I'm sorry my friend, but no, making the ending not an ending doesn't make it good, if anything, it just makes things worse.
Insanely funny in retrospect to make playing after the final mission a DLC
the last quest took my fucking 2 hours because i had no stimpacks and was one hit
I don't like the descriptor "self-obsessed" to describe art.
Both because I think the mere act of creating art requires a little bit of benign self-obsession, and because it's often used by luddites to shout down art they perceive as 'pretentious' or somesuch nonsense.
With that in mind, Fallout 3 has a moderate problem with being self-obsessed.
It is a game that mostly consists of hallway shooting galleries, quests where the moral choices are "basic decency" and "laugh in a child's face after tricking him into putting on a bomb collar", and doesn't really possess much in the way of clever jokes beyond pop culture references and human suffering- hey wait
It's juvenile, to put it briefly.
But between the constant invocation of the Bible, the main story rapidly becoming about some grand purpose, your birth and childhood being the introduction, Three Dog endlessly praising a good/neutral player for being the singular hero that'll save the day, and thousands of other little tidbits, it's clear as day that the writers have an overinflated sense of how profound they think this is.
Before we continue, I think it's prudent that I go back in time for a little bit, and talk about both myself and the game at launch.
I'm a very old Fallout fan. So old in fact that I can't even talk about the sites I visited in any depth; they're all still around and their history entirely public - it'd be tantamount to doxxing. My opinions on the series are coloured by about 17 years of discontent and relative loathing for Bethesda Fallout as a creative force.
Fallout 3 dropped in October 2008 - exact date is beyond me - and it was much beloved by everyone except me and my fellow embittered old fans. At first this discontent was merely "they changed it!" but for me, at least, it's only grown due to far more valid complaints.
There is, however, one complaint that Fallout 3 fans and haters alike had back in the day.
See, it's profoundly difficult to stumble upon the base version of Fallout 3 these days. Microsoft sell the GOTY edition for cheaper than the basegame on Xbox, and on Steam it's the only option available to buy. If you purchase Fallout 3, there's a 99% chance it's the whole package.
From the game's release until it's 1st anniversary, Broken Steel did not exist. Without it, the game's main story simply ended. This seems inoffensive on the surface and when spoken so plainly the idea of it being contentious must seem ludicrous.
The catch here is that Fallout 3's story is very short. If one decides to dabble in it, they can easily reach the end in a couple hours potentially by accident. This in itself often poses a problem, as it's entirely possible to be locked into that ~endgame state~ and corresponding building just by chasing the main story as a diversion.
It's the story itself that's the draw here, though. Fallout 3's writers were obsessed with how grandiose, spiritual and hashtag epic the story was, so it ends with either you sacrificing yourself to turn on a water purifier or making someone else do it as the token evil option.
If you use social media a decent amount and are either in or adjacent to game circles, you might've seen the companion reactions to being asked to go into the Purifier. They're bad, and the radiation-immune companions give the most asspull reactions possible.
About a month or two after Fallout 3's release, Bethesda announced a trio of DLCs: Operation Anchorage, The Pitt and Broken Steel.
Broken Steel drew a lot of curiosity pre-release for one simple reason: A promise of being able to play past the ending.
It's somewhat "common knowledge" that this was Bethesda violently backtracking and while we'll never know the truth, I personally make it a point to remind people that Fallout 3's DLCs were planned before release and the development only wrapped the same month it released.
Broken Steel, for me, is a bit of a morbid curiosity. I would love to know more about it and I'm eternally sad that the developers at Bethesda are so culturally and creatively exsanginuated, for it makes finding out their influences/objectives/desires so much harder compared to, say, New Vegas characters.
To break it down for you: I don't know what the fuck Bethesda were thinking with this DLC.
Sure, Fallout 3's base ending is terrible. It's incredibly overdramatic for the game it's in, utterly defies and resists any attempts to interrogate it, reeks of Great Man Theory, and railroads the player in an already railroad-y game.
But when you swing for the fences and hit manure, the most noble thing you can do is commit. I have respect for plenty of creatives who make something terrible, stand their ground and go "Fuck you. This is what I wanted to make." It's why I take few potshots at indie projects and millions at Bioware.
Broken Steel's greatest sin is its existence: It's a backtrack. It's Bethesda flinching. It's a wordless apology. Cowardice in megabyte form. Doesn't matter if it was a planned move or a reactive one, because it simply is, and that's the worst part. There is simply no winning here: If it was planned, then surprise! Bethesda don't really care about the products they make and will cynical lobotomize them to sell DLC. If it wasn't planned, then within a month of release they hastily scrabbled to lobotomize their game so they could scramble to regain the mild amount of goodwill they lost.
