Customer Reviews

Fallout 3

5 star:		(173)
4 star:		(71)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I recently bought 3 new games for PS3; Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is by far the winner for me. Little Big Planet is incredible in its own right, but Fallout 3 deserves 10 stars. Resistance 2, has great graphics, but the single player really lacks something that it had in the first game. I understand that the online play is now amazing, but I'm a story guy so that's what I'm playing for.

Food analogy for these three games;
Resistance 2; A nice brunch, but some of the guests are irritating.
Little Big Planet; Awesome snack party! Lets play again!
Fallout 3; A 10 course meal of the best of all kinds of food. WOW!

This review for Fallout 3 has minor spoilers.

All three games are great, but so far I've had the most fun playing Fallout 3. The scope of the game is huge, it feels huge, it looks huge, it sucks you in. The plot seamlessly welds together, and the detail is incredible.

My wife, who is an amazing artist, took a look at this game while I was playing and commented the following; "Whomever designed this game really knew what they were doing. The color pallets are very well chosen so that everything in the scene has the correct lighting feeling for the time of day."

I especially *love* the little details that make this game. First amazing detail; Hacking the terminals is *very* close to the way you would break into a real OpenVMS machine if you had console access. The terminals themselves look like old VT100 terminals. You can break into a VMS machine from the console (physical terminal) and the commands are not exactly the same, but when I saw my character typing them in, I was so happy. I think the authors of this game should be commended for their accuracy, and for their design choice. The OpenVMS system is very old, very useful, very strong, and very stable. The similar commands fit in *perfectly* with the look and feel of the terminals the robot company makes in the game.

Next up, the super mutants totally take lines from the villain "Humungous" in Mad Max: Road warrior 2. "No more games!" with the same delivery. This little detail is so perfect. There are little nods like this to the Sci Fi genre throughout this game.

Even the starting sequence of this game, and the load "slides" which are modeled after 50's micro fiche are so perfectly in character for the rest of the game that you find yourself wishing the load times when they show were longer so you could pore over the details revealed.

This game is so huge, and incredibly wide reaching. This is demonstrated by the example of a side quest/area that is introduced through deft foreshadowing into the game when your character inquires about the local area at one of the towns in the game. The person you're talking to refers to this nearby place to stay away from. "Its bad mojo!" So of course you think "Well I have to go there next!" Next stop, terror! And 3/4 of the way through the side quest you're asking yourself "Maybe I really should have listened to this guy" as you're dying and irradiated in a terrifying area of doom! This minor side quest is so big, and perfectly executed within the game that you really feel like you're paid your money's worth.

I think one of the things that some other reviewers mentioned is how cool it is that you can treat the game like a real time game, or as a more turn based game by using the V.A.T.S system. This lends flexibility to the game allowing you to play it either as the biggest open ended fps you've ever played or as a giant post apocolyptic RPG.

Game strategy is introduced subtly by the npcs, making you feel like you are there. An example of this is a side conversation you have with a kid who tells you about the calamity that happened to his town. He describes how his father would rant about the invaders and how to defeat them, but the kid doesn't understand what his father meant. You end up using the strategy to avoid death it a wonderful high quality Sci Fi B movie plot line yourself later.

Each storyline in this excellent game is peeled back like layers of an onion, that you slowly uncover. The graphics are eyepopping sure, but I must give the writers for this game the highest praise. This is something that the author Neal Stephenson writes about in his book Diamond Age. The idea that you can have incredible immersion games that have a completely realistic physical environment a la the matrix concept, but without a gripping storyline you've got nothing. Well Fallout3 has the story lines, and it has them in spades. It has the eye popping graphics, and the incredible detail. This game has it all.

There is never a time in this game where the game mechanics themselves get in the way of the play. You can save whenever you want, and the completely transparent mechanics submerge you into the game environment.

In conclusion, if you like adventures, and you like Sci Fi, get this incredible Game.

