Current Events > Remember the original Fallout 3 ending? *spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

When you had to go into the radioactive chamber to save the world or whatever and die in the process. Sounds standard enough.

But you have several potential companions who can do the same thing without dying. They all say no when asked. Not because they're at risk or whatever. But because for whatever reason they all think this is the Lone Wanderer's destiny and he's a coward for asking people who would survive to do it instead. So the player has no choice but to needlessly die.

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I forgot about that
Only played fallout 3 once. New Vegas like 6 times or so

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Yeah it was so fucking dumb lol

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Definitely up there as one of the stupidest game endings alongside Mass Effect 3

Fuck you, Fawkes.

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Bethesda writing is just... Not good.

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I was with some one from the Brotherhood of Steel and I made her do it. And she something like Chivalry is dead. I can't remember at all. But it was so stupid. There was Super Mutant right next to us and she would not go.

I wonder what the writers were thinking at that point.

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This takes me back lol

Can you imagine this shitstorm if they pulled that today?

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cjsdowg posted...

I was with someone from the Brotherhood of Steel and I made her do it. And she something like Chivalry is dead. I can't remember at all. But it was so stupid. There was Super Mutant right next to us and she would not go.

I wonder what the writers were thinking at that point.

I reckon they set up the big sacrifice ending and forgot that some of the party members were immune to radiation for a long time and added in those lines as a last minute thing.

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I can't think of a better example of an entire plot collapsing on the pillar of one bad scene than Fallout 3. The whole game through I kept convincing myself that the story had potential, and that potential was going to pay off just around the corner. But around the ending of Vault 87 it felt like the plot was careening down a cliff towards a premature conclusion, and by the time of the Liberty Prime assault I kept telling myself 'no, no, no, this can't be the ending already, can it?' And then everything came crashing down hard once the ending reared its ugly head.

I was so deeply incensed by the ending that it burned away the rosy outlook I'd had concerning the rest of the game I'd played up to that point, and I forever looked at Fallout 3 with a very critical eye. In the end (pun intended), the ending wasn't supremely offensive in and of itself; it was a culmination of all the bad writing and worldbuilding that had preceded it, and the only difference was that the game no longer had any potential past that point to redeem itself.

And for the record, I don't really think Broken Steel 'fixed' anything. Fawkes / Charon / Whatever the Gutsy was called being able to go in your place didn't really make a difference at that point, when both you and Sarah just get knocked unconscious anyway (and the ending slideshow will still throw some rather unnecessary shade your way for letting Fawkes do it). To be honest, the only thing I actually liked about the original ending was that Bethesda had the stones to cap off the main quest with a definitive ending, not the usual wishy-washy 'the world's saved, now bum around until you get bored' anticlimax.

But even after all that, I still enjoyed replaying it just for the sake of farting around in the sandbox (at least until New Vegas came onto the scene, and even then it took me about a year to really, truly appreciate NV). And there's a small scattering of quests / locations / moments in FO3 that I would still consider genuinely good. But what few itches NV didn't scratch infinitely better, FO4 eventually managed to reach. I have no desire to ever return to FO3 at this point.

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masterpug53 posted...

I can't think of a better example of an entire plot collapsing on the pillar of one bad scene than Fallout 3. The whole game through I kept convincing myself that the story had potential, and that potential was going to pay off just around the corner. But around the ending of Vault 87 it felt like the plot was careening down a cliff towards a premature conclusion, and by the time of the Liberty Prime assault I kept telling myself 'no, no, no, this can't be the ending already, can it?' And then everything came crashing down hard once the ending reared its ugly head.

I was so deeply incensed by the ending that it burned away the rosy outlook I'd had concerning the rest of the game I'd played up to that point, and I forever looked at Fallout 3 with a very critical eye. In the end (pun intended), the ending wasn't supremely offensive in and of itself; it was a culmination of all the bad writing and worldbuilding that had preceded it, and the only difference was that the game no longer had any potential past that point to redeem itself.

And for the record, I don't really think Broken Steel 'fixed' anything. Fawkes / Charon / Whatever the Gutsy was called being able to go in your place didn't really make a difference at that point, when both you and Sarah just get knocked unconscious anyway (and the ending slideshow will still throw some rather unnecessary shade your way for letting Fawkes do it). To be honest, the only thing I actually liked about the original ending was that Bethesda had the stones to cap off the main quest with a definitive ending, not the usual wishy-washy 'the world's saved, now bum around until you get bored' anticlimax.

But even after all that, I still enjoyed replaying it just for the sake of farting around in the sandbox (at least until New Vegas came onto the scene, and even then it took me about a year to really, truly appreciate NV). And there's a small scattering of quests / locations / moments in FO3 that I would still consider genuinely good. But what few itches NV didn't scratch infinitely better, FO4 eventually managed to reach. I have no desire to ever return to FO3 at this point.

Yeah, the entire second half of the story is bizarre, where literally everyone wants the same thing, to turn on the water, and are all willing to kill to stop anyone else turning it on.

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I remember my old saves getting fucked up and my only one being inside the Jefferson Memorial, where you can't leave lol.

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I remember quite a few games around then had endings I didn't like. Dead Rising and Saints Row also had really baffling endings.

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remember when they hired liam neeson to voice like a dozen lines
and you could skip half the story accidentally just by exploring.

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I never used companions in 3

partially because they're awful and partially because you're the lone wanderer

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It was a good ending. It brought finality to the plot and wasnt hamfisted and used all the devices laid throughout the adventure until then.

NightRender posted...

Yeah, the entire second half of the story is bizarre, where literally everyone wants the same thing, to turn on the water, and are all willing to kill to stop anyone else turning it on.

Do you remember when you're introducing yourself to Star Paladin Cross, and when the subject of your father comes up you have the 'evil' option of saying 'he died as he lived: a selfish asshole?' That line unintentionally not only describes James quite fittingly, but the entire main quest as a whole. 'We both want thing, we're both going to use thing for the same purpose, and we'll die defending / kill you over thing, no matter how much sense it would make for us to just work together on thing!'

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