Fallout 3 Collector's Edition Reviews

• A review from an impartial gamer

  
  By A2VBTXRD8X2TY2 on 2008-11-18
  I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.
  
  PROS:
  
  - You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests.
  
  - Over 100+ hours of places to explore. and more than 100+ unique map locations.
  
  - Tons of perks and ways to develop your character. Become a science genius or concentrate on stealth and your lockpicking ability. Invest in large guns and go into places with guns ablaze. Play the game how you want. Be good and people will love you, be bad and people will fear you.
  
  - Replay value. This is rare in RPGs but Because of the many different ways you can play the game I see myself playing this game again to play a different type of character.
  
  - Some people complain about the targeting system known as VATS. This game is not an FPS. VATS gives you a wonderful 1st person shooter feel with an RPG style or turned based combat. Score a critical by shooting your enemies head and it might explode. Shoot the enemy on his weapon hand and he will not be able to attack you very quickly.
  
  - The graphics are amazing. Its a beautiful post apocalyptic mess. The detail from the stains on a found mattress or a found comic called "Grognak the Barbarian and the Lair of the Virgin Killer" are all amazing. You can tell a lot of thought went into detail.
  
  - The voice work is nice. Almost every character talks out loud. This allows you to listen and respond instead of just watching a mouth move and reading dialog all the time.
  
  - Enemies do not automatically level with your character. This was my biggest problem with Oblivion. Some people liked the fact that enemies would always be your level. I found it totally unrealistic. Go ahead, run your level 1 character through the Wastelands. You might come across an easy roach or a mutant with a minigun. In my book this makes the game more fun and much more realistic.
  
  - I have read on the forums and some bad reviews here that they can not find tons of ammo. This is not Halo, Call of Duty or any other FPS. People need to take the right mindset. This is a world 200 years after major Nuclear war. Things will break, ammo is sometimes scarce, radiation is a fact of life, bottle caps are money, people trade everything and you live in a harsh world. I think some people need to watch the Madmax series just as a primer to understand the world created here.
  
  - Instant travel. Once you have visited an area you no longer need to walk to the location. You can locate the area on your map (through the PIPBoy 3000) and select it to instantly travel.
  
  - The PipBoy 3000 Interface works great. This allows you to keep track of stats, items, equipment, quests, notes, maps, and karma very easily. The UI is easy and it keeps all the data you need at your finger tips.
  
  CONS:
  
  - AI is nothing special. It's not bad, just nothing special. When I am shooting a shotgun at you, running at me with a pool cue might not be the smartest thing to do. They will sometimes run away if severely over matched (which is the smart thing to do). The AI is no worse then any other games, just no big improvements here.
  
  - Lack of good music. You can find radio stations on your PIPBoy but I was not a fan of the music. The background can be ok but not great. Sometimes when alone in the Wasteland you want some good background music.
  
  - I had the game crash once but not a lot of times like some people are reporting. Still unacceptable but manageable. Loading and saving times can take anywhere between 10-30 seconds which is kind of slow.
  
  - No item descriptions. The important data like weight, condition value, and perks of the item are still displayed but full description of the items are no longer available. This is different then Fallout 1 and 2 where each item had a paragraph describing it.
  
  Additional thoughts:
  
  This game is rated "M". This means you shouldn't play this game with kids in the room. This isn't a Con for me but this might be a problem for all you gamer mom and dads out there. Seriously, no kids allowed. Women offer there "Services", cussing, blood splatter on the screen when you get injured, mutants hanging people on meat hooks, tons of drug use, and of course blowing peoples limbs off. Good times but not for the kiddies.
  
  No, its not perfect but it is a lot of fun and the best RPG currently on the market. My 5 star review was based on that fact. This is the best RPG I have played since FFX (Final Fantasy X). I hope you enjoy it.
  
  
  
  
  

• Excellent game, comprehensive review.

  
  By AQZ8S5V0RPYMH on 2008-11-07
  I recently bought 3 new games for PS3; Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is by far the winner for me. Little Big Planet is incredible in its own right, but Fallout 3 deserves 10 stars. Resistance 2, has great graphics, but the single player really lacks something that it had in the first game. I understand that the online play is now amazing, but I'm a story guy so that's what I'm playing for.
  
  Food analogy for these three games;
  Resistance 2; A nice brunch, but some of the guests are irritating.
  Little Big Planet; Awesome snack party! Lets play again!
  Fallout 3; A 10 course meal of the best of all kinds of food. WOW!
  
  This review for Fallout 3 has minor spoilers.
  
  All three games are great, but so far I've had the most fun playing Fallout 3. The scope of the game is huge, it feels huge, it looks huge, it sucks you in. The plot seamlessly welds together, and the detail is incredible.
  
  My wife, who is an amazing artist, took a look at this game while I was playing and commented the following; "Whomever designed this game really knew what they were doing. The color pallets are very well chosen so that everything in the scene has the correct lighting feeling for the time of day."
  
  I especially *love* the little details that make this game. First amazing detail; Hacking the terminals is *very* close to the way you would break into a real OpenVMS machine if you had console access. The terminals themselves look like old VT100 terminals. You can break into a VMS machine from the console (physical terminal) and the commands are not exactly the same, but when I saw my character typing them in, I was so happy. I think the authors of this game should be commended for their accuracy, and for their design choice. The OpenVMS system is very old, very useful, very strong, and very stable. The similar commands fit in *perfectly* with the look and feel of the terminals the robot company makes in the game.
  
  Next up, the super mutants totally take lines from the villain "Humungous" in Mad Max: Road warrior 2. "No more games!" with the same delivery. This little detail is so perfect. There are little nods like this to the Sci Fi genre throughout this game.
  
  Even the starting sequence of this game, and the load "slides" which are modeled after 50's micro fiche are so perfectly in character for the rest of the game that you find yourself wishing the load times when they show were longer so you could pore over the details revealed.
  
  This game is so huge, and incredibly wide reaching. This is demonstrated by the example of a side quest/area that is introduced through deft foreshadowing into the game when your character inquires about the local area at one of the towns in the game. The person you're talking to refers to this nearby place to stay away from. "Its bad mojo!" So of course you think "Well I have to go there next!" Next stop, terror! And 3/4 of the way through the side quest you're asking yourself "Maybe I really should have listened to this guy" as you're dying and irradiated in a terrifying area of doom! This minor side quest is so big, and perfectly executed within the game that you really feel like you're paid your money's worth.
  
  I think one of the things that some other reviewers mentioned is how cool it is that you can treat the game like a real time game, or as a more turn based game by using the V.A.T.S system. This lends flexibility to the game allowing you to play it either as the biggest open ended fps you've ever played or as a giant post apocolyptic RPG.
  
  Game strategy is introduced subtly by the npcs, making you feel like you are there. An example of this is a side conversation you have with a kid who tells you about the calamity that happened to his town. He describes how his father would rant about the invaders and how to defeat them, but the kid doesn't understand what his father meant. You end up using the strategy to avoid death it a wonderful high quality Sci Fi B movie plot line yourself later.
  
  Each storyline in this excellent game is peeled back like layers of an onion, that you slowly uncover. The graphics are eyepopping sure, but I must give the writers for this game the highest praise. This is something that the author Neal Stephenson writes about in his book Diamond Age. The idea that you can have incredible immersion games that have a completely realistic physical environment a la the matrix concept, but without a gripping storyline you've got nothing. Well Fallout3 has the story lines, and it has them in spades. It has the eye popping graphics, and the incredible detail. This game has it all.
  
  There is never a time in this game where the game mechanics themselves get in the way of the play. You can save whenever you want, and the completely transparent mechanics submerge you into the game environment.
  
  In conclusion, if you like adventures, and you like Sci Fi, get this incredible Game.
  
  

• Fallout 3 = video game crack.

  
  By on 2008-11-04
  For those of us who have played Oblivion the obvious will be when you first start to assume that this game is a lot like that game. To some extent there are certain elements to that assumption that do hold true. However as the game really starts to unfold and you realize the world you're in that Bethesda has created that this is not Oblivion with guns. This is an epic post war nightmare that is both beautiful and haunting.
  
  This the type of RPG that every gamer dreams of. A rich story in the main quest and an amazing amount of detail at every turn. The real meat of this game though is the side questing and the exploring of the landscape. You will literally spend HOURS checking out every nook in this game and not knowing what awaits you at the next turn. This is the type of game that will both make you use your head, and get your blood pumping at the same time. It's called balance and it's done to perfection in Fallout 3.
  
  If you are not a fan of games where you have to take your time and you are looking for something to pick up and shoot things Fallout 3 is not your game. If you love games that require you to conserve your inventory and make crucial choices that will affect your outcome one way or another Fallout 3 is your game. If you are looking for something that is quick and easy, Fallout 3 is not your game. If you are looking for something that takes time, patience and you enjoy exploring Fallout 3 is your game.
  
  The point is that you really need to know the genre of RPG to enjoy a game like this. That's not to say that if you have never played one that you won't enjoy it just expect to be a bit overwhelmed at first and allow the game to unfold which is where the patience aspect comes into play, because once it does you will be sucked into it's world and have a very very hard time putting it down if you do connect with it. These are the types of games that RPG gamers long for and this one hits it out of the park.
  
  As far as the combat system it's both a mixture of action RPG and somewhat of a turn based element with what is called the VATS system. More or less this allows you to make a choice of which body part you want to target and will show you a percentage of if that part will be hit. Then you go to a cut scene which shows your results. You will find this element very fulfilling when you see an enemy taken by surprise and watch in glory as body parts explode on the screen when it works right.
  
  This is a game that has endless amounts of game play value. There are so many choices and out comes you will be able to explore every part of the game. Finish every quest and still be able to replay it totally different if you chose to do so with a completely different outcome. That is rare to find a game like that with so much quality.
  
  The version I own is the PS3 version so let me say first the game looks amazing. I am playing it on a 47 inch 1080 LCD TV with a 7.1 surround sound system and it just crushes on every single level. Are there glitches? So few you won't even care when you see them. The rumors that the PS3 version is somehow less a game from certain reviews is a lie. It's amazing and worth every single penny and your time.
  
  Video game crack at it's finest and certainly game of the year for me.
  
  Thanks again Bethesda for creating an epic world for me roam in.
  
  

• Absoutely Stunning RPG Shooter!

  
  By ATC16BS2EZWZM on 2008-10-29
  Fallout 3 only appears to use the disc validation aspects of SecuROM 7.36.0006. I used System Mechanic to perform some "before and after" system scans to ensure nothing sinister was happening with the install. All I could find was the usual license and CD / DVD entries in the Registry. There were no activations or installation hiccups. The installation does take quite some time though, so I advise people to de-clutter and defrag before they install.
  
  I don't want to issue any spoilers, but what I will say is that the graphics are revolutionary! The world feels very immersing and the character interactions are very realistic. The controls are very similar to Oblivion too, so it wasn't hard to dive in. The game is very, very polished and when you exit Vault 101 for the first time, the scenery that greets you is astounding! You can see objects in full clarity right out to the horizon and the environment looks very much like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, albeit under a very gray palette. I maxed out the in-game detail settings and my single slot GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB handled it perfectly. This is first class!
  
  My biggest gripe with DRM is limited activations, which also infer spying on your machine. This game does indeed use the "evil" SecuROM, but it's just the usual SecuROM disc-checking that we have in tonnes of games prior to this. There are NO LIMITED ACTIVATIONS. I'm a big anti-DRM person, just look at my posts for Spore, but this, in my opinion, is an acceptable use of DRM and I recommend people get the game.
  
  

• Has to be game of the year

  
  By A2QNS95WGN35G9 on 2008-10-31
  I never played the original fallout games, but I have always been an elder scrolls fan. Oblivion is one of my favorite games that I have ever had the pleasure of playing, news that the same team bought up and was working on this game made me very happy, if it could just be oblivion with guns, I would be sure to find much enjoyment. However it is SO much more.
  
  
  The game is epic in scope, when you are "born" you crawl around, and you find this book (which is very cool) that teaches you about the S.P.E.C.I.A.L System, and you get to choose how you will be. I love the whole way this game is presented, everything seems very realistic, the environments are of the best I have ever seen.
  
  The voice acting has to be heard to be enjoyed. I finally beat this sucker, after many late night gaming sessions (who needs sleep?) its crazy how many times I would say, ok, a few more minutes then its time to sleep, and the next thing I know the suns coming up!
  
  One of the cool things about this game is the Pip-Boy 3000, it is how you manage everything, stuff you pick up, your aid, your ability to check your radiation level, as well as letting you check your maps, choose your quest, and the coolest feature of all, the ability to listen to the in game radio.
  
  The radio features music from the 40's and 50's and its all real music, very unique, and fits perfectly into the world this game has created. I love it. It adds so much to the experience.
  
  Since your reading this review, you may wish to know about the "Collectors" features. So lets get into if its worth you dropping another 20$ for.
  
