Fallout 3
August 9th, 2010
Fallout 3
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 List Price: $19.99 Sale Price: $9.98 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Eligible For Free Shipping 
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Product Description
Fallout 3 X360
Details
- Fight for survival against terrors of the outside world, radiation, and mutants after nuclear fallout
- Latest in human ability simulation affords unlimited customization of characters
- Expansive world in modern super-deluxe HD graphics
- Features ability to pause time in combat, target specific body parts, and queue up attacks
- 1st- or 3rd-person perspective
Rating
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!
Rating
This game is just awesome. I was very skeptical about whether or not I would like it because I didn’t like Oblivion but this game is just great, worth every penny. It’s a real experience.
Rating
I’ll admit, that previously I’ve been drawn to games with a fairly linear gameplay style. Not linear in the way that there’s only one single path and it can only be traversed one way, but linear in the way that the game can baby you and keep you on the right track, even if you’re given a decent scope to explore.
Well it turns out that I was just looking for the right massive, open game. Because here you’re free to be your own man. Sure, you can tackle the main quest and it’s decent. But the real treat is the exploration. There’s a positively huge world to explore, and even more underground.
Lets say you have some kind of vendetta against the raiders. They roam the Wastes, pillaging like metal-head versions of pirates, and you don’t like them. Maybe out of strong sense of justice, or maybe one of them just looked at you funny. Well feel free to wander around, picking them off from on-high with a rifle, sneaking in to set up mines before tossing in a grenade to stir up some carnage, or put on your power armor and run in, guns blazing.
There’s a big town, the first one you’re likely to come across, with an undetonated atomic bomb sitting in the middle. You can take it on as a mission from the town sheriff to disarm it, or have the mysterious Mister Burke rope you in to rigging it up to blow. And you’re fully capable of doing so, climbing to the top of Tenpenny Tower, and watching the mushroom cloud in the distance as you vaporize the city, and all its residences. It’s all up to you. Scurge of the wastes, savior, or anywhere in between. Get into the slave trade business, or shoot your way through the traders’ encampment and free the slaves.
The only legitimate complaints I know of for the game are the controls with the VATS targeting system, but you don’t even really have to use it. In fact it’s often better and more fun not to. Sometimes the game doesn’t even feel like an RPG. Sometimes it’s an action game, sometimes it’s a shooter, but it’s always an adventure.
The graphics are… terrific. Sure everyhing’s grainy and brown and dark and bleak. But somehow it manages to be pretty anyway. Everything might be ugly, but it’s ugly in a really good looking way. I’m trying to think of a celebrity to use as an example, but feel that would be in bad tastes.
The facial animations can tend to be a little robotic, but the voice acting is top-notch and lively, from everyone. And in a game with so much dialog, that’s very welcome.
Speaking of sound, I was surprised to end up really loving the soundtrack. And I don’t mean the ominous background tracks made for atmosphere, but the 1940s hits played from the game’s “Galaxy News Radio”. I, being a youngster, never even heard any of this music. But after having it as a constant companion in my fares across the Wastes I grew to love it.
My first time through Fallout 3 I played for over 60 hours, and didn’t even do everything (keep in mind I did add four of the add-on packs). And just a few days ago I started a new file.
Speaking of add-on packs, there are five. Broken Steel, Mothership Zeta, Point Lookout, The Pitt, and Operation: Anchorage. Personally, I found Operation Anchorage to be boring and linear. The Pitt was similar, but with a better story and an uglier world to explore. Point Lookout is a valuable addition. And Broken Steel continues the main story and raises the level cap. I haven’t played Mothership Zeta, so I can’t comment. But I only recommend Broken Steel and Point Lookout (which are offered together on a buyable disc if you don’t have access to XBOX Live). The standalone Fallout 3 is the most powerful and by comparison the add-ons fall short in general.
But in all, I found Fallout 3 to be a fantastic game, in my top-ten list of all time. And in a game-playing career of somewhere around fourteen years, that’s saying something. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to buy, I’d say buy.
Rating
Great game, this game can be very short or extremely long, The main quests are about 7-10 hours and not the best part of the game, walking around and finding new people and odd scenarios are the best part. Play good or evil the game adjust with unique dialog that is very engrossing. Game play time of 100h (optional) seem easy achievable if you just explore, replay value is high, first time through I was good, now it is time for a replay with maximum carnage and evil.
Rating
I purchased this game after resisting the temptation for a very long time. I was a Final Fantasy XI addict for awhile and felt that this was not the type of game I should be purchasing! At the time I figured it was one that would take 100+ hours to beat.
I play the game and finally get out of the vault. Once I get into Megaton I’m a bit confused as to what I should do first. I wander around outside for awhile and eventually run out of ammo and have problems finding money to even buy things. It seems that at the start of the game I was always low on ammo and money. Later on I finally realized that’s kind of the point! You just get out of a vault and are trying to survive out there in the wasteland.
I gain a few levels and get my ammo stocked and finally decide to head to DC to meet “Three Dog”. Of course I have no clue about the map markers (I guess I don’t read manuals!) and wander around trying to find where I’m supposed to go and get completely lost and almost murdered. Of course by this time I’m almost out of ammo and need to find out how to stock back up and start over. At this point I’m thinking I’m terrible at the game and was not having any fun at all. It took a lot for me to keep going.
So another day comes and I finally decide to use the map directions more precisely. Once I get the quest to repair a Satellite, things become fun. Once I got to Rivet City I started to finally love the game.
Maybe I’m dumb, but for me this had a somewhat high learning curve at first. Once you get a few days into it, it gets easier. It takes awhile to figure out how things work in the game. I would say it took me about 10 levels to really have fun with the game. Once I got to Rivet City I didn’t stop playing the game every day until it was finished.
Sadly, the main quest is very short. If you don’t explore the world you can finish the main quest in 35-40 hours. When the ending comes, it’s not really over. There is so much to do and explore.
After beating the game I did about 75% of the quests in the game and at that point I was already up to 67 hours! Unlike some games, the quests are actually pretty interesting. My favorites were “Blood Ties” and “Reilly’s Rangers”.
Some say the graphics are terrible, but I’m very impressed with them. It really depends on the location. I played the entire game without any radio stations and that was perfectly fine with me. What sound there is, is just about perfect.
The one thing I like about this game the most is that there’s just so much to do. You can go out exploring and find things to do. You can even start the game over again and focus on a different skill set. I maxed out Lock picking, Repair, Small Guns and Energy Weapons. Next time it might be Science.
Later on in the game it’s much easier to find weapons, money and ammo. It starts out hard and gets easier as you advance in the game.
There are a few minor negatives about the game:
1: Followers often get hung up on things, but this is rare. It’s only happened 4-5 times.
2: Sometimes when a NPC is near it won’t let you target an enemy.
3. Some extremely over-powered followers. Getting Fawkes turns “Normal” mode into like “Very Easy”.
4. Maps directions not always accurate and/or confusing. Easy to get lost in the game, but that’s ok.
5. Amount of ammo for some weapons is extremely hard to find. I can find dozens of missiles, but it’s even harder to find .44 Magnum ammo!
6. Some equipment breaks way too fast. I had to repair my “Terrible Shotgun” four times.
7. Some armor can’t be repaired well, if at all, making that two hour quest a waste.
8. Excessive blood/gore. It doesn’t bother me, but seeing a person blown up in twelve different pieces is a bit ridiculous and not very realistic. This isn’t even with the “Bloody Mess” perk. Sometimes it looks cool and I laugh at some shots, but it gets old fast.
9. Normal mode is a bit too easy, but no big deal. During the main quest, I rarely died. Usually when I run low on ammo. Evergreen Mills was very difficult for me when I was on my way to a vault. I was at a low level though.
10. Difficult to resell weapons. My house is piled high with them. Buyers usually don’t have enough money.
11. Most annoying thing in the game by far is the weight limit. It’s way too low even with STR.
12. By the end of the game money isn’t really important. I have about 4,000 and there’s not much to buy.
13. Some characters sound EXACTLY alike. Do they only have 6 voice actors? I think so! I’ll admit that they’re all mostly good actors, except for Doctor Li. I liked the old guys and the drunken scrap metal man in Megaton.
14. Some lockups. I don’t think it’s my Xbox 360, but maybe. In 70 hours this has happened only 3 times.
15. In that 70 hours, a few areas run a bit slow/choppy for 30 seconds max.
16. In game local maps can be worthless at times. The world map is good.
My favorite game in the past five years has been Half Life 2, but this one is close to topping that. Fable 2 was a bit more fun to play through, but I consider this a better game. This has 10 times more to do.
Currently I’m at 72 hours and just finished the first DLC (expansion). Hopefully I can start the next ones soon. I’m having so much fun with this game that I probably won’t be done for another 50 hours!
6-23-2009 UPDATE:
I’m still playing this game. I’ve finished the first 3 expansions and have been playing for 91 HOURS! I haven’t played a game that long since Final Fantasy XI and 7. I’m currently level 28 and just downloaded “Point Lookout” and hope to play that on my next day off of work.
There’s a few things in the game I’d change, but the biggest one is the weight limit and being “over encumbered”. I know it’s not realistic to be able to carry hundreds of items, but they should remove this limit. It does nothing for the game.
Hopefully they keep making expansions until the sequel comes out.
9-13-09
I still play this game every day and it never gets old. I finished Mothership Zeta and found it to be a chore and felt it was just an average DLC. Immediately after this I started a new character on Very Hard. It’s not as bad as expected. I’m currently at level 28 and my character is already way better then my last. Due to high INT in the game i’ve capped much more skills due to more points after every level. Overall for my characters I will always cap Lockpicking, Repair, Small Guns and Energy Weapons. Maybe Big Guns next. I’m at about 65 hours on my 2nd character and 105 or so on my first. That’s pretty amazing for a $50 game!
Rating
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.
Rating
Wow, the negativity here is really unexplainable. This is a great playing, great looking game. The story is excellent and there is a lot of tension. This game most resembles the Half Life series. The wasteland you explore is very large and the game has a lot of side missions that will have you traveling around. Certain locations in the game are very creepy and immersive. The role playing aspect is fun, as you build stats and karma that influences the decisions you make.
Now to counter some of the critics:
- You can purchase this game through the Steam network and avoid any DRM, aside from steamID.
- This game has not crashed on my computer once, and my longest continuous session so far has been 5 hours.
- You can switch to 3rd person view by clicking your middle mouse button.
- If you are moving too slow, it’s because you are carrying too much stuff. Drop stuff and you move faster…
- This game requires a decent system and video card to play it on, but it still runs well on my 7900GS (made in 2006).
- Good NPCs will not attack you if you have good karma and are wearing the correct clothing for the interaction
There are other comments that really show some ignorance of how the game is supposed to be played. Please just try the game before believing some of these reviews.
Rating
At less than twenty bucks this is a great game. Even if you’re not into the genre consider picking this one up, it’s well worth the time and money put into it. For the last two days I’ve been going at it nonstop. Even after the twenty-or-so hour campaign there are tons of side missions and places to explore that’ll keep you playing this one for a while. I would definately buy it again. Such a great bargain!
Rating
This game is truly amazing, though it does have a small problems. When I went to BestBuy I debated over whether to purchase this game or Bioshock. After much debating and a coin toss I decided to buy Fallout 3 and I know I made the right choice. This game is huge, beautiful, and exciting. The graphics are really amazing and the first time you walk out of vault 101 and see the vast wasteland in front of you and then realize that you can go anywhere that your eye can see, you’ll need to pick your jaw up from the floor. The characters and quests are so far varied and interesting and thankfully after travelling to different areas for quests you are given an option to return to any previously visited destination without having to walk there. Another cool element of Fallout 3 is the tageting system. Here you are able to target certain body parts of the enemy, and also can see the chances you have of hitting said body part. There are many more great elements to this game that I don’t have time to list (the whole radiation sickness thing, inventory, skills….). There are a few items in this game that are of annoyance. Firstly sometimes the game freezes up for a second as you’re walking around or fighting, nothing to serious as to ruin the entire game. Also the characters in the game do not seem lifelike, they never change their facial expression so they look the same whether sad or happy. Also I sometimes ran in to enemies that were stuck in walls and could not move. These issues are only minor annoyances and I highly recommend this game for everyone who owns a PS3. I personally am more of a fan FPS like COD4 and Bad Company, but after playing Fallout 3 those games are gonna be sitting on the shelf for a while as I delve deeper in to the Fallout universe.
Rating
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!
Rating
Yes there are bugs. This happens. They’ll patch it. The gameplay is amazing.
Some people don’t like 1st person shooters. The game is largely a shooter, but the VATS system does an admirable job of replicating the feel of turn based combat and a first (or 3rd) person perspective provides a depth to the atmosphere of the game that you just can’t get with an isometric view (go raid Vault 106 for good times). I’ve put in about 20 hours, and I don’t think I’ve experienced a quarter of what the game has to offer.
Rating
This is the best game I have ever played in my LIFE – bar NONE. I am a fanatical video game player, and this is by far the most fun I’ve ever had, from the graphics to the controls, to the story line! THE BEST EVER.
Rating
Let me just start off by saying that I’m usually not a fan of RPGs, but this one grabbed my interest so I decided to give it a chance. The game literally starts out with the birth of your character and then jumps forward through your upbringing in Vault 101. Eventually your father leaves the vault and you’re thrown out into post-apocalyptic Washington DC to search for him. You are free to go and explore wherever you want, do want you want to do, and help or kill anyone you want. The combat system is fun, especially the VATS system. It allows you to pause combat and specifically target areas on your enemies. I never got tired of using it and blowing someone’s head and/or limbs off. There are quests that you are given throughout the game, some involving the main storyline and others that are sidequests from random characters. Your decisions and actions effect the story through your karma. Helping people gains you karma and being the baddest serial killing wastelander loses you karma. I chose the road of negative karma as it seemed to be much easier to survive in the wasteland by killing people and/or stealing items from them. Plus, it was fun to play a bad guy in a game for once. This game will keep you entertained for hours on end and I completed it with well over 40 hours of gameplay. You’ll definitely get our money’s worth with it. My only complaints are that the game seems to have a lot of bugs in it that would pop up from time to time. These bugs ranged from framerate issues in moments of heavy combat to outright freezing up and forcing me to restart my PS3. My other compaints are that you are unable to continue leveling up beyond level 20 and that you can’t continue playing and exploring once you have completed the last quest associated with the main storyline.
Rating
First product I’ve sampled from Bethesda and it’s spectacular. Each game has specific details and color that make it unique. Mass Effect has cinematic game play, GoW with gore, Vegas and realistic gameplay, GTA4 with “live” interaction and now Fallout 3′s wasteland. Amazing buildings, landscapes, enemies, Perks, weapons, followers, Quests , engrossing stories and overall excellent controls. VATS never gets tiring and AP points level quickly. Listings of what things weight, value, the effects, stacking, raising (or lowering) your Karma, mutated insects/animals, abominations, Ghouls and various robots. Traveling thru the game foreboding imminent disaster awaits just over the next rise or around the next corner of a building in a desolate and barren city. Tossing frag grenades (using VATS) and being treated to animated carnage.
Bottle caps as currency, lockpicking, computer hacking and weapons skills. This game is sick and you stop and think that someone had to catalog all this stuff while creating the game. One of the top games for 2008. The more hours you put into this simulation the better it gets.
Rating
I have been a fan of Fallout since the first one came out. I have played through the first and second more times then I can count. When I heard that Bethesda was taking over I was concerned that it would just turn into an Oblivion with guns. I was pleasently surprised however. I sit here now, reading all these negative reviews and honestly don’t understand any of them. The problem is, Fallout was a cult game. Bethesda wanted to make Fallout a mainstream game, that can’t happen while still keeping all the cult fans happy. As a cult fan of the game, if you understand that fact going into it, you won’t be dissapointed at all, I promise you. Yes, the game ultimately amounts to running around killing things and picking up items, then again, isn’t that what all RPGs are? They created the Fallout world very well, and they tried a new combat system that I believe hit the mark although it does have it’s issues. If you take into account what Bethesda had to work with and what they were trying to do this is an excellent game. Thinking about all this however there are some general problems with the game.
CONS-
1)At some points it is a little too linear. It is difficult to try and find alternate ways around some quests.
2)They cap your level at 20. For Fallout, this is new, and it took me quite by surprise. It also makes the endless meanderings through the wasteland limited, since at a point you no longer gain much benefit.
3)The new combat system can be annoying at times. The first person aspect is a little jerky and tough to aim in close quarters, and the VATS system is only available based on Action Points.
PROS-
1)They recreated the Fallout environment very well. From the landscape down to the abundance of locations to explore (I’ve found 143 and there are plenty more), this game retains the look and feel of the first two.
2)The combat system. I know I put this as a con but it also is a pro. The hybrid system increases the action level a little bit, which can make the game more engaging when it isn’t being difficult to aim. The VATS system also enables you to still use the strategic aspect of the first two Fallouts to decide how you want to take an enemy down.
3)The freedom is probably the biggest pro that I have for this game. There is eseentially no force whatsoever to get you to follow the “main” quest of the game. All the freedom available to you in the first and second Fallouts has transfered to this one. You can explore how you see fit and place your time wherever you wish.
I hope this review was more helpful than most of the ones that I’ve read on here. I find that people get over emotional, and there responses don’t seem to make much sense. I attemted to avoid that and be objective at the same time. Happy hunting vault dwellers
Rating
Just to let people know… all the comments on this version that are 1 star are about DRM and not the game. I wish Amazon would take those off… it is really not a reflection of the actual game and should be left to a software pirating forum and not here.
I’ll get right down to it…
Positives…
-Huge world.
-Great story.
-Awesome side quests.
-Openness of gameplay.
Negatives…
-Oblivion w/ guns (same engine, and only negative if you didn’t like Oblivion).
-My character is an ice skater (see above).
-Can’t really play the game without a good sneak ability or a lot of stimpacks (only a couple of good skill combinations seem to be able to pass the game without too much trouble while all others will get creamed).
I am a big fan of the Fallout series (except BoS -not Tactics BoS-). This game does not disappoint and is worthy of being called Fallout 3. It has some design flaws but they are only slightly annoying; but don’t get me wrong, these are not problems with features they are omissions of features (can’t unload guns in your inventory, random encounters when fast traveling, inability to place notes on the map. etc). Hopefully, soon, they will release the toolkit that will allow mods (the only reason I bought the PC version -that and nostalgia-) and the fans can fix these omissions.
Oh yeah… my game didn’t come with a serial number. But it wasn’t required for install, weird? Am I the only one?
I LOVE MY VAULT BOY BOBBLE HEAD!
Rating
I know that’s quite a statement to make, and I’m not saying this is one of the best ever made (though many claim it is), but yes, Fallout 3 is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played in my 20+ years of gaming. I was a bit weary at first, thinking it was going to be just another first person shooter with slightly more plot, but boy was I wrong. WAY wrong. After playing through Fallout 3 just once, I can safely say that I’m ashamed that I never played the previous titles. Fallout 3 has replay up the wahzoo, and this is one of the few games of this console generation that I would play on a daily basis until I completed it. It just does everything right to the point where I feel like a fanboy for having so many good things to say about it.
Fallout 3 puts you in the role of a silent protagonist who grew up living in a vault after a great war took place. The vault is all you knew as a child, and one day, your dad (a top scientist) just plain leaves. This is a big no-no since there are certain rules to living in a vault, and as a result, all hell breaks loose. You chase after him, exiting the vault and entering the wasteland for the first time. As the name implies, the world is now a wasteland. Heck, the vault looked better and cleaner. This game mostly takes place in the Washington D.C. area, and you can barely tell that it was Washington D.C. at one point aside from a few monuments still being around, to some degree. Buildings in towns are made up of scrap metal and wood, every single food and drink you get (unless otherwise noted) is radiated, raiders and mutants run amok, animals have mutated and grown to large sizes, and even robots went nuts after the war. It’s a mad world out there in the Capitol Wasteland. And just think- you have to find your dad in this giant mess. Why did he leave, and what’s he going to do now that he’s out in the real world? Are you even going to find him alive?
Fallout 3 is one of those games where you can spend hours doing sidequests, and barely scratch the surface of the game. I’ve put over 50 hours into my first file, and only have 19% of the trophies. The main story is very well written and interesting, but I didn’t want to risk ending the game before I had a chance to take care of some extra bits here and there. The writing for everything is perfect, and I actually laughed out loud when reading some of the text in notes and books I’d find. Even little things like the helmet of a local ‘super hero’ lowering your character’s charisma by one point got a laugh out of me. The game reminds me a lot of Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, but with as a first/third person shooter and a more original setting. In a world of FPS games, Fallout 3 definitely stands out. One thing that helps it do that is the VATS system. VATS is activated with the press of the R2 button. The action will stop, and the camera zooms in to your target where you can select what body part you want to attack. Head, arms, legs, body and even weapon are available, and you can pick your enemy apart, limb by limb if you want to. Is your opponent a huge guy with a melee weapon? Take out his legs so he needs more time to get to you, and you can finish him off before he has a chance to attack. Are they using a missile launcher from a great distance? Just shoot their weapon and render them helpless!
The game isn’t just a FPS though, and it has a lot of rpg/adventure elements. Through the game, you’ll make choice to be good, bad or neutral, and a lot of your actions will earn points toward those titles. Being bad is probably going to be the most fun, and easiest for most people, since you can just kill everyone in sight and take their weapons and money (bottle caps here!). Have you ever wanted to take someone’s potato chips from their pocket and replace the bag with a hand grenade? Probably not, but now’s your chance. The game also uses an experience/leveling system, and with each level up, you can raise stats and choose a Perk. Perks give your character different abilities and enhancements, like a better chance of persuading someone while talking to them, better accuracy with a type of weapon in VATS, less radiation taken when eating/drinking, and so on. Trust me when I say that there are practically endless ways to set up your character.
Visually, the game looked good when it came out, but now with things like Good of War 3 and other titles, it’s hard to compare. Still, things look good for what they are (nearly everything’s destroyed for crying out loud!) and the art direction is fantastic. I especially like the creativity that went into custom weapons. Most of the voice acting is good, but I wish the animators would’ve put more effort into facial expressions and body movement while talking, a common problem with big games like this. There’s not much as far as the music goes, since you’re limited to turning on your own radio when you want, but honestly, I didn’t even notice the lack of music once I got into the game.
There’s so much more to say about the game, but I only have so much room here. If you like huge games with good humor and creative weapons, Fallout 3 should be right up your alley. I’d recommend getting this standard version though, rather than the Game of the Year edition, since I’ve heard nothing but bad things regarding freezing and glitches galore from that one. So far with this version, I’ve had no glitches, and just 3 cases of the game freezing. But hey, good ol’ auto-save has saved me from any problems due to that.
Rating
As many I was concerned it was going to model Elder Scrolls but it did not. The story line was put together well and I find the game extremely entertaining. Only complaint is that the music sucks on the game but you can easily turn off 3 dog radio to ignore.
Rating
I personally have never liked games that have post apocalyptic game worlds, everything looks trashed, dingy and has a depressing atmosphere. I enjoy worlds that are visually pleasing and this was the opposite, but I heard so many great things about Fallout 3 that it convinced me enough to buy it. My initial reaction was that it was an average game not worthy of the hype. My character was equipped with a pistol in the beginning of the game. Gunplay shots were highly innacurate and doled out very little damage when the shots hit their targets.
When I found better weapons, in the game world, they barely had any ammunition to make them useful. Ammunition along with everything else is very scarce and hard to come by at first. I was also suffering from radiation poisening and got my leg injured after fighting off a giant rat. I had barely enough money to have my injured leg healed by a doctor and even less to buy ammunition or purchase better weapons.
After a very rough start I was ready to give up on Fallout 3, but decided to keep exploring its huge open world. After Several hours of gameplay I’ve met some very fascinating characters, visited creepy underground tunnels, looted abandoned cafes and shops. Whenever I wanted a new weapon I just picked up the ones which dead enemies dropped. I destroyed many evil characters some worse than others and encountered many deadly creatures.
I became a scavenger, mercenary for hire, and a gun-slinging hero all rolled up into one! Characters rewarded me for my good deeds or gave me information which proved useful for specific quests. Everytime my character gained enough experience points to “level up”, I upgraded my combat ability or bartering skills; making it easier to earn money. I also picked from many of the fun PERKS which enhances combat playability and dialog interactions. I had a sword/chainsaw hybrid that tore things apart. I was able to go to a workbench and create unique weapons from junk found in the wasteland. I could solve problems by killing or being diplomatic. I choose how I want to play, I choose where to go and what to do- This is my world! This is the world of Fallout 3!
A lot of people describe this game as Oblivion with guns, and they are partially right, because the gameplay and menu systems feel similar. Everything else about it is different yet enjoyable. If you like role-playing games or open world type games, you should not hesitate to buy Fallout 3.
