Left4Dead vs. Fallout3

[gtechie]

I can't decide which of these to get!

Fallout 3 looks awesome but I'm afraid it's too much like Oblivion (too repetitive; the enemies' levels scale with yours). If it's more like Mass Effect, that's good. What's it like? Describe the moment that you had the most fun playing.

Left4Dead looks awesome but I'm afraid it won't be. I played the singleplayer demo a little and can only imagine what it's like to play with friends, on the co-op or the versus mode. How repetitive does it get? Describe the moment that you had the most fun playing.

I'm 100% sure either of these games will hold me over until Darkfall releases (or I get into Beta, if that happens) but the questions remain: Which one will do a better job holding me over? Which one will I want to return to in a year or two?

Oh, and Valve is selling their Complete Pack for just $100 - that's everything they've ever released (and I've only ever played TF2 and Portal, nothing else). Go ahead and open the discussion to that pack, too.

If you've played either of these games, please give me a review. If you've played both, I really want to hear from you.

I'm not trying to waste my money... Should I just wait for Darkfall?

Oh, and there's no bewbs option because I want real opinions! My wife gives me bewbs no matter what I play, so go ahead and add that to everything. There! Now it's fair and balanced...

[Aragoni]

World In Conflict!

[Viluin]

Definitely Left 4 Dead. Fallout is gay.

[gtechie]

Definitely Left 4 Dead. Fallout is gay.

That's what I'm afraid of. I require details!

[forestchild]

Fallout3 is very good i dunno yet about L4D

[Marrik]

fallout 3 when the CS comes out

[Darkmatter]

Fallout III is a pretty good game, I agree.

[gtechie]

fallout 3 when the CS comes out

eh? counterstrike? :confused:

And not necessarily a response to you, marrik, but come on people, tell us WHY you like the game you like! If all we get for answers is the name of your preferred game, you're not helping any (but thanks for voting, your vote always matters).

[Natdaprat]

Left 4 Dead. It's never repetitive.

[SentrySteve]

If you are able to purchase the Valve Complete Pack, there is no reason why you shouldn't. You get L4D with it, so it's $50 for every other game they've ever made. CS/CS:S/DOD:S/HL1/HL2/Ep1/Ep2 are worth the extra $50.

[MinusInnocence]

If you don't have The Orange Box, it was hands-down the best value for your gaming dollar in 2007. If you've never played any of the Half-Life games, though, the Valve Complete Pack may get you a lot of mileage.

I watched a friend play some Fallout 3 and it looked really interesting though he had never played the first two games, so I dunno how a hardcore fan would rate the new game. He was very familiar with Morrowind and Oblivion so that may have had something to do with his positive review.

Left 4 Dead, on the other hand, is the best fun I've had in years. Incidentally the only game that comes close in recent memory is Team Fortress 2, which you can also get in the Valve Complete Pack. The best thing I can really say about L4D is that it's the only game I can remember playing that is as fun to lose as it is to win.

[gtechie]

If you don't have The Orange Box, it was hands-down the best value for your gaming dollar in 2007. If you've never played any of the Half-Life games, though, the Valve Complete Pack may get you a lot of mileage.
I don't have the Orange Box, and I'm tending to agree that the Complete Pack is a hell of a deal. What if, though, I get L4D for $50 and the Orange Box for $30? I save $20 and miss out on the old CS games. I think I can live with that.

I watched a friend play some Fallout 3 and it looked really interesting though he had never played the first two games, so I dunno how a hardcore fan would rate the new game. He was very familiar with Morrowind and Oblivion so that may have had something to do with his positive review.
I've never played the previous Fallout games, either. I am familiar with Morrowind and Oblivion, and have a lot of fun playing them about a week. Then it's just a grind and I throw the disk in my neighbor's microwave.

Left 4 Dead, on the other hand, is the best fun I've had in years. Incidentally the only game that comes close in recent memory is Team Fortress 2, which you can also get in the Valve Complete Pack. The best thing I can really say about L4D is that it's the only game I can remember playing that is as fun to lose as it is to win.
Good stuff. I played TF2 for a little bit on my friend's machine and had a blast.

MinusInnocence, thanks for the review. Keep 'em coming folks.

[JimiShults]

L4D is the funnest gaming experience I've had in over a year. It's currently in my top 3. Fallout 3 is also one of (but not THE best) the best gaming experience's I've had as of late. I would give L4D a 10/10, and fallout an 8/10.

