My Review of Fallout 3:

- Warning – Let the 500+ page strategy guide for Fallout 3 be the first sign to warn you of its massive size and unimaginable scale. There is a possibility that you will go days without eating, showering, or talking to anyone who actually exists in real life. Fallout 3 has known to cause divorces or obesity and this notice is meant to deter all gamers from purchasing such an amazing and addicting product. You have been properly warned. - Warning -

Tomorrow gamers everywhere will finally know what us reviewers have been feeling for the past couple weeks; Fallout 3 is one of the most amazing video game experiences ever created. Bethesda Softworks, famously known for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which was released on the Xbox 360 a few years ago to critical acclaim and insane fan response; decided long ago that they wanted to develop the next game in the Fallout franchise and now it’s finally here. This game does so many things right: deep story elements that remind us of Mad Max, intuitive new battle system, and one of the most intense artificial worlds ever created for a product on this medium (video games). The only reason that we were able to stop playing Fallout 3 was to write this review, and only then for a couple hours at a time.

The universe that Bethesda has created for Fallout 3 is one of deep impact, impact on the player in which you’re always thinking about it. Whether it’s on the train to work or in bed late at night there are parts of this world that will consume your thoughts. Never once did we feel as if we were running through a “game” world; this post-apocalyptic society was living and breathing. Calling Fallout 3 a “video game” has become a challenge for us over the past couple days, when discussing this review with other gaming journalists. The way the game reaches out and grabs the player, turning their entire reality into something the developers crafted as entertainment, is the reason we all started this job in the first place. By the time you finish this review it will be evident what our final recommendation is for Fallout 3, let us save you some time; stop whatever you’re doing and go pick up this game right now, enough said.

In Fallout 3 you will start out as a wee little baby, just out of the womb and seeing the world for the first time. Unfortunately all is not well in Fallout land and after some tragic events the game gets underway, laying the groundwork for the 100+ hour campaign experience. The main story focuses around a couple citizens from Vault 101, a safe haven underground built to house people after nuclear war. Fallout 3 takes place in a very weird moment of history, the 70s. This was a period in our history of Communist paranoia and nuclear scares on a daily basis; creating easily one of the most interesting video game society’s possible.

Time and time again as you are playing through this game you will notice small details that help engross you in the story and locations where it plays out. Once you have created your custom character (male or female), you will begin your journey through the eyes of a child. During these tutorial levels the game will teach you the basics as well as let you decide which attributes and perks you will focus on (more on this later). Bethesda penned one hell of a script, a story that involves thousands of lines of dialog and speech text. The world is full of computer-controlled characters (NPCs), living and breathing in every square inch of the massive world. Not once during play did we feel as though we were playing through a computer universe, one that didn’t feel alive during ever scene.

Every square inch of the Fallout 3 world is available from the start of the game; the only thing keeping you away is the difficulty level of the enemies. This helps to give the player a more realistic approach and drives a feeling of freedom in how the story/game progresses. The general base of the storyline involves searching for the main character’s father, which obviously is not as easy as it sounds. A lot of intertwining plots and story elements are present throughout the whole game so what began as a small story explodes into a massive one; something that could easily have it’s own wiki database. This involves some twenty or so side missions, in addition to the 11 or so involved in the main quest. When you take these missions and spread them out over the massive Fallout 3 universe it can easily take over 50 hours to complete everything. Throw in the fact that your “karma”, which can be good or bad, can change the entire branching of the story you can start to see how ridiculously large this game is in scale.

Once your character turns eighteen years old and finally escapes from Vault 101, the massive story begins. Fallout 3 is all about options; the option to go here or there and in what order (or if at all), the option to save a town or blow it up, the choice to steal or be honest, and the biggest choice of all: to be good or evil. Don’t confuse this feature with the one involved in Fable 2; they are two totally different things. Other than the actual branches of the storyline nothing is directly manipulated by having good or bad karma. Don’t worry, all of the other RPG features and staples that we have come to love from Oblivion are back and in full force; don’t get me wrong this is a role-playing game at it’s core.

The controls of Fallout 3 also owe a lot to Oblivion, and players can traverse the game using either first-person cameras or over the shoulder third-person cameras. We went into the game hoping to play it as a third-person action game and that is totally viable until 3-4 hours of play. As the game gets more difficult it just makes sense, and is much easier, to play the game in it’s native first-person view; even so it’s nice that the developers gave us the option. The best addition to Fallout 3 is probably the Pip-Boy 3000, which can be activated with a quick press of the B button. This accessory is your central hub for weapons, notes, the inventory, a map, and anything else that needs to be accessed while playing through the game. It is a great central hub and in our opinion should be added into every single RPG going forward, in some way.

Creating “Oblivion with guns” was no easy task. The developers answer to all the problems created was the innovate V.A.T.S. (Vaultek Assisted Targeting System, a way to have turn-based battles without the boredom. Basically Fallout 3 can be played through the entire game using only the first-person shooter style of gameplay, or by using V.A.T.S. players can really experience the game for everything it is. By clicking the RB button the game will freeze, zooming the camera in on your nearest enemy. Next you must choose what specific part of the body to target, each region being represented with a percentage of successful attack. The amount of times you can use V.A.T.S. is not unlimited and must be recharged before use in battle again.

