Ah yes random encounters... My first game of FO3, I go to megaton, get the The Super-Duper Mart quest, when I arrive at the mart, explosion in the sky, little blue things and a gun fall from the sky. I had no idea what had happened, but that gun was the ace down my sleeve for most of the game.
12:40 The great part is that things are so unconnected you almost don’t realise that the Andale Cannibals admitted to killing and eating James Hargraves Father, who his mother believes just ran off and got killed being stupid.
yeah I did pick up on that, but didn't mention because i didn't know how to bring it up seamlessly. But yeah the line "I have a kid in Rivet City" ties it together, but only if you have a high speech / cannibal .
I have a very vivid memory of renting this game when you still could rent games and this was also when you had to read guides or have proper internet access. I played the game for days walking slowly and unable to fast travel because i had no idea what "Overencumbered" meant :( i just thought everything looked cool so i picked up anything i could.
Fallout 3 was my first Fallout, and honestly it's my favorite atmosphere. I enjoy New Vegas for its role-playing, and choices, but 3 is incredible with its atmosphere, including the expansions.
My first Fallout was 2, and 3's atmosphere feels like a step down. And the New Vegas expansions are far, far better than 3. Old World Blues alone is better than everything 3 had.
@@Seoul_Soldier Your perspective doesn't surprise me. I think the original and 3 have atmospheric similarities meanwhile 2 and New Vegas are atmospherically similar to each other.
@@Seoul_Soldier I just got into fallout around last summer. I tired playing fallout 1,2 but got bored of it, I did like Fallout 3 and new vegas the most just started playing fallout 4 a few days ago, it's a step down with the dialogue but it's a decent game.
Exactly what I was going to say. I just role played the hell out of new Vegas and loved every minute of it. Still think it is one of the best games of all time. But, the atmosphere and landscape of Fallout 3 is better imo. People complain a lot about 3 but you can still roleplay and have some choices that make a difference. You just also have a choice to be a god lol
I think you are 100% on point when saying that Bethesda is good doing world design but not world building or compelling stories. Skyrim is proof of that. People don't like Skyrim because of the incredible characters, the main story, or anything related to it. People just choose a direction and start walking, exploring the caves and crypts they found, selling loot, leveling up and just going around doing random stuff. I really can't believe someone finished the main campaign of Skyrim and start clapping "oh wow, what an incredible story. I really felt like I was doing things myself and not just following orders for every single person I met". Bethesda is like a tabletop Master that instead of designing a campaign for the players to explore and make their own, they create a set of characters and narrative that they think is so good, they want their players to watch as a film. Yes, you are there in the middle of the room where it happens, but you are there to watch it happen, not to decide it.
I agree that Fallout 3 and Skyrim have good world design, but after Starfield, I'm not so sure the 'Bethesda's good at world design' holds true anymore. And after Outer Worlds, I'm not convinced Obsidian is capable of replicating the incredible world building, story, and depth of New Vegas anymore either. Maybe that's too negative of me when I'm only referencing one example of each company? I don't know.
@@TotalNonstopThemes I agree that bethesda seems to be loosing what at least in previous entries make them special, since both Starfield and the DLC are bad in every way possible. About obsidian, haven't played Outer world but i've heard that its not bad but its not that great either. Both avowed and Outer 2 are on development, so I guess those 2 will show if they are capable of giving what people is expecting from them.
@@TotalNonstopThemes the obsidian ogs that made the iso fallouts and fallout new vegas have all mostly left so ur probably right about them not being able to replicate new vegas' depth and atmosphere anymore. Thats not to say they cant do good atmosphere and world building anymore but their greats are gone now, id say chris is at least 50% responsible for the depth and story of the fallouts he was involved in and hes been gone for a decade, the lead writer for new vegas left 13 years ago but he was rehired like litterally 4 hours ago so thats nice. but those 2 are just the big names, when chris and john left a lot of those workers that truly turned new vegas into the game that it was left as well. so while they can still make good games they aren't gonna be making fallout new vegas'
I didn't know about Adam's contribution, or his passing. It explains so much why Fallout 4 felt so...off. It was his work that really made Fallout 3 so special aesthetically.
I lost sleep over Andale on my first playthrough back in 2009. (In retrospect, I should have finished the quest before going to bed.) Spooked the whole entire fuck out of me.
Amazing how bethesda struggles to be on par with their old titles. So much charm and atmosphere to lend to great world building. Now its slap in old tech to modernize the engine a decade behind everything else, make the scale larger but shallower, world building that doesn't understand why conflicts would occur between factions, the inability to make obvious choices through action, and my favorite, pretending character creation choices matter when they don't outside of a few instances that don't do much other than say yes but kinda different. Not enough to be something for personality projection, and doesn't offer new outcomes so it mechanically does nothing as well. This is more prevalent in starfield than any other title, but they've been inching this way for a bit
It's all on purpose. Many times the developers have spoken with pride about how the stories and mechanics keep being simplified with every new iteration. It's granted them great success in acquiring the vast audience they wanted.
Lived in DC area when 3 came out. Coworker told me to get it by saying, "When you come out of the vault you are near my house. The fin of killing raiders and Super Mutants along my commuter route never got old.
I liked how every story on the radio that wasn't about player action could be investigated. It was the main thing that stoped me from getting bored in the game, just throw on gnr and go where ever 3 dog sent me.
I agree with you for the most part, except it's been 200 years since the bombs dropped. I get why the Whitehouse is still a crater, but literally, no one that survived the bombs knew how to use a saw, hammer a nail, or make cement? It's all just cobbled together, shanty towns or living in the few buildings that survived. It does feel frozen in time, but imo not in a good way. Tbf, that's the way it is in every Fallout game, but at least in NV, they are growing crops and stuff. Makes it feel like the only you could have isn't scavenging or raiding.
people know how to use a saw, but nails and cement are much more on the "industrial shit that needs to be made industrial scale" side that not having them make sense. Shanty towns and cobbled together dug out are a result of that. As for growing crops: the main quest in FO3 is about purifying a highly irradiated river to actually HAVE water to grow crops. So not having crops also make sense in that direction.
On the unique encounters like the firelace, you can get these anytime you want. There are trigger points, for example, above Megatron headed to the super duper mart, you'll see a square chain linked fence surrounding a watertower at the edge of fence pause your game and save it. If you go below fence you'll trigger the encounter. If you don't get the encounter you're looking for at the super duper mart reload game keep trying. These trigger points are everywhere Anchorage memorial bridge after disarming mines pause game save it. Then run towards statues again keep trying until you get encounter you're looking for. I don't do TH-cam content, but I've never seen anyone cover this, but they may be a video on it. This has to be new game or unexploded areas once triggered they are permanent and baked into your save file. Anytime you come across any encounter there is a perimeter surrounding that encounter learn where the perimeter is and save just on the outside of it and keep reloading you'll see the encounter will be different every time. Same with fallout 4 , NewVegas. Probably oblivion and skyrim I'm just dedicated to the fallout games. I liked your video.
Loved the 3D model! And I used to think that everyone loved Fallout 3 when it released. What found curious about it, was that almost all the achievments were for just completing quests.
They did. It was early "game tube" era so all these critique Bs channels didn't exist. Every gamer I talked to loved it or didn't play cause it wasn't their thing. Nowadays people go way the hell outta their way to hate on media decades old it's ridiculous.
Most people did love it, it was a unique experience for the time for sure, but better things came out and overshadowed it, and that's not to mention how most opinions you'd get on 3 when it came out was through journalists, so when people started doing their own vids or reviews years later those old reviews get drowned out
@supershot9729 not saying you can't. I just think it's ridiculous to go out of your way and criticize a game that isn't relevant anymore. It came we played we moved on. Flash forward and you have people critiquing it like it's some important take that needs to be heard and put out there. So I ask is it not ok to criticize people criticizing a 16yr old irrelevant game, but it's ok to criticize a 16yr old game for no reason?
@@helygg8892 People tend to critique it because it is part of an ongoing *series* being worked on by what was a very popular AAA dev. Like, starfield just released to a "meh" reception so people are looking back. Fallout 76 released just a few years ago to abysmal reviews. The fallout T.V. show just came out *based* on Bethesda's iteration of Fallout starting with 3. The Outer Worlds advertised itself as a spiritual successor to New Vegas, which was made with the same engine as 3. All the while there has been a resurgence of proper RPG's and isometric RPG's, of which, Fallout 1 & 2 by many people are still considered some of the peaks of the genre. And 3 is a *complete* departure from them. All of this and someone could just decide to randomly replay it. Have some thoughts, and decide to make a video or discuss it. Which inspires others to do the same.
@@Boofcan bro what software you use? all your videos are way better than anything I was doing lol editing wise, but I gave up because no one wants to watch my shit and in school so.. I was getting better also but could never imagine doing a vid on this level
To be fair to mick and Ralph, I’ve found that when you’re good enough friends with someone, you don’t even need to talk to them to work together well. I heavily doubt the developers took this into consideration while developing their characters, but I think it makes sense that they don’t talk to each other much.