...But you know what? Even if we ignore that it's ideological wafer, or that I'm an ornery old Fallout fan who's distrusted people with Enclave avatars since before my nieces and nephews were born, Broken Steel is just... bad on a design level.
For starters, it adds three new enemies to the Wasteland: Feral Ghoul Reavers, Super Mutant Behemoths, and Albino Radscorpions. These are... Remodelled and higher level variants of the three most common enemy types in the Wasteland. They have significantly higher health pools (the largest behind Behemoths) and get a passive +35 to their damage output that bypasses all of your armor. Besides this they're not very engaging to fight. You either kill them fast or they kill you fast. Riveting.
The 'main story' of the DLC is horrifically grim even by the standards of Fallout 3's own main story. Having given up all pretense of even telling a story, the player is shoved into a military campaign against the Enclave which moooooooooostly just manifests as more hallway shooter segments and another lackluster, somewhat cringe section with Liberty Prime. If you've not visited Old Olney yet, the second main quest awkwardly pushes you there to collect the associated loot. After that, another shooter segment that's even easier than the ones from past DLCs because it's 80% open fields - and the game hands you an absurdly powerful weapon that uses ammo so plentiful even casual players can amass thousands. Bang bang bang, make a 'moral choice' (nuke the Enclave or the BoS) and off you go.
That's... Basically it? Besides some inconsequential side quests, some loot that's mediocre for how late it appears, and the level cap increase, Broken Steel really isn't all that substantial despite the implications of its name.
Maybe the real Broken Steel was the antipathy we made along the way.
Both because I think the mere act of creating art requires a little bit of benign self-obsession, and because it's often used by luddites to shout down art they perceive as 'pretentious' or somesuch nonsense.
With that in mind, Fallout 3 has a moderate problem with being self-obsessed.
It is a game that mostly consists of hallway shooting galleries, quests where the moral choices are "basic decency" and "laugh in a child's face after tricking him into putting on a bomb collar", and doesn't really possess much in the way of clever jokes beyond pop culture references and human suffering- hey wait
It's juvenile, to put it briefly.
But between the constant invocation of the Bible, the main story rapidly becoming about some grand purpose, your birth and childhood being the introduction, Three Dog endlessly praising a good/neutral player for being the singular hero that'll save the day, and thousands of other little tidbits, it's clear as day that the writers have an overinflated sense of how profound they think this is.
Before we continue, I think it's prudent that I go back in time for a little bit, and talk about both myself and the game at launch.
I'm a very old Fallout fan. So old in fact that I can't even talk about the sites I visited in any depth; they're all still around and their history entirely public - it'd be tantamount to doxxing. My opinions on the series are coloured by about 17 years of discontent and relative loathing for Bethesda Fallout as a creative force.
Fallout 3 dropped in October 2008 - exact date is beyond me - and it was much beloved by everyone except me and my fellow embittered old fans. At first this discontent was merely "they changed it!" but for me, at least, it's only grown due to far more valid complaints.
There is, however, one complaint that Fallout 3 fans and haters alike had back in the day.
See, it's profoundly difficult to stumble upon the base version of Fallout 3 these days. Microsoft sell the GOTY edition for cheaper than the basegame on Xbox, and on Steam it's the only option available to buy. If you purchase Fallout 3, there's a 99% chance it's the whole package.
From the game's release until it's 1st anniversary, Broken Steel did not exist. Without it, the game's main story simply ended. This seems inoffensive on the surface and when spoken so plainly the idea of it being contentious must seem ludicrous.
The catch here is that Fallout 3's story is very short. If one decides to dabble in it, they can easily reach the end in a couple hours potentially by accident. This in itself often poses a problem, as it's entirely possible to be locked into that ~endgame state~ and corresponding building just by chasing the main story as a diversion.
It's the story itself that's the draw here, though. Fallout 3's writers were obsessed with how grandiose, spiritual and hashtag epic the story was, so it ends with either you sacrificing yourself to turn on a water purifier or making someone else do it as the token evil option.
If you use social media a decent amount and are either in or adjacent to game circles, you might've seen the companion reactions to being asked to go into the Purifier. They're bad, and the radiation-immune companions give the most asspull reactions possible.
About a month or two after Fallout 3's release, Bethesda announced a trio of DLCs: Operation Anchorage, The Pitt and Broken Steel.
Broken Steel drew a lot of curiosity pre-release for one simple reason: A promise of being able to play past the ending.
