Video Games

[OgreBattle]

Symphony of the Night's upside down sky mirror castle turned the longest Castlevania game ever into the double longest, most satisfying Castlevania game ever.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I've been deriving some enjoyment from Paper Sorcerer on 80's difficulty, and was wondering if anyone else had tried it and, if so, what party compositions they've liked. I'm currently using Ghost/Vampire/Skeleton, just for the undead theme, which save for the RNG screw at the beginning has proven decent enough.

[Darth Rabbitt]

I don't get why the alien ship was a Wild Wasteland thing, given that alien blasters were in literally every numbered Fallout title, Xenomorph expies appeared in Fallout 2, and there were actual alien ships in Fallout and Fallout 3. It'd be like deciding pre-war propaganda was too silly to include in a Fallout game.

For the record, I'm on the "the stakes in Fallout 3 felt more meaningful." And the Brotherhood being a completely different organization didn't really bother me because that actually kept them from just being a retread of what they were in 1 and 2. I'll admit that the guys in 3 could've just as easily been called something else, though.

Can we get this all moved into a Fallout thread?

[name_here]

Fallout 3 ends with your desperate battle to retake the water purifier from... other people who want to fix it. Unless you're evil and intend to exterminate all life in the Capital Wasteland including yourself.

[Longes]

Fallout 3 ends with your desperate battle to retake the water purifier from... other people who want to fix it. Unless you're evil and intend to exterminate all life in the Capital Wasteland including yourself.

1. Autumn, as a member of the Enclave, is an anti-mutant nazist, and plans to abuse his control of the only source of pure water to "bring order to the Wasteland".

2. He killed your dad, and will kill you as soon as you outlive your usefulness.

[name_here]

His control over the entire Potomac? It's kind of a big river.

[Longes]

His control over the entire Potomac? It's kind of a big river.

He isn't planning to purify the entire river.

[hyzmarca]

Removing radiation from the water seems kind of racist to me. What's wrong with drinking irradiated water and getting cool mutant superpowers?

[Longes]

Removing radiation from the water seems kind of racist to me. What's wrong with drinking irradiated water and getting cool mutant superpowers?

Cancer is not a superpower, unless you count crying really fast a plus.

[hyzmarca]

Removing radiation from the water seems kind of racist to me. What's wrong with drinking irradiated water and getting cool mutant superpowers?

Cancer is not a superpower, unless you count crying really fast a plus.

In the real world, radiation gives you cancer. In the Fallout universe, it works like the radiation from a 1950s B movie. Long term exposure to relatively high doses will turn you into a necrotic post-human, commonly known as a ghoul. Which drastically increases your lifespan and give you awesome regeneration powers, in exchange for little a little ugly.

[Longes]

Removing radiation from the water seems kind of racist to me. What's wrong with drinking irradiated water and getting cool mutant superpowers?

Cancer is not a superpower, unless you count crying really fast a plus.

In the real world, radiation gives you cancer. In the Fallout universe, it works like the radiation from a 1950s B movie. Long term exposure to relatively high doses will turn you into a necrotic post-human, commonly known as a ghoul. Which drastically increases your lifespan and give you awesome regeneration powers, in exchange for little a little ugly.

"A little ugly" means "your skin and ligaments rot". Also ghoul mutation is random, and usually you just die from radiation poisoning. Also irradiated water doesn't turn people into ghouls - intense radiation does.

[Chamomile]

His control over the entire Potomac? It's kind of a big river.

He isn't planning to purify the entire river.

I'm not sure you understand how rivers work. They are definitionally moving bodies of water. You can't selectively purify only parts of them. The pure water will move elsewhere. Since Project Purity is infrastructure, it is impossible for Colonel Autumn to selectively purify only the river's delta (and an insignificant proportion of the Atlantic). He must purify the entire Potomac from the Tidal Basin on downward.

[maglag]

Cancer is not a superpower, unless you count crying really fast a plus.

In the real world, radiation gives you cancer. In the Fallout universe, it works like the radiation from a 1950s B movie. Long term exposure to relatively high doses will turn you into a necrotic post-human, commonly known as a ghoul. Which drastically increases your lifespan and give you awesome regeneration powers, in exchange for little a little ugly.

"A little ugly" means "your skin and ligaments rot". Also ghoul mutation is random, and usually you just die from radiation poisoning. Also irradiated water doesn't turn people into ghouls - intense radiation does.

Also in-game radiation will grant penalties and eventually kill even the main character.

[Longes]

His control over the entire Potomac? It's kind of a big river.

He isn't planning to purify the entire river.