Out of all the Fallouts, I like 1 and 3 the most, which I guess are the most apocalyptic of the whole bunch. I love 1 for the unparalleled sense of dread that permeates every place you visit, every character you talk to, action that you do to carve your own story in the wastes. Its vibes are on the razor's edge and I absolutely love it for that. On the opposite side, I love 3 because it gives me a fun romp through the half-demolished ruins of a civilization, on a quest to fill my inventory with thousands of pounds of random weapons and armors and other assorted junk, after shooting their previous owners in the head. It's murderhobo D&D in post-apocalyptic FPS form, with a DM that cares way more about the moment-to-moment experience than the overarching story.
14:40 this is common consensus pretty much, people greatly disliking the artstyle shift of fallout 4 isn't a minority opinion. Also, its right in your clip at 29:50, you ARE going up to Arkansas as a slaver, you've got the weapon and the quest from Paradise Falls, so he is rightfuly hostile and afraid of slavers. Cool video though, learnt some things I never knew about after 1000+ hours of playing the series, and loved the respect with which you spoke about Adam. Subscribed :)
29:50 - I only had the gun so I could get the clip of his interaction in one go. But even if you go to Minefield without interacting with Paradise Falls he still attacks on sight.
I'd argue F3 and NV play vastly different tho? like sure, you talk and shoot in both, but that can be said for most RPGs, in practice F3 plays like a TES where you go into dungeons to bring back loot and spend way more time shooting than talking with people, while in NV you deal with the conflicts between factions and get to actually roleplay
@Aguriasu Okay? They didn't do that intentionally. Fallout NV is incredibly buddy and crashes non stop. Just because you found a loop hole for gameplay doesn't make it a good rpg. And the NRC letting inmates have TNT is incredibly stupid.
@Five_FingersofDeath No, that was 100% intentional, NV values player agency and freedom of choice, you really don't know what you're talking about Also crashes and bugs? in the year of our lord 2025? lmao, just use the Viva New Vegas modlist
the production quality on these is insanely high. you’re either paying some great animators or you’re putting a TON of work into these (or both i guess)
I can’t model well so that money is going to two 3D modelers who have been slowly making the 3D model less scary and janky overtime. The rest is all me! The actual compositing, building the blender sets, and animating is me. That’s why it’s still a bit stiff as I’m still learning. I’m also still trying to figure out the best way to animate a mouth. I can’t spend all day on blender. I have to work and make these videos so that’s why I use my TH-cam money to buy blender courses and pay people to teach how to do things in blender.
In NV while playing I got the feeling that world is designed for player's character to be in main role of every big event happening like everybody just waiting for 'risen from death' Courier to help them do that one small side quest that changes their lives upside down and I get it RPG elements are on top because of that but in Fallout 3 aside better post-apocalyptic world design you also have feeling of loneliness moment when you step in the capital wasteland with many locations looking almost as liminal spaces. Though ofc I would understand that many gamers have different taste and choose only one of these 2, I consider both of them to be top class open world survival creations
I get the opposite feeling, honestly. Three Dog is constantly up your butt when it comes to literally anything you do. He seems to exist merely to sing your praises or condemn your actions, up to and including pinning Megaton being blown up on you with wild speculation. When it comes to Project Purity, you do all of the work getting things back online, up to and including wiping out all of the super mutants, ya know, those things that eat power armor clad BoS soldiers for every meal. President Eden specifically picks you to reveal his secret to and trusts you with the FEV. The game literally has Fawkes claim that it's your destiny to start the purifier. Without the Lone Wanderer, the Capital Wasteland is in stasis. The Enclave might be a looming threat, but since James is stuck in Tranquility Lane for decades, if not centuries, Project Purity won't be a thing, and the Enclave won't really have a reason to move. Unless they somehow are able to still pull the mobile base crawler from Broken Steel out of their butt. In NV, on the other hand, you are just a tipping point for any side, the wild card. If the courier doesn't recover, Hoover Dam is still going to be a battleground. The power dynamic in Nevada is going to change.
12:45 in my playthrough I was evil so of course I had the cannibal perk. I was able to tell them I too was like them and they instantly treated me like family.
Unpopular opinion; I love both of these games. Fallout 3 has my favourite game music. Both background and radio of any game ever. It perfectly fits the atmosphere. Personally I love finding things that I’ve never seen before 16 years later. 🤷🏼♂️ It’s just a sign that I didn’t explore thoroughly enough before hand. I have no idea why someone would be mad they didn’t experience something the first time or in multiple playthroughs in a game that was designed for multiple playthroughs and styles? It seems like a nitpicky complaint that doesn’t take into account the purpose of the game design.
I like both games, but it’s not nitpicky to say that everything being on completely random chance is not the best game design. I played this game for 100+ extra hours on top of years playing in the past to make this video, and I still didn’t get most of the examples that I showed to happen naturally in terms of random encounters. I walked in areas and reload 1000s of times and it just didn’t happen. Console commands was the only way I got the fire lance to even show up. There’s a lot in Fallout 3 that exists but won’t happen for majority of players due to RNG.
@@BoofcanI get the fire lance almost every playthrough, without effort. I get most of the random events, only a few did I experience for the first time lately, like the Leo the super mutant event which just made me go “OMFG it’s uncle Leo! From new vegas!” Rather than “damn how did I never see this before?”. So considering I have a completely opposite experience to you, how do you square that circle without admitting that the complaint is subjective and nitpicky? 🤷🏼♂️ I don’t know if you have noticed but as far as I can tell, luck determines random events (which ones you will get) like a dice roll, this is the same for new vegas based on wacky wasteland, some are static events but most are based on your characters luck. If you never build luck with a character because you consider it a useless skill then that’s why you most likely never saw any of the truly rare events. 🤷🏼♂️ Another determining effect is how often you actually just walk around the wasteland and for how long. I rarely fast travel to locations because half the fun of the game is seeing what you come across along the way and getting distracted by towers, explosions etc in the distance. So considering you are taking your own experience and not the experience of all fallout three players; your complaint is anecdotal and subjective at best; it’s a personal complaint that could be based on play style, decisions etc and not just the game. At worst it’s nitpicky and straight up wrong dependant on whether luck is a determining factor in random events. I’ve always noticed characters with higher luck get more random events and especially more positive ones. If that really is the case, could it just be the case you have simply never built a high luck character in fallout 3? It wasn’t until new vegas most people even acknowledged the stat in the special tree. Most people think it has no effect. It does, on EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO, from crits to how much ammo and caps you find, to random events. An average playthrough of fallout 3 is 100 - 200 hours. If you actually explore everything and have fun with the game. You ‘playing that extra’ and still not getting it doesn’t change that that was intended in the design? Thats a single playthrough, of a game designed for years of entertainment; It’s a game designed for multiple playthrough, not just one and done. Bethesda wanted you to have things you found and were in awe of or die laughing from randomly coming across, multiple playthroughs in that you would come across things you had never seen before. There is a reason their games are still alive and kicking today. 🤷🏼♂️
@@BoofcanPlease don’t misunderstand me either, I don’t intend to offend, I apologise if I do. It’s not often you get to actually discuss opposing views with someone you watch on here.
@@Boofcan TLDR; Your opinion that it isn’t the best system is exactly that - a subjective opinion and not an objective criticism. I have no problem with people having that opinion, just understand that for all intents and purposes it doesn’t serve as an objective criticism. It’s an anecdotal take that could have several reasons for being that have nothing to do with the game design; your taste in mechanics, whether you enjoyed the originals or not and why, misunderstanding of systems etc. Hence my term nitpicky. I guess honestly, it’s the wrong term for the situation, maybe I should use anecdotal. The RNG is baked into the game and has been since the first games. It’s always been based off the original creators experiences; 70/80’s tabletop gaming. The originals had dice rolling decide everything essentially. The newer ones pulled back on that mechanic rather significantly but it still has major effects on a playthrough. From caps and ammo found, to enemies come across, to random events encountered. To complain about something that has been baked into the series from the beginning seems nitpicky and moot. I’ve never had trouble getting even some of the rarest events to happen; including the firelance but I’ve always played high luck characters (8 minimum) and as far as I’m aware the luck stat does have a rather large effect on the ‘dice rolling’ mechanics in the background including RNG events.