Pros:
+open world
+excellent PERKS
+excellent controls
+excellent creature designs
+excellent map design
+excellent voice acting
+excellent story
+excellent music
+excellent side quests
+excellent sound effects
+be good or evil
+lots of scavanging
+lots of guns
+melee weapons
+blood and gore
+ragdoll physics
+save game anywhere, anytime
Cons:
-game randomly crashes
-combat looks a bit stiff
-technically outdated
Rating
I rented this twice and never got more than an hour into it. After a year of still wondering what there was to be discovered on that disk, I broke down and bought it. It’s so hard to get momentum and I was overwhelmed beyond belief for the first 15 hours. Then it took off and everything else I’ve played seems boring in comparison, and I thought Oblivion, San Andres, etc.. were all incredible. The gameplay has everything you’d want from a save anywhere anytime feature to mostly non-respawning enemies to adjustable difficulty. The exploration music is fantastic and the graphics are rediculous.
The size of the game boggles the mind, you’d think it took ten years to create. The variety of places and people you meet, choices you make, guilt you feel, this isn’t even a game, it’s like jacking into the matrix. The only downside is if you don’t have enough time to invest, you might lose sleep over wondering whatelse there is out there in the wasteland. I can’t wait to buy and explore the add-on’s.
I just can’t believe I tried it twice and almost missed out the most rock-solid gaming experience out there.
Rating
Fallout 3 is a fantastic FPS/action/RPG hybrid that incorporates the best things about ‘The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion’ and expands/improves on many of the basic premises. You can build up your character’s stats (like strength, agility, etc), as well as choose from a variety of ‘perks’ every time you level up. These perks take the form of better critical attacks, improved speech, increased armor, etc. The perks really make the game interesting as there are many to choose from and make each play through unique. The graphics are amazing and runs smooth as silk on my PC. I have a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor running at 2GHZ, 2 gig of RAM, and a GeForce 8600GT Video Card. Betheseda has just released two new DLC chapters that extend the life of the game. The only gripe I had was the game has a level cap of 20, and there is a hard ending, meaning when you finish the game, it’s over, unlike Oblivion where you can continue to mess around and gain levels and do quests after you complete the main quest. HOWEVER, Betheseda will be releasing a new DLC in April that increases the level cap to 30, and allows you to continue playing the game after you solve it, so YAY!! The quests are great, and some of the side quests are rather lengthy, and almost always interesting. Plus, there is a ton of areas to explore for the completionist. You could probably put in 80-100 hours on this game easily if you explore everywhere and do everything. Lastly, I recommend getting the game guide as it really helps you maximize your enjoyment of the game, by revealing things you may never know would happen, like random encounters and such. BUY. THIS. GAME.
Rating
I am an absolute fan of Oblivion, which I found the only game worth playing in years. I recently got Fallout 3 and I think I might give it a shot, because it allows the same degree of freedom and has those excellent graphics and details Oblivion got me hooked on. I must say though that I started it and I found the scenery a bit too depressing, so I’m most likely to oscillate between Fallout and Oblivion.
Rating
Unlike many others here, Fallout 3 is my introduction to the series. That being said, knowing nearly nothing about either of the previous games other than what I’ve read and heard, Fallout 3 stands on its own as a truly stunning achievement. Journeying through the wasteland of Washington DC, you are searching for your missing father, and that’s where I’ll leave you as far as the game’s story goes. Needless to say, there is a lot going on in the world of Fallout 3, and the longer you play it, the more you will realize this. Everything about the game just screams epic: there are intricate quests in which your decisions truly can change the course of the direction the game will go, making for some incredibly deep gameplay that will have you coming back even after you’ve completed the game the first time. The freedom to explore what and when you want doesn’t hurt either, and the game’s setting and visuals really are sights to behold. Fallout 3 also very much earns its Mature rating, and features some brutal violence in its already tense encounters. As a whole, Fallout 3 is gorgeous looking and sounds incredible, and the game’s shifts of first and third person perspectives play better than many other games to use either presentation. All in all, Fallout 3 is a brilliant, stunning achievement that deserves your attention, regardless of whether you are a veteran to the Fallout series, or are a newcomer like me, there is just so, so much here to behold.
Rating
I have now played Fallout 3 intensely for a week and I have to declare myself satisfied. I know not everyone is pleased with it, but I can’t for the life of me understand why. If you loved Fallout and Fallout 2 this is a very satisfying and faithful adaptation to a new 3D environment. Another famous older RPG, Diablo, will be coming out on a 3D engine, so this may give some hint on how successful that one will be from moving from a 45 degree overview to 3D. I love the transition. The main thing to emphasize is that this is an RPG, not a 3D shooter. If you try to play it as a shooter you are going to have a tough, tough time. You’ll not have enough ammo (unless you spend all your time fighting with a lead pipe or baseball bat). And you won’t be able to maximize advantages of your character design. Now, I know some won’t like this basic fact about Fallout 3. But I love it. I hate 3D shooters. I don’t and won’t play them. The only kind of computer game I enjoy is some form of RPG. I don’t play computer games the way I used to, so I’m very selective in the gaming I do these days. Since 2001 about the only games I have played to any extent have been Asheron’s Call (an MMRPG), World of Warcraft, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3 (a RTS game with RPG elements), Dungeon Siege and Dungeon Siege 2, Oblivion, and, now, Fallout 3. I bought this for Playstation 3, so that I now have two PS3 games to play (along with Oblivion).
My fear was that the new Fallout might not resemble the previous ones. The 3D environment gives a startling visual innovation, but deep down the game really does resemble the two earlier games. The look of the game manages to be both vaguely futuristic and strikingly Art Deco, just as in the earlier games. The weapons tend to be largely the same. I took a gamble in creating my first character that this would be the cast and chose to train early on in energy weapons and small arms (in the original games I found that pulse pistols — which utilized few action points in the V.A.T.S. system — combined with taking perks emphasizing criticals to heads were more effective than the huge weapons that ate up action points) and the game truly has gone along those same lines. In the original games I never did get over the thrill of getting my first combat shotgun (the first weapon that did really significant damage). Same with this one.
If you have played Oblivion and then turned to Fallout 3 you will instantly recognize it as the same game engine. I didn’t know this for a fact, but a tiny bit of research revealed that it was indeed built on the same engine. If you have played Oblivion, you will have little difficulty adjusting to Fallout 3. The one major difference is the V.A.T.S. system. By hitting your R2 button you have a grid come up that allows you to target parts of the entity you are shooting at along with the odds of inflicting significant damage. This can make a huge difference. For instance, in the early quest that involves you killing a large number of the very tough Fire Ant Soldiers if you can cripple one of their legs you can buy a lot of extra time to kill them. For some reason their legs are easy to hit. So, this aspect of the game is very different than Oblivion. But so many other things are the same. Navigating the environment is similar. I don’t want to make it sound like Fallout 3 is merely Oblivion set in the future. The two games are quite dissimilar, but there are unquestioned similarities.
The one thing I had some trouble with is a rather small list of quests to be undertaken at one time. A couple of times I had only two quests and was stuck on one of them and not high enough level to do the other (it involved me working through a territory that was just too tough for me). Since you can’t level very quickly just killing critters in the wilderness I was sorta stuck for a while. I finally caved in and hit a board to find out to finish the one quest.
I loved so many of the nice touches in the game that larger file sizes have made possible. For instance, I loved the pirate radio station, though I regretted that there were not more songs. It did, however, lend a really nice wrinkle to the texture of the game.
All in all, I’m having a heck of a lot of fun playing this. I’ll probably replay it as soon as I finish. I always like to play such games with both a highly developed offensive skill and a highly developed technical skill. For instance, this time through I’m playing a one-handed small arms, energy weapon character with extremely high charisma and verbal skills. Next time maybe I’ll do two-handed weapons character or perhaps even a big weapons character with very high science skills. I very highly recommend the game, but you have to realize that this is an RPG, not a shooter. If you are expecting and wanting an RPG, you will find it infinitely preferable to any shooter, but if you expect a shooter and don’t want an RPG, you are going to find this infuriating. But I found it to be a delightful sequel to two games that I loved on PC.
Rating
Loved the game! It’s a step beyond Oblivion Elder Scrolls. It does take a few minutes to get the hang of the different weapons, but it’s worth the money. The only thing I didn’t like was if you follow the main quest first, the game stops unlike Oblivion. So, do the side quests along with the main and do not take the last step on the main quest until you are ready to finish.
Rating
I didn’t really want to play this game because I thought it would be a
hassle to finish, seeing as how it was an “open ended” RPG. I bought it because of the hype not really expecting me to play it much (sorta like what happened with Assasin’s Creed for me)…..
I have never been more pleasantly surprised at a game. I cannot stop playing it! I went 33 hours before I even began the “main quest”. I am very picky when it comes to games, but this one just shocked me. I think its an awesome must own game, you will not regret this purchase.
Rating
I am not going to go into detail about the game, but I played it through once, and use the “save” and “load” game options to explore everything in the game that I could. I’m now about half way through the game again playing a bad guy. It is possible to have two NPC’s tagging along with you on quests, which is a big plus.
I haven’t done a video review of this game because I devote my youtube accounts to games I can play in Wine on Linux. This game can be played, but I have yet to compile the special version of wine needed to play this game, but I’m planning to. I had to do that to get COD4 working. But Oblivion on the other hand works without a hitch. If you check user “rofthorax” on youtube, and search for “oblivion” or “oblivion hdr wine” in youtube, you will probably find my in depth video review of the game for wine. I’m playing through oblivion on wine.. I’m a Orc knight named zug zug (inspired by warcraft 2) and I have boots that allow me to walk above water, which is a lot of fun, little things like that.
As the fallout guys say about this game, fallout 3, it is essentially oblivion with a new skin.. But before I played fallout 3, I didn’t know fallout was a genre of games that predated fallout 3. In fact, I have a review where I thought oblivion came after fallout because it had that gear logo, which later I realized was borrowed from the fallout line. I’m so stupid, fallout 3 must have had a 2, right.. Well I only learned of this after seeing an old computer magazine I had laying around, and the advertisement of fallout.. I had played fallout 3 after playing Bioshock, which has fantastic “power ups”, but coming to fallout it can look like a power drain, cause the power ups in fallout are so subtle. The fun in fallout 3 can come from things as simple as blowing up cars and busses, which adds a problem solving aspect to first person shooter part of the game.
Hint, there is an alien weapon that permits you to vaporize guys (there is no villains or good guys in this game, it completely depends on whether you chose to be good or bad). Bioshock only allows you to be good or bad, but Fallout 3 is not so black and white about it.. IF you choose to be bad, you can remain a bad guy and do bad guy things.. Whereas Bioshock, it would only affect how the little sisters see you and how the game ends. So Bioshock is nice graphically, but after fallout 3, I don’t really know if I would like a followup to Bioshock now..
Also Fallout 3 will exhaust you.. It’s tiring to maintain yourself, like to get meds, detox from addictions, use radiation maintenance drugs and monitor radiation levels. Bioshock never had this much stuff to mess with.. The graphics are not on par with Bioshock, but the worlds are bigger and there is a lot more to do.. If I had played oblivion before playing this, I’d say “oh it’s oblivion”.. But it’s better play backwards, cause I can see more how they are different, probably better than how a fallout fan can see fallout 3 after playing everything that came before.
So bottom line, it’s best to play this game if you have never played oblivion or the fallout series. And if you haven’t played Bioshock, you should maybe consider puting it off.. Or play it and get it over with before playing fallout 3, because fallout 3 is a “hum-dinger”.
Rating
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.
Rating
This game is amazing and one of the most immersing experiences available on the PS3. There is so much to do and see that they could have charged $100.00 for this game and it would still be good deal. I am not a big RPG fan, so the fact that I enjoyed this game in spite of that is truly a testament to how fantastic this game really is.
Rating
Vast and engrossing story.
Incredible atmosphere.
Good graphics.
A must for all people into role playing games and end of the world science fiction like “Omega Man” and “Mad Max”.
I have not encountered a single bug over 10 hours of play time.
Rating
I have played so many games on so many different platforms, but FallOut 3 has far surpassed them all. Some may not like Role Playing Games that play like a first person shooter, oh well. It gives you so many different routes in this game. The armor, weapons, and items are unique. VATS or the games targeting system allows you to cut through the opposition in no time at all. You had better save often, because the waste of D.C. can be a dangerous place. There is so much to do and take in, enjoy the humble scenic views or accidently stumble accross a mine field. Walk into a radiated zone without your suit or radx. Help your buddies in the Brotherhood or become the Harbinger of War and lay waste to everything. This game is quite the experience. Enjoy.
Rating
I really like this game. I got tired of all this RPGs with swords and magic. So this game is like a breeze of fresh air – well, the air is radioactive at times
. I was a big fan of Fallout 1/2, this game is different but it stands on its own. The world in the game is very big, I’m still far from exploring it all and the developers already promising expansions. So I guess it’s going to be my main game for at least several more months.
Rating
I am going to preface this by saying I have always liked action RPG games. I want to do the killing, so final fantasy drives me nuts. I have also played Oblivion ( from Bethesda too ) and really enjoyed it as well. I am a fan of Fallout I & II, and have very fond memories of playing those games. This game did a great job of putting the best of the old Fallout games with the lessons learned in Oblivion.
This may also be the best gaming value for your dollar ( only the Oblivion GOTY compares ). I have probably played over 200 hours, my first game was around 120, and I am playing it again. The replay value comes from playing it differently. The first time I played fairly neutral, this time I am playing as a good guy, and I am guessing that I will do the Evil B—tard approach at some point ( which sounds like a whole lot of fun ).
The graphics are good ( not great for a PS3 game ). The controls are simple, and VATS makes the shooting easy, so you don’t have to be one of the crack addicted FPS guys to play it. The story and missions fit together very well, and the DC area was a great backdrop for the game.
This and Assassins Creed were the two games that got me to break down and buy a PS3. The only knock on it for PS3, is that Bethesda is not releasing the expansions on it. I wonder how much M$ paid for the exclusive on those?
Rating
Let me start by saying WOW!!!!!!!. This is a stunning game, graphics are a 10, game play is a 10, the whole game gets a 10 in my book if i could give it 10 stars i would that being said i will break down what i think of the game so far.
The game starts off like oblivion with a small confined area to run around in and determine what you look like and what stats you will have that kind of thing. I don’t want to ruin any thing about the game so i wont say anything about the story line or quests. The game feels good, looks good, and plays just as good.
The NPC’s interact well, lots of text options when you talk to people, you can be good or bad in any situation, GO any ware in the game right off but good luck with that.
Lastly ware this game shines most in my opinion its the combat. The violence is over the top to a point ware it walks this fine line between gore and funny. The V.A.T.S (Vault-tec assisted targeting system) brings a whole new element to this style of game. the V.A.T.S. take’s the live action game and makes it a role-play turned based style action sequence but does not take away from the live action. To see V.A.T.S. in action buy the game or look on the official fallout 3 website.
So all i have to say is if you are thinking of getting this game do it now right now sell your Kidney, or your right nut to get it, don’t miss out on this game!!
PS: People have been saying that they are experiencing glitches and freezes, i have not had any problem with this knock on wood. Also with the way things are these days regarding games i am sure their will be a patch releasing in the near Future to fix any current problems. Happy hunting and see you in the wastes.
Rating
through my many years of gaming ive never liked first person shooter (with very few exceptions) and ive only been a so-so fan of RPG’s. This game combines both elements flawlessly. The only thing i could say bad about it is that it is very addictive. You will say you will only play for an hour before you go to sleep, and then you will look at the clock and see its 4 in the morning. This game has a pretty compelling story, which keeps you playing. One of the only other games that combines these aspects as well is half-life. So if you want to go on a uniqe and exciting experiance i reccomend you buy this game.
Rating
The size of this game astounded me. The controls are tight and the graphics are amazingly detailed. The story is like one I haven’t heard in years. Completely recommended!
Rating
I love this game wholeheartedly and cant wait for the Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s Edition.
I do however recommend that if you have a capable PC to buy this game for PC and download the G.E.C.K. If you like to mod for games this is a great one to mod for. There is a huge community for modders for Fallout 3 and the things you can do are seemingly limitless. For example you can…
Add new perks, have ridable mounts, have new companions, new housing options, change the animations, add an expanded arsenal of weapons and armor, wear disguises to fool different factions.
It is a must in my opinion to play this game to its fullest.
Cheers,
Billy
Rating
This is my first Fallout game and I decided that the open world environment and VATS targeting system looking like a lot of fun so I gave it a shot, no pun intended. I have been absolutely amazed with the amount of content that is in this game. I think I am somewhere around 80 hours of playing time and I still have so many things to do in the game. This game is a lot of fun with a lot of great weapons, but I would caution that it is an absolute black hole for your free time. You will find yourself wanting to continue leveling up, finding new locations, and earning new perks whenever you possibly can. Every game that is $60 new should have this much content and freedom to be who you want to be in your game. Highly recommended as long as you don’t have any important upcoming projects. They won’t get done!
Rating
I must say that I was skeptical about this game when it came out. That turned around real fast after I actually bought the game and started playing it.
This game is so immersive that you feel like you are a part of this Post-Apocalyptic world that Bethesda created. Starting off as a baby and having choices of what you’re character is going to be like growing up is very unique. Not only do you feel like you know the whole story but you feel like you also want to help find the ending, especially once you get outside the vault.
To get a professional review go on Metacritic and see what everyone had to say about it but I will definitely recommend this game for anyone who is in the the RPG genre and maybe even those of you that aren’t. It will really open your mind as to what could possibly happen in the future of mankind, from the people you meet to the way things seem so…..desolate.
BUY IT!
Rating
While I have no background in Fallout lore, as this is my initial exposure to the franchise, I became completely enraptured with the Fallout 3 experience. Owning most of the best games of 2008 or at least renting the others, I have to say that Fallout 3 has been by far the most addictive game I’ve played all year.
Few games have ever shown the world as Fallout, which for the uninitiated consists of a nuclear devastated future that resembles a Cold War 1950′s era look melded with the post-apocalyptic scavenger culture seen in films like “The Road Warrior” or “Waterworld”. The atmosphere is incredible, and the first-person combat and VATS system, while perhaps sounding bland on paper, are often quite visceral and always engaging. The story hooked me, but it’s saying something that I finished all of the key side quests before I went halfway through the main campaign. That’s not at all saying that there are only a few sidequests; what I mean by that is that each of the numerous sidequests are as engaging as the main plot and kept me pursuing them before tackling more of the story.
It must be stated that Fallout 3 takes a serious time investment. There is a MEGATON (pun intentional) of content here for each that ventures into the DC wasteland. While many modern games cap out around 10 hours and warrant rentals, Fallout 3 can keep you entrenched in the wastelands for upwards of 100 hours if one so desires. I’m at around 50 hours, and there is still so much content waiting for me. The Karma system gives each player the ability to approach the game in numerous ways. You can play a scenario, reload, play it completely differently, and rinse and repeat. Each time is unique. Plus, playing the Xbox 360 version allows you the ability to download extra content in the coming months that will greatly extend the experience.
With money tight for many, out of all of the games you can spend a hardearned 60 bucks on, Fallout 3 is hard to beat. It will allow you the experience of surviving a ravaged, brutal landscape and immerse you in gameplay that is addictive and satisfying. Definitely worth a purchase for anyone looking for an immersive experience.
Rating
This version includes the Making of Fallout 3 DVD. In this DVD one of developer says that their intention is to keep productivity low, to make people take time off from work, and stay late at night playing the game. I believe they have succeeded.
Rating
First off, amazon shipping it outstanding and I love their great service.
Now for the game.
Bethesda did a great job keeping the Fallout series going. All the nostalgics of Fallout; Puns, References, Humor, Gore, and Pip-boy are all here.
The sand box feel of the game is great, I have played for 20 hours and realized I still have not even finished the first story-quest of the main story line yet. So I got back on track and then started rolling with the story, and the story is great how you can choose what and how you will finish it.
I still have not finished the game yet, I get side-tracked and want to save and do things a different way – which some may say is bad. Do not confuse my way of playing with a flaw in the game, it is very easy to stay on course with the story I just love all the ways to do it.
So in closing, this game gets a 100/100 and I recommend it to all Fallout fans, Oblivion fans, and all other game fans.
Rating
I’ve played Fallout 1,2 and tactics. This game is the ultimate evolution of the three previous versions. I just love the ability to be able to change between first-person and third person views and the V.A.T.S. targeting system is the perfect substitute for the turn-based combat from previous games. I find myself playing this game for what seems to be on hour and then looked up at the clock and five hours ago by. Time definitely flys by when playing this game.
Rating
This is one of the best games that I’ve ever played. It’s challenging and the graphics are top notch. I would recommend this to anybody anytime anywhere.
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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.
Rating
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
Rating
Been playing non-stop since I’ve got it. Living to to all my expectations and more
Rating
Please keep in mind that this is a review of the Xbox 360 version of the game. The reason that I went with a 360 purchase is because computer games are no longer able to be traded in or sold back at video game retail shops due to the complex codes and other reasons which at the moment I cannot recall. So, from a consumer’s standpoint, I choose the 360 version because of the potential resale or trade in value.
F3 does a great job with keeping true to the lofty standards set by the previous 2 Fallouts (not to mention Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, which many gamers have disliked, but I myself thoroughly enjoyed the game). Great stories, great quests and subquests and the exploration is fantastic. My review is biased because I am a huge fan of the Fallout series and I think Bethesda does a marvellous job of keeping true to the atmosphere and spirit of the series.
Given the state of RPGs available on the 360 Console, F3 is a great game. That being said, there was a slight lag in some parts of the game, (particularly during the endgame) not enough to be really frustrating though. In previous reviews the AI has been mentioned as being a little shoddy and I agree, but still it didn’t really detract from F3′s performance.
What I would really like to see happen in RPGs is a more dynamic environment. F3 delivers a little bit in this regard, as sometimes the NPC reactions change as you accomplish certain quests, but it wasn’t enough. This is a problem that I’ve seen in most console or computer RPGs. You as the player make a major change in the world but the aftermath leaves little if any impact on the lives of NPCs in the game.
I was very satisfied with F3 and I would recommend the purchase, especially if you’re a fan of the previous games. Also as has been noted in prior reviews, the game is rated M for a reason, so I wouldn’t recommend playing this in front of children.
Rating
Five stars means that once I start I cannot put the game down. Having lived in Washington DC for six years, I actually locate some of the buildings by memory. When I have a few minutes, I sit down just to advance my character along and suddenly find I am late for something else.
The non scripted path through the game is just fine as the individual quests are interesting and absorbing in and of themselves. Also, the inside jokes are well placed. The quest called THOSE is an obvious reference to the 1950s movie THEM, and the rogue android an obvious reference to Blade Runner.
The Guide for the game is hundreds of pages long which speaks to the depth of the game and the size of the map. While you should use a guide to supplement your playthrough, there is so much in the game that you would miss that it is worth using to catch the little extras that have been thrown in.
Overall, the Graphics are good but not as sharp as in some other releases, but believe me, once started you will not care. As with the other reviews, it should be clear that if this game sounds like something you would enjoy, then you will.
Rating
I’m going to do a full review of this product in the near future. This is more-so about the product itself, not the mechanics and things. I’ll start by saying the secuROM used (yes even though it is bad that it was used) is ONLY a disc check, and does NOTHING else, so don’t let it bother you. Anyway this game is incredible and totally worth the money for any system it is on. I’ll be making a true review covering the package of the collector’s edition and the dirt of gameplay soon, so look it up on all major game sites when it comes out.
Revenile
Rating
I am a newcommer to the Fallout universe and have never played either of the first two games. When Fallout 3 came out, I decided to give it a try. All I can say is…WOW!
You character starts out in Vault 101, and after a few segments of game play with your character growing up, the game finally begins when your father mysteriously leaves the vault. Having no choice, the character fallows his/her father’s trail.
I was truly impressed with the massive amount of content the game possessed. Although the game (if you follow from beginning to end with no side quests) is about 10 hours, I found myself spending over 65 hours in the Fallout 3 universe. I was amazed at the amount of quests, the choices your character can make, and the number of enemies you face in the game. Every choice your character makes will have an effect on other aspects of the game. When I first played the game, my character found a town full of slavers. After gunning them all down and freeing their helpless captives, I gained increadible Karma and was able to get into other locations in the world much easier due to my reputation.
The enemies are fun to fight to include the deadly Super Mutant, the Raiders, Slavers, and other wasteland inhabitants. The game does not work very well as an FPS, but I found that the VATS combat system more than made up for that. The enemies are smart and very accurate in their shooting. I found myself having to find cover more often than not and waiting until the enemy was reloading before firing back.
Also, the incredible “Perks” your character can aquire each time he/she levels up is amazing. If you want a little hint on which perks are the best to obtain try the following early on:
Level 2: Black Widow/Lady Killer – Makes your character more powerful when fighting the Opposite Sex. It also unlocks unique dialog options when speaking to the opposite sex.
Level 3: Swift Learner – Gain an additional 10% experience.
Level 4: Educated – Gain three more skill points every time your character levels up.
Level 5: Swift Learner – Also gain an additional 10% EXP points
Level 6: Swift Learner – Same as above.
Level 8: Commando – Makes two handed weapons more accurate (Do not waste your time with “Gunslinger” which makes single handed weapons more accurate as single handed weapons become useless later on in the game.)
Level 10: Here and Now – Gain an additional level up.
Level 11: Mysterious Stranger – A MUST HAVE!
Hope these help for new players. I made sure I maxed out my Swift Learner perk early as my experience I gained went up substantially. Instead of gaining 50 EXP for defeating an enemy, I gained 65 EXP!