The mass variety of weapons in the game (each of which can be upgraded) react differently in V.A.T.S., giving a different percentage of attack depending on a number of in-game factors (distance, object interaction, etc.). When used hand-in-hand with the upgradable ability system and interesting perk list, the combat in Fallout 3 is as deep as it gets without involving real life. After our first play through, without doing any side-missions, ended (somewhere around 20 hours) our character was a level 17; just over half way to the top. This means there is plenty of room to level up, even after the main quest is completed (you cannot replay with the same character, the game saves right before the final boss so no worries there).

Although there are a big enough number of different enemies we never really felt as though the game’s difficulty ramped up enough. We are always excited to get to that “really hard” part of any role-playing game, Fallout 3 never had one; at least not during the main quest. The world is massive in size and each different town or location has it’s own unique feel to it; that what you are doing is actually having an impact on the universe. Unfortunately there is no speedy way of transportation (such as the horse in Oblivion) until after you have discovered (and visited) a specific location. This is not really an issue later in the game but up to that point we did a ton of running, and climbing, and walking; and then a little more running between locations.

Fallout 3 uses the Oblivion graphical engine and improves on it, somewhat. The game definitely looks better, with cleaner colors and more detailed character models, lighting effects, and draw distances. On the other side of the coin the game could and should look better. Luckily the fact that it’s not Gears of War 2 in the graphical department never really pulls anything away from the gameplay. It would have been nice to see better textures and some collision control that worked but for the most part fans will be happy with the looks of Bethesda’s creation but we can’t wait to see what they do next with the franchise. All the audio dialog and sound effects are amazing to listen to, especially out of a nice 5.1 surround sound system. On a whole we have had more fun with Fallout 3 then anything we can remember in the past couple of years, this game is that good and some small hiccups cannot take that away.

The presentation of the game, as a whole, is what really takes Fallout 3 and boosts it into a level high above most of the other games being released this year on the Xbox 360. The fact that, even after all the side-missions are completed, there is still some exclusive downloadable content (details unknown) coming at some point even excites us more. From the moment we booted up the title to the minute we started writing this review our life was engrossed by Fallout 3. Bethesda had us hooked and obsessed for the entirety of this gaming experience. We can only hope that the mass number of action titles coming out this Fall don’t allow this masterpiece to fall through the cracks. Fallout 3 is everything we could have ever imagined and there is no reason that if you own an Xbox 360 you should not be playing this game.

- Warning – Let the 500+ page strategy guide for Fallout 3 be the first sign to warn you of its massive size and unimaginable scale. There is a possibility that you will go days without eating, showering, or talking to anyone who actually exists in real life. Fallout 3 has known to cause divorces or obesity and this notice is meant to deter all gamers from purchasing such an amazing and addicting product. You have been properly warned. - Warning -

Tomorrow gamers everywhere will finally know what us reviewers have been feeling for the past couple weeks; Fallout 3 is one of the most amazing video game experiences ever created. Bethesda Softworks, famously known for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which was released on the Xbox 360 a few years ago to critical acclaim and insane fan response; decided long ago that they wanted to develop the next game in the Fallout franchise and now it’s finally here. This game does so many things right: deep story elements that remind us of Mad Max, intuitive new battle system, and one of the most intense artificial worlds ever created for a product on this medium (video games). The only reason that we were able to stop playing Fallout 3 was to write this review, and only then for a couple hours at a time.

The universe that Bethesda has created for Fallout 3 is one of deep impact, impact on the player in which you’re always thinking about it. Whether it’s on the train to work or in bed late at night there are parts of this world that will consume your thoughts. Never once did we feel as if we were running through a “game” world; this post-apocalyptic society was living and breathing. Calling Fallout 3 a “video game” has become a challenge for us over the past couple days, when discussing this review with other gaming journalists. The way the game reaches out and grabs the player, turning their entire reality into something the developers crafted as entertainment, is the reason we all started this job in the first place. By the time you finish this review it will be evident what our final recommendation is for Fallout 3, let us save you some time; stop whatever you’re doing and go pick up this game right now, enough said.

In Fallout 3 you will start out as a wee little baby, just out of the womb and seeing the world for the first time. Unfortunately all is not well in Fallout land and after some tragic events the game gets underway, laying the groundwork for the 100+ hour campaign experience. The main story focuses around a couple citizens from Vault 101, a safe haven underground built to house people after nuclear war. Fallout 3 takes place in a very weird moment of history, the 70s. This was a period in our history of Communist paranoia and nuclear scares on a daily basis; creating easily one of the most interesting video game society’s possible.

Time and time again as you are playing through this game you will notice small details that help engross you in the story and locations where it plays out. Once you have created your custom character (male or female), you will begin your journey through the eyes of a child. During these tutorial levels the game will teach you the basics as well as let you decide which attributes and perks you will focus on (more on this later). Bethesda penned one hell of a script, a story that involves thousands of lines of dialog and speech text. The world is full of computer-controlled characters (NPCs), living and breathing in every square inch of the massive world. Not once during play did we feel as though we were playing through a computer universe, one that didn’t feel alive during ever scene.

