The idea is that you can become powerful enough to pretty easily get through any situation but you can never get powerful enough to have maxed out stats.  Therefore no matter how good your build is you have probably had to compromise in some areas and specialize in something.  A core strength of Fallout's game design is that there are lots of different types of statistics and character types and therefore lots of different ways to approach combat (for example, depending on your weapon, there are four different SPECIAL stats that modify your attack bonuses!).  Getting to the maximum level doesn't mean that you are amazing at everything, but rather that you are only amazing at something.  If you hit the max level, you can probably go ahead and wrap up the game and then play through as a different character and experience a different take on the scenario.

I certainly understand and agree with the design, but I'd rather not hit the maximum level so quickly.  I didn't grind or even do like 1/4 of the major sidequests and probably did 1/10th or less of the optional stuff, but hit the maximum level well before even completing the entire game!  RPGs lose an important part of their appeal when you are no longer getting any experience for your actions

I guess one benefit of the design is that I can't wait to play the game over again with 1 Intelligence and 10 Endurance.

also yeah in fallout 2 i got a dude to like level 45 and i just stopped there. as far as i know there was no level cap.

Has anyone else hit the level cap uncomfortably soon?  I understand that the intent is to encourage you to go and make a different character than just level one up until you are an expert at everything, but . . . it just seems to happen way too soon.

yeah idk i'm barely through the game at all, been doing side quests and stuff...

and i'm almost level 10. if the level cap is 20 i'll be there not too long, it's kind of sad. i wish it would've been longer. hell, they could've split some of the perks to higher levels and made them better

plus i have the 360 version so no mod for me!

I never understood the rabid desire to level up to higher numbers over the desire to progress through a storyline. Sure you kick more ass but it's never had that much appeal. GRINDING up the levels just seems a horrible task which is pointless when I play games to relax. It seems too much like... working.

I never understood the rabid desire to level up to higher numbers over the desire to progress through a storyline. Sure you kick more ass but it's never had that much appeal. GRINDING up the levels just seems a horrible task which is pointless when I play games to relax. It seems too much like... working.

well what's funny is more or less i haven't been grinding, i've just been getting my ass kicked then reloading getting ass kicked reloading then finally beating the 10 super mutants in a single room and shit like that i keep stumbling upon through my quests.

i'm progressing through the quests and gaining mad levels that by the time i even get far through the main storyline i'll probably have hit the level cap and it'll be a bit annoying!

hey i just went to fort constantine and found an icbm. does anyone know if anything happens if i launch it, or if anything happens at all? i kind of don't want to do it, but i also sort of do.

i already did and i can't wear power armor. but anyway, forget it. i just went to little lamplight and this is really terrible. i'm done man, this game is awful.

I finally got fallout 3 but it feels different...it doesn't feel like fallout at all anyone getting this feeling too?
I would rather play this instead: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1uuDKrY7eW0

what are the specs for this on the computer? If I can play oblivion fairly well could I play this too?

I'm thinking about just buying it for my laptop because my brother's xbox got red ringed and I'm bored as fuck.

It's pretty much the same specs as Oblivion. I ran Oblivion on the highest settings with HDR,no AA, and 1440x900 res with some stuttering in heavily populated areas and such. And I'm running Fallout 3 on ultra high settings with HDR, 1280x720 with AA set to 4 and AF set to 8 with literally no lag or slowdowns. I'd say it's probably less CPU/GPU draining than Oblivion what with the lack of tons of trees and foliage everywhere, and it still looks as good if not better than Oblivion (graphics wise). So I think you should be fine if your comp can play Oblivion well.


Has anyone heard about any official mods coming out for this?

EDIT: Here's the Fallout 3 specs, just in case. It doesn't have a Recommended System Requirement section though.

Processor-2.4GHz
Memory-1 GB RAM
Video Card-Nvidia Geforce 6800, ATI x850, minimum

It's pretty much the same specs as Oblivion. I ran Oblivion on the highest settings with HDR,no AA, and 1440x900 res with some stuttering in heavily populated areas and such. And I'm running Fallout 3 on ultra high settings with HDR, 1280x720 with AA set to 4 and AF set to 8 with literally no lag or slowdowns. I'd say it's probably less CPU/GPU draining than Oblivion what with the lack of tons of trees and foliage everywhere, and it still looks as good if not better than Oblivion (graphics wise). So I think you should be fine if your comp can play Oblivion well.


Has anyone heard about any official mods coming out for this?

EDIT: Here's the Fallout 3 specs, just in case. It doesn't have a Recommended System Requirement section though.

Processor-2.4GHz
Memory-1 GB RAM
Video Card-Nvidia Geforce 6800, ATI x850, minimum

Ok then I might check this out, thanks!

That's weird I have:
AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor 1.9 GHz
2GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7000M / nForce 610M (793 MB)

But it still plays on low and it is till slow as hell on my laptop.