Rating
Alright, so I am quite a bit late to the Fallout 3 bandwagon, but it is most definitely “better late then never”. This game is AWEEEEEEEESOMEEEEEEEEEEE.
Sooooo addictive and fun. Story line really sucks you into the game, and just love how you are truly free to do just about whatever you want to do in the game. (Except for those important people who go unconscious instead of die). Combat is cool, the “VATS” feature puts a nice twist in combat. Tons of weapons, items, quests, enemies…. couldn’t ask for more!!!
Rating
I had played Fallout 1 & 2 on the PC years ago and was very excited when I heard this was being released on the consoles so I could play on my couch instead of a chair.
This game doesn’t disappoint! It was so much fun and engrosing that you find yourself getting lost in all the optional side quests you can embark on! You have so many choices for missions too. You can be good, bad, or something in between!
I have only had around 3-5 freezes on my PS3 and thats having played this game over 100 hours since buying it on the day it was released. The trophy’s that you can earn add even more replay value on the PS3 because you have so many things you can do aside from just the regular story.
Best PS3 game I’ve bought so far and I’ve bought most of the big titles (eg. GTA4)
Rating
This is hands down the best game I’ve probably ever played. Everything about Fallout 3 is incredible. The graphics aren’t the best, but the amount of detail and content definitely makes it a great looking game. The VATS system is awesome and works well. A lot of people don’t seem to like the third person view, but I’ve been playing the whole game in 3rd person, and it’s completely fine. You can zoom in on the character and it reminds me of Resident Evil. I really can’t get into 1st person shooters, so I was very happy that they put in a 3rd person perspective. There’s plenty of people and creatures to interact with and kill. It’s cool that you have the choice to play good, bad or somewhere in the middle. This is the kind of game that you don’t put down, and when you do put it down, all you can think about is picking it back up. Everything about this game is amazing. Now, it does have it’s share of minor glitches, but what game doesn’t? This game is definitely worth the $60 bucks and it never gets boring.
Rating
I’ve been reading the reviews for this game, and I think they do Fallout 3 justice. I just want to reiterate/add a couple of points. First, I think the reason the two radio stations play such a short track list is because it kind of forces you to switch stations when you’re tired of one set, giving you a reverse perspective from the “other” side’s spoken propaganda. That having been said, it is kind of annoying to have only a few songs on loop for both stations.
Second, the game is amazing because of its incredible replay value. I’ve bought about a dozen PS3 games over the past 6 months, and this is the first one that I will play again and again. I beat the game without completing a fraction of the missions or exploring a fraction of the locations, and I refuse to leave it that way (because it’s such an engaging experience all-around). I also intend to explore the game from different sides of the karma coin as well.
Kudos on a brilliant game with only minor flaws. Yes, I wish it would let you continue to play after you beat the game, but I refuse to hold that against the game itself. Yes, the game locked/froze up on me two or three times while I was playing which was infuriating. In the end, I still loved this game.
Rating
This game is seriously the most fun and enjoyable game I have played in a long, long time. The storyline is engaging, the combat fun, and the quality of the landscapes and the humorous “in jokes” are great. Things like the dog having the name from the Road Warrior movies, and “The Family” being taken straight out the Omega Man movie all make this game dark, enthralling, but fun at the same time.
I truly do not know why so many people have problems with the game. It is easily the best hybrid of a FPS and an RPG that I’ve played. I truly believe the problem is that most people look at the minimum requirements for their PC. To me this was very similar to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. I too had numerous problems with that game under the minimum requirements, but one I upgraded the PC to the recommended level, the game was flawless. If you upgrade the ram over 2 gigs and have a 512 mb graphic card then you show have no problem. I am running the game in 1080p high definition over an HDMI cable to a high def monitor. The game is stunning and has not crashed on me once. I have currently played through 9 levels of advancement and have not had an error.
Rating
First a bit of history. I have been a Fallout fan since the first games came out oh so long ago. I made my name as the Vault Dweller searching for that most elusive Water Chip in Fallout 1 and then kept the legend alive as the ‘Chosen one’ in 2. As a fan I cringed when the first iteration of Fallout 3 (now known by its codename ‘Vanburen’) was cancelled. I feared for one of my most beloved game series…and then I heard that Bethesda had scored the rights. I was overjoyed, ecstatic, and (to be honest) a bit worried. Sure, the company had done well with Oblivion but could it be trusted to match the context and feel of such a rich and diverse (all be it simply rendered in its isometric predecessors) setting as the post-apocalyptic wastes of Fallout?
Well, after playing through this game, I must say ‘Yes!’, it did.
The game looks and feels like what it should: A 3d adaptation of a 2d game. It’s system is easy to grasp (both controls and character advancement) and the world is so vast it will have you wondering around for days with things to do.
My favorite part: The intro. Never before have I seen such a unique character set up in a game. This game literally starts at the VERY beginning (trust me, I’m not going to ruin it for you…you’ll see what I mean) and progresses logically with stat selection and skill spreads.
My least favorite part: The ending (Figures). While I’m not going to say too much, the ending of the game leaves a lot to be desired and some logic holes (not going to spoil it, but ‘Hey, guy who isn’t hurt by radiation, you wanna…IDK, get in there?), but if you have the 10 extra bucks to spend, go ahead and grab the “Broken Steel” expansion (If you do this, stay away from the scrapyard until after you beat the main storyline of the game as one of the coolest NPCs will be super boosted.
Something cool that could be better: the V.A.T.S. targeting is pretty cool, but its got some holes in it that makes it annoying at times and it really doesn’t replace the FPS system as a way to play through combat like I was led to believe. Its a great addition and help to the combat, but its really there for sniping shots and taking your time with a target, but Action points (even with a high agility and the action boy perk)seem to run out with a quickness. I have an issue with this not being more developed into the system maybe as an alternative to the fps combat ONLY because this was such a major part of the first game.
Well thats all I have for now. If you play this game, you will enjoy it.
Rating
I literally spend so much time playing this game it’s like having a second job, where I wander the wastes and make things go splat. The world is huge, I’ve been playing like 25 hours a week and still haven’t been everywhere. It also looks beautiful on my HDTV. It’s everything I hoped from a new installment in the Fallout series. It’s worth $60 easy
Rating
The Wasteland is huge so you probably won’t visit every area on the map on your first play-through. There’s a great variety in the skills you can give your character: you can have a “soldier” character who excels in bringing down foes with every gun in the game or a “ninja” character who excels in stealth, melee and unarmed combat. The Fallout 3 web site has some “recipes” for character builds that’s good to read before building a character.
In Fallout 3, your character can “hack” computer terminals by selecting words from a memory dump on the computer terminal. Normally you can make up to 4 attempts. What I did not know is that you can make THREE attempts then press the Red button on the terminal to cancel that “session”. This way you can access the terminal again. You can keep doing this as long as you never go beyond the maximum 4 attempts. You will WANT to be able to unlock every terminal because it may result in deactivating some turrets or activating a Protectron guard that will help you with enemies.
Also, as you explore buildings and underground terrain, you will encounter many locked doors that will require a high “lockpick” skill to open them. You will want to keep track of these. These don’t always contain good loot but sometimes they do (e.g., the power fist). If your “lockpick” skill is high enough (e.g., 80 or more) and you run out of bobby pins, you can simply the force the lock and usually it will open.
If you like gratuitous blood and gore, there’s a “perk” that your character can earn to significantly increase the amount of blood and gore that is displayed when your character kills an enemy. I found that to be extremely fun initially but after doing it a dozen times, it kind of felt too over the top. Your enemy literally explodes into many small bits of flesh. Sometimes, the bits are too small to find so it takes a while to find one to loot your enemy.
The quests in Fallout 3 contain one or more Optional objectives. These optional objectives are more difficult but are definitely worth attaining. For example, Moira Brown’s quests don’t look very interesting at first but for example one of the quests allows your character to gain a useful ability that will enhance survival.
The difficulty of the enemies you encounter in the Wasteland increases as your character levels up. I don’t recommend that you level up too quickly. Try to explore the Wasteland while you are still at a low level because at higher levels, the really big enemies start appearing and they will make exploring outdoors dangerous.
Eventually, your character will have a home. I bought the “Vault” house theme and the jukebox for around 1500 or 2000 caps but sadly they were NOT worth the money. Save the money for guns and ammo (e.g., Fat Man and Mini Nukes) or stimpaks.
Save all the Nuka Cola bottles, Nuka Cola Quantum bottles, Holo-tags and Pre-war books you find. Resist the urge to drink or sell them.
Try not to press the “E” key all the time because if an item is in the crosshairs and the item’s label is red, your character will instantly grab the item and this will anger any NPCs next to your character. Moira Brown’s shop is littered with items. I made the mistake of hitting “E” and my character grabbed something off the counter. Afterwards, Moira’s guard started shooting at my character. It’s kind of ridiculous but I guess there’s no way for the game to distinguish between casually picking something up to look at it and stealing something.
For me, the biggest pluses of this game are the appearance of the outdoor environments, NPCs and buildings. Everything looks beat up and run down and it all fits with the game’s setting. The music from your Pip Boy is ironic but really catchy. It’s great when the song “Butcher” plays while you’re mowing down super mutants with a minigun. The irradiated monsters and NPCs in the game are truly grotesque and many of them just lunge at you. I did not became comfortable seeing a centaur even after seeing so many of them. The creature design lends a lot to the feeling of danger when your character is out in the Wasteland. These elements all effectively build up the feeling of immersion in the in-game world.
This game is a 5 out of 5.
Rating
I have been following the Fallout series since the first Fallout came out back in 1997. As you can imagine, when I heard that a third installment of the game was coming out, with HD graphics, I knew I had to check it out!! Now, for me personally, I decided to go with the PS3 version simply because my PC is not powerful enough to play it there. Honestly, from the many hours I have put into the game, I cannot readily tell the difference between the different platforms!! But it looks excellent on the PS3.
Gameplay is very much the same as the previous two Fallout games. You start out in your safe vault and after “something” happens, your vault “kicks” you into the harsh post apocalyptic world created by the nuclear wars. In this game, your playground is the ruins of Washington D.C.!!! As many others have mentioned, the first time you see this ruined world is simply stunning!! And from there, you pretty much explore the area, finding communities scattered across the wasteland, talking to everyone, finding/solving quests, and fighting enemies. Yes, the M rating on this game is well warranted. The blood/gore is there and it’s not afraid to show itself
Another great aspect of this game is the choices you can make. Every conversation has a positive and negative spin to it, so you can choose how you want to handle it. Obviously, choosing positive paths makes you a “good” guy, and the negative one makes you a “bad” guy. This is all represented by how much karma your character has. This time around, it DOES affect your interactions with certain characters. Some NPC’s may not travel with you if you have too much good karma, and likewise if you have too much bad karma. It’s just fun experimenting to see where you end up at from minute to minute. This is easier said then done thanks to the ability to save as often as you’d like. Again, it all makes for good, experimental gameplay.
So far, I have logged over 10 hrs into this game and have been faithfully exploring the ruins of downtown Washington D.C.!! I’m not even sure if I’ve completed any “important” quests yet or not, but I’m in no hurry. There is just so much to see and do in this game. By far, this is the most expansive game I have seen for the PS3.
One final note, many people have discussed certain glitches in this game and I do agree with them as I myself have been affected many times by them. Not 100% what is causing the glitches, but the most common one I have been affected by is when gameplay stops and a message pops up saying you have been disconnected from the network. Well, that was an easy fix. I turned off my Internet and that went away
But besides that there other minor issues and hopefully a patch will take care of that.
Overall, this game is an excellent buy. They did everything right in this one, while retaining many of the aspects of the original Fallout’s that many of us have come to know. Best of all, you do not need to have played the previous two Fallout’s to know what’s going on in the third game. This storyline/plot is completely new. And once the minor glitches are patched out, this game should definitely be in the running for game of the year!!
Rating
To be honest, I’m going to start off this review by revealing something about myself. In my group of friends, I’m the only one who just downright doesn’t like RPG’s. I’ve attempted to play many in the past and have come out disappointed with every single one in the end. But Fallout held something new for me.
A lot of my friends will point to the fact that it was not turn based as I have very little patience for turn based games. I thoroughly enjoyed Oblivion and this game QUICKLY became one of my top 3 favorite games on the Xbox 360 console.
The things I loved about this game number in the many. So I’ll start with the pro’s.
-While a lot of people have complaints about the V.A.T.S. system and while I can definitely see the point being made, the system enables you to focus in on a particular body part/weapon and attempt to disable that body part/weapon with a much more accurate shot than if you didn’t use the system at all.
-The PipBoy was one of the better item management tools I’ve seen in a game to date. It was the go-to gadget for your stats, weapons, clothes, maps, radio stations, etc, etc..
-The music in this game was big for me. I’m not really a fan of the era of music being played but I have to admit, a part of me loved listening to these little tunes over and over again. However, there is also a con to the music and I will list it below.
-The main questline, while relatively quick to get through if you did nothing but focus on it, was a deep story which immediately drew me into the game and kept me playing for hours.
While I have many more pros, I don’t want people to be reading for hours so lets skip to the cons…
-The music, while I enjoyed listening to it, I do believe more tracks could’ve been added. When you’ve roamed the Wasteleands for as much time as I have, it tends to get kind of annoying.
-I understand that Washington D.C. has been ruined by a nuclear war, but the fact that almost everything in the inner-D.C. ruins was only accessible by a series of confusing tunnels was a bit annoying. I found myself spending more time in the deep, dark tunnels than I did breathing in post-nuclear war air.
And really, those are the two major cons I have with this game. Otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this game. I told my group of friends I wouldn’t even touch this game and to this day I’m the only one out of my group who actually got addicted to it.
Hope this helps!
Rating
I have just finished the game after spending about 25 hours on it. I didn’t level my character all the way to 20 nor did I even come close to finishing all the side quests or finding all the areas on the map.
High points:
Game detail is stunning to say the least. The atmosphere, soundtrack, and overall experience is one of the best I have seen. The only drawback are some of the character / NPC animations that are not as smooth as I have seen elsewhere. Secondly, the wasteland, vaults, destroyed towns, subways, and the greater DC area are exceptional. The level of detail these guys put into this is simply amazing. Additionally, this for me is what clearly separates and places this above Oblivion. The graphics are a notch higher, and the feel of the game is so much more engrossing.
Quests. The main questline is excellent, however very short. The sub-quests and side quests I have played are also very interesting with some really interesting plot lines and goals. You also get some great rewards for completing many of them.
Combat is a huge step ahead of Oblivion and IMO is much better than the previous fallout games. Its similar to the old Tactics game where you can play in real time than switch over to turn based. However Fallout 3 is much more fluid. In addition, with VATS you can add a lot more strategy to what you do, versus the old swing madly and back up or side step like is the standard fare in Oblivion. One of the best aspects of the game.
Leveling system. If you are familiar with the fallout SPECIAL and perk system than you will be familiar with this. They did some tweaking (anyone miss the gifted trait??) however it does much more to balance the game out. After playing for awhile I am glad they ditched the traits and gave you a perk every level. Also capping skills at 100 was the best way to go with the level cap.
Re-playability is excellent. After I finished the game as a virtuous sharpshooter I started a new character that is a melee bad karma master. Its a lot different and I am still having a great time with it.
Low Points:
Buddy AI. Later in the game you start to get followers that will tail you around and help with combat. The AI they use, while 80% of the time is fine, can sometimes be a big pain in the neck. Example is that my aforementioned character was a sniper. So I stealthed around to pop critical headshots whenever possible. Even after telling my follower to use ranged weapons, often she would charge ahead with her super sledge and engage in melee. So I couldn’t get a clear shot and have to maneuver around to find an angle.
Game difficulty. After you get your power armor and plasma rifle, you 1-2 shot just about everyone. I had to put the difficulty up just to make it more challenging. In addition, when you have your mini-gun wielding companion, the difficulty generally takes a turn to the easy side as well. You can put the game up to very hard difficulty which is challenging, however I think they should have tweaked it a bit more to level it out at the same difficulty level.
I also have a small gripe with some of the perks. It seems that as you level some of the perks you get higher up just aren’t worth much and some make you very powerful. It would have been nicer to see more perks that opened up more quest lines or portions of the game that would have not been available otherwise to balance out some of the purely combat enhancement oriented perks.
Another petty complaint is that you pop heads off of baddies like a drunk popping caps off a free case of bud light. Pretty soon every critical hit is a head flying through the air. Cmon DEVS!! I wanna see… something different once in awhile….
Noted Complaints from some other reviews.
I have played both the PC and the XBOX 360 version. If you have the machine for it, then get the PC version. The graphics on the highest setting are unbelievable and much better than the XBOX version. Also, DOWNLOAD it. If you get it from Direct2Drive or a similar vendor you don’t have the DRM / disk check hassle that everyone has been QQing about.
Crashes and bugs. Didn’t notice any on the XBOX version and had 2 crashes on the PC version. Both occurred at transition load points and both occurred after an auto save (the game auto saves A LOT)so it was not a hassle at all. The game was much more stuttery and had sluggish load times on the XBOX while compared to the much more fluid experience on the PC (another reason why I recommend this version).
Ammo, automap, and other gameplay issues. It seems from some of the other reviews that some people have been having issues with having not enough ammo, weapons, etc. I didn’t have much of an issue with this. If you run out of ammo, find a small town, and go raider hunting. Loot – sell – buy ammo from stores / traveling merchants and BAM! you have much more ammo than you can shoot. I was selling the stuff later on cause I had so much to spare.
The map can be a hassle because it is a linear, single level affair and often your subways/buildings/ruins you are questing through are multi-level and not projected in 3D on your map. Hey, it adds to the challenge. It lets you know the quest ends at the top NW corner of the map for instance, but doesn’t lead you by the nose to get there. Only one quest had me really pissed off – a multi floor warren of half collapsed sky scraper in downtown DC. But other than that they were pretty much straight forward.
As far as not having a bed, nowhere to repair, blah blah blah these people didn’t play the game very much or just didn’t understand it. There are quests to get your own house, decorate it, your own room in a hotel, etc.. Also, you can repair your own items from like items you loot or pay vendors. I don’t understand how anyone with half a brain who has played the game for more than 2 hours can really complain about any of that.
Overall, I don’t think the negatives impact on the overall experience much. I enjoyed the experience and place the game right next to Planescape: Torment as one of my top 2 fav RPGs of all time. Highly recommended.
Rating
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.
Rating
I enjoy this game on a daily basis. It’s incredibly addicting and engrossing. It’s another spectacular game from Bethesda Software redeeming themselves from their not so good Star Trek game some time ago which was also for the 360. Fallout 3 presents a shattered world, a wasteland after a nuclear apocalypse. And you basically have the main quest where you search for your father “follow in his footsteps” or you have a seemingly endless variety of side quests and different story archs to explore. It’s a long in depth game that’s not entirely suited to the casual gamer. My biggest thing is that this game is a satisfying adventure from beginning to end. It’s not ridiculously easy or ridiculously hard (unless you encounter a Super Mutant Giant and you only have ammno for your puny laser pistol left) and there is actual freedom and sandbox play unlike Fable 2 that promised it but didn’t deliver. Peter Molyneux ought to take some lessons from the folks at Bethesda Soft on how to make a truly enduring and rich game experience. It’s not simply graphics and some elementary crap about growing up and making one dimensional moral choices. Perhaps comparing this to Fable 2 isn’t entirely fair but in my game chest Fable 2 was beaten in one days time and on the shelf indefinitely, I may trade it in towards a purchase of Dead Space or something. I intend to play Fallout 3 for a very very long time.
Rating
As I work my way through various PS3 games I came across Fallout 3. $20, why not? At first I was dismayed because I’ve played games in the past where you “interact” with the characters and have forced conversations where you can ask different questions, yet ultimately must ask one specific question in order to get the answer/information you seek. Fallout 3 is similar to this, yet not so linear. After I pushed through this style of game, I found that I was absolutely hooked.
You emerge from Vault 101 after “growing up” to a world that was destroyed by nuclear warfare in order to look for your father. This is the main storyline and one that you could probably follow fairly quickly if you so wanted, provided you have the correct weapons to get to some of the more mutant infested areas. But this game is so much more. It is a huge open world with countless locations to discover. You can chose to go on quests and chose whether you want to be the good guy or the bad guy. The game is wide open on how you want to handle it (with the main quest being the one linear quest that has, ultimately, the same outcome no matter how you play). I played for 82 hours and discovered over 100 locations and still could have played for over 20 more hours if I wanted as there were still numerous locations and items and quests to be obtained and accomplished. Where else could you have 80+ hours of entertainment for under $20? The only reason why I ultimately ended the game was because I was so addicted to playing it that I neglected all my other games. So beat it I did so that I may pick up Assassin’s Creed 2 again.
I must say that I wholeheartedly recommend this game. That being said, Fallout 3 may not be for everyone. It is a very long game and the action/quest sequences can be drawn out at times. If you are a here and now gamer, or a first person shooter that has more immediate results, than this game would not be for you. The world is a little restricting, despite being wide open, as there are areas that you have to completely backtrack through in order to get to it, even though you can see where you want to go on the other side of the rubble. So there are some limiting factors that purposefully make the game what it is, but if you don’t like those than you will not like this game.
One of my all time favorite PS3 games and I would recommend it to any that ask. I, for one, cannot wait for Fallout: New Vegas.
5 stars.
Rating
I loved fallout 2 when it came out. I was a young boy of only 14 and it was very frustrating, but I loved that game. This game lives up to that and beyond! The art direction blows my mind, I personally love the V.A.T.S. system, and special is so much fun to tinker with. My only gripe is that it isn’t long enough. I wish it went on forever. Might be in my top ten games of all time.
Rating
Fallout 3 is not without flaws, but is incredibly fun despite them. While you could rush through the game in 10-15 hours, the freedom to explore means that you could be playing for up to 100.
Pros:
The game revolves around your exploration of the world. There’s a main quest line, which is pretty basic, but that’s not the point of the game. The main story can be completed quickly, and only picks up towards the middle. However, there are thousands of stories in Fallout 3, some you encounter via going through the main quest, and some you encounter by exploring a location you saw in the distance. You may find raiders attempting to infiltrate a Vault, or a mad scientist trying to play god, or a cult run by a dictator, or ex-slaves trying to start a new life. Discovering these stories, and thus learning about the world, is the true joy of Fallout.
The writing is excellent, and really fleshes out the world. Some dialog options are the standard good / bad, while others let you have some fun by being aggressive, seductive, snide, etc. Sure, the outcomes are usually the same, but the choice makes it easier, and more fun, to play a role.
There is a lot of variety in how you complete quests. The outcomes are generally either good or bad, but there are many ways to get the same thing done, and some perks / companions that reward being neutral. You can do quests through dialog, usually in at least a couple ways, or through force, stealth, or some combination of the above. You can also be pretty crafty with how to get things done, if you think outside the box. For example, before entering a fight with a large force, you could sneak in and steal the enemies’ ammo, or plant mines in their path.
What you see is what you can get to. If you see something in the distance, you can get there and explore it. This creates a very rich, realistic world, and inspires you to explore. There’s usually something interesting in every location. You benefit greatly from raising the draw distance on the graphics settings.
Mods breathe life into Fallout. There’s a wide variety of mods available, with some making small but tasteful changes, while others create whole new quest lines, new NPC interactions, and alternative routes for level advancement. Mods can add a wonderful amount of gameplay to Fallout.
The graphics are great, and can be maxed out on older systems. I have a 3 year old system, a 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo with an 8800 GTS 640MB video card, and the game runs at 35-60fps with the graphics set to the highest draw distance.
Sound is equally good, with surprisingly good voice acting, considering how many characters there are in the game, and that every line of dialog has been recorded. Music suffers for being repetitive, but there are enough ambient environment sounds in the game to warrant playing with the radio off.
Cons:
Bugs. The game will crash to desktop. There will be days when it never crashes, and then there will be days that it crashes several times in one night. The auto-saves / quick-saves make it less annoying, but it will happen, even with the fan-made patch installed. The game is fun enough that I played through the crashes. There are also smaller bugs, such as an occasional body requiring a save / reload before you can loot it, or some dialog conversations that mention things you don’t know, or ignoring things you did. Nothing too bad, but not ideal.
Challenge. While the first half of the game feels challenging, it gradually becomes easier and easier, until you feel like your character is nigh-unstoppable demi-god. While you can increase the difficulty of the game, some Perks seem too good, and I was surprised at how easy the combat in the 2nd half of the game was, even for social characters that focused on speech and charisma. Likewise, I like that all skills find a use, but replay and choice feels diminished when you’re able to max several skills by lvl 20.
Rating
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.
Rating
A great game, even if a little dark. The environment is beautifully done, and the quests are fun. What I really like, though, is how much choice the player has in how to do quests, and what type of character to be. I just got to the highest level as a good character, but I’m thinking of replaying the game as an evil character, so the replay value here is very high.
Rating
This game will suck you in and not spit you out for a long time. The open-ended, ‘sandbox’ design will always leave you wanting to check out just one more area, or talk to one more character, or kill one more Raider before you turn it off.
