Fallout 3

Hard to believe that I didn't even hear of this game when it came out and it was only a colleague telling me it was "my thing" that made me aware of it. I had thought about it but all the stories of the many bugs put me off and I had also heard people describe the game as "walking through an empty landscape for 30 minutes". Eventually, over two years after release, I got it and wondered what the fuss was as I had to take baby steps to learn controls and design a character I didn't care about or even know if I would stick with – this feeling only lasted a short time because the story gets moving, the action starts, ramifications of decisions are felt and it is not long before you are out in the open, facing a massive landscape and with an entirely blank map.

The first town you enter is a potted summary of the entire game. You have characters in there that progress the main story but you have more characters that have side quests that you can do. These side quests not only get you out exploring the world but also earn you money and experience which you need to build up your character to be better equipped for the wide world. The main story is quite linear and your decisions and actions in it will only vary it so much – this was fine by me as I didn't want to feel I was missing out on loads by taking a certain path (missing out on a friend or a specific weapon is OK). I guess it must be possible to rush the quest and, although you'll be poorly equipped throughout, it might be possible to ignore the wider world and just push on this one path. To do so would be a mistake though because there are a very strong collection of side-quests – some of which involve you going to one maybe two places, others (such as the Wilderness Survival Guide) take you to loads of places and defy the term "side" quest by taking many hours to complete. Or, if specific quests don't take your fancy, you can simply head out into the wild where the many, many places awaiting you include abandoned drive-in cinemas or complex buildings overrun by mutants or human gangs. Of course many of these places will also produce side-quests for you to do so it is very easy to suddenly find yourself struggling to decide what to do next as your options are so vast.

The game play is varied and enjoyable. The exploring, trading and building up a character's skill makes for a great RPG feel without ever becoming a chore or really detailed pain. The use of dialogue choices and the range of ways to interact with people also makes it interesting – you can kill almost anyone you want, be rude, be polite, be helpful or be unhelpful, you can ask questions or simply ignore people; all of them will have ramifications (however minor). The FPS aspect is not as good as dedicated shooters, but the VATS system is good and free-firing is reasonably good. The key thing is that all of these aspects are combined and mixed well so that you never feel like you are totally in a RPG or totally in a FPS etc and it is surprising how well they all work together to pull you in. The lock-picking and terminal hacking annoyed me at first but soon I "got" them and enjoyed using logic and skill to do them.

The design of the game is also key outside of game-play. The idea of an alternative world frozen in the 1950's and then destroyed by nuclear war sounds daft but yet it works wonderfully because whether it is music, iconic items or the way people speak, the "All-American" feel of it contrasts really well with the reality of the wasteland; the adverts looked cool but the whole game captures this and uses it very well. The soundtrack in particular is great. Not quite as great is the voice acting. The characters are pretty well designed but the acting for the majority of them is only so-so. Most surprisingly the "big ticket" names don't have much to do and I was surprised by the lack of impact of Neeson; McDowell didn't have too much more time but he added more I felt. The incidental voices are disappointing since many characters are given identical voices and phrases and personally I would have liked them to have simply given me more voices in the minor characters.

This is a minor gripe though because I genuinely love the game. The stories of "walking through nothing" didn't come true because the fast-travel is possible once you discover a place and exploring is part of the fun. The bugs didn't affect me too badly – although I saved regularly just in case. My console froze a handful of times and one side-quest bugged out on me but otherwise it was perfect. The graphics are a little dated perhaps but they still look great and the world is well designed and engaging. The ending of the game is poor – I'm not a fan of how Red Dead did it, but at least it let you continue to explore after "the end" – at least Broken Steel will change this for me.

Overall Fallout 3 is as good as I had heard. It mixes talking with fighting, exploring with trading, a roughly linear story with consequences and overall produces a really great game. Like many others I found that it easily gave me over 100 hours of playing time – and, more importantly, I enjoyed them all.

This game is one thing I could write well over a thousand words for, I can only hope all I have to say fits in here, it probably won't. This review will contain my thoughts, experiences, memories, and moments of the game. This game kept me going through my depression. Let's get this started.