  There is no definitive Yes or No. If you work in the game industry, this is one of the best things you can buy, you get a 100 page art book that looks really good, you get the concept art for the creatures, character armor, and environment landscapes. This book makes others such as gears of war seem quite inadequate, this book alone was worth the price for me. The very cool looking lunchbox which houses everything only sweetens the deal, it is very well constructed, and looks awesome, that's all i can say. If you enjoy the retro type advertising of the game (and in game) you will love the lunch box, it is very cool. You get a making of dvd, which I'm planning on exploring later on after I beat the game again. You also get the bobble head which is currently "bobbling" right now as I type. I love this guy, he looks awesome, I'm somewhat disappointed we didn't get the version with him giving a thumbs up, but this is still cool nonetheless.
  
  This is a very good game, much more mature than oblivion due to the language and themes (one part has you visiting a virtual world, where you break up a marriage, beat up a little kid to make him cry, then proceed with murdering all the inhabits while wearing a mask scaring them all away -- though you can avoid it, if you figure out how to get out on your own!)
  
  Speaking of which, I must mention the cool perks system. If you want to play the game as being evil (my next play through for sure!) you can use the "Sandman" Perk and kill people in their sleep, if that's not enough, there is a perk that lets you eat people! Also whenever you pick pocket you can replace what you stole with a grenade and watch as they die (you get an achievement for this too!)
  
  The game is so good, so slick, I really hope they treat this game like oblivion and offer some expansions, maybe one taking place in NY, LA, or something, that would be very cool.
  
  The new VATS system is pretty cool, you can use Attack Points and use your weapon in a cinematic view that lays waste to your enemy, weather your slamming a sledgehammer down on a demon dog, or shooting off a raiders head with your hand gun or rifle (think resident evil type animations), with that said, this game had me jumping several times throughout, it is very good and you get very involved in this game.
  
  Lastly, I must mention the graphics are the best I have seen. They surpass Oblivion, and look better than any game out on the 360 right now.
  
  Bottom line, pick it up, you will be playing this more than 1-2 days, it is a very good game, a game that requires repeat visits. It combines the best of all my favorite games, GTA's seedy underground environment, Resident Evils Character design, boss strength, and the gun play and horror, oblivions fantastic engine and how everything goes together. It has to be played to truly enjoy.
  
  Also, the guide is NOT necessary, the game is pretty easy to figure out on your own. (though not an easy game)
  
  
• A lot of fun
  By A3R45PM2O93YKC on 2008-11-19
  I have been enjoying Fallout 3 for about 70 hours now and I am having as much fun now as I was 50 hours ago, which is to say A LOT.
  
  I cannot speak to the bugs that others seem to be experiencing. In my 70 hours I have had my game freeze only a handful of times, and none of them were anything that was game breaking. I have several friends who are also playing and none of them have expressed any serious glitches either.
  
  I have played both the previous Fallout games and vastly enjoyed them both, so to make a blanket statement that "anyone who was a fan of the first 2 Fallouts will hate this game" is just erroneous. I would agree with someone who said this game is more of a Next Gen title in the Fallout Universe rather than a true sequel to the Interplay games.
  
  However, that does not in any way detract from the epic amount of fun to be found in Fallout 3.
  
  The adventuring around the Wastes is the highlight of the game to be sure. The amazing amount of freedom to roam the Wastes is just phenomenal, so much so that once you do decide to progress the Main Story it can seem very limiting and cramped at times, especially when crawling around through the DC Ruins and all the subway tunnels required to get to the Main Mall.
  
  However, compared to the vast scope and size of the experience, this is a minor complaint and really a very short and small portion of the game. It should only take maybe 5 hours to explore it all and finish up some questing, then you can Fast Travel back whenever you want and get back to tearing it up in the Wastes.
  
  Combat is quality, but it is NOT a Shooter. People expecting Shooter mechanics will be disappointed, as even point blank shooting still utilizes an in game Dice Roll to determine whether you hit and how much damage you do etc.
  
  It is likely that people complaining about Ammo or clunky targeting are unaware of this game mechanic, but it is what makes the game an RPG, not a Shooter. There is ample amounts of Ammo (I have never run out in 70 hours of gameplay and I have killed over 1000 living -isms according to my in game stat sheet), but it is not unlimited like a Shooter.
  
  The VATS mode is a good way to illustrate the difference. You queue up VATS and it will give you a stop-time targeting system. Within this system, you will be given percentages to hit on various Body parts: 87% to hit the head, 95% to hit the Body etc. However, these percentages are also indicative of how much of a chance you would have to hit those body parts OUT of VATS as well. So if you have a 50% chance to hit a leg in VATS, you have that SAME chance to hit in real-time it just does not illustrate it anywhere. SO even if your targeting arrow is Red, you still only have the same percentage to hit as you would in VATS. Which is to say you will miss and waste a ton of ammo if you just think "my target is red I can unload a clip".
  
  Dice Rolls are a staple of RPGS, Oblivion had them, it was just not as noticeable because you were using Melee weapons, but every time your guy reared back to swing it rolled the dice to see if you would hit, how much of a damaging blow it would be etc.
  
  The game has a wide array of voice acting, some is great, some not so much. The story has its ups and downs, but is good enough to not take away from the overall (it certainly helps that the great Liam Neeson is the Vault Dweller's Father, he is an example of the Great voice acting). Various mini-quests are actually more entertaining and interesting than the main story, so there is definitely enough Good story in the game to keep it interesting.
  
  However, the game's strength is in solo-adventuring IMO. While you can get sidekicks and helpers, the real fun is being a Hero of the Wastes and taking down Super-Mutants, Raiders, Slavers and Death Claws all by your lonesome as you scour the Wastes in search of unique weapons, caps, ammo and mini-quests littered throughout.
  
  Overall, I would rate the game a 9/10 and consider it the only game on Xbox 360 that gives Mass Effect a challenge for best title.
  
  
• Simply Incredible
  By A1T3SW9UQIFOEG on 2008-11-03
  This is an absolutely top notch game. I've been an avid gamer for around 20 years now. I've played countless games and this is one of my all-time favorites.
  
  I'm a big fan of both Role Playing Games and First Person Shooters. Fallout 3 is both, although probably more of an RPG. For me it's quite hard to kill normal opponents without using the targeting system, which pauses the game. But this didn't bother me at all or lessen the experience in any way. The only thing that I would change would be to give the player the ability to control the camera during the slow motion combat shots. The camera angle can be poor at times.
  
  The graphics are great, the atmosphere is very convincing and it's just good fun. It's also a somewhat odd mix of being very serious and yet very silly at times. I guess I would describe it as quirky, but in a good way.
  
  The game is definitely not for younger people. The games is very gory, the language is about as bad as it gets, and there are quite a few references to prostitution and drugs.
  
  I'm about 15-20 hours into the game and I've barely scratched the surface. I've read that the game can be completed in 20 hours. But that seems crazy to me. I put 90 hours into Oblivion before I even took the main quest seriously. Fallout 3 looks like it's going to have that kind of playability for me, and then some. I didn't really enjoy the combat in Oblivion nearly as much as I enjoyed just exploring the world. With Fallout 3, I enjoy both.
  
  This is a must buy.
  
  
• Overall, a strong step forward for Bethesda with a few unfortunately major flaws.
  By A10YIS3ZDAEZO6 on 2008-11-04
  The next release by Bethesda after the gorgeous but surprisingly shallow game Oblivion, Fallout 3 is a vast improvement on almost every level over the company's previous efforts, providing an extreme level of high-quality content and a truly massive game experience at the expense of average writing and a poorly-implemented main plot.
  
  First off, graphics. I'm running the game at High quality (as opposed to Very High) on a computer using parts that were cutting edge about two years ago. Visually, this game is a total knockout; painstakingly and stunningly rendered down to the smallest detail, from the wreckage and debris everywhere even to the level of most NPCs. The character models in particular stand out as a vast improvement over Oblivion's, although the character animations - particularly on hills - is still as stilted as ever and you will notice some repetitive faces. Where the game truly shines is in the environmental design, particularly on the graphical level - I can safely say that no other game has ever felt as real and vibrant (albeit dead, considering it's post-apocalyptic) as Fallout 3. The environment truly feels real, especially coupled with a surprisingly logical and high-quality approach to level design - office buildings and schools are laid out like office buildings and schools, most buildings have bathrooms inside. Wreckage and debris are used strategically to block off areas and direct the player, rather than bizarre architectural choices as in Oblivion (who builds a fort in the shape of one long tunnel?). I can't rave enough about the high-quality graphics, a few relatively minor animation issues and mild NPC face repetition notwithstanding. Downtown DC, with its half-demolished monuments and museums, is absolutely breathtaking. The game is also fully voiced, and the voice acting is relatively high-quality. Although you'll likely begin to notice NPCs who sound suspiciously similar - especially old women, who all sound identical - the acting is considerably better and they've reused voice actors a lot less than in the Elder Scrolls games. People who follow such things may recognize Raphael Sbarge (KotOR) and John DiMaggio (Futurama; FFX) in a few places. Liam Neesan does a decent job with fairly bland lines as the PC's saintly father and Ron Perlman is back to narrate the surprisingly tepid introductory and final movies. But Malcolm McDowell steals the show as the unsettlingly patriotic President Eden, mostly through a series of Roosevelt-esque radio speeches the player can choose to listen to at will through.
  
  This is easily the most fun game I've played in a long while. They've stripped out a lot of things that bogged down earlier Bethesda efforts and even to an extent earlier Fallout games, which lends itself to a much more fast-paced, almost survival horror-esque feel to much of the game. The VATS system is a huge disappointment to anyone expecting true turn-based combat - it's much more like bullet time than anything else - but taken on its own merits is a pretty clever gimmick that is actually pretty fun to use. Combat in general is satisfyingly fast-paced, and a clever, logical approach to level design keeps the player moving along nicely in most areas while still giving the feeling that you might be down to your last clip of bullets or stimpack. Radiation - and particularly irradiated food, which heals you at the cost of adding to your rad level - is an interesting new dimension which is unfortunately barely touched on, as weightless, radless Stimpacks are weightless and much more effective than drinking water or food. Buffs take the form of drugs with a variety of effects, and can make the difference between survival and death - but watch out for (easily cured, and mostly pointless) addictions. There are a few glaring issues with the gameplay, however: the speech and dialog options, while again an enormous improvement over previous Bethesda games (FO3 features dialog trees instead of topic buttons, allowing for more dynamic conversations), require little to no thought on the part of the player - a far cry from the clever dialog puzzles former Fallout developer Black Isle was known for. High stats in Lockpicking or Science basically just buy you the ability to play their associated minigames at higher difficulty levels; if you're bad at Mastermind or have poor reflexes, don't expect to succeed at them, even with a maxed-out skill value. Combat is decently balanced but startlingly illogical in places, and at low levels it frequently takes an entire clip of shotgun shells to the face to take down a single human opponent; similarly, the economy is bizarrely stacked, with the reward for single-handedly saving a town from total annihilation being less valuable than a single night at the local inn. Cash in general is hard to come by for much of the game; even vendors rarely have enough to buy more than a fraction of your loot at a time. Fortunately, there are a few nearly limitless sources available to you, if you're willing to put in the work for the money, and the trade system allows for direct bartering. Character design and advancement is basically just a dumbed-down version of the previous games' systems, and badly in need of balancing. A few of the non-combat stats are ridiculously overpowered (you'll have a tough time getting through the game without a high Lockpick and Repair skill) and, unlike its predecessors, you won't be able to get through much of Fallout 3 without putting a significant commitment into combat skills (which comprise about half the skill set). However, it's still easily possible to cater to most play styles, and clever players with an eye on the strategy guide will have little trouble maxing out all their skills and most of their attributes before hitting the level 20 cap.
  
  The main plot is extremely short by design, taking somewhere between 8-10 hours for players progressing at normal speed to complete; taking note of one of the defining characteristics of the Fallout franchise, Bethesda opted to make huge swaths of the main quest optional (you can stumble upon information or people who will lead you further into the plot, bypassing intermediary steps), lending the game a feeling of versatility that more tracked-in games lack. Consequently, the game feels a lot more dynamic and flexible, even accounting for several quests that are essentially good guy/bad guy choices and at least two where there isn't even a bad guy choice. However, because Bethesda opted to only consider quests with their own subplots "sidequests", there's a lot to do in the Wasteland that is entirely freeform, and the game often rewards players for free-roaming and for following clues provided in the game's copious flavor text. The result is an unusually detail-oriented, lovingly crafted world that feels logical and realistic, aside from the relatively limited dialog options. The game is well worth buying solely for the wealth of awesome content lurking in the wings of the game, and already has an active modding community likely to produce still more content to keep you entertained long after the game's disappointingly average main plot has faded into memory. This is even true on the item level: there are a variety of awesome and entertaining gimmick weapons, the opportunity to buy and customize houses (which provides extremely tangible benefits, unlike the Oblivion equivalent) and several unique items lying around that can by claimed and repaired by the player. Fallout 3 has a level of detail rarely seen in any game.
  