Rating
Fallout, much like it’s brethren the Elder Scrolls games: Morrowind and Oblivion, is a fantastic way to waste a heck of a lot of time. The graphics are great, the sound is great, the gameplay is great. The VATS system is an excellent augmentation to the ranged combat system which is vastly more important than in the other two Bethesda offerings. The variety in dialogue options is a fair amount of fun, and there’s quite a lot of miscellaneous stuff to do. BUT, it falls on it’s face a bit in terms of story. The main plot line is shallow and short. There isn’t really any character development outside of leveling up. Even your dog just isn’t that endearing. And, to be perfectly honest, this game could be a lot bigger all the way around. This shouldn’t surprise me since Oblivion was smaller than Morrowind, and this is just a continuation of the trend, but all the hype I’d heard made it out to be a massive game.
I still strongly recommend this game, I just think it could have been much more. I’m sure the upcoming DLC will help, but it would be nice for someone to try a little harder to marry the great stories of traditional RPGs with the technical prowess of the new generation.
Rating
I love this game. I preordered it in 2007, and it was worth the wait.
The only thing I can’t stand is that “nvlkkmdm has stopped working and has recovered” thing, which, one, is really just an issue with my lappy, and two, forces me to save a lot, but as anyone who’s an RPG fan knows, this is vital to survival.
Hey Bethesda. You’d better have some expansion packs in the works !!!!!!
Pretty please.
Rating
I always remembered when playing (and replaying) Fallout 1 & 2 of the inordinate amount of time spent on the character creation screen, especially when deviating from my favorite character type (slick talking sniper with a penchant for picking locks). I’d end up spending 15 minutes to as much as an hour fiddling around with the numbers before finally clicking done.
Bethesda captures the essence of that internal debate in their version of S.P.E.C.I.A.L and G.O.A.L. As I walked out the vault door and I was asked to “click done”, that’s when I knew. This is indeed Fallout 3.
Debates on DRM/Securom. Installation and technical problem posts on forums. Risk of a new company restarting a discontinued, but beloved franchise. Like others, I was waiting for the jury verdict as all these issues and more were being laid out before me.
On the whole DRM/Securom issue, ever since EA became the poster child of the greedy corporate capitalism at its worst, DRM/Securom became an ugly word no company wanted to be associated with in any form and shape. It didn’t excuse Bethesda’s evasive and a bit misleading reply of a “simple disc check” but at the same time, and rightfully so, they were trying to differentiate themselves from the direction that EA choose to go. And it was indeed a step in the right direction where they tried to respect the consumers as much their investment.
Unfortunately it seemed like this distinction would get lost amidst the witch hunt of DRM/Securom it has lately become. Judging by the forum, it got blamed for everything including installation crashes, bugs, freezes, the kitchen sink, 8 years of Bush/Cheney and the Wall Street meltdown. And I admit this was a big sticking point for me too, if I had run into some of the frustrations these people had getting the game installed, I’d be holding the proverbial pitchfork joining the angry mob. Instead for me, it was a flawless installation. Gameplay to date has been free of crashes and freezes, knock on wood. And my computer is approaching its 3 year cycle, and I was one of those holding the pitchfork when Gothic 3 came out bemoaning all its bugs and freezes on the same said computer.
My biggest concern – is this really Fallout 3? A work of love or simply an attempt by one company to profit from another company’s sweat? After becoming immersed for hours far beyond the intended initial testing phase, I knew I was not going to be disappointed. Sleep deprived on Monday morning perhaps.
I had previously begun replaying Fallout & Fallout2 weeks before the imminent release of Fallout 3 to remind myself just exactly why I had fallen in love with this series and to curb my impatience as I waited for the above dusts to settle. (Learned my lesson after Gothic 3.) In the end, I believe Bethesda paid a sincere homage in the form of a worthy sequel that captured the spirit of the Fallout franchise. It also set a counter precedent against EA and to broadbrush Bethesda with companies like EA in the same stroke is unfair and gives those companies who are trying to treat their customer right no credit.
Rating
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.
Rating
First of all the fallout series began with the developer Interplay. They developed the first 2 games in the series. The highly regarded Bethesda Studios took over the project of Fallout 3. The backround of the story is set in around 1960. America has advanced in nuclear technology and is attacked. This leaves nearly the entire Nation in a Nuclear Holocaust. You start the game in an underground vault which served as a Fallout shelter for the people. Outside in the wasteland are hideously mutated creatures. It is a dangerous world to be exploring in.
GRAPHICS:
Bethesda Studios Created the Elder Scroll series including the Game of The Year winner Oblivion and Morrowind. Following the tradition of open world gameplay and the go wherever do whatever you want gameplay is Fallout 3. The game itself in terms of graphics is stunning. There are so many objects on the screen at once and houses and buildings are filled with assortments. Within all this polish are some issues as well. Coming across as floating rocks, Stiff character animations, and some slowdowns in the frame rate. Texture pop up can also be an issue. Non of these really take away from the overall experience.
Audio:
The sound design is also top notch. Voice overs are very well done too. Every gun sounds different in the game from the blast of a shotgun to the discharge of an laser Rifle. There are alot radio stations you can listen to. Which plays music from the 50s and also a violin station. The score adds to the suspense and high flying action with haunting music hitting at all the right times.
Gameplay/Controls:
One of the major selling points of the game is the V.A.T.S. or Vault Tech Assistant Targeting System. With a weapon equiped you simply target an enemy, select a body part, the watch the slow motion kill cam. This is where the game gets very graphic in terms of violence and blood. With heads exploding and organs falling out. Parents be warned THIS IS NOT A GAME FOR KIDS!!! The language is very harsh too. There is a huge selection of weapons and types. Anyone who played Oblivion should feel welcome here. You can finish the main quest in about 20-30 hours but exploring every thing will go well past 100 hours.
*****Be warned after completing the main quest the game ENDS you cant play anymore. So if you want to get the most out of the game try doing some side quests in between main objectives. They can be very rewarding*****
*****Also be sure to save often, while rare there are some game ending glitches. I would recommend having at least 5 saves per character and to save every to minutes to avoid this*****
Overall this game gets a 10/10 With the extra downloadable content coming in the future it adds more to the score.
Rating
Had not played Fallout 1 or 2 before this game but couldn’t resist getting it from reading the reviews and learning what the game was like. I have been playing it now for about 25 hours and love it! If you like RPG’s or FPS’s I think you will like this game. You can opt to level to auto level up or do it manually for the D&D crowd. I also got the 464 page game guide! There is so much to do and see in this game it’s amazing. One of the best game purchases I have made in years!
Rating
First, this game is not an FPS. It as an RPG with some FPS elements. If you have ever played Fallout 1/2 then you’ll be familiar with the basic system of perks and skill point allocation, with some small tweaks of course. Second, Oblivion has to be mentioned I guess. My biggest gripe with that game was the leveling system. Thank god that it’s gone. I gotta say the novelty of perks in 1 and 2 hasn’t lost its charm in 3 (Cannibalism anyone? lol) Third, I honestly can’t think of much that I don’t like in the game. Not being able to really see a frontal of your character with different weapons and armor kinda sucks, but you do see some of that in the VATS slo-mo. Oh and I’ve seen reviews saying you can finish the main quest in about 10 hours and saying that is too short. Well maybe, but the game isn’t meant to played like that. I have played maybe 8 hours so far, and have made no progress towards the main plot and don’t feel like I need to. It’s all about soaking in the world, making moral decisions on a whim, and exploring the nooks and crannies of the wastes! Can’t wait until work is over to go play:)
Rating
This hands down is the greatest RPG of all time. I have never played a game with such an GAINT map and not to mention you can practically go inside every building. I can see alot of RPG’s maps starting to be as massive as Fallout’s. All of the DLC is great some is pretty short but if you are really into the game I recamend getting all of them especally Broken Steel. The story is great and the post nucular war setting is so much fun and all the options you can choose from such as being good or bad just makes the game more awesome. I think everyone should have a copy of this game! Keep up the good work Bethesda!!!
Rating
I just picked up the Fallout 3 Collectors edition and it is completely worth it. Some people are complaining that it contains SecuROM, and while it does, it is only used as a CD check. The Activation and Installation limits that are causing the controversy with BioShock, Spore, Red Alert 3, etc. are not used here. I have seen people complain that the developers lied when they said “there will be no DRM”, “only a cd check just like Oblivion”, etc. Well, Oblivion used SecuROM as well, and just like fallout 3, is was only used for the cd check.
No installation limits, no activations, just pop in the disc, install and play, reinstall to your hearts content with only a CD Check like just about every other game until the recent rash of activation.
It has a nice way of walking the player through character creation, by playing through a select set of events during the characters birth, childhood, and eventual escape from Vault 101, making it approachable even for people who are not familiar with RPG’s. What each skill set and bonuses do is cleanly explained and laid out. As the game progresses your character continues to develop. Decisions made early on impact what sorts of quests are available later on. This is definately a game that should be played several times through to explore all the different paths and options with virtually infinate replayability.
Being from the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, it is interesting, if a bit creepy, to explore the bombed out ruins of the area I live and work.
Fallout 3 has lived up the the promises and anticipation, both in terms of minimal DRM/Copy Protection, as well as the game itself with it’s wonderful graphics that can still scale down, infinite replayability, good game mechanics, etc.
Rating
This game is a wonderfully made, open type game similar to games like Bioware’s Balder’s Gate II on the PC (NOT to be confused with the crappy series on the PlayStation) and Knights of the Old Republic.
It gives you free reign to decide all of the actions that your character will make, and the consequences. Good guys AND Bad guys, REJOICE! That bad character you’d like to kill in the beginning because you know he’s going to harass you later on, kill him! Want to never spend a dime by pickpocketing, you can do that too! It’s a great game.
Rating
So one day (back in 08) i decided to go to gamestop, I get there and see a giant figure of a guy in an armor (couldn’t have cared less), sometime later i see a game with that same figure on the cover called Fallout 3 and once again… i coulnd’t have cared less. Days later I went to one of my friend’s house and found him playing it, he had just bought it. My friend later decides to take all of his games over to my house so we could play for a while, it got a bit late and when it was time for him to leave, he had just decided to leave the games at my house and pick them up some other time. After a few days of just looking at the games just sitting around I decided to pop in the game to check it out. At first I felt like -ok, ill just play for a while, see what the point of the game is and than goes off. After that while had passed, I said -ok, just a little bit more… After that other while had passed, I had realized I had fallen in love with this game. Unfortunately for me, my friend picked up the game a couple of days after i started playing, but of course, i bought later.
So after inserting the game in my xbox I chose to create New Game… obviously…. a little intro of the kind of place ill be adventuring in shows, than i hear a baby crying who was just borned just to find out thats the character ill be using throughout the game. Than my “dad”, whose voice seemed very familiar (Liam Neeson from Taken), tells me about this monitor that shows the way i’ll look once im a grown up. These is where we get to choose our facial aspects, hair, race, and of course, our name. Dad talks to us for a while than an unfortunate event happens. Right after that, a year or so passes by. We are made to believe we will always be living inside a vault where people will be protected from the outside world. I find myself still a baby in a room, dad talks to me and than leaves the room, right here we get to choose our S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills (Strenght, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) , which determine what aspects we want to be stronger on. After we’re done with this, dad walks in and than tells us about a passage from the bible (revelation 21:6), which is of major importance to the game. After a few years, I get a birthday party, interact with some people, blah blah blah, than Im introduced to a watch-like artifact called the Pip-boy 3000 which is received to everyone at the age of 10 to people living in the vault, this specific object plays a major role in the game. A few years pass and now, I am obligated to go and take an exam which will determine another set of skills which work differently than the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills, these ones determine how effective we can be with guns, melee weapons, medicine, speeches, lockpicking, repairing, sneaking, and others. Some are also affected by your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills. Once again, a few years pass and now, I seem to be in some sort of trouble, to put it simple, a series of events happen that will causes my character to have to leave the vault and see the outside world for the first time. From there on, Im on my own…
After leaving the vault I felt greatly awed by the amazing environment, kinda like if i was living the game from my television set. Right from there I felt such freedom. For example, we see a whole bunch of places from far away and we get the feeling of need to go and explore it, we get there and scavenge around for exciting thing to find. While walking around, we will also find some enemies which will give us some trouble during our first levels of the game, but after earning some exp and leveling up, these morons should reconsider firing us at site.
The games pase goes as we will, we could either choose to help someone in need, get on with the story, or explore around the capital wasteland scavenging for weapons, medicine, clothing, miscellaneous, books, and a whole lot of other stuff that will aid us in the adventure. When facing enemies, i can compare the shooting to bioshock, and the close and personal to oblivion. Of course, we also have VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), which automatically pauses the game and allows us to aim for different parts of the enemies body, it depends on how close we may be to the enemy and/or our level of our guns/melee skills that determine our chances of hitting. VATS will come continiously handy to us on the wasteland, not only that but it also provides some really amazing, constantly gory cinematics.
To wrap it up, I just want to say that there has never been a single player video game which I have enjoyed more in my entire life. I truly consider Fallout 3 one of the best games ever made, game I had no plan on acquiring until I accidently realized how great it was (thanks to my friend). haha. I love this game and would recommend it to any shooter, rpg, and/or adventure loving gamer. Btw… I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR NEW VEGAS!!!
Rating
This is an amazing RPG / FPS hybrid. If you liked Deus Ex or any RPGs you must play this game. The PC version has some minor problems here and there, but no major issues. The PC version will also have DL content. The best feature of PC (other than better graphics) is mods. There are ALOT of really good mods that add content or features that the game was missing.
This is a must play, even if it isn’t Fallout 1 / 2.
Rating
First of all, I ABSOLUTLEY HATED OBLIVION! I was kinda interested in the whole knights and magic type stuff, but when I actually played it, it totally frustrated me.
So naturally I was apprehensive about buying another Bethesda game, especially with people saying it was Oblivion with guns. Let me say this…Fallout 3 is awesome! It is NOT Oblivion with guns. This game has a totally different feel, especially with the V.A.T.S. system implemented. It is one of the most well crafted games I’ve seen in a long time, very immersive. I do not regret even buying the Collector’s Edition (as I normally do with other games).
If you love Sci-fi/Mad Max type of apocalyptic wasteland settings, you’ll love Fallout 3. You have to search and scavenge and make every bullet count. You’ll lose hours…scratch that…weeks playing this game…it’s that good! Highly recommended to any sci-fi/action/RPG fan.
Rating
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.
Rating
To make this clear I’m not going to compare this game to the other Bethesda titles, since this is the only one I have played.
This Game is my new addiction. I haven’t sat on my butt and played games so intently since hi school when I played the original fallouts. I guess you can say I’ve been waiting for this game since then because me and my friends used to talk about how awesome it would be to play fallout as a FPS. For any of you fallout fans out there that have been worried about them bringing the vibe of the originals to this new title, fear not my friends because they did a great job. The humor still here along with that vintage world of tomorrow look all the other games are based off of.
Gameplay- If you have ever played a FPS then the controls will be no problem. the only real difference is that there is a new option to go into a targeting system called V.A.T.S. mode. It allows you to target the limbs on one or multiple enemies at once. The chances of you hitting th limbs are based on your weapons skills and perception. You can only select a certain number of targets in V.ATS mode and that is controlled by your action points, which recharge slowly upon leaving VATS mode. This tends to give the combat an RPG feel, and the mode becomes less gimmicky and more useful as the game goes on.
Huge map- when I first heard this game was just going to be in Washington D.C. I was a little hesitant to see how big the map was, because the older games took place in several cities. Man was I wrong. The map in the game is Huge and full of surprises. There is so much to discover from national monuments to old neighborhoods just lying in ruin in the waste. There are random encounters that can lead to some of the funnest parts of the games. (I once ran into the Brotherhood, enclave, and a squad of super mutants fighting each other at the same time!)
Graphics- Wow,they are amazing. When i am walking through the wilderness I love watching the sun rise and set, The character models look great and smooth. Combat animations are top notch. A lot of people have been complaining about the colors being bland, which is true (Except when you find Harold) but your IN A WASTELAND. this isn’t viva pinata.
Replay Value- You can probably play this game forever with all the different ways you can play the game. You can be a big guns guys, be a diplomat and talk your way through the game using NPCs to protect you, sniper/close range, melee, even unarmed (witch to be honest gave me the best results so far.) Any kind of character you can come up with can play and do well in this game, thanks to all the different ways you can complete quest and task. I’ve never played a game when on kind of character never did better or worse than others if created.
Side notes- If you are using this review to decide whether to get the game you need to keep in mind why some people might not like this game.
There is a lot of walking in this game, i mean ALOT. Some people might not like that, even though to me its an enjoyable part of the game because thats when you discover new places and get those random encounters that make your game unique. Theres tons of talking in the game whether its trading equipment, or finding info. if you played the older games its about the same amount. The last thing i can see people not liking is how freakishly open ended the game is. You really have to find your own quest and play the game at your own pace. If you like playing games that point you in a direction and you just kill everything along the way you may not be a big fan of this one.
Bottom line- This game is everything I’ve imagined it would be. It will remain one of the best. This also is the best bang for the buck you will get all year. I have close to 100hours on it and I’m still not bored. If your on the line still, rent the game, you’ll know after an hour or two if you’ll want to buy it or not. If your an action fan who loves in depth games, of love the originals, don’t hesitate and buy this game.
Rating
Just when you think you can leave the couch, nope, gotta play on.
Rating
One can easily loose track of time wandering through post-apocalyptic DC, which is more diverese and interseting, if slightly smaller, than Oblivion’s world. Only real let down is the story. Slightly buggy, but usually runs fine.
Rating
This game was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. The gameplay and graphics are awesome. This is the kind of game that sucks you in and immerses you into the game. I would recommend that you try to do all the side quests, but realized that you really do need the guide book to find them all and some of the quests are not too obvious as to what to do. I thought the game was a little too difficult at times and needed the god mode to get by, and the ending was just plain bad, but overall I really recommend this game.
Rating
My husband disappeared a week ago when he started this game. He has now been replaced by a bearded, slightly foul smelling, couch potato. He has that glazed eye look of an addict lol.
He said this is his favorite game ever. I’m watching him play it and the graphics are surreal.
I asked him what he liked about it and he said you have a lot of control over the characters functions, huge game platform, endless possibilities and places to explore. Granted, I had to ask him like 10 times lol because he’s in the middle of playing it (he’s 7 hours in today, it really is addicting).
Rating
The game is a little slow and underwhelming at first as you have to go through several tutorials and story segments in an enclosed area. Oblivion had a similar starting sequence, but it was not as tedious or drawn out. Once outside the vault, however, these misgivings are quickly forgotten, and you are greeted by a breathtaking panorama of scarred, blasted terain, deformed metal, and howling, desolate winds. From that moment, you can go almost anywhere and do almost anything. Fallout 3 offers a huge world full of nuanced detail, compelling characters, and varied quests. There is enough here to keep you occupied (and enthralled) for countless hours.
Rating
This game is the best one I have on PS3. Previous posts mention bugs, but I have not encountered any, and I’ve played it for probably 60+ hours so far. The artwork is simply breath-taking as you explore the ruins in D.C. The options and missions and side-missions are seemingly endless and the wide variety of skills and weapons make the experience even better. It would be perfect if it had a multiplayer, online option, but that may be asking too much. Highly recommended, especially if you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic stuff, like me.
Rating
What a great diversion this game is! I got into this game in March 2010, a few years after it was released and just about every other gamer out there has played and exhausted its fun, but on the off chance that there is a Fallout newbie somewhere out there who has not experienced its joy, hopefully my input will help.
First off, economically, buying the Game of the Year edition may be the best bet, as it has all five of the $9.95/ea add-ons for the main game, but I wanted to try out the game first. I had a $10 credit so I figured $7 for the original edition is tough to beat. Recently I dl’ed Broken Steel and Point Lookout off PSN. I haven’t finished the game, yet, but I have reached the max level 20 and Broken Steel allows leveling to 30 which is essential for some of the great perks awarded at each even level.
I think this is the way to go, as the main game has absorbed 75 hours of my time already, and more than paid for itself. Chances are, if you are a Fallout fan you’ve already played and beaten this game to a pulp, and if you are buying this now, you were a little tentative about it to begin with, so my advice is to save a few bucks, buy the original edition, and if you like it you’ll be thankful for the money you saved. Also, some of you may be new to the PS3, so you’ll have some extra change to spend on one or two of the other great games out there, like Uncharted, Bioshock, GOW I-III, Ratchet and Clank’s, etc., which are all available at great prices now. Heck, you may even get through with the main game just in time for Fallout: New Vegas this fall!
Gameplay is key to a great game. Limited button usage in battle, smooth targeting and changing of targets, easy menu navigation, in game story development (no cut scenes), and direct manipulation of your character in almost every facet plays a huge part in what makes this game so good.
Graphically speaking this game is on par with many of the games from the past few years. 2010 seems like a graphically break-out year for this generation. Smooth, for the most part, and no hiccups except for a few freezes here and there (save often), I’m satisfied. Though the game is monotone in its wasteland setting, it is only one game of hundreds, so I appreciate its palate for what it is, and not for what it isn’t.
Story is where this game brings it home, with so many side quests, main quests, optional quests, and everything is relevant. There is no story element that I have seen yet that makes me scratch my head wondering why… The post apocalyptic world is bleak, and its citizens and their stories are equally so, but not without that humorous bent that humans tend to have. Ahh, it’s nice to relax at night and traipse across the wasteland, waste some raiders, find a Strativarius for a lonely old lady, drink some irradiated bev’s, and hopefully find dear old dad along the way. Nice.
I have a bunch of other games including Uncharted 2 and God of War III which I have picked up this year, but I just can’t break away from this to play them. Whenever I look in the game drawer this one draws me back time and again. I hope you grab this and find out what I’m talking about.
J.
Rating
This game is absolutely a MUST-OWN. I’ve put in 45 hours of the game so far, and my girlfriend on a different save, has 30 hours clocked. The game is incredibly detailed, filled with quests, side missions, and really makes you feel that you’re part of the Wasteland.
Now when I see bobbypins on the ground, I have to stop myself from wanting to pick them up and logging them into my Pipboy’s inventory.
It’s a First & Third Person shooter, and will leave you wanting more. I foresee this being a 75+ Hour game for me. Together, my gf and I spent 75 hours so far!
Rating
First, I am a gamer. I have been for 25+ years. For those not wanting to read a lot, let me just say this: Fallout 3 is in my top 5 best games ever of any genre.
Anyone who has played Oblivion by Bethesda will be very familiar with F3.
Anyone who has played a previous version of Fallout and worried about a new company putting it together: Don’t.
Anyone who hasn’t played a previous version of Fallout and enjoys a great story with tons of playing options, this is a game for you.
Very well done. So much detail that I honestly wouldn’t know where to start.
From the moment of your birth in game to your 10 year old birthday to exploring your vault….sigh. Too many starting points.
I was mainly worried because I always enjoyed turn based combat i.e. earlier Fallout. However, using the V.A.T.S. system and the FPS combat system, it’s still a very fun game for an ‘older’ gamer.
Make sure you use your Pipboy light (hold down the tab key) as a lot of the game is grey or very dark (nuclear war will tend to do that). Also, I didn’t see it in the manual, but, make sure to put up your weapons when talking to people (hold down the R key) as I believe this lowers how they react to you.
Rating
I knew this was going to be a great game, but avoided getting it because I knew it would be addictive….and I was right. The game’s biggest attraction is that it gives you more realistic feel as you don’t have to follow the game’s script. You can do whatever you want, if you just want to roam the wasteland, it’ll let you. The game does have a main quest which hints you what you need to do to complete the game, but it also comes with many side quests that you can decide to take on anytime even if you’re in a middle of another quest (like real life). Also like a real world, whatever you do have a direct consequences to the overall game experience. If you do the “right” thing, you make more friends and opposite is also true.
I also like its physics. It feels real. The graphics and details to attention is fantastic, especially on large screen. I ended up playing many nights into 2, 3 in the morning.
I highly recommend this and also get the add on “Broken Steele” which extend to games storyline.
Rating
Great game, the perfect mix of Oblivion and Halo. My fiance and I love playing it together.
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Oh yeah, let’s start provoking North Korea so we can get some real life Fallout action! This game is awesome. I tell you what, as soon as the radiation dies down I’m grabbing me a gigantic fire ant to ride into town on. I’ve been working on schematics for a flaming ShishKabob for the past few weeks – I’ve managed to set my shed on fire, but not the lawnmower blade I’ve attached to the motorcycle gas tank… Where are the damn instructions to build this thing anyway? Sure I found the schematics, but they don’t actually tell you how to put this thing together…
The game is very slick and is clearly next gen… and by clearly I mean I have no idea what next gen refers to. Isn’t everything “next gen” now? Seriously, is there a video game that has been released in the past year that markets itself as regular gen? Average gen? So-so gen?
Having spent over 100 hours playing this game, I clearly enjoy playing it. No, I haven’t actually finished the game yet. No, I haven’t made it to Megaton yet- that’s the first town you’re supposed to go to right? No, I don’t have any friends. No, I haven’t kissed a girl.
Eh, whatever. I’ve spent my hours building my character, aptly named Phineus Inermis, into the level 30 thuggish brute I am in real life. I’ve even splashed my keyboard with Brut Cologne and gunpowder just so that I can inhale the action.
Oh, you should definitely pick up the expansion pack – Broken Steel.
