Posted June 18, 2017
The GOG store page for Fallout 3 claims the game features “Mind-Blowing Artificial Intelligence” and “lifelike behavior.” I’m about to provide several concrete examples that prove those claims to be blatantly untrue. The post will contain spoilers.
Here are some examples of the world-breaking, immersion-killing stuff (caused by terrible AI & lack of attention to detail by the devs) I’ve experienced after playing Fallout 3 for a few dozen hours:
- I have a Repair skill of 100, yet I cannot repair anything unless I have another item that is identical (or near identical) to the one that needs repairing. However, every shopkeeper with any repair skills, even very low ones (i.e. 11), can repair anything even if they have no identical or near identical item. Why am I, an expert in repair, vastly gimped, and therefore I have to pay money to novices in repair to fix my items because they have miraculous repair powers that I don’t?
- The Mechanist is supposed to be a super genius. I helped him eliminate the AntAgonizer as she broke into his lair. Immediately after this battle, his HP was extremely low, and it was about 2 am at night. Instead of resting or taking meds to recover his HP, this super genius randomly went wandering into the desert for no reason. He didn't even take a robot with him for protection. I followed him, until he got attacked by a single bear. The bear made him die. Super geniuses would never do anything that idiotic.
- When I reported the results of the AntAgonizer/Mechanist conflict to Joe, the only dialogue choice that appeared on my screen was something like “I took care of both of them” even though that is not correct. I took care of the AntGonizer only. The Mechanist killed himself by his own stupidity. I never did any damage to the Mechanist.
- I eliminated Tenpenny, and the whole town acts as if he is still alive. Some may try to argue “maybe news of Tenpenny’s death” didn’t spread to the town yet,” but that makes no sense because: one, the guard right outside Tenpenny’s balcony would have noticed his death shortly after I left; two, the town continues forever to be oblivious no matter how much time has elapsed after Tenpenny’s death; three, the town still runs and Gustavo still gets paid even though he said he needs Tenpenny alive for those things to happen. Moreover, the Ghoul in the Museum Ghoul Town said that he'd easily hear news of Tenpenny's death (in other words, word would travel fast, far and wide).
- I ratted out the guy who threatened to blow up Megaton to the Sheriff. The Sheriff then confronts that guy on his own – despite knowing beforehand that he is extremely dangerous - and gets himself killed. Why didn’t the Sheriff take 2 minutes to round up a posse of townsmen before confronting the dangerous man who killed him due to his own idiocy?
- I fast traveled to Old Olney with Charon. A Deathclaw immediately spawned right next to us. Charon stood in one place shooting it with a shotgun while it mauled him to death. Charon made no attempt to run or evade the Deathclaw’s attacks in any way whatsoever. Yet Charon was supposed to be an extremely wise & elite assassin. Oh please.
- I fast traveled to Canterbury Commons and immediately when I arrived, a giant radscorpion was in the cafe attacking Joe & Dominic at the same time. I intervened as fast I could, but it still killed both of them before I could save them. This guy was the leader of a town and he can’t even handle one single monster without dying? Not to mention I never got to pay money to invest in his merchants because he was so stupid as to get himself killed before I could do that.
- I am playing a female character and I told the creepy guy who wants bang the NukaCola woman that I would give him some too if he fetched some Nuka Cola for me. The first time he ran off, I followed him and he died at the first giant radscorpion who attacked him a short way off from where he started. Then I reloaded a saved game from when he first started running, and I didn’t follow him this time. Later on, I found he had died just inside the entrance of the NukaCola factory. Yet the cola woman claims this is a super tough guy who helps her survive against groups of vicious raiders. Again, these AI fails are utterly ridiculous.
- That creepy guy who died because he lusted after me never saw one iota of my face or skin. All he ever saw was me in full power armor, in which I look like a bulky Arnold Schwarzenegger-type man. But he was acting certain that I was a hot woman.