For those of us who have played Oblivion the obvious will be when you first start to assume that this game is a lot like that game. To some extent there are certain elements to that assumption that do hold true. However as the game really starts to unfold and you realize the world you're in that Bethesda has created that this is not Oblivion with guns. This is an epic post war nightmare that is both beautiful and haunting.

This the type of RPG that every gamer dreams of. A rich story in the main quest and an amazing amount of detail at every turn. The real meat of this game though is the side questing and the exploring of the landscape. You will literally spend HOURS checking out every nook in this game and not knowing what awaits you at the next turn. This is the type of game that will both make you use your head, and get your blood pumping at the same time. It's called balance and it's done to perfection in Fallout 3.

If you are not a fan of games where you have to take your time and you are looking for something to pick up and shoot things Fallout 3 is not your game. If you love games that require you to conserve your inventory and make crucial choices that will affect your outcome one way or another Fallout 3 is your game. If you are looking for something that is quick and easy, Fallout 3 is not your game. If you are looking for something that takes time, patience and you enjoy exploring Fallout 3 is your game.

The point is that you really need to know the genre of RPG to enjoy a game like this. That's not to say that if you have never played one that you won't enjoy it just expect to be a bit overwhelmed at first and allow the game to unfold which is where the patience aspect comes into play, because once it does you will be sucked into it's world and have a very very hard time putting it down if you do connect with it. These are the types of games that RPG gamers long for and this one hits it out of the park.

As far as the combat system it's both a mixture of action RPG and somewhat of a turn based element with what is called the VATS system. More or less this allows you to make a choice of which body part you want to target and will show you a percentage of if that part will be hit. Then you go to a cut scene which shows your results. You will find this element very fulfilling when you see an enemy taken by surprise and watch in glory as body parts explode on the screen when it works right.

This is a game that has endless amounts of game play value. There are so many choices and out comes you will be able to explore every part of the game. Finish every quest and still be able to replay it totally different if you chose to do so with a completely different outcome. That is rare to find a game like that with so much quality.

The version I own is the PS3 version so let me say first the game looks amazing. I am playing it on a 47 inch 1080 LCD TV with a 7.1 surround sound system and it just crushes on every single level. Are there glitches? So few you won't even care when you see them. The rumors that the PS3 version is somehow less a game from certain reviews is a lie. It's amazing and worth every single penny and your time.

Video game crack at it's finest and certainly game of the year for me.

Thanks again Bethesda for creating an epic world for me roam in.

This is an absolutely top notch game. I've been an avid gamer for around 20 years now. I've played countless games and this is one of my all-time favorites.

I'm a big fan of both Role Playing Games and First Person Shooters. Fallout 3 is both, although probably more of an RPG. For me it's quite hard to kill normal opponents without using the targeting system, which pauses the game. But this didn't bother me at all or lessen the experience in any way. The only thing that I would change would be to give the player the ability to control the camera during the slow motion combat shots. The camera angle can be poor at times.

The graphics are great, the atmosphere is very convincing and it's just good fun. It's also a somewhat odd mix of being very serious and yet very silly at times. I guess I would describe it as quirky, but in a good way.

The game is definitely not for younger people. The games is very gory, the language is about as bad as it gets, and there are quite a few references to prostitution and drugs.

I'm about 15-20 hours into the game and I've barely scratched the surface. I've read that the game can be completed in 20 hours. But that seems crazy to me. I put 90 hours into Oblivion before I even took the main quest seriously. Fallout 3 looks like it's going to have that kind of playability for me, and then some. I didn't really enjoy the combat in Oblivion nearly as much as I enjoyed just exploring the world. With Fallout 3, I enjoy both.

This is a must buy.

This is a tremendous game. It marries the depth of Elder Scrolls 4:Oblivion's gameplay to the really wonderful atmosphere of the Fallout series. You roam a post-nuclear apocalypse Washington DC in an attempt to discover your origin and find your father. You also come across hundreds of desperate survivors of said apocalypse, and can choose either to help them or to take advantage of them. Your good or bad choices affect the way characters relate to you and what main-story "ending" you can see during the game.

