Fallout 3

(untitled review)

Fallout3 is pretty much Bethesda trying to make some cash for the run up to TES5 or the teased TESMMO. Let me explain.

Every time I turn on this game I get reminded about how much better and prettier Oblivion is. The graphics were amazing, the world was immersive and everything was...better. I know it’s bad to compare the two but they are just both so alike. Same controls, same set up, same beginning. Vault 101 is the prison from TES4.

The game focuses much more on the one story of you trying to find your dad who turned against the vault Overseer and fled. The game has no factions but it does have side quests which can take ages to find. In Oblivion you could barely walk two steps without finding new forts, ruins and towns but in F3 it’s quite bleak outside DC. I know the world has been throwing nukes around but this is a game. You have a world so why not fill it with loads of strange places like in the TEs games. I’m still sure I never found every place in Morrowind and that was ages ago.

I know this game is meant to be all post apocalyptic but the guys at Bethesda have made this a reason to not be arsed with anything. The graphics gritty and I’m fine with that but there are some points where it just gets too ugly. The draw distance and detail was far more solid in Oblivion. The only better aspect in F3 is the character models. Another fun thing is VATs. You use these to target enemies and cause extra damage. Plus it helps anyone who can’t aim for the head by themselves. However targeting an arm and watching it fly off never gets old.

I find it quite hard to talk about this game which is strange. For every nice thing like VATs and a better levelling system, karma, we are greeted with no factions, a smaller game world than Oblivion, and fewer varieties of places to explore. There are a few decent side quests but it soon nags at you that if you really want to get into this you have to do the main story.
To combat all these bad comments, there are different ways of completing quests depending on your skills. There are at least three ways of doing some of them. There is also some DLC to get for the game but I have heard mixed reviews so you may want to read up on it before hitting the download button.

I know there’s a lot of bad stuff here but the game itself is solid as long as you push Oblivion away while you play it. It’s fun to run along some Raiders and fight them, it’s fun to let the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower and even detonate a nuke in a small town.