It's somewhat "common knowledge" that this was Bethesda violently backtracking and while we'll never know the truth, I personally make it a point to remind people that Fallout 3's DLCs were planned before release and the development only wrapped the same month it released.
Broken Steel, for me, is a bit of a morbid curiosity. I would love to know more about it and I'm eternally sad that the developers at Bethesda are so culturally and creatively exsanginuated, for it makes finding out their influences/objectives/desires so much harder compared to, say, New Vegas characters.
To break it down for you: I don't know what the fuck Bethesda were thinking with this DLC.
Sure, Fallout 3's base ending is terrible. It's incredibly overdramatic for the game it's in, utterly defies and resists any attempts to interrogate it, reeks of Great Man Theory, and railroads the player in an already railroad-y game.
But when you swing for the fences and hit manure, the most noble thing you can do is commit. I have respect for plenty of creatives who make something terrible, stand their ground and go "Fuck you. This is what I wanted to make." It's why I take few potshots at indie projects and millions at Bioware.
Broken Steel's greatest sin is its existence: It's a backtrack. It's Bethesda flinching. It's a wordless apology. Cowardice in megabyte form. Doesn't matter if it was a planned move or a reactive one, because it simply is, and that's the worst part. There is simply no winning here: If it was planned, then surprise! Bethesda don't really care about the products they make and will cynical lobotomize them to sell DLC. If it wasn't planned, then within a month of release they hastily scrabbled to lobotomize their game so they could scramble to regain the mild amount of goodwill they lost.
...But you know what? Even if we ignore that it's ideological wafer, or that I'm an ornery old Fallout fan who's distrusted people with Enclave avatars since before my nieces and nephews were born, Broken Steel is just... bad on a design level.
For starters, it adds three new enemies to the Wasteland: Feral Ghoul Reavers, Super Mutant Behemoths, and Albino Radscorpions. These are... Remodelled and higher level variants of the three most common enemy types in the Wasteland. They have significantly higher health pools (the largest behind Behemoths) and get a passive +35 to their damage output that bypasses all of your armor. Besides this they're not very engaging to fight. You either kill them fast or they kill you fast. Riveting.
The 'main story' of the DLC is horrifically grim even by the standards of Fallout 3's own main story. Having given up all pretense of even telling a story, the player is shoved into a military campaign against the Enclave which moooooooooostly just manifests as more hallway shooter segments and another lackluster, somewhat cringe section with Liberty Prime. If you've not visited Old Olney yet, the second main quest awkwardly pushes you there to collect the associated loot. After that, another shooter segment that's even easier than the ones from past DLCs because it's 80% open fields - and the game hands you an absurdly powerful weapon that uses ammo so plentiful even casual players can amass thousands. Bang bang bang, make a 'moral choice' (nuke the Enclave or the BoS) and off you go.
That's... Basically it? Besides some inconsequential side quests, some loot that's mediocre for how late it appears, and the level cap increase, Broken Steel really isn't all that substantial despite the implications of its name.
Maybe the real Broken Steel was the antipathy we made along the way.
One of the goddamn worst things I've ever played. At least even Borderlands and its terrible DLCs function on a base level. This is - no exaggeration - unplayable on PS3. In case you may have misinterpreted that, I don't mean it just runs poorly - I mean it is legitimately, no joke unable to be played correctly. At all. The first couple missions are boring but doable (albeit at a snail's pace), then the last mission will literally drop to 1 frame per every 6-7 (or more!) seconds and you don't even have to be in the heat of battle. Crashed (for the umpteenth time) upon netting my very last Fallout 3 trophy from it and I didn't even bother trying to salvage. I was done. Thank the Lord. Yes the level 30 cap and postgame abilities are a crucial addition to the base game, but you cannot excuse the pitiful state of its named content. And even if this wasn't a thorough technical failure it's still everything people complained that the incomparably superior Operation Anchorage was - a linear, monotonous, repetitive, chuggy and buggy enemy spam/exposition dump. Fucking HELL.
Oh my god... that awful Enclave mod for New Vegas was just inspired by this... why...
I love the fact that these guys made a game with one of the worst endings ever only to release an expansion that gives it an even more underwhelming ending.
I don't have much to say with this one. It's ok I guess? It adds barely anything to the already mediocre main story. I just find it really boring, but might be because Fallout 3's iteration of the Brotherhood of Steel is my least favorite. Best parts about it is that it lets you continue playing after beating the main quest and that it increases the level cap.
petite merde
The final story missions in this one are actually fun with a satisfying ending but the tesla cannon sucks outside of vats
This review contains spoilers
i almost feel bad for the Enclave at this point
Gives fallout 3 the ending it deserves.
