Tom's Games gives Fallout 3 a ???

So I propose that those of us who have either finished the game or are a good deal through Fallout 3 and have a good grasp on how the gameplay mechanics work, what the graphics look like, how the story is unraveled, etc, try to guess what Tom's Games' official review score will be.

Personally, I would have to decide between giving the game a 9 or a 9.5 - it would easily go in my top 10 favorite games ever played, and perhaps even in my top 5. I think the graphics could be better, as well as some of the animations, but what it lacks in those areas it more than makes up for with story and atmosphere, as well as value in my opinion. However, I know that Tom's can be pretty tough on games, so my guess is that Tom's will give the game an 8.5. i think if I'm wrong it would be a 9.0 instead, but I'm sticking with

8.5

Anyone else care to guess?

i think 9 or 9.5 the only thing that lets this game down really is some of the graphics and animations, even though ive finished it im playing it again

I think its great - especially being the vanilla release too!

9.5 ftw

Heya,

I've not finished the game yet, but so far, I'd have to give it about an 8 out of 10. 5 is average on a scale like this. 10 is perfection with zero problems or flaws. Giving a 9.5 is like saying it's perfect but perhaps had a single tiny flaw. Fallout3 is not a perfect game. It's a really good game thus far, but far from perfect. Fallout2 was a 9.5 at least. Fallout3 is more like an 8 in my mind. It covers all the "good" bases very well. But it has some glaring flaws that interrupt game play experience. For example, ever watched NPC's or yourself move down slopes or stairs? They don't do it very well. They hop and drop. It looks ridiculous. It really detracts from the realism of the game. You can watch the Sherif in Megaton do this right away if you tell him about Mr. Burke and the sabotage plan of the bomb. This kind of really wonky pathing isn't what I'd expect to see in a game that is a 9/10. Another oddity is how the dialog and greetings and general attitude towards you seems very much like Oblivion. Anyone who played Fallout1 & 2 know that this is completely backwards from what it's like to meet wastelanders and strangers. It's weird being trusted and spoken to nicely by random strangers in the post apocalyptic world. It's like they all suddenly became sweethearts in a world of pain and struggle. Jericoh's attitude is more like what should be every where for example as a base line. There are a lot of other things that come to mind, but obviously, these are just my opinions and others may not share them. But things like that detract from the game for me and make it feel less polished, less moody and less like a 10 and more like an 8. A really solid good game, but with plenty of little flaws.

Sadly it's really hard to give FO3 a raving review as I'm a massive painfully geeky fanboy of Fallout2. You should have seen me squee when I saw the Nerd Rage & Lady Killer perks and knew exactly what kind of character I had to have (no other series, ever, has sauce this awesome). FO3 so far is really cool, definitely delivered considering people who had nothing to do with the original FO's made this one and did very well at keeping it very similar in many ways so it feels very close to the old ones. But it is a different game completely and has a very different mood.

The game seems to suffer a bit from what I can only compare to Oblivion. The mood of people (being way too pleasant too often). People stop to say "hey!" and are way too nice sounding instead of ignoring you, or trying to rob you. Everyone sounds the same. Asian/African/Mutant/Caucazoid/whetever, all have the same kind of voice. No accents. It feels really off. This sort of polishing is what it takes to get a 10 from me. Also, it seems you can race through the story line and beat the game fast if you just stay on that path and don't wonder/explore, like in Oblivion, you can beat that game on accident nearly and be done in a day, or prolong it for weeks if you just get off the story line and go do stuff elsewhere (hard to do if you're engrossed in a nice story line though!). The old Fallout had a lot of off-path story adventuring to do. Things that added to the world experience in the game. This fallout3, I could go anywhere and everywhere and not feel out of place like I had to do something to fit in and get accepted before I start demanding answers and wanting to do stuff in their town--this is really weird, but again, that's due to my original fallout experiences where you have to get in good with the town before you can actually just do as you please.

But hey, I still have to play through the game. It's just an initial thought.

Very best,