Fallout 3

For those of you having an issue with the second DVD (i.e., it won't run at all) there's a fix going around on the Bethesda forums. It seems to be a problem for Vista users only. The fix is pretty simple; disable Autoplay by going to the Control Panel and deselecting Autoplay everything (you can turn this on again later). Next, disable the UAC (also in the Control Panel under User Accounts; this will need a restart). Finally, put the DVD in again, right click it and select Explore then right click the Setup file and select "Run as Administrator". Give it a few minutes (it can take as long as 10 minutes in some cases) and the installer will run.

After this, re-enable Autoplay and put the first DVD in. When the autoplay screen comes up don't select Play Game. Instead go to the Download option (or Downloadable Content option, I can't remember now but it's one of those) and make sure all the DLC is selected otherwise you'll just be playing vanilla Fallout 3.

I had all these problems with the game and was ready to send it back thinking the second disc was faulty. So I hope I've saved you all some time by writing this out here.

I am old enough to have played the original game when it first came out in 1997. I was a great fan of the series that followed and, thus, was very eager to get my hands on this latest installment. In a short sentence: FALLOUT-3 is A DREAM COME TRUE!

It is a cRPG game in which the player can alternate between the First and Third person perspective roaming a world comparable in size with OBLIVION. The action has moved from Vault 13 and Southern California to Vault 101 and Washington, D.C. and the story brakes away from the previous bloodlines. However, the atmosphere of the original has been maintained and its scents sharpened: veterans will find it fitting like and old glove - whereas the new gamers are in store for a bag of pleasant surprises.

The graphics are wonderful, the guns detailed and the environments highly interactive. Short of a screenshot, imagine what would HalfLife-2 would look if released today. And similar to HL2, FALLOUT-3 does not require an...ubercomputer to run smoothly. Once you see a NPC move though, you understand where the corners were cut.

Character customization is carried out in great style using the new and improved PIP-BOY at the beginning. You exit the vault and the harsh reality of a world that barely survived annihilation slaps you on the face. Adapt or perish.

The main storyline is there to be followed but FALLOUT-3 offers the greatest number of alternative choices I have ever encountered in a game! There is always a great number of paths to follow in order to achieve any goal - but every choice comes with a consequences tag. This is common feature of most classic cRPGs but in FALLOUT-3 I saw it implemented like never before. If nothing else, this sends replayability through the roof.

Side-quests offer little besides distraction and experience points (XP) to be spend on character improvement. XP are gained solely by completing quests, emerging victorious from fights, finding locations, picking locks and hacking terminals - and they are not limited by the action they were earned. Leveling up is based on 7 basic attributes [Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck - acronym?;)] that, in turn, affect your (13) specific skills. Since leveling up is capped at Level-20, the game designers wanted to encourage replaying the game. On the other hand, it also means that your character will never realize its full potential (in case you are wondering why I withheld a star from FUN, that's the second half of it).

The game is violent and gory but well within tasteful limits. Not so with the language - but it is trade off with realism. In a radioactive world, Sunday-school niceties are bound to go out the window.
What deserves a special mention is V.A.T.S. (:Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which opens new vistas in cRPG design. It is an ingenious system which lets you pause the game and target specific body parts of your opponents. The success of your attack still depends on your skills but the end effect is cinematic and amazing (remember SWORDFISH?).

This GOTY edition includes all 5 DLCs: OPERATION-ANCHORAGE, THE PITT, BROKEN STEEL, POINT LOOKOUT and MOTHERSHIP ZETA. Compared to the basic FALLOUT 3, applying the above improves the experience immensely! Since one used to reach the Level 20 cap long before the endgame, increasing this by 10 levels will give you a brand new ballgame.
Augmented weapons, new territories, novel foes and unexpected story branching - all for the price of the original game. I own the original game and coveted after these DLCs all these past months, waiting for a complete edition such as this GOTY one. When it became available I jumped at the opportunity to get them all. And did not regret it for a moment.

