how water purifiers work and how much virus would they need to poison a river
also entire little lamplight where children haven't aged for 200 years
it's just terrible
not "not that great" - plain fucking terrible
What?when Is this game comeout?i was just out from the cave and.......😂
Funny thing mentioning how the Wasteland was barren.
It was a purposeful design choice, as they late in development increased the size of the map by about 25% and stretched things out to create more lonely, open areas far from locations. And I think it really works for the post apocalyptic vibes. But the thing I'll also say about it? I felt that the Capitol Wasteland was a lot more Chaotic than Oblivion. Oblivion had more random encounter points on its map (or fixed locations like bandit camps, caves, ruins, etc). But they tended to be isolated from one another. You ran into a Bandit and unless there was like, a patrolling Legionnaire nearby that was it for the encounter.
In Fallout 3 though the encounter hot spots are more densely packed around particular areas, and with overlapping areas. So you have a lot more chaos in the wasteland. Seeing... Fire Ants fighting Enclave, or Supermutants coming across a Caravan, etc. Which meant even though the world itself had a lot of "Empty" space... it also didn't feel isolated as much while playing. You saw various things out there, interacting with one another one way or another. As opposed to say every Bandit Camp in Cyrodiil which was basically a self contained encounter with just you vs. them. And a lot of the random encounter zones in Fallout 3 were along the roads that people might follow. Thus making "following the road" a poor idea in general if you wanted to avoid trouble.
And then you had Morrowind where the Random Encounter density was (for the most part) a lot higher. Except on the roads. Like you could go from Seyda Neen to Ebonheart along the main road and have no random encounters at all. Or if you did it was probably just one that wandered a bit closer to the road. But the moment you stepped off the main roads you had random encounters practically every 20 yards. Very dense "Wilderness" in Morrowind compared to Oblivion or Fallout 3. As much as people praise the movement options like Hoptoad or Levitation in there the shortcuts you'd take with them lead to a lot more random encounters on average. Basically the Cliffracer Meme was a problem of people's own creations as you hardly ran into them by comparison if you stuck to the roads.
Honestly I loved how Fallout 3's Random Encounter design worked. With the clusters that could create chaos, to the fact that quests often added encounters to the "Deck" that you could draw from. Meaning you might not even realize (if you never draw it) the consequences your actions might have had. Or you might run into them quite a bit. Or if you run into them, your own Consequences might run afoul of a random Supermutant patrol instead of you. It's strangely satisfying in a way.
Help!Help! Have you seen my ($$$ cha ching $$$) E-Daddy?
One of the things I always appreciated about the Main Quest in Fallout 3 was... how pointless it was. Really hit the "War, War Never Changes" tagline I think better than any other game.
Like Fallout 1, there's a genocidal army on the warpath that you have to stop. While the game tries to go "You know what, The Master has a point..." to an extent. Genocidal army. It's not exactly a morally dubious main quest.
Fallout 2, you have the Enclave also out for a purely genocidal plan. And less attempts to "Humanize" them than the Master got in Fallout 1. Instead framing up the likes of Frank Horrigan as a monster and their President Dick as a delusional psychopath out of touch with any semblance of reality (and a shame that people took the clearly out of touch ramblings as "canon" afterwards).
Fallout: Tactics, you had the Calculator again on a Genocidal Plan of action. The only attempts of shades of grey in it was R. Lee Ermy's character General Barnakay who was on your side, and also genocidal. So you could still pick him for a "We're evil too" ending but weren't forced to (in fact it was harder to get than the other endings).
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel? Yeah, pretty straight forward Good vs Evil set up there as well with Dominatrix BDSM Raiders and such as I vaguely recall.
Then you have Fallout 3.
What does James want: Project Purity to work, and restore the wasteland by providing clean water. What does the Enclave want: Project Purity to work, and restore America by providing clean water.
There's a tragedy there I always appreciated right down to Colonel Autumn's final confrontation saying things like: "The American people are worth fighting for!" and seeing the wasteland as a whole not as a victim, or an obstacle to destroy or something, but ultimately the people he wants to champion, having rejected any Genocidal plans from President Eden and overridden him. Unfortunately he was raised inside the toxic "Ends justify the means" Enclave and basically can't quite shake it. Not able to bring himself away from the Enclave's modus operandi despite it not really jiving with his goals.
In the end it's this massive (for the wasteland's population) conflict that sees an entire society wiped out basically... over two people who wanted the exact same thing. And that's kind of the tragedy of it for me. And why it's so memorable. With Autumn as this almost tragic figure that can't realize that his own methods are dooming him even as he moves forward, sure of the eventual nobility of his own actions. "The Ends Justify the Means". The Enclave's standard that ultimately is the reason for his failure.
Well that and despite having no reason to think so in game everyone just knows The Enclave is "Evil" and acts accordingly.
Like if Autumn had just shown up at Project Purity and said: "Hey, we have resources you might need to get this running and we want to see your project work"... would James have said no? I mean he would have as James just psychically knows the Enclave (who no one in the Wasteland even knows exists at that point and thinks is just some old pre-war broadcast that no one shut off) is Evil. But in a more reasonable take? Well he had made the same deal with the Brotherhood of Steel before. It hadn't worked out but he had tried it. So why not with another group who shows even more scientific expertise than the Brotherhood?
Could have been that simple. But James Psychically knew they were Evil and Autumn confirmed it by randomly shooting someone in the face when James bucked against him, and forced this war between the Brotherhood and Enclave that would see the Enclave utterly destroyed in the region.
So I felt it was more tragic than say, "The Master" who is supposed to be sympathetic because he wants to stop infighting among survivors by genociding anything that he couldn't directly control...
Similarly I kind of liked that the Supermutants were the Fallout 1 callback. They come from a vault, where a critical liquid resource is running out for their survival. They start sending people out in the wasteland to look for it. Looking for replacements from other Vaults (Which is why there are so many in Vault-Tec HQ for instance) because they think that's where they can get one. Where they run into an army that they didn't know was out there with a plan to kill them all. And a shadowy figure who shows up to basically reveal the location of their vault and how to get there, leads to their ultimate genocide, etc.
Sure they're raving asshats and such. But it's interesting mirror I thought to Fallout 1. Except well... you're the Bad End for them that the Vault Dweller of Fallout 1 didn't have. The Brotherhood of Steel are "The Unity" in that super powerful army that can and will genocide them just for existing (Yes they are bringing the attack against them with their actions, but considering the Brotherhood in game already conducted a Genocide based on "people there are mutated" and we're told that they are actively trying to genocide the friendly ghouls of Underworld merely because they're Ghouls and such... probably doesn't matter).