A word regarding the 1 star reviews – the vast majority (and by that I mean the five that I actually read) are regarding the patch problems and technical support. True, these are valid issue. My computer works fine (of course I had to buy an entirely new computer in order to play the game….) so if you include the cost of the computer, game, and upgrades my total costs exceeded $1,652.00…
HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD I SPENT $1,652.00 ON A VIDEO GAME?!?!?!?
What’s wrong with me? I’m reviewing a videogame…… that’s almost as silly as reviewing a 2,500 page box of paper.
Rating
This is the first time I have been COMPLETELY wrapped up in a game. The graphics are amazing, and I found myself staring in awe at the ruins of D.C. And it has some great humor in it. I found myself giggling like a gossiping girl at some of the dialogue. The controls are the standard, basically, this is Oblivion with guns. And shooting raider’s heads off at point blank range never gets old. I beat the game in 3 days, but that is only because I COULD NOT STOP PLAYING! Seriously, you need this game. I can’t play the originals (turn based, you understand, right?), but this is bar none my favorite game of all time. If you are a boycotter because of securom, all it requires is a disk check. Or, buy the game and download a ripped copy. The developers get payed, and you are happy, physically and morally.
Rating
Pros:
+original and compelling story
+large expansive wasteland to explore
+countless missions and side missions
+plenty of weapons and armor to collect
+very long game 50+ hours
+lots of available DLC
Cons:
-some glitches
-character models and voices are reused
Side note:
DO NOT BUY THE GAME OF THE YEAR! I had originally bought the GOTY edition but it is virtually unplayable. Constant freezing, events not happening, DLC was totally unplayable. I ended up trading in it for this edition.
Rating
I played and replayed Fallout 1 and 2, and much loved those games, both for their gameplay and for their macabre humor and appreciation for pulp comic science fiction. I am also a big fan of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series, with their beautiful graphics, deep backstories, and moral complexity. There had been past attempts to continue the Fallout series, which were sad failures. If anyone could do it right, I thought, it would be Bethesda. And so they did.
I had wondered how they would handle the turn-based combat system of Fallout 1 and 2 in a first-person, 3D environment on the model of Oblivion. The VATS system, in which one has the option of pausing the gameplay, and attacking a specific part of an enemy’s body, followed by a slow-motion animation of the attack, works pretty well. It means you have a choice between using your character’s skill, and your own — the character’s being the better choice, under most circumstances.
Narratively, the story is pretty much modelled on 1 and 2 — no big surprises, and a similar sort of framework, with many plot points having clear analogies in the first two games. There is a richness in the details and in the sidequests, however.
Fallout fans will enjoy this game.
Rating
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2XWGBF8OCLWC5 This is the official review and rating video from G4 gaming TV.
For more information go to: http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1856/Fallout_3.html
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This game left me stunned and socially deprived (which is generally a bad thing, in this case it is not) for 100+ hours. I understand where most of these reviewers are coming from, comparing Fallout 3 to its predecessors, or more importantly, comparing it to its ambitions.
This game could have been significantly better. There could have been a better repertoire of voice acting because the same voices become noticable after multiple hours of playing, especially at the length that I did. It could have used some more power dampening when it came to leveling up and making the enemies more relative to your level strength. It could have had better writers with more visionary sf prospects for such a rich environment. I mean, post-apocalyptic Washing D.C.?!?! It doesn’t get much better than that. It could have done a lot, and hopefully one day, it will fill in these gaps.
However, I see these as gaps in the game, not gaping holes. These gaps are undeniable, but understandable. Especially when there are many games out there with very solid and tight plots and gameplay. It is the very nature of this game and its timing that limits it, but despite its limitations, it overachieves.
I say it overachieves because I’m not comparing it to itself, but to the whole gaming market and the crap it shovels out. Luckily there are
Rating
For some of you that are unaware the original fallout games were top down isometric games considered to be PC classics for a good reason. But fallout 3 is a completely different game. It fantastically blends an R.P.G. with a F.P.S. (alebit with a little clunky F.P.S. controls). This is a game of epic proportions depending on how many side quests you do the game can last for 20-100+ hours. The story is great, in the future our nations capitol Washington D.C. was a beautiful and prosperous place. Then all hell breaks loose the war has escalated and the chinese have dropped an atom bomb on the U.S. almost eradicating everything in its path. Some survivors are sealed away to ride the nuclear firestorm in safety in underground vaults. The story begins with you being born and a moderately deep character creation system is presented to you: pick your race sex and facial features. The first 19 years of your life are just basic tutorials and Bethesda pulls them off beautifully establishing the story setting. You do normal stuff like taking the G.O.A.T. which determines your stats and advantages. Then all hell breaks loose when you are 19 your dad has fled the vault and his partner killed what do you do? Escape of course! This section is your first taste of real combat and your first moral decision: let your enemies mom die or save her? You eventually escape and your first sighting of outside the vault is terrifying houses ripped apart cars destroyed for miles and miles to come. Your next choice is the hardest in the entire game. What are you going to do next? Are you going to become a tyrant and rule the wastelands and kill all that cross you path, or… are you going to become an Ambassador of peace helping all that you see and ridding the wasteland of all evil? There are plenty of side-quests for hours of entertainment almost all with a moral decision (kill all the vampires or negotiate a peace treaty) Load times are short but sometimes annoying because they are for every house or town. The thing that sets this apart from other titles is innovation: Huge amounts of weapons, Biggest map i’ve ever seen, and in all its shining glory the V.A.T.S.
(Vault assisted targeting system) it allows you to pause time and target individual body parts you could cripple the super mutants leg and just walk away for him to get eventually slaughtered or you could just blow his brains out with a shotgun, of course you cant use it a billion times a second it uses action points which slowly recharge over time. Within my first hours of the game I was ready too pull my hair out because of the tough decisions: Blow up a town and become rich in the progress? kill an innocent vendor to survive? The voice acting is solid but it suffers from wooden animation=(. But overall this is a great game through and through. Hats off to you Bethesda keep doing what you do and my gaming hours wont be mindless killing but great games with great stories.
Rating
Enough was said about how good this game was. I totally agree with all the good reviews I read so far. Instead of heaping on more praise, I like to say a few words about the three downloadable contents (DLCs), available online at Xbox Live. They are the “Operation Anchorage”, “The Pitt”, and “Broken Steel”. Operation Anchorage is a training program for new army recruits. It looks and feels different from the rest of the game, but The Pitt and Broken Steel are vintage Fallout 3 side quests. Broken Steel is a must-have DLC. In the original game, the game ends when the main quest ends. To keep playing, one has to reload with an earlier saved file and, so doing, breaks the continuity of the game. Broken Steel modifies the ending of the game, such that the player can keep on playing, after the main quest is completed. It also raises the ceiling of player level from 20 to 30, with new skill points and perks. Therefore, theoretically, one can keep playing forever. But, after 200+ hours, the game started to get old. I decided to retire my hero at this point and park him and his dog, Dog Meat, in the Rangers Compound, rather to leave him in the middle of nowhere or his ramshackle apartment in Megaton. If you play the side quest “Reilly’s Rangers” and manage to save at least one of the rangers trapped in the Statesman Hotel, your hero will be welcome by Reilly and her rangers as one of their own in the Rangers Compound, where he can spend eternity among friends–a fitting end for a hero who saved the wasted world.
Update: A fourth DLC, Point Lookout, is now available online at Xbox Live. Before you set out to the Maryland swamp, don your strongest armor and bring your biggest guns, because you are going to fight some pretty tough enemies, and, don’t forget to stop at Marguerite’s Moonshine Shack and have a sip of her famous brew, made of yeast and punga fruits, with a dash of battery acid for favor.
More Update: The fifth and final DLC, Mothership Zeta, is now available online at Xbox Live. Brace yourself for close encounter with UFO and alien abduction.
Rating
I purchased this game a few days ago.I am a huge fan of RPG’s,and everything I read about this game said it was one of the best.They are correct.It is.
You start at birth and create and modify your character with each new turn.
The graphics are great.The burned-out shell of Washington D.C. is quite spooky and of course,gloomy.The ambient sounds are appropriate.
The game has a few options that were in Fable:You can choose to be good,kind,evil,snotty,etc., and your character takes on the personality you choose.
So far I have not experienced any glitches in the game.It has run perfectly.
If you are a fan of RPG’s,then this game is for you.This game is so huge,it will be summer before I poke my head outdoors again.
BTW: I am playing using a dual-core processor,4G of RAM,and an Nvidia 9300M graphics card,on my Vista home-premium computer.It installed perfectly,and I have not run into any bugs or any kind of glitches so far.
Rating
This game is among the best games ever made. It ranks right up there with Half-Life, Crysis, Battlefield 2, FEAR, Call of Duty, Bioshock. This game is extraordinarily fun and I simply had a blast playing every minute of it.
I’m an adult gamer so carving out time to even play a computer game is very difficult. This means I cannot and do not spend time playing even mediocre games. I enjoyed this game immensely.
The only downside to this game is that there are some infrequent bugs that required rebooting of the game along the way. Other than that, this game was a real treat.
Rating
I played the original Fallout and Fallout2, then the pseudo-Fallout title Fallout Tactics; I have replayed them throught the years and they remain some of my best gaming experiences.
I was very skeptical about how Bethesda would handle the great turn-based, specific body part targeting combat that Fallout made famous, as well as the tongue-in-cheek humor the others contained; 50′s era Red Scare and cheesy advertising coupled with very mature, morally ambigous decision making and themes… It is one of the best games, especially for a sequel, that I have ever played.
HUGE game, near-limitless variety of quests, NPC interactions, routes to succeed; all without compromising how YOU want to play. Nothing says that you have to be white knight or criminal mastermind; just play as you would, given the stimuli of a post-apocalyptic, survival-first world.
Rating
“The day Fallout 3 comes out, I’ll be sure to post my first game review ever!” – (said sometime around 2003 … >_>)
I always remembered when playing (and replaying) Fallout 1 & 2 of the inordinate amount of time spent on the character creation screen, especially when deviating from my favorite character type (slick talking sniper with a penchant for picking locks). I’d end up spending 15 minutes to as much as an hour fiddling around with the numbers before finally clicking done.
Bethesda captures the essence of that internal debate in their version of S.P.E.C.I.A.L and G.O.A.T. As I walked out the vault door and I was asked to “click done”, that’s when I knew. This is indeed Fallout 3.
Debates on DRM/Securom. Installation and technical problem posts on forums. Risk of a new company restarting a discontinued, but beloved franchise. Like others, I was waiting for the jury verdict as all these issues and more were being laid out before me.
On the whole DRM/Securom issue, ever since EA became the poster child of the greedy corporate capitalism at its worst, DRM/Securom became an ugly word no company wanted to be associated with in any form and shape. It didn’t excuse Bethesda’s evasive and a bit misleading reply of a “simple disc check” but at the same time, and rightfully so, they were trying to differentiate themselves from the direction that EA choose to go. And it was indeed a step in the right direction. To broadbrush Bethesda with companies like EA in the same stroke is unfair and gives those companies who are trying to treat their customer right no credit.
Unfortunately it seemed like this distinction would get lost amidst the witch hunt of DRM/Securom it has lately become. Judging by the forum, it got blamed for everything including installation crashes, bugs, freezes, the kitchen sink, 8 years of Bush/Cheney and the Wall Street meltdown. Tho I admit this was a big sticking point for me too, for if I had run into some of the frustrations these people had getting the game installed, I’d be holding the proverbial pitchfork joining the angry mob. Instead for me, it was a flawless installation. Gameplay to date has been almost free of crashes and freezes, knock on wood. And my computer is approaching its 3 year cycle, and I was one of those holding the pitchfork when Gothic 3 came out bemoaning all its bugs and freezes on the same said computer.
My biggest concern – is this really Fallout 3? A work of love or simply an attempt by one company to profit from another company’s sweat? After becoming immersed for hours far beyond the intended initial testing phase, followed by more more nightly marathons since then, I knew I was not going to be disappointed. Sleep deprived yes.
I’ve been replaying Fallout & Fallout2 weeks before the imminent release of Fallout 3 for nostalgic reasons as much as to curb my impatience as I waited for the above dusts to settle. (Learned my lesson after Gothic 3.) In the end, I believe Bethesda paid a sincere homage in the form of a worthy sequel that captured the spirit of the Fallout franchise.
Rating
This has got to be the best game I’ve ever played, and I have played countless games. I play all types of games: RPG’s, FPS’s, MMORPG’s, action, adventure, puzzle…I think the only game type that has never interested me is sports games.
There are already alot of good reviews here where others have written the pros and cons to this game, so I’m not going to go into depth about those things, as it would be awfully redundant. To be honest here, I can’t think of anything I would find to list as a con anyway. I sincerely love this game and would be remiss if I didn’t come here to give it a top rating. It’s a huge, open world just waiting for you to come and explore it!
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i’m usually not into first person shooter type games, but there’s enough rpg in this to keep me entertained. the graphics are great, the game play is great, really worth the buy.
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Fallout 3 is a game that should be experienced. I rarely am interested in RPGs, but Fallout 3 is an exception. With it’s open world environments, Fallout 3 can leave you playing for hours. There’s so much to explore in the post apocalyptic world. The graphics are beautiful, the dialogue is performed beautifully. You can feel like the people have a sense of being where they are and how they react. And the gameplay system, including the VATS, never gets old. VATS is a way to eliminate your enemies by targeting on specific areas of their body to shoot at. There’s a percentage of accuracy and shows how much damage you will do to your foe. Once executed, the camera will go into a cinematic angle making the attack much more dramatic. The VATS system never gets old for me. If you’ve never played Fallout 3 and own either a good computer or next-gen console, look into getting this game.
Rating
Ive been a fan of the fallout game’s for a long long time.
im not HUGE into the games but i would list them in top 10favorite games ive ever played.
ive only played fallout3 for about 5hr’s total so far, and i love it!
its heavy on diologe right now, but i just got to the shoot-em-up part and im having a blast.
old fallout you could max 1 skill, and pretty much be fine.
but the way this game is layed out, the fight’s are more challenging (turn up difficulty btw)
this is the fallout of the “new age”
is it like the older one’s? NO!
but this isent the same time as thouse games.
over all i give the game 5*s so far out of my exprences, and dont let ppl curve you past this game just off of there exprence, this game will be different from person to person!
as far as the collectors edition i ordered, i felt i really dident get my extra money worth.
i love the lunch box, and the DVD was great.
but the concept art book was pretty low quality, and could have been done much much better.
The bobble head is made cheaply, and i had plan’s to mount it in my car, but the way its made i belive the first big bump i hit the head would come flying off…. so its ontop of my tv for now.
over all a great game, collectors edition is nice too, but lacking a bit.
Rating
Fallout 3 is one of those games that has so much to do you don’t really know where to start. I could talk for hours about how amazing the story is or how fluid and fun the combat is. I could also mention that my jaw dropped myriad times playing through Fallout 3. All of the characters feel real and it really is morally challenging to be a bad guy in this game. This is 100% one of the best games of the generation. My only complaint is that there are tons of bugs in the game, but they never pull you out of the experience. If you cannot invest over 40 hours to play a single game, or you just want a fast and furious shooter then this game is not for you. I have currently played for over 50 hours and still have enough things to do that I can easily play for another 30.
Rating
If you enjoy The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion then you will enjoy this game.
Fallout 3 is a role-playing game that offers so many character choices that I’m going to have to play through multiple time just to try out different options. Do you want to charm people, sneak past them, or just shoot them: Choices of weapons: brass knuckles, lasers, silencers, automic weapons, sniper rifles, flame throwers, or mini-nukes.
The entire game gives you choices. You can follow the main story line, work on other quests, or just wander the waste lands getting into trouble.
There are only 2 downsides.
1) The occasional crash. As long as you save often (F5 quick save) this is only a minor annoyance. If you aren’t saving, then this could be a real headache. I’d suggest saving.
2) VATS is nearly unusable if you have your graphic settings to high. I’m on a pretty good computer and the game nearly stopped on me. The answer is to reduce the AA and AF. I’ve put my AA to 2x and AF to 4x. The game still looks good and VATS works pretty good most of the time.
Rating
I’m a Halo and Gears fan. Action first person shooters. I really like excellent first person immersion.
This is the first game that does a really good job of combining first class first person immersion with the really free and wide ranging aspects of a top quality RPG.
Warren Spector tried with Deus X and later Thief, but they give only the barest taste of what was acheived in Fallout 3.
My biggest complaint is the ending and the way it is handled. Fallout 3 has one main and several side quests that let you wander all over it’s impressive “Waste land”. But when you complete the main quest it’s over and requires backing up several “save” steps to step aside and go do additional side quests. And if you get wrapped up in this game as much as I did, you will want to go back till youve uncovered and done everything you can. At the end I was most distressed by who was going to take care of my dog back in my shack at Megaton.
A lesser complaint is the first person shooting. The Vats mode is a lot of fun, but straight out unenhanced high accuracy shooting could be handeled better and permit the users finesse and accuracy to count for more.
Still, this game will draw you in and you will really feel a part of it.
In addition to your dog “Dog Meat”, the mutant guy you can pick up in Vault 87 is a great companion.
By the way re Paradise Falls. I don’t like slavers, so I just killed them all. Not easy but satisfying.
I will be going back before the march of the Robot to continue with the side quests.
See you in Megaton.
Rating
This game for real is video game crack! It is Addicting and Fun as Balls, but just like being a crackhead it is a selfish pleasure. This is the lamest game for a spectator to watch, I almost had to goto couples therapy after ignoring my wife for 6+ months… Ironicly enough she bought me the collectors edition (Highly Recommended) for valentines day. But i digress “Onwards to the Buggieness!” This game froze on me after hours of gameplay LOSING EVERYTHING!!!! several times, I Think they patched the problem with a autosave patch later. Also every Add-On you download the Buggier it gets.
But this game for real sucks, I cant explain it…. I Beat it and got a Platinum Trophy for it, I Beat all the Add-Ons, I have 100% Completed to brag about & it was FUN…… And yet I can’t recommend it to anyone. This game is a Glitchy Buggy Pile of Stank Dook………. On the other hand, much like Crack this is fun to play with despite all it faults. Im just as confused as you…..
Rating
Originally when I played the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I wasn’t a big fan of it. The immersion-killing moments, the asinine levelling system and gripes with limited voice actors made me look at it as a disappointment. But seeing Fallout 3 in action intrigued me though I was still skeptical (and upon playing, I now look at Oblivion as actually good and ended up growing on me) but since the holidays are almost over and all the big titles are out, I can pretty much say with certainty that Fallout 3 is my favorite game that came out this year. Sure it’s got gripes (what game doesn’t?) but it’s still definately worth a playthrough and I hope you got a lot of free time on your hands.
Story: It’s 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war ravaged the world with landmarks all but destroyed, mutants found roaming the environment as well as nearly everything being irradiated. The only safety is for inhabitants of Vaults, underground homes that are sealed where no one is aloud in or out. You’re part of Vault 101 and everything’s fine until your dad suddenly takes off, someone’s found dead and security’s on your tail. So you escape the safety of the Vault and roam the D.C. countryside and look for your father and anyone else you happen to befriend…or tick off.
Graphics: Anyone who’s played Bethesda’s previous games in the Elder Scrolls series knows that they love big worlds and Fallout 3 is no different. And while it does maintain that gripe of Oblivion of not really offering variety in its locations like in most RPG’s, this game is utterly gorgeous in its own right and the atmosphere practically oozes from the screen and the amount of detail found in destroyed cars, bridges that look near collapsable as well as the gore and slow-motion cutscene during kills, the game is stellar. But there’s 2 gripes: characters still don’t exactly emote body wise and they can be absolutely mad at you or saddened and their body just…stands there. The other is the amount of stuff in the game makes the performance take a hit and so you’ll have textures popping in bit by bit, brief pauses and lulls and slowdown during heavy moments but considering Oblivion was the same, gotta blame it on Bethesda’s ambitions then any ineptitude design-wise.
Sound/Music: Instead of Jeremy Soule who provided the score for Oblivion, we have instead Inon Zur who did the soundtracks for some Warhammer games as well as the recent Prince of Persia and whereas Soule’s score in its grandioseness perfectly suited the world of Cyrodiil, Zur concentrates more on an ambience and an atmosphere then melodies and while some might find it “boring” or lacking in anything memorable, it helps immerse the player into an eerie, unfamiliar world. Though there’s still some old school songs for you to listen to, Liam Neeson and Malcolm McDowell have excellent voices and thankfully, you won’t run into anyone’s clone frequently (one time in Oblivion, I literally ran into the same voice on 2 guys in the same inn) though there’s still the occasional strangeness.
Gameplay: There’s some games like Rock Band 2 or Little Big Planet where the game is so fun that it might not be necessarily a long experience but the fun factor never seems to wane and while you might try all the songs, you’ll still find new modes and instruments to try instead, or even beating your previous score. Bethesda games on the other hand like to put as much as they can without the disc snapping in half due to the strain and essentially says “go”. From a map filled with locations to uncover, weapons that you can create from scratch, skill books to enhance stats to quests involving locating specific items from various places, it’s safe to say if you’re somebody who wants to complete a game 100% well…Fallout 3 will be one of the biggest time-sinkers you’ll have. But like Fable 2, do you even want to explore every single crevice and secret lair or do you just do what you’re interested in? Like that game, you can play however you want and take on the quests whenever you feel like it so it’s really up to you how you want to play.
Whereas combat and aiming is slightly clunky when you just aim normally, Bethesda has a fun and worthwhile (not to mention near necessary) system of VATS, or Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System. Basically, pressing RB will pull up the enemy on screen frozen in place with limbs highlighted and a percentage for likelihood attacks will actually hit. Get a good hit on the arm and they might drop their weapon or if you’re really ambitious, aim for the head and watch as their skulls explode in gruesomeness. It’s gory but it’s not disturbing and when you see eyeballs fly out in exaggerated fashion, you know it’s meant to be fun and not gross. Only problem I have with combat is that enemies seem to have better aim than you and one enemy literally was 50 or so feet away with a pistol and his shots were more accurate than mine and this makes it worse when you’re up against a minigun-toting Mutant.
Included in the game is the idea of gaining Karma which makes you evil or saintly depending on given actions so stealing and random killing will net you bad points whereas helping people will get you on their good side. But one thing I appreciated seeing and wished it was in Fable 2 is not only reactions by NPC’s but also by the enemies and playing as a good character, I actually found myself the target of a hit because apparently I’m too noble and self-righteous. Imagine that, the world’s gone so much to hell that even people who try to be good have to be snuffed out. Going along with Karma is the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system of levelling up which is thankfully level/XP based rather than constant repetition like Oblivion and upon gaining a level you’ll be asked to level up certain skills like Medicine, Repair, Explosives and Lockpicking. You’re also asked to pick a perk which is like a permanent special ability so for example one might dole out extra damage to men if you’re a woman while another perk might add bonuses to certain stats. The level cap might be a bother unless you get the DLC’s which’ll take it off but it’s still kind of a wait.
Over the years, my interest in RPG’s dropped a little thanks to so many good games out there but also a sense that the game isn’t happy with being a fun 20 hour adventure and instead makes it a tedious and unnecessarily long 40 one. Fallout 3 on the other hand is so fun that you’ll probably just spend 40 hours or more just doing whatever and enjoying every bit of it. Might not be for everyone since it’s slower paced than most action games and especially for a FPS (third person view optional but best to avoid) but this could be a long road you’ll walk and just might enjoy every minute of it.
Rating
After playing about 25 hours of the game, I feel I can post a decent review.
I won’t waste a lot of time explaining everything, (most of the top reviews covered that) But I will give you my take on the game. This is the type of game that not everyone will love. If you enjoy open ended, go do whatever you want types of games, then this is for you. If you like to be sent on a certain mission and know exactly what you are suppose to be doing at all times, then you might be frustrated. Besides the main quest the game gives you very little guidance.
I’ve played through most of the fallout games, (Even Brotherhood of the Steel) and I can say that for the most part bethesda did a very good job. The tone, colors, gore and mood that is set throughout the game stays true to the previous games.
The game play itself works mostly like any first person shooter. (There is an option to go into the over the shoulder cam, or the third person cam also.) You are able to use melee weapons, pistols, rifles, shotguns, missile launchers, etc.. Aim with the left stick, zoom with the right.
The only difference is the V.A.T.S. system. I could compare this to something like the system seen in Knights of the Old Republic. When you encounter an enemy, you are able to hit the V.A.T.S. button and time is stopped. Your target is displayed and you are able to target certain parts of the body. Limbs, Torso, Head, or Weapon. When you select the target and fire, the action goes into slow motion and follows the shot. This is by far my favorite part of the game. When you connect on a shot, the slow motion action is better than that you would see in most films. Absolute Awesomeness!
My only minor complaint with the game is this. When you are trying to reach certain area’s of the map, you walk off in that direction, but you often encounter broken buildings, or things that are blocking your way that there is no way to climb over or get around. So, you have to turn around and walk all the way back where you came from. Now, some may say that this adds to the game by giving you a backdrop of what nuclear war does to a city, or makes you pay for the choices you make, but I feel it was just a way to give the programmers an easy way out, and only giving you one path to a destination.
All in all this game is great fun. Two thumbs way up.