I'm not sure you understand how rivers work. They are definitionally moving bodies of water. You can't selectively purify only parts of them. The pure water will move elsewhere. Since Project Purity is infrastructure, it is impossible for Colonel Autumn to selectively purify only the river's delta (and an insignificant proportion of the Atlantic). He must purify the entire Potomac from the Tidal Basin on downward.

In Broken Steel the purifier is activated, and the Brotherhood of Steel (along with the security team from Rivet City) begins distributing Aqua Pura (purified water) to the various regions of the Capital Wasteland. In addition, the small body of water directly in front of the Jefferson Memorial (the area before the bridge) known as the Tidal Basin is free of radiation.

Any water beyond the bridge is still irradiated as Project Purity will take some time to purify all the water in the Potomac River. If the Modified FEV was inserted into the purifier, then the Aqua Pura will be infected with it.

[Chamomile]

Why are you quoting something that reinforces my point?

Project Purity will take some time to purify all the water in the Potomac River.

Colonel Autumn only gets to control all the pure water for a limited window, and the rest of the Capital Wasteland is getting by just fine without an irradiated Potomac right now, so there's no particular reason they can't just wait him out for a few weeks/months. So Colonel Autumn's BIG EPIC VILLAIN SCHEME is that he's going to make people he doesn't like continue getting their water from wherever they've been getting it for the last two centuries before the Potomac is purified in its entirety sometime next March.

[Longes]

Or, you know, he can just turn off the Purifier and control the Tidal Basin. Also the exact specifics of how Project Purity will work are unknown to anyone but protagonist's dad. Who is dead.

[name_here]

Uh, no, if he turns off the purifier the pure water will flow out into the Chesapeake Bay. That is how rivers work. So if he switches off the purifier everyone will have to go back to using their existing purifiers and robots with built-in condensers like the one Megaton gives you with your house.

[Kaelik]

Uh, no, if he turns off the purifier the pure water will flow out into the Chesapeake Bay. That is how rivers work. So if he switches off the purifier everyone will have to go back to using their existing purifiers and robots with built-in condensers like the one Megaton gives you with your house.

Or alternatively, he can turn on the purifier for a short time, produce fucktons of pure water, bottle it all, and sell it, meanwhile, the entire river could have been fairly pure right near the purifier, and then not really pure further away, and then he turns it off before it can make real progress purifying large amounts of water far enough away.

[Shady314]

Does it? Because the impression I got from the way people talked in New Vegas was that it specifically only affected the Mojave Wasteland, or at least the part of it you're in. The NCR all give the impression that they just want to control this part of the world, but if not then they'll fuck off to control somewhere else. Caesar's Legion intend to use it as a staging point for more conquest, sure, but there's nothing special about New Vegas outside of the Securitrons. And Mr. House just wants New Vegas. It all gives the impression of being super localized with minimal effect on the rest of the world.

It is discussed multiple times in the game just how badly both NCR and The Legion need the Mojave. The Legion can only be sustained through continual conquest. If you stop them at the bridge the entire thing could collapse. You can even convince the Legate that winning here doesnt matter because if the Legion hits the Pacific that will be the end of them. Apparently East isn't an option as it's too dead/radiated something. Which I want to say is a nice nod to FO Tactics of all things where the BOS also were only able to cross East via a massive undertaking with airships.

The NCR desperately needs the land and especially the dam to support the population back home. A lot of the soldiers are conscripted because there is no other work for them back in California. Not to mention what happens to them if Caesar's Legions beats them at the dam and gets to take the fight to their home.

House/You are the more assholish options but having them makes the the good options more awesome. I always find it a lot better to have chosen to be a good guy than been forced into it. And you don't have to be a total asshole. You dont have to kill the General. You can crush the Legion most likely ensuring their collapse. And you kick out NCR but that doesn't mean you cant work out an arrangement for power and resources so NCR doesn't stagnate and also possibly collapse.

This is kind of disingenuous. Water is life and civilization. Project Purity, despite being kind of small geographically, would be one of the only large sources of clean, drinkable water in the world. Its effect would be more akin to the effect the Nile had on emerging African civilization (i.e., having one).

Before Project Purity, people needed RadAway just to keep living after a couple of years drinking irradiated water. And there's a terribly large amount of RadAway (found in Vaults in large amounts, mostly, but also excess post-war materials), but it'll eventually run out.

