Jon brings up some valid points here and there, but fails to mention several shortcomings. Not hidden mind you, but available in plain sight, for all to take notice.

I do agree, the game can be vague at times (intentional or not), leaving many things for the player to interpret to their own liking.

SPOILERS beyond this point. You have been warned.





Manya Vargas explains how Megaton was built, how it all started: "When the war happened, the machines started dropping from the sky. Everyone around here thinks that the bomb made the crater, but it didn't. The crater provided good cover from the dust storms and when my daddy and the rest of the town decided to build the walls, they used what they had." To which the player replies: "There are a lot of parts here for just one machine"... So Manya mentions an "air station a couple of miles from here. It'd been stripped of everything except the planes. My daddy got a bunch of people together to go out there, break apart the machines and drag back what we could use. It took 'em a couple of months." So much so, that in 2277 there's no trace or track of the aforementioned airport. Yet there's edible Pre-War food in a supermarket located near Megaton.

Springvale might not be the most viable solution indeed. Not for the lack of fortifications (could've managed with those seeing they've built a whole town from scratch), but for another reason - its proximity to the bomb. But as one can notice, bombs seem to affect select structures only (see the White House reduced to a crater, while nearby buildings are still standing).
There were at least two better choices for building a large settlement: the D.C. ruins, or anywhere else in the Capital Wasteland, as long as it was far away from the bomb. These people should fear such a destructive weapon (what about learning from past mistakes?), not build a town around it. And hear this - disarming an atomic bomb is easier than disarming a grenade bouquet or a rigged terminal. What does that tell you?

What about launching a mini nuke with the Fat Man and its blast radius (see the battle at GNR)? Then what about all those cars with nuclear reactors? Are they supposed to serve a tactical purpose, even if the basic concept does not make sense? Sure, you can bait enemies near a car or two, or more, and trap them in the explosion with a bit of luck. But that's about it. The Lone Wanderer can disarm traps, but is unable to set them wherever he/she pleases. At least there are mines...
Which brings me to the combat itself: it's rather poor. Three tactics are on display when fighting whatever the game throws at you, namely backpedaling, shooting straight for the enemy's weapon, and using what cover is available (which works quite well actually).
What does it mean playing on Very Hard difficulty? It's all about damage received (200%) vs damage inflicted (50%). Which transforms the enemies into bullet sponges. See, a raider can withstand even two clips from an assault rifle to the face or several shotgun shells to the chest. For comparison purposes a level 12 feral ghoul reaver has no less than 1100 HP, a level 13 albino radscorpion 1500 HP, whereas a level 13 super mutant master only 360 HP.

Now, concerning the behavior of its NPCs. Four examples I've to offer.
How does Amata react if the Lone Wanderer kills her father? She's somewhat upset.
What's Moira's reaction if the player blows up Megaton? "Well, okay, as long as you're sorry. But I expect you to apologize to everyone in town, okay? And don't do it again." Say what?!
What about James' reaction to the same event? He's very disappointed in you.
And finally, let's assume the Lone Wanderer initiates combat in any given settlement or steals something and the inhabitants turn hostile. Return after 3 in-game days and everyone will turn a blind eye, as if nothing would've happened at all. That's some bad memory right there.

Which brings me to the utterly flawed karma system. Let's assume you blow up Megaton. That means -1000 karma points, making you very evil. Broken Steel introduced several karma-related perks, Elevator to Heaven among them. Choosing this perk grants you no less than 2000 karma points, which obviously makes you very good. What's the player supposed to learn here? That his actions bear no real consequences? That can't be!
Anyone familiar with Carlos, the beggar asking for water outside Rivet City? Giving him a single bottle of clean water grants you 50 karma points. According to Bethesda, blowing up a town can be countered by giving away 20 bottles of purified water or Aqua Cura. What's this then? Megaton has a population of roughly 42. In the event of a certain disaster occurring, Moira alone survives (since she was out of town for some odd reason). In other words, a single bottle of water is worth two human lives and some unknown part of a brahmin.
How did Bethesda implement choice and consequence in the unmarked quest Water Beggars? Take for instance Micky, a beggar plopped right in front of Megaton's gates. If the player refuses to give him clean water, Micky will die. A straight up NO leads to a man's demise. Yet no one seems to be aware of him. No one in Megaton (or at the gates) is willing to help this guy. If he dies, no one will pick up the body. No one gives a damn about him.