After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the Limited-Installation/defective EA releases), this seems like a post-apocalyptic dawn indeed! BETHESDA decided to listen to the gaming community and did NOT cripple this beautiful game with any idiotic DRM scheme. Inputting a serial number and a DVD-check is more than reasonable.
The publishers of FALLOUT-3 understand that there is a fine balance between "protecting the product" and..."insulting your own customers". And they obviously view respect as the two way street that it is - and for this they deserve our support: buy this game, today.

Voting with our wallets is the only argument the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore. And it is about time to cast some well deserved positive votes.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Well we definitely have Oblivion under the bonnet:
Movement, enemy AI, enemy hand to hand attacks, animations, some of the voices, nearby location compass which fills in found locations, the caves, bandit/raider camps and the raiders are bandits, towns load separately from the on the fly outside, zooms into faces to chat. The list goes on.

We definitely have Fallout as a body kit:
Pip boy, stats skills & perks, fantastic post nuclear/1950s art filled with vaults, destroyed cities and different factions, gangs and stragglers trying to find different ways to survive. You also get the full range of Fallout guns.

Expect to find a huge world to explore outside of the main quest (it must be nearing 100 map locations), a genuine opportunity to be good or evil, very good graphics (with OK animation) and the classic Fallout atmosphere (however I haven't found any dark humour).

You still get the "you and the world" levelling system from Oblivion which is a shame. However it has been improved. You no longer have to micro manage your levelling as you get the Fallout style perks and stats which mostly work extremely well. It gives more incentive to level as it's the only way to greatly improve you abilities (rather than running around jumping). Its not a perfect fit, some stats and perks are far more useful to take early and some are hardly worth taking at all. The world contains a number of difficult enemies in selected areas at low levels so you cannot explore everywhere easily to start and some of the low level enemies are left as you level so the world levelling is not as apparent as in Oblivion. The levelling has definitely been tweaked to make it more satisfying.

Allot has been made of choosing the style of character you want to play but by level 20 you can max out 3/4 of your stats and skills and have the rest high as well. Remember that your stats don't go past ten and skills past 100 so if you are going to make sure you collect all of the bonus giving bobble heads and skill books you won't need to put more than 9 in a stat and around 80 in a skill.

Intelligence is vital if you want the most skill points per level.
Agility is vital if you want action points for the VATS (pause and shoot).
If you rely on fire arms, Strength has only one use; to carry large amounts.
The rest all work fine at above average levels.

As you will hit level 20 well before finishing the game if you enjoy exploring, don't bother with any of the extra experience or quick levelling perks. You will be a more powerful level 20 if you choose the extra skill points per level and extra skill points per book perks instead.

The pause to shoot system can look very silly and pointless if you have selected it in unarmed combat and the camera can sometimes struggle in enclosed areas. It can also turn out to be (and I hate to use the description) down right awesome with the larger weapons. Its not quite the strategic masterpiece it could be as you can fight effectively going for the head or knocking out the weapon most of the time. The fighting loses its charm a little when you can eventually critical so often the head flies off every enemy in slow motion after just a few hits and the need for resource management disappears. By the ending it is more of a long trek and repetitive kill than the excellently balanced system it started out as. The tactical aiming means fine mouse control is unnecessary and the game works well with an xbox controller in front of a tv.

Radiation sickness adds a certain amount of danger to your healing when out in the wastelands. Do you keep your health topped up no matter or try to eat as little as possible?

I found the game thoroughly satisfying to play with the plot and exploration being the driving force. It isn't perfect, the reviews I found did over hype it a bit. Quite a few Oblivion criticisms have been addressed in it and the Fallout world has added enough to make it more than just Oblivion with guns. It doesn't manage the charm or excellent characters found in the likes of Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, Planescape Torment or Fallout but it certainly was a game of the year.

The DLC is a mixed bag. Altering the ending and increasing the level cap are by far the best changes, but if you are loving the Fallout world more of it is no bad thing.