You know what is the one stat that is missing from this game? Efficient ranges on weapons. It's obvious that some guns work better at closer distances than others by the way they behave, but there is absolutely no description anywhere that I've seen that would tell you which is best besides the ones that are obviously made for it (sniper rifle, scoped magnum, etc)....
Also, sneaking is supposedly affected by the bulk of your armor (according to load screen hints). I found some tesla enclave armor that doesn't reduce agility but definitely affects my sneaking ability a LOT, but there's no description anywhere nor a stat/skill reduction to tell me what the effect is. It's actually a big deal because it highly affects my choice of gear (going between ranger battle armor and power suits atm, I like sneaking so I want to know what the detriments of each armor set is).

I think we can both agree that "item description" is one of the elements completely removed from the game. God, I miss descriptions from the the previous Fallouts.

here here!

In short - I think we all knew that F3 would not be the same experience like the previous parts. What pains me the most is that this game could be so much more, if not for some stupid moves on Bethesda's part. What was wrong with item descriptions? What was wrong with lockpicking - where skill points actually translated into opening/not opening a lock instead of gaining access to a mini-game? What about dialogues - would it be so hard to implement a system other than yes/yes/yes/no I kill you? This game had potential, unfortunately - imho - it was wasted by Bethesda. I saw the same thing in Oblivion...

Agree on many points here and in above posts. And not a 'solution' as far as Bethesda is concerned, but the modding community is already at work. If you played Stalker:Soc, it had many...faults. The modders made it much more like the game it SHOULD have been, even just things like graphics, weapons stats, accuracy (which REALLY sucked) and quest bugs and continued play after the game 'ended'. I wouldn't hold my breath on Bethesda, but I think we may see some good things come from other quarters.

I agree with you 100%. I'm still playing Stalker:SoC - partly because of all the helpful mods. It's just sad to see that we buy a product (talking about F3) that has to be modified so many times just to make the overall experience enjoyable. I miss the times, where games were actually thought-out, and not just rushed with all the surrounding hype and hopes that the "gamers won't notice".

i agree with you about the weapon ranges, though i'm unsure what measure bethesda could have used to relay this information. the range numbers from fallout 1 and 2 would be useless because those numbers represented a number of hexes. using actual distance would most likely be inaccurate/problematic because i don't think everything in the game is really scaled to a real-world measure.
as far as the armor and sneaking... come on. it should be obvious that tesla enclave armor will significantly reduce your ability to sneak -- you're moving around in a full suit of metal armor! you're going to make a lot of noise moving in that, and sound definitely plays a role in you being detected. on that note, having your pipboy light on will also significantly increase the chance of detection, for obvious reasons.

I think part of the problem is tech, to be honest. With increased technology it takes longer to develop games... But that doesn't make sense with Fallout 3 since it's using the same engine as Oblivion... for that I'm stumped :?
Good points though, guys. I enjoy FO3 but I will readily admit it could have been better.
-Cym

My impression is: Elder Scrolls 5. So if you come at it from that angle it will be a good experience but if you really are looking for Fallout 3 then there will be disapointments.
My biggest grip is the fighting, it doesnt seem to know what leg to stand on, fps - skill or rpg -stats, and thus ends up satisfying neither.

bethesda didn't use a straight port of the oblivion engine -- it's been heavily modified for fallout 3. and let's be fair, here; fallout was not "rushed with all the surrounding hype." development on fallout 3 began in 2004, which means that the game was developed over more than 4 years time. that's hardly "rushing" by any stretch of the imagination.
i agree with the sentiment about the item descriptions -- in fact, i wrote in the other thread that i miss the text box from the original games. but on the other hand, fallout 3's visuals are so much more descriptive themselves that after playing for awhile, i haven't thought about the missing text box much at all. i still miss the humorous descriptions that came out of there, but it's not game halting for me.

Modified engine or not, they were working on something that was already available. If they cannot polish their game enough during four years of development WITHOUT working on a new engine, then so much the worse for Bethesda.
And sorry, but the ending IS rushed, see one of my previous posts. They didn't even bother to create a convincing dialogue with Fawkes.
I'm not talking about visuals here (however I also miss the humorous descriptions). I miss the item descriptions.

i disagree with the foundation of your complaint -- that fallout 3 is not a polished game. all i've seen are minor quibbles at best on this forum. no one is talking about broken game features or unbalanced mechanics, for example. yeah, hacking and lockpicking are both different from the originals, but i don't think there's anything within those mechanics that make the game unplayable or exploitative.
i skipped any previous posts about the ending because i'd rather not spoil it for myself before i finish the game. so i won't be going back to read your post. if you want to make a comparison to the original games -- both fallout 1 and 2 had short endings. you get a 5-10 second update for all the places you visited. so we're talking... maybe 2 or 3 minutes.
i see what you mean about the item descriptions now. i guess there wasn't space on the pipboy for lengthy descriptions.

Sorry I think you misunderstood me. I myself wasn't saying the game was rushed, I was merely observing someone else's opinion. I meant the reason for the few flaws I've come across, not the game itself.
I still haven't completed it, been busy with sidequests to keep busy, so I can't comment on the ending.

I should hope so - this is a discussion board after all :)
We seem to perceive the "polished game" aspect in different ways. Game that is unplayable or exploitative is broken - as simple as that. It's the little things that matter when we're talking about polishing games. Sorry, but - for me at least - the dialogues and descriptions (lack of them) is a mark of an unpolished game.
But previous Fallouts had the ending really though-out. I'm not gonna spoil your fun, but once you get to the end you'll exactly see why I called the script writers stupid.
You say that as if they couldn't make more space - they designed the damned pipboy look - and they deliberately cut those descriptions out.