Fallout 3
by Bethesda
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Video Game Reviews of Fallout 3
Customer Review: Doing the Fallout series Proud
Summary: 5 Stars
I actually want catastrophic nuclear war to happen if the results end up being like Fallout 3. Sure, the loss of 90% of the world's population would be bad, but the Fallout series is just so darn entertaining!
It isn't anything like the originals except for its unique, retro style and cute lil' Vault Boy illustrations. But this isn't a bad thing, as the first person perspective let's you see the ugly, twisted world with crisp, beautiful graphics. You can practically feel the radiation (probably because you are sitting two close to your dual monitors).
The PC version loads significantly faster than the console versions (at least the PS3 version) depending on your system. The game does use some sort of securom technology, but this never once affected my game in terms of installation, gameplay, or anything else I do with my computer. I didn't even know it was there until someone told me. I'd say that's about the definition of unobtrusive.
The game is NOT "oblivion with guns" as some people might claim. Oblivion sucked, Fallout doesn't. Do you actually know anyone that finished oblivion's long, boring, and dull main quest? If you do, they probably don't have much of a life or are one of those obsessive people that just has to finish what they start. Regardless, there's no reason to compare Fallout to oblivion; Fallout has a great main quest and tons of impressive side-quests, characters that you actually remember (Mr. Burke is my hero?) and combat that is actually exciting. The only thing I remember about Oblivion is going to hell more times in a row than a satanic reincarnating cigarette smoker (okay, it's a bit of a stretch as similes go).
My opinion is that Fallout 3 is a great 3rd installment to a brilliant series and is perhaps one of the best games to come out in the past few years.
I could go on and on about why Fallout is so great, but with the number of reviews already posted for this game...well, I'll assume some other geek with lots of free time covers it (thanks, I owe you a beer!)
Customer Review: Great game
Summary: 4 Stars
Of all the games I've bought over the years, Fallout 3 has provided me the most of what I look for in a game. I've run through the game many times now, without getting bored, with each time being different than the last due to different choices made throughout the game. Though it's lots of fun being a truly evil character, being a good character is enjoyable too once in a while. I've only finished the game once, completing the major storyline, but that's not the end; just restart and don't complete the storyline, and you've got many more hours of fun as you can just keep on going as long as you like. Many mods are available too, to change things up and keep things interesting. Plus, DLCs are now available to extend the game even further. Now, if they'd just make an MMO out of it so I can play against other characters, not just NPCs ... that would really shake things up.Customer Review: Awsome RPGFFS
Summary: 5 Stars
This game is really lots of fun, and lets the play play the game however he likes, you can run and gun, like a First Person shooter, or you can talk your way through thing, steal, use your computer knowledge, or etc. more like an rpg. this game has hours upon hours of game play and even more with the expansions that are now available through Microsoft Live.Customer Review: Great Game, but some problems
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this game to be amazing in many ways. One thing to keep in mind while you read this is that I have not played the first or second fallout. Lets just do the typical Pros and Cons since it is clear and easy.
Pros:
1) Graphics: Everyone knows the graphics are amazing. And with mods you can even make it 10 times better. You have to have an amazing computer to handle max settings, though. I can put literally everything in Oblivion to the max and mod it to make the graphics even better and it hardly slows down. Fallout, on the other hand, my comp can barely handle half settings. They even state that this game is made to incorporate bleeding edge technology. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars upping your computer and then getting a game that will actually utilize your purchases to the fullest.
2)Mods: This seems to be one thing reviewers haven't really talked about. Everything that you hate about this game (except bugs/crashes) can virtually all be fixed with mods. I hated the small amount of songs for one of the radio stations, so I got more. I abhored the Asteroid like night sky (all the stars look like the shots fired from your ship in the original Asteroids), so I got a better night sky. I really, really hated the weapon sounds, so I got new ones. And I thought it was stupid there were no drivable vehicles, but there is a mod that allows you to ride a motorcycle. Not only this but you can add all sorts of funny crazy cool things. This helped make the games at least 100 times better, especially after you have beaten the game.
2) Length: This game is so freaking long, especially with the downloadable content. There is literally at least 100 hours worth of play, as well as all sorts of secret things that you can find. One example being a gun called the Alien Blaster.
3) Music: Contrary to what many people think, I enjoyed the music. I thought it definitely fit the atmosphere, and even added to it. The radio stations are limited in amount of songs (but as I said this can be fixed with mods) but I think it is a brilliant idea and makes the game exponentially better. My favorite radio station is Agathas Station who plays creepy violin songs. These songs, I feel, fit Fallout so perfectly that I can't think of a metaphore/analogy for another perfect thing to make it more clear. . . XD
4) Humor: Again, contrary to what many people think, I think this game is abundant in awesome humor, "dark humor" as its called. I laugh hysterically a lot of the time, and many times I get at least a chuckle out o' me body. Even as your installing the game there is a banner thats completely filled with this dark humor. Its all over the game in many different forms and presented differently to keep it constantly fresh. Granted, there are times it is executed poorly, as it is every movie, game, book, TV show, etc that conatains and focuses on humor. . . I think I'm just easily amused.