If you've never played Oblivion or Knights of the Old Republic (the two games I think are the most similar to Fallout 3), here is the extremely simple but non-spoiler-y explanation: You create a character with certain statistics (e.g. strength, intelligence). These statistics govern the kinds of choices you have in a huge gameplay world. You explore the world, collecting items, fighting enemies, and completing quests (such as finding someone's lost brother, discovering the secret of your birth, collecting a certain kind of item for profit). Every once in a while, your character "levels up," meaning you can augment those statistics with the points you've earned in the interim between levels.

Veterans of Oblivion will find many familiar things. Dialogue proceeds in much the same fashion, albeit with better voice acting this go-round. Item management is similar as well, with a weight value and encumberance (although, more realistically this time, being over-encumbered doesn't render you immobile because you're 1 point over - it slows you down instead). Bartering is more advanced, because you can trade both items and currency for other items. You can purchase or win residences in the towns, and decorate them, very similar to Oblivion (except you can purchase useful items, too, like workbenches). Weapons degrade and can be fixed, but similarly to KOTOR, you now have the option of augmenting and creating new weapons. Fast travel also works exactly like Oblivion.

So what's different? Well, the story and atmosphere. Unlike Oblivion, you cannot choose any of a number of races, and the difference between "character classes" is nominal at best. You're always going to a citizen of one of the survival "vaults" in DC, and you will always have the main quest motivation of the story with your father and the mystery surrounding him and your origins. But this is not a criticism. If you (like me) are fascinated by post-nuclear-war sci-fi, you will find much to love here. The music, sound effects, and especially the graphics create an amazing mood and atmosphere. The wasteland is eerie and desolate, unlike Oblivion's lush, Lord of the Rings-style setting. Its setting on Earth, with easily recognizable houses, products, and other trappings of our own modern lifestyle make it much more relatable, and creepier still when you find charred skeletons in their bedrooms, frozen in the positions in which they died in the nuclear conflagration. Also, the non-player-character stories are MUCH more mature than Oblivion, full of raunchy language, killing, sex, and amorality. Note to parents - This stuff is on the level of an R-rated movie such as "Total Recall" or "Terminator." So it's probably not for the under 13-set.

Combat without VATS is just like Oblivion - point yourself towards your target and either shoot or swing your melee weapon. With the VATS system, though, the action is paused and you can target portions of your enemy, with a percentage to hit each. It is somewhat reminiscent of KOTOR in the game-pausing respect. Crippling a leg will make your opponent limp slowly towards (or away from) you, crippling an arm or two will hinder their ability to use a weapon, aiming for the head can result in decapitations and exploding skulls.

The graphics are stunning. The level of detail is sky-high, and the settings created by the programmers are eerie, evocative, beautiful, sad, and frightening all in one. I think all the hate being spewed about this game, especially the PS3 version, is either overreaction or simply fanboy baloney. IGN's review, for instance, states that the graphical differences between the two consoles are negligible. There are reports of SPORADIC bugs and freezing issues on all three platforms (So far, in 20 hours, I have experienced one lockup - the "GOAT freeze," and noticed one clipping issue, where an enemy's body was passing through a piece of rubble. That's IT). I say: BIG DEAL!

I can tell you, as someone who owns Oblivion Game Of The Year Ed. on PS3 (and owned the non-GOTY edition on 360) that Fallout 3's graphics are better than Oblivion's. The detail is superb, the frame rate is silky smooth (I was shocked and pleasantly surprised by this!), there is just really nothing to fault. The difference between PS3 and 360 is probably comparable to the difference between an ATI or Nvidia graphics card on a PC. Maybe one does Anti-Alaising a little better, one does hi res textures better. IT IS SIMPLY NOT VERY NOTICEABLE. I am playing on a 50" 1080p HDTV, and have had no complaints about the graphics. Quite the contrary, I have been blown away at times, and I consider myself a discriminating consumer on this point. This game stands up against MGS4, Burnout Paradise, and Uncharted in terms of detail. The only thing marring it is a bit of pop-in when viewing things at great distances. But, given the amount of stuff in this vast world, it is easily forgivable (just as it was in Oblivion).

