Fallout 3

That's what me and most of my friends thought when we were waiting for Fallout 3 : Oblivion with guns.  Turns out, we were closer than I actually expected.  The game really feels like the latest Elder Scrolls game in the way you generally interact with the world and its inhabitants.  But, instead of large, brightly colored fantasy environments, Fallout 3 employs the ever so lovable browns and grays, and instead of Swords and Sorcery, we get Rifles and Rocket Launchers.

Now, I'm not saying that a comparison to Oblivion is a bad thing by any means, Oblivion is one of my favorite games.  But I do think that Bethesda could have done some more to make this game significantly different in more ways.  The main problems with this game are not problems so much as they aren't successes, as in, they aren't anything new or even slightly better than we've seen before.

There are, however, some areas of Fallout 3 that do shine amongst all the recycled material, and that's why this game still receives 4 stars.  I personally thought that the VATS system greatly improved the combat over what would have been a mediocre FPS style game.  I really enjoyed the combat a great deal, and would like to see this style return stronger.  There are a lot of little things that are good and bad about this game, mostly due to the fact that it is such a large game, that it is hard to really discuss them all.  Suffice it to say, the good outweigh the bad, and the new stuff that works well just pushes that momentum along further.  If you like RPGs and adventure games, without completely banning other genres from your collection, then you should really enjoy Fallout 3.