After having given New Vegas a fair chance, after dismissing it for 12 years, by giving it a daily 3-6 hours a day for a year in 2023…while I can say that it is “technically” a better game, it isn’t the more fun or approachable of the two. I recall playing FO1 & 2 on my crappy laptop back in High School to prepare for FO3 and once I got it for Christmas…I knew right away that it would become my favorite game of all time. This is even after having spent 3x the play time in FNV some 15 years later to “finally get” it. Let me explain… What initially drew me into FO3 was not just the atmosphere but how I actually felt like much of the challenge in it was pretty fair and took some thinking (but not a Strategy Guide’s worth like in FNV) yet you could still figure them out and manipulate the game to give you what you wanted every time. Whether it be double quest rewards for certain quests (save or ☠️ enemies or settlements) or in your stats/build, there was always a workaround that wasn’t as egregious as FNV’s. The only reason why I came to enjoy FNV was because of how RIDICULOUSLY BROKEN IT WAS and how I was able to both get down pat the “Double Perks & 100 Stats” Glitches into one process that most others on console have problems with. In my initial playthroughs back in 2010-2013, I was one of those sweaty “I HATE GLITCHES” people who played the game as intended…and it not only bored me to tears but I found myself extremely frustrated with how linear the enemy encounters were, even if I understood the meticulousness of the Why & How of it. Not only that, but I found the Quest Design to be pretty limiting and obtuse at points; engineered to pretty much only warrant repeat playthroughs for what amounts to “which BAD factions are you choosing THIS TIME?!” The only saving graces I’ve found in FNV are the DLCs actually making the main game enjoyable with the added Perks/Traits (Chemist + 2x Implant GRX + Logan’s Loophole = PEAK) while adding better stories than you’d find in the actual game! Too bad those stories AREN’T in the actual game… As for FO3, as limiting as the builds and some of the combat options are, I preferred most of them over most of the superfluous Named weapons that only exist because “Lore” and to give you better options than the originals in FNV (All-American, Blade of the West, Elijah’s Advanced LAER, and Bozar FTW). Not only was the unique Chinese Assault Rifle and the weapons introduced in Point Lookout enough for me…but if you know how to get the Combat Shotgun VERY EARLY in the game, you don’t even have to worry about much of anything until way later on. I found the story serviceable enough and I appreciate Obsidian for acknowledging it exists, but I still mourn the loss of what could’ve been for this game: the setting actually being closer to FO1 than FO4. If that had done that, a lot of the map & storylines would make MUCH MORE SENSE and the game would not get nearly as much flak as it does since it was very clearly made w/ the early 2100s in mind instead of 200+ years later. Overall, I feel like FO3 is the reason why FNV eventually became as beloved as it was: it set a great foundation and toolset for Obsidian to get creative with…but it never quite surpassed the fun factor or pure enjoyment of RNG encounters or the insane Random Encounters you may receive; while more broken in some respects, there’s more of an argument for it being more fun to find exploits and different ways to play it over playing FNV “legit” 😴😴😴😴 So…yeah. FO3 > FNV HBG WAS WRONG AS ALWAYS
@medved1917 Fallout NV is a better rpg. Sure. But fallout is MEANT to be a tactic game first. Rpg second. Nv is better in rpg elements, but still has mind numbing story choices. It's also boring after 30 hours.
I totally agree about the art direction; 3 & New Vegas look better to me because they are designed with intent and “crunch.” It’s not all smooth and pretty. They’re special.
@@Boofcan I loved the video, your writing about the game's atmosphere and world design have me considering a 2nd playthrough of Fallout 3, something i didn't think was possible, also, you shining a spotlight on Adam Adamowicz’s contributions to the series was cool, this might be your best video yet. It would be cool to see you talk about Fallout 1 or 2 seeing as i don't see many video essays about either and hearing your thoughts on them in detail would be cool, anyways, excited to see what you make next!
Started another new playthrough a few days ago, talk about perfect timing. Top tier video! Great to see a light being shined on how I can keep returning to a game made when I was still reading my SPECIAL book in real life lol.
Putting a dress in Veronica's inventory is one of the coolest interactions in any game. It's something she wants but nothing more than that, and when you give it to her she's ecstatic. It's a very small interaction but those small interactions give so much depth
I don't agree that fallout 3 feels like a world would exist without you. Mostly because of the radio. It exists like you are the only person that exists. Three dog is your personas stalker.
Nice work you put your finger on something I’d noticed but not found a way to comprehend. The difference in the way the NPCs present regarding Fallout 3 NPCs talking to one another rather than in NV where they almost exclusively talk to you. Now you mention it I can see such a distinct difference because NPCs ‘sandbox’ in the same way in Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 4 with NV being the only notable exception, made more evident by the engine similarity. Nice catch.
Yeah! When I was first drafting this video and replaying 3 - I couldn’t put my finger on why things felt so different from new Vegas, and then the thought kinda hit me. There are moments where characters do talk to you directly in 3 like when you first enter Rivet City, Little Lamplight, Megaton, Undedworld, and that place where Sydney is, but it feels like it’s only when you discover a new area and then people kinda just forget you exist. In New Vegas I always felt like everyone was talking to me directly, and making me feel like I matter in the world. The kings in freeside giving you free things, the NCR radio or the disguised frumentarii recognizing my contributions to the legion. Or how you can’t just enter the powder ganger head quarters or see the king without appeasing or consoling the doormen like pacer / Dawes. Idk just feeels different between the two games imo!
@ I always thought the best idea would be both companies selecting some of their best developers and setting them to work on a Fallout that utilises both design principles. Bethesda focus way too much on sandboxing and Obsidian has an iron grip on continuity, combine them for the next biggest hitting and longest lasting AAA rpg. Enough dreaming though, we’re way past that level of cooperation now. On to Oblivion with guns 5!
Theres actually an Easter Egg dedicated to Adam in Fallout 4 using that exact footage you used a copy of his workspace and concept art, I believe its in the GNR creation club mods
Something similar happened to me in four. BOS were fighting feral ghouls, when a pack of super mutants also join in, plus a deathclaw like wtf is happening
Just wanna say your production quality is surprisingly good for a channel of your size! Also Thanks for covering Fallout 3 as much as I adore NV and do agree it's generally the "better" fallout game I actually always liked 3 more personally due to many of the points covered in this video
Thank you!! Def trying to make it better every time! Both games excel at different things. All comes down to design philosophy and intended vison / experience !!
4:17 finally someone said it and I agree with you people should think for themselves no one is brain for liking fallout 3 or fallout new Vegas I like them both, you know what they said best for both world. Also amazing video 👍.
My first experience with fallout 3 was actually with tale of two wastelands. I got the game and set it up so it was linked with my new Vegas save file (which wasn’t easy). I rushed the train station and headed straight to the capital wasteland from the Mojave. What I didn’t know was the fallout 3 train station was in the middle of D.C. so my low level character had to go toe to toe with an army of super mutants. Escaping that hellhole of a city and reaching megaton was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a game.
As much as I love fallout 3, the ending always got me.... like, why use the geck for project purity, and just get clean drinking water... somehow from salt water. Instead of just using the geck by itself and purifying everything in the general area, or whatever the effective range is? Life from death, matter recombination, purity from toxic and all that.
14:40 In defense of your opinion, graphics doesn’t equal style. Sure the graphics are ‘better’ than 3 and New Vegas. But those older games have a better style. I’m still a fan of all three of those games to varying degrees. Fallout 4 is for when I want to mindless rid the world map of every raider and Super mutant Fallout 3 is when I want to go play the alien DLC and show them that only man was made in God’s image. And New Vegas for when I want to carry a big iron and don a terrible cowboy voice.
Fallout 3 is a game designed to be a story driven RPG. Your character is already James' son or daughter. You don't get to choose stuff because the game isn't designed to be that way. The map is huge, but you don't get to see the majority of the map If you only stick to the quests. The game isn't connected. If you ignore the main quest and decide to roam, only that way you can fully explore the entire map and see the content they put into the game.
3 is dark and grungy giving you the feeling you are a vault dweller forced to the surface against your will never to return home. NV is is just "BINGO BANGO BONGO, I DON'T WANNA LEAVE THE CONGO" with a side of gambling addiction and the guy from friends that didn't put any points into water breathing
I always thought 3 looked massively like a post apocalyptic place because it makes sense from the story perspective. Most of the nukes were targetting the capital city that's why it's the most annihilated wasteland in the entire series.
I never thought about how each game works around you or only to you. I wish these mechanics and world building could be put together with more of the gameplay of 4
I've seen that random explosion soo many times and never knew there was a unique alien blaster....... I've been playing this game for about a decade now
I think the reason why New vegas felt off I think can be attributed to the game's intensive development, just because it was intense, does not mean everything came out just fine.
I undertand why people like bethesda fallout. But why should it be called fallout? If you compare the games they are absolutely different by its core. Fallout in 1 and 2 was about world rebuilding irtself and not about individuals survival.
The randomness and rareness definitely made everybodies play through so different and reviews so differently they somehow got insecure about it and oversimplified tf out of fallout 4. They should have leaned into its. What made fallout great. It was almost like content rewarded to the player for their attention to detail and hard work.
Fallout 4 doesn’t have that level of interactivity between NPCs than Fallout 3 either however it does have more interactivity than New Vegas and more so than 76 which has no interactivity at all mostly because it is an online game and NPCs only interact in scripted events.
Fallout 3 is my absolute favourite out of the entire series. The game FEELS like an actual apocalypse, the first 1/2 and new vegas just feel like desert survival with the occasional jump into an abandoned facility. Wandering around a destroyed city and having to traverse old and burned out metro tunnels to actually cross the city. 3 also focused on yes, even after how ever much time has passed from something like a nuclear fallout - things are going to be easily focused on rebuilding. I personally excuse the companion stuff as, I am supposed to be the lone wanderer, not the lonewanderer + friends. I have a dog and i can basically be the wastelands John Wick.
I understand that perspective 100%, and it's a valid one, yet I fear most FO3 glazers think this is what Fallout is actually about, a post-apocalypse game, and not what it's actually about, a post-post-apocalypse game a la Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas
@@veila0924 It would be less frustrating if Bethesda just set their games closer to Fallout 1's time, but they insist on creating unnecessary problems for the worldbuilding going forward with every entry they release.