  On the downside, a few of the sidequests have glaringly obvious logical errors in them. Your character generally acts like an old hand at wandering the Wasteland straight out of his hermetically sealed childhood home, regardless of what dialog options you choose. And despite the general emphasis on free roaming, you do get railroaded in several places - your response options to a given NPC's behavior generally consist only of fairly transparent light side/neutral/dark side options where they exist at all, and the main plot abandons all pretense of player control in the second half - but for the most part, you're free to turn around at any point up until the very end and go back to free roaming, which is where the real meat of the game is anyway. The main plot itself is significantly better than Oblivion's, but falls apart at the climax, leading into an unexpected, abrupt and deeply unsatisfying resolution; also, in a radical departure from the rest of the game, the last few subquests in the main plot are essentially mandatory dungeons followed by a staggeringly black-and-white moral choice. Fortunately, the weakest elements of the game are mostly contained in the last two or three subquests of the main plot, and you can easily get months of playtime out of this consistently excellent sandbox exploration game without ever having to sit through the most disappointing parts ever again.
  
  A few other things to mention that I left out of the review:
  -The only DRM included with the game is a simple disc check (you only even need a serial number for Windows Live)
  -There is a large and skilled pool of modders already producing custom content for the game, even without official word on a Construction Set.
  -The load times are blazing fast. I have Word files that take longer to open than FO3 maps.
  -The game is excessively buggy at the moment, and only PC users will be able to use most of the bug fixes. Console users may want to hold off until a patch is released.
  
  
• Not Your Parents' Fallout
  By A3GM64N13BILUP on 2008-11-03
  Fallout 3 represents Bethesda Softworks' first take of the legendary game franchise since they purchased the rights from the failing Interplay in 2004. So, how did Bethesda do? In essence, Fallout 3 is Oblivion (Bethesda's most well-known game) with a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic skin on it. The Good, Bad, and Ugly on this game includes...
  
  Good:
  - Spectacular Graphics (I'd have said beautiful, but we ARE talking about a post-apocalyptic world here). From blown-up highway overpasses to angry super mutants, players will be completely visually immersed in the game.
  - Massive World. Fallout 3 is not a "first ten hours and you're done" game. The developers have said that F3 contains over 100 hours of game play if all of the side quests are done and, having played a good portion of them, I can say that this seems to be correct.
  - Interesting World. There's a lot to see and do in post-war D.C.! Visit the Washington Monument, try and find historical documents, join a cult, stop slavers, or become one yourself! There are plenty of new (and different) things to do in Fallout 3.
  
  Bad:
  - No Turn-Based Combat. Fallouts 1&2 featured turn-based strategic combat; Fallout 3 is primarily First-Person Shooter style. The V.A.T.S. system of location-specific targeting has been added to sort of simulate turn-based combat for those interested, but it is poorly done (EX: what appear to be high-percentage VATS shots with a clear view from first-person end up being completely blocked by the target's slight movements; VATS will not stop the shooting even though precious ammo is wasted). Gameplay is primarily first-person, though a buggy "shoulder camera view" can also be used. If you love FPS games, this will not be an issue.
  - Lacks Original's Dark Humor. Forced jokes do not make a Fallout game - the creators simply were not able to capture this aspect of the original.
  - Linear Solutions. Initially, it seemed that there would be a lot of choices in how Fallout 3's quests were to be solved (EX: Lie to solve a quest or do the actual legwork? Blow up a city or disarm the bomb?); the problem is, these options tend to disappear shortly after the game starts - especially in the main story line. Most of the time, players can choose between the "Good" option and the "Evil" one - and that's it. Small choices like hacking a gun turret to clean out a room of Super Mutants or tossing in a few grenades to clean them out (two different skills) still exist, but the results tend to be the same. Fallout 3 tends to offer players the illusion of choice rather than actual choices, and that's not in the spirit of the Fallout series.
  - Poor Music. The background music is both repetitive and boring; The "radio" songs are too few/not fitting to the zones.
  
  Ugly:
  - Quest Bugs. Many of the side quests have bugs in them that, while they can be worked around, still detract from the game. The Big Town quests have many examples of this.
  - Crash Bugs. I didn't have any problems installing the game on my Vista system (many people report such install problems, however). I played the game for many hours without any crashes. A few days after installing the game, however, it crashed on loading a saved game and then refused to load up at all. Allowing my game to connect to the internet/Live seems to have cleared the problem up, but it is still very strange.
  - SecuROM. Parts of your system will be scanned and various aspects checked to see if installation will be allowed. This is a very serious issue for some consumers (especially those that get installation errors), but not a big deal for others.
  
  Fallout 3 is an excellent First-Person Post-Apocalyptic Action Game. Older fans may be extremely disappointed with the changes that have occurred to the series since Fallout 2, and may want to avoid this game if they are looking for a direct update. New players, however, will greatly enjoy the game if they liked Bethesda's previous game, Oblivion, or if they had fun with 2K Game's Bioshock. In my view, Fallout 3 is definitely worth playing - it just isn't the Fallout fans of the franchise might be expecting.
  
  12/18/2007 Update: For those interested, Bethesda Softworks - the creators of Fallout 3 - have released an official worldbuilder/editor for the PC version of the game. It is called the G.E.C.K. (like the item in the game), and can be downloaded from the official Bethsoft website.
  
  
• Highly recommend the CE
  By A1XFXQRSBY17FV on 2008-10-28
  I got my CE from amazon this afternoon, and this is the nicest CE I bought this year comparing to the Fable 2 CE and GTA 4 CE. The CE package has a neat looking lunch box, you could either put it somewhere as a decoration or use it as the storage for small stuff, that Pipboy figure is a fine-maded bubblehead, kinda hilarious; There is also an artbook of 100 pages featuring the concept art in Fallout3, and a DVD of making of the fallout 3; I think the CE is totally worth the price especially now amazon is offering the $10 giftcard.
  
  Now thinking about the game, maybe you would argue that this is just "Oblivion with guns", but this "Oblivion with guns" has more to offer than just "Oblivion with guns", it has a massive story(according the guide i received today, after you completed the game you got tons to do), also the SPECIAL is back! Pipboy is back, i cant help crying after i creating my character and seeing a whole new wasteland, which is far more detailed than the game I played 10 years ago. Maybe you would argue again, Bethesda is incapable of doing top-notch black humor like Black Isle, but the feels of exploring the wasteland is back, here I listed a few pros and cons
  
  Pros
  + build of the whole wasteland
  + mission design
  + user interface
  + storytelling
  + Pipboy
  + tons of things to explore
  
  Cons
  - cant skip the VATS slow motion
  - making choices wont affect whole game too much unlike previous ones
  
  In general, I would recommend this game to those who love Oblivion
  
  
• I cant help crying for ten years waiting
  By A1XFXQRSBY17FV on 2008-10-28
  Maybe you would argue that this is just "Oblivion with guns", but this "Oblivion with guns" has more to offer than just "Oblivion with guns", it has a massive story(according the guide i received today, after you completed the game you got tons to do), also the SPECIAL is back! Pipboy is back, i cant help crying after i creating my character and seeing a whole new wasteland, which is far more detailed than the game I played 10 years ago. Maybe you would argue again, Bethesda is incapable of doing top-notch black humor like Black Isle, but the feels of exploring the wasteland is back, here I listed a few pros and cons
  
  Pros
  + build of the whole wasteland
  + mission design
  + user interface
  + storytelling
  + Pipboy
  + tons of things to explore
  
  Cons
  - cant skip the VATS slow motion
  - making choices wont affect the whole game too much, unlike Fallout1 &2, you have to pay for what you ve chosen
  - no item description........(huge disappointment for some old fans maybe)
  
  In general, I would recommend this game to those who love Oblivion
  
  Update: the system is much more similar to Fallout 2 than to Oblivion, you have skills and perks, and at each leveling up you have 10-20 skill points(depends how much Intelligence you have) to distribute into a variety of skills, then you have perks like Lady Killer or Animal Friend; the system is deep and fun since you could be an agile and slick thief or a strong and stubborn warrior based on how you distribute your points and the initial attributes(S.P.E.C.I.A.L.)
  
  Update 2: for those of you concerning CE, I got my CE from amazon on the releasing date, and this is the nicest CE I bought this year comparing to the Fable 2 CE and GTA 4 CE. The CE package has a neat looking lunch box, you could either put it somewhere as a decoration or use it as the storage for small stuff, that Pipboy figure is a fine-maded bubblehead; There is also an artbook of 100 pages featuring the concept art in Fallout3, and a DVD of making of the fallout 3; I think the CE is totally worth the price especially now amazon is offering the $10 giftcard.
  
  Update 3: this game is not for you if you are looking for a first-person shooter like Far Cry 2 or Call of Duty!!!!! this is a role playing game
  
  
• Fallout 3 CE - Or "How I spent my winter."
  By A2HOEEATIMAZIA on 2008-10-29
  Many people were worried that the Fallout series would not be translated well from a 2D, turn based RPG to a 3D, Strategic First Person Shooter. Others worried that the new IP owner wouldn't get the feeling right.
  
  Fallout 3 was released yesterday, and we can all lay our worries to rest.
  
  From the opening splash screens, to Ron Perlman's narrative, to the interactive birthing of your character, Fallout 3 hits the nail on the head.
  
  Graphically the game is awe inspiring. No, it's no Crysis, but when you first leave the vault and step out into the wasteland you are greeted with a post-apocalyptic vision stretching away for miles in all directions that sends chills down your spine. Yes, some of the textures are lower resolution due to Fallout 3 being developed for consoles as well as PC, but I honestly took a long time to notice since I was so caught up in the game.
  
  Action wise, it's great to be able to run around and shoot like it was a FPS, but it's even better to be able to hit a button and go into V.A.T.S. mode and aim at specific body parts. The first time you make someone's head explode or cause a mutant dog to disintegrate in slow-motion you will appreciate it even more.
  
  Role-playing wise, it's fantastic to not be limited in your choices. You can help people, rob them, or kill them, it's up to you. Steal or buy, run or fight, be nice or be naughty, play the game the way you want to.
  And then go back and play it all over a different way. It also helps immensly that - unlike Far Cry 2 - the voice acting is top notch. You beleive these are people, rather than poor actors reading lines as fast as they can to collect the check and get home. (Not to mention that the cast includes famous actors as well: Ron Perlman and Liam Neeson to mention two.)
  
  As far as the Collector's Edition goes, the Making Of DVD is interesting, the Lunch Box looks cool on my shelf, the book was an interesting flip through, and the Bobble Head is now stuck to the dash of my Jeep. Don't expect to fit much more than a child size lunch in that lunch box, if you actually want to use it, however. (But why would you?)
  
  I highly recommend this game to fans of the originals - like me - and newcomers to the series. You'll be enjoying it for months to come.
  
  
  
• A Big Bunch o' Extras for your Fallout 3 needs!
  By A1C139F5C7Y38P on 2009-01-07
  This review is solely on the extra items included in the Fallout 3 Collector's Edition.
  
  In addition to the Fallout 3 game, this box set includes the following:
  
  (1) The Art of Fallout 3: Conceptual Imagery, Volumes iii-xiii
  (2) Vault-Tec Lunchbox
  (3) Vault-Tec Bobblehead
  (4) VDSG Holotape: Making of Fallout 3, Historical Series (Volume I)
  
  Let's go into each of these items in more detail.
  
  The Art of Fallout 3 - This is a 95-page hardcover booklet with conceptual drawings and artwork that cover several aspects of the game, with artist's notes included.
  
  Pages 4-12: Pre-Production - Includes sketches of cities such as D.C., Rivet City, Project Purity, Wasteland, and Paradise Falls.
  Pages 14-16: Pip-Boy - This section shows several concept sketches of the Pip-Boy device.
  Pages 17-32: Costume Design - Here we see designs for wastelanders, raiders, slavers, merchants, Vault suits, and more - see how 50's brand clothing gets a post-holocaust treatment.
  Pages 33-44: Creatures - Brahmin cows? Bloat flies? Deathclaws? They're all here, in their irradiated glory.
  Pages 45-52: Robots - From the Protectron to Liberty Prime, every robot and their arsenal make an appearance.
  Pages 53-60: Weapons - This section shows the more exotic and homemade weaponry of Fallout 3 with intricate detail.
  Pages 61-70: Hardware - Everything from fission-powered automobiles to stainless steel bomb-protected buildings gets a sketch in this section.
  Pages 71-90: The World - Several of the key locations, environments and structures are reviewed here.
  Pages 91-95: Storyboards - Here, we see the storyboard sequence for the intro movie and a small battle segment.
  
