Skyrim and Oblivion vs Fallout 3 and New Vegas

[gremcint]

Before I go into my skyrim experience I'll describe my oblivion experience.

I got oblivion on sale on steam, I played it for quite a while about 100 hours before realizing a few things. The crafting system is overly complicated, the disappearing items unless it's in a "safe" container is fucking frustrating. Not being able to pick up a book without reading it was driving me up the wall. Once you start to get money you quickly run out of things to buy (this happens with most bethesda games). The dungeons all look exactly the same over and over again and had no character to them at all. I really did not give an absolute shit about the story. The story made no sense (the guards would have killed you rather than even consider letting you near their king in the prison). Basically I had to install mods the make the game less annoying (alchemy sorting and a spell to auto teleport items to your lair) the soul gem mechanic is moronic (I can summon a creature, steal it's soul and put it in the magic item so the only issue is buying soul gems why can't I just pay someone to recharge it). I never even made it past act one before I realized I didn't give a crap. Even with difficulty turned down I kept having an annoying experience of monsters too strong for me to take just running up behind me and attacking me. So I'd try to run, AND THEY NEVER STOP CHASING YOU, I'd run across the entire fucking map and they just keep coming, I try to find guards to help me fight them but the thing is that you pick up other monsters along the way so all that happens is you and the guards die. Hoenstly I found the game dry and boring.

"But you played 100 hours you must have liked something about it" I didn't say it was a bad game but when I put 400 hours into fallout 3 there is a difference. There was a lot to look at and try before I got to the point where I decided I just didn't care anymore, it's not that I didn't like playing it I just feel no desire to go back.

So I upgraded my xbox and it came with a copy of skyrim. I've played it for 3 hours and it feels like oblivion all over again. 0 urge to play more.

Here's a big issue with both games, who am I? in fallout 3 and new vegas you actually have a very deep backstory that you unravel as you explore and play the game and have a lot of fun. The land itself has a sense of humour like finding a teddy bear holding two garden gnomes hostage or the radio shows. In oblivion and skyrim both you might as well have just fallen out of the fucking sky for all I know. Further in skyrim everytime I ask a character about this war that is supposedly going on I keep getting "I don't know and I don't care as answer" from fucking everyone. How am I supposed to give a shit about the story when the story doesn't give a shit about the story. The thing is I have no urge to play the game I'd rather go replay metroid for the 400th time than play skyrim usually.

Fallout 3 and New vega both though have a greater variety in environments, the characters will actually talk to me about what's going on, there's a story that's interesting. Why did my dad leave the vault? why did Benny shoot me in the head? What is in the Sierra Madre? Who is Ulysses?


Then the game play, I would much rather use V.A.T.S. and shoot that Minotaur in the head than run up and hit it with the sword.

I much prefer the level up system in fallout than skyrim or oblivion. I hate that if I accidently let myself level up I lose training points, the fact that I even had to write that sentence says a lot.

From the hype and reputation I should have orgasmed 5 times during my three hours of gameplay and lost weight and had a healthier diet for all the praise the game gets but I honestly found it very disappointing.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I was reading and understanding what you were saying... until you got to the point about "accidentally leveling up means losing training points."

I honestly don't understand how you could "accidentally" level up when your progress toward the next level is shown to you very frequently.

I am also unsure what you mean by you "lost" training points. Are you talking about being able to buy 5 skill points per level instead of having to work to get them? If so, you didn't lose anything other than an opportunity to trade gold for skill point rather than going out and doing whatever it was that requires you to do to get the same skill point.

[gremcint]

You autolevel if you sleep, I wasn't aware of this. I leveled up 5 times at once one time. Each level you have 5 training points and if you don't use them without levelling they are gone.

[Kelmon]

While I love all the Fallout games for their background, I think the way you improve your skills in the Elder Scrolls games is great. It's learning by doing. Use a sword a lot, get better at using swords. Whereas in Fallout you might get experience from killing people, which you can use to be better at lockpicking.
Also, i don't know what the big deal is with losing training points. Yes, you lose them when you go up a level, but so what? You can improve your skills to maximum anyway.

Ultimately, it's your own fault if you're not aware of how a game works. That's what a manual is for.

And of course there is a different tone in the Elder Scrolls series than there is in the Fallout series. TES tells a serious fantasy epic, Fallout has always been a bit satirical. You can't just put a ton of pop culture references in a game like Skyrim. At least *I* wouldn't like it.

However, it is true that Oblivion had huge problems with level scaling. In my first playthrough I leveled too fast (improving skills not helpful in combat) and was confronted with enemies that were just way too tough, while having crap equipment. On my second try i was more careful to improve my skills in a more balanced fashion, and it worked fine.
Skyrim (and Fallout before it) has hugely improved on this, by not level-scaling large parts of the outdoor world.

[Gravekeeper]

Skyrim and Fallout are such totally different beasts in tone and story. You can't exactly compare them there. The entire point of the Elder Scrolls has always been that your char can be whatever the hell you want. Its suppose to be total open world roleplaying. Whereas Fallout has always had a more focused narrative. Fallout 3 and New Vegas are actually rather drastic departures from Fallout 1/2, which had a very restrictive story and even a time limit.

There's no problem with Skyrim, its just not the sort of game you like apparently. Also, that big war thats going on? Yeah you can single handled lead either side to victory over a campaign of major battles if you want. Thats the beauty of the Elder Scrolls approach. You do whatever the hell you want as whomever the hell you want.

Whereas Fallout 3 was actually criticized for having too restrictive a narrative because no matter how you RP'd it, you were eventually forced to be the good guy in the end. Even if you had spent the entire game as an exhibitionist necrophiliac and the whole wasteland thought you were Satan incarnate.

Also, these games had the same damn engine and same presentation. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were just as guilty of having brainless filler NPCs with a default dialogue tree around as Obivion and Skyrim. In both games there wasn't much point in talking to Unnammed Villager #57 on the street unless you were asking after a very specific rumour in the region or something.

[gremcint]

You guys do raise some good points but I just found it really frustrating. Here's a couple more things really quick though, Can I please pick up a book without reading it. Can I have the text be easier to read and can I have the level up menu easier to use, at least on the xbox?

I'm not saying they're bad games but it's hard to explain. I'll probably give it another try later but part of it was how big of a let down it was.