Fallout 3: Game Add-On Pack - The Pitt and Operation: Anchorage

Important You need the original Fallout3 to play these add-ons
To get the bad news out of the way first Op Anchorage is not very good.
Set in a military sim you help to defeat the Chinese in Alaska. It plays differently to the rest of FallOut3 and to say it's on rails is an understatement. You lose all the openness of the original and are funnelled down corridors to each new mission the corridors are not even that subtle with translucent blue walls keeping you on the path. I suppose it does feel like a training sim with bodies vaporising when shot and glowing health packs but it didn't appeal to me because of the above. It is also short and has no real replay value you have a side mission to pick up cases of intelligence but once all have been found there seems little point in playing again.
Now The Pitt which is far superior it's set in Pittsburgh around the only working steel mill and unlike Op Anchorage although you are constrained it is by building walls and rubble rather that ethereal blue walls making the experience more believable, it also includes what must be one of the biggest continuous play areas (ie with no load points) in FO3. But the best thing about the Pitt is that you are back to good/bad choices and karma which IMO helps the game and it's replay value. I think it would be wrong to say anything about the plot as it is short and is more fun for not knowing it beforehand.
I will say that one of the new monsters was a bit of a let down if they had made them more like the super fast zombies in HL2...but then this is a roll play rather than a FPS so maybe not and there is a touching scene played out if you react to part of the game correctly.

So after all my words should you buy the add-on? Well there is an easy route if you want to buy just The Pitt you can get it as a download from Windows Live. Is Windows Live the greatest thing since bread went modular or is it the devils work? To be honest I hate it mainly because of the Windows points system they use for buying things instead of pricing things in coins of the realm for what it's worth I prefer Steam but I am lucky enough to have a fast 6-7mbs internet connection.
If you ask me if the disc add-on pack is worth the money I'd say no.

Just thought I'd add my views on Operation: Anchorage. I installed the add-on pack while I was still halfway through the main game and the two add-on quests became available, so I thought I'd check them out. The set-up for Operation Anchorage seems a little silly but if you play it like I did as a sub quest during the main game, it's actually quite an enjoyable little diversion, and once you've beaten it (which won't take more than an evening) you're back into the wasteland with a couple of new toys. I can understand people buying this having finished the main story being disappointed by this add-on though, as it doesn't really add all that much and what it does add is nowhere near as good as the main game (as described elsewhere, it's a linear fps style mission so none of the depth and exploration possibilities as before).

I've not got stuck into the Pitt just yet but from what I've read it's more of your typical Fallout 3 goodness in an entirely new area, which sounds more like what a game expansion should have.

I'll conclude by saying that I think buying the two add-ons on disc is worthwhile if you haven't finished the game yet as Anchorage works as a sub quest/dungeon add-on, but if you have finished and want more to do then downloading the Pitt separately would be the better option.

This addon offers two new quests/campaigns to the Fallout 3 Universe.

Operation Anchorage as others have commented is a simulated military campaign fighting Chinese forces in Alaska. Some have commented this makes the mission feel unreal, but I would counter that by saying it does feel a bit surrealistic, but a game within a game is still...a game! It is a fairly short session, very few moral choices. Have to agree that setting up teams for some of the missions was more trouble than it was worth, nothing I couldn't handle on my own.

The Pitt is much more satisfying. After signing up to the quest, you find yourself dumped in an even more forsaken environment (think Escape From New York) than the main game, stripped of your weapons and facing off against aggressive slavers and twisted mutants. Plenty of moral choices to be made here and if you play this as an aside during the main quest, lots of XP to be gained and the opportunity to advance through several levels. The main campaign does take longer to play through than Anchorage and you can return to this area from the Wasteland if you so desire.

Worth getting.