tangent but the way black swan theory played out as an actual real life series of events setting up such a crisp linguistic/cultural metaphor is one of those things that makes me squint at the fabric of the universe and wonder if it’s deliberately fucking with us
Things Fallout 3 did better than 4, in my opinion:
Giving every character a canon age
On that note, a game guide revealing all the flirting going on when the player character isn’t looking. (Did you know Greta has a thing with both Carol and Winthrop?)
Dialogue tree instead of wheel. (1. It lets you explore every dialogue option, 2. You can avoid triggering unwanted quest paths without ignoring a character entirely, and 3. Maybe I want Liam Neeson to tell me he’s proud of me more than once, okay?)
Weapons and armor degrading. It keeps caps tight for longer, so there are actual stakes when you forego profit to do the right thing. Also makes looting enemies more fun.
Skills.
Notes and holotapes have their own tab, aren’t in the inventory, and are sorted chronologically.
You can get Rad-X from the health status tab instead of scrolling infinitely in the aid items menu.
The Wasteland’s so empty. In 4, you can’t go very far without running into enemies. In 3, you can watch the scenery and listen to the radio for a good long while before you run into anything. (Though the city does take up less of the map.)
I get that they had to sacrifice this so the settlement building and radiant quests could operate, but I liked it better when you fought through a location, and the location stayed the way you left it, with enemies dead, locks/terminals open, and containers looted. 4 feels more like a fighting game while 3 feels like it’s about exploration.
Followers being able to die. There are benefits to being able to leave them to their own devices, but the extra stakes are more challenging and realistic. (But if followers could die in 4, you’d be able to fail every questline in the game right off the bat, so it’s understandable.)
Targeting followers in V.A.T.S. and having friendlies show up on your radar. I want to know where everyone is.
