I wonder how difficult it would be to create a mod for each of the Bethesda games to take into account clothing in NPC’s reactions. In Morrowind and Oblivion, it should be possible via the script language. I began creating mods for Morrowind recently, and the language seems easy enough (despite my quasi inexistant programming skills).

What I don’t understand if why they include advanced character customization possibilities when you’ll spend 99,9% of your time either looking through your avatar’s eyes or at his/her back. This is also why I was bugged about the lack of decent hairstyle as well : from behind, what do you see of your character’s face …? Not the eyes, not the nose, not the distinct skin tone of the cheeks. You see the hair, and it doesn’t look pretty.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L is indeed taken from the previous games, but it has seen some major changes :

In the original games, skills can go up to 200%, raising your proficiency beyond human capabilities. However each % above 100% costs twice as much, so you have to ponder whether you want to be a little bit better at (let’s say) rifles or become much better able to treat wounds. Tag Skills are very important choices, as they raise twice as fast as the others for the same cost, meaning you can get better at them easily and can reach superhuman levels without leaving everything else behind. There is lots of skills and all have their uses, but it’s impossible to be good at everything, let alone be good at half of the things in one playthrough. This makes replayability very good, because you can use different approach and discover all the possibilities the devs included in the game.

In F3, skills can go up to 100%. You can reach 100% in all skills when you reach level 20 with a bit of planning, but even not doing so you’ll easily become good at everything you want and just dump points wherever on later levels. Tag skills only give a one-time 15 points bonus, which is not that much. Bye bye character customization through skills, since everyone ends up doing everything.

In F1&2, the F3 perks are divided between traits and perks. Traits are attributes like Gifted, Chemical Resistant or Skilled. These are inherent to your character and can only be chosen at character creation, though they each come with one advantage and one major drawback. Gifted boosted all characteristic scores (Strengh, Agility, etc…) by 1 point, but reduced the skills points to distribute at level up by 5 points, along with a one-time 10% penalty to all skills. Chemical Resistant made you 50% less likely to develop addiction, but also reduced the duration of the drug effects by 50%. Perks on the other hand are only positive special abilities and can only be chosen every 3 (or 4, depending on traits) level. Since in the original game, you can barely make it level 12 (and for the second, level 21), that means 4 (or 7) perks, making the choice a very important one. In F3, you have one perk per level. That means 20 perks by the end of the game. That’s plenty enough to choose what you want and then some.

I could go one and point out how the system has changed been simplified, but I think this comment is already long enough. The way they changed armor mechanics though is completely stupid… :)

Uh, the writing of fallout 3 :O I will prepare myself for the oncoming slaugther of bethesda writers :)

Now, I will say that the character creation in fallout 3 is vastly superios to Oblivions for one very simple reason: The sliders aren’t interconnected. When I adjust one slider, none of the other sliders changes. It makes it so much easier to make a good looking character, instead of struggling to make one that doesn’t makes little children run away.

The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system is a bit underwhelming. The attributes doesn’t provide with a major impact on the game other than skill level starts and a few extra conversation options. In the other fallouts, it could have a huge impact. To little in the intelligence department made your character dumb as hell and the conversations reflected this. As it is now, I would have prefered I got a set amount of skill points at start to make my character.

All in all, fallout 3 is a pretty enjoyable game, but it doesn’t appeal to everyone.