Fallout 3 and Oblivion... two of the most overrated RPGs?

Please read before commenting.

I really love RPGs, both WRPGs and JRPGs. Why? The stories are usually what captivate me, and the epic battles that drive them. They make you, and your party in the game feel powerful and important. In a sense, you are living in the game director's dream world. The games that do this very well are just about any of the great JRPGs and WRPGs of the past. Mass Effect also brings forth the same formula, of a well written story, tightely woven with enjoyable gameplay. Witcher as well... but let me stop there, because there are just too many to name.

With all of that said... when we compare the giant Fallout 3 and Oblivion titles, I feel... they aren't on the same level. Rather, these two games have a very petty storyline, and their gameplay isn't very engrossing. In fact, both of these two games I quit playing roughly 75% in... Fallout 3, it was roughly after saving my father -- though I did a bunch of side missions. Oblivion... I can't even recall. They did, keep me playing for hours on end... but they gave me no reason to finish the games. I didn't care what the heck happened to the characters, and what their fate would be.

The problem. I think the problem is simple. These two games focus so much on creating this huge open interactive world, that the rest of the effort falls throught he cracks. They obviously didn't hire professional writers to make the story. They also appear to have evaluated the gameplay from a top down approach, instead of making it so the gameplay evolves as you get further in the game. Did it blow people away? Of course! The games both start off as jaw dropping titles... but after putting hours into them, the honeymoon ends... and I'm ready to uninstall, not caring if a sequel ever immerges.

Does anyone else feel this way?

fallout is effin awesome oblivion not so much. I more of a JRPG fan though

Difference for me is that FO3 I could enjoy, and Oblivion just turned into one of the most boring games ever. Guess I didn't learn my lesson when I played Morrowind, and that game also bored me to tears.

I agree with the story in Oblivion, didn't think it was really that good. However, my complaints go more towards the number of bugs that the games come with. Bethesda makes some good games, but god do they not know how to polish.

Well I really felt that Oblivion had too many design flaws to make me care about exploring what it had to offer to the fullest. However, I consider Fallout 3 one of the best games/RPG this generation. It has room for improvement, but I fully explored the title and enjoyed most of it.

I don't really play WRPG for the main story arc to be honest, I save that expectation for JRPG.

Bethesda really just needs to get some good writers and make their worlds more alive and exciting.

No.

Contrary to popular opinion around here, I actually liked Oblivion. Fallout 3 is pretty awesome as well.

Cant speak for Fallout but Oblivion had people going crazy for it when it launched. I thought it was overrated then. But now the game is bashed so much, you would think it was with the Superman 64s, ETs and the Big Rigs.

I personally didnt like the game but i actually think its underrated in relation to the amount of hate it gets. At least here anyway.

I loved Oblivion. Fallout, yeah... SO boring.rockguy92

Oddly I felt the huge copy and paste world of Oblivion was more boring overall.

I enjoyed them both. They offered a refreshing change from the usual rpg formula.

I absolutely loved Oblivion. SO many hours put into it.

Couldn't really get into Fallout, too much of dull shooter feel for my taste, but I can easily see how people who prefer the lonely, deserted feel could love it.

i didn't bother reading your OP because i'm not much for opinions. but, i'll give you mine anyway. Oblivion & Fallout 3 are 2 of the greatest WRPG's of this gen

Bethesda really just needs to get some good writers and make their worlds more alive and exciting.

Cellpwn

Difference for me is that FO3 I could enjoy, and Oblivion just turned into one of the most boring games ever. Guess I didn't learn my lesson when I played Morrowind, and that game also bored me to tears.

treedoor

[QUOTE="treedoor"]

Difference for me is that FO3 I could enjoy, and Oblivion just turned into one of the most boring games ever. Guess I didn't learn my lesson when I played Morrowind, and that game also bored me to tears.

LeGoofyGoober

No, I actually don't care about any of that stuff. What I care about is whether or not a game brings me enjoyment. Morrowind, and Oblivion put me to bed which I guess is somewhat good as sleep is healthy.

[QUOTE="Cellpwn"]

Bethesda really just needs to get some good writers and make their worlds more alive and exciting.

LeGoofyGoober

It was a step above Oblivion, but didn't hold me for long. Maybe I should give it another shot, I kind of quit playing after finishing that mediocre main plot.

i didn't bother reading your OP because i'm not much for opinions. but, i'll give you mine anyway. Oblivion & Fallout 3 are 2 of the greatest WRPG's of this gen

LeGoofyGoober

[QUOTE="LeGoofyGoober"]

[QUOTE="treedoor"]

Difference for me is that FO3 I could enjoy, and Oblivion just turned into one of the most boring games ever. Guess I didn't learn my lesson when I played Morrowind, and that game also bored me to tears.

treedoor

No, I actually don't care about any of that stuff. What I care about is whether or not a game brings me enjoyment. Morrowind, and Oblivion put me to bed which I guess is somewhat good as sleep is healthy.

[QUOTE="LeGoofyGoober"]

[QUOTE="Cellpwn"]

Bethesda really just needs to get some good writers and make their worlds more alive and exciting.

Cellpwn

It was a step above Oblivion, but didn't hold me for long. Maybe I should give it another shot, I kind of quit playing after finishing that mediocre main plot.

