Fallout: worth picking up?

[Ruined]

As to the installing on XP question, it does work. For me, I just had to go into properties for the setup.exe file, select the Compatibility tab, and check all of the options under Compatibility Mode and Display Settings. Then it should install and handle all of the graphic properly.

Now that I'm on hiatus from WoW, I've gone back to abandoned games like Fallout 1 & 2 and will give them another try. The bleak beginning of F1 always stopped me before, but I'm getting into it this time around.

 

[Felon]

It's here! So, now the big question: should I start with the orginal, or skip straight to the sequel?

 

[Thanee]

Start with the original, the story of the 2nd builds upon the 1st, IIRC.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Enforcer]

Definitely play them in order. No question.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I loved Fallout and Fallout 2. My best NPC was a dog, however, and my worst was the wife I earned after a shotgun wedding. I loved that dog.

 

[Felon]

Been playing around a bit. The interface is a little kludgey,huh? Click to move, click weapon to target, click target to shoot, click to move again, click to end turn, and so on. Plus it looks like there's a lot of stuff that has to be managed from a panel, like using items in the Inventory panel. Oh well, I suppose it'll all be second nature soon enough.

As far as character stats go, looks like Intelligence is pretty powerful, which is cool since I was looking to play a problem-solver type of character. Looks I'm going with Str 4, Per 7, End 5, Cha 5, Int 9, Agl 6, Lck 4. I don't like any of the Trait trade-offs, but Bloody Mess and One-Hander sound harmless enough. I picked Sneak, Lockpicking, and Science as my tag skills. I don't know if it's not a mistake to not have a combat skill tagged, as all of the sample characters did, but I'm giving it a shot.

Oh, btw, is there any way to play in a windowed mode so ALT-TABbing to other progreams is possible? Right now, if I try that, the screen is blacked out when I ALT-TAB back.

 

[Felon]

Well, so far, so....hmm.

Still early in the game, but I don't feel like I'm doing a great job of surviving. Went to this little town where I was asked to kill some scorpions, something I'm ill-equipped to do. After killing two or three, I gotta head back to town and get healed. I leveled after explaining crop rotation to a farmer, and then left. Got ambushed by some big fat boar-rat things. Way too many to fight.

Headed over to Vault 15 and found more stinking rats. I'm already 10 days into my 150 to find the water chip too. How quickly the time flies! Guess I've gotta figure out a way to make some money so I can hire a party member, but the only way available to make money so far is looting things.

EDIT--Almost forgot to mention! When I made my very first gun attack, it exploded in my hand. Took me a second to figure out what just happened ("where's my gun???"). I thought that was an inauspicious start for the game.

 

[Ferret]

Agreed. Love fallout.

Can't deny it. I love the game. 'Tis a masterpiece!

 

[Deuce Traveler]

It's harder to win the game unless you are built for combat, but if you concentrate on computer skills or talking skills you can win the game on just that.

 

[Keldryn]

Been playing around a bit. The interface is a little kludgey,huh? Click to move, click weapon to target, click target to shoot, click to move again, click to end turn, and so on. Plus it looks like there's a lot of stuff that has to be managed from a panel, like using items in the Inventory panel. Oh well, I suppose it'll all be second nature soon enough.

Yeah, the inventory management UI is especially terrible. It wasn't very good in 1997, either.

As far as character stats go, looks like Intelligence is pretty powerful, which is cool since I was looking to play a problem-solver type of character. Looks I'm going with Str 4, Per 7, End 5, Cha 5, Int 9, Agl 6, Lck 4. I don't like any of the Trait trade-offs, but Bloody Mess and One-Hander sound harmless enough. I picked Sneak, Lockpicking, and Science as my tag skills. I don't know if it's not a mistake to not have a combat skill tagged, as all of the sample characters did, but I'm giving it a shot.

I pretty much always choose "Gifted" as a trait, as you obtain skill points fairly rapidly but you have very few opportunities to raise your SPECIAL attributes. A high Int helps offset the skill penalties. The trait that gives you extra skill points but perks every 4 levels instead of 3 is terrible; don't ever take it.

I often take the Good-Natured trait, as you gain more skill points than you lose. Finesse is good as well, although the damage you do at the beginning of the game is definitely less.

I usually tag Small Guns, Speech, and one other skill. In Fallout 2, I tag Unarmed as my 3rd tag skill, but it's not very useful in Fallout 1. It's tempting to tag Energy Weapons, but you can get a Tag! perk later on so it's best to wait until you can actually find one to start investing in the skill. Traps and Doctor are really not worth investing any skill points in, much less a Tag.

Oh, btw, is there any way to play in a windowed mode so ALT-TABbing to other progreams is possible? Right now, if I try that, the screen is blacked out when I ALT-TAB back.

There is a fan-made patch that adds this capability. I can't remember what it's called, but you should be able to find it with a bit of searching. I think the file might be up on No Mutants Allowed, but if you value your sanity and any sort of positive outlook on live, DO NOT hang around the message boards.