  The Vault-Tec Lunchbox - There's no shortage of artwork here. The top has the Vault-Tec mascot leading an exodus into a mountainside vault, the sides have S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute pictures, and the bottom shows an idyllic family picnic with the mascot reminding everyone to "Prepare for the Future".
  
  The Vault-Tec Bobblehead - I must confess; I was a little disappointed at first. While the bobblehead was cute, the base had come off during delivery, but it was nothing a little super-glue couldn't fix.
  
  Finally, the Making of Fallout 3 video.
  
  The main video is 39 minutes long, made up of 4 sections:
  
  (1) Fallout 101
  (2) Retro-Futurism
  (3) Duck & Cover
  (4) The Art of Noise
  
  Throughout the video, we get to hear from the following people, who offer a deeper and richer understanding of the time and effort that went into making Fallout 3:
  
  Todd Howard - Game Director
  Emil Pagliarulo - Lead Tester & Writer
  Gavin Carter - Lead Producer
  Steve Meister - Lead Programmer
  Joel Burgess - Lead Level Designer
  Istvan Pely - Lead Artist
  Adam Adamowicz - Concept Artist
  Pete Hines - Project Manager
  Ashley Cheng - Production Designer
  Grant Struthers - Special Effects & Gore (oh yes, that's his official department!)
  Mark E. Lampert - Audio Director
  Liam Neeson - "Dad"
  Malcom McDowell - "President Eden"
  
  The Special Features Menu offers the following choices:
  
  (1) Official Fallout 3 Trailer
  (2) Teaser Trailer for Fallout 3
  (3) Poster Art - includes 8 pictures
  (4) Concept Art - includes 35 pictures from the Art of Fallout 3.
  
  For the hearing impaired, there are 5 language choices for the subtitles.
  
  And what's the icing on the cake? When you use the Pop-Up Menu option on your Blu-Ray player, it opens in a Pip-Boy window!
  
  There's a lot to love with this edition. If you like the game and want to know as much as you can about the creation, development and production process, you'll be in hog heaven with the Making of Fallout 3 DVD. For the aspiring artist, the Art of Fallout 3 is simply amazing to look at and offers a unique glimpse into the process of taking retro-50's concepts and projecting them 200 years into the future. The other extras are purely for the collectors - but if you'd like to be the envy of your classmates with a Vault-Tec lunchbox, or decorate your cubicle with a Vault-Tec bobblehead, go for it!
  
  Now, the only difference between this edition and the Fallout 3: Amazon.com Exclusive Survival Edition is the Pip-Boy clock. I would NOT recommend buying that package because there are numerous reports of the Pip-Boy clock malfunctioning. I personally haven't had any trouble, but several people have noted the low battery life.
  
  Dial 888-4VAULT-TEC to reserve a spot for your family: operators are standing by!
  
  
• IT'S A BRAND NEW POSTAPOCALYPTIC DAWN
  By A74TA8X5YQ7NE on 2008-10-28
  I am old enough to have played the original game when it first came out in 1997. I was a great fan of the series that followed and, thus, was very eager to get my hands on this latest installment. In a short sentence: FALLOUT-3 is A DREAM COME TRUE!
  
  It is a cRPG game in which the player can alternate between the First and Third person perspective roaming a world comparable in size with OBLIVION. The action has moved from Vault 13 and Southern California to Vault 101 and Washington, D.C. and the story brakes away from the previous bloodlines. However, the atmosphere of the original has been maintained and its scents sharpened: veterans will find it fitting like and old glove - whereas the new gamers are in store for a bag of pleasant surprises.
  
  The graphics are wonderful, the guns detailed and the environments highly interactive. Short of a screenshot, imagine what would HalfLife-2 would look if released today. And similar to HL2, FALLOUT-3 does not require an...ubercomputer to run smoothly. Once you see a NPC move though, you understand where the corners were cut.
  
  Character customization is carried out in great style using the new and improved PIP-BOY at the beginning. You exit the vault and the harsh reality of a world that barely survived annihilation slaps you on the face. Adapt or perish.
  
  The main storyline is there to be followed but FALLOUT-3 offers the greatest number of alternative choices I have ever encountered in a game! There is always a great number of paths to follow in order to achieve any goal - but every choice comes with a consequences tag. This is common feature of most classic cRPGs but in FALLOUT-3 I saw it implemented like never before. If nothing else, this sends replayability through the roof.
  
  Side-quests offer little besides distraction and experience points (XP) to be spend on character improvement. XP are gained solely by completing quests, emerging victorious from fights, finding locations, picking locks and hacking terminals - and they are not limited by the action they were earned. Leveling up is based on 7 basic attributes [Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck - acronym?;)] that, in turn, affect your (13) specific skills. Since leveling up is capped at Level-20, the game designers wanted to encourage replaying the game. On the other hand, it also means that your character will never realize its full potential (in case you are wondering why I withheld a star from FUN, that's the second half of it).
  
  The game is violent and gory but well within tasteful limits. Not so with the language - but it is tradeoff with realism. In a radioactive world, Sunday-school niceties are bound to go out the window.
  What deserves a special mention is V.A.T.S. (:Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which opens new vistas in cRPG design. It is an ingenious system which lets you pause the game and target specific body parts of your opponents. The success of your attack still depends on your skills but the end effect is cinematic and amazing (remember SWORDFISH?).
  
  After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the LimitedInstallation-defective EA releases), this seems like a postapocalyptic dawn indeed! BETHESDA decided to listen to the gaming community and did NOT cripple this beautiful game with any idiotic DRM scheme. Inputting a serial number and a DVD-check is more than reasonable.
  The publishers of FALLOUT-3 understand that there is a fine balance between "protecting the product" and..."insulting your own customers". And they obviously view respect as the two way street that it is - and for this they deserve our support: buy this game, today.
  
  Voting with our wallets is the only argument the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore. And it is about time to cast some well deserved positive votes.
  
  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
  
  
• Like Oblivion, only bigger, and with more stuff to do
  By AQUVTQFFXP4AC on 2008-11-17
  I didn't write a review for Oblivion because there were hundreds of decent enough reviews that encapsulated my experience. I saw no need to add to the "ALSO, I LIKED IT, TOO, AS WELL" crowd without any negative comments worth mentioning.
  
  The same dealy applies to Fallout 3, yet because of the sheer size and scope of it compared to Oblivion, I can be bothered to put both positives and negatives together into a decent enough review.
  
  For note, I have never played any of the previous Fallout games, and showed no interest in them prior to this.
  
  Also, I'll be dropping the name "Yahtzee" a bit, referring to video game reviewer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw and his video reviews for The Escapist magazine.
  
  Positive:
  
  -The world is indeed tremendous, and compared to Oblivion, which to Yahtzee was merely a square mile of English countryside multiplied again and again with wolves and bandits added, this world is simply a gaping epic story in itself to look at. Ten hours into the game, I still can't get over stopping and staring at the horizon, and knowing that This is the way Washington D.C., has looked for two hundred years! Being a historian, this trapped me in a quantam vortex of awesome and pee-pants.
  
  -The V.A.T.S. targeting system, which has slow-motion angle shots for combat scenes. While Yahtzee mentioned that it looked "groovy pants", he also pointed out that because it's basically the same thing every time you use it, it would gradually just become "pants". For me at least, it hasn't yet become pants, after ten hours of play.
  
  -Realistic gore! The M rating is put to use here, in the form of excessive violence. While nowhere near the sort of explicit body explosions of something like "Rambo", I never get tired of seeing a point-blank gunshot to someone's head have a chance of blowing their head up in a mess of blood, bone, and mushy meat fragments. Nor do I tire of crippling someone's arm and seeing their gun fly out of their hand, or firing at someone's limb enough times to dismember them, or to sever their head from their body by utterly destroying their neck with bullets.
  
  -Insanely top-notch graphics for a game of this sheer size.
  
  -Play as male or female, with dialogue options altering to fit your gender (ie, you'll get compliments as to how much you look like your mother if you're female, or how beautiful you are, or how much of a bitch you are for trying to steal from them).
  
  -Genuinely interesting story that pans itself out gradually.
  
  -Interactive people all around, including Ghouls who are nice to you (there's even an implied lesbian Ghoul couple who run a hotel in the Underworld)
  
  
  I'm sure there's plenty more great things to be said, but I can't think of any major ones to speak of and so I'll have to move on to the bad.
  
  Negatives:
  
  -I can't vouch for male characters just yet, but the customizable options for females is an utter mess. Faces are disgusting lumps of blotchy, rugged, seemingly acne-scarred messes (which considering that the character isn't raised in the Wasteland, but rather in the highly clean and stable environment of Vault 101, is a curiosity), and for some odd reason, every pre-set and color option always ends up with the same result---the women have 5 o'clock shadow on their upper lip, and around their chins.
  
  None of the other in-game women suffer from these sort of options, managing to look like actual women, whereas your character is forced to look like a pre-op transsexual without a long, long time spent into wrestling with dials and sliders which, like Oblivion, are connected to one another, making it hell to mold the flesh with one slider without every other slider moving on its own to screw up your changes.
  
  -The game is an action/adventure RPG, but it's still an RPG, so damage both taken and delivered tends to border on the ridiculous, as in one scene I had a pistol and used the V.A.T.S. system to put three bullets into a human opponent's head, and not only did they not die, but they were still standing, and continued to beat me half to death with a baseball bat until I had to punch them to kill them dead.
  
  -Occasional game freezes.
  
  -The instant-transport system from Oblivion is back, which has both good and bad implications in that you can easily move back and forth from places without spending hours wandering around the ruins, but it's done without any consequence to time or health or fatigue anything in between, so you can just teleport from place to place as much as you want as quickly as your game will load.
  
  -As Yahtzee mentioned as the biggest problem with Oblivion's immersion failure, there is a limited number of voice actors for the Ghouls. I can thankfully say that unlike Oblivion, not everyone has the same two voice actors, but with the Ghouls in particular, there are quite literally only two voice actors, one male and one female, and they don't even bother changing up their voices when playing the Ghouls. As such, every Ghoul you speak to of a certain gender will sound exactly like one another.
  
  -There are some audio tapes/files in the "Notes" section of your Pip-Boy (such as your father's personal diary entries and such) which are almost completely inaudible due to the low sound mixed with the poor recording quality. It's only by sheer luck, determination, strain, and high volume, that I've managed to understand half of what is said in these diary entries.
  
  
• WOW...Even Better Than I Hoped
  By A3MLVY7EPTA6SU on 2008-11-04
  First, understand my bias. I'm a fast-twitch FPS fan who never had much joy with RPGs (unless it stood for Rocket Propelled Grenades). I just couldn't get excited about the spells, wizards and magic which dominate the genre. But after about 20 hours of play, this game may have changed my mind. It's not a traditional FPS and it's not a traditional RPG.
  
  1)It's a polished, complete piece of work, especially compared to alternative PC games in 2008.
  There are a few bugs here and there, but there is an overwhelming sense that Bethesda actually tested the game and outside people actually played the game before it was pronounced ready to ship.
  
  2)The replay value is huge.
  The variety of paths and complexity of open world experiences tell me I'm going to spend at least a hundred hours with this.
  
  3)It's configuration friendly.
  I have a rig that can smoke most fast-twitch PC games out there, but you don't need that level of investment to enjoy this game. It's cool to have a new $50 game come out that doesn't expect people to spend $500 on hardware just to enjoy it.
  
  4)The DRM is reasonable. (Said while holding nose and grimacing)
  I have nothing good to say about DRM. Software DRM remains totally ineffective against piracy. It only hurts honest people. Bethesda has made this DRM very light. You need to have the DVD in the drive when you install it, but there is no on-line activation and no requirement to have the DVD in the drive when you play. No DRM would be better, but I can live with this.
  
  5)It doesn't feel like a console game tweaked for the PC
  Except for a couple of changes around key bindings (like being able to bind keys to mouse wheel movements), it feels like the PC experience was part of the design from the start.
  
  That said, I urge you to run...not walk...to your shopping cart and buy this game today...not tomorrow...do it today...click it right now. Once it arrives, you will lose sleep and your family may complain when you say, "just a couple more minutes", but you are in for an immersive experience with what I think is the best PC game of 2008 and one of the best ones I have seen in a long time. Props to Bethesda for a job well done.
  
  
  
  
• A great game, but it fizzles out by the end
  By A1ITCVZ46MUB3A on 2009-02-26
  This game was wonderful, I would have considered this an easy 5 star game within the first 20 hours of gameplay, but as I continued on, I began to realize the game is lacking in many departments.
  
  Gameplay: The game is, first and foremost, an RPG. It does this well, from the unique VATS system, to the SPECIAL stats distribution, the game, despite appearing as an First Person Shooter, has the feel of an RPG game. Attacking opponents have HP. You can disable their weapons, injure their extremities, or just go for a headshot, which can be performed in a slow motion cinematic sequence which often shows lots of guts and gore. Sometime it shows you shooting, sometimes it shows the bullet flying, sometimes it shows your opponent disintegrating. Some people have reported getting bored of this sequence, which you may choose to perform on most of your enemies, since shooting the old fashion way can lead to a lot of wasted ammo. I have never really gotten bored of it, and I take it in stride, just like the end credits at the end of a random encounter in the old Final Fantasy video games.
  
