Monday 26 September 2011

The great Fallout DLC roundup.

Some of this will seem rather late. The truth is that I really couldn't be arsed to do this before. At least by waiting for all of them to come out and get at least one playthrough I can do it properly. I shall begin with the incredible Fallout 3 before moving onto the second best Fallout : New Vegas, that way there should still be something to read even if you want to avoid the spoilers of the more recent FONV.

Incase you were wondering what these games are let me give you a brief synopsis.

Fallout 3 is a three dimensional remake? of the earlier Fallout series. These included Fallout, Fallout 2 and a really shitty (according to myth) Brotherhood of steel one. In a nutshell Fallout is an RPG crossed with a FPS. The RPG element comes by way of moral choices mixed with dialogue and quests and the FPS comes from being able to shoot things in first person. It isn't a very strong FPS mind as you're far better off using the game's targetting system called VATS. Any way both games are very similar barring the fact that Fallout 3 takes place across Washington DC and Maryland and Fallout : New Vegas plays out on the west coast over the Mojave desert and what is supposed to be Las Vegas (known as New Vegas in the game having been rebuilt after a nuclear war).

During the lifespan of both of these titles numerous DLC was released (downloadable content) which added more to both games continuing their stories. Today I will be rounding them all up briefly. This roundup assumes you are familiar with / like / love the games and so I wouldn't read it otherwise.

First up then it's Fallout 3.

Operation Anchorage.

If you played through Fallout 3 then you will be aware that the great nuclear war was sparked between the U.S.A and China. You will also remember the part of the game called Tranquility lane which was a simulation. Couple the two together (in a kind of strange way) and you get Operation Anchorage. Basically you are the star in a simulation of war in Anchorage in Alaska. It's so so, with the most standout thing being the lovely icey cold visuals. Other than that it's rather yawnsome.

6/10

The Pitt

This one takes you to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and has you walking in as a slave. You then do a bit of sniffing around before siding with the slaves (and helping them free themselves from the opression) or the opression itself, a bunch of nasty cunts who like having slaves. The slaves are put to use to rebuild Pittsburgh (AKA the Pitt) but they aren't treated very nicely. Lots of moral decisions, bland graphics and linearity mean that The Pitt really isn't any better than Operation Anchorage. Infact, on the second playthrough I thought it was considerably worse.

5/10

Broken Steel

In honesty this one isn't really a DLC. It's like the last quarter of the game that was held back to make you want to buy it and make Bethesda more money. You see, when you complete Fallout 3 that's it. You get the ending (which is rather good IMO) and then you have to rewind your save game if you want to finish up all the loose ends. Broken Steel continues the story of Fallout 3 and brings it to a rather epic conclusion, allowing you to complete the game, then go through it (Broken Steel) and then once you are done that you can go back to free roam. The only bit of Broken Steel that I found odd was why the fuck it was released third in the lineup. That part makes no logical sense at all. Broken Steel, as I pointed out, was the last part of Fallout 3 that really needed to be there in order to make the game complete. I don't really appreciate that if I am honest, as it's kind of like one of those movies you pay £15 to go and see and then come to find that what you paid for is actually half of a four hour long film cut in half to force you into paying another £15 to see what happens. I went to see a Matrix film once and it was just that. I swore to all that was fucking holy that I would never go and watch another film like that, and didn't. That's fucking shitty.

I'm not saying I had the rights to demand Broken Steel for free, but Bethesda should have released it as the first DLC. It also allowed you to level up higher, meaning that all of the XP you could have been putting to good use in Anchorage and The Pitt were spunked down the fucking drain. Due to that I offer Bethesda, for Broken Steel

7/10

Point Lookout

The absolute best of the DLC for Fallout 3. It really is super. Point Lookout sees you climbing aboard a riverboat and making your way off to a place that I believe to be based around the real Point Lookout which is situated in Maryland. Hilariously I drove straight past Point Lookout (the real one) numerous times when crossing to and fro from Ohio to visit my pal Ryan. You get off the boat to find a deserted seaside town with a big wheel in it and then make your way off to find the quests that Point Lookout has in store for you. There are a lot of them and they are like, totally fun dude (stupid mode off). You can begin pretty much anywhere, but the general consensus is to go off and find the rather eccentric English ghoul and then become his hired hand. There is, however, far more to Point Lookout than just a few quests. There are a metric ton of sidequests, an enormous slab of new ground to discover, all new enemies, new weapons and some of the coolest stuff to discover yet in the series. There are some quite odd parts, but they all make sense in the end.

