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"[Game] Fallout 3"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Fallout 3'.
Fri 02/04/10 at 22:00
Regular
Posts: 18
Fallout 3 was developed by Bethesda Softworks as a sequel to Interplay's Fallout and Fallout 2. The game takes place in 2277 in a post apocalyptic world, meaning there is lots of places to explore and quests to complete. There was a Great War back in 2077 between the US and China which only lasted a couple of hours, but has caused an immense amount of damage. Of course it's not hard to figure out nuclear weapons were involved, and one of your first quests in the big wide world known as the Capital Wasteland features a nuke... but we'll come to that later.

Your character starts out young, and you can choose whether to be male or female, and you are living in Vault 101, which is a fallout shelter near Washington D.C. This vault has been sealed for over 200 years... until your father decides to venture outside through the only door. The overseer of the Vault thinks you had something to do with this, and so you have no choice but to go out of the vault to find your father and an explanation for why he left. At the start of the game you have a few quests to complete in the Vault and it's mostly you quickly growing up and taking the G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test) which everyone has to take at the age of 16. This test determines which job you are most suited for along with 3 skills which will be your 'Tag skills (speciality skills which last throughout the game).

During your childhood in the vault you will also receive the important Pip-Boy 3000 which becomes an essential item you will use a lot throughout the game. Load up your Pip-Boy to see your quests, local maps and world map, what weapons you have, food, apparel, statistics, health... basically everything you need will be held on your Pip-Boy.

After leaving the vault you will find yourself in the extremely desolate Capital Wasteland where there is no greenery, just worn paths and strange creatures such as savage dogs or even people, such as Raiders, who are only out to harm you. I love the care that's gone into creating this wasteland, you can be wandering for ages over rocks and battered cars and come across... well, anything! You can discover new locations, random camps of people, abandoned homes and eventually you will wander bang into the heart of Washington D.C. itself however don't expect to see the Whitehouse, which was obviously destroyed during the war, but some places such as the Jefferson and the Washington Monument remain. These are more than often infested with super mutants... so you'll most likely want to avoid these areas until you build your characters level up, which in turn improves your skills.

At the start you will come across your first town, Megaton, and along with that brings some interesting quests. Megaton is just as ugly as the Capital Wasteland with what looks like tin houses and old grimy furniture. The first thing you will most likely notice is the atomic bomb in the centre in a pool of radioactive water! From here on in, the quests you gain will lead you all over the world map to new locations, or if you choose you can wander off on your own to explore, there is just so much to see in the Capital Wasteland that it's easy to see how this game will keep you entertained for a long time.

When the time comes for you to enter combat against an enemy you will be using the V.A.T.S. system, or the long winded Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, which pauses active combat and allows you to aim for specific parts of your enemies' body, such as the right leg, or left arm or the head. It gives you a percentage of the likelihood of you hitting that area, for example 80% head or 95% torso. This however doesn't mean you will cause more damage! For example, a hit to the head will always cause more damage than hitting the enemies' right arm and you should always bare this in mind. Using VATS uses your action points, when you run out you can regain this by taking certain medication or shooting free will at your enemy. I personally love the VATS system as without it I would think Fallout 3's combat would be pretty poor. There's nothing more pleasing than shooting an enemies head off in slow motion and watching pieces of skull slowly fly through the air... yes it's a bit gruesome but then you shouldn't have come at you in the first place should they!

You spend your time in Fallout 3 completing quests. There are the main story quests and many side quests you will pick up. One thing I did notice was that there wasn't many of the main story quests and it could be over much quicker than you wanted it to be, however what with the huge size of the wasteland combined with the side quests there is enough here to keep you playing for a long time. You will often be distracted away from the main quests, but if you aren't a big RPG playing type who doesn't like to wander and explore, then you might find this isn't the game for you.
Every time you complete a quest or kill an enemy, you will gain XP (experience points) which slowly moves you up through the levels. Gaining new levels brings new skill points; you can put your skill points into each skill area as you choose. There are thirteen skills in Fallout 3, and these include skills such as Big Guns, Science, Lockpick and Medicine. Your skill level was have an impact on your game play, for example some doors can't be picked open if your skill is less than a certain amount or a computer terminal can't be hacked if your science skill is too low. There are other ways of improving your skills, for example during the game you might find a skill book or two lying around; if you read the book you gain a point in that skill.
When levelling up you will also get to choose a perk. Perks are bonuses the player character can pick up when gaining a level, and there are a few to choose from! To give an example one is called the Computer Whiz, if you select this you will see it says: 'Fail a hack attempt and get locked out of a computer? Not if you're a Computer Whiz! With this perk, you can attempt to re-hack any computer you were previously locked out of.' All perks are purely beneficial and it's wise to take your time over choosing one.

As you can probably tell, Fallout 3 is a huge complex game, but it doesn't take long at all to get the hang of it. I've found it to have extremely addictive game play, I can spend hours just doing one quest and wandering around carefully opening desks, drawers and investigating small rooms to make sure I don't miss a thing. I love discovering new areas and along with it, new characters and finding out their stories. The graphics are stunning, and you really get the feel for this desolate world which doesn't have any areas which are visually pleasing! If you love RPG's then you really need to get into Fallout 3, but even if you aren't a big fan of RPG's you will most likely get into this game. I have friends who usually hate games from the genre but have really gotten into this game, and I think it has something for everyone.