Fallout has a lot of hours in it, and even without a quest or any real meaning, just wandering around the world is extremely fun. The feeling you get when you blow someone's legs off is only matched by the feeling of erasing someone's mind and enslaving them.

L4D is hands-down the best game of 08 for me. Hell, it's one of the best games I've ever played. I replayed the demo on multiplayer for 3 days. The difficulties are perfectly placed. Easy is truly easy, expert is truly hard. Usually the difficulties seem fucked up on other games, so i was glad that they got it just right. Nothing, and i mean nothing (in a game) matches the feeling of that ungodly crying, and that choir ringing out, and you know you're going to die (on expert). The witch can suck a nut.

[Bloody blade]

L4D is the funnest gaming experience I've had in over a year. It's currently in my top 3. Fallout 3 is also one of (but not THE best) the best gaming experience's I've had as of late. I would give L4D a 10/10, and fallout an 8/10.

Fallout has a lot of hours in it, and even without a quest or any real meaning, just wandering around the world is extremely fun. The feeling you get when you blow someone's legs off is only matched by the feeling of erasing someone's mind and enslaving them.

L4D is hands-down the best game of 08 for me. Hell, it's one of the best games I've ever played. I replayed the demo on multiplayer for 3 days. The difficulties are perfectly placed. Easy is truly easy, expert is truly hard. Usually the difficulties seem fucked up on other games, so i was glad that they got it just right. Nothing, and i mean nothing (in a game) matches the feeling of that ungodly crying, and that choir ringing out, and you know you're going to die (on expert). The witch can suck a nut.

What is left 4 dead about?

I haven't heard about it until I read it here, on forumfall.

[Mo0rbid]

well l4d will give you more hours of gameplay I'm sure

[chimp]

I can't decide which of these to get!

Fallout 3 looks awesome but I'm afraid it's too much like Oblivion (too repetitive; the enemies' levels scale with yours). If it's more like Mass Effect, that's good. What's it like? Describe the moment that you had the most fun playing.

Left4Dead looks awesome but I'm afraid it won't be. I played the singleplayer demo a little and can only imagine what it's like to play with friends, on the co-op or the versus mode. How repetitive does it get? Describe the moment that you had the most fun playing.

I'm 100% sure either of these games will hold me over until Darkfall releases (or I get into Beta, if that happens) but the questions remain: Which one will do a better job holding me over? Which one will I want to return to in a year or two?

Oh, and Valve is selling their Complete Pack for just $100 - that's everything they've ever released (and I've only ever played TF2 and Portal, nothing else). Go ahead and open the discussion to that pack, too.

If you've played either of these games, please give me a review. If you've played both, I really want to hear from you.

I'm not trying to waste my money... Should I just wait for Darkfall?

Oh, and there's no bewbs option because I want real opinions! My wife gives me bewbs no matter what I play, so go ahead and add that to everything. There! Now it's fair and balanced...

Ive played both, both are awesome games.

L4D is wicked fun, but its constant fast paced dynamic FPS game play. I tend to play it in bursts, and need a cooling off period so my hands can stop shaking and I can generally calm down a bit. If you love your twitch FPS's, then get L4D. Dont worry about reptition, the AI director is a great feature - plays different almost every time.

Fallout 3 is also awesome. I think they did a good job with the RPG / VATS handling of things, as its not just pure FPS. The best part of fallout3 by far is the scavenging of post apocalyptic ruins. If you are the klepto type like me you will shit your pants every time you find a carton of cigarettes. Ive played this nearly two full play throughs now, still enjoying it. Theres no level scaling like in oblivion, you will still find some piss ant weakling raiders you were fighting at level 1 when you are level 20.

tl;dr L4D - FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK ZOMBIES AWESOMe

FO3 - for kleptomaniacs

[JimiShults]

What is left 4 dead about?

I haven't heard about it until I read it here, on forumfall.

There is 4 different campaigns which play out a bit like horror movies. You are one of four characters trying to survive the campaign (or one of the super zombies trying to stop the survivors) and make it to the rescue at the end. a form of rabies (think 28 days later) has infected most everyone, and now they're just going bat shit crazy to kill you. That's pretty much it.

There is an urban campaign (No Mercy), an airport (Dead Air), a rural campaign (I've forgotten the damn name), and a foresty cottage campaign. All campaigns have (i believe) 5 levels in them.