9/10

Mothership Zeta

Is fucking shit and makes no sense to me whatsoever. I did hear that in the original games (which I haven't played as I missed the boat by too many years) that there were references to aliens but Zeta is just fucking stupid. It has you boarding an alien spaceship and then completing the most boring fucking quests I have ever done in either of the games (NV and 3). It really is utterly utterly awful and the bollock twangingly frustrating thing is that once you start it you can not get back. Which wouldn't be a terrible thing if like, you know? it was any fucking good, but it isn't. I fucking hated it.

1/10 and the only reason it got a 1 was for the weapons you get.

So basically rather than bringing Fallout 3 to an end with a loud bang Bethesda decided instead to take it out with a whimper. What a terrible shame. I have played through Fallout 3 in every guise and scenario you can play it in (good, bad, male and female) yet I have only played through Zeta twice out of those four or five playthroughs. I have a final playthrough sitting there with everything done apart from Zeta. It really is awful. Any way, onward and upwards, and this time it's the roundup of the DLC released for Fallout : New Vegas.

Dead Money

I first played through this a good while ago now as one of my early playthroughs. If memory serves I completed this one using my first save game. After that I decided to play through it again as I now knew the ropes and wanted to do better, learning from my original mistakes. At that time I really didn't like Dead Money at all. It was odd and contained like, new things. I should have liked this but instead I hated it. HOW DARE THEY ADD NEW THINGS THAT CHANGE HOW YOU PLAY !. I managed to scrape through it and swore I would not do it again. Don't get me wrong there were numerous things I found very attractive with it, but it was just very odd and very hard.

It starts you out by giving you a message from the Sierra Madre casino. The Sierra Madre was built by this guy (who you don't know from Adam) but was never opened to the public. They did have a grand opening lined up, but for some reason it just didn't occur. It's now up to you, detective *insert name here* to go off and find out why. The first thing that strikes you about the Sierra Madre is just how incredible it looks. It stands proudly atop a big hill looking rather inviting yet eery at the same time. I found this rather warming, as I have a great interest in creepy things. You then realise that some cunt has strapped a bomb to your neck and you must become his bitch for a while in order to get to the casino. This is where the game changes. You now have to be very careful not to walk the wrong way as this will blow your head clean from your shoulders. I found this incredibly restrictive at first and indeed very frustrating. It stops the free roam element of the Fallout series and makes you follow an exact path. It then decides to fucking gas you too, making it even more difficult. If you manage to get past that you then have to round up a posse of strangers and complete lots of tasks before entering the casino itself.

Once there it becomes rather interesting as you discover what has (and has not) happened there, and eventually (if you know how to perform the correct moves) you land up in a vault full of gold bullion that you can (with great difficulty) load up your pockets with and walk away with. In the Fallout games (the last two recent ones) you can only carry so much. However, Dead Money offers  you a perk add on that allows you to fast travel whilst over the weight limit. This, coupled with some serious throught (and a Stealth Boy that makes you invisible) will allow you to walk free of the Sierra Madre with riches beyond your wildest dreams. And those riches will come in essential when you get around to playing Lonesome Road. Brief description - Lonesome Road is the last of the DLC for New Vegas and has some ridiculously priced add ons for the weapons you find there. Without the gold I can't see how you could possibly afford them in honesty.

Any way, without going on any more I will round this up. I wasn't a fan of Dead Money the first time I went through it. On the second trip there, however, I became hooked and really enjoyed it.

