I really should have written up my feelings about this game more promptly. The problem is that I have been playing it too much and not writing about it. I love this game. I received it as a Christmas gift last year and I have been playing it since. (I think that it is worth noting that I play the game on PC)
I played Oblivion, which is from the same developer as this game and uses the same engine. When I first played that game, I was so overwhelmed with all that I could do that I left the game for a while. I finally was able to get back into Oblivion, understand it, and play the heck out of it. The open world was amazing. I got heavily into user-mods as well.
When I heard about Fallout 3, I did not get overly excited. I had put over 100 hours into Oblivion and was not sure that I was ready to play the same game with guns and muted colors.
Well, I was wrong. I do not remember how it happened, but I caught the bug for Fallout 3 pretty bad. I became enthralled by post apocalyptic fiction and scenarios. When I finally received the game, I was excited. I ignored my family for a while on Christmas and read the manual. (I'm going to do a post soon on user manuals, and how I lament their death.)
When finally our visits to family were over, I got around to installing the game on my computer as quickly as I could. The beginning of the game was genius. Helping to guide the player through character development and laying down the initial narrative. When things turned violent and I had to leave the vault, I was ready.
I tend to always play good characters on my first play-through of games. I would like to think that I am fairly good-natured, and I have a hard time breaking that mold in-game. The game funneled me toward Megaton and I set about helping the locals and trying to find my dad.
I think that the main quest of this game was very well done. It was a pretty tight narrative that kept you moving, but allowed you the freedom to move around and explore. I know that the ending of this game is almost uniformly reviled by the internets, but I think that it was the necessary ending to the story.
I think that VATS was a great addition to the game. I can not say that I am a megafan of the Fallout series. I have dallied with Fallout recently and think it is pretty clever, but I really enjoy the Bethesda-style RPG these days. But adding this mode in as a sort of throwback to the turn-based RPG was a great move.
The Perks you can get to give your character some flavor and a bit of a boost are also a great thing. I look to these games as an outlet for roleplaying, so I sometimes take less advantageous perks that I think fit the character I am playing.
As is the common complaint of PC gamers, I ended up spending some extra money to be able to play this game more as it was meant to be played. I upgraded my graphics card, which gave me an immediate and amazing performance boost. I could see far into the horizon, and spot enemies from much farther away. This also helped make the world seem more alive. I would witness battles between roving Radscorpion and RobCo Robots that I would not even run into unless I wanted to try and take down the wounded victor. I could see far enough now to avoid enemies instead of stumbling blindly around. VATS was also much faster to use. I even ended up downloading some high-resolution texture packs in order to make my game even more beautiful. As beautiful as a post apocalyptic wasteland can be..
I also bought the adapter for my Xbox 360 Controller. Since this game is less twitch oriented than a first person shooter, I wanted to be able to play from my couch in comfort. This really made the game a pleasure to play and show to my friends. I definitely recommend the Xbox Controller and adaptor as the easiest to use gamepad that I have ever used.
I think that it is important for me to mention User Modifications for this game. As with Morrowind and Oblivion, Bethesda released an editor for those talented enough to make their own content. I use the Fallout 3 Nexus (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/) to find the mods that I want. These mods really help to extend the life cycle of these games, for free. This is a definite plus for people on a budget. I mentioned the texture packs earlier. Some mods are silly, new clothing for your character, but I enjoy them. Other mods have all new quests to follow and factions to join or fight against. The community for Fallout 3 is really beginning to hit its stride now.
I hope that anyone who enjoys post apocalyptic gaming, role playing, open world gaming, and whatever other genres this game fits into picks up Fallout 3 and gives it a try.
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