Fallout 3 and Blogging

Well it’s been like half a year since my last post, but I think I’m going to try to post on a regular basis, maybe every tuesday an thursday or something.  The content will probably vary, but it’ll mostly deal with anime, games, and sometimes tech news or just stuff I find interesting.  Today will fall under the games category.

A review for the recently released game: Fallout 3

I got the game on it’s release date about a week or so ago.  I was a little worried at first, every time I’ve tried to play Oblivion I get bored of the game after I get so far.  Despite starting that game many times, I’ve yet to finish it, or even get further in the main quest line than bringing the prince to the castle thingy.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent many hours having fun on Oblivion, becoming leader of the Dark Brotherhood, the Grey Fox, exploring, it’s just I always get bored, and since Fallout 3 is by the same group that brought us Oblivion I was a little worried I’d never finish it.

That turned out to not being a problem, since I got it, I have pretty much not stopped playing.  I put about 30 hours in before I finished the main quest line and yet I reloaded an older save and I’m still going, simply exploring and finding all the little things.  I feel Bethesda has really improved since Oblivion.  The faces while still aren’t that great looking are much better than Oblivion, which is one of my problems.  Also the scaled leveling system has improved.  In unmodded Oblivion, if you’ve never played it, everyone and everything would level up with you so the difficulty was always the same.  The simple bandits you see right out of the tutorial would be wearing the best armor when you were higher level.  However, in Fallout, the lowly raiders will never be in Power Armor.  A couple of them (maybe a single raider in a group of them) will find a Laser pistol lying around, but when you’re level 20 with your plasma rifle and Power Armor, you won’t find them much problem.

Up ’til now, I’ve been comparing the game to Oblivion, rather than the previous Fallout games.  But as Bethesda created this game with the Oblivion engine, it’s an excellent comparison game.  But this game definitely fits under the Fallout title.  Just emerging from the Vault and seeing the real world can be awesome and depressing at the same time, at a level the previous Fallout games were unable to reach, not because they failed at post apocalyptic setting, but because of technological limitations of the time.  Fallout and Fallout 2 definitely had more emphasis on stats than Fallout 3, but I’m not the kind of person to freak out about that.  I’m not playing the game for stats, I’m playing the game for Post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and Fallout 3 definitely hits that nail on the head.

Washington DC

Of course, some people are still whining that it’s just Oblivion with guns.  But I say it’s much more than that.  Overall more engaging and just all around fun than Oblivion, however you’d have to play it for yourself to see.  Weather or not you had fun with Oblivion or if you liked the old Fallout games, this is definately a game worth the $50 (USD) they’re asking for.

Shishkabob -- One of my favorites

Yeah, that’s my review.  Didn’t mention anything about graphics, sound, or any of that other stuff normal reviews mention.  Oh well.  I plan on saying something about Red Alert 3, Dead Space and Outlaw Star sometime in the near future as well.  Until then, Later!

~

Aelphais