Key

Fallout 3

God damn I am so ****ing excited to talk about Fallout 3 again. It has been a little while since i've really dove into a true review for this game. I know I wrote a pretty lengthy one once before in this journal but I really will not turn down the opportunity to talk about it once again. Now, I know the general consensus is that Fallout: New Vegas improves on a lot of what Fallout 3 brought to the table, but we have to remember that Fallout 3 isn't all about the mechanics or the weapons or what have you. A lot of the enjoyment we all get out of Fallout 3 is the fact that it's places in a post apocalyptic version of Washington DC. It kind of gives you an eery and depressing feeling when you walk in the DC Mall and all the buildings are in ruin. You just slowly step through each and every corridor and then you start finding things that you are familiar with in real life. The Lincoln Memorial for instance is a great example since he's seen without his head in this game. Sort of makes you wonder if that could ever happen in our society. Or when you walk up to the Washington Monument and you see that it is falling apart and nearly in ruin. How about even the little buildings surrounding the mall. And yes, you can also find the White House in this game. Well...what's left of it anyway. You basically find a crater but still, it gives you an eery and depressing feeling each time you launch the game. You feel alone. Truly alone.

Now, all that is well and good. The atmosphere again is just, to me, one of the most important things about this game that should never be forgotten. You just continuously walk through ruins of buildings and monuments and you just wish things could go back to normal, but you're so immersed that you just don't care. But on top of the atmosphere, one of my all time favorite things about this game is the fact that it is an RPG and you can basically do whatever the **** you want. If you want to kill a quest giver, do it. You want to help some ghouls out? Feel free to do that as well. It's that pure Bethesda freedom that we all know and love, and it's applied so brilliantly in this game. I mean, yeah you can follow the story if you want, but unfortunately the story isn't exactly one of the strong points of this game.

You start off as a child, you become older, look for your father, and help your father by either committing suicide, or killing someone else. I wouldn't say I was particularly disappointed with that since they did add in the Broken Steel DLC which allowed you to just explore everything. And that again is easily one of the best things about the game. Goes back to what I said about the freedom. You can just play however you wanna play. Hell, you don't even have to do the story. And honestly, I really wouldn't recommend it if you really just want to enjoy the game for what it offers on the side. All the side quests you can do are worth doing, and speaking of the Broken Steel DLC, you should also play all the other DLC's for Fallout 3 as well as they are all equally fantastic in their own rights. I've played them all so I say that with absolute certainty.

Often times there are games out there that just strike me the right way in all the right ways. I remember it was a few years ago that I actually played Fallout 3 for the first time. And that first experience was everything I needed in order to experience and enjoy this game to the absolute best of my ability. And I did. I genuinely had the best time playing this game for the first time. I had always wondered what it was about this game that everybody seemed to love, and I still remember to this day that I had started a file on the original Xbox 360 version, and I had played about 10 minutes before I turned it off. Man, had I known what I would've been in for, I would've kept playing. But that's also what sort of prompted me to play the game again later in life because I think I appreciated it more then I would have had I played it back then. I experienced it at an age where history was a pretty cool thing, and seeing our nations history all in ruin just felt very ominous and depressing. And I ****ing love it.

There's a lot more I could probably say about Fallout 3, but honestly it really doesn't need much more convincing. Everybody I know that has played Fallout 3 understands why the game is so ****ing great. I've rarely ever heard somebody give the game a poor review, especially if they've played it fully before like I have. They understand why people praise it, and those people are awesome people in general.

And I know there have been people that have been asking for a remaster of Fallout 3. But honestly, I feel like that could potentially ruin its charm. The game the way it is is wonderful. Because honestly, the only thing that really needs to be fixed with the Steam version is the fact that it doesn't even run unless you mod it. I mean, the mod is easy to obtain and easy to install, but it's still annoying.

Anyway, yeah, Fallout 3 is great.