Customer Reviews

Fallout 3

5 star:		(157)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(107)

 

 

The next release by Bethesda after the gorgeous but surprisingly shallow game Oblivion, Fallout 3 is a vast improvement on almost every level over the company's previous efforts, providing an extreme level of high-quality content and a truly massive game experience at the expense of average writing and a poorly-implemented main plot.

First off, graphics. I'm running the game at High quality (as opposed to Very High) on a computer using parts that were cutting edge about two years ago. Visually, this game is a total knockout; painstakingly and stunningly rendered down to the smallest detail, from the wreckage and debris everywhere even to the level of most NPCs. The character models in particular stand out as a vast improvement over Oblivion's, although the character animations - particularly on hills - is still as stilted as ever and you will notice some repetitive faces. Where the game truly shines is in the environmental design, particularly on the graphical level - I can safely say that no other game has ever felt as real and vibrant (albeit dead, considering it's post-apocalyptic) as Fallout 3. The environment truly feels real, especially coupled with a surprisingly logical and high-quality approach to level design - office buildings and schools are laid out like office buildings and schools, most buildings have bathrooms inside. Wreckage and debris are used strategically to block off areas and direct the player, rather than bizarre architectural choices as in Oblivion (who builds a fort in the shape of one long tunnel?). I can't rave enough about the high-quality graphics, a few relatively minor animation issues and mild NPC face repetition notwithstanding. Downtown DC, with its half-demolished monuments and museums, is absolutely breathtaking. The game is also fully voiced, and the voice acting is relatively high-quality. Although you'll likely begin to notice NPCs who sound suspiciously similar - especially old women, who all sound identical - the acting is considerably better and they've reused voice actors a lot less than in the Elder Scrolls games. People who follow such things may recognize Raphael Sbarge (KotOR) and John DiMaggio (Futurama; FFX) in a few places. Liam Neesan does a decent job with fairly bland lines as the PC's saintly father and Ron Perlman is back to narrate the surprisingly tepid introductory and final movies. But Malcolm McDowell steals the show as the unsettlingly patriotic President Eden, mostly through a series of Roosevelt-esque radio speeches the player can choose to listen to at will through.

This is easily the most fun game I've played in a long while. They've stripped out a lot of things that bogged down earlier Bethesda efforts and even to an extent earlier Fallout games, which lends itself to a much more fast-paced, almost survival horror-esque feel to much of the game. The VATS system is a huge disappointment to anyone expecting true turn-based combat - it's much more like bullet time than anything else - but taken on its own merits is a pretty clever gimmick that is actually pretty fun to use. Combat in general is satisfyingly fast-paced, and a clever, logical approach to level design keeps the player moving along nicely in most areas while still giving the feeling that you might be down to your last clip of bullets or stimpack. Radiation - and particularly irradiated food, which heals you at the cost of adding to your rad level - is an interesting new dimension which is unfortunately barely touched on, as weightless, radless Stimpacks are weightless and much more effective than drinking water or food. Buffs take the form of drugs with a variety of effects, and can make the difference between survival and death - but watch out for (easily cured, and mostly pointless) addictions. There are a few glaring issues with the gameplay, however: the speech and dialog options, while again an enormous improvement over previous Bethesda games (FO3 features dialog trees instead of topic buttons, allowing for more dynamic conversations), require little to no thought on the part of the player - a far cry from the clever dialog puzzles former Fallout developer Black Isle was known for. High stats in Lockpicking or Science basically just buy you the ability to play their associated minigames at higher difficulty levels; if you're bad at Mastermind or have poor reflexes, don't expect to succeed at them, even with a maxed-out skill value. Combat is decently balanced but startlingly illogical in places, and at low levels it frequently takes an entire clip of shotgun shells to the face to take down a single human opponent; similarly, the economy is bizarrely stacked, with the reward for single-handedly saving a town from total annihilation being less valuable than a single night at the local inn. Cash in general is hard to come by for much of the game; even vendors rarely have enough to buy more than a fraction of your loot at a time. Fortunately, there are a few nearly limitless sources available to you, if you're willing to put in the work for the money, and the trade system allows for direct bartering. Character design and advancement is basically just a dumbed-down version of the previous games' systems, and badly in need of balancing. A few of the non-combat stats are ridiculously overpowered (you'll have a tough time getting through the game without a high Lockpick and Repair skill) and, unlike its predecessors, you won't be able to get through much of Fallout 3 without putting a significant commitment into combat skills (which comprise about half the skill set). However, it's still easily possible to cater to most play styles, and clever players with an eye on the strategy guide will have little trouble maxing out all their skills and most of their attributes before hitting the level 20 cap.