[Duncandun]

there are several sites selling Lef4dead for 30 dollars.

[Sabbathius]

I've been playing Fallout 3 since a day after release, and so far I am not bored at all.

Monsters don't seem to scale much. A mole rat at level 2 is somewhat fierce, a molerat at level 10 takes a single whack to take down. Three raiders at level 2 are a bit hard, at level 18 they're a joke, because they still use melee weapons and handguns and wear same thin armor. But you have Supermutant Brutes and Deathclaws to deal with. The game scales a *little*, sometimes you'll run into a Deathclaw near a market where before you only saw raiders and wild dogs and maybe a rad scorpion, but it nowhere near as scaling as Oblivion.

The thing about that game is, it depends on how you play it. If you just rush at breakneck speed to the ending, you'll get there fast, long before you reach the level cap. You will have explored only a fraction of the game world. And the ending is somewhat bad, and the main quest very short.

Me, I'm about half-way done with main quest, and level 18, with 2/3 the map explored. The game seems to be designed around the main quest in a way that encourages exploration. After leaving the Vault, the first major town you are sent to is a quest hub, or you can blow it up and be sent to another hub. If you go in a straight line from A to B, you won't see much, but your compass marks areas of interest nearby. If you explore those, it will take you hours, literally, to go from A to B, as opposed to an uneventful 5 minute run.

There are only 20 or so "quests" or so, things that go into the quest log. But there are dozens and dozens of mini-quests, done outside of quest log and you have to keep track of them yourself.

Some things are repetitive, yes, like lockpicking, some are somewhat challenging, like hacking. Overall, I feel it is head and shoulders above Oblivion in vanilla stage. If/when Construction Set is released, the modding community will make it fantastic.

Some claim Fallout 3 is too easy, to that I say run it with very high difficulty. Seriously, visit a Deathclaw sanctuary on very hard at night with low Perception, it's anything but easy unless you save/load like a mad monkey. Or download one of rebalancing mods, there are plenty out already, where one shot means death.

And there is immense replay value based on whether you are good, neutral or evil.

Left 4 Dead is okay, I played the demo, but it feels like a game to be played with friends, while FO3 is a game for you alone. So that's the major distinction, whether you like to play alone or with friends.

[Niccoli]

Fallout 3 review, fun fun:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/420-Fallout-3

[Layedballer]

l4d for sure, fallout is fun but it's kinda boring at times. I've never had as much fun as I did with l4d
This is assuming you have friends to play with/online play because l4d wouldn't be nearly as fun without friends/other people.
I beat FO3 and returned it, I beat l4d yesterday and am going to attempt it again with the girl and my brothers when I get off work.

[kordoyn]

L4D hands down, FO3 is only meh at best. It's interesting for the first hour or two, but after you see 50 decapitations and a few bodies explode into spaghetti you realize that you're doing the same thing over and over.

[Athos]

there are several sites selling Lef4dead for 30 dollars.

Such as?

[Trykster79]

fallout 3 is pretty cool imo... kind of sick of zombie bashing games.. fallout is not repetitive unless you want it to be.. limitless ways to complete objectives, tons of weapons, tons of character builds which determine how you go about finishing your game... and while you can stick to the story they set out before you you will find if you just start exploring that there are multiple story arcs.. an example is right off the bat you can either follow your father to GNR station or if you happen to hit rivet city before doing that quest a new arc opens up and the gnr quest becomes "completed" levels scale but NOT like oblivion (basically each area has a level range for the mobs and when you enter that area determines the level of the mobs you fight example would be a dungeon that might be levels 5 - 10.. enter at level 5 and mobs might be level 5 or 6 enter at level 15 and the mobs will be level 10) and does not have an oblivion feel to it.. the reason i think most people compare the 2 is the graphics engine.. it LOOKS alot like oblivion but imo thats as far as the similarities go..

[willithesm]

Wait for GTA4 if you haven't got it on console. Other than that i'd say fallout 3.

[Marrik]

my only complaint about Fallout 3 is that after you go to Rivet City, ammo is never a problem. where the hel is that guy getting hundreds of rounds of ammo for my AK? he lives on a wrecked ship, and the world is overrun with monsters. how the hell is he making bullets?


after ammo is never a problem, you can take on prettymuch anybody, whereas before raiders were actually somewhat of a challenge. sure, you can mow them all down, but when you have 1 magazine left and you are still miles from everywhere surrounded by city infested with super mutants, and your only other weapon is a knife, it can be pretty frantic.

but after Rivet City, you have enough ammo to kill everything twice, and you dont even have to use stealth unless you want to.

