Im Ernst, man kann alles schlecht reden. Die "Fans" verlangen immer mehr, mehr, mehr. Sei es bei Spitzen-MMOs (WotLK, LOTRO: Moria), bei Spitzen-Actionspielen (Crysis), bei Spitzen-Sandkastenspielen (Spore) usw. 2008 war ein Jahr mit sehr vielen sehr guten, innovativen und klasse weiter entwickelten Spielen, das muss man sich auch vor Augen halten. Speziell zu Fallout 3, hier wird die Vergangenheit in meinen Augen maßlos glorifiziert. Sowohl Fallout 1 als auch Fallout 2 (beide gespielt) waren gute Spiele, würden meiner heutigen Einschätzung aber nach nicht mehr als gute 82 Punkte oder so bekommen. Viele Elemente des Spiels waren damals auch schon nicht so klasse, der Taktikmodus mit "Kopfschuss zielen - verfehlt, laden, Kopfschuss zielen - verfehlt, laden, Kopfschuss zielen - verfehlt, laden, Kopfschuss zielen - Treffer, Gegner tot" war auch nicht so viel anders als VATS heute. Und ich kann mich daran erinnern, dass auch nicht jedes Gespräch immer eine gute Lösung hatte. Lasst die Vergangenheit in schöner Erinnerung bleiben, spielt was auf dem Markt ist und hofft, dass es hier und da ein Studio gibt, dass genauso hochwertige Spiele schafft wie Bethesda. Sowohl Morrowind, Oblivion als auch Fallout 3 sind klasse gemacht. Man hätte so viel verbocken können, ist aber nicht passiert.

P.S. Sorry for not typing this in english. The gist of my comment is: Fallout 3 is good as it is. There was much risk to make this a bad game and it is in fact a good one. Strongly recommended.

My reaction to Fallout 3 is that I played it for two hours, was instantly overwhelmed by the atmosphere it creates and decided to not go on playing before I really find the time for it. Even after only two hours into the game, it just makes me feel like it deserves my fullest attention.

I have done two very cautious previews on Fallout 3, but most of my "fears" have not come true. For example, I thought at that time that VATS would be a cheat mode, just as mentioned above. But it is really not, because even with Jet and Ultrajet, you simply don't have enough APs to get through a sustained fight. So it's running, dodging, hiding -- and in every medium to major battle, I will have to rely on non-VATS mode, too, using automatic weapons.

It think Fallout 3 is the best Fallout so far, period. And yes, I've played both early parts up to the end and even the somewhat clumsy Fallout Tactics for about two thirds of the storyline. Where the early Fallouts were technically inferior to nearly any contemporary game in the market, Fallout 3 is not. And why shouldn't there be electricity? Ever heard of solar panels? Ever heard of generators? The latter could be maintained for many decades after such a catastrophe, and could be built anew. Surely the US petrol reserves would go for a long, long way once all those planes, cars and industry plants are no longer used. The one thing I do not like about Fallout 3 is the "teleporting" of opponents in my back once I trigger something. For example, some Talon company assassins might jump at me out of nowhere, or a general sounding an alarm will teleport in his guard. That's one of Oblivion's weaker concepts that should have been buried. But overall? A very, very good game.

I really like Fallout 3. The atmosphere is excellent, the fights are ok, the dialogues are not very good, but still ok.

Still, there are numerous things that are not logical at all, NMA mentioned a few

Where are the plants? Come on, 200 years, it should be green again.
Why do the cars explode in a big nuke? This is just weird.
Why is stuff lying around, everything should be looted after 200 years.
The working computers are very weird

But all that stuff would have been solved with a simple change: Fallout 3 does not play in 23xx, simply 50 years after the war, which was not, as in Fallout 1, in 2070, rather in 1965, well they just had fission cars. Most things would be fine then, in my opinion.

Com' on it's a friggin game - so if the so called hardcore fans whould ask for realism they are just as lost with the first 2 installments.
They should be forced to play a game the actually are asking for. No Loot, 'cause hey somebody got it aready, hey no quests 'cause somebody did it already, hey nobody there, 'cause all died already.
Fallout 3 saved the Fallout Universe. First it's a very good RPG, second with the money interplay made selling the franchise as a singleplayer title they maybe will create a faboulus mmorpg.

So go f*** the whiny bastards - I'am Fallout hardcore han and i say it's great.

I think the NMA review is great - it doesn't bash the game, it even states that it is "a good and entertaining action RPG". Fallout 3 provided me with 60h+ of nice play time, but it has its flaws and I have to say that I agree with most of the points he makes in the review (and I'm not talking about the environment inconsistencies).

I think NMA is too harsh with its criticism or not arguing fairly: because the question they asked was not "is it a perfect game?" but "is it worthy of Fallout 1/2?" - and yes, it is. All the complaints (electricity, ammo, medikits) might be a problem of realism, but not of "Fallout-ish-ness" (omg), because I remember looting stimpacks from lockers and instantly killing almost everything with a laser rifle in Fallout 1/2 only too well - so there's nothing different here in Fallout 3. I think the overall atmosphere of the series mainly derives from the unexpected "clash" of 1950s elements with nuclear war and wasteland elements of the game. The cute household commercials in front of a railgun mutant. And that is what makes Fallout 3 even better than parts 1 and 2, because today's graphics technology lets us dive even deeper into that great fictional world.

I've read the source article and while page 1 is just an endless tirade of wishful fan propaganda, page 2 actually is quite interesting, especially the comparison of AP costs and Attribute Points between the different Fallout games. Page 3 returns to the propaganda, only to end with a lame "but hey, it's quite good when you look at other modern action RPGs".

Overall, I think this guy is so wrong. He shows the clear signs of a warped perspective that often gets to die-hard fans: They have busied themselves for so long with a single game or series (mostly with one that has not seen a successor for years), and in their minds, that game or series climbs to heights no game in real-life can actually reach. They no longer can take a neutral look on their beloved Fallout 1 or Ultima 1 or whatever, a fact that is being helped by the inferior graphics of the oldie ("Of course, it looks not good today, but the GAMEPLAY is so superior, and the MOOD, and the CHARACTERS"). I also think they no longer play the old game, but only try out mods or new levels, at the most. So although they are die-hard fans, they no longer speak from experience or real enjoyment of the oldie, but from their MEMORY of past experiences and past enjoyment. Of course, nothing can compete with that. If you look at other successors that were plainly bad, I'm sad that the remarkable game Bethesda has created is critized so much by exactly the people that should be glad to have it.

I also see a case of "rejected love" here: By investing so much of their time and enthusiasm in creating a often remarkable fan site (I am not talking about NMA in particular, nor about Fallout fans in particular), they feel like they own the franchise, at least to some extent, at least in some metaphysical kind of way. They think they have the right to get the game that they have created in their minds by taking the oldie and transposing it into a modern game. Also, they do not see themselves as fans anymore, but as equals to the game designers (which is of course right on a general scale, but wrong when it comes to actually designing a game). And sometimes, I think, they feel superior to the game designers: Only they KNOW what is best for their game, and all the developers are just STUPID, and so on. It's quite sad, actually.

By the way, did someone link this comment page to NMA's article comments? :P

Steuben, you're perfectly right, good thoughts! (I like Fallout 3 a lot *although* I look back misty-eyedly to the single most remarkable moment in my gaming history: watching the final videos after completing Fallout 1 one saturday morning at 4 a.m. alone in my living room, then sneaking into my bed, knowing my back-then girlfriend would never understand what a *great* time this game had given me [did I mention I married a different girl ;) who plays herself?])