It should be said that downloadable expansion content has been announced for the PC and 360 versions, and not the PS3 version as yet. I personally do not view this as major, since: the game is huge as it stands; and DLC usually finds its way to PS3 eventually (((UDATE - it has just been announced that PS3 will receive all the DLC for Fallout between June and October of this year))), just as it did with Oblivion. I think it just comes down to which platform you own or prefer. I sold my Xbox and my PC is too old to handle a game like this. But you're not going to be ripped off by either console version. If you have a high-end PC and don't mind sitting in front of it, then you can't go wrong with the PC version.

Notice something? Throughout this review, I've kept comparing Fallout 3 to some of the best games of the past 5 years. There's a reason for this. Fallout 3 is a must-own, pure and simple. Any issues are negligible when put up against this game's atmosphere, scope, and detail. It is worth $60 easily, which is my very highest praise for any video game.

+ Pros:

+ Excellent Storyline
+ Hours of side quests to complete
+ Unique combat system
+ Improved facial animations and landscape design since Oblivion

- Cons:

- Cap at level 20
- Known glitches, including game freezing

"I heard a Super Mutant laughing and my blood ran cold. He had a frag grenade - and the pin was pulled out. I knew that if it reached me, I'd be nothing more than a wet bug stain on the pavement.
All of a sudden, everything stopped, as if time were frozen.
I took aim at the grenade itself, and fired.
The grenade exploded next to his ear, and took his head with it.
Dad would have been proud...his lessons with the BB gun all those years ago paid off."

This is what it's like to be in the mind of your character in Fallout 3.

Bethesda Game Studios really outdid themselves. They impressed me with their open-ended world in Oblivion, and they improved upon this with Fallout 3. Clearly, they were the right company to take the reigns after Interplay's financial troubles.

Playing this game had me time travelling in both directions - we have a distant future combined with 1950's naďveté, offering false security similar to real-world films like Duck and Cover. I found myself sucked into the storyline, the eerily accurate architecture of Washington D.C., and the V.A.T.S. combat system of stopping time, which made me feel like a master of the Equilibrium Gun Katas. I could choose everything about my character's attributes - I could either be the Savior of the Wastelands or the Scourge of Humanity.

Sadly, after roughly 30 hours of gameplay, I began a "protect" mission where I had to safeguard a number of Non-Playable Characters (NPC's). During this mission, my game began freezing occasionally, and rebooting my PS3 became very annoying. I checked a number of game forums, and I discovered I was not the first person reporting this.

I went directly to Bethesda's website and I was promised a response within 2 days. 6 hours after my original email was sent, I got the response below:

FREEZING/PERFORMANCE ISSUES:

1. Problems may arise if you have been playing the game for an extended period of time. Let the system cool down, then try running the game.
2. Please make sure that you have the most recent update for your PS3 console.
3. Remove the game data from the Playstation 3 Hard Drive. Files in the Game Data Utility folder, are saved settings for a game (i.e., controller preferences, brightness settings, etc.). These steps will NOT delete your save games. To remove a game data file from the PLAYSTATION 3:

a. In the XMB home menu, go to (Game) > [Game Data Utility].

Important: Make sure you select [Game Data Utility].

DO _NOT_ SELECT [Saved Data Utility], AS THIS WILL DELETE ALL OF YOUR SAVED GAME FILES.

b. Highlight the Game Data Utility file (i.e., name of a particular game you have been playing) you wish to delete. [in this case, the Fallout 3 file].
c. Press the button and select [Delete].
d. Highlight "Yes" and press the button to confirm the deletion.
e. A message indicating the file is being deleted will appear.
f. A "Delete completed." message will appear once the file has been successfully deleted.