  Graphics and Glitches: Graphics of this game are suburb. This game, I should warn, is incredibly gory, consisting of grotesque scenes of mutilation, blood, body parts, carcasses, torture, drugs, and prostitution. The language is bad to, as bad as it can get, so if that is something that would bother you, stay away from this game. Yes, I understand M ratings, but there is M ratings like Gears of War, where you got blood and can cut your alien enemies in half, and then you have this, human beings being savagely murdered, and their carcasses strung up on hooks. Anyway, the VATS kills are incredible, the graphics show at the far edges of the screen, you can literally see a tower from a 15 minutes walk away, as opposed to some games love of fogging out the area in front of you. Absolutely beautiful game, you know, in that dreary depressing post apocalyptic kind of way. The game does have many glitches; many of which force you to reload from a previous game cause you can't get out of it. Typically, the errors are getting stuck, you jump somewhere, and gt stuck, you fall somewhere, and get stuck, and my personal favorite, fawkes( your giant traveling companion) stands in front of the door entrance and won't move.
  
  Music: The game really only delivers music via 2 radio stations (and a third unlockable one) One plays old patriotic music, the other play 50s and 40s music, nothing famous or popular. It is kind of lacking, Fallout makers really needed to step up and add a couple more music stations, or quests to increase the music selection, perhaps and in game CD player, and you find CDs around the world, or mp3 player if you wanted to be more update, with mp3s that you can download from computer terminals, you could even create your own playlists, but a man can dream, can't he?
  
  Story: The story was pretty good, if not pretty short. This is where I felt the game fizzled, Just as the story line was starting to go somewhere, the story ended, in a rather crappy way. Don't get me wrong, the climax was amazing, epic, and hilarious, but the game just ends without too much warning, and gives you no ability to continue to play, which it makes kind of impossible with the way it ends. They really should have put more thought in to ending the game in a manner in which you can continue on to play, and see people praise you in the aftermath, and find out how their lives are after all the stuff you have done for them. The 200+ endings is true, but kind of an embilishment. The ending is pictures complete with narration, what you did effects what pictures you see and what narration you get. The ending is in 4-6 parts, with 2-3 possible outcomes (such as good vs bad vs neutral karma effects 1 part), thus you have 2^6 or 3^6 or whatever, which gets you your many many endings, but it won't seem like it to you, and most anybody should not waste their time to see anymore that the basic big 2, bad or good.
  
  The Failure: So I teased you with the reasons to why it is a measly 3 stars. In truth, Fallout 3 is lacking. The greatest things it is lacking in is reason. Past level 10, every enemy falls down easily. I had massive amount of caps, the loose story lines of the side quests where barely enough to keep me playing. Any new area I visit just doesn't matter, you go their, find ammo (sorry got tons), find healing supplies (72 stimpacks and counting), find money( already got 15,000 caps I don't know what to do with) and gain experience (ok I like experience, but level 20 is not that far away). I would run to any city I could, sell what I could, which as I started to get laser rifles and plasma rifles, was never really worth it, unless I wanted to buy a bunch of junk I don't need. The game just lost it's edge. There are no super hard ultimate weapons to defeat (in fact, the hardest enemy in the game I have fought thus far is fawkes, and he is on my side), there really are no bosses at all in the game except the behemeths, which don't really get you much (although I hear anchorage dc has a bosslike enemy.) None of the armor acquired from side missions is particularly better than what you get from following the main story line, the "special" weapons are only slightly better than their normal counterparts, and don't really add anything to the game. By adding things to the game, for example, you could get a grenade launcher, which allows you to shoot frag grenades more accurately at a longer distance, upgrades that can improve your weapon; such as attaching a silencer to the weapon of your choice, artificially increasing a weapons power or efficiency, or given it more stats, such as poison enemies. They also needed to introduce elemental damage, in my opinion, so there is actual reason to pick one weapon over another. A quest to find a weapon that does not wear down would be cool, or, you know, just more. Also with perks, maybe you should have special harder to get perks that actually alter the dynamics of the game, so that upon getting them, you can have fun playing a little differently, like something that lets you jump higher, which would be required to get to certain other areas in the game.
  
  Formations: Your followers in this game are also pretty crappy. While potentially powerful and useful, you can't give them orders in the heat of battle, which sucks. Also, they get in your way, and can potentially block your ability to move somewhere. They continually repeat the same pieces of dialogue over and over again, which is kind of annoying, and their presence creates several continuity errors in the story, such as you being known as the lone wanderer and for those of you who know the ending, I mean, seriously, how stupid is that?
  
  Finishing Up: So in general, I did love the game. But once you become powerful enough that the challenge is gone, which occurs around level 10-12 if you do a couple side missions ad end up with a special weapon or 2, there is little to really keep you interested, unless you just LOVE exploring, the game just doesn't offer the incentive to continue playing. I also must mention the lack of minigames. You have the computer hacking game, and the lockpick thing which is 10 times easier than oblivion and thank you for that. I mean, they should allow you to play pool, maybe get an old arcade galliga shooter or pacman up and running, or other mini games that potentially reward you with stuff and maybe gamerscore points. The stuff does get kind of repetitive, go to new place, pick up every gun, ammo, skill book, and other useful items you find, kill every bady, hack every terminal, pick every lock, sell your items, unload your inventory, rinse and repeat. The game was great, however the more I played, the more I realized I just needed more.
  
  Update:
  
  I have played 4 of the 5 expansion packs. Several of the packs actually offer me a challenge. When you lose all your equipment in The Pitt, it was incredibly fun for a couple of hours. Mothership Zeta offers a couple of alternate styles of gameplay that break up the monotomy such as controlling a ship and blowing aliens up by touching buttons. Broken Steel naturally fixes the end game issues and level cap problem. At level 30, Point Lookout has given me enough challenge that I am considering lowering the difficulty level off of hard. Had this game came with these expansion packs (say a game of year edition that will eventually come out) I would consider it a 4 star game.
  
  My BIGGEST problem with the game, which I did not mention in my review, and will restrict me from giving this game five stars, is the fact that the game centers around caps. Half the decisions you make are to earn caps. The only advantage of being bad is to get caps, and 90% of your motivation is for more caps, yet they serve virtually no purpose, since you will find so much ammo, stim packs, and other random junk that you will never need to spend your caps after 5 hours of gameplay. They need to throw in some ultra unique weapons that cost 10,000 caps, buy properties in other cities (there is an empty room in rivet city that would have been so easy to program into a room you could purchase), buy mininukes, so I don't feel bad every time I use the incredibly limited supply, even if they cost 1000 caps a nuke, I have plenty of caps sitting around, and trading my growing supply of plasma rifles for mininukes would be great. Buy vehicles, even if it costs 20,000 caps, what else am I using them for? So if they fixed that problem, I would bump the score up a star, and with the expansion packs included (free not $50 more), I bump it up another star, so that is what it takes to reach 5 stars in my book.
  
  
  
  
  
• Dark, sarcastic, humorous, worth playing, not a revolutionary leap in gaming
  By ADLVFFE4VBT8 on 2008-11-27
  I wouldn't call myself 'a gamer' but it just happens that I played the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition last year and I enjoyed it immensely. Once there was little left to explore in the world of Cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles got fully mapped and pacified the wait began for Fallout 3. I am still hoping for a 'Scrolls of the Elders V' installment some day but, Fallout was what was in the pipeline so all I could do was hope for something wonderful to come out from the geniuses at Bethesda. I will first list my impressions of the game, so far.
  
  The game engine:
  -----------------
  Technically, Fallout 3 inherits a lot from Oblivion. Sure, the landscape is very different but you can do in Fallout just about the kind of things that you could do in Oblivion: walk, run, be stealthy, pick up things, drop them, throw missiles, engage in hand to hand combat, have conversations with the inhabitants and pick up your replies from a a list of possible answers, use potions to heal, be nice to other people and trade or make friends or be nasty and steal and so on. Like in Oblivion, you can fast-travel to locations you've discovered for as long as enemies aren't too close, you can sleep in a bed to regain your strength and heal you wounds, you can get sick and your sickness can be cured. Like in Oblivion, the game can be a series of quests or you can walk the land and live off the land if you don't feel like doing what others ask you to do. You develop certain skills but the skills engine is a bit different - you can pick the skills you wish to develop as you level up and, unlike Oblivion, you won't become a better athlete if you keep jumping up and down one thousand times.
  
  New in Fallout is the V.A.T.S. system that allows you to stop time and pick up specific body parts to hit when in combat. It's not so bad and, from time to time, you get to see pretty good slow-motion shots of your enemy's head exploding, jets of dark blood coming out of his neck. It's fun and it's preferable to real time shooting when you're a little short on ammo.
  
  The Pip-Boy device is nice but it's just a streamlined version of any RPG's status/inventory facility. It does allow you to listen to the radio but, after a little playing with the radio on, I learned that listening to the radio while on a mission can be VERY dangerous to your character's health as you can't hear the bad guys approaching and they CAN hear you, loud and clear, from quite a distance.
  
  Building your character:
  -----------------
  Also like in Oblivion, your past actions have future consequences and this begins shortly after your 'birth'. You have the ability to design your good looks, move 'points' around to enhance or diminish certain attributes, pick 'perks' and distribute experience points as you level up. Again, like in Oblivion, your skills can be enhanced by reading 'skills books' and you can be trained if you find someone willing to do it.
  
  The story line:
  -----------------
  It's quite simple and it's basically 'find your daddy', following some disturbance inside the completely insulated 'vault' where you spent your entire life up to that point. Your father breaks out and your first quest is for you to escape as well and then try to figure out the world outside. Well... it's not exactly pretty. A couple hundred years post nuclear Armageddon, people in the Washington, D.C. area struggle to survive and stay away from mutants, bandits, crazies or political opportunists. The only way to gather information about your father is to do others small favors in exchange for information and you need to keep yourself healthy, fit and well-armed while at it. You fight the bad guys and, depending on what you want your character to be like, you could do bad things to the 'good' people too but, remember, there's a price to pay for everything.
  
  The art:
  -----------------
  The word is a dull-brown-gray, slightly cartoonish version of post-nuclear D.C. You will recognize some of the 'old' buildings: the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Air and Space Museum. You will encounter quite a variety of human characters and, up to this point, I've been interacting with a relatively large number of 'monsters', ranging from two-headed cows and fire-spewing ants to giant and relatively hard to kill mutants.
  
  The acting:
  -----------------
  The voices are good but, of course, this is a game and all spoken dialog is pre-recorded and, pretty soon, you will notice that characters will keep saying the same thing, over and over. Their closeup shots of their faces are not as bad as what you had in Oblivion but, let's say that there is some room for improvement in this area. The pre-release word was that the Fallout characters were a lot more intelligent than Oblivion's. Maybe they are but most characters' phrases portfolio is not that vast and you can have encounters where one grateful character stops you to offer you profuse thanks and some small token of appreciation for what you've done and, 5 seconds after she says goodbye, if you try to talk to her again all you get is a 'leave me alone' or 'get lost' reply.
  
  The several milestone encounters - with the head of the 'family', with Three Dog, with Dr. Lee are quite well acted.
  
  The monsters you fight are more intelligent than Oblivion's. The more humanoid ones are capable of attacking, retreating when wounded (only to come back at you later), working together toward your defeat.
  
  The bugs:
  -----------------
  And, not, I'm not talking about the fire ants. There are a few. There is the much-discussed G.O.A.T. exam glitch where you end up waiting forever for the examiner to hand you the exam papers - and I had to restart the game because of that. Then, on a couple of occasions, I found myself trapped and unable to move (load a previous save) or, after sitting on a bench, the world around turned very, very strange and the 'reload' was the only way out of that, I've met an invisible trader that I could hear but he wasn't anywhere around but, somehow, I was able to pass through his beast of burden. All minor bugs, except for the G.O.A.T. glitch.
  
  Game's complexity:
  -----------------
  I can see how not everyone will agree but I found Oblivion a much more complex world. There are more attributes to tweak in Oblivion, you can pick from several races, join guilds, train and develop many skills, explore dozens of dungeons, forts, ruins, visit many villages, towns and cities, interact with more characters, operate on several realms but maybe, after only 20 hours or so of Fallout (level 7) I've only scratched the surface and, if that's the case, I will come back to this review and correct it.
  
  The humor:
  -----------------
  There's as lot of it in Fallout. A lot of it is visual, three Stooges-like where you slap your enemies around and see their body parts flying. There is also some very subtle and not so subtle political humor, which I found very fascinating and quite refreshing. And, of course, it's the way characters seem to relate and react to their sordid physical surroundings which could seem 'funny' to us, since we are not 7th or 8th generation inhabitants of the post-nuclear wastelands.
  
