I suppose it's possible if you help the tower out with it's Ghoul Problem, but really...I wouldn't bother.

It took all my willpower not to go postal on those stuck up Post-Apocalyptic Snobs.


EDIT: Started a new game, I'm going to continue being a paragon of virtue, but this time I'm gonna explore the entire goddamn map first, as well as try to obtain all the Bobbleheads (Only found two, in my first play through). It's amazing how smoother the game flows when you've got the knowledge of what works and what doesn't. I'm also going in loaded down with goodies from the Vault I didn't haul around before - nevermind a ton of ammo (I used the Baseball Bat exclusively).

Also found a neat little piece of lore in one of the mailboxes in Springvale that I don't think was there before - a letter from Vault-Tec. It's just cute fluff, cept for the little blurb about Vault-Tec Vaults in "Newly annexed Canada".

Possible hint for a future game, mayhaps? It would be really neat to see the Fallout universe through the perspective of another nation - especially a occupied nation prior to the bombs.


EDIT EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention it. There is one Transformers reference within Fallout 3. It's pretty obvious to spot.

There is NO way to get both houses, either one or the other, the only way to get a house is doing the atom bomb quests, either blow up Megaton or disarm it, even helping Tenpenny with the ghoul thing doesn't make him give you a home.

Speaking of which I restarted last night with a fresh EVIL character, put in points in sneak, I love it, sneaking around, watching enemy patterns, get super sneak crits on them and lopping their heads off with one bullet is so much fun. It was especially satisfying when I got a sneak crit on Amata's dad and blew his head clean off. Sneaking around adds a brand new dimension to the game.

I also blew up Megaton, most visually impressive thing EVER.

How did you get into the Police Station? It says I need a lockpick of 100 in order to attempt to open the door

Is there any more Raider camps near Megaton or Arefu?

Circle around (Not towards the Mutant Camp, obviously), and head up the stairs on the side of the building to gain instant access to the upper level of the Police Station. It means working your way down, but actually the Police Station encounter is built on the assumption that your starting from the top and working your way down anyway.

Man, I didn't get to play this last night, due to the wife wanting to watch SNL and Election coverage. I need to take a day of or something.

Cleared out the Hospital and Hotel last night, stumbled upon and completed the Rangers quest too. Got me a whole lot of stimpacks and medicine, ammo, and some super nice ranger armor that looks like something out of Starship Troopers or Aliens.

I love that friggen Hospital. It's a treasure trove of Stimpacks!

Is it worth it to get dogmeat? I know where to get him and did on one non-saved game.
Also, are there any good maps of the game-world floating around online?

Dogmeat's best gotten early on - but over all, he's not bad. He can help locate ammo and food, and his overall damage isn't terrible.

The only problem with Dogmeat is the problem with all low level companions in Fallout - they like to charge in, guns (or teeth) ablazing into areas that would best be left untouched for a bit. So he requires some babysitting.



Also, a little tip to all the players. Head down to the Southwestern corner of the map (Around where Tenpenny Tower is), and look around till you locate the Dunwich Building. If you want a little bit of Survival Horror mixed with some Supernatural events, head on inside (Seriously, the place is brilliantly designed).

Where exactly is Dogmeat at?

Scrapyard south of Minefield.

hmm... with my birthday coming up soon maybe ill get this.

i didnt like oblivion, at all really.. but this seems like it would me a lot more interesting.

I hate Oblivion and felt it was the biggest let down of 2006 gaming.

That being said, I love Fallout 3.

I enjoyed my time with Oblivion, but it had a number of glaring flaws that kept it from holding my interest for long.

Fallout 3 is probably the best game I've played all year. I hunger to play it. There's not a day I play that I don't discover something interesting and/or kickass. It's well plotted from both a story and gameplay perspective. I love that you can just stumble into quests from so many different angles.

Also, I encountered my first Behemoth last night. Sweet Zombie Jesus they're terrifying. I immediately hid inside some ruins while it annihilated a group of Super Mutants and Paladins. Once they weakened it up some, I drugged myself up with some of everything I had and went to town on it with grenades and my Chinese assault rifle. As soon as my Action Bar was depleted I ran back in the ruins and hid around a corner while it refilled.