Rating
I have had Fallout 3 for a few weeks now and have to say that while it has some departures from the series it is an amazing game. I started out wanting to follow the main story but ended up being pulled into the world and wandering. The game world is huge with countless locations to explore and hundreds of random missions to perform. This is a must own for any RPG fan and almost any real gamer.
Rating
I had never played Fallout, Fallout 2, or Oblivion coming into Fallout 3. When I popped in the disc for the first time, I had no latent expectations, but neither did I have an awareness of the context in which Fallout 3 was developed. However, Fallout 3 holds up very well as a stand-alone game. I have logged around 100 hours exploring the entire world.
Pros: Excellent graphics and artwork – Large, immersive world – RPG-style character development without being punishing
Cons: Occasional tearing and freezing – Main questline unsatisfying – Player cannot alter the world enough
Plotline: It’s 2277, 200 years after D.C. was destroyed by nuclear blasts. Most of pre-war popular culture that survived was from the 1940s and 1950s. You grow up in an underground Vault with your father. The people inside were protected from the blast, and even to this day “no one ever enters, no one ever leaves”. Well, until your father mysteriously disappears one day. You leave the Vault, as well, to find him.
Gameplay: First-person shooter crossed with role-playing elements. You’re able to pause the game and line up shots at enemies, which hit or miss via a random number generator. You’ll be more likely to hit, and also cause more damage, by increasing your stats. After the introduction, the game is largely a sandbox. You can continue on the main questline at your leisure, or forget about your father entirely.
Detailed Pros: The graphics are top notch. The world is textured and rendered very nicely, and the overall style of the graphics and art fit the world. This is a driving force behind the immersive quality of Fallout 3. When the world looks so realistic and beautiful (in a barren, deserted way), it’s easy for the player to suspend disbelief and really feel like he’s in a post-apocalyptic D.C. Entertaining characters, towns, and radio stations all add to this. On top of this, the world is huge. If you just play and poke around, there’s easily 100+ hours of gameplay here. However, that time commitment is not required; you can experience the heart of Fallout 3 in about 20 hours. In fact, the experience is the strongest in the first third of the game. You come out of the Vault with virtually nothing. Combat acquires an atmosphere of desperation when you are always running out of bullets and supplies. It’s a shame that this is lost once your character is max level and very wealthy.
There is RPG-style character development, but Bethesda sidesteps a lot of the problems associated with that. The system is excellently explained, and although the system rewards you for having high stats, you are not punished harshly for mismanaging them. For example, to get into a room, you might need to have Lockpicking 50, Science 75, or just go find a hidden key to unlock the door. In addition, there’s no repetitive grinding at the end of the game to get levels.
Detailed Cons: There is a lot of talk about the first big moral choice your character has to make: activate a nuclear bomb in the middle of a town, obliterating it, or disarm the bomb permanently and save the town. However, this is the only big moral choice you’ll have to make that significantly alters the game and even it is a bit disappointing. If you don’t blow up the town, it becomes your home. If you do blow it up, a hotel in another region becomes your home. Both are functionally identical, and nothing really chains off of your choice in an interesting way. Since this is a single-player game, there was room for gameplay-altering choices, but these were largely left out.
The main questline is disappointing, compared to the depth and quality of the rest of the game. It’s fairly short, the pacing is bad, and a plot hole in the ending left me angry on my first playthrough (to avoid spoilers I won’t say more). A side note: I had occasional tearing on the screen, and freezing requiring a reboot. Each of these happened about once every 15 hours of gameplay.
M for Mature: If you’re buying it for a kid, be aware: Fallout 3 earned its rating. Your character can use drugs to get temporary stat boosts, and will probably become addicted to them. Getting clean just involves paying a doctor some money to cleanse your system. When fighting enemies, there is quite a bit of blood and gore. A shotgun to the face will send eyeballs and pieces of the skull flying in slow-motion.
Summary: Fallout 3 is an excellent hybrid FPS/RPG in a sandbox environment. It gets the important stuff right: gameplay, graphics, immersion, writing. There are a few minor flaws and at times, it feels like Bethesda played it safe where they could have innovated more. However, in the end, you’ll overlook these flaws as the game draws you into its world. Fallout 3 is a dark-horse contender for Game of the Year, and definitely worth your time to play.
Rating
Since this game came out, I heard really good comments; but I have to be honest and say that this game exceeded my expectations in all ways.
Awesome graphics, the sound is crisp and deep, I have not finish the game because is enormous (by the way I love long hours games) but so far the story plot is intriguing and makes you ask for more, first or third person action shooter with RPG design.
This game is a must play, better yet, must have, no wonder why it was awarded with developer’s game of the year; enjoy Mops!!
Rating
Great first person shooter-action game. Takes some getting used to, but is tough to shut down once you start. Love the story line.Play it every day.
Rating
I have over 25 ps3 games and this one is the best. The game has unlimited play value and fun.
Rating
Fall out is a great. game play is huge so many senerios you could play seems like forever and never have the same results its like playing a new game. everey time you start
Rating
This is one of those games that is so fracking good, you don’t want to go to sleep for fear of coming back to reality. This is the kind of game that breaks up marriages. I lost myself in the Fallout universe while playing this game. You will be calling into work complaining of “stomach cramps” or whatever bull hocky excuse you can come up with just to play this game. There is so much to do and explore in this game, it blew my mind. The graphics really draw you into this post apocalyptic universe. The main storyline is quite enjoyable, but the side-quests are what really steal the show. From taking on giant mutant ants, to cannibalistic families inviting you in for dinner, this game never ceases to surprise me. I really enjoy the old-fashioned sounding music they came up with too, it actually sounds like old-timey music. The slow-mo effect, while not anything new, is rock solid fun. I also enjoy all the mature content, if this had been released with a teen rating i would have killed someone in slow-mo. This game is a keeper, you won’t find yourself at the local gamestop pawning this one off for 5 bucks store credit. In summary, just buy this game, dump your girlfriend or wife, buy some ho ho’s and ding dongs and stock up on caprisun because Fallout 3 is coming for you!
Rating
Fallout 3 is a modern, fine-tuned (bad-a$$) version of Oblivion. While I will say that pretty much every part of the game dominates, I want to focus on one particular portion that puts this game above the rest. While Bethesda has always paid extra attention to NPC’s and player/NPC interactions, I was blown away by what they were able to accomplish in this game. The realism shown in the body movements of all the characters is incomparable to any other game. I would definitely consider myself a “realism aficionado” so one of my very first tests in a FPS’s realism (or lack thereof) is to observe how the AI characters act post-mortem. I have been waiting and waiting for a game finally goes all out and shows a complete and utter disregard to all the critics that try to push developers away from Mature games because they feel it leaves too much of the video game community alienated due to their age. Fallout 3 has shown that the only thing that truly matters is making a quality game. Nowhere is this shown more clearly than when murdering someone. Using the extremely innovative V.A.T.S. system, an accurate shot to the face willl more often than not produce a fantastic beheading. While some games have attempted the destruction and dismantling of bodies, none have done it with such attention to detail. This makes EVERY single death unique and utterly enjoyable.
With that said, it is only fair to also highlight what I would consider one of the ONLY downfalls in this game and it is regarding the “open” game play. While the world map does have a bit of the complete openness that you might find in Oblivion, when you start to explore the city-scapes and building-heavy areas, you find out very quickly that there really is only one or two ways to maneuver through the area. As you can imagine, this can be a bit frustrating, but on-top of the frustration, you really have to be careful if you have any “followers” as they can get stuck and/or die.
Overall, Fallout 3 is the greatest RPG game made to date, and Bethesda has not disappointed. I would strongly recommend this game to anyone that loves video games. (And please do not listen to Mr. Closeminded “TenderGiblets”)
Rating
This single-player RPG gives you hundreds of hours of play without it getting old. Best visuals and gameplay I have ever seen. Very gory and use of strong language means no young children should play this.
Rating
Where to begin? This is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I’ve never played a game where I later find myself contemplating it, and wondering how to traverse obstacles. It is so absorbing, immersive, and is second to none in its genre. But just a note: THIS ISN’T A 1ST PERSON SHOOTER. Though it may look it, you won’t be popping off shots from behind cover and lobbing grenades like an Army Ranger. The game’s story is as follows: The year is 2275 or somethin, and the U.S. has been devastates by nuclear war. You are born in an underground fallout shelter called Vault 101. When you turn 18 your dad mysteriously leaves the vault, for unknown reasons, and you have to find him. This task could take anywhere from 3 days to a month with all there is to explore. Without online play, this game will take over 100 hours to explore everything there is to do and see. It takes place in D.C., which is extremely fun to explore when it’s a devastated wasteland. And you can do ANYTHING. You can wander around, kill anyone or anything, whatever you want. But this is balanced by a karma system. Basically if you do bad things, you get bad karma, and if you do good things, you get good karma. You can buy something from someone or rob them of it, pickpocket, help people, whatever. A word to the wise: Parents should be warned that this game is dark, violent, contains things like instances of slavery, cannabalism, drugs, prostitution. While it is a role-playing game and none of these things are neccessary to complete the game, they are there, whether you choose to do them or not. Drugs are not real life drugs though, but things called Med X and Buffout, and things like that. This game won’t turn your kid into a monster, but you should make sure of there age and maturity level. Appropriate for a mature 14 and up. Maybe a very mature 12 or 13. Regardless, this game sets an extremely high bar for aspiring RPG’s to come.
PROS
-The map is absolutely massive, it would take you a good 20+ min. to walk from one end to the other
-REPLAY VALUE! one of the best 60$ you’ll drop all year! 100+ hours with no online, and more if you choose to explore everything there is.
-Immersive. It will absorb you.
-The people aren’t boring. You’ll want to hear what they have to say. You’ll love getting to chat with Three Dog, the radio broadcaster, it’s like meeting a celeb.
-There’s nothing quite like seeing the Washington Monument after nuclear war in a wasteland.
-Funny 50′s references throughout. The whole game has an underlying comedy reference to the nuclear obsessions of the 50′s. Cars explode in little mushroom clouds, and vending machines dispense nuka cola
-If you love gore, it’s here. Press RB to get into VATS, and use a targeting system to select a body part you want to shoot at. There nothing like a 3r person, slow mo head shot sending the head flying.
-People are interesting! No more boring AI controlled people that you try to avoid because you fear a boring monotone monologue
CONS
-Uuuhhhh……….currently I can’t think of any.
Finally, renting this game won’t suffice. Buy it, love it, and it will be sitting in your disc tray for months and months and months to come.
hope this helped.
Rating
This is an excellent game if you like RPG games with a FPS feel and element. It blends the two game types and puts the player into a crazy post apocalyptic world where they have the freedom to proceed in any way they wish. There are plenty of locations to explore, characters to meet, quests to complete, items to interact with, baddies to kill, and the game has many ‘wow,’ moments.
The number of 1 star reviews of the PC version of this game is surprising, but if the 1.1 patch was truly that buggy and legitimate owners of the game had that many problems it would bother me as well.
The problem with the 1 star reviews are a certain percentage are from people who got the game from torrent or other warez sites, didn’t patch to 1.5, have problematic systems, etc.
I bought this game one week ago and patched to 1.5 and have not had any game breaking issues. The one problem I do have is when alt-tabbing out the game will often not alt-tab back correctly, which means you have to restart and that gets annoying.
I’ve been gaming since the PET computer, Atari days, PC gaming, XBox, etc., days and have played the range of games from terrible to excellent. Fallout 3 is in the excellent category.
The main storyline is fairly short and can be rushed through. Some of the dungeon crawls are also repetitive. The level of gore and slow motion decapitations, limb amputations, and body explosions are very prominent and even excessive.
The types of enemies lack variety and can be repetitive. If you are skilled at FPS games it can also be frustrating since at first no matter how good you are at aiming, your character’s low skills will make it frustrating to shoot something that is 10 feet away in game and missing.
Just wandering around the wasteland, seeing icons of Washington and landmarks in a blown up, ruined state brings up strange feelings. Trying to survive through eating irradiated mutated flesh, beating down gun toting raiders with a baseball bat to conserve ammo is a challenge and the game has several difficulty settings to suit your skill and play style.
Fallout 3 is pretty close to exactly what I wanted and was hoping for. I was even impressed enough that I bought 2 of the collector’s lunch boxes on EBay because of how they were featured in game.
Rating
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.
Rating
FALLOUT 3 was 4 years in the making. Bethesda Softworks has made it 3 for 3 GAME OF THE YEAR (guaranteed) in the video gaming industry. (Morrowind, Oblivion and now Fallout 3). Remember this is an open ended RPG classic. You’ll log hundreds of hours exploring and completing scores of side quests, plus main game quest.
If your returning to Bethesda world welcome back and your in for a great (quite different) ride. If this is your first RPG Bethesda experience let me explain the highs and lows.
First forget about your 20 to 40 hrs race to the finish and a knotch in the rifle stock so you can move on. Fallout 3 is the best (as was Oblivion) $60 investment you can make!!! Trust me but Bethesda’s Fallout 3 Vault Dweller’s SURVIVAL GUIDE says it best.
METHOD FOR ADJUSTMENT: T.I.M.E. (T- Trust in Yourself, I- Initial Discomfort is Normal, M- Make a PLan, E- Enjoy what YOU are Doing) & P.A.T.I.E.N.C.E. (P- Partner with Friendly Locals, A- Actions Speak Louder than Words, T- Treat Wounds IMMEDIATELY, I- Intuition is YOUR Greatest Asset, E- EMBRACE CHALLENGES, N- NOTICE Your SURROUNDINGS, C- COMBAT FEAR and Loneliness, E- EXERCISE CAUTION ALWAYS.
As you can see this is quite an investment of time. But once you get onboard it is truly an amazing world. From birth (boy or girl)your character (S.P.E.C.I.A.L. your 7 primary attributes (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck))and you begin forming and training for your 19th birthday exodus from vault 101 to search for you father (or free roam as long as you want, explore, seek fame & fortune and or just answers. Vast Wasteland (centered on Washington D.C.) about 9 square miles, enter buildings, seek, explore tunnels have a ball, but be aware!! The musical score is bases on the music of the 1950′s (awesome stuff).
Bottomine: It will take you maybe 10 to 20 hours to master and be a proactive player but your replay percentage is 100%. FREE roaming games allows for multiple endings and routes to objectives.
You can hack computers, lockpick, make & repair any kind of weapons, explosive expert, medical specialist, thief, marksman, stealth master just to name a few of the dozens of specialties. Newly developed RPG leveling and skills modified for the world of the year 2077 the Fallout 3. Just a fantastic experience.
The HIGHS are: The V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) allows us to easily and efficiently deal with hostiles. PIP-BOY 3000 – a personal computer that allows you to monitor, radiation levels, health skills obtained, weapons, ammo, misc., medicine, item characteristics, local & world mapping system plus map markers (GPS like awesome), quest tracking, notes, radio frequencies and more. HOTKEYS single button action for 8 favorite Inventory uses. Fast load times, SAVE ANY TIME (except during combat) as many times as you want!! SAVE OFTEN IS THE RULE. ESPECIALLY BEFORE MAJOR MOVE. FAST TRAVEL – once an area has been visited and it is marked on your world mapping system (PIP-BOY 3000)you can zip from point to point. (on the surface and not in combat ONLY.)
These are just the points I feel one needs to know to make the decision to engage in the Fallout 3 world. (NOTE: I spent 3 years in the OBLIVION world with over 3000 saves explored every inch and every quest) ENJOY!!
The LOWS: SINGLE PLAYER ONLY !!! (you are alone in this Wasteland initially then you hook up with some unique characters.) NO ONLINE PLAY. You can get stuck under stuff be careful and patient. You should be able to free yourself if not LOAD. Haven’t experienced any game loses.
Well back to FALLOUT 3 !!!!
Rating
I actually want catastrophic nuclear war to happen if the results end up being like Fallout 3. Sure, the loss of 90% of the world’s population would be bad, but the Fallout series is just so darn entertaining!
It isn’t anything like the originals except for its unique, retro style and cute lil’ Vault Boy illustrations. But this isn’t a bad thing, as the first person perspective let’s you see the ugly, twisted world with crisp, beautiful graphics. You can practically feel the radiation (probably because you are sitting two close to your dual monitors).
The PC version loads significantly faster than the console versions (at least the PS3 version) depending on your system. The game does use some sort of securom technology, but this never once affected my game in terms of installation, gameplay, or anything else I do with my computer. I didn’t even know it was there until someone told me. I’d say that’s about the definition of unobtrusive.
The game is NOT “oblivion with guns” as some people might claim. Oblivion sucked, Fallout doesn’t. Do you actually know anyone that finished oblivion’s long, boring, and dull main quest? If you do, they probably don’t have much of a life or are one of those obsessive people that just has to finish what they start. Regardless, there’s no reason to compare Fallout to oblivion; Fallout has a great main quest and tons of impressive side-quests, characters that you actually remember (Mr. Burke is my hero?) and combat that is actually exciting. The only thing I remember about Oblivion is going to hell more times in a row than a satanic reincarnating cigarette smoker (okay, it’s a bit of a stretch as similes go).
My opinion is that Fallout 3 is a great 3rd installment to a brilliant series and is perhaps one of the best games to come out in the past few years.
I could go on and on about why Fallout is so great, but with the number of reviews already posted for this game…well, I’ll assume some other geek with lots of free time covers it (thanks, I owe you a beer!)
Rating
First, let me address the issue of this being the third iteration in a die hard fan series. Yes it switched to the first person mode but no it is not a first person shooter. I played fallout 2 and fallout tactics in college. I don’t miss the top down 2D style; it was good back then but the new perspective for this game works, just leave it at that.
Imagine a huge world that you could explore, where you can be any type of character that you wish, that each of your actions affect the rest of the people around you, that you could have countless unique experiences every time you played the game. That’s Fallout 3.
The world in Fallout 3 is massive, my first run through i explored maybe 25% of it. And that took me about 30 hours. I could easily put 200 hours into this game, no question. The world is as it should be, completely desolate with pockets of people, supplies, and ammo scattered throughout. This is no cookie cutter formula for an overworld, its entirely believable. And that greatly helps in the immersion factor. I’ve played six, seven, even eight hours continuously and not even thought about it. Its just that good. There’s always new areas to explore.
In Fallout 3, you don’t just chose melee or ranged. You chose each of your special attribute points from categories such as perception, strength, intelligence, and luck. Then you chose your skill points in categories such as speech, science, small guns, explosives, and barter. Then you chose your perks – there are too many to list but I enjoyed the faster xp perk, the strong back perk, and especially the finesse perk (more damage, greater chance for crits). Depending on what attributes, skills, and perks you chose your character has different speech options, different methods of completing quest, etc. You can play so many different styles its soooo worth it to replay as a different char. When I beat the game the first time all I could think about was what kind of character I wanted to make for the second run through, immediately.
What you do affects your game. There is a Karma system that has varying degrees of evil, neutral, and good. Depending on what your karma is you can do different quests, get different people to join your party, get different reactions from people (some people won’t even talk to you if they don’t like the kind of person you are), and even get different prices from vendors. There are supposedly over 500 different endings to the game depending on what choices you’ve made. Sounds like an exaggeration but we’ll see. The first time I played I was as good as you could be. I helped people no matter the cost, hardly stole anything. This time through I’m as evil as they come. Its fun
This is just a brief description of the awesome goodness that is Fallout. Seriously, its so much better than the rest of the games out there. It should be game of the year. What are you waiting for, go play it! I know I will.
Rating
I bought this one with other 4 games, (including elder scrolls IV Oblivion), the menu scheme is very similar to Obvivion, the big difference is that Fallout doesn’t have magic. So its probably more skilled oriented, it isn’t easy first but its easy to learn all the things you can customize and do in this game. Non linear doesn’t means you can do whatever you want, since you need some kind of item or weapon or skill to do certain quest.
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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.
Rating
Fallout 3 is the latest game from the folks behind the critically acclaimed Oblivion. Bethesda has crafted another gem in Fallout 3. It thrusts you into a massive world a la Oblivion, and much of the formula remains the same: kill baddies to level up, talk with townfolk to get quests and explore the massive environment to find new dungeons and towns. Fallout 3, however, shores up a few of Oblivion’s weaker points – namely making the world smaller and more concise. Don’t worry; the world is still massive; just a lot of dead space has been cut out.
Fallout 3 is a beautiful looking game, with expansive vistas and amazing lighting. Some of the texture work is a bit iffy, and the character models are awkward looking and ugly, but the fantastic draw distance (with minimal pop-in) and huge game world more than make up for it. Loading times are frequent, which is about the only technical place Fallout 3 stumbles. Sounds are excellent, although the voice acting can get repetitive, since a lot of the minor characters are voiced by the same actors. It doesn’t ruin the game, it just serves as a reminder that this is, afterall, a video game. But what a game it is.
Fallout 3 is an FPS-RPG hybrid, which sounds a little bit strange. With the V.A.T.S. system, however, Bethesda makes it work – you can either shoot enemies in real time (as you would in Halo 3, etc. – albeit the controls/aiming are clunkier) or pause the game with V.A.T.S. and target a specific body part. This uses AP, however, so you can only get off a few targeted shots before having to rely on your reflexes and sharpshooting skills again. The combat is at times frustrating, and the FPS gameplay isn’t up to snuff with the likes of Halo 3 or Rainbow Six, but it is less clunky than Oblivion and is ultimately fun. Get the Bloody Mess perk for extra excitement, by the way. The main problem with the combat is that once you hit level 20 (the level cap) there is little incentive to keep fighting – it’s just not fun enough when there’s no rewards to be had, and oftentimes its faster (and healthier) to simply flee from altercations. The lame part about the level cap is that Bethesda, in their Brotherhood of Steel DLC, will raise it – provided you fork over some more hard earned clams. The other part of the gameplay is regarding your choices as a player; you can be a hacker, a lock picker, a fighter etc. as most of the quests in the game can be approached in different ways. The game reminds me a lot of Deus Ex in this regard, a criminally underrated game released about 8 years ago.
The main story is average, although nothing spectacular; don’t go expecting tales of Final Fantasy complexity and you won’t exit disappointed. The main quest takes you all over the Capital Wasteland, and has some very original moments. I won’t spoil them for you, but, overall, the main quest is much better than Oblivion’s was, and stands up without the support of the numerous side quests you can undertake. Most of the fun to be had is undertaking these excursions; there’s everything from big quests that can take two or three hours to little grottos you can find with their own backstory. The amount of effort Bethesda put in to the backstories of the optional areas (such as the other Vaults scattered about the Wasteland) is astonishing, and oftentimes the tales are more intriguing than the overall story arc. There are a lot of sub plots in the Capital Wasteland – for one, Vault-Tec, makers of the vaults, aren’t exactly who they seem. This adds to the atmosphere, and for me, makes Fallout 3 the game of the year. I was disappointed by the ending, and vowed to stop playing Fallout 3; a few hours later, I put it back in the drive, and was running around the Capital Wasteland searching for more caves, ruined houses and other stuff I hadn’t seen yet. If you decide that you must see everything, expect to spend more than 100 hours on Fallout 3.
Fallout 3 is not without its flaws – there are some game breaking glitches (save manually so that you don’t get hosed), the main story is underwhelming, and there is a lot of empty, pointless space in the Wasteland (although it has been pared down a lot from the likes of Oblivion) – the sheer amount of stuff to experience, and the overall quality of the quests more than makes up for it. The combat is fun – although not the best in the history of video games – and the technical aspects of the game (glitches aside) are truly fantastic. The Capital Wasteland lives, it breathes, and it feels like an actual world when you step foot in it. The amount of freedom you have is unprecedented, and the quality of the overall game is second to none. When looked at as a sum of its parts, Fallout 3 is the most ambitious, biggest game released this year. And, for the most part, it succeeds in what it sets out to do: giving the player a huge world and the option to do nigh anything. If you hated Oblivion, this game probably isn’t for you, but to everyone else who has yet to try it, do so immediately. It starts a bit slow, but once you’re about four hours in, the controller is nearly impossible to put down. Fallout 3 is the Game of the Year, no small feat in a span that saw the release of GTA IV, Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and five or six more AAA titles, playing like a mix of the best elements of Bioshock, Deus Ex and Oblivion.
[Additional notes: Downloadable content will be available on the Xbox 360 and PC (not PS3) starting in January with Operation Anchorage. The Pitt DLC will be released in February. The Broken Steel expansion will be released in March and will allow you to continue the main quest. It will also raise the level cap.]
Rating
This game may have taken 10 years to arrive but it was worth the wait. People who disliked Oblivion for it’s complete open world and freedom to wander aimlessly and totally ignore the main story will not like this game either. Gamers who enjoy doing as they please when they please in a world that really feels alive will love it!
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Without re-hashing the plot or gameplay minutae, the story is very well told, the characters different enough to be endlessly interesting and the overall feel/look of the game is fantastic. Great game.
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Fallout 3 is pretty much i think is about strategy. You cant pass the mutants unless you got this. In this game there are various weapons and even weapons that you can make! I suggest to people to buy this game. its the most fun i had without even having xbox live.
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Fallout 3 is an addictive FPS game. Your specially-built character grows in ability with gained experience. The quests seem to keep coming and many are interesting. Player control of the game speed and character situation is a big part of the enjoyment we get from Fallout 3. The quests are not linear – that is, you can accept one or not and there is no particular order in which they must be taken. Lots of time-wasting fun.
