Another Masterpiece of the RPG Genre from Bethesda Softworks. This game is pure magic all the way. Deeply engrossing!

User Rating: 10 | Fallout 3 X360
Normally I wait a bit to review a game. No matter I can always ammend my review as I move through the game. These are really what amount to my first impressions. To say that this game is brilliant is a gross understatement. Did I say it was magical? Yes it is pure magic. What Bethesda has done both with 'Oblivion' and now 'Fallout 3' is to create an entirely new genre of entertainment. It is like a game...but something more than that. It is like a book..but again something more than that...it is like a movie...but even more than that because you are the central character and you determine, to a large extent, the outcome of the show. It is a game that both challenges and excites the mind while providing plenty of heart pounding excitement. It requires both thought, guile, cleverness, strength and intelligence. The Wasteland is fraught with hidden dangers, surprising quests and great challenges. The characters that you will meet are memorable and the voice acting is superb. This is not a first person shooter which is a mistake that some reviewers have made who have, therefore, rated it poorly. In this game you will not be able to hit the ground running and blasting because the story begins with a clever set up sequence to define your character and his or her traits and fundamental abilities. This is sequence is nothing short of brilliant I might add. Fallout 3 is an RPG game which does not stand for Rocket Propelled Grenade it stands for Role Playing Game. You become a character in the game and that is the fun of it. Let me also make another point that many have missed. The graphics in this game are also brilliant as well and not because they are photo realistic...they are not. The graphic rendition is meant to create a certain atmosphere in conjunction with both the sound track and the story. It succeeds brilliantly. The Graphical presentation creates a truly magical world that convey's the impression of a post apocolyptic wasteland without photo realism. It is not clear to me what a photo realistic rendition would accomplish when it is the story and the questing that are paramount. The graphic's in this game are surreal and that is what the designers inteded. I have only scratched the surface but am really beginning to sense the depth and richness of this game.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE GRAPHIC APPROACH:

I suspect that the graphic presentation was meant to be the way that it is. The game developers did not want to rely on photo realism say...as in....COD 4. They may have concluded that so called 'eye popping' graphics would have detracted from the overall effect that they were trying to achieve and I agree with them. I believe that the development team wanted to create a surreal environment that had a distinct if not somewhat unusual character...and it does work. What is amazing is that from the at times almost cartoonish graphics these amazing graphical moments arise that are subtle yet convey an amazingly desolate, intensly post apocalyptic world that has a certain visceral feeling of horror to it. When coupled with the howl of this windswept wasteland this combination creates a real eerie feeling. For exaple At times you get these sweeping vistas of the wasteland that seem amazingly, if not beautifully rendered.. or, for example, a scene emerges from a momentary lighting effect as dusk rolls in that are just plain stunning with a real feeling of the aftermath of a nuclear holocost. This is one of the ironies of the game that by utilizing a kind of subtle impressionism that is simplistic while able to create this complex post apocalypic aura. Bethesda could have gone with photo realistic settings but I am glad that they did not. Also the somewhat cartoonish character of the enemy models belies the brutality of the combat giving it a very surreal flavor. I love it.