I remember the day I bought this game, I put it in and played it for an hour, with my consensus being it sucked. But I found my self transported into this world, I couldn't stop playing it, within four days I had already played it for 44 hours. I was terrible at it, I didn't understand how everything worked, but in time I mastered it several times over. On my ps3 I completed it four times, three of those runs were 140 hours plus, the last one was just to get the trophies. On my Xbox 360 I have a 320 hour play through, pretty much a 100 percent completion, including all the DLC. The 320 hour play through took place over a summer break (yes thats all I did), it was the best summer of my life, just thinking about it makes me smile and feel nostalgic.

The game: I used to be a master for knowledge on this game, I was up to date on everything. I haven't played it in about three years and I unfortunately have lost my great knowledge of this game. It's a RPG, and thats exactly what I did, I would spend countless hours in my homes, and bunkers, hell I even had two vacation homes. I would just sit in my house and listen to Three Dog on the radio, with Dogmeat( an actual dog), my robotic butler, and Sergent RL3( a mister gusty bot). There is over a 150 locations for you to discover, each of them offering a new experience. Roaming through a super-mutant infested D.C. has never been so fun. And on top of that there is a whole another world under the city in the metro system. But of course the city only takes up 35 percent of the map, so you have an entire wasteland to explore. Once you get a hang of this game it becomes incredibly easy, I found myself stock piled with a thousand Stim-packs, and tens of thousands of rounds of ammo. I collected most of the unique guns, and have found all of the Fat-man launchers scattered about. In time you will have collected all of the bobble heads, just don't miss the medical one on James desk. The sound track is one of the best I have ever heard in a video game, it makes you feel at home out in the waste land.

The glitches: Here is some problems I came across. 1. You can survive jumping off of Tenpenny tower. 2. I once swam through the air in a sewer. 3. The game sky will turn into an LSD mind-trip. 4. I got outside of the map and literally walked through an invisible city. 5. I got into the blocked off Jefferson memorial and took Autmums uniform and gun. There are many more to experience.

The verdict: I wish this would have allowed me to give a full review of all the DLC, but the word limit wouldn't allow for it. To sum it up, The Pitt and Point Lookout are the best ones. This is and forever will be my favourite game of all time, it is an experience like no other. This game deserves to have the title " Best game of all time". It gave me memories I will never forget, and it helped me through a tough time in my life, I recommend it to anyone who will dedicate a large chunk of time to it. The Xbox 360 version worked the best for me, so I say get the game of the year edition.

Mar.01: Turns out my knowledge is still top notch, I guess some things you just never forget.

This has to be one of my favorite games on the XBOX 360. Plenty of quests, characters and most importantly, you decide you fate. That was a very creative idea.

PS: I beat the game as Very Good. If anyone cares.

Fallout 3; what could I possibly say about this legend that hasn't already been said? Quite possibly the best rpg I've ever played. My god what a wonderful world Bethesda immerses you in. I used to play this game on and off as a kid but the disc I had was scratched so I was never able to get far before it'd freeze screen. Coming back to it years and years later, this is a top tier video game experience. Everything from the different locations you embark on, to the deadly and weird creatures you face, to the many quests and side quests, you could easily spend 100+ hours in a single play through and still have lots of things to do still. Spent about 300 hours in one profile, scouring every inch of this vast landscape, mostly killing your average rad scorpion or enclave troops, but when you found places to discover, finding loot and lore/mission based items such, it made it all worth it in the end. Making a certain person jealous to the point where you drive them to murder is just some of the hidden things you can do in this ginormous game. The vats system really makes this game especially cool and unique too imo. This game alone truly proves Bethesda is possibly the best rpg developers EVER.

I'm not going to re-write the previous reviews about Fallout 3,you can basically read them yourself,by now the game is a solid year old.I am just going to say that Fallout 3 is one of the best games of all time,period. This is a complete virtual world,although nuked and destroyed,it is fun just wondering,exploring,collecting,buying,stealing or killing everything you see.Your karma will diside your future,just like real life! The graphics are amazing.Thevoice actors like Liam Neeson and Malcolm Mcdowell are superb.The game is a masterpiece on all fronts. Bethesda did a great job with this game and i really hope they make a fourth game!