[Kin]

Get them both.





They are not similar types of games so why you even tried to compare them as one or the other is beyond me. Better luck next time I guess.

[Fro]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/420-Fallout-3 Heres a review of fallout 3 if you haven't already seen it.

[Layedballer]

Wait for GTA4 if you haven't got it on console. Other than that i'd say fallout 3.

Even though GTA4 was a steaming pile of shit?
I'd rather wipe my ass with sandpaper

[Layedballer]

Fallout 3 review, fun fun:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/420-Fallout-3

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/420-Fallout-3 Heres a review of fallout 3 if you haven't already seen it.

He beat you to it...Frenchie

[liq3]

Left 4 Dead. I already have 35 hours on it (it's been out 3 days), and it's only just starting to get interesting (i.e. i'll still be playing it in 2010).

Fallout 3...I have that too. It got boring fast. Combat becomes really repetitive pretty quickly, and the "exploration" part doesn't hold much longer then about 20-40 hours.

If I were you, I'd definitely get Left 4 Dead. You'd be insane not to.

[gtechie]

Left 4 Dead. I already have 35 hours on it (it's been out 3 days), and it's only just starting to get interesting (i.e. i'll still be playing it in 2010).

Fallout 3...I have that too. It got boring fast. Combat becomes really repetitive pretty quickly, and the "exploration" part doesn't hold much longer then about 20-40 hours.

If I were you, I'd definitely get Left 4 Dead. You'd be insane not to.

Thanks for your review -- that's what I was afraid of. Anybody agree or disagree with the above statement? Thanks!

[Darkrabbit18]

Fallout is gay.

It's not gay, it's a great game in sleep mode. The morons at Bethesda were to stupid or High to release it with the mod tool kit. When they do it has alot of potential and great replayability.

I'd go for left4dead. I havnt played it but Fallout 3 took me about a week to finish all the quests and explore all the landmarks. And once you've finished it, there isnt much to do. Theres no factions to do sidequests either.

I don't know much about Left4Dead other then the Demo, but it's easy to see it will give you alot more replayability. I'd say get both games, and the complete pack if you can..

But if your going for just 1, get Left4Dead.

[akrippler]

Fallout 3 got old after less than a week, left4dead is still fun, hell i bet I almost put more time into L4D demo than I did fallout 3.

And I was REALLY REALLY loiking forward to Fallout3.


The vavle complete pack is probabley the best value for your dollar you can spend on videogames, since the battlechests.

[gtechie]

After seeing all your responses, I decided to look at Amazon for reviews as well. Everybody there loves their Left4Dead, but after reading people's reviews for Fallout3, there's no way I'm buying it. The lack of a feeling that your choices matter, the massive similarities to Oblivion, and the "ooh pretty graphics" comments, when bundled up with DRM and bugs pretty much kills it for me. I'd still rent it, seeing how I'd probably enjoy it for about a week, but my decision has been made.

Thank you, if you added your $0.02 to this thread. Please continue with your debate; maybe I'll pipe in when I get L4D.

BTW, HalfLife 1 is selling for $0.98 on steam to celebrate its 10-yr birthday. I'll prolly pick that up, too :)

[Marrik]

It's not gay, it's a great game in sleep mode. The morons at Bethesda were to stupid or High to release it with the mod tool kit. When they do it has alot of potential and great replayability.

I'd go for left4dead. I havnt played it but Fallout 3 took me about a week to finish all the quests and explore all the landmarks. And once you've finished it, there isnt much to do. Theres no factions to do sidequests either.

I don't know much about Left4Dead other then the Demo, but it's easy to see it will give you alot more replayability. I'd say get both games, and the complete pack if you can..

But if your going for just 1, get Left4Dead.

FO3 would have been better if it had been like Morrowind in that there were no invisible walls in the game.

also, kids should have been killable. those are my 2 major complaints, but CS can fix both of those.



oh yeah, and a mod to make ammo more scarce, after you have hndreds of rounds for the assault rifle combat stops being frantic. no need for strategy or ambushes or sneaking through the ciy, because you have enough ammo to kill all the raiders 5 times over.

that first trip to Rivet City was great, the return trip was easymode.


also, its fucking stupid that you can teleport everywhere, wtf is the point of a big open world if you can teleport everywhere? it might as well be a linear path wih big 3D backgrounds.

