FO3 worth time investment?

[smitty420]

I've never played 3. right now it's on steam for 2.99. If i bought it, it would be for the sole purpose of soaking up lore on Vault-tec, various factions, and recurring characters and likely deleting it forever. It's definitely worth 3 bucks to me, but 4 has already stolen more of my life than I care to admit. So I guess what I'm asking is this: Does it eat as much of your life as one would expect, and is it fun enough that I won't care?

 

[NotCool]

I would say it's definitely possible to sink a ton of time into, and can be pretty fun; but to be honest I actually found it a bit hard to get back into after playing 4. Though that might be because of how unpolished it is - you can't even look down the sights of a gun without a mod. That being said it's definitely worth 3 dollars and the main quest is actually on the shorter side, even with the Broken Steel dlc that you need to fully finish it - so if you wanted to just run through the main quest it wouldn't take you too long if I remember right.

 

[Deleted member 10215]

My biggest memory of Fallout 3 is that it was so easy that I started over and did the entire game with Brass Knuckles.

 

[smitty420]

definitely worth 3 dollars and the main quest is actually on the shorter side, even with the Broken Steel dlc that you need to fully finish it

It's 8 bucks with all 5 DLCs.

 

[Dutch77]

It’s worth it for the story and lore and seeing the 4 connections. As stated above, it’s awfully easy unless you try to die. I imagine you’d run through pretty fast and it doesn’t exactly have the same ability to suck scores of hours out of you.

 

[NotCool]

It's 8 bucks with all 5 DLCs.

If you wanted to play the DLCs, that's a good price. I remember liking them, but none of them are mandatory to enjoy the base game. Broken Steel does continue the main quest, but it really just ties up some loose ends and lets you continue after the final fight.

 

[msalaba]

I've never played 3. right now it's on steam for 2.99. If i bought it, it would be for the sole purpose of soaking up lore on Vault-tec, various factions, and recurring characters and likely deleting it forever. It's definitely worth 3 bucks to me, but 4 has already stolen more of my life than I care to admit. So I guess what I'm asking is this: Does it eat as much of your life as one would expect, and is it fun enough that I won't care?

I actually started a FO3 playthrough not too long ago.

(I wonder if this is an easter egg) I've been having fun roaming aroung. Note: the frag grenade HUD in the pic is from a mod.

After putting in quite a few hours I am able to make statements without looking through rose colored glasses. As a RPG, FO3 is superior to 4. As a FPS, 4 is superior. There are quite a few things that are much more refined in 4.
Combat is jankey. Most non scoped ranged weapons can't hit the broad side of a barn. Use VATS as much as possible, melee or scoped weapons.
There is no grenade hotkey. After playing FO3 for tons of hours since release, I recently learned it has item hotkeys like FO4.It is really unintuitive. Hold down 1-8 until a HUD element pops up then select the item you want to hotkey. Then use 1-8 to select hot keyed items.
Inventory management in FO3 can be maddening. Once you get used the the improvements made in FO4, it can be painful to go back.

Many say the FO3 MQ is trash. I feel it is just enough to glue together an open world. There are a lot of side quests to find when exploring.

Exploration in FO3 is much more rewarding. There are many easter eggs hidden all over. The tone is darker and the world is much more bleak like you'd expect it to be after total annihilation. Trying to navigate downtown DC requires some serious puzzle solving skills.

I would spend the extra couple of bucks for the DLC. They are pretty good. There is a lot of lore in Operation Anchorage.

I have the original retail DVD. That was a super PITA to get working on Win 10. In my journey to get up and running, I remember reading something about the GOG version being more compatible with Win 10 but the Steam version works as well. I still don't know what I did to get FO3 to be fairly stable and not CTD every time I entered a load door or teleported...
I can say you will need a few mods:

Windows 10 - FO3 Optimization

!Updated Dec. 2021! Centralized list of tweaks to get Fallout 3 to run on Windows 10 smoothly, without crashes.

www.nexusmods.com

A good information resource for FO3.

