There's a perk that will let you increase any of your stats by one (I think it has more than 3 ranks but I could be wrong) - used it twice myself. However, you can also raise stats permanently with other things such as the bobbleheads - which are very difficult to find but raise perks or skills permanently (found 3 so far) - a few other perks also exist but are only good for certain conditions - just gave myself "Night Person" - +2 Intel and +2 Perception at night (inside and outside).

Just beat the game at about 50 hours. I got all the achievements except the Karma level achievements. I guess I will go back to get those just to have 1000.

This is game of the year! Unless Gears of War 2 steals it at the end I can not think of any game that comes close this year. It feels like a cross between Oblivion and Mass Effect, but better. Sure you can find flaws, but taken as a whole I have not had this much fun with a game in a long time. It is tighter then Oblivion, and less repetitive then Mass Effect.

Slight, VERY slight spoilers here..... but the last quest in the game was fucking awesome. Not as jaw dropping as Mass Effect (the walking outside part) but in a smaller way just as fun. I felt cheated by the end cinema, which was just images with a voice over. They could have spent some more time on that.


Best game this year, and easily top 3 of the Next Generation systems.

Well I operated one HAM station since my earlier post, but I was on the other end of the map at the time so although the dial was fiddled automatically, nothing happened - don't think I've seen one actually within range of the radio tower itself, but I'll have to try looking again.

Just found the Fatman as well - now I've got about 5 micro-nukes stocked up, but I'll probably stockpile the lot at my house for the next few levels (can't believe I've still been using combat armor since lvl 3 or 4) - even if it has gained a few upgrades.

Figure almost everything gets used once - although unlike morrowind, I didn't see the need to pick up every single piece of junk from the beginning for cash.

Built the railway gun (freaking awesome pinning a ghoul's head to the wall with a spike), bottlecap mines v1 and v2 and the Shishkebab - got a huge stockpile of darts right now, so I figure there's some pistol that shoots them as well as some sort of molotov cocktail recipe given the preponderance of alcohol, turpentine and empty bottles. Still saving up for the Rock-it launcher specs as well since I changed my house theme 2x and bought my own workstation, nuka-cola machine and jukebox.

Where can I get a flame thrower at? I'm at least 30 hours in and have not seen one yet.

Ya, you can use it up to 10 times.

I found a Rider chick - twice - that was using it. One was at an old barn...it was called a Cafe or something.

do you know what zone it was in? what is the nearest location? I have the guide so i can look up any location on the map.

How do I get a home?
I know that If I do the disarm the bomb mission in Megaton I'll get a home, is there any other option?
Also, Lucas Simms, Megaton's sheriff got killed, it was my fault, I told him about Burke's plan to detonate the bomb and Lucas tried to arrest him and got killed. Will I still get the house?

It seems like encounters are somewhat random, so I don't think you could trust the same enemy to be in the same place.

I wish you could buy Three Dog a few more songs.

Isn't that the truth. They really should've built in that you could find a bunch of old records throughout the game and give them to Three Dog to play. I'm getting really tired of hearing 'I don't want to set the world on fire...'

there are only 2 homes in the game, one from disarming the bomb, the other from detonating it.

spoilers!!!!

I thought Three Dog was a person :(

Three Dog is a person...

Weapons show up fairly randomly. I've come across at least 1/2 dozen flamers so far as well as miniguns and rocket launchers. Mostly from raiders but a couple from super-mutants (and a BoS guy who was killed by a raider).

I guess one raider who has one and a stockpile of fuel - presumably in the same place for everyone since it was a mini-settlement - was located in an alley near the nuka-cola factory (can't remember exact direction off the top of my head), but if you're following the road from Arlington Library towards the nuka-cola plant, turn right at the first major intersection before the cola plant and go up a few blocks (past the other small factory and parking lot full of cars) and it'll be down an alley on your right.

You still get the house if

One nitpick I have - I'm not sure if the metro lines in the game are based on a metro system from the 50s or what (only 4 lines), but they geographically placed Falls Church south of Arlington (IIRC), whereas we're actually considerably further W of Arlington. Also there's no actual N. Falls Church Station (just East and West stations) - which makes me wonder if there actually used to be one in real life.

Also, I need to confirm again next time I leveled, but I thought in the first 2 games that tabbing certain skills at the beginning meant that you always got 3 for 1 when you put skills points in them - or if it was just an advantage at the very beginning.

I went for energy weapons, lockpick and speech IIRC and putting points in them now only adds 1 point per.

I wondered why they changed the tagged skills. Yeah, in the past games tagged skills advanced twice as quickly as the rest (I believe). Maybe it was 3 for 1 until you reached a certain skill level, like 50? But yeah, in this game tagging skills seems to only give you a bonus once.

If Lucas Simms

My apologies if this was mentioned upthread. Curious as to what -- if anything -- having XBL adds to the playing experience. I understand that there's no online play, but what can I expect in terms of DLC?

Asking because I haven't touched my 360 since I canceled my home internet service. Desperately want Fallout, but will wait if online access significantly improves game play.

While the geography of the stations is indeed off, the game is based on an alternate timeline that began at the end of WWII, meaning the metro stations in the game are not the same as the ones that were actually built in the early to mid 70s.

Although I did like the nice touch of using the same floor tiles as in the actual system.

Heh, that was #1 on the list of reasons why Fallout 3 isn't as good as the previous games.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/9147-c...han-fallout-3/

Has anyone else found the UFO? I did and there was a pleasant and very deadly surprise to be found there.

Even though Bethesda Software is local to the DC area (as you might expect from the name), their geography is pretty screwed up. Let's just assume that the Metro lines get completely revamped sometime between now and the apocalypse. I have no explanation for the moving cities, though. ;)

I found the UFO. What was there besides the alien and alot of radiation?

yep, great use of the radio there.

Oh? Pics? Info?