Wesley’s Personal Blog

(This whole thing is as spoiler-free as I can make it)

So I got Fallout 3. I liked Oblivion (From the same studio, Bethesda) but didn’t love it. I quickly got bogged down by the sheer size of the world, and never liked any of the weapons. Ranged weapons were a pain and melee weapons were worse. And you simply could not get through the game without fighting durn near everything.

Regardless, I wanted to try Fallout 3 because I love the theme. I tend to prefer SciFi to Fantasy so I was hoping that, at least, would get me through the game. Did it? Read on…

I set aside 3 hours this morning after work to play the game. I actually spent closer to 6 hours on it, which is a good sign. In those 6 hours I was born, grew up, killed a few people who deserved it, got a few people killed who didn’t deserve it, and had a blast of a time. However, the game is not without flaws.

If you play the game, don’t spend too much time on your character’s face. I did, and I must say Bethesda got me again. You can control every detail of your face down to the angle of upturn of his or her nose. And then, throughout the game, you have two possible views: 1st person and over-the-shoulder. Wow, that was time well spent deciding what percentage of eyebrow thickness was the best.

Another thing I hated about Oblivion was the idea of collecting herbs to make potions. I don’t know *why* exactly, but it just didn’t appeal to me. Fallout 3 has something similar in that you can create weapons so long as you have blueprints, skill, and parts. Where I was totally averse to brewing a healing potion, I’m completely jazzed about the idea of building myself a rocket launcher. I can’t wait until I can afford the blueprints.

The side quests, so far, seem more fun as well. I think, though, that that’s the theme more than anything else. Fixing water valves for the treatment plant seemed more fun than collecting Nirnroot for the local alchemist.

The targeting system (And the pip-boy in general) is awesome. My only problem is putting 3 bullets into someone’s head should at *least* slow them down. :) But I absolutely love the cinematic shooting sequences when you’re taking people down, and also love how you can pause the game and take your time picking where to shoot. And you gotta love when the mutant’s arm blows off.

Speaking of the Pip-Boy, it’s a nice way to avoid out-of-character menus. it’s easy to use, quick, and also pauses the game so you can take your time using it to change your weapon, armor, check your map, or whatever you need to do.

The map seems pretty huge, and the wasteland is fraught with danger. I’ve taken to memorizing where I can sleep for free to recharge, as stimpacks seem a bit scarce and expensive and all the food is irradiated. I’ll eat it if I’m in a bind, but as soon as I get out of that bind I’m on my way home - or at least to the nearest mutant den I cleared out - for a nap.

I haven’t taken full advantage of it (yet) but you can pretty much do anything you want. If you don’t like someone, you can attack them. Of course, that’s breaking the law and you can be punished. But if you don’t like the face of the bartender who has critical information for you to complete the game, you *can* kill him. I have no idea how you complete the game after that and I don’t think I’ll find out, at least not in this play-through :)

All in all, I like Fallout 3. I have no problem paying (almost) full price for it and expect to get many many hours of enjoyment before finally finding my dad. He better have a good reason for bailing or I just may use my Pip Boy to target his cranium with my home-made rocket launcher.

Wesley Games