Once again, not planning ahead when writing a blog bit me in the ass. One-Man Scouting Party was the title of yesterday's post. Why? I know why, but does someone who's not me as well? You could read it over and over again, but you probably wouldn't find anything in there explaining it, at all. Well, it's a good thing then, that I have decided to lift the Shroud of Confusion in today's riveting entry. At least, that's the idea. You never know, I might just veer off course completely again. We'll just have to see what happens, eh?
I'll be smart about it though, and take care of my little oversight first! One-Man Scouting Party is actually an achievement for Fallout 3 that you unlock when you've discovered 100 locations on the map. That's right, 100 locations, and, like I said yesterday, almost every one has one or more available quests. And there are even more out there! Locations, that is.
Actually, if I check my ingame stats now, it would say I've only discovered 98 locations. Yeah, I died right after finding number 100. Still, the achievement was already in the bag, so whatever, right? Wrong! Obviously I'll re-discover these places, and more. Tonight!
Now, why am I teling you all this? Because I feel it accurately represents how I play these games, that's why. People who know me can probably guess what's coming next...
That's right, it's my never-ending love for the free-roaming genre of games! Or is that one hyphen too many? Whatever.
My point is that I should probably be pounding the main story line, so that I can 'finish' the game before the sequel arrives. Instead, I walk around for hours, trying to discover each and every location on the map and indeed, picking up new quests along the way.
Will I ever learn?
I certainly hope not! What is it though, that I find so enjoyable about simply walking around, discovering a world? It certainly isn't limited to Fallout 3; take World of Warcraft, for example. As multifaceted a game as that is, there is one thing I particularly enjoyed about it, and I really hope they do this in Fallout New Vegas as well: a blacked out world map that gets revealed as you explore. Sacred 2 had this feature as well, now that I think about it. Just like WoW, that game had me walking the edges of every map, around an around, until everything was visible. Everything! A tiny speck of blackness in the middle of a forest, no bigger than a pixel? I will go there, no matter how hard or impossible it might be, and I will make that speck disappear! That in itself is a quest, for me. And, more often than not these days, you get rewarded for it too! Indeed, like with Fallout's achievement.
It is a bit of a shame then, that Fallout doesn't actually work like this. All you get when you've found a new place is a new icon on your map. But, that's good enough for me, I can tell you! What's especially problematic for me in this respect, is the compass. Tiny, green triangles point you in the direction of each location. So, you follow one and then, suddenly, a tiny, transparent triangle appears: an undiscovered location!!! Remember the movie Up? With the dogs and how they react when they think they see a squirrel? Exactly the same thing, for me. Another very good comparison would be the game Crackdown and its green orbs. I don't even know how many races, missions and other stuff were completely and instantly forgotten at the sight of one of those glowing beauties. Or indeed, one of those transparent triangles. Try as I might, I can't ignore them, I just can't. It gets even better (or worse?) when I'm on my way to discover something, and suddenly two more transparent triangles appear on my compass.
It's like Pokémon, only different; gotta discover 'em all!
And you know, discovering these locations is only half the fun for me. The simple act of traveling is the other half, as it were. And fighting, let's not forget about that! I come across plenty of enemies, and indeed, some of these encounters prove to be lethal. I've become especially weary of giant rad scorpions, these days. Nasty fuckers, those are. Especially when there's more than one. Add in an attack robot that hits you with lasers from a mile away, and things can get quite troublesome indeed. As they did, right after I found location #100. To say nothing about the nasty creatures up in the northwestern part of the map! Deathclaws they're called, if I remember correctly. And very aptly named they are! The trouble is, you can't actually run in Fallout 3. Or, at least, I can't. Maybe there's a perk somewhere that will allow me to run, but I don't have it. So all I can do, whenever I'm attacked, is walk backwards and shoot at whatever's chasing me until it dies. Which works just fine with almost all enemies, but the deathclaw is an exception. It jumps at you, lunges with its, er, deadly claws and well, soon after you're very dead. So far, each and every encounter with these nasty, nasty things ended in the last autosave reloading.
And there's still so much left to do! I need to find a way to get into the slaver's main camp to rescue some slaves for example, but they'll only let me in if I fetch them some new slaves! Like I said before, things are never simple in Fallout 3. Obviously I'm not going to give the slavers what they want, but I do need to find a way to make them think I did! Failing that, I suppose I could simply kill them all, but I don't like that. I don't swing that way, not in this game. I mean, I don't mind killing them, as they're obviously evil, but I'd rather come up with a more classy solution, you know? Anyone can point a gun and pull the trigger; where's the fun in that? I want to mess with their minds, making them think I'm on their side, while I destroy their operation from the inside out. Or something like that...
For now however, I must stop. And I suppose I could end this entry with the exact same sentence I started it with. You see, I really was planning to tell you another story like yesterday, I really was. But then... and... yeah...
Still, I can think of at least one person that won't mind at all!
Until the next one then, and until then, stay safe and game on!
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