- Similarly, every person in the game instantly recognizes me even when my skin is 100% covered in full power armor, yet they’ve never seen me put on power armor. The potential excuse, “they can tell from your voice” doesn’t work, because they identify me by sight, instantly, even if I say absolutely nothing to them.
- Diego caught me stealing from the box of the Saint Monica church, then he tried to kill me (yet he is supposed to be a benevolent Christian?!). I was forced to put him down in self-defence. From that time until many, many in-game months later, no one ever utters a single word about Diego’s mysterious death in the middle of the ship. In fact, I can still talk with others about Diego as if he is alive!
- Even though no one in Rivet City cares about Diego’s death, a few of them yell at me constantly, forever, because I stole about $20. I’m not sure if this stealing incident was from the church box, or from a time I might have accidentally clicked an object somewhere when I was trying to click on a character...misclicks like that result in a “steal” attempt even though I didn’t intend to or want to steal...which is another immersion-killing problem in and of itself. But anyway, why would stealing $20 be an unforgivable sin, but killing Diego means absolutely nothing to the same people?
- I saved Harkness’ life by discovering his identity and telling him about the guy who wants to re-enslave and/or kill him. He thanked me a lot for this. Yet despite thanking me for saving his life and giving him back memories of his old life, he still verbally harasses me for stealing each and every time I enter the Rivet City marketplace.
- Before Charon died, I took him everywhere inside Tenpenny Tower. Not a single townsperson there uttered a word about him, even though he is a ghoul, and all but one of them hate every ghoul and want them all dead. Every Tenpenny resident completely ignored Charon’s presence, even though they had taken great pains to keep all ghouls out of their city. Yet again, this AI fail combined with lack of attention to detail by the devs results in a world that is entirely unbelievable and absurd.
- The preacher of the Saint Monica church told me to come by on Sunday at 8 a.m. to her Monica's story. Every time I show up at the time, the preacher comes an hour or two late, then stands at the front of the church and says absolutely nothing. After a couple of hours of him saying nothing, the church members start leaving and say things to each other like, "That was a great sermon today!" Did he deliver the sermon telepathically?! Why did he lie and promise to tell me Monica's story, even though he never fulfills his promise?
Here are some examples of the world-breaking, immersion-killing stuff (caused by terrible AI & lack of attention to detail by the devs) I’ve experienced after playing Fallout 3 for a few dozen hours:
- I have a Repair skill of 100, yet I cannot repair anything unless I have another item that is identical (or near identical) to the one that needs repairing. However, every shopkeeper with any repair skills, even very low ones (i.e. 11), can repair anything even if they have no identical or near identical item. Why am I, an expert in repair, vastly gimped, and therefore I have to pay money to novices in repair to fix my items because they have miraculous repair powers that I don’t?
- The Mechanist is supposed to be a super genius. I helped him eliminate the AntAgonizer as she broke into his lair. Immediately after this battle, his HP was extremely low, and it was about 2 am at night. Instead of resting or taking meds to recover his HP, this super genius randomly went wandering into the desert for no reason. He didn't even take a robot with him for protection. I followed him, until he got attacked by a single bear. The bear made him die. Super geniuses would never do anything that idiotic.
- When I reported the results of the AntAgonizer/Mechanist conflict to Joe, the only dialogue choice that appeared on my screen was something like “I took care of both of them” even though that is not correct. I took care of the AntGonizer only. The Mechanist killed himself by his own stupidity. I never did any damage to the Mechanist.
- I eliminated Tenpenny, and the whole town acts as if he is still alive. Some may try to argue “maybe news of Tenpenny’s death” didn’t spread to the town yet,” but that makes no sense because: one, the guard right outside Tenpenny’s balcony would have noticed his death shortly after I left; two, the town continues forever to be oblivious no matter how much time has elapsed after Tenpenny’s death; three, the town still runs and Gustavo still gets paid even though he said he needs Tenpenny alive for those things to happen. Moreover, the Ghoul in the Museum Ghoul Town said that he'd easily hear news of Tenpenny's death (in other words, word would travel fast, far and wide).