The main plot is extremely short by design, taking somewhere between 8-10 hours for players progressing at normal speed to complete; taking note of one of the defining characteristics of the Fallout franchise, Bethesda opted to make huge swaths of the main quest optional (you can stumble upon information or people who will lead you further into the plot, bypassing intermediary steps), lending the game a feeling of versatility that more tracked-in games lack. Consequently, the game feels a lot more dynamic and flexible, even accounting for several quests that are essentially good guy/bad guy choices and at least two where there isn't even a bad guy choice. However, because Bethesda opted to only consider quests with their own subplots "sidequests", there's a lot to do in the Wasteland that is entirely freeform, and the game often rewards players for free-roaming and for following clues provided in the game's copious flavor text. The result is an unusually detail-oriented, lovingly crafted world that feels logical and realistic, aside from the relatively limited dialog options. The game is well worth buying solely for the wealth of awesome content lurking in the wings of the game, and already has an active modding community likely to produce still more content to keep you entertained long after the game's disappointingly average main plot has faded into memory. This is even true on the item level: there are a variety of awesome and entertaining gimmick weapons, the opportunity to buy and customize houses (which provides extremely tangible benefits, unlike the Oblivion equivalent) and several unique items lying around that can by claimed and repaired by the player. Fallout 3 has a level of detail rarely seen in any game.

On the downside, a few of the sidequests have glaringly obvious logical errors in them. Your character generally acts like an old hand at wandering the Wasteland straight out of his hermetically sealed childhood home, regardless of what dialog options you choose. And despite the general emphasis on free roaming, you do get railroaded in several places - your response options to a given NPC's behavior generally consist only of fairly transparent light side/neutral/dark side options where they exist at all, and the main plot abandons all pretense of player control in the second half - but for the most part, you're free to turn around at any point up until the very end and go back to free roaming, which is where the real meat of the game is anyway. The main plot itself is significantly better than Oblivion's, but falls apart at the climax, leading into an unexpected, abrupt and deeply unsatisfying resolution; also, in a radical departure from the rest of the game, the last few subquests in the main plot are essentially mandatory dungeons followed by a staggeringly black-and-white moral choice. Fortunately, the weakest elements of the game are mostly contained in the last two or three subquests of the main plot, and you can easily get months of playtime out of this consistently excellent sandbox exploration game without ever having to sit through the most disappointing parts ever again.

A few other things to mention that I left out of the review:
-The only DRM included with the game is a simple disc check (you only even need a serial number for Windows Live)
-There is a large and skilled pool of modders already producing custom content for the game, even without official word on a Construction Set.
-The load times are blazing fast. I have Word files that take longer to open than FO3 maps.
-The game is excessively buggy at the moment, and only PC users will be able to use most of the bug fixes. Console users may want to hold off until a patch is released.

Fallout 3 represents Bethesda Softworks' first take of the legendary game franchise since they purchased the rights from the failing Interplay in 2004. So, how did Bethesda do? In essence, Fallout 3 is Oblivion (Bethesda's most well-known game) with a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic skin on it. The Good, Bad, and Ugly on this game includes...