[akrippler]

After seeing all your responses, I decided to look at Amazon for reviews as well. Everybody there loves their Left4Dead, but after reading people's reviews for Fallout3, there's no way I'm buying it. The lack of a feeling that your choices matter, the massive similarities to Oblivion, and the "ooh pretty graphics" comments, when bundled up with DRM and bugs pretty much kills it for me. I'd still rent it, seeing how I'd probably enjoy it for about a week, but my decision has been made.

Thank you, if you added your $0.02 to this thread. Please continue with your debate; maybe I'll pipe in when I get L4D.

BTW, HalfLife 1 is selling for $0.98 on steam to celebrate its 10-yr birthday. I'll prolly pick that up, too :)

Less than a buck for the game that fucking started modern computer gaming off ont he right foot... sounds like a steal to me.

[End Dream]

gow2 is better than both

[Ankh]

also, its fucking stupid that you can teleport everywhere, wtf is the point of a big open world if you can teleport everywhere? it might as well be a linear path wih big 3D backgrounds.

The originals were basically the same, with the occasional random encounter on the way.

Open world games need a form of fast travel, otherwise they'd get even more repetetive than most of them already are.

In Morrowind, imagine being a level one character with no speed or athletics, walking from Balmora to Sadrith Mora and back, just to do a Mage's Guild quest, is that your idea of fun?

Fallout 3's fast travel is pretty decent, you can't fast travel to anywhere you haven't been, so you get to experience everything on the way and explore freely while not having to bore yourself on the way back. Travelling from place to place in real life isn't very fun the 10th time.

[Marrik]

The originals were basically the same, with the occasional random encounter on the way.

Open world games need a form of fast travel, otherwise they'd get even more repetetive than most of them already are.

In Morrowind, imagine being a level one character with no speed or athletics, walking from Balmora to Sadrith Mora and back, just to do a Mage's Guild quest, is that your idea of fun?

Fallout 3's fast travel is pretty decent, you can't fast travel to anywhere you haven't been, so you get to experience everything on the way and explore freely while not having to bore yourself on the way back. Travelling from place to place in real life isn't very fun the 10th time.

Morrowind had fast travel. fast travel is not the same thing as teleporting to any map marker from anywhere in the game.


for instance, in Morrowind, there were these huge insect things called stilt striders you could buy a ticket on, and ride between certain cities. in other places, there were ships you could ride on. in the biggest city in the game, there were even gondolas to ride between districts.


fast travel like that isnt necessarily bad, but in FO3, you can teleport instantly to any map marker from anywhere on the map. thats fucking stupid, theres no need to travel in the wasteland EVER, because you can warp to anywhere in the world at any time for free.


in Morrowind, you wouldnt walk from Balmora to Sadrith Mora, youd ride the stilt strider to Ald Ruhn, then hike through the badlands to Gnisis and ride a boat to the other side of the continent. this also gave more of a sense of a big epic journey, and made the game world seem bigger than it really was.

in FO3, it might as well be in a soccer field sized patch of ground.

[Ori Disciple]

Morrowind had fast travel. fast travel is not the same thing as teleporting to any map marker from anywhere in the game.


for instance, in Morrowind, there were these huge insect things called stilt striders you could buy a ticket on, and ride between certain cities. in other places, there were ships you could ride on. in the biggest city in the game, there were even gondolas to ride between districts.


fast travel like that isnt necessarily bad, but in FO3, you can teleport instantly to any map marker from anywhere on the map. thats fucking stupid, theres no need to travel in the wasteland EVER, because you can warp to anywhere in the world at any time for free.

Some people dont like to waste time
others like to wander between objectives
its about personal tastes:
what you may not like others do
besides, you dont have to fast travel if you dont want to.
And yes, Ive played Morrowind, and have traveled around most of the Island on foot, since I wanted to explore. More fun than using fast travel, hell, I even just wander around in Oblivion. Fast travel via Oblivion/F3 cuts some travel time in your in a rush, and its not manditory

[Mulambo]

I like both.

The valve complete pack sounds good. That includes DoD and CS:S, amirite? there is fun to be had in those games, plus HL2 and TF2.

I like Fallout 3. It is better than oblivion so far (i'm only level 9, and progressing fairly slowly cause I started a new madden franchise recently). It is like oblivion w/ a fallout theme. Better than no fallout at all, imo, even if it's dumbed down a bit. VATS is fun.

