Nowadays I like to keep my gaming succinct. I like to play and finish a game in, at most, a week. I also like to know that I will finish it if I like it.

Fallout 3, initially put me off. I tried playing it when it was released and found the opening, where I’m growing up in the Vault to be drawn out and boring. It didn’t immediately suck me in so I gave up, uninstalled it and moved on. Then a few weeks back a brief gap appeared in my gaming backlog and I needed to fill it with something. Fallout 3 just jumped off my backlog list as a game I should really revisit, considering the positive reception it continues to receive, and now, that all the DLC has been released in the GOTY, it is, to me, finally a complete game.

Update 1 – 29/12/09: Finally out of the Vault

I’ve actually been playing the game for the last few weeks. It has literally sucked me in so much that I completely forgot to start this article. I finally slogged through the opening and got out of the Vault for the first time. The contrast in scale was well worth the claustrophobic  opening trapped in the Vault. You step out into the wastes, the sun burns your eyes and you have the vista of the desolate wastes in front of you. At that moment a sense of adventure came over me, like, this whole world is here for me to explore and forge my own path in. So with my rusty old pistol in hand I headed out on my first quest, to find out why my father had left me behind in the Vault.

It snowballed from there really. As soon as I entered the nearest town called “Megaton” and started chatting with the locals I was hooked. Initially I tried to plough through the main quest line but hit a brick wall when I started running into Super Mutants around Washington D.C.. I clearly hadn’t levelled enough and was getting destroyed with my broken down assault rifle. So I went off exploring and, as I kinda expected, didn’t come back to the main quest for some time. The map initially seems small (in comparison to Bethesdas other RPGs) but you’ll spend a lot of time exploring it. Every time that little notification pops up to let me know I’ve stumbled across a new location I have to go in and take a look around. That simple look around usually turns into an hour or two trying to break open locks with hairpins, hack into computers (best execution of hacking I’ve seen in a game, not the plumbing work you had to do in Bioshock) or rid the area of various types or mutant insects and animals.

So far, I’m happy to be lost in the world of Fallout 3. I thought initially that the post apocalyptic setting would start to look old, but really there is enough variety and atmosphere in the world to stop this from ever happening.

Oh, and I’m also using this, user made, mod that increases the definition of the textures. If you are playing this on a fairly decent PC it is a must.

Fallout 3 High Definition Texture Pack

Update 2 – 06/01/10: I don’t want to set the world… on… fire!

First update of the new year, w00t! Ok so I think I’m extremely close to the end of the main quest now. I started getting these missions and I noticed the pace and the urgency of the quests where increasing. Years of gaming has led me to notice this as the game coming to an end on a crescendo. So, as early as possible, I broke away from this quest and looked it up details on it online and I was right, I’m right at the end. I’m probably going to break away from it for a while and explore all of the wasteland, or as much as possible. I’ve unlocked a perk which allows me to see the location of all the places of interest on the map, so I’ve been spending my time wandering between them and checking them out.

I’m a bit disappointed at the lack of quests though. I thought that at each location I’d meet characters that would give me a mission to complete but, for the majority, I’m mostly just going in, wiping out the mutants, looting the place then moving on. I hope this changes and that I’ve just been unlucky with the locations I’ve been exploring.

Update 3 – 07/01/10: Mad at the Max: Escape from the BoreDome

What a horrible pun. I profusely apologize, but I think the Mad Max relevance to Fallout 3 is appropriate, given the various nods to it in game. More importantly, I’ve reached my level max of 30 in the game.

You know I don’t want to appear shallow, but a lot of the lustre of exploring has worn off with reaching my upgrade peak. When there is no personal reward for hacking into computers, wiping out Rad Scorpions and Super Mutants or finishing quests for people the point of doing them wears off. I don’t really need for anything anymore, I have more 100% repaired weapons at my house in Megaton than I’m ever going to use. I sold a load of the weapons I had been collecting and now have more bottle caps than I know what to do with it. I’m probably still going to play it for an hour or two each day to explore in the hopes of finding something interesting but the initial feeling of adventure has worn off.

I’ve also recruited an NPC to help me, “Star Paladin Cross”, a Brotherhood of Steel member, and given her a Flamer and a Heavy Incinerator which she uses to destroy all my foes before I even catch sight of them. I wish there was a way to shut her up though. She’s constantly mouthing on about some Brotherhood of Steel philosophies or reminding me she’s been in my house before. Seriously, whenever I go back somewhere I’ve been before she feels the need to remind of this by saying “I remember being here before”. Was funny at first, but now it’s just irritating.

Anyway, the West, South and South East parts of the wastelands have been pretty much covered now. I’m now going to move on to the North and North East, I may also try the Mothership Zeta DLC.

Update 4 – 24/02/10: Finally done!

Over a month since my last update and I’m finally done. In all honesty I could of finished the game a lot earlier, but, sensing the end coming, I broke away from the main campaign to explore. I completed the expansions “The Pitt”, “Mothership Zeta” and then, after completing the main campaign “Broken Steel”. I’d already completed “Point Lookout” and “Operation: Anchorage” earlier. By far my favourite expansion was “Point Lookout”. A lot of people say “The Pitt” is good, but I found it a chore to get through. Point Lookout was like a mini version of the main game. With a free to roam map and multiple quests you can discover and choose to complete. The other expansions where far too linear for my liking, especially Operation: Anchorage, which is basically just a plod from one end of the map to the other.

I also cut short of visiting every location in the wastelands. There’s just far too many cookie cut factories, offices, subways, and caves. After a while they all just start looking the same. After wrapping the Broken Steel expansion (the true end of the game in my opinion. If you have to play only 1 expansion, play Broken Steel as the main campaigns ending stops short) I tried looking around and started to feel bored so I quit out of the game and uninstalled it. I know if I keep just wandering around bored it will ruin the game for me.

Anyway, I’ll write up my final thoughts on it tomorrow, and hopefully upload the last of my screenshots.

Final Thoughts:

Ok so I added the last of my screenshots to the gallery, which are a pretty good synopsis of my travels in the Fallout 3 wastelands. Overall my opinions of the game are positive. With only a few lingering gripes.

It’s tired at this point but the main storyline is incredibly short. You could complete the game by mistake in only a few hours. But, if you know of the main story (probably on a second playthrough) you can avoid it, doing so will give you hundreds of hours of gameplay in exploring the locations in the Wasteland.

Visually it doesn’t deviate much, you will see a complete range of greys, creams and browns as you travel around. Rusty metal, rotten wood and scorched earth will become your mainstay. In a similar vein, you will travel through a plethora of broken down subway stations, rusting factories and office buildings.

Add to this that there doesn’t seem to be much to do at a lot of the locations. For the majority I spent my time just killing the local mutant infestation, hacking a few computers, looting the place, then leaving. Of the people I actually did meet, not a lot of them would give me a lot of quests or tasks to complete.

All this being said though, it’s a great game. There is just an overarching sense of adventure and personal discovery that permeates through it. When you find something, you actually feel like you may have found something few other people who have played this game will discover (i.e. Harold the tree). It immerses you into the world and gives you complete freedom to carve your own path in it. Would I recommend this game? Yes, completely. Oh and heres a tip, complete the expansion “Operation: Anchorage” early. It is well worth it.

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