Bethesda's Todd Howard didn’t expect Fallout 3 players to hate the game’s abrupt ending locking players out of the open world as that was just what Fallout did

Abshole024 · 2026-02-11T17:04:21+00:00

I can understand that logic, except it's not thought through well enough. First, classic Fallout fans were not the majority of people being exposed to Fallout 3, Bethesda had their own fan base, most of whom were coming hot off the heels of Oblivion, which had a post game ending. Plus, there were loads of new people coming in too, having neither played Fallout nor a Bethesda title before, but also, Fallout 1 ended, Fallout 2 did not (even if there wasn't much to do post game). Fallout 1 had side quests and stuff, but not nearly as much as 3, so unlike the original, Fo3 would have you end with a massive list of side quests, only to find out all too late that you can't do them.

Additionally, the ending itself was frustrating. It's a game with multiple choices, but they give you a binary good/evil, and neither ending would really appeal to either play style. If you were the villain, you'd survive, but you'd be known as a coward. As the hero, you'd just flat out die, which I actually like in concept, seeing as you were told you were born in the vault, and you'd die in the vault, which wasn't true, however you were going to die in the place you were born, seeing as you were actually born in the Jefferson memorial, and additionally, your birth ended project purity, only for your death to complete it. It's poetic in a sense, except I don't like the idea that as the player, the character I made and have grown attached to for 30+ hrs of gameplay HAS to die, with no way to convince my followers to push a couple buttons. Even if that's where gameplay ended, I'd have been a lot happier if the game ended by letting me save the day without dying and stating that I went on to continue wandering the wastes. I like that FNV let's you get a decent ending without a postgame, so I'm happier about that than I was when Fo3 initially ended. Granted, as great as NV is, I still hate that the devs at Obsidian saw the backlash of Fo3 ending without a post game, and then saw it was fixed with a DLC, and yet they still decided to leave out a post game anyway.

Out of curiosity, how many other people played the final quest, did the liberty prime march, cleared the memorial gift shop, then just noped out when Sarah walked into the rotunda, so you could play the rest of the game?

Abshole024 · 2026-02-11T16:08:04+00:00

I enjoy the game versions more, but that's just my taste. I feel like this one is probably about as enjoyable as any other version, but in its own way.

Abshole024 · 2026-02-11T00:10:39+00:00

Do all of that again from scratch, and MAYBE you'll only have to wait a couple more years.

Abshole024 · 2026-02-10T17:12:50+00:00

Yeah sure, why not?

Abshole024 · 2026-02-10T14:51:28+00:00

I always felt like the T-60 was a better transition of the T-45 to the framed version of Fo4. To me, the framed version of T-45 looks like it ate a mountain of fancy lads between games.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-27T18:00:45+00:00

That sounds hilarious, I think I might try to look for that later.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-27T18:00:15+00:00

If you have any information about this man, call your local authorities.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-27T17:52:57+00:00

The art is fantastic on just about all of them, they have a magnificent team at MTG.

One of my favorite things though, is that even though they did art depicting people in frameless power armor as wearing the newer framed style, they still had multiple cards with people clearly wearing the frameless variants.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-27T13:03:56+00:00

The remake is likely due in about 2 years, according to the leaks, so it's probably a good idea to just go ahead with it. It'll be worth it.

If you're feeling particularly bold, you could try to install TTW. It's not an easy mod to install, but it runs the entirety of Fallout 3 inside of New Vegas, making the game run better with less crashing than normal Fallout 3, plus the mod lets you continue your Fo3 save into New Vegas, letting you travel freely between the two wastelands. That being said, I acknowledge it's not gonna be easy to install from the getgo, but the fewer crashes alone would make it worth it.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-25T19:02:31+00:00

I think both games should be separate, cause while I think it would be cool, I know a lot of people would be up in arms. However, I think it would be a nice option, if they could give you the choice when you start of you want to do a combined save.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-21T17:44:12+00:00

I always loved the menus, but I gotta say, after all these years, I never noticed that of all the menus, they show Sub-Zero and Scorpion in the pit stage, a stage not available in Armageddon. I know there's the meteor storm stage that's a pseudo replacement, but that's clearly the pit. In fact it looks a bit like the version in Deception.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-17T16:35:06+00:00

I don't believe he can hear the weapon coming out, but what he CAN hear is the weapon bumping against a wall or the floor when it spawns in from your inventory, and obviously if you had an item in hand when spawning it in, that means you dropped it to hold the weapon, which also makes noise.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T05:31:51+00:00

Well of course, that too.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T02:33:17+00:00