And some of the locations...
Arefu developed on a collapsed overpass, for everyone to see and take advantage of. No wonder those wannabe vampires killed their brahmin.
Girdershade consists of two shacks in the middle of nowhere, next to raiders and other creatures, such as yao guais, radscorpions and deathclaws. One of the inhabitants is looking to "plow" a "bean field", whereas the other is addicted to Nuka Cola.
The Republic of Dave sits in Old Olney's proximity, an inherently dangerous place.
Dukov's place is surrounded by raiders, mirelurks, super mutants, centaurs, and the occasional Enclave soldier. Yet no one bothers the trio, since Dukov is a crack shot.
Why would Tenpenny want Megaton destroyed? Hoping people will be forced to move in his tower, perhaps? No one seems to bring up the question whether or not these people have the means to pay Tenpenny. Most of them don't have jobs, where are they going to get caps from?
The inhabitants of Andale have taken to cannibalism since their food supply ran out. Apparently they're unaware food can be found in the wasteland, even if it's two centuries old. Nor have they heard about growing crops and animals. Why bother with such nonsense, right? Don't get me wrong now, cannibalism isn't so farfetched in this universe. Heck, the Lone Wanderer can indulge in such practices for -1 karma. Meanwhile, stealing someone's property leads to -5 karma. But I digress.
Have you heard about the Temple of the Union? This derelict building is home to several runaway slaves led by a fella named Hannibal Hamlin, who is all too eager to share their predicament with a complete stranger. Says Hamlin to the Lone Wanderer: "I'm not going to ask you who you are. For the moment, I don't care. We are all escaped slaves. I need your solemn promise not to betray us [...] Until I get that, you cannot leave here." Next thing you know, the Lone Wanderer is off the window (since the gate is locked), unceremoniously giving them the middle finger.

There are so many wrong things with Fallout 3, that I'd take a while to list them all. What baffles me is that folk overlook these glaring issues, rather focusing on coming up with all sorts of theories and excuses, or simply blame it on nostalgia and unwillingness to adapt and accept change. That's just hogwash.

I was ready to vehemently disagree with you, but I don't think I can.
I love the exploration, it puts the journey above the destination, which works nicely for the game. If that's just not your cup of tea and you prefer the tighter focus of the earlier games, then a big strength of the game is of no consequence and I don't doubt the game's not doing much for you then.
And while I'm fine with the combat, usually I prefer turn-based myself, so I think I can understand that point.

I do however find it surprising that there seems to be so little overlap between target audiences. Quite a few IPs made the jump to 3D successfully without having that problem (admittedly, fewer so from turn-based to real time). And, ignoring comparison for a moment, both are great games in isolation. It is what it is, I guess.

Ah, thank you for bringing this up. It's been a while since I played the game, I couldn't remember that dialog, at all.
Yes, that is absolute nonsense, then.

It tells me that Bethesda wanted to get the player into player housing as soon as possible and couldn't stand the idea of having them roam around homelessly and actually having to scrounge a living together to afford the hotel - and it's a damn shame they didn't have the guts to pull that trigger. This is not a narrative issue, but one of a developer needlessly coddling their players. But yeah, the incredibly lax Explosives check for disarming the bomb is a pet peeve of mine, too.
And while we're at it, how the hell does Simms, in that setting, in that situation, just have the biggest house with its own robo-butler sitting around unused, waiting to be given away as a price for something apparently no one really bothered to properly try for ages, anyways? Bollocks.

The Karma system is flawed, but that is one of the accurate parts, I'd say.

I don't see the problem. Why should they give a damn about him?

Many of these, as well as a lot in the game, is down to personal motivation of NPCs and I think the question of "what's the point?" is somewhat misplaced. For example:
Why does he need a reason beyond shits and giggles?
No, that doesn't make him a deep or relatable villain, but I always thought that was the point: everyone in the wasteland is, in one way or another, broken.
I do agree with some of these, though. Dukov's Place, for example, is very questionably located. Putting him on the actual top floor of the building, throw some traps in, and the whole thing may have been borderline sensible, but not as is.

It's also worth mentioning that settlements in general are way too sparsely populated to appear viable. I think this does add to some of these issues and I'm also putting this down to technical limitations. Which isn't meant to be an excuse - we see what the game presents us with, not what it may want to present. Just something rather unfortunate.

Regarding Micky (or Carlos) - I don't have a problem with him being completely ignored by other NPCs. After all, their awareness is almost non-existant. They can't even help themselves, let alone others. I do however have a problem with Bethesda's take on morality and karma.

With Megaton destroyed Tenpenny utters something along these lines: I almost wish there was another nuke we could detonate. You don't see that very often. It's obvious - the old man is beyond bored. So yes, it could very well be just for his own amusement, no other reason whatsoever.

On another note, here's an interesting video from Indigo Gaming:
Why Fallout Isn't Fallout - 20th Anniversary Analysis | Interplay vs. Bethesda's Fallout

Hey, I always willing to hear somebody out. Especially when it's about a subject towards which I have strong feelings. I'm not going to be too patient, but I'll listen to what you have to say. Hopefully you can challenge my opinion, but you'd better front end your arguments.

Fair enough, and I'm also willing to hear someone out. But when it comes to games if I love or hate a game won't change because of someone's opinion/argument. The gaming experience is what it is and won't alter because of what someone else says about it. Same with movies, music, or books.

But yeah, it can be interesting to hear why someone likes or hates something I guess, so point well taken.

Interesting video. Again the originals get conflated. Especially on the point of balance between grim atmosphere and dark humor, this is off.