@Boofcan That's what I've been trying, lol. I think I'm genuinely getting a lot better. Used to be my videos would only get maybe 1-2 minutes on average of views, now the percentage of people who stick around for the whole video is steadily going up! My thumbnail game is still pretty garbage though, lol. Shorts kinda come in clutch since that's not a requirement there-
I'm a Bethesda old head, but this was my first Fallout. To me, the magic of Fallout 3 is bringing their signature world creation method to the retro-future post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. In other words, it's a TES game with guns. I wasn't as taken with the conversations the NPCs have with each other. It'd worn out its welcome for me in Oblivion/Morrowind. I thought it became repetitive after you've been playing for a while. I did love how you could decorate your little hovel with all the random crap you'd wind up finding out in the wastes, though. From unique weapons/armor to empty syringes and 'strange meat', you had a ton of options to head-cannon your guy as whatever you wanted, with a house that matched. Havok was still pretty new at the time, so having stuff that moved around like something approximating a real object was neat, if frustrating at times. Also, in comparing the two, generally speaking, 3 comes ahead of NV when it comes to the smaller localized vignette-style stories. The cannibal town, the Republic of Dave, the "Vampires", the Dunwich building, the list goes on and on. New Vegas had a better overall story/world, and it was better at connecting its small stories to its larger overarching main story and themes, but in doing so I think Obsidian sacrificed some narrative versatility in the process. I can't remember in what BTS@Bethsoft documentary I saw it in, but they apparently have a "put stuff in a big hat" style of letting everyone at the studio submit ideas for side quests, which the different devs then go and implement, as you do. So, it makes a lot of sense that their side quests would be more divergent and episodic. That's why it's always been somewhat crazy to me when people try to argue which is better, 3 or NV. One the one hand, given how NV is essentially a glorified expansion pack to 3 in terms of its 'family tree', it makes sense, but on the other, both games are trying to do drastically different things. NV wants you to feel like you're in a real place, with stakes that matter for everyone you meet. The burden of figuring out how to do the right thing in a harsh world is front & center, and everything you do reinforces that, along with that central conflict. 3 just wants you to ignore finding your dad until you've run out of stuff to do, it's just trying to think of as much cool stuff for you to do as it can. And for that, it's great.
The implementation of havoc physics was still pretty wonky. There was some sort of trick to getting items you placed in an interior to *stay* where you put them, I think you had to drop it, leave the interior, then enter it again and put it where you wanted. If you didn’t then your stuff would be spread out all over the next time you entered. So many headaches back on the XB360 of realizing I meticulously arranged a dozen items only to return to my megaton house and have them sprawled out on the floor. I do think I agree with the assessment of the different drives behind 3 and NV, for me though I just find NV more compelling to replay. I feel like after experiencing everything in 3 it’s hard to get a sense of intrinsic motivation to do a new playthrough. I usually don’t get further than 10 hours in of random exploration in 3 before it kind of just trails off.
imo the low resolution look kinda maintains the same sort of vibe from the earlier two games, it's so detailed but there is also so much for your brain to interpret and I think that helps new vegas and fallout 3 immerse you in it's vibe. I can't help but imagine what it would look like if I was there and that is something magical. I have NEVER had that thought playing 4, despite hundred of hours.
30:21 This is what finally made me say I’d seen enough with Bethesda’s RPGs. In their bones, Fallout 3,4, Skyrim, and even Starfield to a degree have something that pulls you in: a vast open world, the promise of the unknown, and some of the wildest and strangest moments that you’ll have as a gamer. But the further you go, the more you realize that it’s the narrative equivalent of a guided tour of a museum instead a sprawling adventure. No matter which faction you side with, if you want to actually do something of substance, you’ll do X, Y, and Z in this order and no other. Because that’s all there is to it. New Vegas has a lot of these problems too, but it gets around them with strong characters, writing, a true blank slate, and allowing the you the opportunity to mess with or break quest lines. In Bethesda’s games you’re always a chosen one in a different wrapper. It’s cool once, and incredibly tedious after the fact. But in New Vegas, you’re just a courier, some random person trying to survive. Nothing’s really expected of you once you leave the tutorial, so it’s up to you to decide how kind, evil, or chaotic you want to be. The story might be written a certain way, but you can misdirect or outright sabotage it if you choose. IMHO this is why (besides the obvious tech limitations, bugs, and glitches) Bethesda games rely so heavily on mods: to actually deepen your immersion and interaction with their world, you *will* need outside help. Even as shallow as Starfield is RP wise, the fact that so many have attempted/are attempting to fix it with alternate start mods, skill tree/faction overhauls, and new gameplay mechanics shows that there’s still a want to see and get engrossed in these worlds and their stories. It’s just a shame that we have to pave over most of what’s already there to do it. For anyone who’s made it this far, thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Have a good one.
I'm STILL mad about Starfield. I hoped they would have listened to feedback after nearly a decade, but instead we got the most shallow, bland, inoffensive slop possible.
![[Mr Caption] No Todds, No Masters critique Fallout 4 (reupload)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zbaa2P9qL40/mqdefault.jpg)
Subscribe so I can make the animation better and let me know how I can make these videos better as well
I heart boo can
Who is your team?
@@Looneyboy just my self and a thumbnail artist. Looking to pick up an editor so it doesn’t take three months to upload each time.
I can only sub once :(
Quick animation question. Why do I look away for a few minutes and then see the best throwing it back in animation history?
"The Roach King"
I didn't know Asmongold was in this game
That's before he became Transmangold
@@Discovery2024-rn8kn sorry what..?
@@Discovery2024-rn8knwhat?
I wish I thought of that hahaha!
@@Discovery2024-rn8knwait what
Ah yes random encounters... My first game of FO3, I go to megaton, get the The Super-Duper Mart quest, when I arrive at the mart, explosion in the sky, little blue things and a gun fall from the sky. I had no idea what had happened, but that gun was the ace down my sleeve for most of the game.
ah ya the firelance, a objectivly weaker weapon than the Alien Blaster
@@DarkestIQit's not always about stats man. Sometimes it's about the journey and the vibes
@@Austin-gj7zj i was never talking about the vibes and atmosphere i was just talking about how the Firelance is a mid tier weapon
@ Still plenty strong for a lvl 3 character.
@@DarkestIQlol😅yeah thats what he was pointing out! “Oh you had a fun experience huh, well it could have been better!” Thats what you sound like! 😂
12:40 The great part is that things are so unconnected you almost don’t realise that the Andale Cannibals admitted to killing and eating James Hargraves Father, who his mother believes just ran off and got killed being stupid.
yeah I did pick up on that, but didn't mention because i didn't know how to bring it up seamlessly. But yeah the line "I have a kid in Rivet City" ties it together, but only if you have a high speech / cannibal .
who tf is boocan
o i subscubile
Why tf is boocan
@@kg7241when tf is boocan
Where tf is boocan?
how tf is boocan
I have a very vivid memory of renting this game when you still could rent games and this was also when you had to read guides or have proper internet access. I played the game for days walking slowly and unable to fast travel because i had no idea what "Overencumbered" meant :( i just thought everything looked cool so i picked up anything i could.
Fallout 3 was my first Fallout, and honestly it's my favorite atmosphere. I enjoy New Vegas for its role-playing, and choices, but 3 is incredible with its atmosphere, including the expansions.
My first Fallout was 2, and 3's atmosphere feels like a step down. And the New Vegas expansions are far, far better than 3. Old World Blues alone is better than everything 3 had.
@@Seoul_Soldier Your perspective doesn't surprise me. I think the original and 3 have atmospheric similarities meanwhile 2 and New Vegas are atmospherically similar to each other.
@@Seoul_Soldier I just got into fallout around last summer. I tired playing fallout 1,2 but got bored of it, I did like Fallout 3 and new vegas the most just started playing fallout 4 a few days ago, it's a step down with the dialogue but it's a decent game.
@@Seoul_Soldier fallout 3 is ass
Exactly what I was going to say. I just role played the hell out of new Vegas and loved every minute of it. Still think it is one of the best games of all time. But, the atmosphere and landscape of Fallout 3 is better imo. People complain a lot about 3 but you can still roleplay and have some choices that make a difference. You just also have a choice to be a god lol
Fantastic as always.
You’re a mad lad! Thank you so much genuinely. I’m really trying to make the videos better each upload even if it doesn’t always feel that way ♥️
I think you are 100% on point when saying that Bethesda is good doing world design but not world building or compelling stories. Skyrim is proof of that. People don't like Skyrim because of the incredible characters, the main story, or anything related to it. People just choose a direction and start walking, exploring the caves and crypts they found, selling loot, leveling up and just going around doing random stuff. I really can't believe someone finished the main campaign of Skyrim and start clapping "oh wow, what an incredible story. I really felt like I was doing things myself and not just following orders for every single person I met".
Bethesda is like a tabletop Master that instead of designing a campaign for the players to explore and make their own, they create a set of characters and narrative that they think is so good, they want their players to watch as a film. Yes, you are there in the middle of the room where it happens, but you are there to watch it happen, not to decide it.