[Helgeran]

Half-life the original is well worth of your attention, so is Half-life2: episode 2.

[Ankh]

Morrowind had fast travel. fast travel is not the same thing as teleporting to any map marker from anywhere in the game.


for instance, in Morrowind, there were these huge insect things called stilt striders you could buy a ticket on, and ride between certain cities. in other places, there were ships you could ride on. in the biggest city in the game, there were even gondolas to ride between districts.


fast travel like that isnt necessarily bad, but in FO3, you can teleport instantly to any map marker from anywhere on the map. thats fucking stupid, theres no need to travel in the wasteland EVER, because you can warp to anywhere in the world at any time for free.


in Morrowind, you wouldnt walk from Balmora to Sadrith Mora, youd ride the stilt strider to Ald Ruhn, then hike through the badlands to Gnisis and ride a boat to the other side of the continent. this also gave more of a sense of a big epic journey, and made the game world seem bigger than it really was.

in FO3, it might as well be in a soccer field sized patch of ground.

Morrowind does it pretty well, but in between temple teleporting scrolls/spells, mark/recall, mage guild travel, silt striders, boat rides and gondolas, and even propylon indices, you could get anywhere within a minute, even without having been there before (excluding index locations and recall).

In FO3, you have to walk somewhere before you can fast travel there. While walking somewhere you might chance upon encounters, or find caves or abandoned buildings, loads of stuff. Once you've already walked somewhere though, what exactly is to be gained by having to walk there again? Fighting a radscorp and a few molerats at lvl 20? FO3's fast travel system is very effective, and doesn't artificially "lengthen" the game.

[Lysandor]

Do any of these games let your run down random npcs in pickup trucks? If not, they suck.

[Ankh]

Do any of these games let your run down random npcs in pickup trucks? If not, they suck.

Far Cry 2 much? :p

[Narcowski]

Valve complete is what, 18 games for $100? HL1 + Expansions + The Orange Box would already be worth the $100 imo, so go for it :)

[Sabbathius]

Fallout 3...I have that too. It got boring fast. Combat becomes really repetitive pretty quickly, and the "exploration" part doesn't hold much longer then about 20-40 hours.

I disagree.

For one, the game has huge replay value. First playthrough I'm good, but you can be evil or neutral, each with its own rewards, each leading to other quests. It's not as deep as it sounds, it often boils out to "yes I'll do it, I'll only do it if we have hot raunchy sex in the back of a cab, or <boom, headshot>", but some quests are interesting ethical choices (you can free the slaves and help them, or you can lead slavers to slave hideout).

Your character also determines what you'll see. For example, a charismatic character will often talk his way through a quest or even shortcut it (you can pretend you went exploring, but instead come back and lie about it), a strong character can intimidate, a womanizer has an easier time convincing women to release information, similarly a black widow can talk male characters into and out of things (like blowing up an entire town). A perceptive character will find more stuff, see enemies from further away, an intelligent character will learn thing faster. Then there are perks, like talent points, 1 per level, that you invest in unique skills (and there are more of them than you could take before hitting max level) that will shape your character with no re-spec and specific requirements (specific stats like strength, charisma, etc.).

Combat is varied. You can snipe, you can sneak and melee (melee is very effective), you sneak and snipe, you can go heavy weapons, energy weapons (alien blaster is back), explosives (try playing with a pistol, grenades and mines only). You don't have to use VATS (bullet-time) or you can use it if you want. The only downside so far is that there are no factions to join really the way you could in Elder Scrolls games, you can go through their stuff, but you don't really advance in ranks.

So combat is repetitive only if you want it to be, but I'll admit that one I got Abraham Lincoln's Repeater rifle I stuck with it for 5 levels getting headshots from midrange. Sniper rifles, rocket launchers, pistols, knives and blunt objects, shotguns, assault rifles, all there. You can also craft some funny weapons, like shishkebob (a flaming sword made from a lawnmower blade) or Deathclaw gauntlet (a long-clawed gauntlet that looks like Freddie Kruger's metal claws).

Okay, for exploration, it's larger than it looks, because of underground tunnels, tall above-ground structures (you get to explore a hotel with 8 floors to it, or huge satellite dish installations). Once you hit 20 and get the explorer perk, you'll see all the stuff you missed. You can also have companions, up to 2 (a dog and a humanoid), but not all companions will join you (evil companions don't like to follow a little goodie two shoes).