After this fix, loading my game took a bit longer than usual. I only had one freeze for the next hour's worth of gameplay. There was visible slowdown at times, and I did notice that the delay of travelling between rooms was 30 seconds at first - but as the game progressed, this fell back to its usual 6-7 second pause from room to room. After a few game saves, it was back to normal.

Now I can't guarantee the above fix will work for everyone, but it worked for me...and I'm happy with the results.

Here's the thing, though: when I go to McDonalds, I expect the burger to be cooked. When I buy a video game, I expect it to not have glitches!

If you liked Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you will definitely like Fallout 3. I'm 51 hours into my game and LOVING it.

Fallout 3-This game is now released and is available for the Playstation 3, XBOX 360, and the PC. It is rated M for MATURE by the Electronic Safety Ratings Boards because of its intense and graphic nature of a world after a nuclear holocaust, it also contains explicit language, violence, gore, drug and alcohol references, and even sexual solicitation. (I am playing and reviewing this according to the playstation 3 version)

The plot: Even though the game has a big (3!!!) in the title, don't worry about trying to hunt down and playing the first two games for story continuity if you haven't played them. You won't need to ever worry about the plot from the first two games since almost every premise is the same and the stories are non-sequential. Nuclear holocaust is about to happen, government builds vaults, people go in vaults, nuclear bombs go off, 30-100 years later people come out of vaults to embrace the new world. Thus the title- "fallout".

For this game's story you start off in Vault 101, through an impressive character creation introduction which takes about an hour and a half to do, you follow the main characters growth and maturity and interaction with others while designing your character literally from birth by selecting which sex you will play, your race, skin tone, hair style, etc. Also during this "growing up phase" you will assign attributes to your character like strength, intelligence, agility, and other basic stats. Throughout you will learn bits and pieces about the history and social structure of Vault 101. You experience all of this in age phases of birth, year 1, 10th birthday, 16 years old, and then you begin the true game at the age of 19. I will not go into details spoiling the background but eventually you escape vault 101 and enter into the outer world, known as "Capital Wasteland" a world detailed to the exact sand dune, of Washington D.C. after being destroyed by a Nuclear War.

9.5/10-The idea of "post-apocalyptic survival" has been done before. Heck, it's the third game in the series. Nothing completely original, however while roaming through the game you will encounter a variety of situations where the old term comes into play "every character has a story." You will spend many portions of the gaming going around and talking to all the characters in order to delve further and further into the games main and sub plots which expand the game into an epic adventure which will take you quite a while to accomplish. Although the main story can be completed in roughly 12-15 hours, extra side quests/missions will keep the sub-plots going and going.

Graphics: From the opening "birth scene" to escaping the vault and witnessing the wasteland for the first time. This game is very, very pretty in its portrayal of a nuclear wasteland. Every thing from character models to gigantic radioactive ants, to nuclear craters and school buildings and shopping centers everything is detailed and modeled extremely well. The art team on this title did an excellent job filling in the texture and shading in all the different areas of the game. Although I have noticed a few times lag can occur during intense (and by intense I mean several NPC's running around all at once) fighting sequences. Also there are numerous encounters that can cause glitches. (As I mentioned I'm playing the ps3 version and have encountered quite a few bugs that can cause the game to literally just hang or stop completely) But overall when you walk around the Capital Wasteland it is every single post-apocalyptical movie background such as mad max, etc.
8/10-Who knew a wasteland could be so full? Although glitches can bog down the pleasure of the game

Sound: To me music is very important in any entertainment medium, especially video games. Not surprisingly the sound team for this game decided to take a very dull approach for the background music....well....because of the atmosphere. As you walk through the majority of the game, roaming from one area to another, there really isn't too much background music in the game. However when action sequences occur, the music will go into some sort of battle loop so there is a thumping track going round while you take down radiated zombies or RadRoaches. The music is pretty bland for the most part though, nothing really stands out.

On the flipside the sound FX, are quite amazing. From the sound of your boots hitting the desert to the squeeching and explosion of RadRoaches when you pop them with a sawed-off shotgun the sound effects are right on cue. Also every single NPC that you encounter has a voice actor and unlike Elder Scrolls: Oblivion there are more than 5! So almost every person you encounter has a different type of voice to them making the game that even more realistic.

8.5/10-Pretty bland soundtrack, but sound FX and good voice acting keeps it above average.

Game play: Fun. Fun. Fun. Unlike the first 2 fallouts which kind of had a general 3rd person RPG feel, this creation utilizes the same game engine that was used in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. You can utilize the full third person action view or the first person shooter style. You spend the majority of the game accomplishing "quests" in order to broaden the game's plot as well as your characters skills and items, etc. These quests can be as simple as "deliver this letter" to as complex as trying to figure out how to get through a city that is teeming with complex and hard enemies. Also running behind the games surface is a karma level. Depending on what you do and HOW you do it, you can get positive or negative karma points which will effect how other characters in the game react to you, what missions/quests you can do, as well as an overall structure of the games plot. In every dialogue sequence you are giving a choice of a positive line of answering or a negative one. Also on the majority of the quests you are giving either a positive or negative way to execute a mission such as "save the city by disarming the bomb" or "blow up the city." Both ways will continue the game and you are rewarded differently with how you accomplished your quest. This positive/negative karma line gives the gamer a major replay value so you can replay the game as the savior of the holocaust or the one making life even more of a living hell.

Also everything else you do in the game just adds more layers to the fun value. You can pick locks; sneak into houses, hack computer terminals, all of which are executed in great way.

Combat sequences can get frustratingly hard when you have to take care of yourself against 5-10 enemies at once, but everything can be adjusted with different weapon types and of course the old leveling.

10/10-----If guitar hero: world tour hadn't just come out I'd be playing this 100 percent of my time.

Average score: 9/10

This is a must buy, not a rental in anyway. Replay value is incredibly high. Although some lag-glitch issues can make the game not as much fun, the overall game makes up for it completely.

This is a game you pretty well have to buy. I rented it and was only able to scratch the surface of what you can really get out of it. You could probably put in 8 hours a day for a year to totally cover all of it. I played it for 5 days at about 8 hour sessions. This could possibly be the best game I have played. I just got through playing it and am still stunned. WOW! Very Impressive. I played it on the PS3. It had a glitch every now and then but I think it was due to the PS3 getting too hot. If you purchase any game this year, this surely would be on top of the list. This game by itself could justify forking out the bucks for a PS3 or a 360. I suppose it would be all right to play on your PC if you like that. I have a large screen TV, so for me it is a console. I'm gonna say it again....WOW!

It's hard to boil down into a normal sized review all the different aspects that make a game like Fallout 3 so successful. The fact that Bethesda has attempted to do SO many different things in a single massive game, and succeeded at pretty much everything they attempted, is a monumental feat. Fallout 3 feels like a watershed moment...one of those games that truly defines the PS3/Xbox 360 era of consoles, and a game that will continue to be talked about and referred back to for a long time to come.

Fallout 3 may look like an open world first person shooter at first glance, but this is a hardcore RPG down to the bone. You are given complete freedom to roam the vast Capital Wasteland, one of the most fully formed and brilliantly executed virtual worlds in all of gaming, and build your character into someone who reflects the style of play that works best for you? Enjoy stealth? Thieving? Blowing everything you see to high hell? Fallout lets you do pretty much anything you want, and rewards you by letting you grow your character how you see best fit. The game, in many ways, follows the traditions of the great RPGs that have come before. There are areas you won't be able to go to until you become stronger through gaining experience. Combat takes an old-school, almost turn-based feel, with the brilliant VATS targeting system, one of the greatest in-game innovations to be seen on consoles. But the freedom in this game is rivaled only by Bethesda's other magnum opus, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You can chase down the game's main plot, an emotional story that begins with a young person leaving the safety of a nuclear bomb shelter (known as a Vault) for the wild lands of a post-nuclear war Washington DC on the trail of his (or her) missing father, or you can set your own path and explore the world and create your own story. It's all up to you.

Fallout 3 really surprised me with the way it brilliantly combined sub-plots that touched on many issues that we as humans deal with in real life, with a clever morality system that not only affects the world around you, but really causes you to think about how you want to approach certain situations. Giving specific examples of this may lead to plot spoilers, so I will refrain from getting into too much detail. But I will say this....in my 90+ hours spent playing Fallout 3, I was called upon to reflect on my own personal views on such themes as bigotry, family, loyalty, the hard transition from childhood to adulthood, what it is that defines "human", and the existence of the divine. Fallout 3 almost has a literary sense of scale. This was the first time that playing a video game affected me the same way a good novel would. It was mentally and emotionally stimulating on top of being a lot of fun. For that alone, the game has instantly become one of my all time favorites, and one that I will surely never forget.

And amazingly, if you decide you want to forgo all that intellectual BS and just wreck havoc in the Wasteland, the game is free enough, and huge enough, that you can do just that! The weapons arsenal that you can accumulate is just awesome, and it's a treat seeing yourself become more and more deadly and efficient as the hours pass. Just as amazing and memorable to me as the game's moral aspect, were some of the battles I was in that pitted me completely against all odds and forced me to use strategy and rationing of resources in order to survive and overcome. Fallout 3 delivers the action in spades, and will be a real treat to those of you who have your gaming console hooked up to a good sound system.

A final characteristic of Fallout 3 that I feel that I have to mention is its wicked sense of humor. As this is an alternate future post-apocalyptic world, the writers drew heavily from the wells of satire to fuse the game's dialogue and various stories with rich irony and parallels to the real world. Combined with the subject matter I mentioned above and its tales of the best and the worst of humankind, the game provides lots of points for discussion and debate, and does so in a way that's funny, sad at times, and always very witty. This is a fun game to play at the same time with another gamer friend or relative, and then get together to talk about and compare your experiences in the Capital Wasteland. It's a testament to the amazing vision of the developers at Bethesda that two people playing this game can come out of it having had two completely different experiences.

For the first time writing a review for a game, I feel that even with what I've written, I'm still falling far short of touching on the absurdly huge amount of positive qualities that the game has. Fallout 3 is such an embarrassment of riches that it is really something that needs to be experienced before it can be talked about. For those of you who like lengthy RPGs with deep character development along with unique and meaningful stories, this is one that you really shouldn't pass up. It is a true high point in the evolution of video games, not only in its unparalleled freedom, but in its deep exploration of humanity. It is innovative, thought-provoking, and extremely immersive, addictive, and fun to play. Don't miss out your chance to exist in this world, a brilliant vision of a post-apocalyptic wasteland that feels eerily close to our own.

Yes, I was just as pissed as everyone else when we found out that the DLC was going to be XBOX/PC exclusive. That being said, there are a couple of reasons why I didn't factor that into my review:

1. Since that time, we have learned that all the DLC will be on the PS3, eventually, and
2. The game alone is well worth the cost, DLC or not.

I had heard all the great reviews about fallout 3, and even though I am more of a fan of FPS games I decided to give it a shot and bought a copy when I bought my PS3. Being a fan of FPS games, the gameplay style was quite new to me at the beginning, and although I found it a little boring setting up my character the fallout 3 world was amazing and the story was also very good. As soon as the action started I was hooked on this game. Like a lot of the reviews I have seen, when I first made it out of the vault I was kinda confused, not quite knowing what was going on, and not getting frustrated by trying to make my way around Megaton. Coupled with the fact that I was moving out of state, I probably stopped playing the game for a week or two, and then I got caught up playing COD:WAW. That being said, as soon as I started playing Fallout 3 again I got completely hooked. I probably played 60+ hours in a few weeks, and that was just playing solely the main quest. Yes, I spent all that time just playing the main quest. You know a game is worth the money when you spend more time with the single player than you do with the single player and multiplayer combined for a standard FPS like Modern Warfare. Of course, as soon as I built my character up to a level 20 and beat the game I just had to start over again. This game has ultimate playability. You'll want to get all the PS3 trophies. You'll want to play with good karma, then bad karma, then neutral karma. You'll want to live in Megaton and then blow up Megaton and live in Tenpenny Tower. You'll want to explore all the options of the main quest. You'll want to explore all of the side quests, those with trophies and even the little side quests that you come upon unexpectedly (or if you use a walkthrough just so you can do EVERYTHING this game has to offer). In the end, there are so many amazing things that you can do with this game that it will be well worth the price you pay for it, even if you have to wait longer to get the DLC. It really does say something about the game in general that people are so pissed that they have to wait for added content via DLC.

In addition to all said above, all the things you can do, what really makes this game is the story. The post-apocalyptic story is extremely well done and exciting. The gameplay, the wide open worlds, the exploration, and the graphics all make for an extremely pleasurable gaming experience. And this is all coming from someone who generally sticks to FPS games only. I would recommend this game in a heartbeat to anyone, and I think it is a "must-have" for any console gaming collection, no matter what system you are on.

Sorry to disagree with anonymous on this one, but I was so relieved to find out that this doesn't have the oblivion feel to it. I was extremely skeptical when purchasing this game because I loved the first two Fallouts so much and I was sure that this one wouldn't do them justice. Thank God! I was wrong. It does have some similarities with Oblivion, but overall Fallout 3 is it's own unique game with deep running roots in the Fallout Universe. The original post apocalyptic feel that defined the first two Interplay titles is just as strong in this one.

Before you know it you'll be completely immersed in this game with all the choices you can make and locations and people you can visit. It's unbelievable. This is one of those rare games that you find yourself thinking about and planning adventures when you're not playing it! The choices you can make are way more advanced philosophically than with any other game I've seen. Interacting with NPCs is actually made enjoyable with this game. You're comfortable making choices that you feel are right, and not what you think the game wants you to pick. It's more than just picking a quest out of a the quest cookie cutters like most games. I have played this game for quite a while and I could start over from scratch right now and play a completely different game altogether! The depth of EVERYTHING in this game is unreal! It quickly became my favorite ps3 title within a matter of an hour!

The graphics and gameplay on this game is another amazing feature. I've heard some say the graphics aren't that great, but I would have to disagree. Sure it's pretty drab, but it's a very detailed, post apocalyptic drab that is absolutely beautiful. Character movement however is not done all that great. It actually does remind me of Oblivion, but this is very forgivable in the grand scheme of things. Combat is a lot of fun also. Fighting is way more enjoyable than with Oblivion. There are many choices here on how you can destroy your enemy. The combat isn't as advanced as Bioshock, but it's still great in it's own completely different RPG influenced way.

I'll be playing this one for a long time. Unfortunately there are many other great games either out already or soon to be released. I need more hours to the day. Damn jobs. Can't live with em, can't live without them. The Fallout Trilogy is imo the greatest franchise out there to date. Final Fantasy with radiation. If you love RPGs then you should buy this one ASAP. If you're a first person shooter junkie you should know that this game is VERY involved and deep. It's nothing like a true FPS. You really can't pick this one up and play for a few minutes here and there. The story sucks you in and produces the "video game time machine effect" where hours seem like minutes.

On one last note, there have been many complaints on the game freezing up on people. I really think this has to do with your firmware and your hardware. I have a 40GB PS3 with the latest and greatest firmware and I have never had a problem with any game freezing up including Fallout 3. I suspect the newer 80GB may be more prone to this, but that's just speculation. Either way, I'm sure these problems will get ironed out with updates in the future if we all complain enough. Pick this game up and be prepared to enter the Fallout Universe for the first, second, or third time. This is my third experience with Fallout and I have to say that it keeps getting better every time! Pick this up. You won't be disappointed. I would also like to say that I would like to rate this game six stars, or subtract one star from every other game I've ever played on the PS3. Seriously.