Every square inch of the Fallout 3 world is available from the start of the game; the only thing keeping you away is the difficulty level of the enemies. This helps to give the player a more realistic approach and drives a feeling of freedom in how the story/game progresses. The general base of the storyline involves searching for the main character’s father, which obviously is not as easy as it sounds. A lot of intertwining plots and story elements are present throughout the whole game so what began as a small story explodes into a massive one; something that could easily have it’s own wiki database. This involves some twenty or so side missions, in addition to the 11 or so involved in the main quest. When you take these missions and spread them out over the massive Fallout 3 universe it can easily take over 50 hours to complete everything. Throw in the fact that your “karma”, which can be good or bad, can change the entire branching of the story you can start to see how ridiculously large this game is in scale.

Once your character turns eighteen years old and finally escapes from Vault 101, the massive story begins. Fallout 3 is all about options; the option to go here or there and in what order (or if at all), the option to save a town or blow it up, the choice to steal or be honest, and the biggest choice of all: to be good or evil. Don’t confuse this feature with the one involved in Fable 2; they are two totally different things. Other than the actual branches of the storyline nothing is directly manipulated by having good or bad karma. Don’t worry, all of the other RPG features and staples that we have come to love from Oblivion are back and in full force; don’t get me wrong this is a role-playing game at it’s core.

The controls of Fallout 3 also owe a lot to Oblivion, and players can traverse the game using either first-person cameras or over the shoulder third-person cameras. We went into the game hoping to play it as a third-person action game and that is totally viable until 3-4 hours of play. As the game gets more difficult it just makes sense, and is much easier, to play the game in it’s native first-person view; even so it’s nice that the developers gave us the option. The best addition to Fallout 3 is probably the Pip-Boy 3000, which can be activated with a quick press of the B button. This accessory is your central hub for weapons, notes, the inventory, a map, and anything else that needs to be accessed while playing through the game. It is a great central hub and in our opinion should be added into every single RPG going forward, in some way.

Creating “Oblivion with guns” was no easy task. The developers answer to all the problems created was the innovate V.A.T.S. (Vaultek Assisted Targeting System, a way to have turn-based battles without the boredom. Basically Fallout 3 can be played through the entire game using only the first-person shooter style of gameplay, or by using V.A.T.S. players can really experience the game for everything it is. By clicking the RB button the game will freeze, zooming the camera in on your nearest enemy. Next you must choose what specific part of the body to target, each region being represented with a percentage of successful attack. The amount of times you can use V.A.T.S. is not unlimited and must be recharged before use in battle again.

The mass variety of weapons in the game (each of which can be upgraded) react differently in V.A.T.S., giving a different percentage of attack depending on a number of in-game factors (distance, object interaction, etc.). When used hand-in-hand with the upgradable ability system and interesting perk list, the combat in Fallout 3 is as deep as it gets without involving real life. After our first play through, without doing any side-missions, ended (somewhere around 20 hours) our character was a level 17; just over half way to the top. This means there is plenty of room to level up, even after the main quest is completed (you cannot replay with the same character, the game saves right before the final boss so no worries there).

Although there are a big enough number of different enemies we never really felt as though the game’s difficulty ramped up enough. We are always excited to get to that “really hard” part of any role-playing game, Fallout 3 never had one; at least not during the main quest. The world is massive in size and each different town or location has it’s own unique feel to it; that what you are doing is actually having an impact on the universe. Unfortunately there is no speedy way of transportation (such as the horse in Oblivion) until after you have discovered (and visited) a specific location. This is not really an issue later in the game but up to that point we did a ton of running, and climbing, and walking; and then a little more running between locations.

Fallout 3 uses the Oblivion graphical engine and improves on it, somewhat. The game definitely looks better, with cleaner colors and more detailed character models, lighting effects, and draw distances. On the other side of the coin the game could and should look better. Luckily the fact that it’s not Gears of War 2 in the graphical department never really pulls anything away from the gameplay. It would have been nice to see better textures and some collision control that worked but for the most part fans will be happy with the looks of Bethesda’s creation but we can’t wait to see what they do next with the franchise. All the audio dialog and sound effects are amazing to listen to, especially out of a nice 5.1 surround sound system. On a whole we have had more fun with Fallout 3 then anything we can remember in the past couple of years, this game is that good and some small hiccups cannot take that away.

The presentation of the game, as a whole, is what really takes Fallout 3 and boosts it into a level high above most of the other games being released this year on the Xbox 360. The fact that, even after all the side-missions are completed, there is still some exclusive downloadable content (details unknown) coming at some point even excites us more. From the moment we booted up the title to the minute we started writing this review our life was engrossed by Fallout 3. Bethesda had us hooked and obsessed for the entirety of this gaming experience. We can only hope that the mass number of action titles coming out this Fall don’t allow this masterpiece to fall through the cracks. Fallout 3 is everything we could have ever imagined and there is no reason that if you own an Xbox 360 you should not be playing this game.

Nice read