Overall, I'm really happy with it. But it is an RPG game at the core, with ethical choices and exploration and story, and shooter is only part of it. While Left 4 Dead seems to be primarily a shooter, followed by story. In other words, it is like comparing Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to Diablo II, they're totally different genres.

The only minor complaint about Fallout 3 so far is that the ending could have been better, and difficulty a little higher (which is why some find the combat repetitive, on normal, past level 15 or so, 60% of the things you meet die from a single shot to the head from medium range), but that is already remedied by mods (on PC), some mods make the game brutally hard.

And the game definitely has its moments, I was crossing a large square when I ran into mutants, and hid behind sandbags left by raiders and took them out as Talon Mercenaries showed up (they periodically try to kill good players, while bad players are hunter by Regulators) and I had to fight them, and all the noise attracted some raiders, so it erupted into a huge battles with everyone fighting everyone else.

But basically, it's an RPG and with a huge replay value. Left 4 Dead is basically a shooter, but its replay value is also significant, especially if you play with other people. So if you're in to RPGs and/or play alone, Fallout 3 is not bad at all. But if you prefer coop multiplayer, Left 4 Dead is great. They're just different, like Morrowind and Diablo.

[Ankh]

TL;DR

I got 40 hours out of it using two characters without repeating any quests.

[gtechie]

Okay, thanks for the discussion. L4D the the shit, guys. If you haven't picked this up yet, get it! It'll do a great job holding you over till DF releases.

[VorpalSpork]

I liked Fallout 3. It wasn't as good as the old school Fallouts, but it's better than Oblivion. My only major complaints are that the game ends after the main quest and the ending sucked. Over all it's tons of fun though. I'm on my second play through.

[rayboyett]

They are two completely different games. If you are looking for something to take up a lot of time, Fallout is the way to go. You can play that for hours on end and then keep coming back.

I love left4Dead but the reality is due to the twitch based nature of the game I get the jitters after playing through 1 campaign. On the expert setting it can take 1-2 hours to make it through. Then my hands are shaking and I need a break. That is because it is so great and so intense you are in it. But I gotta have about an hour cool down or more before I can head back in.

I have both, so I can get rattle my nerves with L4D and then relax with some fallout.

[Aragoni]

Then my hands are shaking and I need a break.

Pussy.

[Darkmatter]

@Vorpal: Yes, I wanted to keep playing. So I had to load back up and basicly dodge the Main Quest line. It was a very good game no doubt. It's a game everyone should play really.

@OP: If you enjoy cooperative shooters, I'd recommend DOOM I and II. Those games are also great with two to four friends working together, and your computer should be able to run them just fine.



Doom (officially cased DOOM[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game)#cite_note-0)) is a 1993 computer game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_game) by id Software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_Software) that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_shooter) genre, and in first person gaming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_person_(video_games)) in general. It is widely recognized for pioneering immersive 3D graphics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_computer_graphics), networked multiplayer gaming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplayer_game) on the PC platform, and support for custom expansions (WADs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_WAD)). Distributed as shareware (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware), Doom was downloaded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Download) by an estimated 10 million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning a gaming subculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture); as a sign of its effect on the industry, games from the mid-1990s boom of first-person shooters are often known simply as "Doom clones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_clone)". Its graphic and interactive violence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence)[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game)#cite_note-1) has also made Doom the subject of much controversy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy) reaching outside the gaming world. According to GameSpy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameSpy), Doom was voted by industry insiders to be the greatest game of all time in 2004.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game)#cite_note-2)


If you enjoy a more tactical cooperative experience, I'd recommend SWAT4 (+Stetchkov Syndicate, expansion). I've had some truly great experiences on there, and yes, as with most cooperative games, who you decide to play with does matter and will affect gameplay/experience. There's quite a lot of people wanting a SWAT5, and I'm one of those people; I hope to see it at some point. If you're hungry for more, don't play SWAT3, it's quite the step down from SWAT4; Head over to the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series and you'll find more hours of great cooperative action there, don't always look to the newer games in that series. These games were there before Tom Clancy sold out and now software with his name on it pops up everywhere.

FPS/Shooter games without a proper cooperative mode is half the game it could have been. I really wanted to see a coop mode for games such as the Hitman series as well.

These games are certainly not hauling in five stars for their graphics these days, but they'll guarantee you interesting and fun cooperative play.