What if you wanted to play Fallout 3 past "Take it Back!", but Todd Howard said "BULLET SPONGES"
Brutality!
You can join the brotherhood even harder than you could in the base game but some brotherhood NPCs still treat you like you're an outsider?
The main questline also leaves a lot to be desired, it's mostly roughly linear FPS gameplay.
The added enemies (super mutant overlord, albino radscorpion, feral ghoul reaver) all have terminal cases of bulletspongeitis to boot, making the extra ten levels feel like your character is actually getting weaker.
The main questline also leaves a lot to be desired, it's mostly roughly linear FPS gameplay.
The added enemies (super mutant overlord, albino radscorpion, feral ghoul reaver) all have terminal cases of bulletspongeitis to boot, making the extra ten levels feel like your character is actually getting weaker.
A series of linear, mediocre dungeon crawls that don't even bother to use new assets until the final mission.
The draw here seems to be raising the game's level cap, but I'm not sure why this is considered a benefit. The original release felt well balanced around levels 1-20 with the understanding that once you reach max level your run should be ending fairly soon. Extending that up to 30 just exposes how broken and nearly unkillable a level 20 player character is. Just having more of something isn't necessarily a good thing.
The game tries to compensate by adding some new enemies to the leveled lists. These are three reskins of existing enemies with stupidly bloated healthpools since this is the only way to ensure they have even a chance of getting an attack off against a player with access to Grim Reaper's Sprint. Only the broken gear from this and the other DLCs makes fighting them tolerable, but I still try to avoid it if I can.
Also likes to throw so many enclave soldiers firing energy weapons at you that it caused my game to crash for the first time this run lol
The draw here seems to be raising the game's level cap, but I'm not sure why this is considered a benefit. The original release felt well balanced around levels 1-20 with the understanding that once you reach max level your run should be ending fairly soon. Extending that up to 30 just exposes how broken and nearly unkillable a level 20 player character is. Just having more of something isn't necessarily a good thing.
The game tries to compensate by adding some new enemies to the leveled lists. These are three reskins of existing enemies with stupidly bloated healthpools since this is the only way to ensure they have even a chance of getting an attack off against a player with access to Grim Reaper's Sprint. Only the broken gear from this and the other DLCs makes fighting them tolerable, but I still try to avoid it if I can.
Also likes to throw so many enclave soldiers firing energy weapons at you that it caused my game to crash for the first time this run lol
Liberty Prime!
Stretches Fallout 3's clusterfuck ending out for money. Yay.
I'm so tired
The DLC that was made to allow a proper ending to Fallout 3.
they really made a worse ending than the original
This is my second time playing Broken Steel and I'm still not the biggest fan of the DLC. There's some aspects I appreciate about Broken Steel like how it fixed the base game's ending and the Tesla Cannon, which was fun to use, but overall, I found the quests and storyline to be lackluster.
Pretty mid, not gonna lie. First of all this DLC should've come included for free with the base game as a bonus quest or something as it's literally the end of the story for the Brotherhood of Steel.
And honestly, it's not that fun. It has its cool moments, but overall, it was pretty buggy. The best things about this DLC are that the end is satisfactory... maybe?
And honestly, it's not that fun. It has its cool moments, but overall, it was pretty buggy. The best things about this DLC are that the end is satisfactory... maybe?
Broken Steel marks the endgame for me in the Fo3 part of my TTW runs... and as such, I LOVE this DLC for its challenge.
When it released though, not as many people were singing this DLC for its rewarding gameplay as much as they were DECRYING IT for featuring a new ending to the base game of Fo3 that allowed gamers to continue playing after the credits.
And yeah, I agree... paywalling a better ending than the terrible one we got with Fo3 is kinda lame. But at least nowadays you can find this thing bundled with the maingame of Fo3 for dirt-cheap prices.
So what exactly is the meat and potatoes of Broken Steel? Well, the post-main-story draw of it all. Broken Steel picks up where the main story left off, and sees players taking on the very last bit of Enclave forces left in the capital wasteland. Featuring several new locations, like the Adams AFB, the mobile base crawler, and my favorite location, the presidential subway, Broken Steel offers even the toughest lone wanderers serious challenge.
This is brought about via several new enemy types, the most prominent of which being Enclave Hellfire Troopers (who wear the best armor in the game), Feral Ghoul Reavers (who are bullet-spongey, massively-high DPS monsters), and Super Mutant Overlords (with the highest HP of any non-behemoth super mutant, equipped most commonly with the new tri-beam laser rifle).