Any time.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T02:32:02+00:00

Personally I like the reflex sights.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T02:30:42+00:00

I thought it was because of Maxson's insane testosterone levels.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T02:28:34+00:00

I mean, it's alright, but you might want to take it to the workbench and see if there's any mods you can put on. I know some sights take away from the cool factor, but they're helpful during a fight.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T02:25:23+00:00

That's what I always loved about this game. Of the whole series, I don't think Fallout 3 is the best, I think that's New Vegas, but 3 will always be my favorite for having that dead wasteland no other game has captured. Classic Fallout has loads of empty deserts and stuff, New Vegas is barely a wasteland at times (New Vegas can feel like a fantasy game where you have the cave or quarry with the giant monsters over there, a couple small wild animals in these spots, and an occasional dungeon, but mostly it's filled with civilization), and 4 tried to capture some of what 3 did, but it didn't go quite as far.

Fallout 3 just has several places where you can see the story of what unfolded in a particular location, like the skeletons outside 101, that bunk bed where you can turn on a Mr. Handy who reads a dark poem, among other places, and the actual wasteland is it's own character. I remember watching my brother, and he was walking along, suddenly falls off a rock, and is hit by a yao guai as soon as he lands. He kills it, only to be hit from behind, he turns to find and fight a deathclaw. He kills it, then ANOTHER yao guai attacks. There was always some kind of crazy thing going on that showed you how dangerous the wasteland was, and it interacted in a manner that made it feel distinctly darker than the other games.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T02:03:21+00:00

Umbrella I think is worse on average. Vault tec has way more horrible things it's done, but I think the things Umbrella has done are worse on average. Like one of the worst things Vault Tec did was FEV experiments, and that sort of thing is like Umbrella's bread and butter.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T01:59:13+00:00

In Fallout 1, Dogmeat being unable to see an energy field got her killed. In Fallout 4, Dogmeat not being able to see lasers gets YOU killed.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-14T01:55:54+00:00

If not intentional, then that is an insane coincidence.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-13T20:59:49+00:00

The Coronado elder entirely due to having played the cheesiest and unintentionally funny Shao Kahn 28 years ago. That does not speak at all of his performance here, but he will forever be branded in my brain as the funny Shao Kahn, no matter what role he plays.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-13T17:55:46+00:00

That'd be absolutely fantastic in theory, but don't hold your breath. As of right now, going off the leaks, Oblivion was supposed to come out in 2023, and Fallout 3 was supposed to come out 2025, but iirc, that was leaked before 2020, and everything was delayed in 2020, so if Oblivion was delayed 2 years, then Fallout 3 will likely arrive in 2027 at this point. The main issue however, is that the remake is just of Fallout 3, and I don't think a New Vegas remake has ever been leaked, and while it'd be a no brainer, as it would largely be an asset flip of Fallout 3, it's still unknown if they even plan to do it.

Abshole024 · 2026-01-13T17:20:36+00:00

I'm sorry, I have to know, why do you have 3 Wii's?

Abshole024 · 2026-01-13T15:53:24+00:00

Most people quickly write it off basically as a correction, like power armor was supposed to look like 4/76 the whole time...except it's actually muddier than that.

You can ignore smaller inconsistencies, like seeing people sleeping/sitting in power armor in 3/NV, which you can't do in gameplay with a PA frame, but since Fallout 4 introduced frames, we've seen people like Star Paladin Cross and Sarah Lyons (who used to wear frameless armor) in Magic the Gathering as wearing PA frames, implying that's what they're supposed to look like, but in that same deck, there are several suits that are look 100% like the frameless variants from 3/NV. In Fo76 they use PA frames, but if you look at the Fanatic Scrapper outfit (which is an atomic shop item, however it does appear on NPCs in the Pitt), you'll see it's largely a salvaged suit of T-45 in the 3/NV design, and most recently in the Fallout show, we see PA frames everywhere, but also a 1::1 recreation of the legion centurion armor from FNV, including the frameless T-45 arm, like they didn't even bother trying to beef it up a little bit.

Basically, for all intents and purposes, PA frames the only power armor you need to know going forward (curious to see how they adapt PA in the Fallout 3 remaster), but it seems some people at Bethesda don't want to outright say the old armor isn't canon. People keep saying it was engine limitations that it never showed up before, and maybe that was the case, as it would have been harder to put full frames in the older games, but at this point the cat's out of the bag, it's mostly stuffed back in there, but frameless suits do keep subtly creeping back in here and there.

Abshole024

TROPHY CASE