Fallout mod manager

A collection of utilities related to both creating and using mods.

www.nexusmods.com

Because Vortex doesn't do a good job sorting the load order.(IIRC, MO2 works fine)

ArchiveInvalidation Invalidated

Say goodbye to screwing around with ArchiveInvalidation.txt!

www.nexusmods.com

Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch

Entirely remade patch that fixes bugs and fixes/restores cut content.

www.nexusmods.com

This patch requires a lot of other mods. Read the installation instructions thoroughly!

F3TF - Fallout 3 Tick Fix

A lighter, more compatible version of the 64hz stutter bug fix from FOSR. Fully Windows 10 compatible, including Fast Exit. No more fiddling with inis on windows 10!

www.nexusmods.com

Increased Heap Allocation

Increase performance by changing the initial heap size allocated by the game (similar to DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB in NVSE), from 200MB to 400MB.

www.nexusmods.com

These 2 help with stability.

Games for Windows LIVE Disabler

This program allows you to do the following to Games for Windows LIVE in Fallout 3: -Stop Games for Windows LIVE from running in Fallout 3 and prevent its dll files from loading which reduces the tim

www.nexusmods.com

The latest Steam and GOG versions do not need this.

Fallout Anniversary Patcher

Downgrades the game for FOSE support and more. Includes 4GB patch, mod limit fix and GFWL removal. GOG, Steam and Epic Games compatible.

www.nexusmods.com

I do not have a version that supports this so I do not know how well it works.

Essential Caravan Merchants

Lucky Harith, Crazy Wolfgang, Crow and Doc Hoff just won\'t die, useful for those players on Hard or Very Hard difficulty settings, even those on Normal mode, Deathclaws could slay them quickly while

www.nexusmods.com

Because Beth in their infinite wisdom decided a random radroach could kill off provisioners....

SmoothLight - Pip-Boy Light Enhancer

A port of everyone\'s favorite Pip-Light mod! Changes the Pip-Boy light: - Increases magnitude (distance) from 15 to 45 to illuminate a greater area. - Decreases fade (brightness) from 1.2 to 0.5

www.nexusmods.com

The vanilla pipboy light is not very bright.

RH_IronSights - FOSE

Adds centered iron sight animations to most vanilla guns

www.nexusmods.com

 

[ElanaLoaded]

@smitty420 FO3, and New Vegas have great stories. Graphics, meh. Msalaba posted (above) a list of mods that really help update FO3 / FNV. Worth the trip. I still, occasionally, go back and visit. BTW, there are several FO4 NPCs that you can meet / adventure with, back in FO3... Now that's the rest of the story.

BTW, there are some excellent modded adventures (storytelling, not FPS stuff). One exceptional story was, I think, "Autumn Leaves?" Another was a three part (three chapter) involving Spaceship Zeta DLC. Mod-maker (a police woman in Chicago) died before finishing chapter three. A friend finished it.
If you're interested, I'll go to nexus to refresh my memory and make a short list of, IMHO, the best adventures / stories re FO3.

@msalaba I have the DVD as well - what a bear to get it to run in win 10, so true. Hat's off to you!

 

[smitty420]

BTW, there are several FO4 NPCs that you can meet / adventure with, back in FO3...

When I mentioned MacCready to a coworker that hadn't made it that far in 4 yet, she said "you mean that little shit from that childrens camp?"

 

[ElanaLoaded]

When I mentioned MacCready to a coworker that hadn't made it that far in 4 yet, she said "you mean that little shit from that childrens camp?"

MacCready is one. Little lamp light - or something like that.. he was mayor until he aged out... Another, surprised me when I met

Spoiler: her ...

now a scientist working in the Institute.

 

[msalaba]

I forgot the #1 reason FO3 is still worth a playthrough... Three Dog!

 

[msalaba]

@msalaba I have the DVD as well - what a bear to get it to run in win 10, so true. Hat's off to you!

PITA is a more fitting description. I think I installed / re-installed it 3 times before I found a guide that said to run the installer as administrator... then it just worked. The game was rock stable after I installed the Updated Unofficial FO3 Patch. I don't think that game ever ran that well for me ever. Ever since I modded Fellout to not be so ridiculously dark at night it has been less stable. I also added some lighting mods so I'm not too sure what is causing what but whatever, I just save before entering a load door and things are fine.

IIRC, in the FO3 Optimization link above, there was instructions on how to rebuild the LOD meshes. It increases the amount of stuff visible in the distance but doesn't have the negative side effects of increasing uGridsToLoad. I now need to learn how to do that to FO4! It really makes the world less empty.

 

[ElanaLoaded]

I forgot the #1 reason FO3 is still worth a playthrough... Three Dog!

Hell, yes!

 

[ElanaLoaded]

PITA is a more fitting description. I think I installed / re-installed it 3 times before I found a guide that said to run the installer as administrator... then it just worked. The game was rock stable after I installed the Updated Unofficial FO3 Patch. I don't think that game ever ran that well for me ever. Ever since I modded Fellout to not be so ridiculously dark at night it has been less stable. I also added some lighting mods so I'm not too sure what is causing what but whatever, I just save before entering a load door and things are fine.

IIRC, in the FO3 Optimization link above, there was instructions on how to rebuild the LOD meshes. It increases the amount of stuff visible in the distance but doesn't have the negative side effects of increasing uGridsToLoad. I now need to learn how to do that to FO4! It really makes the world less empty.

Increasing the quality of LOD doesn't touch UGrids at all. Is tricky distinction... thank you for the guide!

 

[leelazarous]

I'd recommend it. I still fire it back up every few years. For me, the only annoying thing is not having true iron sights, which you can fix on PC. As has been previously mentioned, it is more RPG than FPS, where FO4 is the opposite. Tastes very, but I enjoyed all the DLCs. (At least they are real DLCs)

 

[ElanaLoaded]

I'd recommend it. I still fire it back up every few years. For me, the only annoying thing is not having true iron sights, which you can fix on PC. As has been previously mentioned, it is more RPG than FPS, where FO4 is the opposite. Tastes very, but I enjoyed all the DLCs. (At least they are real DLCs)

Same here. Morrowind also had a superior Role Playing element. Alas... modern graphics...

 

[leelazarous]

Same here. Morrowind also had a superior Role Playing element. Alas... modern graphics...

I still play that as well. For me graphics aren't a big deal. It can look like Morrowind or FO3 as long as the actual content is there. I'd wager that there is still more to do in Morrowind than most modern games.

My favorite Morrowind character is the Telvanni wizard with a broken 6000000 intelligence from abusing alchemy. lol

 

[ElanaLoaded]

I still play that as well. For me graphics aren't a big deal. It can look like Morrowind or FO3 as long as the actual content is there. I'd wager that there is still more to do in Morrowind than most modern games.

My favorite Morrowind character is the Telvanni wizard with a broken 6000000 intelligence from abusing alchemy. lol

What a trip. There are mods that update the graphic, some. But the stylized, skinny avatars are, somehow, natural to Morrowind.

 

[ThunderboltDragon]

I have done one Fo3 playthrough but hated every second it. Too linear and basically only back and forth in subway.
Played FONV 2-3 times but never really felt attached to it.
Fallout 4 on the other hand, almost 1200 hours played now and with sim settlement 2 it will be many more hundred hours.

*edit, note that I played FO4 before long before i tried FO3 and FONV.
FO4 seem so much more versatile compared to the two other games and also Fo4 got settlement building and real power armour.

 

[Abbadon70]

I remember when F3 came out and you had no shadow and i was bothered by the running in 3rd person anim. I still have the game and all the dlc's on disk.

My dad (he's almost 80 so he gets a free pass) likes playing new vegas but i could never get into it. The graphics

To me, it looks and plays like a dinosaur but hey to each their own.