These enemies, on top of seriously challenging gauntlets of combat like Old Olney Powerworks, make Broken Steel feel like the hardest part of Fo3. While it lacks any significant gameplay additions such as a choice-based story like The Pitt, or an entirely new explorable location like Point Lookout, Broken Steel makes up for these shortcomings by being just FUN.
But that kind of substance can only last so long before you start to realize the cracks underneath. Broken Steel is fun, yes, but those aforementioned enemy types spawn WAY TOO OFTEN even if you haven't started the DLC/are the recommended level for it. On top of this, Broken Steel's scummy handling of adding a post-game isn't the best look. Also, the convenience of this DLC does not last long. The combat encounters are, to tell the truth, samey across the entire time you play this thing. But being able to test out Vengeance (the gatling laser) in brand-new power armor in an all-out war against the Enclave in the Adams AFB is an experience I won't soon forget.
When it released though, not as many people were singing this DLC for its rewarding gameplay as much as they were DECRYING IT for featuring a new ending to the base game of Fo3 that allowed gamers to continue playing after the credits.
And yeah, I agree... paywalling a better ending than the terrible one we got with Fo3 is kinda lame. But at least nowadays you can find this thing bundled with the maingame of Fo3 for dirt-cheap prices.
So what exactly is the meat and potatoes of Broken Steel? Well, the post-main-story draw of it all. Broken Steel picks up where the main story left off, and sees players taking on the very last bit of Enclave forces left in the capital wasteland. Featuring several new locations, like the Adams AFB, the mobile base crawler, and my favorite location, the presidential subway, Broken Steel offers even the toughest lone wanderers serious challenge.
This is brought about via several new enemy types, the most prominent of which being Enclave Hellfire Troopers (who wear the best armor in the game), Feral Ghoul Reavers (who are bullet-spongey, massively-high DPS monsters), and Super Mutant Overlords (with the highest HP of any non-behemoth super mutant, equipped most commonly with the new tri-beam laser rifle).
These enemies, on top of seriously challenging gauntlets of combat like Old Olney Powerworks, make Broken Steel feel like the hardest part of Fo3. While it lacks any significant gameplay additions such as a choice-based story like The Pitt, or an entirely new explorable location like Point Lookout, Broken Steel makes up for these shortcomings by being just FUN.
But that kind of substance can only last so long before you start to realize the cracks underneath. Broken Steel is fun, yes, but those aforementioned enemy types spawn WAY TOO OFTEN even if you haven't started the DLC/are the recommended level for it. On top of this, Broken Steel's scummy handling of adding a post-game isn't the best look. Also, the convenience of this DLC does not last long. The combat encounters are, to tell the truth, samey across the entire time you play this thing. But being able to test out Vengeance (the gatling laser) in brand-new power armor in an all-out war against the Enclave in the Adams AFB is an experience I won't soon forget.
2ème DLC de Fallout 3 que je fini,
je trouve ça un peu honteux de la part de Bethesda de bloquer la suite du jeu via un DLC payant. Surtout qu'il est pas si ouf que ça.
On doit combattre des sac à PV tout le long et c'est comme l'autre DLC enfaite, ça consiste juste à jouer à COD. On à le coté Fallout totalement effacé une 2ème fois.
Mais ce DLC a au moins le mérite d'être plus intéressant et cool que Opération Anchorage qui était horrible.
je trouve ça un peu honteux de la part de Bethesda de bloquer la suite du jeu via un DLC payant. Surtout qu'il est pas si ouf que ça.
On doit combattre des sac à PV tout le long et c'est comme l'autre DLC enfaite, ça consiste juste à jouer à COD. On à le coté Fallout totalement effacé une 2ème fois.
Mais ce DLC a au moins le mérite d'être plus intéressant et cool que Opération Anchorage qui était horrible.
It's whatever. It's just an extra hour of you shooting bullet sponge enemies but you get the Tesla Cannon which is pretty badass tho.
It’s also pretty asinine Bethesda made you buy a dlc in order to make the ending not completely shit lol
It’s also pretty asinine Bethesda made you buy a dlc in order to make the ending not completely shit lol
Bethesda can go fuck themself for making the true ending of the game locked behind a DLC. That does not matter now as much I suppose, given the GOTY edition is dirt cheep, but come on guys. Its is fun though, good mission and story.
Isso aí deveria vir com o jogo base, vai se fuder Bethesda kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
fuck off with this shit