As a child my 1st playthrough i delayed the main story along as I could, looking at it now it says much more than I could with many more paragraphs
I agree that Fallout 3 and Skyrim have good world design, but after Starfield, I'm not so sure the 'Bethesda's good at world design' holds true anymore. And after Outer Worlds, I'm not convinced Obsidian is capable of replicating the incredible world building, story, and depth of New Vegas anymore either.
Maybe that's too negative of me when I'm only referencing one example of each company? I don't know.
@@TotalNonstopThemes I agree that bethesda seems to be loosing what at least in previous entries make them special, since both Starfield and the DLC are bad in every way possible. About obsidian, haven't played Outer world but i've heard that its not bad but its not that great either. Both avowed and Outer 2 are on development, so I guess those 2 will show if they are capable of giving what people is expecting from them.
@@TotalNonstopThemes the obsidian ogs that made the iso fallouts and fallout new vegas have all mostly left so ur probably right about them not being able to replicate new vegas' depth and atmosphere anymore. Thats not to say they cant do good atmosphere and world building anymore but their greats are gone now, id say chris is at least 50% responsible for the depth and story of the fallouts he was involved in and hes been gone for a decade, the lead writer for new vegas left 13 years ago but he was rehired like litterally 4 hours ago so thats nice. but those 2 are just the big names, when chris and john left a lot of those workers that truly turned new vegas into the game that it was left as well. so while they can still make good games they aren't gonna be making fallout new vegas'
This is probably the first video game video essay where it’s not pseudo-intellectual and dull but also not obnoxiously loud and unserious. New sub!
Still finding my style, and ideal tone for each video. Thanks for picking up on that man. I do take feedback seriously from every video.
I didn't know about Adam's contribution, or his passing. It explains so much why Fallout 4 felt so...off. It was his work that really made Fallout 3 so special aesthetically.
I lost sleep over Andale on my first playthrough back in 2009. (In retrospect, I should have finished the quest before going to bed.) Spooked the whole entire fuck out of me.
I hear ya. Felt that way about tranquility lane. Spooky af.
oh im spinnin on it tonight
hawk tuah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmu boo
Another niche TH-camr I found commented on another random guy I found and like
oh I’m spinnin harder on that resident evil video you just uploaded
Put both this and his RE video in my later tonight folder ❤🤠@@Boofcan
The amount of work this man puts behind these essay videos is *incredible.* I’m hoping his channel blows up in 2025.
Stop kissing ass
Amazing how bethesda struggles to be on par with their old titles. So much charm and atmosphere to lend to great world building. Now its slap in old tech to modernize the engine a decade behind everything else, make the scale larger but shallower, world building that doesn't understand why conflicts would occur between factions, the inability to make obvious choices through action, and my favorite, pretending character creation choices matter when they don't outside of a few instances that don't do much other than say yes but kinda different. Not enough to be something for personality projection, and doesn't offer new outcomes so it mechanically does nothing as well. This is more prevalent in starfield than any other title, but they've been inching this way for a bit
It's all on purpose. Many times the developers have spoken with pride about how the stories and mechanics keep being simplified with every new iteration. It's granted them great success in acquiring the vast audience they wanted.
5:50 “oh ok weird transition I-“
Lmfaoooo
Lived in DC area when 3 came out. Coworker told me to get it by saying, "When you come out of the vault you are near my house. The fin of killing raiders and Super Mutants along my commuter route never got old.
Did you see any of the ads for 3 around the city? Heard they put up a ton
literally just rewatched all your videos yesterday, this is a treat!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did making it :)
I liked how every story on the radio that wasn't about player action could be investigated. It was the main thing that stoped me from getting bored in the game, just throw on gnr and go where ever 3 dog sent me.
I agree with you for the most part, except it's been 200 years since the bombs dropped. I get why the Whitehouse is still a crater, but literally, no one that survived the bombs knew how to use a saw, hammer a nail, or make cement? It's all just cobbled together, shanty towns or living in the few buildings that survived. It does feel frozen in time, but imo not in a good way. Tbf, that's the way it is in every Fallout game, but at least in NV, they are growing crops and stuff. Makes it feel like the only you could have isn't scavenging or raiding.
people know how to use a saw, but nails and cement are much more on the "industrial shit that needs to be made industrial scale" side that not having them make sense. Shanty towns and cobbled together dug out are a result of that.
As for growing crops: the main quest in FO3 is about purifying a highly irradiated river to actually HAVE water to grow crops. So not having crops also make sense in that direction.
FINALLY, HE HAS RETURNED
Somehow, someway, he returned !
Who?! H¡tler?!
On the unique encounters like the firelace, you can get these anytime you want. There are trigger points, for example, above Megatron headed to the super duper mart, you'll see a square chain linked fence surrounding a watertower at the edge of fence pause your game and save it. If you go below fence you'll trigger the encounter. If you don't get the encounter you're looking for at the super duper mart reload game keep trying. These trigger points are everywhere Anchorage memorial bridge after disarming mines pause game save it. Then run towards statues again keep trying until you get encounter you're looking for. I don't do TH-cam content, but I've never seen anyone cover this, but they may be a video on it. This has to be new game or unexploded areas once triggered they are permanent and baked into your save file. Anytime you come across any encounter there is a perimeter surrounding that encounter learn where the perimeter is and save just on the outside of it and keep reloading you'll see the encounter will be different every time. Same with fallout 4 , NewVegas. Probably oblivion and skyrim I'm just dedicated to the fallout games. I liked your video.
The gunplay feels so much better in NV
I can agree
Loved the 3D model! And I used to think that everyone loved Fallout 3 when it released. What found curious about it, was that almost all the achievments were for just completing quests.
They did. It was early "game tube" era so all these critique Bs channels didn't exist. Every gamer I talked to loved it or didn't play cause it wasn't their thing. Nowadays people go way the hell outta their way to hate on media decades old it's ridiculous.
Most people did love it, it was a unique experience for the time for sure, but better things came out and overshadowed it, and that's not to mention how most opinions you'd get on 3 when it came out was through journalists, so when people started doing their own vids or reviews years later those old reviews get drowned out
@@helygg8892 why is it okay to praise an old thing but not critique it? Lmao
@supershot9729 not saying you can't. I just think it's ridiculous to go out of your way and criticize a game that isn't relevant anymore. It came we played we moved on. Flash forward and you have people critiquing it like it's some important take that needs to be heard and put out there. So I ask is it not ok to criticize people criticizing a 16yr old irrelevant game, but it's ok to criticize a 16yr old game for no reason?
@@helygg8892 People tend to critique it because it is part of an ongoing *series* being worked on by what was a very popular AAA dev.
Like, starfield just released to a "meh" reception so people are looking back.
Fallout 76 released just a few years ago to abysmal reviews.
The fallout T.V. show just came out *based* on Bethesda's iteration of Fallout starting with 3.
The Outer Worlds advertised itself as a spiritual successor to New Vegas, which was made with the same engine as 3.
All the while there has been a resurgence of proper RPG's and isometric RPG's, of which, Fallout 1 & 2 by many people are still considered some of the peaks of the genre. And 3 is a *complete* departure from them.
All of this and someone could just decide to randomly replay it. Have some thoughts, and decide to make a video or discuss it. Which inspires others to do the same.
The animation and editing is peak. Excellent video. 👍 ❤
I'm trying to get better! it's still very very rough but I'm slowly learning.
@@Boofcan bro what software you use? all your videos are way better than anything I was doing lol editing wise, but I gave up because no one wants to watch my shit and in school so.. I was getting better also but could never imagine doing a vid on this level
To be fair to mick and Ralph, I’ve found that when you’re good enough friends with someone, you don’t even need to talk to them to work together well. I heavily doubt the developers took this into consideration while developing their characters, but I think it makes sense that they don’t talk to each other much.
After so long you’re back!!! I love your videos and this one is great as well. I love you editing!!!
Thank you!!! I’m trying to get better!!! Still a lot to learn and do but hopefully it’s showing with each upload.
Out of all the Fallouts, I like 1 and 3 the most, which I guess are the most apocalyptic of the whole bunch. I love 1 for the unparalleled sense of dread that permeates every place you visit, every character you talk to, action that you do to carve your own story in the wastes. Its vibes are on the razor's edge and I absolutely love it for that.
On the opposite side, I love 3 because it gives me a fun romp through the half-demolished ruins of a civilization, on a quest to fill my inventory with thousands of pounds of random weapons and armors and other assorted junk, after shooting their previous owners in the head. It's murderhobo D&D in post-apocalyptic FPS form, with a DM that cares way more about the moment-to-moment experience than the overarching story.
14:40 this is common consensus pretty much, people greatly disliking the artstyle shift of fallout 4 isn't a minority opinion.
Also, its right in your clip at 29:50, you ARE going up to Arkansas as a slaver, you've got the weapon and the quest from Paradise Falls, so he is rightfuly hostile and afraid of slavers.
Cool video though, learnt some things I never knew about after 1000+ hours of playing the series, and loved the respect with which you spoke about Adam. Subscribed :)
29:50 - I only had the gun so I could get the clip of his interaction in one go.
But even if you go to Minefield without interacting with Paradise Falls he still attacks on sight.
I just realized Danny Trejo was Raul
New Vegas had a ton of very famous people and actors to voice act in that game. Truly a stacked cast of voices - at least for the main NPCs.
