Fallout 3: A Technical Trainwreck
By DrRandle 23 Comments
How Did This Get Game of the Year?
by Randy MarrOkay so first off, no I'm not a game designer. So I don't know the ins and outs of exact technical know-hows, but I do know a busted-ass game when I play one, and friends, Fallout 3 is as janky as it gets.
I've been trying to play nice because, in the end, I did really like the game, but after playing Point Lookout... I can't keep quiet anymore. How does this game even get released under it's conditions? In any other profession, if somebody were to make a comparable "Finished Product," with the number of problems and issues as this game, they would likely get their asses fired. What am I talking about? Well let me take you down a list of the problems I have personally encountered, and then feel free to add your own in the comments.
- Crashed Autosaves: Nothing says "Goodbye two hours of my life" like the game deciding it's going to lock-up halfway through a loading screen, thus corrupting your auto-save. Take my advice, if you're playing this game, save manually and save often.
- Getting Stuck in Place: So I was just minding my own business fighting some fire ants when suddenly, while trying to creep along a wall, I was stuck in place and unable to move. This has happened to me numerous other times, but that one was the most memorable because I was already pissed off being knee-deep in that shit-hole fire-ants lair.
- Flying Deathclaws: This one scared the hell out of me. I'm crawling around the wasteland looking for some supplies when I notice a Deathclaw. I ready my weapon and prepare to tangle with the most vicious beast in Post-Apocalyptia, when all of a sudden the mother fucker just vertically leaps a few hundred feat in the air in a second. Out of curiosity, I pulled out Vats and took a few shots, and he fell back down like nothing ever happened. Only it happened a second time. That time I just let him ascend to wherever it was he apparently needed to go.
- The Vault Door That Should Remain Closed: So there's a story mission where you have to go into a vault whose front door has been sealed off by terrible levels of radiation. You have to find a back-door in Little Lamp-Light. While crawling through said vault, I found it's front door from the inside, and out of curiosity, I opened it. Now, I'm pretty sure that this door was supposed to remain shut, and I'm so sure because on the other end was gray. That kind of empty gray that anybody whose ever used a no-clip cheat will be familiar with. I stepped through the doorway and magically popped through a random wall about halfway through the vault. This seems like something that would have been easily fixed, and should never have been encountered.
- VATS Crashes: I don't know what it is about Point Lookout, but that DLC will take any excuse it can to crash on me about once an hour. One such situation included me trying to pull into VATS and the game locking up. But a bigger pain in the ass crash goes back to when I was running the end-game content and pulled into VATS to take out some foes. However, it never pulled out. Even after the enemies were destroyed at the over-eager hands of Fawkes, I just stood there in blurry slow-mo, with nothing better to do apparently.
And of course that's not to mention all the little glitches I've had, like clipping through rocks, being able to see through rocks because there's no texture on a part of a hill, the numerous times I've had problems with people not attacking me, or attacking me, all for no reason. (I once shot a major NPC to death, very slowly, and he never once picked up a weapon. He just stood there and seemed greatful for the bullets.) So my question to you is: How does this kind of game get any awards for best game? Shouldn't Best Game imply that it's a great game all around? And this isn't also taking into account that the character animations in this game are attrocious. Sure I clearly think it's a fun game if I'm still downloading the DLC, but is this something we should hold up to the light and say "See, it's acceptable if your game still runs like shit." Oh and there's also the lag. That game is laggy as all hell, and it's obnoxious.
All I'm saying is you don't see this kind of shotty work out of a first party Nintendo game, or a first party Sony game. I think it's unacceptable that developers and/or publishers think it's okay to put out a game and it's extra content when it has that many problems.l If Taco Bell put out a new burrito with some salsa that always makes the shell soggy and causes it to fall apart in your hands... It would go away. If Michael Bay's new Transformers movie featured random robots leaping into the heavens or giant chunks of no-clip gray hanging around the screen, he would never make another movie again. So why does Bethesda put this trashy game out, and furthermore, why did so few of the reviews out there call the game out on it's technical issues?
Anything technical issues you'd like to get off your chest? Am I perhaps being to harsh in my criticism of Bethesda's game? I told myself I'd try to be more positive in my blogs but after being unable to leave the building I'm in without the game crashing multiple times tonight... I just had to say something.
I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim
The Inkspots - I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire