@man_flannel said:
And Fallout New Vegas isn't as good as Fallout 3. The graphics are worse. It had little atmosphere outside of the strip (which was pathetic) and the soundtrack. Fallout 3 on the other hand oozes with atmosphere. Being someone who likes to experience all of the content of a game (and whoring achievements), the branching main quest line was a clusterfuck.
It wasn't really a clusterfuck, though, it was just you couldn't experience every faction path and ending in a single playthrough. Like, you know, a lot of RPGs (including the original Fallout games, FFS). If you're playing an RPG to be "whoring achievements", and to experience "all the content of a game" in one playthrough, I'm tempted to say the genre really isn't your thing. Most really good WRPGs don't do that.
New Vegas asked you to decide on a vision for the Mojave between old world democracy, neo-fascism, technocratic dictatorship, and a player driven meglomania. It asks that question by pitting you against clever and persuasive adversaries like Mr House and Caesar who repeatedly make their arguments through their results, results which are compelling given the disorder of the wasteland, but morally ambiguous. It also creates ambiguity by portraying the NCR as simultaneously corrupted and altruistic; virtuous and viceful. It's comforting to us because we're used to supporting old world democracies, but aren't old world democracies exactly what created the Fallout universe's current woes? And it implies maybe none of them are right. It offers no clear 'right' answer, and expects you to impose your own meaning on the decisions you make. The game builds to the significance of its own ending by its tone and content.
Fallout 3 asked you towards the end "Do a Genocide in the Potomac water supply: y/n?" with pretty much no foreshadowing or philosophical underpinning to make that choice when Eden presents it to you. He just wants to kill things because he thinks it's a good plan. You can even convince him to kill himself because he's clearly insane, and of course he is, because Fallout 3 has no interest in creating any nuance, and the bad guy has to be that way. The alternative is free water for everyone which will be very nice and very Christian (which, to its credit, is foreshadowed early in the game). But it's one of the most blatant examples of the Good/Evil ending dichotomies in modern video games.
Plus, the ending of New Vegas actually has completely different levels depending on who you side with, whilst the ending of Fallout 3 does not.
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