I'd argue F3 and NV play vastly different tho? like sure, you talk and shoot in both, but that can be said for most RPGs, in practice F3 plays like a TES where you go into dungeons to bring back loot and spend way more time shooting than talking with people, while in NV you deal with the conflicts between factions and get to actually roleplay
The gameplay is the exact same. The difference may be how it handles the rpg elements, but that's itn
@Five_FingersofDeath You can beat NV without killing a single thing, the same can't be said for F3, and that's just one example
@Aguriasu Okay? They didn't do that intentionally. Fallout NV is incredibly buddy and crashes non stop. Just because you found a loop hole for gameplay doesn't make it a good rpg.
And the NRC letting inmates have TNT is incredibly stupid.
@Five_FingersofDeath No, that was 100% intentional, NV values player agency and freedom of choice, you really don't know what you're talking about
Also crashes and bugs? in the year of our lord 2025? lmao, just use the Viva New Vegas modlist
@Five_FingersofDeathThe NCR being stupid is a major plot point, not everyone is the crowning pinnacle of intellect.
Thank you Boofcan, very cool!
@@Archived__Videos no thank you for watching!
the production quality on these is insanely high. you’re either paying some great animators or you’re putting a TON of work into these (or both i guess)
I can’t model well so that money is going to two 3D modelers who have been slowly making the 3D model less scary and janky overtime.
The rest is all me! The actual compositing, building the blender sets, and animating is me. That’s why it’s still a bit stiff as I’m still learning. I’m also still trying to figure out the best way to animate a mouth.
I can’t spend all day on blender. I have to work and make these videos so that’s why I use my TH-cam money to buy blender courses and pay people to teach how to do things in blender.
This editing is fantastic
In NV while playing I got the feeling that world is designed for player's character to be in main role of every big event happening like everybody just waiting for 'risen from death' Courier to help them do that one small side quest that changes their lives upside down and I get it RPG elements are on top because of that but in Fallout 3 aside better post-apocalyptic world design you also have feeling of loneliness moment when you step in the capital wasteland with many locations looking almost as liminal spaces. Though ofc I would understand that many gamers have different taste and choose only one of these 2, I consider both of them to be top class open world survival creations
I get the opposite feeling, honestly.
Three Dog is constantly up your butt when it comes to literally anything you do. He seems to exist merely to sing your praises or condemn your actions, up to and including pinning Megaton being blown up on you with wild speculation. When it comes to Project Purity, you do all of the work getting things back online, up to and including wiping out all of the super mutants, ya know, those things that eat power armor clad BoS soldiers for every meal. President Eden specifically picks you to reveal his secret to and trusts you with the FEV. The game literally has Fawkes claim that it's your destiny to start the purifier.
Without the Lone Wanderer, the Capital Wasteland is in stasis. The Enclave might be a looming threat, but since James is stuck in Tranquility Lane for decades, if not centuries, Project Purity won't be a thing, and the Enclave won't really have a reason to move. Unless they somehow are able to still pull the mobile base crawler from Broken Steel out of their butt.
In NV, on the other hand, you are just a tipping point for any side, the wild card. If the courier doesn't recover, Hoover Dam is still going to be a battleground. The power dynamic in Nevada is going to change.
Love the video broski always coming with that fire!
@@NMBC. thank you bro ♥️♥️
@@Boofcan always king
12:45 in my playthrough I was evil so of course I had the cannibal perk. I was able to tell them I too was like them and they instantly treated me like family.
Fallout 3 is nothing without the atmosphere of Zur's music and Adam Adamowicz's concept art
EXACTLY, both went together like PB&J, RIP Adam Adamowicz 🙏
Welcome back Boofcan, I'll watch this while eating dinner
my goat boofcan's editing and animatin
I'm trying!!
Finally, I love this guy I've watched his nv videos like 50 times
Hope this one captured the same feel and vibes of those old ones !
Unpopular opinion; I love both of these games.
Fallout 3 has my favourite game music. Both background and radio of any game ever. It perfectly fits the atmosphere.
Personally I love finding things that I’ve never seen before 16 years later. 🤷🏼♂️ It’s just a sign that I didn’t explore thoroughly enough before hand. I have no idea why someone would be mad they didn’t experience something the first time or in multiple playthroughs in a game that was designed for multiple playthroughs and styles? It seems like a nitpicky complaint that doesn’t take into account the purpose of the game design.
I like both games, but it’s not nitpicky to say that everything being on completely random chance is not the best game design. I played this game for 100+ extra hours on top of years playing in the past to make this video, and I still didn’t get most of the examples that I showed to happen naturally in terms of random encounters. I walked in areas and reload 1000s of times and it just didn’t happen.
Console commands was the only way I got the fire lance to even show up.
There’s a lot in Fallout 3 that exists but won’t happen for majority of players due to RNG.
@@BoofcanI get the fire lance almost every playthrough, without effort. I get most of the random events, only a few did I experience for the first time lately, like the Leo the super mutant event which just made me go “OMFG it’s uncle Leo! From new vegas!” Rather than “damn how did I never see this before?”.
So considering I have a completely opposite experience to you, how do you square that circle without admitting that the complaint is subjective and nitpicky? 🤷🏼♂️
I don’t know if you have noticed but as far as I can tell, luck determines random events (which ones you will get) like a dice roll, this is the same for new vegas based on wacky wasteland, some are static events but most are based on your characters luck. If you never build luck with a character because you consider it a useless skill then that’s why you most likely never saw any of the truly rare events. 🤷🏼♂️
Another determining effect is how often you actually just walk around the wasteland and for how long. I rarely fast travel to locations because half the fun of the game is seeing what you come across along the way and getting distracted by towers, explosions etc in the distance.
So considering you are taking your own experience and not the experience of all fallout three players; your complaint is anecdotal and subjective at best; it’s a personal complaint that could be based on play style, decisions etc and not just the game. At worst it’s nitpicky and straight up wrong dependant on whether luck is a determining factor in random events.
I’ve always noticed characters with higher luck get more random events and especially more positive ones. If that really is the case, could it just be the case you have simply never built a high luck character in fallout 3? It wasn’t until new vegas most people even acknowledged the stat in the special tree. Most people think it has no effect. It does, on EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO, from crits to how much ammo and caps you find, to random events.
An average playthrough of fallout 3 is 100 - 200 hours. If you actually explore everything and have fun with the game. You ‘playing that extra’ and still not getting it doesn’t change that that was intended in the design? Thats a single playthrough, of a game designed for years of entertainment; It’s a game designed for multiple playthrough, not just one and done.
Bethesda wanted you to have things you found and were in awe of or die laughing from randomly coming across, multiple playthroughs in that you would come across things you had never seen before. There is a reason their games are still alive and kicking today. 🤷🏼♂️
@@BoofcanPlease don’t misunderstand me either, I don’t intend to offend, I apologise if I do. It’s not often you get to actually discuss opposing views with someone you watch on here.
@@Boofcan TLDR; Your opinion that it isn’t the best system is exactly that - a subjective opinion and not an objective criticism. I have no problem with people having that opinion, just understand that for all intents and purposes it doesn’t serve as an objective criticism. It’s an anecdotal take that could have several reasons for being that have nothing to do with the game design; your taste in mechanics, whether you enjoyed the originals or not and why, misunderstanding of systems etc. Hence my term nitpicky. I guess honestly, it’s the wrong term for the situation, maybe I should use anecdotal.
The RNG is baked into the game and has been since the first games. It’s always been based off the original creators experiences; 70/80’s tabletop gaming. The originals had dice rolling decide everything essentially. The newer ones pulled back on that mechanic rather significantly but it still has major effects on a playthrough. From caps and ammo found, to enemies come across, to random events encountered. To complain about something that has been baked into the series from the beginning seems nitpicky and moot.
I’ve never had trouble getting even some of the rarest events to happen; including the firelance but I’ve always played high luck characters (8 minimum) and as far as I’m aware the luck stat does have a rather large effect on the ‘dice rolling’ mechanics in the background including RNG events.
@@GBNationalist Calling all criticism "subjective" is objectively a dogshit defense
After having given New Vegas a fair chance, after dismissing it for 12 years, by giving it a daily 3-6 hours a day for a year in 2023…while I can say that it is “technically” a better game, it isn’t the more fun or approachable of the two.
I recall playing FO1 & 2 on my crappy laptop back in High School to prepare for FO3 and once I got it for Christmas…I knew right away that it would become my favorite game of all time. This is even after having spent 3x the play time in FNV some 15 years later to “finally get” it.
Let me explain…
What initially drew me into FO3 was not just the atmosphere but how I actually felt like much of the challenge in it was pretty fair and took some thinking (but not a Strategy Guide’s worth like in FNV) yet you could still figure them out and manipulate the game to give you what you wanted every time. Whether it be double quest rewards for certain quests (save or ☠️ enemies or settlements) or in your stats/build, there was always a workaround that wasn’t as egregious as FNV’s.