Good:
- Spectacular Graphics (I'd have said beautiful, but we ARE talking about a post-apocalyptic world here). From blown-up highway overpasses to angry super mutants, players will be completely visually immersed in the game.
- Massive World. Fallout 3 is not a "first ten hours and you're done" game. The developers have said that F3 contains over 100 hours of game play if all of the side quests are done and, having played a good portion of them, I can say that this seems to be correct.
- Interesting World. There's a lot to see and do in post-war D.C.! Visit the Washington Monument, try and find historical documents, join a cult, stop slavers, or become one yourself! There are plenty of new (and different) things to do in Fallout 3.

Bad:
- No Turn-Based Combat. Fallouts 1&2 featured turn-based strategic combat; Fallout 3 is primarily First-Person Shooter style. The V.A.T.S. system of location-specific targeting has been added to sort of simulate turn-based combat for those interested, but it is poorly done (EX: what appear to be high-percentage VATS shots with a clear view from first-person end up being completely blocked by the target's slight movements; VATS will not stop the shooting even though precious ammo is wasted). Gameplay is primarily first-person, though a buggy "shoulder camera view" can also be used. If you love FPS games, this will not be an issue.
- Lacks Original's Dark Humor. Forced jokes do not make a Fallout game - the creators simply were not able to capture this aspect of the original.
- Linear Solutions. Initially, it seemed that there would be a lot of choices in how Fallout 3's quests were to be solved (EX: Lie to solve a quest or do the actual legwork? Blow up a city or disarm the bomb?); the problem is, these options tend to disappear shortly after the game starts - especially in the main story line. Most of the time, players can choose between the "Good" option and the "Evil" one - and that's it. Small choices like hacking a gun turret to clean out a room of Super Mutants or tossing in a few grenades to clean them out (two different skills) still exist, but the results tend to be the same. Fallout 3 tends to offer players the illusion of choice rather than actual choices, and that's not in the spirit of the Fallout series.
- Poor Music. The background music is both repetitive and boring; The "radio" songs are too few/not fitting to the zones.

Ugly:
- Quest Bugs. Many of the side quests have bugs in them that, while they can be worked around, still detract from the game. The Big Town quests have many examples of this.
- Crash Bugs. I didn't have any problems installing the game on my Vista system (many people report such install problems, however). I played the game for many hours without any crashes. A few days after installing the game, however, it crashed on loading a saved game and then refused to load up at all. Allowing my game to connect to the internet/Live seems to have cleared the problem up, but it is still very strange.
- SecuROM. Parts of your system will be scanned and various aspects checked to see if installation will be allowed. This is a very serious issue for some consumers (especially those that get installation errors), but not a big deal for others.

Fallout 3 is an excellent First-Person Post-Apocalyptic Action Game. Older fans may be extremely disappointed with the changes that have occurred to the series since Fallout 2, and may want to avoid this game if they are looking for a direct update. New players, however, will greatly enjoy the game if they liked Bethesda's previous game, Oblivion, or if they had fun with 2K Game's Bioshock. In my view, Fallout 3 is definitely worth playing - it just isn't the Fallout fans of the franchise might be expecting.

12/18/2007 Update: For those interested, Bethesda Softworks - the creators of Fallout 3 - have released an official worldbuilder/editor for the PC version of the game. It is called the G.E.C.K. (like the item in the game), and can be downloaded from the official Bethsoft website.

First, understand my bias. I'm a fast-twitch FPS fan who never had much joy with RPGs (unless it stood for Rocket Propelled Grenades). I just couldn't get excited about the spells, wizards and magic which dominate the genre. But after about 20 hours of play, this game may have changed my mind. It's not a traditional FPS and it's not a traditional RPG.

1)It's a polished, complete piece of work, especially compared to alternative PC games in 2008.
There are a few bugs here and there, but there is an overwhelming sense that Bethesda actually tested the game and outside people actually played the game before it was pronounced ready to ship.

2)The replay value is huge.
The variety of paths and complexity of open world experiences tell me I'm going to spend at least a hundred hours with this.

3)It's configuration friendly.
I have a rig that can smoke most fast-twitch PC games out there, but you don't need that level of investment to enjoy this game. It's cool to have a new $50 game come out that doesn't expect people to spend $500 on hardware just to enjoy it.

4)The DRM is reasonable. (Said while holding nose and grimacing)
I have nothing good to say about DRM. Software DRM remains totally ineffective against piracy. It only hurts honest people. Bethesda has made this DRM very light. You need to have the DVD in the drive when you install it, but there is no on-line activation and no requirement to have the DVD in the drive when you play. No DRM would be better, but I can live with this.

5)It doesn't feel like a console game tweaked for the PC
Except for a couple of changes around key bindings (like being able to bind keys to mouse wheel movements), it feels like the PC experience was part of the design from the start.

That said, I urge you to run...not walk...to your shopping cart and buy this game today...not tomorrow...do it today...click it right now. Once it arrives, you will lose sleep and your family may complain when you say, "just a couple more minutes", but you are in for an immersive experience with what I think is the best PC game of 2008 and one of the best ones I have seen in a long time. Props to Bethesda for a job well done.

This is one of the best games I've played in a while. Note a few things:

1. You need a good computer to run it (at least a good video card). You don't want to run this game at minimum requirement. My computer is about 3 years old and had AMD Athlon X2 4400+ 2.2GHZ, 2GB RAM, ATI Radeon X850GT 256MB VRAM and had to play it on low video settings. The game is still fun but I had to put up with annoyances like invisible enemies shooting at me (they're made to fade if far to boost the game's performance). Then I decided to buy a new mid-range video card (ATI 4850 512 MB RAM) and viola! can run the game at high video settings, no more problems and strikingly more beautiful graphics and effects.

Yes even with ATI HD 4850 512MB i can't run the game smooth enough at ultra(highest setting) in 1280x1024, this game is a beast. But high setting is good enough for me.

2. If you experience crashing. Make sure you get the latest update from Bethesta. if that still doesn't work, most likely you have conflict with a program called ffdshow. look it up online.

3. If you experience skipping music from your pip boy radio (radio music are supposed to play smoothly), most likely it's ffdshow conflict again. look up solutions online.

4. Patches are released periodically so most bugs are fixed since its release. This is a sign of a dedicated game company.

5. I've played the original fallout 1 and 2. I was skeptical about fallout 3 but the game has thus far exceeded all my expectations and leaving me hungry for more. Buy this game, make it a commercial success, so Bethesta will make more expansions and, eventually, Fallout 4.

A little background, I have not participated in video games since the demise of the Amiga. I know... I just wanted to be able to play games on my computer rather than a dedicated box. WinXP with 1-2 gigs of RAM and low end video cards simply wasn't enough to make me want to be involved. I recently bought a new computer with an i7 core processor and 12 gigs of addressable RAM under Vista 64 and a stand alone 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card. Not top of the line, but very workable. I decided I wanted a game that was recent, used a lot of processor capability, and was not just a shoot em up. I wanted time to explore a world.

Fallout 3 is that game. I can explore. I can shoot em up. I can complete quests-- or not. I can interact with characters -- or not. It is a huge world... and with hundreds of hours of play time, there is no need to finish the main quest too quickly. I backed out of the main quest after seeing all the endings and have been exploring the rest of the world. As you get experience up, the game becomes more manageable--you learn what weapons you want and need, when to use them, and how far back you need to be (fat man mini nukes!).

I like the bartering, the weapons, and exploration aspects of the game. The perks are fun to choose. The game gets more fun and addictive the more you play it.

The graphics on my system were spectacular. I played it on my lower end lap top, and found the depth was greatly reduced. I have had some freeze-ups, but nothing frequent... easily restarted.

