Fallout 3:

For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been completely addicted to Fallout 3. Last week I finally finished the main quest line after about 75 hours of game time. I certainly could have completed the main quest long ago, but I wanted to experience as much of the Wasteland as possible, and finish as many side quests as I could before I locked myself in for the final battle. After the main quest line leads you to Megaton, I put the next step on hold and just went off exploring. I just picked a direction and thought, "I wonder what's over this way" and started walking.  Most of my enjoyment of the game came from just wondering around in the Wasteland discovering new towns and locations and picking up interesting side quests along the way.  Once I had discovered all the major locations in the Wasteland I continued the main quest, but you know what?  I didn't want to.  I wish I could have wandered around an even larger world and discovered even more interesting things.  I never wanted this game to stop, but unfortunately, the main quest forces you to.

At times the main quest would be very interesting and enjoyable, but other times it was extremely disappointing and I didn't like the direction it took.  I won't go into details about the main quest so that I don't spoil it for you, but overall I was disappointed with it and the ending of the game.  There's a very "Star Trek II" moment in the middle of the game that was very emotional and impactful but I think it came too soon in the story. (I would go into this more, but again I don't want to spoil anything).  I think the ending was anticlimactic.  The final battle was awesome, but then when the action stops, and when the "boss" is defeated, all I could think was, "What?!  That's it?  75 hours and this is all you give me?"  You may have heard that there are hundreds of possible endings.  Not really.  The ending "cutscene" isn't a cutscene at all, but just a bunch of still pictures (LAME).  You'll see a few different still frames depending on what you do in the main questline and some of the side quests.  I saw the good ending, and then a slight variation on that when I screwed up something right at the end.  You could say I pressed the wrong button on the controller, but it isn't quite like that (people that finished the game will know exactly what I mean here).

Anyway, when you see the credits roll and you see "The End" on screen, that's it.  THE END.  You can't continue playing the game after finishing the main questline like you can in Oblivion.  The game is over no matter what choices you make at the end of the game.  I suppose it's understandable considering this is Fallout and not Oblivion, but in all seriousness, this game is basically Oblivion with guns.  That is both a good thing (because Oblivion is awesome) and a bad thing. The good points are obvious: the world is huge, the graphics are fantastic, the characters are all voiced well, you can be good or evil, there are many quests to complete, and cool items/weapons/armor as well as other things I can't think of right now. Fallout 3 has a lot of the same types of glitches that Oblivion has. Characters will get stuck on walls and other objects, some npcs will completely disappear and people have reported items disappearing from their storage compartments in their character's home. These glitches are all pretty minor though. I've experienced some npcs getting stuck in the geography (which allowed me to kill them easily). I've also had an important NPC die on me somehow (which really pissed me off at the time), but it was late in the game so it didn't affect me too much.

Overall, I really enjoyed Fallout 3 and I wish I didn't have to stop playing it.  The disappointing ending is really the only big issue I have with the game, aside from some minor glitches and the level 20 cap which I reached extremely quickly with only 1 rank in the +10% exp perk.  The highlights of Fallout 3 are the vast Wasteland and numerous places to find and side quests to complete, as well as the interesting characters you meet and neat backstory.  I probably won't be playing the game again until Bethesda releases some downloadable content, because I've seen and done pretty much all there is to see and do in the game.  I did start an evil character, but I'm having a hard time being an asshole all the time, especially when I know the characters so well now that I've completed the game.  Ah well.

Gears of War 2:

Last night I finished the single player campaign in Gears of War 2.  I think it took maybe 8 hours total play time to finish.  Overall, the game is much better than the first.  The story still isn't anything too special, but it is a hell of a lot better than the first game.  The most important improvements are to the graphics, both technically and artistically.  For one, I can actually tell what the hell I'm shooting at now.  In Gears 1 you couldn't tell a Cog soldier from a Locust, they both looked a boring grey color.  Now the drab grey is still there for the most part, but at least you can tell the two apart.  The Cogs all have small bright blue LEDs on either their armor or weapons so this makes it extremely easy to tell if you're looking at an enemy or a friendly in the distance.  Also, if you put your crosshairs over a friendly target, there will be an "X" in the circle telling you not to shoot.  I found that extremely useful as I had a hard time telling friend from foe at a distance in the original game.

The most important change to the game is the addition of color.  Most everything in Gears 1 was a drab, boring shade of grey (or brown).  In Gears 2 there is thankfully, many more colors.  This variety in color brings with it a variety of interesting levels.  There are levels underground that are not only brown like you'd expect, but there are a lot of organic things that show up in some nice greens and blues.  There is an outdoor level on a snowy mountain with a lot of white, blue and brown.  There is a level where everything is crumbling or on fire and you get a lot of red, orange, yellow, brown and black.  There is an "indoor" level with tons of shades of red and black.  The addition of color immediately makes the game more interesting and grabs your attention (and looks great in HD as well).

The story is certainly better than the first one.  You aren't just running around shooting Locust, there is at least some reason to it.  There is even a somewhat emotional part with Dom and his wife, but that soon fades away in all the gunfire and you will more or less forget all about that part of the story as the sinking of the city becomes more important.  The final boss was all too easy, and the ending wasn't as bad as Halo 2's cliffhanger, but it's obvious they are making Gears of War 3 (oh noes!).

If you know me, you'll probably know that I wasn't much of a fan of Gears of War 1.  I disliked it so much at the time that I almost traded the game in to Gamestop (that's a no-no for me).  I'm happy to report that you can consider me a fan of Gears of War 2.  I will be glad to replay the campaign in co-op with anyone that'd like to try it on hardcore or insane.  Multiplayer on the other hand, doesn't interest me as much.  If you'd like to invite me to your team sometime I'll give it a go, but I've never been much of a fan of competitive multiplayer games.