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Oblivion was a good game. I played it. A lot. But I always found myself bored or frustrated with the overall pacing. I always wanted to make cool weapons or spells but couldn’t because I didn’t have a high enough skill or lack of soul gems. I always wanted to do cool missions but my weapons did no damage and broke after a few minutes. Oh well, I’d tell myself, time to go explore another random cave that looks EXACTLY like the last one I’d explored. I sure hope theres at least one good item to be had amongst all the useless garbage this time.
At first I had some similar issues with Fallout 3. I was quickly overburdened by the weight of the items I had picked up along the way. Every new item became a game of throwing away something else to make space for it. My weapons did almost no damage and VATS ran out way too quickly. But then something happened…. I found a place to stash my stuff and got a large cache of guns from a story mission. Now I am slowly exploring the wasteland and loving every second of it.
The PS3 version looks and runs great; I have had to restart the game once to fix a poor frame rate but at least it went away. I’ve heard the 360 version is better but without actually seeing it there would be no way I would think the PS3 version was less awesome.
Some may find the game hard to get going at the beginning. Each level up presents so many options that it is hard to choose the right one. Rest assured though; great gaming awaits you once you find your groove.
Rating
I have played the original “Wasteland,” Fallouts 1/2 and have been eagerly waiting for 3 since it was discovered that Bethesda was doing it a couple years ago. This game is fantastic! Lives up to the legacy, and the new combat system is great. The ONLY complaint I have is that the game crashes consistently for me. I’m sure that this will be corrected as soon as a patch has been made available, however.
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I am shocked by the 3 star rating this game currently has – but its all due to all of these people with crash problems relating to their garbage computers – they didn’t even play the game.
Okay… So I’m typically a first person shooter type guy… maybe some strategy games… cod’s, battlefield, halo, c&c etc… never really liked rpg’s.. although I guess this is much different… more like a fps/rpg combo… anyways… I feel that this is perhaps one of the greatest video game releases ever – I’ve never had so much fun playing a game before.
The graphics are great…the story…creativity…the environments…the attention to detail – amazing. It seems like the people put double or probably more time into the making of this game in comparison to others. …So anyways… the game starts off with this story and you get out into this huge map with tons of places to explore/clear out bad guys and a looot of quests to do for people.. the game is different for everybody… sort of Spoiler – I lived in this one town whereas my friend destroyed it and lived somewhere else…later to rebuild that town and make a strip club there…haha. I’ve had slave followers… a dog.. certain friends…my friend has had completely different experiences. I may even consider playing it again sometime… the scope of this game is huge …huge map…Lots of quests to perform while attempting to complete a main goal then finally it gets back to that original story and you get into places you never thought you could and whew. Its just awesome. Trust me – just buy it.
Of note – it did crash on me a few times during gameplay…but do as i did…. just hit F5 every 10ish min..and its no problem at all.
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Bethesda continues to make the best RPG products on the market, regardless of the platform. Deep, interesting, gritty, geown up. Buy this game.
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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!
Rating
Game played great for me. I ‘do’ have a problem with Securom, but this game is benign when compared to certain other games. Bethesda could have gone the route of so many other companies, cough cough EA, but at least they only used the CD check. Install limits is my main gripe with Securom.
The gameplay is innovative. You can play it like an FPS or an RPG. My one complaint there is that the VAT system (which allows a more turn based approach to targeted attacks) isn’t nearly as useful until the near end game. Level up options at approaching max level (at 15 a major boost) allow you to perform more of the attacks. There are other options for gaining greater use of VAT earlier but can be cumbersome.
The end is the end as I’ve just discovered. Once you complete the major story line it’s game over. It’s easy to tell what that is, but there is no warning. Unlike Oblivion you do not get the option to keep playing. So make sure to explore the world freely or have enough saves to backtrack readily.
I found the amount of ammo to be skewed quite a bit. Early on I had to keep a melee weapon on me at all times because I was constantly running out. Early on I also had to make frequent stops to the store for being overburdened which became annoying until a level up buff allowed you to carry a lot more weight. Unlike the original game, ammo has no weight.
I noticed a huge kill increase when I maxed my Luck in game. Once I hit 10 I frequently finished off the bad guys (or good guys depending on how you play) readily.
It’s a fun game. Innovative I’ve never seen a mix of FPS and RPG done this well. If someone wanted they really could go at the game like any FPS.
Mob diversity in game is unfortunately low but thankfully they all had good background stories (Except for the Centuars, wtf). The ‘useful’ house items will pay for themselves.
I’d readily play another game like this.
Rating
Okay I understand all the bad reviews but almost all the glitches have been fixed. But this game is great. It has a great story, you can choose any path and don’t have to follow the main quest. The gameplay is great and very interactive. In all this is the best game for the PS3
Rating
What a great game! Bethesda studios has done it again only this time better. Don’t be fooled by thinking this is a role playing game, I’d call it a first person shooter with lots of role play elements. The best of both worlds. The story is good for a video game and fans of Liam Neeson will be pleased as he provides a nice voice support for one of the main charachters. If you like a game like GTA4 then you should love this one. You never run out of things to do and the game is always fresh because of it’s unbelievable replay value. No two people could ever play this game exactly the same. The graphics and sound are top notch as well as the gameplay. If you’re looking for value and a game you can pick up at anytime than this it.
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I bought this game as a Christmas present for my dad. He loved it and I was the hero of Christmas entertainment for all the guys in my family.
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I have been video gaming for over 20 years. Fallout 3 is one of the best I have ever played. I was actually moved at the end. You owe it to yourself to play this game. The graphics, sound, story telling, voice acting, and the action were all fantastic. I cannot praise this game enough. It is out for all of the major systems (except for the WII) so you have no excuse. If you want an adult (not for the kiddies) game that succeeds on every level, please pick up Fallout 3.
Rating
Very in depth and a whole lot of fun. Have yet to finish it but I can’t wait to dig in more.
Rating
I have to be perfectly honest here and say I was not a fan at all of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, developer Bethesda Studios massively well-loved game. The story didn’t motivate me to finish it, there was the occasional glitch and the huge amount of terrain to cover was not only boring to traverse but negated by the instant travel feature (provided you’ve found the location of course). So it was with a weird sense of anticipation that I wanted to play Fallout 3 since as the overused phrase goes, it’s “Oblivion with guns”. But then by playing through the game, I also found a phrase to describe Fallout 3: “Oblivion with the sucking removed.”
Story: After a character creation moment (my character was a short-haired chick named Eve. I figured if everyone’s always going to make a muscle-y bound superman, why not make a girl the biggest bad*** to roam the wastelands? A “Ripley for the post-apocalypse” you might say), you’re introduced to the world of 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war has left Washington D.C ravaged. You play as an inhabitant of Vault 101, an enclosed space with schools and medical facilities and are told one thing: no one comes in, no one goes out. So when your father suddenly leaves and security’s on your tail, you leave the vault, enter the wastelands and look for him. Though how long this’ll take you is up to you.
One of the nice things about the progression of story in the game is that it’s purely up to you on where you want to go and you do this by taking on sidequests. For example, an early quest involved me delivering a letter to the writer’s family only in the end, I ended up being a mediator and travelling back and forth between a group of people and the town they’ve been terrorizing and allowing both sides to reach a truce. But not wanting to finish it right away, I set it aside for awhile till I was ready to complete it and time limits nowhere to be found, I finished. There’s many more and of course levelling up your character (thankfully not based on how many times you do something like Oblivion) and the game becomes a real time-sinker.
Graphics: Anyone who’s ever played Oblivion knows that Bethesda loves the bigness of it all. Not big in that Resistance/Gears of War 2 way where you face massively-big enemies but in terms of area so naturally this’ll make the performance a bit dodgy and there’s framerate problems, small freezes and textures seem to magically appear like a bit of ground that all over a sudden became burnt or a hillside suddenly showing up but as far as the look of the game, it’s quite stellar. The amount of detail and art direction (LOVE the artbook including with the CE) and just the general atmosphere of it all really makes the game standout. Character animations when they chat to you could be a bit better and quite frankly, the 3rd person view makes your character look like he’s floating so stick to 1st person unless you want to see your armor.
Sound/Music: One of my complaints about Oblivion (among others) was the voice acting where not only were certain characters awkwardly voiced but travelling 30 miles to chat to another guy who had the exact same voice as somebody from before really made it strange to hear. While that problem isn’t as obvious with this game, it’s still not as natural-speak as with other games. But I loved Oblivion’s Renaissance-esque score sounding like it was straight from the Middle Ages and Fallout 3 goes the ambient route with soft synths and textures than melodies and it’s pleasing to hear and I loved roaming the wastelands having a disquieting tune playing in the background. As for the Patrick Stewart/Sean Bean top talent of the game, we have Liam Neeson and Malcolm MacDowell, 2 of the best voices to let talk without interruption.
Gameplay: The big thing about the game is the amount of stuff to do from the levelling to the sidequests to just small things like collecting items or finding that rare, awesome gun out there but I found it more compelling to actually go through these quests whereas in Oblivion I just the ones that were the shortest, easiest or the best loot to get. But ultimately this comes from whether you actually want to invest that kind of time and some quests you look at and go “nah, not that one”. Where this might become problematic is people looking to finish the game and while that can be done relatively quick (20 hrs for some), having that option to branch out is a bit too tempting yet it takes away from the whole find-dad quest.
The main feature that’s been well-publicized and mentioned in game magazines and websites is V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which freezes time and allows you to specifically target an enemy’s body part. Want bigger damage or even a quicker kill? Go for the head. Want him to drop that too-damaging weapon? Go for the arms. Selecting your parts you want to shoot then goes into a cool slow-mo cutscene where you dish out the awesomeness against your enemies which for some people will either never lose its coolness or it’s just repetitive. Personally, I think it adds a bigger satisfaction to the kills, particularly to the annoying runts.
The other feature prevalent in the game is dealing with Karma. Basically, many actions or dialogue choices you do can change how people perceive you. If you’re kind and generous, people will be more courteous and can even offer you benefits but then it attracts the crazies you have a problem with your Gandhi-like nature but if you’re rude and steal and even kill off annoying buggers than Karma drops and now you can get nowhere with people but some can feel threatened by your villainy. A very early mission is when you go to the town of Megaton which so happens to have a nuclear bomb right smack in the middle complete with a bizarre cult worshipping the thing. The sheriff wants you to deactivate it whereas a local man wants you to blow it up and have you play devil’s advocate. Do you want to effectively vaporize an entire town and have it be on your conscience or save the town only not have as much luxury? Strange thing was the guy that wanted me to blow it up practically disappeared and never saw him again. He’s probably still out there but I never ran across him which is too bad cause I wanted to blow his head off.
As for flaws well the Pip-Boy 3000 (your watch/all-purpose machine) is slightly cumbersome to work your way around, certain enemies are annoying in their tactics, particularly the powerful burly buggers with the mini-gun and it’s hard to tell where they are until they already saw you. Oh and by the way, save during the G.O.A.T test if it doesn’t activate for you and turn off PSN notifications and you’ll be glad you did. They’re not annoying but they’re there and when they pop up it’s like “ugh”.
I bought the Collector’s Edition which as I mentioned came with an artbook with incredibly well-done concept art for cities, enemies and whatnot, a standard disc complete with a making-of for the game, and in a strange bit of benefits, a Vault Boy (that 50′s era inspired fellow) bobblehead doll while the tin case can act like a lunchbox. Normally I don’t go for limited/collector’s edition but if you can track this one down, then you won’t regret it. As for the game itself well, I find it better than Oblivion and it’s a lot more compelling. Now excuse while I somehow schedule 50 hours for this monster.
Rating
The only thing I can truly say about this game aside from how amazing the storyline is, how many interesting side-quests there are, and how the game almost never gets boring for a second, is do NOT play this game if you lead a hectic, busy life. I’ve had it for about two weeks now and have already logged in 40 something hours. A friend of mine, who is unemployed at the moment, has logged in over 200 hours in a month! So if you value having time to do things besides play video games, this game will only hinder that by sucking your life in. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing to get a nice little break from reality…
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This game is awsome – only issue is that it is violent. Parents beware and husbands with sensitive wives.Fallout 3
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I hated Oblivion and almost gave up on Fallout 3. I felt like my weapons sucked, I had no ammo, no stimpacks, and couldn’t cause enough damage to enemies to kill them. I spent most of the time looking for ammo, money, and health. Then I got hooked into the game and now Fallout 3 has become one of my favs. You will start kicking but once you start finding the laser and plasma rifles.
Some tips to get you into the game:
BTW, If your playing a character with good Karma, this prob wont apply, but check some FAQS to see that doing the things below wont kill some future side quests.
Start with the main missions first. Play until you reach around level 9 and after the galaxy news radio mission. Right around the tranquility lane quest is where I got hooked.
At this point you should be able to kill raiders with little effort. It also helps to get the locker in Megaton after completing the Power of the Atom quest.
COLLECT EVERYTHING YOU FIND and sell it to the vendors. The fist three places I went to do this was the Super-duper Mart, Paradise Falls, and Evergreen Mills. Collect tin cans, plates, empty bottles, EVERYTHING you find, and sell it to the vendors for caps. It all adds up. If the Talon guys in Paradise Falls shoot at you, kill them and take their weapons and armor. Loot that ENTIRE place. there are lockers you can use in P.F. to put all the stuff you find, and then start making cargo trips to sell the stuff or stash it in your locker.
If you have a buddy with you, you can give him things to carry as well, doubling your carrying capacity.
In Evergreen mills, there is a vendor inside the tunnels. You can loot all the garbage in his shop as well as the cave and sell it to him until his money runs out, then buy some things you need from him so you can sell him more stuff, keep doing this. HINT* that vendor has a weapon that is one of the most powerful small arms in the game, I always have it on me. But you have to kill him to get it.
It helps to have a high repair skill so you can get more money for equipment that is in better condition. You will have MANY duplicate weapons and armor.
The locker in Megaton seems to be infinite. whenever my partner and I are full, I go back to Megaton and stash the stuff in my locker. I sell the excess stuff like extra armor and weapons, and junk like plates cups bottles, pre-war $, cigarettes and cartons.
There is endless looting in this game, houses, tunnels, enemies, cities, etc. It didn’t dawn on me that I could stock up on bottles and cans and the vendors would buy them. You can sell the junk to ANY vendor, Moira in Megaton, the traveling merchants (the guys outside megaton, canterbury Commons, Arefu, etc), doctors,the diners, the merchants in Rivet City, even if they only sell medicine or food, if people can sell you anything, you can sell THEM anything. After a while you will find so much ammo from looting, you wont need to buy it anymore. Ammo is the one thing I don’t sell because you never know when your going to pick up a weapon that uses it and it doesn’t weigh anything.
I payed attention to the following stats:
Strength- so I can carry more
Barter- to get more $ from the vendors
Science and lockpick skills – so I can get into more places for more loot
repair skill- to have better equipment and to yield a higher price selling it to vendors ( a single, good condition laser or plasma weapon will net you close to 800c)
I realized the plasma weapons were very powerful, so I raised my energy weapon stats as well.
I found there aren’t a lot of main missions, and if you just do the main ones the game will be over very shortly. The side quests, looting, collecting, and exploring are the bread & butter of this game.
The one thing I didn’t like about Oblivion was that the enemies got harder to kill as you leveled up. I thought, was is the point in leveling up then? In Fallout 3, the enemies do scale slightly, but once you reach around level 10, they get super easy, even the Behemoths.
Rating
Great storyline, great weapons choices, great gameplay…by far one of the best games I’ve played in awhile. The only minus is that it froze once or twice, but considering how complex the game is I don’t mind at all. This game should be in every gamers collection.
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the game is really good, and considering i live in Washington, DC area, it was really interesting to roam around that area in the game, a lot of interesting things… like your decisions in the game will affect how the game will be overall. I would recomend this game to anyone, wheather you like RPG style games or FPS games, you will like this game, it combines a little bit of every gaming style. If i had all 20 thumbs, id give all 20 up…!!! so thumbs up for this game…!!!
Rating
We all know that the PS3 version of the game isn’t the best of all, but it doesn’t make it less fun. On the graphic side is just excellent with lots of kilometers to explore, lots of weird mutations(animals and humans), hundreds of people to meet and/or kill. sure their is the occasional frame drop but it is not something that ruins the experience.
Gameplay wise is a really simple yet complex game, where you use a system called V.A.T.S. This system freezes the gameplay and then you choose where to attack(legs, arms, torso or head) and it gives you a percentage of the chances you have to hit the selected taget. You gain experience that later on upgrades the character of level, with each level up you can upgrade your abilities and choose a perk to improve a specific area. You can choose between FPS or third person view but the third person view isn’t exactly nice and looks and plays awful.
The amount of guns that you can get is amazing, also you can make your own guns by getting the blueprints and the materials needed. The suit you use obviously affects your game by increasing your damage resistance, improve abilities, etc. The amount of decisions you have is like nothing you have heard of, and all of them affects the game, even choosing if you want your character to be man or women.
The story is great, you start on vault 101 hiding from the outside world, later you scape the vault following your father. Outside the vault you start exploring, helping people or not, searching for father(with the voice colaboration of Liam Neeson) and later on helping him. Some side quests could have been their own game and you can do a lot of them.
On the bad side of the game the only thing I really didn’t like is that aiming when you don’t use the VATS system on the console version, can be a bitch.
Overall this game is a must-have, if you dont own a PC that can run it or a Xbox, the PS3 version is worth it.
Rating
Normally, I’m not a huge science fiction, role-playing game type of guy. I tend to like shooter, horror, or even sports games. I got the game very unsure about it. I started playing and it and it started out slow, but once i got out of the vault, I was hooked. The V.A.T.S system was amazing. The storyline kept me interested. At one point, I played the game 6 hours straight. If you’re trying to decide which game to get for your birthday, choose this one because it’s a great game and should be the game of the year.
Rating
My husband has always enjoyed war-like computer games. He played call of duty and others before we had kids. Our youngest just turned 3, and my husband had been spending all of his time with me and the kids and none playing games over the last three years… so I purchased this one for him as a Christmas gift. He was soooo excited!!! We have had tons of fun! He plays and I watch. A little gory for me, but it’s good bonding time, since that’s what he enjoys! Well worth the $$$ and great for our marriage!! Highly recommended, but the game takes a lot of time collecting items and fixing older items. Many late nights of play
Rating
I have been gaming for almost 20 years now, and this is hands down one of the best games I have ever played in my entire life. It’s a vast, sprawling post-apocalyptic world that you can freely roam around, explore and interact with. It’s like living in the Mad Max universe. I’ve probably put at least 50 hours into this thing, completed nearly all the quests (including the 2 downloadable add-ons The Pitt and Operation Anchorage) and I have yet to get bored of it. I can roam the wastelands for hours, scavenging, fighting off raiders and mutated wildlife, and helping out people I find along the way. Of course, you’re free to play the bad guy if you like, killing, looting and enslaving innocent wastelanders as you see fit (not my thing, but you’re free to choose).
Honestly, the game is so vast that for the first few hours of gameplay I was completely overwhelmed. This game does not hold your hand at all, throwing you out into the wastelands to fend for yourself right off the bat, and for the most part you are free to do whatever you want in any order. Just set out to explore, find some people and places to interact with and help or harm as you please. Once you get the hang of the mechanics and the world, you’ll be totally hooked.
As far as technical stuff, yes, there are many glitches, which seem unavoidable for a game on such a massive scale. But you know what? You’ll be so wrapped up in this wonderfully realized alternate world that you will probably overlook these minor inconveniences.
Another complaint I’ve heard is that people don’t like the option you have of playing through with realtime, first person shooter mechanics. They’d rather have turn-based, traditional RPG battles. In my opinion, turn-based battles would completely remove you from the sense of reality and urgency this game is trying to create. Being able to play in realtime makes you feel even more like you are there, face to face with the harsh elements of post-apocalyptic Washington DC. And if you’re really into turn based combat, the VATS system is a much more intriguing and innovative spin on this. Turn based mechanics are not the end-all-be-all, and in my opinion are becoming quite dated. VATS is a much more appropriate solution for this game. Besides, what’s really more important to a good role playing game: rolling some dice in order to battle, or being able to explore and interact with an alternate, new world? For me it’s the latter, hands down, and the former gets in the way of the latter.
Others have complained of the relatively short and, apparently, not sufficiently “epic” main storyline. In my opinion, the ability to explore the open world and seek out the many other side quests on your own is much more appealing to me, and thus any “lack of depth” in the main quest is easily forgivable.
Rating
Greatest game on the Xbox 360 to date. There are so many places to explore, missions to complete, and people to talk to. This game can keep you occupied for months. You can rush through the main story in about 15-20 hours, depending on how determined you are. However, the game does not continue after the final mission is completed, so create a save before the final mission so you can continue playing after you beat it. This game IS NOT OBLIVION. I don’t know why people keep saying that. There are a few things that are similar to Oblivion, but so many more that are different. The next time you’re at the store just buy it. Don’t think, just buy it. You’ll be glad you did.
Rating
I’m now playing this game for the second time after accidentally finishing the game on my first attempt. If I had known I was about to enter the final sequence I would have saved my game but it’s fine I’ve enjoyed creating a new character and playing a different way.
The game is pretty open ended which I like. The second time through I’m not so much paying very much attention to the main mission but exploring a lot more and doing all the optional side quests.
The graphics are sharp and pretty impressive. The map is vast and there’s a lot to explore. Some of the scenes get a little redundant and you’ll see similar building textures everywhere, but that’s pretty tolerable. The plot is pretty good, and some of the dialog makes me laugh a little bit. For example one time I met some character and he was giving me a hard time so I said something like “You’ll talk now or I’ll splatter your brains all across this metro station” and he said “Nice to see someone finally has some balls around here!”
The game play is pretty good. The VATS targeting is sometimes a little too easy though, but it’s a great way to get good close up scenes of your character in action firing off a shot that blows off some raider’s head and such. Even more fun if you choose the “Bloody Mess” level up upgrade when you get to that point which makes the blood and guts even more graphic.
I’ve been playing the game for about a month and am still finding new things in it, even having finished the game once already. Also it’s pretty apparent that how you build your character and what you do in dialog really affects the way the game story goes. It’s a lot of fun and highly addicting.
The game is not without it’s flaws. I have the PS3 version and it has crashed several times and often freezes for long periods when crossing certain parts of the map. At times the vocal dialog is out of synch, and I’ve gotten stuck in a few places and been unable to move and had to reload the game.
Nonetheless I’m giving it five stars because it’s the most fun I’ve had and the most time I’ve spent on a single game since GTA IV.
Very enjoyable. Looking forward to the next one.
Rating
I love this game wholeheartedly and cant wait for the Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s Edition.
I do however recommend that if you have a capable PC to buy this game for PC and download the G.E.C.K. If you like to mod for games this is a great one to mod for. There is a huge community for modders for Fallout 3 and the things you can do are seemingly limitless. For example you can…
Add new perks, have ridable mounts, have new companions, new housing options, change the animations, add an expanded arsenal of weapons and armor, wear disguises to fool different factions.
It is a must in my opinion to play this game to its fullest.
Cheers,
Billy
Rating
And if some noteworthy website/publication didn’t give Fallout 3 the nod for g.o.t.y, they’re crazy.
**Minor Spoilers**
Fallout 3 is one of the best games I have ever played, and I’ve been an avid gamer since the Atari 2600 days. There are a few reasons why this game resonates with me. First, the game plays out like those old D&D or Choose Your Own Adventure books from the 80′s. Remember them? Well if you don’t they were basically books which gave you choices in certain situations on what to do next. (Kill the man? turn to page 33) Fallout 3 gives you choices upon choices, which in and of itself wouldn’t mean much. However, since every choice you make has the potential for long lasting effects (some are felt for as long as you play the game), you feel as though you really need to choose carefully. You’re invested deeply in the character and the story because of this.
As an example, there is a man in the first hour of the game who is dying and needs purified water, not the irradiated water that infests the land. You can find him the water he needs, tell him you don’t have any, or even shoot him to put him out of his misery. Each choice can be looked at as good, neutral and evil (though they’re never labeled that obviously). My first go around, I shot him right between the eyes. It was clear from the jump I was on the road to pure evil awesomeness. Fun right? Problem is, the more you go down that evil path, the more you begin to question “hmm, should I do this? That’s really messed up.” And you can do it all you want, but the point is, the future repercussions are there in your mind as you contemplate your next move. Take the good path? Easy right? Well not really. Some folks in the wasteland don’t like your high and mighty behavior and put a price on your head. You’ll constantly be dodging bullets the further you go in the game retaining angelic status.
Another area the game excels is in scope. You’ll see the partially destroyed Washington Monument off in the distance. Far off. And you can walk there. You can walk anywhere you can see, and farther. There are old sewage plants, schools, towns and caverns just waiting to be traversed. There are rumors of a downed UFO, beasts with foot long claws, water people and zombies. And you’ll look all over the map for this type of stuff, not because it’s a mission, but because it’s unknown, and exploring is the best part of the game. And just about every time you travel off the beaten path, you’ll find something cool, and it keeps you hooked. You can hack computers and read what was happening when the war began. You can read the history of the brotherhood of steel. You can go to the Museum of History and collect Abraham Lincoln memorabilia and sell it to the highest bidder. You can lead factions against the pseudo government faction, or vice versa or even somewhere in between, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The main story is pretty good, and if you just follow that thread, you could finish the game in 15-20 hours, like I mistakenly did. However, I’m now on my second go round and I’m 29 hours in, and I’d say I still have another 5-7 hours on just the main story. Right now I’m just traveling the map trying to find new locations, and it’s the most fun I’ve had. I just freed some slaves, but I also have the option, for quite nice pay, to capture some myself. I pick pocketed someone and put a grenade in their pocket! (lost karma for that one) I made peace between two super hero wannabes that were waging war in a town causing the entire population to hide indoors. See how much there is to do? If you only stick to the main quest, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.