It was epic. I hope to god I'm better armed if I encounter one out in the wastes with nowhere to hide.

You didn't have anything better than an assault riffle?

I typically dont travel with my minigun, flamer, or missile launcher cause my big guns and explosives skill are pretty low. My Chinese Assault Rifle however is in very good repair and the damage is in the low 40s.

Ahh. Makes sense.

What about multiple weapons?

I have a 10mm submachine gun, a hunting rifle, a combat shotgun and a chinese assault rifle, I'm prepped for anything.

I love that hunting riffle. Headshots are easy with it.

Okay, having had a chance to play for a serious amount of time, my single complaint is this: It's WAY too easy to break the quests. I talked to Li before hitting GNR and skipped that, and I can't finish the ghoul quest for tenpenny the good way because I talked to the residents BEFORE talking to tenpenny.

Oh, I carry those as well, but at the range I was attacking from, the CAR had the best damage and accuracy.

I find that I spend the majority of my time using the Hunting Rifle. It pops head open like nobody's business. I'm currently investigating Evergreen Mills. I got so much loot I had to head back to town to clear my bags!

Currently defending the wastelands from transgressors (total goody too-shoes, with a does of kleptomania) with a Combat Shotgun, Chinese Assault Rifle, Hunting Rifle and my new favourite, the Scoped 44 Magnum.

Bag me a Death Claw while exploring the Bottom left quarter of the map today, in a picnic area that has a schematic, also had schematic for making a weapon out of one of it's claws.

I was lucky enough to spot it and reach a rock formation that I could climb up, with it unable to reach me.


Also, found a Place called Dunwich Building. Always like it when Bethesda sticks in a Lovecraft reference (Hackdirt in Oblivion). Creepy place.

Dunwich is extremely creepy. Though it wasn't the flashback, the flying cans, or the final room that really wierded me out. It was the doors slamming shut behind me that were getting to me.

woots just picked it up this morning.

made it out of the vault and into megaton.

having a lot of fun so far.

You're going to love it!

so far i am

decided to not blow up megaton ( though it was very tempting.. )

made my way to the metro station and fought some radrats, killed soem dudes outside the super duper mart ( great loot, i got the fat boy off of one of them )

currently trying to find the news radio guy

apparently the ruins of the bethesda offices are in the games too. one of the bobble heads is in it among other things.

Well, I was exploring South a grayditch, and I found the citadel. Cool looking place, but I couldn't get in. I did see two Super mutants attack one of the sentry guards. After they killed her, I was able to swoop in and finish them off. I got the Power armor, but can't use it yet. After that, I continued down, and found a nest of Talon Mercs. Now I have some good armor thanks to them, as well as a Combat shotgun and a sniper riffle!

I found one other thing that kind of bugs me. Its way too easy to make enemies

I started a second character after finishing the main quest line with one. I was working on the quest line for Moira and got to the part in the Library. I was helping some of the BOS guys clean house when they suddenly turned and started shooting me. I guess that at some point during all the fighting I must have hit one with a stray shot. It really shouldn't be that easy to make someone an enemy

You have to be careful when in groups. that is why you should always use VATS if the target is close to a friendly.

Can anyone remember where the 3 leaking pipes are in Megaton? I found 2 fairly easily, but I can't seem to find the third.

This looks pretty awesome, so here's a dumb question.

If my machine can handle Oblivion, can I play this without upgrading?

Must be the one HIGHLIGHT to view:
on top of the Church of Atom Building, took me a while to finally find that one.

yeah that one was hard to find.

and wow.. i LOVE the combat shotgun. makes everything go asplody

Bah, how dare you make me dig out my computer's speclist.

And nuts...I can run it, but just barely. Probably not a good idea to try it.

I just found dogmeat! Twice even! The first time I kinda got him killed fighting Yaoi Gui While trekking to Canterbury. So I reloaded, and found him again, and fast walked him to megaton.

While he's an excellent scrapper, two yaoi is too much, and I don't want him to die, so he's a house dog from now on.

Bah. Damn kids.

Back in my day we towed Dogmeat around everywhere we went. And he died in Mariposa in Fallout 1. AND WE LIKED IT!