  Overall impression and rating:
  -----------------
  I like playing Fallout but mostly because Elders Scrolls V doesn't exist. It's a good, solid game with some improvements over Oblivion but, as far as I can see, lacking a lot of innovation. It's like the big automakers developing a standard chassis and then building all kinds of different models on it. Oblivion and Fallout are both built on the same chassis and it shows - the colors and the shapes may be different and there may be different options but, basically, deep down, they are family.
  
  Compared to Oblivion, Fallout's, positive improvements are its voice acting, there's more humor, the V.A.T.S. system is a new innovation. On the lacking side, the Oblivion is a vast, colorful, hugely complex world compared to which Fallout's feels almost claustrophobic.
  
  I am giving Fallout 3 a 4-star rating (it's really 3.5 rounded up) and I would recommend it as a 'buy' for giving us an interesting story told with more or less the same old tools when, one assumes, much better ones could have been developed.
  ________________________________
  Dec. 27 Update:
  
  SAVE YOUR GAME OFTEN AND KEEP MANY SAVES.
  
  It turns out, the whole adventure can end quite abruptly and unexpectedly. And I'm not talking about you being killed, that is recoverable. I am talking about the entire game ending and, if you don't have a good save, the end is irreversible - no spoilers from me :). Once it ends, it's over so, if you really want to explore more of the Fallout world, your only option is to go to a save prior to a chain of events that would place you on a course that's impossible to change and leads to what I believe it's a premature end. In my case, I had just advanced to level 14 and I was about 80-90 hours into the game when I reached that end. Thankfully, I DID have many prior saves so I am now, that my character is finally well armed and armored, curiously exploring the landscape and engaging in quests that I would have otherwise missed.
  
  I can't help but going back to Oblivion. It took a lot longer to complete the main story line in Oblivion and IT, in fact had THREE separate 'main' story lines (Oblivion proper, Shivering Isles and the Knights of the Nine) on the Game of the Year edition). I am now crossing some 'tees' and dotting some 'eyes' in Fallout but, overall, it's a lesser, shallower, smaller universe.
  
  
• Rejoice, both old and new CRPG fans, and prepare for the future
  By A8RGWWCC1PVMQ on 2008-10-30
  War never changes but `Fallout' has, for the better.
  
  What `Bethesda Softworks' has created here is something more than just a video game of the year in the days of pseudo-journalism bombarded by the floods of video game magazines that has more commercials than actual substance, websites plagued by flaming fanboys armed to the teeth with ignorance beyond repair, big corporations running rampant trying to take our hard-earned money on a regular basis for what used to be free of hassle hobby without creating anything of substance, ...I could go on and on. The landscape of the video game has changed drastically for the worse during the past decade. It's now a much bigger industry than the movie industry. The production cost has increased astronomically, in parts due to publishers going overboard with the marketing to build the hype rather than developers speak for themselves with quality of games. Generally for sixty dollars, you get to play around 5-12 hours single player campaign on console. The media keep chanting mantra of `Multiplayer' and `Online' but that's a copout to squeeze more out of bare minimum. Some games even require you to pay additional money for some features in the very game you paid to play for these days. What happened to the good old days when you build your own PC, install your game without any installation limit, and just enjoy your game at your own leisure for a long long time? Well, now you can take the nostalgic trip back into the good ol' time once again with a brand new game that features all the advantages of the current technology. Bethesda has always focused on making single player only game that offers you so many different ways for players to choose and play. And the contents of the game are once again gigantic as any of TES series.
  
  Who better than Bethesda, the maker of the renowned TES series to pick up the torch where `Fallout' series, two of the most nonlinear open-ended RPG ever created, left off?
  `Bethesda Softworks', the new SSI of the decade, the Interplay / Black Isle / Troika Trinity of the 21st century, has now become a formidable CRPG game studio, and made a successful and proven blueprint for the future TES series, the very game that started the long and quite often difficult journey for the studio to obtain the holy grail of CRPG.
  
  The first and second TES `Arena' and `Daggerfall', impossibly gigantic-humongous sandbox RPG even by today's standard, were so ambitious in a time when technology was not even available. It was a tremendous undertaking and ultimately noble failures of sort in terms of the end result compared to the goal they set out to achieve. They were also so ridden with so much bugs, `Daggerfall' was actually dubbed as `Buggerfall'. After numerous patches, Bethesda abandoned the second game altogether forever. Any other game studio would have gone under at that point, but `Bethesda Softworks' was acquired by a media mogul `Zanimax', which directly results in, for all intents and purpose, unlimited resources. The studio no longer has to worry about the financial part of the game making, solely concentrate on making game. After couple of TES spin-offs `Battlespire' and `Redguard', Bethesda released the third entry `Morrowind' and its two expansion packs `Tribunal' and `Bloodmoon'. For CRPG stand point of view, it was bona fide runaway hit. Although shrunken in scale of the landmass, everything was individually created with more depth than its predecessors and it was at this point we witnessed not just a great video game but the glimpse of possibility of the future in virtual reality. Bethesda fixed many problems that plagued `Arena' and `Daggerfall' and redeemed itself.
  
  The fourth entry, `Oblivion' proved to be something more than what was expected. Of course it was even bigger financial success than `Morrowind', but more importantly it is the game that paved the way for this game I am about to review, `Fallout 3'.
  
  I can already hear some of the die-hard old school fans crying foul for ruining their beloved game. Hey, I too am an old school who owns just about every single PC games one way or another, especially CRPG. And I loved first two. What is amazing about the game is, despite the fact this is not a direct sequel related to any previous storyline, it really feels like a sequel to the seminal game. Wasteland, Vault-Tec, dark blue Vault uniform, brotherhood of steel, dogmeat, pip-boy right down to the cheesy green monochrome color, every iconic element all return. Character creation, perks, karma, NPC interaction, quest progress, you feel instantly home if you ever played any previous entry. Although more people will play this game as a FPS when it comes to combat, VATS is back too. Remember anything you want to do in the previous games, you must have enough action point? Anytime during combat, you can pause to queue up your action using action point. You can play as a real-time action FPS or more cinematic battle using your action point. However, `Fallout 3' being RPG, your shooting skill is directly related with your stats, so playing this game like any conventional FPS is not the ideal approach, especially when your character is at a lower level. To Bethesda's credit, the kinetic feeling of FPS is nicely incorporated here. Once your stats are improved, you can play like FPS to a certain degree. Profanity, dark humors, violence, explosion, dismemberment, you name it, just about all the atmospheric quality of the previous entries is back. It is a perfect jump from 2D to 3D that rivals Zelda, Metroid, and MGS.
  
  Part of the reason Bethesda was able to capture just about everything from the previous entries, beside its passion for the genre and obviously talented team at their disposal, is that classic `Fallout' entries were so ahead of its time, and shares so many aspects Bethesda has been trying for since the inception of TES. Voice-acting all the dialogue in 1st person interface was pretty much unprecedented at the time, the feat few even dared to achieve long after 1997.
  
  There are fewer NPCs in this game than `Oblivion' but they are governed by the improved version of Radiant A.I, bringing out more depth and realism. Each NPC offers you more detail conversation choices and branching options this time. Different conversation choices result in different reactions. Your conversation and action will result in many different endings in this game. Furthermore, you will get some extra conversation options or even totally different ones depending on your karma, perks, and skills. This was very possible in `Oblivion' too as some of the user mods have proven, but they had to tone it down due to its immense scope. `Fallout 3' was created by slightly modified and more refined version of TES construction set. Although you have less NPCs, there are plenty of hostile humanoids and creatures for you to kill in a game world slightly smaller (approx. 15 square mile) than `Cyrodiil' (16 square mile) but even more jam-packed with places to go and things to do.
  
  Environment comes into play much more than it was in `Oblivion', now fully utilizing havoc engine because of various projectile, explosive and range weapons. Many things in environment are destructible.
  
  Character animation is smoother, little more fluid and varied than `Oblivion'. I guess various excellent animation mods released by fans for `Oblivion' using TES construction set gave them better ideas about how they should handle animation.
  
  You can play in either 1st person or 3rd person view, but just like `Oblivion', 3rd person view is not as effective as 1st person. It's just a mere vanity mode like `Oblivion'.
  
  The game starts like `Oblivion'. You create your character anyway you see pleased with all the traits, sex, looks, go through tutorial while you are told about your main quest. This initial tutorial section is arguably the most memorable tutorial presented in any game in the history. Right before you leave the underground lair, you are given another chance to fix your character traits, then to the great wide open. The same feeling you get when you first came out from the prison dungeon in `Oblivion'.
  
  One thing that strikes me is that just like the previous games, you are not bound by the main quest if you can call it. Once you step outside the vault, you are to do whatever you like to do. The main quest to locate your lost father is so much less immediate than the typical whole world going to perish main quest variations from other RPGs. But this is the very reason the game feels so much more open-ended than every other CRPGs ever released barring `TES' series. Since leveling is governed by experience points, the points you gain and use are limited and the game ends upon completion of the main quest, you cannot possibly experience everything by playing just once. This is perhaps the strongest point of this game. Many games claimed to be non-linear, open-ended CRPG in the past, but very few actually delivered and the rest were merely linear but partially free-formed games like `Mass Effect' or `Fable'.
  
  I've already read many posts about bugs and instability of the game along with `secuROM' issue. To the best of my knowledge, I installed this game with Internet disconnected. I've encountered a few issues with later versions of `secuROM' before but nothing so far and I have `Nero Ultra 9' installed on my PC. No installation problem and no bugs encountered so far into 15 hours. There's no key code that needs to be entered, no Internet connection required, and no installation limit. Instead of using 'fallout launcher', use 'fallout.exe' to install your game. No secuROM, no DVD required once installed. My now ancient, 6 years old customized PC with 3 GHz P4 HT with 2 GB of RAM and NVIDIA 7800 GS runs this game surprisingly well with high setting and the game runs quite well most of the time both indoor and outdoor. The loading time is on par with `Oblivion'. I get some frame rate stutters during combat with multiple foes but using VATS really offset the problem. I cannot run this game very well with the ultra high setting, everything maxed up. It stutters too much with frame rate dipping well below 10. But high setting is more than enough for my old PC. Any graphic card below 7800 series (even 7600, 7300 are not ideal) and less than 2 GB of RAM is definitely not recommended. Minimum system requirement is barely good enough for medium to low setting.
  
  Fallout 3 can appeal to many different groups of gamers, old school CRPG fans, both `Oblivion' fans and classic `Fallout' fans all alike, but if you are fast-paced FPS fans, you might be disappointed. Casual gamers will be overwhelmed at first with mountains of contents but Bethesda did wonderful job to make it easier to follow the quest line but it's done in subtler way than `Oblivion' due to monochromic nature of `Pip-Boy' screen so hard-core fans won't be bothered.
  
  This is not a game made by programmers and art designers who work for the big company set out to make a profitable project rather than great game. This is a labor of love created out of passion for the genre by same old school CRPG geeks like you and I, headed by Todd Howards, who knows why people play CRPG, set out to one day make a truly living, breathing virtual world.
  
  Morrowind, Oblivion, and now Fallout 3, Bethesda scored a hat trick. I am disappointed that no construction set for the PC version has been released at this time. TES series became what they became partly because of the construction sets, which were utilized by hordes of dedicated fans to create tons of mods. TES has arguably the most dedicated fan support for any game out there ever with several thousand mods already available for free download. If you don't like something about the game, chances are, you can find some mod to fix it. If you ran out of quest, you can have plenty more. Bethesda diligently listens to the fans who made `Bethesda' who they are now at the official forum. I hope they soon release the construction set for `Fallout 3'.
  
  But even without the construction set available yet, this is not a game you breeze through for a few hours, have blast with your cronies, claim it as the best game ever, then discard for good never to touch it again and move on to the next hype and repeat. Minimum 100 is a given as in all Bethesda games or old school CRPG for that matter. Pete Hines claims that it has 200 different ending. If that is really the case, then I don't think I'll ever see even half of them, but so good to have such freedom and choice.
  
  `Fallout 3' combines the best elements from both `Morrowind' and `Oblivion' in the world of `Fallout' tradition, no easy feat.
  
  Now one last thing, unlike `Arena' and `Daggerfall', which are hopelessly outdated, `Fallout' 1 and 2 has aged surprisingly well. Since `Fallout 3' manages to make several things better than `Oblivion', does that mean `Fallout' series are now my most favorite CRPG over my beloved TES series? Don't answer that. Just thinking about the world of Tamriel with branching conversation and many different endings, I am already in pain waiting for TES V.
  