The only reason why I came to enjoy FNV was because of how RIDICULOUSLY BROKEN IT WAS and how I was able to both get down pat the “Double Perks & 100 Stats” Glitches into one process that most others on console have problems with. In my initial playthroughs back in 2010-2013, I was one of those sweaty “I HATE GLITCHES” people who played the game as intended…and it not only bored me to tears but I found myself extremely frustrated with how linear the enemy encounters were, even if I understood the meticulousness of the Why & How of it. Not only that, but I found the Quest Design to be pretty limiting and obtuse at points; engineered to pretty much only warrant repeat playthroughs for what amounts to “which BAD factions are you choosing THIS TIME?!”
The only saving graces I’ve found in FNV are the DLCs actually making the main game enjoyable with the added Perks/Traits (Chemist + 2x Implant GRX + Logan’s Loophole = PEAK) while adding better stories than you’d find in the actual game! Too bad those stories AREN’T in the actual game…
As for FO3, as limiting as the builds and some of the combat options are, I preferred most of them over most of the superfluous Named weapons that only exist because “Lore” and to give you better options than the originals in FNV (All-American, Blade of the West, Elijah’s Advanced LAER, and Bozar FTW). Not only was the unique Chinese Assault Rifle and the weapons introduced in Point Lookout enough for me…but if you know how to get the Combat Shotgun VERY EARLY in the game, you don’t even have to worry about much of anything until way later on.
I found the story serviceable enough and I appreciate Obsidian for acknowledging it exists, but I still mourn the loss of what could’ve been for this game: the setting actually being closer to FO1 than FO4. If that had done that, a lot of the map & storylines would make MUCH MORE SENSE and the game would not get nearly as much flak as it does since it was very clearly made w/ the early 2100s in mind instead of 200+ years later.
Overall, I feel like FO3 is the reason why FNV eventually became as beloved as it was: it set a great foundation and toolset for Obsidian to get creative with…but it never quite surpassed the fun factor or pure enjoyment of RNG encounters or the insane Random Encounters you may receive; while more broken in some respects, there’s more of an argument for it being more fun to find exploits and different ways to play it over playing FNV “legit” 😴😴😴😴
So…yeah. FO3 > FNV
HBG WAS WRONG AS ALWAYS
Lots of words to be wrong.
FNV is the better RPG. Fallout is supposed to be an RPG
Imagine espending 30 minutes to write a wall of text with some of the worst arguments ever. Like, it doesnt Even make sense 😢
@@funbrute31Opinions are like assholes, everyones got one.
@medved1917 Fallout NV is a better rpg. Sure. But fallout is MEANT to be a tactic game first. Rpg second.
Nv is better in rpg elements, but still has mind numbing story choices. It's also boring after 30 hours.
@Five_FingersofDeath "A post nuclear role playing game"
> "it's supposed to be a tactical game"
Did you play the games ?
Really cool video. I love the editing and humor. Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love your videos so much, hope you're hard work gets rewarded with more subs and views, you really deserve it
I totally agree about the art direction; 3 & New Vegas look better to me because they are designed with intent and “crunch.” It’s not all smooth and pretty. They’re special.
I still can't fully put it into words, but I love the way they look.
This video made me want to redownload and play fallout new vegas again LMAO
Thats about how I felt…or at least download TTW so I can enjoy all of the great things NV added in the world of Fo3
Dude, i was wondering if you'd uploaded recently yesterday, thank you Mr.Can
@@xboxpenguin8705 I’m back! Hope you enjoyed !
@@Boofcan I loved the video, your writing about the game's atmosphere and world design have me considering a 2nd playthrough of Fallout 3, something i didn't think was possible, also, you shining a spotlight on Adam Adamowicz’s contributions to the series was cool, this might be your best video yet. It would be cool to see you talk about Fallout 1 or 2 seeing as i don't see many video essays about either and hearing your thoughts on them in detail would be cool, anyways, excited to see what you make next!
Started another new playthrough a few days ago, talk about perfect timing. Top tier video! Great to see a light being shined on how I can keep returning to a game made when I was still reading my SPECIAL book in real life lol.
Good job, algorithm. Excellent find. Boocan, truly enjoyed the style and voice
Aww this is a sweet comment to see! I'm still learning and trying to make things better so I'm glad you enjoyed. More to come for sure !
Fallout 3’s atmosphere is easily the best in the series. You get sucked in really quickly
Putting a dress in Veronica's inventory is one of the coolest interactions in any game. It's something she wants but nothing more than that, and when you give it to her she's ecstatic. It's a very small interaction but those small interactions give so much depth
Crazy that fallout 3 and nv is still popping
I think these two games will be adored for a while. Maybe even decades to come
I don't agree that fallout 3 feels like a world would exist without you. Mostly because of the radio. It exists like you are the only person that exists. Three dog is your personas stalker.
Can't believe Boofcan got ligma!!! Nice to see you back Boof! Love to see your videos gettting better and better!
thank you I'm trying!!!
Nice work you put your finger on something I’d noticed but not found a way to comprehend. The difference in the way the NPCs present regarding Fallout 3 NPCs talking to one another rather than in NV where they almost exclusively talk to you. Now you mention it I can see such a distinct difference because NPCs ‘sandbox’ in the same way in Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 4 with NV being the only notable exception, made more evident by the engine similarity. Nice catch.
Yeah! When I was first drafting this video and replaying 3 - I couldn’t put my finger on why things felt so different from new Vegas, and then the thought kinda hit me.
There are moments where characters do talk to you directly in 3 like when you first enter Rivet City, Little Lamplight, Megaton, Undedworld, and that place where Sydney is, but it feels like it’s only when you discover a new area and then people kinda just forget you exist.
In New Vegas I always felt like everyone was talking to me directly, and making me feel like I matter in the world. The kings in freeside giving you free things, the NCR radio or the disguised frumentarii recognizing my contributions to the legion.
Or how you can’t just enter the powder ganger head quarters or see the king without appeasing or consoling the doormen like pacer / Dawes.
Idk just feeels different between the two games imo!
@ I always thought the best idea would be both companies selecting some of their best developers and setting them to work on a Fallout that utilises both design principles. Bethesda focus way too much on sandboxing and Obsidian has an iron grip on continuity, combine them for the next biggest hitting and longest lasting AAA rpg. Enough dreaming though, we’re way past that level of cooperation now. On to Oblivion with guns 5!
The intro earned a sub.
welcome to the channel man. More to come for sure
Theres actually an Easter Egg dedicated to Adam in Fallout 4 using that exact footage you used a copy of his workspace and concept art, I believe its in the GNR creation club mods
Something similar happened to me in four. BOS were fighting feral ghouls, when a pack of super mutants also join in, plus a deathclaw like wtf is happening
I know. Capital Wasteland is pure total chaos and I love it.
Just wanna say your production quality is surprisingly good for a channel of your size! Also Thanks for covering Fallout 3 as much as I adore NV and do agree it's generally the "better" fallout game I actually always liked 3 more personally due to many of the points covered in this video
Thank you!! Def trying to make it better every time! Both games excel at different things. All comes down to design philosophy and intended vison / experience !!
"Urr looks more like a society going through late stage capitalism"
So annoying.
4:17 finally someone said it and I agree with you people should think for themselves no one is brain for liking fallout 3 or fallout new Vegas I like them both, you know what they said best for both world. Also amazing video 👍.
35:00 I’m pretty sure besides that RNG drop for the alien blaster that there is 2 other locations to get one.
My first experience with fallout 3 was actually with tale of two wastelands. I got the game and set it up so it was linked with my new Vegas save file (which wasn’t easy). I rushed the train station and headed straight to the capital wasteland from the Mojave. What I didn’t know was the fallout 3 train station was in the middle of D.C. so my low level character had to go toe to toe with an army of super mutants. Escaping that hellhole of a city and reaching megaton was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a game.
No. But 4 is. And yet, somehow, it sells the best. The people love their hobo simulator filth, I suppose.
As much as I love fallout 3, the ending always got me.... like, why use the geck for project purity, and just get clean drinking water... somehow from salt water. Instead of just using the geck by itself and purifying everything in the general area, or whatever the effective range is? Life from death, matter recombination, purity from toxic and all that.
14:40 In defense of your opinion, graphics doesn’t equal style. Sure the graphics are ‘better’ than 3 and New Vegas. But those older games have a better style.
I’m still a fan of all three of those games to varying degrees.
Fallout 4 is for when I want to mindless rid the world map of every raider and Super mutant
Fallout 3 is when I want to go play the alien DLC and show them that only man was made in God’s image.
And New Vegas for when I want to carry a big iron and don a terrible cowboy voice.
Fallout 3 is a game designed to be a story driven RPG. Your character is already James' son or daughter. You don't get to choose stuff because the game isn't designed to be that way. The map is huge, but you don't get to see the majority of the map If you only stick to the quests. The game isn't connected. If you ignore the main quest and decide to roam, only that way you can fully explore the entire map and see the content they put into the game.
Brilliant video, couldn’t agree more with you! It’s a testament to FO3 and FNV that we are still discussing them to this day
I can't be the only one who likes the original fallout 3 more than new Vegas.
I took for granted the dialogue for NPCs in 3. Now I’m going to definitely pay attention more
3 is dark and grungy giving you the feeling you are a vault dweller forced to the surface against your will never to return home. NV is is just "BINGO BANGO BONGO, I DON'T WANNA LEAVE THE CONGO" with a side of gambling addiction and the guy from friends that didn't put any points into water breathing
Damm, the production quality of this video goes crazy. the editing is MINT
Damm, based video.