*Waves cane, shakes fist*


Also, I'm slightly disappointed. Found the Nuka-Cola Bottling Company, but there's a distinct lack of much Nuka-Cola.

I blew up Megaton.

...It amused me and now I have a pretty penthouse suite >:D

Well I finally finished Moira's book... it was a long hard battle but there was a sense of accomplishment, and some cool loot along the way.

Now I don't even know what I want to do.

what the crap, man?

this game makes my 360 freeze up. its never done that before..

i had just finished the mirelurk quest for moira, and i was leaving the memorial and during the loading screen to get into the wastes the screen just went grey and didnt do anything.

now everytime i load that game it goes to that grey screen...

lost over an hour of gameplay ;-;

Huh. I've had it lock up once during a loading screen, but my save file loaded up just fine. Still, at least you only lost an hour of play time.

Sounds like you got a random corrupted save game. I had a weird error occur when walking from the scrap yard to canterbury. All the different clipping planes sents a black wall from ground to sky. They were totally incoherent, shifting each time I took a step, and they were intangible.

Made it a COMPLETE pain in the ass to see the yaoi gui that killed dogmeat the first time, but yeah, other than that the game worked fine.

So yeah, exploration yields adventure and profit.

Ran across a "Chinese Beacon" radio signal, which lead me to the remains of a Chinese Commando. Interesting to contemplate that the Chinese had military troops in and around the DC Area - kinda makes you wonder if what we "know" about the state of the world prior to the Great War is just more Enclave-US Propaganda.


Also explored the Red Ryder (The little tricycles in the game) Factory. Neat little storyline to that place, I couldn't figure out why it sounded like mines disarming and heads popping when I didn't kill them with head shots till I hit the CEO Offices.

So I went from the place up NE called the Republic of Dave, westward to a place called Old Olney...

Long post here. This was an email I made to my brother giving a update on my status after a gaming marathon, so my wording my be a little different from normal. I'll try to post spoiler tags, but I apologize if something gets through.

Wow.

I have been playing this game pretty much all weekend. I played it Friday when I got home for several hours, and would have played it more, but my friend was over and I wanted to let him get some time in on Oblivion, as he loves that game. Saturday, I played from 10 AM until 2 AM Sunday with only an hour break to check out the new KMart in town. Yesterday I played 10 Am until 11 PM. So with all that in mind, I've got a bit farther into it than I was before. I am just shy of getting to level 14. That is sort of bittersweet, as I like leveling up, but I'm told that there is a level cap at 20. I wonder if, when you get to level 20, you can use the "Here and Now" Perk to get to level 21.

I've finally taken the time to create some new weapons. The first one I made was the Rock-it Launcher, but I haven't tried it out yet, as I am usually sticking with more conventional weaponry. Later on, I might take it for a go just for laughs. I made the Shishkabob next, and it makes a fairly impressive melee weapon. However, at this point, I no longer carry around melee weapons, as I have a ton of ammo for all my ranged guns which kill alot more effectively than even the toughest melee weapons. Then I made the Railgun. Now that was a fun gun! I liked it a lot, but it's VATS use was limited due to it taking a lot of AP to use. I suspect it might be a big gun and that is why I'm not as good with it as I should be. However, it's 8 round magazine also becomes an issue in combat, as that simply isn't enough to get through a fight without reloading if there are multiple enemies around.

Of more conventional weapons, I am usually using one of four weapons depending on the situation:

1. Assault riffle. Either the standard FANFAL or the Chinese version depending on what the enemies are dropping. Great for shooting long range while you get closer to to go into VATS mode for a head shot.

2. Combat shotgun. 12 shots before reloading, and it does some great work up close. HIGHLIGHT to view:
I haven't tried it out on a Behometh yet, but it works well head shotting everything else.

3. Laser riffle/pistol. This does some great damage to turrets and robots. it also can due against humans and mutants in a pinch.

4. 10mm Sub machine gun. It's a great go-to gun. It basically gets used for long range plinking against lower powered enemies like feral ghouls, Raiders, animals, and low level super mutants. It's basically just there so I don't have to use up more valuable ammo. On occasion, I will break out a hunting riffle to do the same thing, especially since the super mutants keep dropping those.