Also posted by me under similar names on DooYoo, Ciao & Helium.
Sat 03/04/10 at 16:35
Regular
Posts: 18
Thankyou very much! I am going to be working on a Dragon Age review sometime in the near future, but I need to have the right head on to write a game review I'm happy with.
Fri 02/04/10 at 22:18
Regular
"How Ironic"
Posts: 4,312
Another fantastic review. Am very chuffed to see you post on the forum again as good reviews are always welcome, and it's not often a new user turns up and posts quality stuff. Hope to see some more reviews from you soon!
Fri 02/04/10 at 22:00
Regular
Posts: 18
Fallout 3 was developed by Bethesda Softworks as a sequel to Interplay's Fallout and Fallout 2. The game takes place in 2277 in a post apocalyptic world, meaning there is lots of places to explore and quests to complete. There was a Great War back in 2077 between the US and China which only lasted a couple of hours, but has caused an immense amount of damage. Of course it's not hard to figure out nuclear weapons were involved, and one of your first quests in the big wide world known as the Capital Wasteland features a nuke... but we'll come to that later.

Your character starts out young, and you can choose whether to be male or female, and you are living in Vault 101, which is a fallout shelter near Washington D.C. This vault has been sealed for over 200 years... until your father decides to venture outside through the only door. The overseer of the Vault thinks you had something to do with this, and so you have no choice but to go out of the vault to find your father and an explanation for why he left. At the start of the game you have a few quests to complete in the Vault and it's mostly you quickly growing up and taking the G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test) which everyone has to take at the age of 16. This test determines which job you are most suited for along with 3 skills which will be your 'Tag skills (speciality skills which last throughout the game).

During your childhood in the vault you will also receive the important Pip-Boy 3000 which becomes an essential item you will use a lot throughout the game. Load up your Pip-Boy to see your quests, local maps and world map, what weapons you have, food, apparel, statistics, health... basically everything you need will be held on your Pip-Boy.

After leaving the vault you will find yourself in the extremely desolate Capital Wasteland where there is no greenery, just worn paths and strange creatures such as savage dogs or even people, such as Raiders, who are only out to harm you. I love the care that's gone into creating this wasteland, you can be wandering for ages over rocks and battered cars and come across... well, anything! You can discover new locations, random camps of people, abandoned homes and eventually you will wander bang into the heart of Washington D.C. itself however don't expect to see the Whitehouse, which was obviously destroyed during the war, but some places such as the Jefferson and the Washington Monument remain. These are more than often infested with super mutants... so you'll most likely want to avoid these areas until you build your characters level up, which in turn improves your skills.

At the start you will come across your first town, Megaton, and along with that brings some interesting quests. Megaton is just as ugly as the Capital Wasteland with what looks like tin houses and old grimy furniture. The first thing you will most likely notice is the atomic bomb in the centre in a pool of radioactive water! From here on in, the quests you gain will lead you all over the world map to new locations, or if you choose you can wander off on your own to explore, there is just so much to see in the Capital Wasteland that it's easy to see how this game will keep you entertained for a long time.

When the time comes for you to enter combat against an enemy you will be using the V.A.T.S. system, or the long winded Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, which pauses active combat and allows you to aim for specific parts of your enemies' body, such as the right leg, or left arm or the head. It gives you a percentage of the likelihood of you hitting that area, for example 80% head or 95% torso. This however doesn't mean you will cause more damage! For example, a hit to the head will always cause more damage than hitting the enemies' right arm and you should always bare this in mind. Using VATS uses your action points, when you run out you can regain this by taking certain medication or shooting free will at your enemy. I personally love the VATS system as without it I would think Fallout 3's combat would be pretty poor. There's nothing more pleasing than shooting an enemies head off in slow motion and watching pieces of skull slowly fly through the air... yes it's a bit gruesome but then you shouldn't have come at you in the first place should they!

You spend your time in Fallout 3 completing quests. There are the main story quests and many side quests you will pick up. One thing I did notice was that there wasn't many of the main story quests and it could be over much quicker than you wanted it to be, however what with the huge size of the wasteland combined with the side quests there is enough here to keep you playing for a long time. You will often be distracted away from the main quests, but if you aren't a big RPG playing type who doesn't like to wander and explore, then you might find this isn't the game for you.
Every time you complete a quest or kill an enemy, you will gain XP (experience points) which slowly moves you up through the levels. Gaining new levels brings new skill points; you can put your skill points into each skill area as you choose. There are thirteen skills in Fallout 3, and these include skills such as Big Guns, Science, Lockpick and Medicine. Your skill level was have an impact on your game play, for example some doors can't be picked open if your skill is less than a certain amount or a computer terminal can't be hacked if your science skill is too low. There are other ways of improving your skills, for example during the game you might find a skill book or two lying around; if you read the book you gain a point in that skill.
When levelling up you will also get to choose a perk. Perks are bonuses the player character can pick up when gaining a level, and there are a few to choose from! To give an example one is called the Computer Whiz, if you select this you will see it says: 'Fail a hack attempt and get locked out of a computer? Not if you're a Computer Whiz! With this perk, you can attempt to re-hack any computer you were previously locked out of.' All perks are purely beneficial and it's wise to take your time over choosing one.

As you can probably tell, Fallout 3 is a huge complex game, but it doesn't take long at all to get the hang of it. I've found it to have extremely addictive game play, I can spend hours just doing one quest and wandering around carefully opening desks, drawers and investigating small rooms to make sure I don't miss a thing. I love discovering new areas and along with it, new characters and finding out their stories. The graphics are stunning, and you really get the feel for this desolate world which doesn't have any areas which are visually pleasing! If you love RPG's then you really need to get into Fallout 3, but even if you aren't a big fan of RPG's you will most likely get into this game. I have friends who usually hate games from the genre but have really gotten into this game, and I think it has something for everyone.

Also posted by me under similar names on DooYoo, Ciao & Helium.

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