- I ratted out the guy who threatened to blow up Megaton to the Sheriff. The Sheriff then confronts that guy on his own – despite knowing beforehand that he is extremely dangerous - and gets himself killed. Why didn’t the Sheriff take 2 minutes to round up a posse of townsmen before confronting the dangerous man who killed him due to his own idiocy?
- I fast traveled to Old Olney with Charon. A Deathclaw immediately spawned right next to us. Charon stood in one place shooting it with a shotgun while it mauled him to death. Charon made no attempt to run or evade the Deathclaw’s attacks in any way whatsoever. Yet Charon was supposed to be an extremely wise & elite assassin. Oh please.
- I fast traveled to Canterbury Commons and immediately when I arrived, a giant radscorpion was in the cafe attacking Joe & Dominic at the same time. I intervened as fast I could, but it still killed both of them before I could save them. This guy was the leader of a town and he can’t even handle one single monster without dying? Not to mention I never got to pay money to invest in his merchants because he was so stupid as to get himself killed before I could do that.
- I am playing a female character and I told the creepy guy who wants bang the NukaCola woman that I would give him some too if he fetched some Nuka Cola for me. The first time he ran off, I followed him and he died at the first giant radscorpion who attacked him a short way off from where he started. Then I reloaded a saved game from when he first started running, and I didn’t follow him this time. Later on, I found he had died just inside the entrance of the NukaCola factory. Yet the cola woman claims this is a super tough guy who helps her survive against groups of vicious raiders. Again, these AI fails are utterly ridiculous.
- That creepy guy who died because he lusted after me never saw one iota of my face or skin. All he ever saw was me in full power armor, in which I look like a bulky Arnold Schwarzenegger-type man. But he was acting certain that I was a hot woman.
- Similarly, every person in the game instantly recognizes me even when my skin is 100% covered in full power armor, yet they’ve never seen me put on power armor. The potential excuse, “they can tell from your voice” doesn’t work, because they identify me by sight, instantly, even if I say absolutely nothing to them.
- Diego caught me stealing from the box of the Saint Monica church, then he tried to kill me (yet he is supposed to be a benevolent Christian?!). I was forced to put him down in self-defence. From that time until many, many in-game months later, no one ever utters a single word about Diego’s mysterious death in the middle of the ship. In fact, I can still talk with others about Diego as if he is alive!
- Even though no one in Rivet City cares about Diego’s death, a few of them yell at me constantly, forever, because I stole about $20. I’m not sure if this stealing incident was from the church box, or from a time I might have accidentally clicked an object somewhere when I was trying to click on a character...misclicks like that result in a “steal” attempt even though I didn’t intend to or want to steal...which is another immersion-killing problem in and of itself. But anyway, why would stealing $20 be an unforgivable sin, but killing Diego means absolutely nothing to the same people?
- I saved Harkness’ life by discovering his identity and telling him about the guy who wants to re-enslave and/or kill him. He thanked me a lot for this. Yet despite thanking me for saving his life and giving him back memories of his old life, he still verbally harasses me for stealing each and every time I enter the Rivet City marketplace.
- Before Charon died, I took him everywhere inside Tenpenny Tower. Not a single townsperson there uttered a word about him, even though he is a ghoul, and all but one of them hate every ghoul and want them all dead. Every Tenpenny resident completely ignored Charon’s presence, even though they had taken great pains to keep all ghouls out of their city. Yet again, this AI fail combined with lack of attention to detail by the devs results in a world that is entirely unbelievable and absurd.
- The preacher of the Saint Monica church told me to come by on Sunday at 8 a.m. to her Monica's story. Every time I show up at the time, the preacher comes an hour or two late, then stands at the front of the church and says absolutely nothing. After a couple of hours of him saying nothing, the church members start leaving and say things to each other like, "That was a great sermon today!" Did he deliver the sermon telepathically?! Why did he lie and promise to tell me Monica's story, even though he never fulfills his promise?
Post edited June 18, 2017 by Ancient-Red-Dragon