A landmark Western RPG, the best since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland awaits...
We begin life inside the confines of Vault 101 as a baby. We develop our characters' specializations and personalities.
We celebrate a birthday, get a Pip Boy 3000, take the G.O.A.T. , and get our first weapon...
And then Dad freaks out and leaves the Vault for some reason...
Where did he go? Why did he leave? Why did he leave me? What the hell is going?
You fight your way out of Vault 101 and enter the Capital Wasteland...the closest city is Megaton, a city with a live nuclear bomb, in its center. You're looking for dad, but there's this whole world out there to explore too...
The Wasteland is full of evil. There are Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Radscopions, Raiders, Slavers, and then some really random things like, The Ant King...
There are other Vaults to explore too...Vault Tech Bobbleheads to collect...
Take over the airwaves and meet legendary DJ, Three Dog, on his downtown D.C. located, Galaxy News Radio. Meet the Brotherhood of Steel. Or, their exiled Outcast brethren...So
many possibilities...
Who is John Henry Eden? Is there really such thing as a real, living tree out there? Who are the Enclave?
What I've described only scratches the surface of all that is Fallout 3...the world is a genuinely interesting world to explore. There are so many things to collect. Like Nuka Cola Quantum. You can use the Quantum to make powerful weapons like a Nuka Grenade...genius!
Combat is handled from a 1st person perspective with Vault Tech Assisted Targeting (VATS). VATS allows you to stop time and target enemies' body parts when attacking. You can zoom and shoot in real time, at any time, but can also use VATS if you have enough Action Points. I like the VATS system. It allows me to enjoy the combat a lot more.
So yeah, the world is HUGE, it is interesting to explore, and it is full of main quests and side quests and overall exploration. It encourages exploration by offering trophies for completing side quests and collecting valuable items.
I've beaten this game once on the PS3, once on the Xbox 360 (with Operation Anchorage), and am working on getting the platinum trophy in the future. This time I'm going to play on the hardest difficulty.
Graphically, the game looks good and runs well. I had it freeze on me once in 50 hours of play. The required patch when you start the game seems to have cleared up any problems that were reported at launch. I had no freezing when people came up on my Friends List.
I'm hoping that a Game of the Year Edition of Fallout 3, with full optimization, a la: Oblivion, is released sometime in the next 18 months. I'll gladly buy that game again.
I bemoan the lack of DLC, for now at least, but that shouldn't take anything away from the core experience. A 150+ hour core experience I'm talking about here...
People, this game is a classic. And in my opinion ranks top 3 all-time, with Final Fantasy VII and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic being the two others, for best RPG.
If you have a PS3 and are even remotely interested in RPG's, shooters, interesting stories, immense replay ability, and/or trophy hoarding, you owe it yourself to add Fallout 3 to your collection.
If I wasn't such a Metal Gear Solid nut, this would've hands down been my GOTY. Instead, it's a tie with Metal Gear Solid 4.
9.5/10