For a game with 100's of hours of play-time, the downfall is that things can and do get repetitive. Buildings, vaults, subways and factories are the same mazes. They flow naturally most of the time, but sometimes, like a rat I felt trapped. Same for the multitudes of creatures... they react the same every time... supposedly this changes if you are in a different karma, but I have not tried all the possibilities.

Conversation is OK, but pretty one dimensional with nice, neutral, and somewhat nasty being predominantly available.

This is not a shoot 'em up, although if you want that you can find it in this game--it is just not a continuous fight.

Recently I started using a couple of "cheats"--which are easy to find on line. Adding ammo, improving weapon condition, etc.... I was surprised I was having even more fun after completing much of the game.

So if you are looking for an open ended FPS, multiple hours of gameplay, and a variety of play options... give Fallout 3 a try.

Fallout 3 is absorbing and creepy. If you are familiar with the D.C. metro area, on which the geography is loosely based, it will also be a little eerie. The advertising for the game was pulled from the Metro (D.C.'s subway) after complaints -- after all, D.C. (technically the Pentagon) was bombed in 2001, and we get frequent terror/security warnings.

As you wander through an alternate universe Capital Wasteland (forked off from our own in the 1950s, preserving 1950s culture, and then bombed to radioactive smithereens in 2077), you will have multiple missions to accomplish, a wide variety of weapons to choose from, and a gratifyingly large number of strategic choices for developing your character and skill set, starting from customization of your own character's race, gender and facial features.

One of the things that I really like about this game is that you encounter both genders and multiple races -- although renderings of Asian characters are a little odd. About time that the game world stopped being White Boy Universe.

The ability to create new weapons provided that you obtain schematics is an interesting feature, but the components for these weapons, littered throughout the Fallout 3 universe, are the same fifteen to twenty objects, and one does get tired of seeing them repeat.

The graphics are smooth, dark and atmospheric. Be warned that a critical strike is rewarded by extremely graphic and messy explosions with body parts. I would have preferred a more extensive environment -- too many directions are blocked off by impassable walls of rubble -- but the game doesn't feel short.

The combat system includes both real time and turn-based elements through the VATS -- which allows you to spend action points by targeting parts of your enemy, with the probability of a hit displayed.

Now for the bad news . . .

First of all, the game uses SecuROM. This is not disclosed on the game box or in the EULA, or anywhere else; and Bethesda gave very evasive answers to direct queries about whether the game used SecuROM. SecuROM has multiple options that game publishers can use, and Bethesda opted to use it only for disk checking (rather than for limited installs like EA has been doing). However, SecuRom registry keys with null values will be written into your computer's registry and a SecuROM component will be copied onto your system (the name and location depend on your operating system). These will be left behind even if you uninstall the game. You will have to look on line for instructions and a third party tool to clean it off your computer -- it involves manually editing your registry -- not for the faint of heart. Some people have claimed that if, instead of buying the disk, you download from Steam, the copy will be SecuROM free -- I don't know. Some apparently had problems getting the game to run because of SecuROM problems, and SONY (the maker of SecuROM) had to develop a Fallout 3 patch. I didn't encounter this problem.


However, as others have also reported, most of my gaming sessions end with a crash to desktop. Sometimes the program spits back hex code ("Super Mutant Brute 004e901"). Makes you wonder if it was beta tested. Save often.

The voice acting ranges from OK to mediocre, with the same voice actors used for multiple characters. Accordingly, some of them go "over the top" in attempting to differentiate their characters, which I think detracts from the atmosphere of the game. Some gamers have complained that they are the same voice actors from previous Bethesda games. I haven't checked, but if so, Bethesda needs to review -- a couple of those folks really need to be replaced by new talent.

Finally, there are some clunky features of the interface. When you consume food, water or medicine to heal your injuries, you cannot simultaneously see your health rating. When you engage a NPC in conversation, choices appear on topics about which you know nothing. In some menus you are forced through the same bits of dialogue again and again (most notably with the vendor in Megaton). And at least on my computer, dialogue boxes only seem to work with the mouse; you can't scroll up and down through choices and hit ENTER. (Thankfully, you can hit ENTER when the NPC is speaking and cut them short.) Finally, weapons have damage ratings that are listed; but they also have ranges, which are not.

Perhaps I built this game up too much in my head, given that I've been a big fan of Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics, but this game just barely failed to live up to the hype in my head. Don't get me wrong, its an amazing game with way more space than I could ever care to explore. The wasteland is HUGE and beautifully rendered (for a post-apocalyptic wasteland), the combat system is innovative and easy to figure out, and the characters look amazing. But after all the 95-100% ratings I saw for this game, I was expecting something that would completely engulf me for days, permanently redefine my gaming experience; this is not that game. After a while many aspects of the game, from combat to dialogue, become rather formulaic, and the main story line involves a surprisingly small range and number of stops considering the size of the map. An expansion might help, but I'm not sure how they could work it in.

So by all means, if you enjoy the Fallout series or other RPG/FPS games, then buy this game immediately, it's amazing, and well worth the money. But if you're expecting it to change your life after you've played it, you're headed toward disappointment.

Oh yeah, let's start provoking North Korea so we can get some real life Fallout action! This game is awesome. I tell you what, as soon as the radiation dies down I'm grabbing me a gigantic fire ant to ride into town on. I've been working on schematics for a flaming ShishKabob for the past few weeks - I've managed to set my shed on fire, but not the lawnmower blade I've attached to the motorcycle gas tank... Where are the damn instructions to build this thing anyway? Sure I found the schematics, but they don't actually tell you how to put this thing together...

The game is very slick and is clearly next gen... and by clearly I mean I have no idea what next gen refers to. Isn't everything "next gen" now? Seriously, is there a video game that has been released in the past year that markets itself as regular gen? Average gen? So-so gen?

Having spent over 100 hours playing this game, I clearly enjoy playing it. No, I haven't actually finished the game yet. No, I haven't made it to Megaton yet- that's the first town you're supposed to go to right? No, I don't have any friends. No, I haven't kissed a girl.

Eh, whatever. I've spent my hours building my character, aptly named Phineus Inermis, into the level 30 thuggish brute I am in real life. I've even splashed my keyboard with Brut Cologne and gunpowder just so that I can inhale the action.

Oh, you should definitely pick up the expansion pack - Broken Steel.

A word regarding the 1 star reviews - the vast majority (and by that I mean the five that I actually read) are regarding the patch problems and technical support. True, these are valid issue. My computer works fine (of course I had to buy an entirely new computer in order to play the game....) so if you include the cost of the computer, game, and upgrades my total costs exceeded $1,652.00...

HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD I SPENT $1,652.00 ON A VIDEO GAME?!?!?!?

What's wrong with me? I'm reviewing a videogame...... that's almost as silly as reviewing a 2,500 page box of paper.

This game is merely Oblivion with a new look and a few minor modifications. The world is interesting, although D.C. tends to really piss me off. Every city it like a fortress, there are certain ways you have to get in. For example, in DC you have to go through a subway or select ways, because they block off every f'in passageway with rubble. It's very uncreative and frustrating when your starting out in the game. The level up system is roughly the same as Oblivion. You start out shooting a gun that is as accurate as a 18th century rifle, you run as fast as you can walk, and it will take about 20 shots to get one to hit. Of course, you'll level up and things will get better..

I'm really disappointed with the city layouts. I'm quite annoyed by the city layout how all of them are pretty much Castles, with a rubble conveniently blocking every path, leading to rather linear gameplay. There are no multiple ways to get around unless your in the wasteland. Once you get to places, it's not bad because you can quick travel.

That being said, they packed quite a bit into this game (similar to Oblivion). It saddens me though that this is a better rated game than FarCry 2...

This is Oblivion with a new theme and with guns.

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 tradeoff 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?).

After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the LimitedInstallation-defective EA releases), this seems like a postapocalyptic 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!