I don't disagree. I said epic applies equally to both stories and I recognize the value of clean water but I just didn't FEEL it in F3. People have been surviving somehow for 200 years already. I found clean water sources all over the place. Is F3 seriously saying everyone not near the Potomac is eventually going to die?
As I said, I know clean water is super fantabulous and the most basic need we have. But in the game people already seemed to have it so I felt it was more important to start bringing the rule of law to a larger area. Infrastructure, reclaiming the knowledge that was lost before the bombs etc. I had never heard that about rad-away before. I am going to assume I missed it explained in F3. Even within F3 though look at what would have happened without the BOS to counteract the Enclave. They would have had no opposition to their goals. So with how shit the Wasteland is safety is almost on par with physiological needs.

The point about it being a small effect in the short term is valid - but it was on par with the first two games. The short term effects of Fallout 1 were: Vault 13 gets to keep living. The long-term effects were the human race not getting wiped out by super mutants and the Master, and Arroyo. Fallout 2's ending short term effects were peace and prosperity, long term effects were killing off another Enclave jackass and more FEV and a GECK getting used to make a livable place, about the same effect as Project Purity but requiring less time.

Like I said. Both games were equally epic to me. I just felt a lot more badass in the second. So I never meant to say F3 was small potatoes or anything.

The points about the Brotherhood of Steel are valid, though. At least in the first couple of games they were about as morally gray as you could get, and assholes besides that would just as soon kill you and take your tech as look at you. Turning them into "Good Guys" was terrible, but explainable - splinter faction, etc etc. They sort of doubled down on it in New Vegas, which compounded the problem, though.

I would have bought the explanation if Bethesda didn't also have to explain the existence of the Enclave, FEV, Super Mutants and Deathclaws. For me it was just a bridge too far. Plus I found FO Tactics to have a much more interesting splinter faction that was much more "good" than before but not "nice."

You are absolutely wrong that FNV doubled down on BOS being good guys. There is a companion from the BOS that hates them because they don't allow homosexuality. They are as isolationist and xenophobic as ever. Maybe worse even though it is clearly destroying them. They do nothing nice in the game and are interested solely in recovering tech and protecting what they do have. The ones you encounter are a minor outpost and are actually located close geographically to the original games. They are so unimportant and irrelevant now that despite fan popularity and requests Obsidian never gave an option to back them for control of the Mojave. That takes some balls. Especially after Bethesda's BOS cocksucking. Id say they are presented almost exactly the same as F1 except smaller and weaker.

[Shrapnel]

Guys, no matter what you think of Fallout 3 or New Vegas, I think we can all agree on one thing: Johnny Guitar sucked ass.

[shau]

I've been deriving some enjoyment from Paper Sorcerer on 80's difficulty, and was wondering if anyone else had tried it and, if so, what party compositions they've liked. I'm currently using Ghost/Vampire/Skeleton, just for the undead theme, which save for the RNG screw at the beginning has proven decent enough.

I was into that for a while, but my interest drifted before getting the difficulty up that high. I seem to recall the imp's sleep as being basically the spell that wins random encounters.

[Whipstitch]

I don't get why the alien ship was a Wild Wasteland thing, given that alien blasters were in literally every numbered Fallout title, Xenomorph expies appeared in Fallout 2, and there were actual alien ships in Fallout and Fallout 3. It'd be like deciding pre-war propaganda was too silly to include in a Fallout game.

Fallout has long had its own grim derp contingent who would get kinda bitchy every time the series ventured further away from the stuff that was in Wasteland and some of them even threw absolute shit fits over the goofier parts of Fallout 2. Normally I wouldn't consider those people terribly noteworthy, but for better or for worse such grognards were exactly the sort of super fan who were just dying to give feedback when devs emerged from the woodwork and started talking shop about what they were up to with the shitcanned Van Buren project. Between the fervor and the length of time the series went dormant I can easily imagine those fans racking up enough undue influence to make Wild Wasteland mode seem like a good idea at the time.

[K]

I've been deriving some enjoyment from Paper Sorcerer on 80's difficulty, and was wondering if anyone else had tried it and, if so, what party compositions they've liked. I'm currently using Ghost/Vampire/Skeleton, just for the undead theme, which save for the RNG screw at the beginning has proven decent enough.

I really enjoyed Paper Sorcerer. It's an odd little game.

I think I went with the skeleton, the frankenstein guy, and the vampire. The style of game is one that I have a lot of experience with, so I breezed through for the story mostly.

[Maxus]

Well, I'm joining the "Fallout 3 Won't Work For Me!" club

I did everything the steam guides said, even deleted it and fiddled with the computer settings as directed, and redownloaded the game, and it still won't work.

[Shrapnel]

Shit, is this a problem with Steam, or just isolated cases? Because my computer is just getting fixed, and I really don't want to have both Oblivion and Fallout be non-functional.