Gaming is something that I have done for a long time. Since the Atari 2600 came out I have been pretty hardcore about playing video games. When I was young, I used to think "wouldn't it be cool if video games were an immersive 3D experience?"These days, they are just that. Starting with Doom, I had the chance to run down 3D corridors blasting my way through level after level. There were others preceding Doom, but they were wire frame style and not as engrossing. Then I moved on to Quake and loved it, especially Quake 2. The multiplayer in that game still is better than a lot of recent titles with options like tuning off falling damage and gravity. I had some amazing battles with my friends playing that game...
3D game play has become an industry standard and is now enhanced by High Definition and 7.1 surround sound, making video games a very realistic experience.
I thought I had reached the pinnacle of open world, 3D gaming when I played Morrowind for first time. It really blew my mind because it was exactly what I thought a 3D game should be. Bethesda softworks nailed it! You could go anywhere you wanted, even up a
mountain, all the way to the top or You could levitate up there instead if you didn't want to do it the hard way. The amount of options in the game was truly stellar.
Fast forward a few years to the Oblivion release.Bethesda really out did themselves on this one. The environments were breathtaking and everything around you seemed alive and
lucid. Sometimes I would just stare at the horizon, watching the sun set and rise. I spent hours playing this game, beating the main quest several times. At the time I thought it couldn't get better.
Until Fallout 3 released.
I had been waiting a long time for this one. And it was completely worth it! This is an increadible game. The most open world so far, the D.C. wastelands are a challenging yet rewarding place to call home. Not at first of course, it wouldn't be Bethesda game if you come up through tough times. If you stay close to safety, and don't wander out too far at first you'll be alright. But go out too far and you are dead meat.
I have been waiting to write this review for a long time, but didn't want to until all the downloadable content(DLC) was all done. Having just finished the mothership zeta DLC I finally feel ready, so here we go.
I waited for two years before this game was released. As a matter of fact, I went to the game store a midnight to pick up my reserved copy. Soon as I got home I ripped off the packaging and fired up my 360. while I waited I perused the game guide that I purchased along with the game. Did I call it guide? What meant to say was I looked through the Bible-thick book that guides you through the game. I am not a fan of guides usually, but the scope of the game is so enormous that it is easy to feel lost and overwhelmed.
The game begins in the safety of vault 101. You see, there was a nuclear war 2077. Two hundred years later D.C. and surrounding areas are a vast wasteland filled with beasts and raiders. Not to mention the radiation, but that is a given. That is where Linda was born. She came up through hard times. There wasn't a lot to do in the vault and it wasn't the most constructive time spent for her.
Seems like she had it in for everyone, maybe because her mother died in child birth. Maybe she was just mean. The only people that she anyone ever show affection toward was her father and his friend, Jonas.
When she was nineteen, her father left the vault. Nobody leaves the vault.Ever.So this caused a real panic, a fever pitch that killed Jonas, at the Overseers' order. He was normally a jerk but this time he went too far. Linda made him pay with his life, destroying the friendship she had with The Overseer's daughter.
This is the day she became Hellinda, scourge of the wasteland, and left the vault to find her father out in the vast wasteland alone.
Fallout 3 is one of the most encompassing game I have ever played. It literally ate three months of my life and I don't want them back;Time well spent. The game just draws you in and doesn't let go. It has definite ramifications if you are not careful. They all depend on if you choose to to be good, evil, or neutral. Like when the guards would come after you when they saw steal something in Oblivion, but more fully realized.
I cannot say enough good things about the game, but there are times when it will freeze up, but locking up isn't exclusive to Fallout 3. There are many games that do it and mine didn't do it too much.so you take the good, and you take the bad.take them both and there you have the facts of a video gamers life.
The DLC ranged from pretty good to really great. I found Operation Anchorage to be too linear for my taste but it was supposed to be like a "video game" in the wasteland setting. A video game within a video game might sound like a hard pill to swallow but it makes sense in context. I thought broken steel was the best one with Mothership Zeta a close second. Some people think think it was too linear but how wide open can a spaceship be? On that note, we may all find out someday.
Overall I found Fallout 3 to be an exeptional game that pushes the boundries of what a video game can be. I think back to that child who wished for a fully immersive game experience, and how lucky I am to have had his wish come true.
If you would like to read more of Linda's expoits click here.
Mel
