Fallout 3 Hands-On - Diary of a Wasteland Survivor
By
Shaun McInnis, Editor
The postapocalyptic remains of Washington DC are no place for elaborate journal-keeping, but we do it anyway.
Dear Diary,
Somewhere between being attacked by giant rats and making awkward small talk with a trio of passive-aggressive radiation zombies, I began to regret my decision to leave the vault the other day. After all, that cooped-up atomic-bomb shelter was the only home I'd ever known. But when my father mysteriously went missing, I knew I had to put my life of watching I Love Lucy reruns and eating canned beans on hold for a while.
That said, it wasn't an easy decision. I stood in front of the vault door's control pod for what seemed like forever, debating whether or not to flip the switch. When I finally did, I never could have expected the view awaiting me from the outside. Once my eyes adjusted to the burning light, I saw a desolate, burned-out wasteland: to the right, the collapsed remains of a freeway overpass, and to the left, the battered shell of the Washington Monument. Everything in-between appeared to be little more than scattered rubble and charred trees.
I cautiously stepped down from the cliff that I emerged from and began to look for some remnants of a road. I needed to find a path I could follow to a town, city, or any semblance of civilization. Soon enough, I found a small village called Springvale, but the only "life" nearby was a floating robot that I later learned was an Enclave Eyebot. It seemed to be some sort of radio broadcasting a heartwarming story about what life was like when we had professional baseball teams to root for. Being more of a foosball man myself, I walked right on by.
Off in the distance I noticed a school, so I decided to investigate what might be inside. Turns out it was just a whole lot of dead raiders. All right, all right, so they were alive when I first came in, but they were shooting at me! I had to defend myself! Even with my disdain for baseball, I swing a pretty good bat (at least when cornered by an angry raider). But once I took care of the threat, there wasn't much worth exploring inside.
I left the school and wandered around until I came to a great big river. I noticed a fairly large city past the opposite bank, so I decided to swim across. Not a good idea. I should have suspected something odd was afoot when I first noticed the river's greenish hue, but life in the vault seems to have sheltered me from the dangers of radiation. I tried to make it across, but when the sound of a Geiger counter in my ears and the slight trembling in my limbs became too much to handle, I swam back ashore and took the long way around.
The city on the other side turned out to be the ruins of Bethesda, Maryland. Although I'd never been there before, something about the name sounded oddly familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. I spent a good long time trying to figure out where I remembered that name from. My mind was so occupied that I didn't even notice when I strolled right into a camp of vicious raiders. Mind you, these raiders were much tougher than the ones back in the school. (Something about hanging out in the streets rather than the art room will do that to you.) They gave me a pretty good beatdown. I managed to take care of them, but not before I exhausted my entire supply of stimpaks, those friendly little needles that restore my health when I'm feeling a bit down. By the time I took them all out, I had developed a pretty savage headache. I couldn't walk more than 10 meters without suffering a severe fit of wooziness. Nervous, I had a look at my condition on my little wrist-mounted Pip-Boy 3000 computer. Yep, just as I thought: I had a crippled head. No amount of mildly irradiated-but-health-restoring rat meat would help me now. I had to find myself a stimpak and inject it directly into my head.
I stumbled my way across the barren nighttime landscape, and just as the sun began to rise, I found a walled-off city called Megaton. The friendly robot patrolling the door could tell I was in a bad way (I think my busted and throbbing face tipped him off), so he let me in right away. Immediately inside, I was greeted by a rough-and-tumble-looking fellow in a cowboy hat. He introduced himself as Lucas Simms, Megaton sheriff and sometimes mayor (but only when the need for civility arises). I chatted him up for a bit, asking about the giant atomic bomb sitting smack-dab in the middle of the city as some sort of twisted town-square statue. Even among the makeshift scrap metal and airplane-fuselage houses, that thing stood out like a sore thumb.
By
Shaun McInnis, Editor
Shaun McInnis has always dreamed of an a open-world driving RPG based on Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Outside of video games, he enjoys photography and learning impractical coffee brewing techniques.
440 comments
the graphic is awesome, but the gameplay is suck.. V.A.T.S is NOT a TurnBased system.. i've played fallout since d 1st one (then 2 and ft-bos) so i think, bethesda ruined d gameplay.. but i recomended this game for those who loves 1stPersonShooter..
no game is a 10, but there are a few 9.5's, fable 2, and others being up there. im sure this game is a 9.5, im getting it today.
a Creative game wich i love sadly Gamespot didnt see it that way but to me Its Awesome!!! :)
i read the ps3 version has far inferior graphics to the 360 version..so much worse that some reviews have given the ps3 version a lower score than the 360 version..thank god i am a 360 owner :-)
This game... I have nothing to say... Bethesda guys really are creative. And the level design of this game is just wonderful. Its good to know that creative developers still exist in this commercial world...
i havent been this excited since i LOST my virginity... whats wrong with you alltapdout? lol
Was not a fan of oblivion at all but loved two towers. this game looks so amazing though im goin to ignore my htred for oblivion and totally buy this
Yup First review of Fallout 3 is a 10er,either way if you really wanted this game you would get it despite the reviews it gets. Although, a 10 already seems like it will raise a few eyes. Although it's too early to bout our horns but, I knew Bethesda wouldn't fail to deliver another great game. And, since when is 9.5 a bad review, Fable 2 will be awesome.
