Mod matters, with Ashton 'I ain't 'fraid no mod' Mills.
The Witcher, especially the Enhanced Edition, is one of the greatest RPGs ever made. It forgoes the cookie-cutter approach to RPGs (the likes of which Dragon Age exemplifies) and provides you, the hero, with choices where there are sometimes no best or right choice at all, just actions and consequences. This is one factor of its adult nature, as is the ability to get drunk, start fist fights, bed lots of women, and the language - which is strong enough to make even the hardiest biker blush.
But despite all the plusses, it's a bit of an easy game even on hard. The dynamic combat is fun, but not always challenging. And that's what Full Combat Rebalance addresses.
With FCR our hero, Geralt, can die easily if he's surrounded and a greater emphasis has been placed on potions and oils (specific to creature types) in order to take down his foes. The mod loosely models combat off the descriptions in the novels on which the game is based, where Geralt is a natural swordsman the better of most humans, but for which monsters are a real challenge. Hence combat with guards and bandits can be swift and decisive, while fighting off a horde of Drowners takes a little more strategy.
In addition to redressing combat FCR also includes a host of excellent changes such as an extended isometric camera, more quickslots for all armors, and an entirely new Sign called Heliotrop for those who prefer magic, and a range of bug fixes and enhancements to the original gameplay.
On its own The Witcher: Extended Edition is a game every RPG fan should have in their Steam list, but combined with FCR (and a few texture packs to bring the aging engine up to speed) it's easily one of the best games of the decade. As Geralt would say "A mercenary, a dwarf, and a troubadour that knows all the loose women in town. Who better for advice?"
The team behind this mod would very much like to FOOK you. And your game, if possible. But in a good way, and by good I mean adding over 150 new weapons (including 36 varieties of assault rifle alone!) with textures and sounds, as well as a re-working of the weapon damage and item stats system in Fallout 3. At least, this is how it started. It then branched out into placing new unique loot in the world, adding new weapons to NPC level lists, adding new armors, re-working the drug and chem effects system, updating the salvage and crafting system, adding destructible items, adding new visual effects, and finally improving the official DLCs. Which is why the download clocks in at a hefty 1.1GB.
Being one of the larger mods for Fallout 3 it naturally has both complementary and compatible mods that work well with it, as well as mods it will always conflict with. Currently, FOOK2 is considered the ultimate new weapon mod that dovetails nicely with Martigen's Mutant Mod (by yours truly), giving FOOKers a challenge and something decent to shoot at, while somewhat working with FWE (Fallout Wanders Edition, the premiere 'game balance' mod) with a special patch. But that's the joy of using mods - you can pick and choose the ones you want to use and, usually, someone somewhere has made a patch (actually a mod in itself) that helps glue some of the larger ones together.
As with many Fallout 3 mods, FOOK2 (itself a re-imagining of the original FOOK) is a work in progress, and the FOOK team is working on ironing out any remaining bugs while continuing to add new features. But this shouldn't stop you trying it out. It's only when you play Fallout 3 with mods like FOOK2 that you see just how empty the original Fallout 3 is. If you're still playing Fallout 3, or yet to play it, add FOOK2 as one of your must-have mods.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012