5) VATS: VATS is a way to essentially stop time and pick body parts to specifically shoot at. It sort of becomes matrix like after you chose the parts and began shooting, but its purpose is to have awesome camera angles and close ups of your shots and the dead bodies. Regardless, I know many people dislike this because there were times that your view was obstructed due to these camera angles. While this is true, it is not obstructed 100% of the time, nor even close to 25% of the time, so I really don't know why people complain. Even when the view gets obstructed it changes the camera angles as you shoot (seemingly randomly, sometimes changing every time you shoot, sometimes not). There are many, many times that you got a great view of a rocket or a bullet smashing into people and blowing them up. I've seen a lot of views that even follow the bullet, which is really cool as well. Watching body parts explode close up is also awesome.
6) Story: I don't know what other people thought of the story, but I found it incredibly enjoyable. I haven't fully played Broken Steel which continues the story but I still feel this is an interesting story with interesting characters. The main story isn't all that complex and I wouldn't be surprised if many people could predict what was going to happen in many instances. However, the story was intriguing and it kept me interested. If any of you have played Oblivion, this story was way more complex I think. Also like Oblivion, the side stories themselves are incredibly humorous, fun, exciting, interesting, etc. . .
Cons:
1) Bugs/Crashes: This is the biggest bone I have with this game. I haven't had any problem installing the game even though I use vista (as many users have complained about not being able to install with vista) and I have had it installed in 64 and 32 bit with no problems. However, there are many, many bugs within the game. This is pretty universal with every review I've read, so I think you can consider this truth. There are minor things that I don't care about, one example being a blown off part of someone body jumping around and spazzing out, its actually entertaining to see body parts flying through the room. But there are other bugs that piss me off, one quest I couldn't finish (even though I had done half of it) and so I had to reload way before, only to find out it was still broken. This kind of thing happens a lot to me; it seems a lot of quests get screwed up for no apparent reason and stay screwed up, and it's really hard to work around these (despite what other viewers say). I guess I have crappy luck. . . I've fallen into the world, I've been blown inside a rock (and have seen many NPC's also stuck in some object), and occasionally the game just simply crashes and you have no clue why.
2) Digital Rights Managment: I don't care about this type of DRM as it seemingly is only for checking if you have a legit copy of Fallout in your disk drive, but you need to know this game has it, and with SecuRom you always have to be wary since it is Malware/Spyware. Just keep this in mind, you may want to get it for the 360 if you loath this junk (like me, but I didn't know it had it. . . or that I would get a 360)
3) Oblivion Clone?: Yes it is. However, this game and its setting drew me way into it, so I really didn't focus on its similarity to Oblivion. It is not that the world or the nasties are the same, but it really just seems like an apocalyptic Oblivion with guns to tell you the truth.
4) Choices?: Many complain that you reeeeally don't have choices. . . even though they next say you have to choose between doing something evil, or good, throwing a grenade, or hacking a terminal. . . which ARE choices. . . Regardless, there really aren't all that many of them. There are perks that you can get with levels that are suppose to increase your choices, two examples are perks that are suppose to open up more conversation dialogues with children, or with the opposite sex, but it doesn't seem to add much. But no matter what, the results are exactly the same. Many people have said this, and its true. Whats the point in having this choice between a turret and a grenade if it results in everyone dying? Shouldn't something sometime have a crazy, uninteninal result that will effect you the rest of the game??? The choices are so simple and far apart in many instances that it almost seems like a tacked on thing rather than an integral part of the game.
5) Broken Steel (downloadable content): I realize that this is not part of the game I'm reviewing and you have to buy it seperately. However, Broken Steel continues this games story, so I figured it would be fine to include. But its in the cons for a reason. When this first came out Windows Live had to be fixed in order to get the game working. However, I still get some crashes while playing Steel (some say due to the newest patch). The biggest problem, though, is every time I quite the game it crashes instead of ending. I've uninstalled Steel and quite and it doesn't crash, and before Steel is loaded and your in the main menu I can quit and again doesn't crash. I've taken off every mod and these same results happen, so I'm 99% sure its Steel.
Regardless of these problems this is a great game. This game has so much to it that I consider it worthy of all the proffesional reviews that give it all those amazing ratings. The length alone is comendable since games are becoming shorter and shorter every year it seems. The fun this contains lasts longer than many games as well, I've played this for hundreds of hours now yet I can still have a blast playing it and finding new things. One example of this happened with Agatha's violin songs which I mentioned previously. I played through the game twice (once evil, once good) and didn't even know Agatha existed, even though I attempted to do as many side quests as I could. Great stuff, I definitly recommend this game.
Customer Review: What's the use of a 5 star game if you can't play it?
Summary: 1 Stars
The game is a crap-shoot. You might be able to play the game in its entirety without a crash. If so, count yourself lucky.
From the ten minutes of the game I did manage to play, the game seems fun and the story seems interesting. However, I can't seem to get any farther than that without the game crashing. In addition, if I try to load a saved game, the game crashes my PC.
You may have the best game in the world, but if you can't play it, what's the point?