Honestly we need more videos about how Fallout 3 is better that New Vegas.
Big agree 🙌 FO3 is the best game of all time
Cringe takes.
@haruhirogrimgar6047 Get alíen death Ray noob
Oh brother great vid! I love fallout 3 it has such a special place in my heart no matter how much i play new vegas
I always thought 3 looked massively like a post apocalyptic place because it makes sense from the story perspective. Most of the nukes were targetting the capital city that's why it's the most annihilated wasteland in the entire series.
I never thought about how each game works around you or only to you. I wish these mechanics and world building could be put together with more of the gameplay of 4
I've seen that random explosion soo many times and never knew there was a unique alien blaster....... I've been playing this game for about a decade now
I think the reason why New vegas felt off I think can be attributed to the game's intensive development, just because it was intense, does not mean everything came out just fine.
I've met Uncle Leo at level 2 recently, the first super mutant my character meets and he's friendly
I dont think Fallout 3's narrative depth holds up under any significant scrutiny. But I'll never stop loving it
Boof I love you pls don’t die 😔
we all die eventually, but I hope to make some good videos, and do some good for people before i do.
Your video editing is so awesome 👍
I remember just fiddling around in the northern part of the map when some raiders attacked me out of no where.
One of them had the firelance pistol
This guys edits kill me 😂 keep up the good work bro
Thank you bro lol! Glad you liked it!
Makes a Video about Fallout 3.
Uses it to once again tell us how good new vegas is. Please dont Change bro
I undertand why people like bethesda fallout. But why should it be called fallout? If you compare the games they are absolutely different by its core. Fallout in 1 and 2 was about world rebuilding irtself and not about individuals survival.
BOUT TIME U UPLOADED
The randomness and rareness definitely made everybodies play through so different and reviews so differently they somehow got insecure about it and oversimplified tf out of fallout 4. They should have leaned into its. What made fallout great. It was almost like content rewarded to the player for their attention to detail and hard work.
Fallout 4 doesn’t have that level of interactivity between NPCs than Fallout 3 either however it does have more interactivity than New Vegas and more so than 76 which has no interactivity at all mostly because it is an online game and NPCs only interact in scripted events.
12:48 weird I just talked about this yesterday, this was a core memory in fallout 3 for sure one of the most memorable parts
Fallout 3 is my absolute favourite out of the entire series.
The game FEELS like an actual apocalypse, the first 1/2 and new vegas just feel like desert survival with the occasional jump into an abandoned facility. Wandering around a destroyed city and having to traverse old and burned out metro tunnels to actually cross the city.
3 also focused on yes, even after how ever much time has passed from something like a nuclear fallout - things are going to be easily focused on rebuilding.
I personally excuse the companion stuff as, I am supposed to be the lone wanderer, not the lonewanderer + friends. I have a dog and i can basically be the wastelands John Wick.
I understand that perspective 100%, and it's a valid one, yet I fear most FO3 glazers think this is what Fallout is actually about, a post-apocalypse game, and not what it's actually about, a post-post-apocalypse game a la Fallout 1, 2, and New Vegas
@@veila0924 It would be less frustrating if Bethesda just set their games closer to Fallout 1's time, but they insist on creating unnecessary problems for the worldbuilding going forward with every entry they release.
What do you expect a desert to be like AFTER a nuclear apocalypse then? Lmao green and snowy?
Fallout 3 is my favorite game of all time
Omg I have been thinking about how fallout 3 is a theme park for years! This is a great analysis!
A second Fallout 3 video game essay has hit TH-cam. But for real great work on this 👍
Thank you!!
Hell yeah! New Boofcan! I love your videos man. I hope my videos can become anywhere near the same quality as yours down the line
too freaking kind man. Keep it up, and try to improve one little thing each video.
@Boofcan That's what I've been trying, lol. I think I'm genuinely getting a lot better. Used to be my videos would only get maybe 1-2 minutes on average of views, now the percentage of people who stick around for the whole video is steadily going up!
My thumbnail game is still pretty garbage though, lol. Shorts kinda come in clutch since that's not a requirement there-
I know Fallout New Vegas is a "better game" to most but Fallout 3 will always be my favorite
I'm a Bethesda old head, but this was my first Fallout. To me, the magic of Fallout 3 is bringing their signature world creation method to the retro-future post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. In other words, it's a TES game with guns. I wasn't as taken with the conversations the NPCs have with each other. It'd worn out its welcome for me in Oblivion/Morrowind. I thought it became repetitive after you've been playing for a while.
I did love how you could decorate your little hovel with all the random crap you'd wind up finding out in the wastes, though. From unique weapons/armor to empty syringes and 'strange meat', you had a ton of options to head-cannon your guy as whatever you wanted, with a house that matched. Havok was still pretty new at the time, so having stuff that moved around like something approximating a real object was neat, if frustrating at times.
Also, in comparing the two, generally speaking, 3 comes ahead of NV when it comes to the smaller localized vignette-style stories. The cannibal town, the Republic of Dave, the "Vampires", the Dunwich building, the list goes on and on. New Vegas had a better overall story/world, and it was better at connecting its small stories to its larger overarching main story and themes, but in doing so I think Obsidian sacrificed some narrative versatility in the process.
I can't remember in what BTS@Bethsoft documentary I saw it in, but they apparently have a "put stuff in a big hat" style of letting everyone at the studio submit ideas for side quests, which the different devs then go and implement, as you do. So, it makes a lot of sense that their side quests would be more divergent and episodic.
That's why it's always been somewhat crazy to me when people try to argue which is better, 3 or NV. One the one hand, given how NV is essentially a glorified expansion pack to 3 in terms of its 'family tree', it makes sense, but on the other, both games are trying to do drastically different things. NV wants you to feel like you're in a real place, with stakes that matter for everyone you meet. The burden of figuring out how to do the right thing in a harsh world is front & center, and everything you do reinforces that, along with that central conflict. 3 just wants you to ignore finding your dad until you've run out of stuff to do, it's just trying to think of as much cool stuff for you to do as it can. And for that, it's great.
The implementation of havoc physics was still pretty wonky. There was some sort of trick to getting items you placed in an interior to *stay* where you put them, I think you had to drop it, leave the interior, then enter it again and put it where you wanted. If you didn’t then your stuff would be spread out all over the next time you entered. So many headaches back on the XB360 of realizing I meticulously arranged a dozen items only to return to my megaton house and have them sprawled out on the floor.
I do think I agree with the assessment of the different drives behind 3 and NV, for me though I just find NV more compelling to replay. I feel like after experiencing everything in 3 it’s hard to get a sense of intrinsic motivation to do a new playthrough. I usually don’t get further than 10 hours in of random exploration in 3 before it kind of just trails off.
Fallout 3 is their first fallout lmao
@@supershot9729 And their later Fallouts are even worse lmao
I hate watching videos about fallout because I remember how long we have to wait till fallout 5
imo the low resolution look kinda maintains the same sort of vibe from the earlier two games, it's so detailed but there is also so much for your brain to interpret and I think that helps new vegas and fallout 3 immerse you in it's vibe. I can't help but imagine what it would look like if I was there and that is something magical. I have NEVER had that thought playing 4, despite hundred of hours.
30:21 This is what finally made me say I’d seen enough with Bethesda’s RPGs.
In their bones, Fallout 3,4, Skyrim, and even Starfield to a degree have something that pulls you in: a vast open world, the promise of the unknown, and some of the wildest and strangest moments that you’ll have as a gamer.
But the further you go, the more you realize that it’s the narrative equivalent of a guided tour of a museum instead a sprawling adventure. No matter which faction you side with, if you want to actually do something of substance, you’ll do X, Y, and Z in this order and no other. Because that’s all there is to it.
New Vegas has a lot of these problems too, but it gets around them with strong characters, writing, a true blank slate, and allowing the you the opportunity to mess with or break quest lines.
In Bethesda’s games you’re always a chosen one in a different wrapper. It’s cool once, and incredibly tedious after the fact. But in New Vegas, you’re just a courier, some random person trying to survive. Nothing’s really expected of you once you leave the tutorial, so it’s up to you to decide how kind, evil, or chaotic you want to be. The story might be written a certain way, but you can misdirect or outright sabotage it if you choose.
IMHO this is why (besides the obvious tech limitations, bugs, and glitches) Bethesda games rely so heavily on mods: to actually deepen your immersion and interaction with their world, you *will* need outside help. Even as shallow as Starfield is RP wise, the fact that so many have attempted/are attempting to fix it with alternate start mods, skill tree/faction overhauls, and new gameplay mechanics shows that there’s still a want to see and get engrossed in these worlds and their stories.
It’s just a shame that we have to pave over most of what’s already there to do it. For anyone who’s made it this far, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Have a good one.
I'm STILL mad about Starfield. I hoped they would have listened to feedback after nearly a decade, but instead we got the most shallow, bland, inoffensive slop possible.
@@ps3beatswii Amen. The problem with an echo chamber is that it’s soundproof.
And from the looks of it, they’ve built one as big as the Institute.
Now we wait for next video love the new style ngl you deserve to rest now ❤
I'm already straight into the next project! I would like to upload way faster this year. :)