I think you hit it on the head. What separates a good RPG from a great one is the story, for me anyway. Both FO3 and Oblivion fall a bit flat on that. however, I still enjoyed exploring the worlds and such. I certainly don't appreciate them as much as I do JRPGs--in particular Persona 4, any of the FF, or even Eternal Sonata or Tales of Vesperia. But thats just a personal taste

[QUOTE="Cellpwn"]

[QUOTE="LeGoofyGoober"]

Falliut 3 wasn't exciting? :|

LeGoofyGoober

It was a step above Oblivion, but didn't hold me for long. Maybe I should give it another shot, I kind of quit playing after finishing that mediocre main plot.

Also, sorry, I didn't know I could "play it wrong". One more thing: :|

you're not supposed to rush into the story. you're supposed to do all the side quests. then the story. you played it wrong. :|LeGoofyGoober

I gotboth and prefered fallout, I liked them more thanlost odessy and i did enjoy that as well,but i'mgetting bored to tears with JPRG's the storylines arealways the same just different scenery.

To me, Bethesda games have always been more about YOUR characters story as opposed to some over-reaching arch. However, having said that, Morrowind did an excellent job of making the whole story ABOUT your character, and in that regard both Oblivion and Fallout 3 fall flat.

They may suck, but at least they're not as cliche as every single JRPG out there.

Why would you uninstall? One word: Mods. They can change a game entirely (especially Oblivion and Fallout 3, since they both have huge modding communities), and can essentially bring the replay value up to several thousand hours. They completely changed the original STALKER and made it one of the best singleplayer FPS of all time, and they did the same with Oblivion and Fallout 3. Anyway...

Fallout 3 and Oblivion are both action-RPGs. Fallout 3 doesn't have a huge problem with level scaling. Oblivion did, which is why I can almost understand the criticism it gets. It makes all exploration worthless. All sense of accomplishment is essentailly rendered void from the beginning. However, that doesn't mean the games aren't fantastic in their own right. They both create immersive worlds, and some of the quests and questlines are fairly well-written (although the main quest in both games is horrible). The atmosphere and backstory is strong in both games (much stronger in Oblivion), there's plenty to do, and none of the gameplay mechanics are downright poor. They could touch up Oblivion's combat and magic system, as well as Fallout 3's combat system. Most of the problems are just variable tweaking. Both games accomplished a lot in making the gameworld feel interactive. Long gone are the days where the player has little to no input on something like combat, lockpicking, or hacking, and I say good riddance.

They both had their flaws though (level-scaling and weak RPG elements pretty much sum it up), but I wouldn't say their vanilla incarnations are overrated enough to be called the "most overrated RPGs."

Both overrated.

Both crappy story (WRPGS should have a good story)

Both get repetitive, in Oblivion half the time I was grinding getting skill to level up

Both had very identical areas

Both were BUGGY TO ENDS EARTH

they are good games i would give them a 6.5/10 but they get boring fast. every thing in both games looks the same and the story sucks too but i was very disappointed by fallout

exactly how i feel about those games:

they are great... for a while.

The fact is that the "while" we're talking about takes some hundred hours to bore you.

Oblivion: YES.

Fallout 3: A little, but not nearly to the extent of Oblivion. Fallout 3 still has a few of the flaws from Oblivion (terrible main story, lame characters, horrible animations, quest bugs, etc.) but it actually has sidequests with variety, a world that isn't the exact same meadow pasted over a thousand times, stats/skills that actually matter, and the level scaling isn't anywhere near the stupidity that was in Oblivion.

Haven't played FO3 yet, but I do know that Oblivion wasn't that great, compared to Morrowind ;)

Oblivion is one of my favorite RPG's this gen, truly amazing stuff. Fallout 3 was great, the main quest was alright and there wasn't enough side quests. Still Fallout 3 is fun for an RPG survival horror. I'd recommend Fallout 3 for pc though, it makes the experience 10x better.

I agree both of the stories are piss poor. It's the atmosphere of the worlds that draw me in. With that said, I liked Oblivion and I hated Fallout 3.

[QUOTE="LeGoofyGoober"]

[QUOTE="Cellpwn"]

It was a step above Oblivion, but didn't hold me for long. Maybe I should give it another shot, I kind of quit playing after finishing that mediocre main plot.

Cellpwn

Also, sorry, I didn't know I could "play it wrong". One more thing: :|

they are good games i would give them a 6.5/10 but they get boring fast. every thing in both games looks the same and the story sucks too but i was very disappointed by fallout

DontBeHatin1983

Hated Oblivion, Fallout 3 was alot better. On another note Fallout New Vegas will be better then FO3. SAGE_OF_FIRE

while it can get a little stale fallout 3 is one of the best games i've ever played.

[QUOTE="SAGE_OF_FIRE"]Hated Oblivion, Fallout 3 was alot better. On another note Fallout New Vegas will be better then FO3. Im_single

I enjoyed both games immesnsely, but after i got the PC version of Oblivion, i realised all the design flaws. It was a pretty fun game, but not very challenging.

Fallout 3 improved that and it's gameplay was more enjoyable. Both game's MQ wasn't excellent, but some of the sidequests in Oblivion were brilliant and same with fallout 3.

[QUOTE="Im_single"][QUOTE="SAGE_OF_FIRE"]Hated Oblivion, Fallout 3 was alot better. On another note Fallout New Vegas will be better then FO3. SAGE_OF_FIRE

Bethesda RPGs are horribly overrated IMO.

I prefer Obsidian to them.