  
• I want to believe...really...I do...
  By A18U9BQQQ0U8F5 on 2009-01-15
  First off, I just wanted to say that I'm a collector's edition addict. I got the Survival Edition, no less, but before you read anything about this game do NOT, I repeat, do NOT get the Survival Edition. All you get that's different from the CE is a Pip-Boy Replica clock that others have said is hit or miss when it comes to getting it working (I didn't bother with mine as I didn't really care). The CE comes with a bunch of extras and a snazzy lunch box to carry it all in. If you're like me and like that crazy crap, then by all means shell out the extra $20-30. Otherwise, you'll do just fine with the regular edition.
  
  Back to the review. I won't go into incredible detail...instead, let's just break it down:
  
  --- All Players ---
  I hate to start on a bad note but I feel this is important enough for it to be front and center. This game is a great game but it has its flaws. It's got a slew of bugs that will cause you grief at times and wish you weren't so addicted to it. There are plenty of crashes to desktop (I was running this on XP SP2/SP3 Quad Core 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB) and a few in-game bugs like creatures flying into space, NPCs you really needed (not random ones) stuck in the middle of buildings, scripted NPCs that wouldn't let you finish missions/quests because they just didn't want to move, and a VATS system that shoots from the hip even if that means you're firing into a wall). It's because of these bugs, I downed the rating. Bethesda spent plenty of time working on this game and are using an existing engine so it's not like they couldn't have found/corrected these issues. Maybe not. Still, this is a AAA-title and there's no call for these sorts of critical issues.
  
  With that out of the way, read on for some reasons it's worth dealing with the above.
  
  --- Fallout 1/2 Players ---
  If you've played this series before, this game is going to be very different. There are similarities (the world, the Pip-Boy, to some extent, the VATS, etc.) but this is not your traditional iso-turn-based clicker. This is FPS-style RPG all the way. Now, if you played Oblivion and liked it, then stop reading this and click the Add to Cart button up top. It's Oblivion with Fallout painted over. And that's a good thing. The environments really invoke the atmosphere that sucked you in before. Combat is different but you can always hit the V key and bring up the VATS you know and love. All the perks and skills are here as are the characters and dialog trees you'd expect (Dogmeat even shows up!). Trust me, you'll get a kick out of it.
  
  --- Oblivion/Morrowind Fans ---
  Surprise! Your favorite game discovered a time machine hidden in a cave and flew into the future! Bethesda used their Oblivion game engine (even the background music when you're out in the middle of the wasteland and not in combat is the same) but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Wide open spaces, NPCs on schedules, dialog trees varying based on skill or your reputation, FPS-like combat with plenty of RPG thrown in...it's all here. Sure it's in the future but with all the similarities, do you really care that the person in front of you isn't a catwoman but is instead a mutant? Better yet, all those random locations on the map? They have meaning now! Instead of a bunch of caves and portals, you get a handful of people living in a mini-democracy (so what if they're crazy) and random encounters with people trying to eek out a living in the wastes of Washington D.C. Unless you've sworn never to play in the future and really love trolls, you're getting a whole new world with tons of exploration potential. Definitely worth the buy.
  
  --- FPS Shooter Fan ---
  Okay, maybe not EVERYONE will like the game. But for you, I think it's worth a try. Think of this as a deeper Call of Duty with less accuracy. You can definitely try to aim and pull off some nice shots but shooting with a bolt-action is not the same as pulling the trigger on the Lee-Enfield in CoD. Sniping with the sniper rifle is not the same as using the Dragunov in CoD4. This is more like the PPSh transition from CoD UO to CoD2. Sure you're still firing at the same rate of fire, but you sure will miss more often. There is a cheat...it's call the VATS system and it lets you pause the game so you can tell the computer where you want to target (head, arm, torso, weapon, you name it). It doesn't sound like fun but after a while, it is. Sure, you'll still grab your hunting rifle and really wish that aimed shot wasn't be randomly diverted to add some "realism" or something. In the end, though, this is Fallout. Where else do you get to toss a mini-nuke on baddies (okay, UT doesn't not count)? Where else can you actually see the consequences of your actions? In CoD, you kill your buddy sitting next to you, it just means you'll have to start over again or load a save. In UT, you can't even kill your buddy if he's on your team. Here, in Fallout 3, you shoot that one guy, you lose karma, people will either be pissed or fear you. It's called consequences. Something CoD couldn't offer because of the rails you were riding on.
  
  Should you, the shooer fan, buy this game? Maybe. If you've played RPGs like Oblivion, Two Worlds, The Witcher, etc., then yes, go for it. If you steer clear of RPGs like the plague ("The only stat I care about is Kill Ratio), then I wouldn't bother. It's just not your cup o' tea.
  
  
  --- Final World (For All Players) ---
  So, in general, I highly recommend this game. It's deep, fun, atmospheric, and really offers opportunities to replay it (you can play the evil contract killer who likes to collect teddy bears). Bugs aside, you can bury yourself in to the Fallout Universe so well (I actually started listening to the one radio station because I liked the music after a while), you almost don't want to leave...(Just one more satellite array). Sure, it's got SecureROM but I've never had a problem with the software and it's current craze so you're going to be playing a lot less games if you don't play SecureROM games.
  
  And PARENTS, I don't want to hear about another parent buying this game for their teen (below the age of 17) and discovering later what's contained herein. The ESRB exists for a reason. And Mature means mature. No, there isn't a lot of sex (actually, there isn't any, it's more implied than anything else) but there is a whole lot of violence and gore (this is a post-apocalyptic world for crying out loud). If you wouldn't let your kid watch Mad Max (no not Thunderdome, the original Mad Max), you shouldn't let them play this.
  
  For everyone else, enjoy the game!
  
  
• Unbelievably addicting!
  By ABEHN19H5V3OM on 2008-12-18
  I bought this game a few days ago, hoping that I made the right choice by picking this game over Tom Clancy's End War. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice now. Not since Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 have I ever found a game this addicting.
  
  The world map is beautiful and extremely detailed. From radioactive rivers, to piles of rubble and smashed up concrete, the detail in these objects is amazing.
  
  Im the type of gamer that HAS to explore every room, and check every nook and cranny to ensure that I have every thing that the building/zone has to offer. It takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to completely clear most buildings and kill all the enemies inside. With the hundreds of buildings in the game, you can easily spend 100+ hours playing this game on a single character. I have read the complaints about running out of ammo, its complete crap. I havent run out of ammo yet, and I have a little over 40 hours completed so far. You may run out of "condition" on your weapons, but if you have your repair skill up, that shouldnt be an issue. If you play the game smart, and pick up the most valuable items you see and dont weigh yourself down with a lot of junk, you should have plenty of "caps" to buy ammo and repairs for your weapons.
  
  In all, I can see myself making 2 more characters easily, just to experience the game differently. The current character I have is a good guy, but I will have to make an evil guy soon just so I can see how it affects the storyline. This game is definately a good buy!
  
  
• Fair and balanced review of a great game
  By A3JZ5L52FM318H on 2008-11-03
  This is a tremendous game. It marries the depth of Elder Scrolls 4:Oblivion's gameplay to the really wonderful atmosphere of the Fallout series. You roam a post-nuclear apocalypse Washington DC in an attempt to discover your origin and find your father. You also come across hundreds of desperate survivors of said apocalypse, and can choose either to help them or to take advantage of them. Your good or bad choices affect the way characters relate to you and what main-story "ending" you can see during the game.
  
  If you've never played Oblivion or Knights of the Old Republic (the two games I think are the most similar to Fallout 3), here is the extremely simple but non-spoiler-y explanation: You create a character with certain statistics (e.g. strength, intelligence). These statistics govern the kinds of choices you have in a huge gameplay world. You explore the world, collecting items, fighting enemies, and completing quests (such as finding someone's lost brother, discovering the secret of your birth, collecting a certain kind of item for profit). Every once in a while, your character "levels up," meaning you can augment those statistics with the points you've earned in the interim between levels.
  
  Veterans of Oblivion will find many familiar things. Dialogue proceeds in much the same fashion, albeit with better voice acting this go-round. Item management is similar as well, with a weight value and encumberance (although, more realistically this time, being over-encumbered doesn't render you immobile because you're 1 point over - it slows you down instead). Bartering is more advanced, because you can trade both items and currency for other items. You can purchase or win residences in the towns, and decorate them, very similar to Oblivion (except you can purchase useful items, too, like workbenches). Weapons degrade and can be fixed, but similarly to KOTOR, you now have the option of augmenting and creating new weapons. Fast travel also works exactly like Oblivion.
  
  So what's different? Well, the story and atmosphere. Unlike Oblivion, you cannot choose any of a number of races, and the difference between "character classes" is nominal at best. You're always going to a citizen of one of the survival "vaults" in DC, and you will always have the main quest motivation of the story with your father and the mystery surrounding him and your origins. But this is not a criticism. If you (like me) are fascinated by post-nuclear-war sci-fi, you will find much to love here. The music, sound effects, and especially the graphics create an amazing mood and atmosphere. The wasteland is eerie and desolate, unlike Oblivion's lush, Lord of the Rings-style setting. Its setting on Earth, with easily recognizable houses, products, and other trappings of our own modern lifestyle make it much more relatable, and creepier still when you find charred skeletons in their bedrooms, frozen in the positions in which they died in the nuclear conflagration. Also, the non-player-character stories are MUCH more mature than Oblivion, full of raunchy language, killing, sex, and amorality. Note to parents - This stuff is on the level of an R-rated movie such as "Total Recall" or "Terminator." So it's probably not for the under 13-set.
  
  Combat without VATS is just like Oblivion - point yourself towards your target and either shoot or swing your melee weapon. With the VATS system, though, the action is paused and you can target portions of your enemy, with a percentage to hit each. It is somewhat reminiscent of KOTOR in the game-pausing respect. Crippling a leg will make your opponent limp slowly towards (or away from) you, crippling an arm or two will hinder their ability to use a weapon, aiming for the head can result in decapitations and exploding skulls.
  
  The graphics are stunning. The level of detail is sky-high, and the settings created by the programmers are eerie, evocative, beautiful, sad, and frightening all in one. I think all the hate being spewed about this game, especially the PS3 version, is either overreaction or simply fanboy baloney. IGN's review, for instance, states that the graphical differences between the two consoles are negligible. There are reports of SPORADIC bugs and freezing issues on all three platforms (So far, in 20 hours, I have experienced one lockup - the "GOAT freeze," and noticed one clipping issue, where an enemy's body was passing through a piece of rubble. That's IT). I say: BIG DEAL!
  
  I can tell you, as someone who owns Oblivion Game Of The Year Ed. on PS3 (and owned the non-GOTY edition on 360) that Fallout 3's graphics are better than Oblivion's. The detail is superb, the frame rate is silky smooth (I was shocked and pleasantly surprised by this!), there is just really nothing to fault. The difference between PS3 and 360 is probably comparable to the difference between an ATI or Nvidia graphics card on a PC. Maybe one does Anti-Alaising a little better, one does hi res textures better. IT IS SIMPLY NOT VERY NOTICEABLE. I am playing on a 50" 1080p HDTV, and have had no complaints about the graphics. Quite the contrary, I have been blown away at times, and I consider myself a discriminating consumer on this point. This game stands up against MGS4, Burnout Paradise, and Uncharted in terms of detail. The only thing marring it is a bit of pop-in when viewing things at great distances. But, given the amount of stuff in this vast world, it is easily forgivable (just as it was in Oblivion).
  
  It should be said that downloadable expansion content has been announced for the PC and 360 versions, and not the PS3 version as yet. I personally do not view this as major, since: the game is huge as it stands; and DLC usually finds its way to PS3 eventually (((UDATE - it has just been announced that PS3 will receive all the DLC for Fallout between June and October of this year))), just as it did with Oblivion. I think it just comes down to which platform you own or prefer. I sold my Xbox and my PC is too old to handle a game like this. But you're not going to be ripped off by either console version. If you have a high-end PC and don't mind sitting in front of it, then you can't go wrong with the PC version.
  
  Notice something? Throughout this review, I've kept comparing Fallout 3 to some of the best games of the past 5 years. There's a reason for this. Fallout 3 is a must-own, pure and simple. Any issues are negligible when put up against this game's atmosphere, scope, and detail. It is worth $60 easily, which is my very highest praise for any video game.
  
  
  
  
• Loves it!
  By AYBDDGW2YTTH9 on 2008-10-29
  I have to say up-front: I've never played Fallout 1/2, I've never played Gears of War or Oblivion or Mass Effect and I didn't even know this game was "10 years in the making". This is a review based on what I think of Fallout 3 only, and it's coming from someone who's not very skilled at games like this.
  
  That said, I LOVE this game. I like the way the graphics look, I love everything about the beginning sequence and getting started in the game. The first hour was AWESOME for me (the Vault part). I would say it's kind of like when I watched someone play Mass Effect, so It's DEFINITELY more of an RPG than an FPS. I like that you can choose how you respond to other characters and the game is different for everyone so there's still potential to play a different game the next time around.
  
