As most of you know I have a vision problem so before I waste your time I need to know what the Text Graphics are like. Is there a lot of required reading? Is the text small? Good contrast is of importance to me so how well does the text contrast to its backgroun. Ask me questions you wish. Any information much appreciated.

If you're talking about text messages in FO3, they aren't any worse than Oblivion, I believe, and probably better. The most important messages are listed in you "pip boy" and those are green on black. That makes pretty good contrast, I think. And the green is sort of a neon green. Playing with the ingame computers is white on black and the only other text of note that I remember are the various signs (billboards) and stuff like that. They aren't really too important just eye candy clutter, I believe.

Thank you Nowena, Oblivion text is not that difficult for me even taking into the account that I have played the game so much I pretty much know what is being said.

Now for the hard question. Can you tell me about the game without spoiling it? Give me a feeling of what the game is about. I love SciFi but am not found of games that are primarily slash and bash. I like story, strategy, things that take some thought and planning.

I particularly want you opinion because you are a woman and generally speaking men do look at things differently.

Hmm. How to describe Fallout3? It's been awhile since I played. So many of the mods required the DLC's and I decided early not download those but wait for the disk. Then, when the GOTY came out, I saw it, but didn't have the money to buy. Now, I have the money, but I can't find the disk again.

Well, there is plenty of hack and slash but also PLENTY of story to this game. I get pretty bored pretty quickly if I end up just wandering about destroying things and killing things. Most of the stories come from the side quests (oh, so many of those I'm happy to say - and you can run into them just about everywhere) and though the stories are often short, they can have a huge impact on your game play later on, and many of them can be solved without much fighting. (The game designers read a LOT of Scifi and watched nearly all the old movies, that is obvious before you've gone very far. But, sometimes they branch out for a different ending to them. )

Anyway, you will get a good flavor of the story content just from growing up in the vault. There is some hack n slash during your "vault years", but much more story that will be added to a long ways off in the future, and how it returns depends a lot on what choices you make in your early steps. (That's a little spoilerish, but I think you can grasp what the vault is about just from the early commercials about Fallout3, so it doesn't add much.)

When you emerge from the vault, you will find wandering monsters, just as the usual rpg, but you will also be able to start following your character's alignment almost immediately. Other than the wandering monsters, I was able to converse (there are many speech challenges which are very good to pass, if you can) with NPC's and pick up and complete several quests without using weapons. It is also handy to learn the technology of local computers, though they can still be "hacked" even if you haven't picked up the highest of skills.


I hope this helps a little.

If you don't mind post-apocalyptic landscapes (and gruesome things created by it), I think you are going to have a lot of fun with this game. Evil is a very distinctive choice you can make as is neutral alignment. And, you have many, many choices of just how and to who you want to be good toward. Even at the end of the story.

Most of the quests have added benefits for those who are willing to work out what is going on instead of just slashing away.

I have always had a special place in my heart for ruins, half-destroyed buildings, and things that have been abandoned, so I was in pig's heaven here. lol. I LOVE exploring. And, I had a lot of fun deciding just how I would complete each quest.

One caution: Unless you have added the mod or DLC which expands the ending, do as many of the side quests that you can before you finish the main quest. Otherwise, it doesn't allow you to continue on from there.

Another hint: Make Dogmeat essential (through console command) as soon as you find him. A good dog companion is a terrible thing to lose.

Thank you, Nowena, excellent.

Happy exploring!