9/10

Honest Hearts

Was fucking shit. Honestly (huzzah !) it really was quite awful. Now I know that New Vegas as a game is based around deserts and primitive native American landscapes, but that doesn't mean we should be fucked over with a primitive DLC. What makes it even worse is that it attempts to pull off some native American themes and just totally fucks them up, making them completely laughable. You get this Indian (as it's shorter than typing Native American, so don't accuse me of being racist) as a guide but it's just wrong. He continually spouts off one liners such as "Let it give you great strength, like the buffalo" and continued shit of that ilk. It's cheesy. So very, very cheesy and becomes about as aggravting as having a handful of wet sand in your underwear whilst doing a ten mile walk. It's also very boring. So boring, infact, that I did most of it with my eyes half closed. Fuck even knows what Obsidian were thinking. Seriously, I was beginning to think that the wonder of Dead Money was a fluke for fuck sake.

1/10 - Even the weapons are fucking shit.

Old World Blues

At first I really didn't like this one too much either. It's very odd. I honestly have no idea who comes up with the ideas for the DLC, but they do come up with some crap. Any way, eventually it does dawn on you how good this DLC is. It's quite big, varied, throws up some new enemies and offers a pretty darn good side story. There are also some really good aspects to it, such as the stealth armour which allows you to stroll straight past enemies without bending your brains from using a Stealth Boy. Very good IMO, I quite enjoyed it in the end after I got my head around it.

8/10

Lonsome Road

So here it is. The climax, the last DLC for New Vegas that was touted to bring it to an end, explaining what was going on. You see, Fallout 3 does not hide anything. Right from thre very beginning you realise you are in a vault due to a nuclear war, why you are there, what happened and what is going to happen. Fallout New Vegas on the other hand starts  you off as a courier who delivers things. However, the courier was shot in the head and buried alive before being rescued by a doctor. When you come to you have absolutely no idea what happened and nor does it tell you because you have completely lost your memory. You then go off trying to find out what happened with the entire premise being heavily based around that. I mean sure, the game is awesome and there are other things to distract you from wondering who the fuck you are and where  you came from, but the underlying subject is basically a case of "What happened?".

Lonesome Road apparently takes care of all of this, and apparently explains to you the events leading up to the start of Fallout New Vegas. Only, it doesn't. Nothing in it is explained very well other than how your little robot pal E-DE (which you also find out is prounounced Eddie, rather than the E d E that I thought it would be) came to be and you really do get a fantastic story about his entire being. That part was fucking great. Sadly when it comes to Ulysses (who tries his best to perform the role of Eamon Andrews (This is y our life) but failing)  he is rather odd. He speaks in rhymes and doesn't really make much sense.

From what I could gather (excuse me for being fucking thick if I interpreted it wrong !) you used to live in and around this Lonesome Road place, but you delivered a parcel to some cunt who then detonated a load of ballistic warheads there fucking it up for you and all of the other poor sods there. Apparently the NCR were there, as were the Legion (Caesar's). When the IBM warheads went off they all became ghouls and then hunted one another (and now you) as a sport. There are also numerous Deathclaws there among these annoying fuckers that live below the ground like worms. Apparently this is why Ulysses hates you so much and wants to make your life as miserable as fucking possible, but it still isn't clear as he just waffles endless bullshit. Coming to a conclusion was something I was desperate for, but it's still not very clear. By the time you are done (which won't be very fucking long !) you will just be glad to be out of there.

There are some rather cool elements to it (the way it looks is very Fallout 3ish) but there really isn't that much on offer. There is an area that perked my interest called The Courier's Mile (which I figured would be where you used to walk before some cunt blew it up) but even though it's fiercely difficult, full of radiation and populated by Deathclaws is very small. I desperately tried to find lots to like in Lonesome Road but really ended up finding fuck all. There is also something that really pisses me off now that it's finished. On the main map of the Mojave Desert there is an area called The Mojave Outpost. If you walk to the end of the area there is a locked gate that says This requires a key to open. Any avid explorer such as myself wants to open it and see what is on the other side ! and I assumed that after completing all of the DLC it would either open, or, be a part of the DLC. It wasn't, which is rather fucking annoying. It seems to me that Obsidian have left many things unsaid in Fallout New Vegas, and apparently they are going to remain that way as they are apparently now done with it for good.

Shame.

3/10

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