Bethesdais so confident this game is great, they are giving free trial of the game for xbox dowloadable by torrents!!! If it is good i am sure going to buy it!
I don't know what to think about Fallout 3 but the more i read about it the more I wanna try it. I absolutely loved The Elder scrolls series and Bethesda as a whole. I think I'll give this one a try once the price goes down a little bit.
Game is a mess, animation as bad as oblivion, same creepy voice acting. I do not condone pirac..y, but you can test the game for free before buying through you usual download client already. And thus see by yourself, it should get a 6.. maximum! I sincerely hope you rot in the bankrupcy hell bethesda, for trying to kill this beautiful franchise. Wanted more bucks by aiming at the aiming at the big marketing target, then guess what, you hit nothing!
I started playing Fallout 3 last night as I got a copy of it. It was my first attempt at the series and this type of game. I thought it was very inventive and had some pretty cool effects. The world is massive with plenty of places to go! Hope to keep this one around for a while :)
I just recently started playing Oblivion and GEEEEZ that game is wicked!! I'm not really into knights and trolls and whatnot, but this game was so highly recommended that I decided to try it and its probably the best game I've ever played (besides MGS4)!! Anyway, I am really into postapocolyptic and futuristic drama. So that mixed with oblivion game play has undoubtably got to be my most favorite game in the whole wide world guaranteed!!!! This game is gonna be the best!!!!!!!!!
Loving bethesda since the first TES was released, it looks familiar to me playing this kinda games , it smells like enhanced oblivion technology with fallout story , thats the reason why im so buying this game!!!! Bethesda keep up doing the good work!
I have waited 10 years, 10 years and finally it is alomst here. I can smell the DVD,I can smell the cover, I can pictures of the game. On the 31 of October 2008, after so long the legendary game is coming home.THANK YOU BETHESDA. THANK YOU!!!!
Game looks very nice i really hope game play delivers but i really hope bethseda goes back to the elder scrolls
And to expand on that the 50s feel doesn't really come too much into the game apart from in a few bits n pieces. The majority of it occured during the opening sequences to set the scene. I'm wondering if they will keep elements of the pop culture references and hidden 'easter eggs' that the originals had.
@raahsnavj: The 1950's was during the cold war when people lived with the fear of a nuclear holocaust everyday. This is set in that time "vibe" to sort of give you the feeling of how it would be if they where right at the time. It's half irony and half humor why they chose that era to replicate. For futher reason why the 1950's vibe is a good thing play fallout 1 and 2. they are relativly cheap (or easy to find on torrents) and are fantastic rpg's. Or if your as lazy as the other half of humanity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(video_game) should be enough for you.
Thanks TrueProphecy22. I always assumed the future world, but couldn't figure out how we went from current day back to the 1950's. This game just assumes that from 1950 on it took a different turn... I unfortunately didn't care for the 1950's though, so the vibe still doesn't work for me.
this is gonna be a pretty good game no matter what anyone says. ill decide if its gonna be great when i play it.
"I'm yet to understand why this game gets a 1950's vibe though the bombs didn't fly until 2077..." It's set in an alternate future where the golden age of the 1950's lasted. The future imagined during that era came to be. This article was great. I think you very well might have sold me on Fallout 3 over Fable 2.
I don't think I can play this game at my house probably at the hospital.I am working 3 jobs and looking for the fourth to get Fallout 3,Farcry 2,The new witcher,STALKER Clear Sky,Crysis Warhead,Red Alert 3.All those hard earn cash are going to kiss my little pocket goodbye before Christmas.
I'm yet to understand why this game gets a 1950's vibe though the bombs didn't fly until 2077...
Hey, great, what a nice comment there, please, when posting just try to make it more that, ya, this game will suck and i don't know why, or pff the star wars series were better then this game. You don't even explain why these games are, by your opinion, going to be better, why they differ or anything else. Once again, seems like keyboards don't need a brain to work...
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Review Scores
| Platform | GameSpot | Metacritic / User Score |
|---|---|---|
Game Info
- Release Date: Oct 28, 2008 (US)
- ESRB: MTitles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older.
Fallout 3
- Publisher(s): Bethesda Softworks
- Developer(s): Bethesda Game Studios
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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