The battle system is really phenomenal once you get it down. I’ve never seen such grisly deaths captured in a game, all in bloody slow motion. But you don’t have unlimited VATS abilty, no, those are connected to a point system. Once the points run out, you have to battle straight up shooting, no frills, and it’s a bit clunky. But the points do regenerate, and there are plenty of chems to aid you in that area. Just watch out or you’ll become addicted!
There are some quibbles, such as pop up in the distance, but that is forgiven considering there’s nary a load screen as you walk across this huge wasteland. In fact, there’s only load times when you walk into certain doors, and even then, it’s less than 7 seconds.
One last bit of advice: Always roll your save files three deep. Don’t go off one save file or you might get caught in a glitch which you can’t get out of. I tend to save before I get into a major offensive, or do something dastardly as you never know what will happen. I tried to shoot up a slaver camp, and while taking heavy fire, I ducked into a building. Problem is, the game autosaved when I walked in (and out), writing over my one save file. So every time I left the building, there were 6-10 slavers firing mini guns and shotguns right at me. I died endlessly and each time had to start at that stupid door because I didn’t have another save file and I had to start over.
To button this up, Fallout 3 is one of the most wide open adventures out there with so many missions, and so many unofficial missions to discover, that you could easily spend 40 hours playing this game without touching the main quest. The recently introduced trophies are a godsend, the graphics, minimalist sound scape and gameplay are all top notch, and while there are some glitches and oddities, they never keep you from dying to put the game back in and give it another go.
Rating
If there is a single post you should read when considering a purchase compared to the other reviews on this site and probably many others, it’s this one.
The main issue most of these childish reviewers claim to have with Fallout 3 is the presence of Securom DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology. Their accusations of privacy invasion and computer crashing with regards to Fallout 3 are either a) misled b) ignorant or c) malicious.
The following is a rectification of those false assumptions used to dole out 1 star ratings for this wonderful RPG.
The major points that cause people to feel apathy towards Securom is their higher level security applications. These include the rootkits, limited installations and online activations. These are very good points of contention for arguing that a game with these features could be dangerous to the health of your computer thus making the game not worth buying.
HOWEVER:
Bethesda (and now on release countless of other players) ALL confirm that the ONLY Securom DRM feature is Disc Checking.
This feature is NON-INVASIVE and does NOT install the Securom drivers onto your computer. ALL this security feature does is make sure the game disc is valid. (To discourage pirates)
If you are a legitimate customer you are NOT affected by the presence of the Securom disc check.
Let me reiterate:
The ONLY Securom feature shipped with Fallout 3 is the LOWEST level of security. And that is a simple NON INVASIVE disc check that absolutely cannot harm your computer in any way.
If you have any logic at all you will be able to see the truth and it shall set you free.
Please enjoy Fallout 3.
Rating
This is the best game I’ve played in a long time. I have over 50 hours in this and am probably only half done. If you like to explore, this game is for you. It’s got a great story and you interact with many characters. You could probably finish this game in 10 to 20 hours if you just followed the main quest but there is so much more you can do. Great Game.
Rating
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 1280×1024, 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.
Rating
The only thing I can compare this game to is crack. I cant stop playing it and when im not playing it im thinking about it. Im not a hardcore gamer and Ive never played oblivion or fallout 1 or 2. But this game is hellacool
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I normally get bored with games and put them down after a while and might go back and play here and there. I would say this is the best game since the last (NON Online only) Final Fantasy game. I couldn’t put it down.
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Gave it to my brother, who, several weeks later, expressed that while he normally didn’t enjoy first person shooters, the ambiance, storyline, and fun gameplay had made him an addict.
I’ve heard this called a rpg/First person shooter before, and guess it’s true. Looks like a lot of fun, I’ll have to look into getting one myself!
Rating
I loved every minute of it. This is exactly the game I wanted. Some people say it’s Oblivion with guns. YES. IT IS. And that’s what I wanted. I wanted something similar to Oblivion but with a sci-fi/post apocalyptic theme. Bethsoft delivered!
Rating
Awesome game can’t stop playing. It pulls you write in with a nice RPG/Shooter mix with an unbelievable amount of places to explore and items to find. Graphics are great, play is smooth. You can replay several times creating different scenarios results each time. You can play male, female, good, bad or both. The map is expansive and if you are new to shooters game play can be adjusted during play from very easy, easy, normal, hard or difficult. Once you have been to a location as long as your not in harms way you can teleport to another. You can even get your own apartment fairly quick in the game to store all your stuff. The only problem I have had is precision looking at all the possible pick up items (they are everywhere). Once my character was stuck between a railing and a wall. So I had to start over at the save. Other than that no problems just addicting fun. I can’t wait until fallout 4.
Rating
It’s hard to put down the controller on this game. I always want to see what’s over the next rise or what’s in that bombed out house or down in that poorly lit subway tunnel I haven’t gone through yet. Yes, like others have pointed out this game is highly addictive. This blows the lid of the original series and I should know, I’ve played them all.
Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics on the PC became instant classics but I’m slowly switching to the PS3 for my games because I hate upgrading my PC everytime a new game comes out and I dont’ have the resources to handle it. My PS3 has solved that problem and Fallout 3 has become one of my new all time favorites.
I’d heard many the blog and website dismissing Fallout 3 before it ever got to the shelf. I had high hopes that the elements that made the game unique unto itself would be maintained when it went to Bethesda. I have to say they haven’t disappointed me. The primary elements are still there and I am pleased at what they have done with the franchise to create an even more expansive gaming experience. I will eagerly await Fallout 4 but I’ll stay glued to Fallout 3 until then.
As for the game itself, expect the most immersive Post-apocalyptic RPG you’ve ever played. If you’re a fan of the old Fallout series, you don’t lose anything here instead you’ve gained a beautifully rendered world with a first person perspective or a third person perspective if you like it the old way with the battle elements intact plus a few new surprises.
What makes the game so freakin’ awesome for me is the old jazz and big band music that has been carefully and expertly interwoven into the game to create an atmosphere that seems anachronistic at times but fitting for the environment you’ll find yourself in. Who would have thought it would be so horribly wonderful to take the Ripper to Feral Ghouls while Roy Brown’s Butcher Pete is playing in the background or running across the Capital Wasteland with Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters belting out Civilization when you are far from anything civilized.
There are perplexing moments where you find yourself wondering where to go next when there’s so much to do and explore. There are scary moments deep in the bowels of some old building with strange growls all around you and there are funny moments with exploding heads and flying Super Mutants with a soothing song like I’m Tickled Pink plays in the background bringing up out of place images in your head of sandwiches on a picnic blanket or iced tea on the porch watching the neighborhood kids playing on the street just beyond your white picket fence.
This game is all that and much more. You’ll have no buyer’s regret no matter how much you pay for it. Don’t walk out into the wasteland to get this game, run and get it.
Rating
This game consumed me for the better part of 4 weeks, and still wants my soul…
Rating
This is one of the best games I ever played. Besides the detailed graphics, there are many options when interacting with other characters in the games that changes the outcome of your mission as you progress through the game. Most of all, there are an arsenal of weapons to choose from that has different outtake when used. I recommend this game to any one likes a game where you can choose your lifestyle-the option of being good, evil, or neutral.
Rating
After many hours of playing I can say with confidence that this game is good- very good. Yesterday I saw bobby pins on my dresser and on instinct pocketed them- in conjunction with a screwdriver you can pick locks. I then came to my senses and put them back, because I don’t live in a fallout universe, but I came away impressed with how immersive the game is.
Firstly, it IS oblivion with guns, this comes from a long time fallout 1 fan, but that is OK because it captures the FEEL of the wasteland even if Bethesda did their own take on it. FEV, ghouls, authentic 50s style culture, 50 comic book advanced technologies, and commie threats all work really well in this game. You do get the impression that this is a place where humanity is surviving on the ragged edge and you can make a difference. VATS never gets old.
It does crash, (like if you blow up Megaton and try to fast travel to there from Tenpenny Towers right after the nuke goes off), the AI is nothing to write home about, and sometimes the ground and graphics don’t render right. Perhaps my biggest beef is that Fallout 3 is not as funny as fallout 1. Who will ever forget walking right out of the vault to Shady Sands, stabbing Aradesh in the groin with the knife because you are psychotic and seeing those yellow words above his character “Ohh!! My groin is the groin of fire!” Or telling fat Gizmo in Junktown that you could put one OVER on him, you just couldn’t put one AROUND him. While the humor is not entirely missing (the robots are outstanding) Fallout 3 is much more grim and unpleasant a place. Might just be you east coasters though.
One more thing- the ending is a huge letdown if you expect a video game ending. If you think of playing a game and get to the end you will be angry, very angry. If you think of getting to participate in a universe (more like real life) where you exist and help or harm just because that is your nature then you will see the point of the ending. Fallout 3 is meant to be YOUR story, not your ending, or the vault dwellers story, or a game you play. Keep that in mind and you will have even more fun.
All things considered the game is a great buy.
You won’t be disappointed.
Rating
Although it is not the classic Fallout or Fallout 2 of days passed
it does bring back that classic and incredible feeling I got playing those games. The idea you can essentially be the person you want to in this post apocalyptic world.
The main quest seems kinda lame if one compares it to the originals, but if you wanna do that the aspect of this game (which is a good majority of it, I’d say 75%+ of it) the wandering around and exploring the world before you (WHICH is massive and absolutely rendered beautifully) is perfect.
Having been a fan of the series it was hard for me to not compare it to the first two in some way, shape, or form. However I did go into the game with an open mind realizing it has been a decade since Fallout 2 came out AND it was being developed by a new developer for the first time ever. With Black Isle Studios defunked now (RIP) and Bethesda taking over they scrapped Van Buren (the original working title) and redeveloped it from the ground up using the Oblivion Engine.
The game itself has some of that same feeling Oblivion would give one but with a post apocalyptic feeling… Essentially there is a main quest with tons of side quests you can do if you wish (also part of the original Fallout series). The graphics engine was ramped up for this one compared to Oblivion, it looks amazing even if you have to put it on Medium or less (I run it on a mix between High and Ultra). The gameplay is smooth and fights are great. VATS (Fallout’s answer to slowing down time and choosing what part of your enemy you attack) is good but just lacks with the new FPS aspect of the game, it seems almost lame as you can CHARGE hit “v” go into VATS bam bam bam, dead… The NPCs are still lifeless and frozen in feeling and look, it drives me nuts and I hate it still as I did in Oblivion, but if you are looking for a great game which has made it as one of my top 10 RPGs of all time check out Fallout 3 you won’t regret it.
Rating
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.
Rating
Okay, okay maybe the world “Mind blower” was a HUGE mistake for the title for my little review.. it’s hands down the best game i’ve played in many many years.
the voice acting is better then i’ve ever seen in a game and the ability to pick up and change the world around you is simply amazing. this is a MUST have game, a MUST I would gladly pay 100 dollars for this game.
The only problem for PS3 players is that there is no expansion YET but they are coming out for us soon also in the 80+ hours of endless game play I only crashed four times and I picked up right back where i started… four times is NOT that bad considering the depth this game has…
You can be whom ever you wish to be, the possibility s are endless and sometimes, you do feel bad for the people you come across and sometimes you hate them, for a game to invoke that kind of emotion has to say something:)
please, get this game!!
Rating
Fallout 3 is an amazing game. It comes Highly recomended for any one. Its apart of the best game series of all time.
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great game just could have been better if it was more of a multi-player setting – run with the idea though definitely great game.
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In short, the game rocks. With up to 100 hours of game time with the original game, plus 5 add-ons of another 20-30 hours, you get much bang for the buck. The world is vast and the places to explore as you get to know the wasteland of Washington D.C. leave you reluctant to finally turn off the comuter and get some sleep at 3 a.m.! A few of the underground levels seem repetitive (subways and tunnels that look the same), but otherwise the graphics are the bomb and each explored building and location feels like a separate entity, pushing the stroyline further.
All in all a great accomplishment…..
Rating
I have been looking forward to this title for years, and I’m happy to say I’m not the least bit disappointed with it! Unfortunately, I only have about 2 hours time invested in it so far (school and work get in the way, but this game is on my mind all the time!) and I haven’t had any of the problems some have complained about with system crashes and lockups. Graphics, sound, play control… all top notch! The best part is they kept the “Fallout Feel.” This game is a must have!
Rating
There is no reason why everyone shouldn’t play this game.
There is something in it for everyone. Completely immersible world, great combat, believable post-apocalyptic world. When you finish you you feel as though you have gone through something big.
Few bugs, got stuck in landscape a few too many times.
Expansions available; Broken Steel, Mother-ship Zeta,Point look out are great are worth every penny.
Buy and keep!
Las Vegas will be out soon.
Hope you lucky enough to have played this game!
Rating
Fallout 3 is very fun and addictive to play. It starts slowly but that doesn’t last long (about 15 minutes). It was hard at first for me to get used to this type of RPG since I normally play Japanese style RPGs. But just as with the Japanese RPGs the combat system is what hooked me. I strongly recommend you put all 5 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points into agility–and save your game before leaving Vault 101. You may not know what I’m talking about now, but just wait. You will love this game. It is so big, and I do recommend getting the strat guide.
Rating
How great is this game?
I can even Describe
I was jumping for joy at parts
I cried, yelled, laughed, and squrimed
Lets me start off by saying I do NOT give this game a 10
Why?
The Ending was horrible, terrible, and stupid
The stuff right before the ending could be the coolest thing in the game
And there are some minor quriks here and there, like getting disconncted from XBL
Story 8/10
You are searching for your father at the begining of the game and it turns out to be something much, much more. I cant see how you can not love your father from the start. His voice is southing and nice, the perfect father. YOu start out in the valut and escape becuase your father left. The search is on and need to vist many citys to find him
Graphics 8/10
I hate peole who complain about there is too much brown and green. What do you expect!?!?! Come on people! AN ATOMIC BOMB HIT A CITY! Were you expecting nice and cuddley rabits? But the body annimations are terrible, worst part of the grpahics department. But the lanscapes are great.
Gameplay 9.5/10
VATS is great and you get an handy thing called the Pip-Boy 3000! Screw the iPhone! The only problem I have it that the combat outside of vats is OK. You cant sprint either, and a points you really feel like you need too get out of there. THIS GAME IS NOT MENT TO BE A FIRST PERSON SHOOTER
Overall 9.5/10
This is a frusterating game, and will last you awhile after the main quest. *REMEBER TO SAVE AFTER RAVEN ROCK*. This is on of the best games I have ever played and by far the winner for GOTY.
This is one hell of an RPG
Rating
This game has absolutely everything…adventure, survival, strategy, choices of morality. It’s HUGE and addicting. The amount of replayability is virtually endless. A couple of days ago, I was playing and my hearing was going in the game and my vision became blurry from time to time. I thought there was something wrong with the game, but then I realized that the helmet I was wearing was destroyed and that I had gotten a concussion in the game. It’s crazy how realistic this game is. Running around the shell of Washington D.C. is a blast. The only negative to the game is all of the foul language…it gets to be a bit much and is unnecessary. That’s my only complaint. Buy and enjoy.
Rating
I waited until I completed the game to give a review, just so you know, it took me a total of 50 in game hours, so with reloads that is probably around 70 hours of total game play, though there were still several locations I had not been to and most certainly quests I had not finished.
I was a bit skeptical when Bethesda got the rights to produce Fallout 3, not because I don’t like Bethesda, but because I was worried about the outcome of a mixture of their Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series. It came out beautifully though, they have improved upon their AI and created scenery that really made me feel part of a post-apocalyptic world. The game has a few broken quests in it and if you reload frequently it has a tendency to lock up or just close itself, but these problems are rare and easy to get around, they’ll hopefully be fixed soon.
I have found Fallout 3 to be among the best, if not the best, game I have played from their creative style of character generation to the climatic conclusion and though it is an RPG I find myself playing it more like an FPS which keeps me feeling more like I am part of the action.
Rating
Here it is in a nutshell.
Before this game I didn’t even know Bethesda’s name as a gaming company. I barely knew of the Fallout games even existing.
I heard alot of love going around for Fallout 3 so I decided to try it out for myself. I was expecting, like a post 6 Final Fantasy game to be severely let down wondering what kind of drugs people must have been taking to have enjoyed it so much.
I was nothing of the sort. Mass Effect had become my Gold Standard for what I want out of an RPG game, Fallout 3, I think has just trumped it in all departments but one.
As far as sucking you into the game world goes, despite it being a post apocalyptic world you find yourself pausing to admire scenery, and just roaming about for the hell of it. You’ll actually -enjoy- exploring this world and boy is there alot to explore. You almost feel as if you had been living in a Vault all of your life, and then having left it seeing the world for the first time.
A game is nothing without Rock Solid gameplay, and Fallout 3 doesn’t fail to deliver at all. Grant it I would have liked to have more special abilities, (you know things like psychic powers and what not but whatever) but there’s alot of ways to make differing characters and not just from the looks department.
Fallout 3 does what games like Final Fantasy have Failed to do, for Six games now, it has no classes. And yet, each character that you make can be wildly different from another. Even with overlap. Infact it is quite likely that is going to happen unless you strictly plan out each character to be identical! There are enough skills in the game and not enough points to max them out.
You read that? You don’t Max out. (I am told you can, but it requires effort for the 360)
Controls are tight, though they could use some work in Non Vats Mode as far as movement goes. The controls work, and really don’t get in the way. Makes for good gameplay and it delivers here too.
There’s tons and tons of side quests. Infact, if you so chose I believe you’d get 70 hours out of -one- character if you did all of the side quests and it actually seems to affect the game world! I like all of the little side stories… so it’s hard to pace yourself to save some for your next character.
There’s no real loading times so no issue there either.
Okay so what’s the big problems?
I have two and only two. One of which appears to be somewhat random in if it will affect you or not.
Glitchy game… very glitchy. My friend’s had a great many glitches with this game getting stuck on invisible rocks, or holes and cant’ move etc disappearing people that sort of thing. I have yet to have this issue but I have heard it more than often enough about this game that it’s probably a matter of time before it gets me too.
And the main story, is kind of a let down and predictable.
Unlike Fable II, I hear it’s post game content is actually good (once you get Broken Steel you can play it after you beat it). I’m not quite there yet, but I’m far enough along that I was disappointed with the story.
If there is to ever be another Fallout, I hope they work on the story they’ve still got a 5 star product on their hands even with a mediocre story.
Rating
This game has repay value, there are different endings and variables that change the game. Definately worth the money and one of my favorite games.
This game can keep me busy for months. Amazon offers excellent deals and great shipping. I am very happy with my purchase.
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I get tired of reading the one star reviews. It seems the major reason people dont like this game is because it is a role playing game, and not like halo where you are guided every step of the way and you shoot and throw grenades at every thing that moves. This game goes beyond that. The interaction with other people is good with many things to say. This easily has the best graphics yet! This may be a pitiful review but I just wanted to let you know this is an awsome game that will last a long time! Get the game of the year edition, it comes with all the expansions.
Rating
I’ve been waiting my whole life for a game like this.
Fallout 3 is the most engrossing game I’ve ever played in my life. The thought process I have playing this game, is much the same as the thought process you character would have. You are learning, and growing right along with your character, and your moral choices are often based on need and desire, as in real life.
Almost every choice you make in this game effects how others treat you, and the opportunities life presents you. You gain and lose Karma, learn and hone skills, and explore a world that does not seem so far from our own.
There are some flaws. The perspective (1st or 3rd) are both poor. If you get motion sick very easy, then this may not be the game for you. You are constantly managing items you pick up because you can only carry so much (like in real life).
I can forgive the glitches, and accept them as personality to the game. It is beautiful, in a ghastly, scared out of my mind sort of way. This is one of the best games I have every played, and will probably absorb at least 60 hours of my life. Please give it a try if you are on the fence. The price cannot be beat.
Rating
I have played the originals and while they were magical. This new one had me on the edge of my seat. I played the game in first shooter mode for most the game, but it does have a way to play in 3-rd person view (over the shoulder). Overall, it is a blast to play…the effects are breath taking; however, some of the items are a bit redundent to find. The manual targeting is a bit rough, but the VATS targeting system is simply brillant. I recommend the game to anyone who enjoys RPGs with a first player shoot mixed into it.
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This game is epic and addictive. It’s not as in depth as Oblivion is but I think most casual gamers would consider that a good thing. At $40 I would hold off and just put down the $60 for the game of the edition (has the expansions).
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This game is fantastic, i got it the day it came out and have been playing it as much as i can since then. Bethesda did a fantastic job of continuing the Fallout series, it took some getting used to but it is a great game to play.
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First Off… Great Shipping by Amazon! I elected for Free 5-7 day shipping and received the game on October 30th… 2 days after the game released.
The game itself is very fun so far (only 1.5 hours invested). V.A.T.S. targeting system is a great addition to the RPG genre. I have not had a chance to build a weapon yet, but I believe it will add great complexity to customized weapons. Multi-level navigation can be slightly confusing with 2 map views (local and world), but can be learned after some gamelay. Graphics are very good (do not have 1080p TV yet) and there have been no slow downs or glitches yet. The designers have also added some fun things throught the game (like silly figurines that add bonuses).
highly recommended for fun, in-depth rpg, and good graphics.
Rating
I’m 40 year old gamer who has played video games since Atari 2600, Colecovision, Commodore 64, Nintendo and now PS3.
This game is really fantastic. I simply cannot put it down. I stay up till 1am every night playing trying to get to the next level. Here’s simple breakdown:
Great:
1. Easy to play
2. Great Weapons -love the mini nuke (fatman), flamethrower, 44 magnum.
3. Graphics are outstanding
4. Just a wonderful feeling not knowing what’s going to happen next and you trying to find out.
5. VATS target system is awesome – makes shooting easier and not straight COD 4 although you can play that way if you dont’ want to use VATS.
6. Easy to save your game at any time.
7. load times are really fast – game runs smooth.
Not Great:
1. Compass is a little confusing trying to get to next task
2. There are places in game where if you step into you can get locked up through a glitch and have to start over like between two cement barriers.
3. Gattling Gun should be much stronger – sometimes it barely does any damage to an enemy – gun looks great though.
Take it from an Old-School gamer who loves the new games (COD 4, Vegas 2, CC Generals) this game is really top quality – you should buy this game because it is just great work done by Bethesda. This is like a Legend of Zelda for Adults who love Guns.
Rating
Wandering around the post-apocalyptic wasteland loses some appeal after the main quest is complete or you max out your character’s level…overall, though, a very fun game. Addictive…with lots of ‘sploding!
Rating
Maybe my review title is overstated, but only slightly (since I haven’t played every game that has been released in the last decade…)
I heard a ton of positive reviews about this game but it didn’t seem to be my “cup of tea.” But after playing Far Cry 2 and getting addicted to its gameplay and story, I thought Fallout 3 might be for me. Oh, it was for me, and so much more than I had thought.
Frankly, the game is amazing. I’m surprised there are so many CONs on other people’s reviews. My only CON is that I got it on XBOX 360 instead of PS3 so I’ll probably burn up my XBOX due to my marathon sessions of playing it. The game IS a shooter and does it very well. But it is also an amazing RPG. The VATS system is one of the greatest things ever in a video game, I think. Without it, Fallout 3 would be a sub-par shooter; yet if it was VATS-only the game would be terribly slow-paced. The option to use VATS when you want to enables you to “pick your poison” and play the game how you want, when you want. Want to snipe a super mutant in the head from afar? Might want to use VATS. Want to smash a radroach with a bat? Just hit the right trigger…
The locations and side missions seem endless. The story and characters are believable. Bethesda has created a fully developed world that deserves a ton of praise. There is so much to do and the atmosphere is unmatched in any game I’ve seen. I’ve seen complaints about the music but I think the contrast of 50s “happy” music with the post-apocalyptic nightmare-scape is a creepy match made in heaven (or hell?). And you are never out of 1st person (or 3rd person if you choose, at will), from the moment your character is born so you really experience the world as your character does.
If they had stopped there, it would have been a remarkable game. But then there’s the experience points, karma, perks, leveling up, etc. Everything from cannibalizing corpses and breaking into computers, to building new weapons and becoming a cyborg becomes available as the game continues. As many hours that can be spent on this game, these options ensure that the player will want to come back again and again. Even then you can never do everything as one character so the possibilities are endless and guarantee replay value.
AGAIN, if they had stopped there, it would have been spectacular…as they say, BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! There is now downloadable content that raises the XP cap creating more room for character growth and more stories to experience. I cannot say enough good things about this game and how they managed to get it all into one disc must be a technological feat. Since the game has been out for a while, the price has dropped to below $30, making this surely the best value per gaming hour you will ever have.