  Plus you still get to shoot stuff and it looks great! The VATS thing is cool the first few times you use it, but it gets old after a while. It does help in certain situations, though. Besides, it's cool to shoot someone's head and their brain comes out (it's sick, but it's cool). I also really like that I can shoot anyone I want (accept for kids, but that would have been cool too). I know I accidentally shot my "dad" in the back of the head with the BB gun and blood splattered on the wall. It was a bit of a shock to me that I could actually do something to a "core" character but I really like it.
  
  One thing I have a lot of trouble with however, is aiming with the xbox remote. It's hard to shoot things on target (at least for me). It also feels a bit like pixel-hunting trying to get the target aimed properly to pick things up, and when you do try to pick things up the system is a litte off and I have to aim more to the right of where the object is. I think the PC version would be easier in this sense.
  
  Another thing I don't like is the 3rd person mode. Your character walks weird, it looks like a puppet with a blue screen in the background, it just looks really unnatural. But it is nice to see your character all pimped out with guns and armor and stuff, so I like the 3rd person for that.
  
  Another thing I don't like is that there's no multiplayer content for xbox live. It would be really cool to be able to play multiplayer content "capture the flag" or whatever type of things like in Call of Duty 4 or Half Life 2, but in the Vault setting or some of the specific metro areas in the game. I get why this isn't available - it really is more of a single player story, but it would just be so cool in this environment with these weapons.
  
  I can't really compare this game to many others "like" it or the original games, but I like this game a LOT. I like the Pip-Boy thing, I love the graphics, I like the blood and gore, I like that the game is set in DC, and I also like that I can pick up this game and not have to worry about back story from some other game that I haven't played. I just like this game, and thought I should give it my superficial review.
  
  
• Read This Before You Buy
  By A2I3ICXKOOWLK1 on 2009-03-08
  This is one of the best games I've played in a while. Note a few things:
  
  1. You need a good computer to run it (at least a good video card). You don't want to run this game at minimum requirement. My computer is about 3 years old and had AMD Athlon X2 4400+ 2.2GHZ, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon X850GT 256MB VRAM and had to play it on low video settings. The game is still fun but I had to put up with annoyances like invisible enemies shooting at me (they're made to fade if far to boost the game's performance). Then I decided to buy a new mid-range video card (ATI 4850 512 MB RAM) and viola! can run the game at high video settings, no more problems and strikingly more beautiful graphics and effects.
  
  Yes even with ATI HD 4850 512MB i can't run the game smooth enough at ultra(highest setting) in 1280x1024, this game is a beast. But high setting is good enough for me.
  
  2. If you experience crashing. Make sure you get the latest update from Bethesta. if that still doesn't work, most likely you have conflict with a program called ffdshow. look it up online.
  
  3. If you experience skipping music from your pip boy radio (radio music are supposed to play smoothly), most likely it's ffdshow conflict again. look up solutions online.
  
  4. Patches are released periodically so most bugs are fixed since its release. This is a sign of a dedicated game company.
  
  5. I've played the original fallout 1 and 2. I was skeptical about fallout 3 but the game has thus far exceeded all my expectations and leaving me hungry for more. Buy this game, make it a commercial success, so Bethesta will make more expansions and, eventually, Fallout 4.
  
  
• Where did all the endings go?
  By A1LAVJ7JL4JP6C on 2008-12-02
  So this is my second review ever on Amazon.Com. Here we go.
  
  The good:
  Very nice graphics! The world of the Wasteland really comes to life! Using the Pipboy as the interface to the game world made things seems very immersive, a very nice touch that I liked very much! I liked that touch very much!
  
  The Bad:
  The game is a tad buggy. I could only read the DVD on a single player out of the 4 I have. And that player is in a laptop that will not play the game. I had to make an image of the game, and then download the NoCD crack for it. Took me 3 days to get it to install on my game system. Then many times, at random, and very VERY suddenly, the game would freeze up. Usually I was left with no alternative but to hard boot my computer.
  
  The Ugly:
  I was under the impression this game had "over 200 endings!" Strange. I couldn't find more than 6. I played EVERY side quest there was. Then I went to complete the main quest. Which was ridiculously short (like around 5 hours). Just to find out that virtually NOTHING I did in ANY of the side quests changed the ending... AT ALL!
  I'm thinking maybe they didn't mean 200 DIFFERENT endings... perhaps that's it... yeah.... Every time you play the game to the end... you get... an ending... Sure, it's the SAME ending. But play it 200 times and you'll get 200 endings. Genius!
  Now some people wouldn't be bothered by this. But I played Fallout II and rate it as one of the all time best RPG's ever made. From the beginning of the game my hopes for Fallout III soared. I thought Bethesda had finally managed to do it right this time. I thought they had finally listened to the customers and made a truly great game.
  Then they went and screwed it all up at the end. It feels like at some point somebody lost track of time. Like they spent months and months designing all the fantastic side quests, making all these plans for alternative endings then checked their watch and realized they had run out of time. "Crap! Well just end it right there and we'll ship what we have!" There isn't even a boss at the end you have to kill! You could get thru the end sequence at level one if you wanted to.
  Needless to say my entire experience was ruined in one quick flash. If the endings had truly changed I wouldn't have minded the short main quest. Or the lack of a boss dude to pound on for awhile. Or the fact that you don't get to continue exploring once that main quest is finished. Or the crashes, lockups, inability to label any of your saved games so you can tell what you were doing when you saved at that point...
  
  Oh well. It IS Bethesda after all. We need to remember to keep our standards low for them.
  
  
  
  
  
• For the explorer in you
  By A2F0E69BAX0T0T on 2009-03-09
  A little background, I have not participated in video games since the demise of the Amiga. I know... I just wanted to be able to play games on my computer rather than a dedicated box. WinXP with 1-2 gigs of RAM and low end video cards simply wasn't enough to make me want to be involved. I recently bought a new computer with an i7 core processor and 12 gigs of addressable RAM under Vista 64 and a stand alone 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card. Not top of the line, but very workable. I decided I wanted a game that was recent, used a lot of processor capability, and was not just a shoot em up. I wanted time to explore a world.
  
  Fallout 3 is that game. I can explore. I can shoot em up. I can complete quests-- or not. I can interact with characters -- or not. It is a huge world... and with hundreds of hours of play time, there is no need to finish the main quest too quickly. I backed out of the main quest after seeing all the endings and have been exploring the rest of the world. As you get experience up, the game becomes more manageable--you learn what weapons you want and need, when to use them, and how far back you need to be (fat man mini nukes!).
  
  I like the bartering, the weapons, and exploration aspects of the game. The perks are fun to choose. The game gets more fun and addictive the more you play it.
  
  The graphics on my system were spectacular. I played it on my lower end lap top, and found the depth was greatly reduced. I have had some freeze-ups, but nothing frequent... easily restarted.
  
  For a game with 100's of hours of play-time, the downfall is that things can and do get repetitive. Buildings, vaults, subways and factories are the same mazes. They flow naturally most of the time, but sometimes, like a rat I felt trapped. Same for the multitudes of creatures... they react the same every time... supposedly this changes if you are in a different karma, but I have not tried all the possibilities.
  
  Conversation is OK, but pretty one dimensional with nice, neutral, and somewhat nasty being predominantly available.
  
  This is not a shoot 'em up, although if you want that you can find it in this game--it is just not a continuous fight.
  
  Recently I started using a couple of "cheats"--which are easy to find on line. Adding ammo, improving weapon condition, etc.... I was surprised I was having even more fun after completing much of the game.
  
  So if you are looking for an open ended FPS, multiple hours of gameplay, and a variety of play options... give Fallout 3 a try.
  
  
• Bleak and expansive
  By A2P4MEDCU6J8QN on 2008-11-25
  Enjoyed it from beginning to end, and beyond. I didn't realize the main storyline was as short as it was, so I was surprised when I finished the game (high karma ending). I've since gone back to an old save and am taking my time exploring the world. I've easily doubled, maybe tripled my play-time by doing more of the side-quests and uncovering new bits of the map.
  
  The environments are bleak, sometimes oppressively so. The world is designed to be a nuclear wasteland, after all. Traversing the landscape feels lonely and dangerous. The world feels huge and it's amazing to see something off in the distance and just be able to walk to it.
  
  This isn't going to be fun for people expecting a precision FPS, but it does scratch some of the shooter itch. Feels a lot like Mass Effect to me, in that regard.
  
  
• Fun and Gory
  By AVTJSLGG57YR4 on 2008-11-04
  I just beat Fallout 3 (PS3) in around 20 hours. I did not mean to.
  
  With Oblivion, I could give a damn less about the story. The game was decent enough, but the story was blah blah blah to my ears.
  
  Fallout 3, the story is actually engaging enough that I ended up only wanting to complete the story missions. And in the end, I think I only completed maybe 3 side quests. And as I said, I beat it in roughly 20 hours. Too short, in my humble opinion.
  
  But, that's just the main quest. And I was an evil bastard the entire way. It was fun, but now I'm going to go through and be different, and once I'm out of the vault, I'm putting the main quest on the backburner and doing nothing but side quests. Looking at the strategy guide (after I beat the game), there seem to be just as many if not twice as many side quests as there are main quests.
  
  I finished the game the first time halfway through level 15. I didn't even have all the perks unlocked, and never did find any ammo for a Fat Man, or fight a Super Mutant Behemoth after that initial encounter with the Lyon's.
  
  I don't know why they offer 3rd person perspective: It sucks. The animation is horrible and the over the shoulder type view just did not work for me. Luckily, 1st person view works just fine.
  
  The felt very immersed in the world of post-nuclear war Washington DC.
  
  The graphics, the gore, the sound effects, the story, the gameplay, were all done very well. Though nothing is perfect: there were occasionally NPCs sinking through floors and as I said, the animation is sometimes just stupid and stiff.
  
  Plenty of guns, not a ton of but a good amount of various enemy types, a myriad of quests and character builds will have me playing for months to come.
  
  It's just fun.
  
  
• Maybe I was expecting too much...
  By A1VO0Q6E18MB5F on 2009-01-07
  Perhaps I built this game up too much in my head, given that I've been a big fan of Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics, but this game just barely failed to live up to the hype in my head. Don't get me wrong, its an amazing game with way more space than I could ever care to explore. The wasteland is HUGE and beautifully rendered (for a post-apocalyptic wasteland), the combat system is innovative and easy to figure out, and the characters look amazing. But after all the 95-100% ratings I saw for this game, I was expecting something that would completely engulf me for days, permanently redefine my gaming experience; this is not that game. After a while many aspects of the game, from combat to dialogue, become rather formulaic, and the main story line involves a surprisingly small range and number of stops considering the size of the map. An expansion might help, but I'm not sure how they could work it in.
  
  So by all means, if you enjoy the Fallout series or other RPG/FPS games, then buy this game immediately, it's amazing, and well worth the money. But if you're expecting it to change your life after you've played it, you're headed toward disappointment.
  
  
• Great game, crippled by a disastrous flaw
  By A3Q6KRNB6VMNGE on 2008-12-19
  For a while, Fallout 3 was fantastic, ranking not only among the best games on the 360, but one of the best for this console generation.
  
  Then I hit the level cap, and everything changed.
  
  I'd played for 60 hours when I reached level 20. I'd barely touched the main quest, spending my time exploring and doing side quests. By that time I reached the cap, my character could kill just about any enemy in one go of VATS, so there was really no combat challenge. And with no combat challenge, there's no longer any reason to collect ammo or weapons. I could attempt to change my character's strengths, but without further level progression, I'd never get any better.
  
  I can understand why Bethesda put a cap in the game, but the problem is it comes far too early for a game with this scope. I was having a blast exploring new locations, but in sixty hours, I'd searched only half the map. Sure, there are still locations to discover, but I don't feel the same motivation - most of them look the same, anyway. After all, levelling up and gaining new abilities is the focus of RPGs, and the remainder of Fallout's gameplay isn't quite good enough to make up for the loss of character development.
  
  Can I still follow the main quest? Sure, but the game's narrative isn't top quality either; not enough to keep me going, anyway. During my sixty hours, the joy came from gaining experience and increasing my stats. With this removed, I no longer have the push to see things through.
  
  That's not to say I didn't love what I played. The open-ended structure is phenomenal. During the first 20-odd hours, I was ready to christen Fallout 3 as the best game I'd ever played. Unfortunately, now that I'm unable to continue developing my character, the magic is gone. I'm probably done playing, despite not being close to finishing. Yes, there's the morality system, but the impact on the overall picture is negligible, and yes, there are skill books to collect, but they also won't make a major difference now either. In addition, the world isn't quite versatile enough to support statless wandering.
  
  I do certainly recommend Fallout 3. I paid full price and got my money's worth (about $1 an hour - better than most games these days!). However, I think it's important to realize that the experience may peak before you've finished.
  
  

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