Of course, I use other weapons when the need arises, such as the minigun and missile launcher for boss enemies, and the sniper riffle and the scoped 44 magnum for when I need to stay further off. And I always carry a pulse grenade on me for any tough robot encounters I might have, such as HIGHLIGHT to view:
the Sentry bots that the Talon mercs seem to have following them around south of the library.

At the moment, I am using Talon Combat armor and a metal helmet. HIGHLIGHT to view:
I have been finding a ton of power armor off of dead BOS guys around the capital building area, in the aftermath of the battle at GNR studios, and off of a few vendors. However, they BOS won't let me in to get training on how to use it. I've been giving their scribe pre-war books, helped the at the battle for GNR, and even restored the relay for them, yet they still won't let me into the citadel for PA training. Is there someone that I have to speak to get in, some other quest I need to do, or is my Karma too high?

Currently, I have reached Rivet city HIGHLIGHT to view:
and I have found out how it got started. I am working on that android quest for the Commonwealth. I know that it was the science guy in the broken bow of the ship that fixed him up, but the railroad wants me to tell Zimmerman that the machine is dead. I think I will do that as I want to keep my Karma high on this play through. Next time, I will make my scoundrel. I love the blade runner parody of this quest.
HIGHLIGHT to view:

I only have the one robot factory quest left for Moira's book, but I need to find more pulse grenades before I head there. I hope that the reward for this book is worth it. I've discovered that the Optional objectives on these quests are what you really need to do to get a decent reward.

At the moment, I am clearing out the Capitol building. HIGHLIGHT to view:
The Talon mercs are trying to take it back from the super mutants and neither group pays you much attention as you kill them all off. Definitely bring a missile launcher to that fight for when you get inside though, you'll need it once you get to the end of the main floor. I still have a bit to go on that building, as I haven't gone to any of the other areas in it besides the main floor. I've cleared out the museum of technology, museum of History, and the archives building. HIGHLIGHT to view:
I was going for the Lincoln memorial but a group of slavers won't let me in until I bring them Lincoln memorabilia from the Museum of history. I went there and got all of it, but instead, I sold it off to the Capital Preservation society guy in Rivet city, even though the guy gave me hardly nothing for them.Can I just go and kill the slavers without losing Karma since they are slavers? Also, I can I do the same thing in paradise falls? I've only managed to free one captive so far, and that was from super mutants, and I wonder if there is a quest to free slaves or something like that? HIGHLIGHT to view:
I know about the railroad, but they focus on getting synthetic people out of the commonwealth.

I have got my repair skill up lately, and it is serving me well, as now I am able to sell off dropped weapons as opposed to having to keep them for weapon maintenance. That is good as my caps were starting to dip below 2000 there for a while after I finally got to Rivet City. I've also got my lockpick and science skills above 50 so I can get to most locked terminals, doors, safes, and ammo boxes. When Hacking terminals, I found that it is best to save right before hand so you can reload if you lock yourself out of it. No sense in wasting a perk to do the same thing.

I haven't traveled that much to the North, as the main quest hasn't sent me to that area yet. Is it something that I eventually do, or is that a huge open area that is meant for optional exploring? HIGHLIGHT to view:
Is that where the common wealth is located at? The farthest north that I have been to is when I stumbled upon Paradise Falls, and I haven't even gone in there due to it being a slaver camp.

Mine had an error when every time I tried to fast travel to the Super Duper mart. It would load, and then pop up into a black screen. I just went elsewhere, and then came back to it later and it seemed to work for me.

i cant bring up any menus or anything though, its tottaly frozen.

i have to get up and reset the console manually

Yeah, it was that one. Thanks!




Tell me about it. I need to build a new Rig myself. I barely play this on my current system, and there isn't anyway to upgrade it anymore as the processor and motherboard are what is out-of-date.

Oh, for everyone interested, I have a cheap trick for hacking terminals. You still need the base skill to hack it, but it gives you UNLIMITED attempts.

Simply abort your hack attempt on the last try instead of guessing the password. The inherent problem is that the password changes every time you re-hack the system, the upshot is that it's not totally random, but will cycle through five or six different sets of passwords.

HOWEVER! I am playing on easy, so I don't know if this will work on different difficulty levels. I don't see why it wouldn't work, but you never know.