I also have to point out that some of the points he paints as negatives are actually not that black and white.
Where he sees a comical mismatch in blowing up mutants to Bing Crosby, I see a disconnect that is intentionally jarring, an aural reminder of the world we lost underlying the gory visual of wasteland reality and a frankly eerie scene that oozes a lot more atmosphere than his Fallout 2 comparison clip.
And where he decries the missing impact of perks in Fallout 3's leveling system, I am happy that the game opts for a more measured, incremental progression in place of having a few gamechanger perks, that radically change your build at certain levels.
As an opinion piece this is fine, but there's a lot of room to disagree.

Also, regarding New Vegas Okay, I played New Vegas for 2-3 hours and all I got to do was follow a road. What the hell did I miss?

I just wanted to point out that Wasteland 2 uses 3D, with the improved camera control and graphics that gets you, while still having gameplay almost identical to Fallout 1 & 2. I am not opposed to 3D, I'm just opposed to the other changes that were made. The only graphical things I miss from the original Fallouts are some specific animations (e.g. plasma criticals). In fact, if I weren't so lazy, I'd make a 3D version of 1 & 2 using assets from NV to satisfy people who avoid 1 & 2 because they think it's ugly. They'd probably still complain about it being turn-based, though.

Yeah, I probably should keep my opinion regarding Wasteland 2 to myself, otherwise this would be getting ugly.

I would have to disagree on adding the third dimension to isometric games, though. In my experience this just adds a clunky, unneccessary control layer that forces you to constantly shift perspective to facilitate what you're trying to do/inspect, where a well designed isometric map would present the correct angle at all times and free up one hand for other hotkeys or beer. I fear it would also really mess up Fallout's aesthetic. The old games have a certain charme and have aged surprisingly gracefully. And I think anyone who deems those games ugly would probably run into a few other, more outdated roadblocks, like the somewhat clunky inventory system.

Indeed, Bethesda did the lion's share, but there are other studios out there that can build a game practically from the ground up with a fantastic story and good gameplay (Dragon Age: Origins comes to mind). In the case of New Vegas, Obsidian created vast pieces of DLC which did require them to do more work, and they still wrote compelling stories for them. I really do think that it was just a matter of caring about the IP as a potential piece of art VS just another money-maker.

Like I said, I agree Obsidian did a better job. I just don't think it's fair to say Bethesda didn't put enough effort into their game. Except for maybe its bugginess, but that seems to something they just can't shake off.

Does he? I don't remember that at all. Unless you mean the first interaction you have with him, where he talks about invading the tower with feral ghouls.And you'd think that it wouldn't have come as a surprise at all, had I known about it when I played through it.

Good post, I agree with most points. I played through Fallout 3 only once so far, and as a good guy, and I liked it for the most part. The main quest was crap, but that's Bethesda.

In any case, "evil" playstyles are a very delicate thing. I can't think of many games which got evil right, but I suppose the problem is usually allowing evil actions without preventing the player from finishing the game. I recently made the experience with Knights of the Old Republic, which I liked when I played through it for the first time several years ago, with a good character as well. But with an evil character, the entire game falls apart. None of your actions have any real consequences, and no matter how evil you behave in font of your Jedi companions, the worst you get is a lecture about how the force should and should not be used. Even worse - spoilers - no matter how you play your character, the story always unfolds in the same way, and not only do you feel like you are only a puppet with no influence on what's happening, the game even admits it! Only right before the ending you can make some decisions of your own, but they also change very little about the conclusion of the story.

He does, unless I am completely mistaken. I think at the very least you get the interaction you mentioned and can then still decide to resolve the conflict peacefully.
And I wouldn't think it was meant as something obvious. Just reality catching up with your plans. The peaceful resolution is a neat way to solve the quest and it is a solution and not a failure, but the Vault Dweller can't just Jesus all problems away and the short term solutions don't always work out as planned.
I can see how that would possibly be annoying to some, but I think we as gamers might have been conditioned in a way. Usually once you take a quest in a game, the "perfect ending" solution is within your sphere of influence and Tenpenny Tower flipped that.

The game was an absolute DOG of a game the CTD's, the system Hangs, The lockups, the this program has caused general protection faults, the scripts the voice acting, The fact it needed patches before it was playable, The fact that the skulptura final fix that ( alas I forget how I applied it to my steam bought game FIXED IT then bethsoft came in and slapped a shoddy patch over the top of it was Rotten) pretty bad when we have to give a hacker credit for fixing the game.

I find it hilarious that people are bashing F3 and 4 and praising 1 and 2 and NV. Back in the day when F1 came out people bashed the shit out of it and called it a dumbed down Wasteland or Wasteland for Dummies. The same thing happened with Baldur's Gate 1 that was called casual and a dumbed down DnD experience compared to the Gold Box games. And today BG1+2 and F1+2+NV are praised to the high heavens while 3 and 4 are not. Gamers are usually scared shitless of change and don't take too kindly to it.

Bethesda cares about giving the player the tools to create their own story rather than being railroaded into a specific one like with BI/Obsidian games. Beth. games are about exploration and you being the hero of your own journey and story. It's a fundamental shift in game design and one that I appreciate. I want to make my own story in Fallout 3 and Skyrim rather than simply being told a story like what Obsidian does. The freedom to do what you want is the best part of Bethesda games.