Fallout 3 - Initial Impressions

I know, I know. No Dr. Horrible again this week, but it's only because I am preparing a nice big post with lots of pictures and the good news is the Freeze Ray is about 90% done. Also, sorry for not posting on Friday as the norm has been, but time etc. wouldn't allow for it. Anyway, on to the review...

OK, Fallout 3 is the shit! I've only just escaped the vault as I couldn't play super long last night, but for basically having played through an hour long tutorial, it was a really fun and new gaming experience.
Fallout 3 has a really different way of setting a character up from scratch. I won't spoil it but its pretty funny how you start off. In your time spent in the vault you will receive your Pip-Boy 3000, a surprisingly helpful all-in-one tool that you will use the rest of the game and will take the G.O.A.T., a kind of standarized test that comically gets you to assign your stats based on your answers to the strangest test questions I've ever seen. Besides that, they also basically give you all this back info for the story in a creative way that's tangled in with setting up your character over time, and it immerses you instead of just, create random toon then go spam V.A.T.S..

Speaking of which, the V.A.T.S. system is pretty awesome. After your father mysteriously escapes the vault, your best friend wakes you up and suggests you do the same immediately because all hell has broken loose. She hands over a pistol but asks you not to use it unless absolutely necessary as to avoid more carnage. I am doing good with my first character, so I opted to tote my Louisville slugger instead. I've had plenty of fun thus far just sneaking corners and whamming the crap out of Radroaches and Security Guards.

But once I got outside, out the pistol came and that's instantly fun too. I am already sold and haven't begun to scratch the surface. The first thing you do after coming out of the vault is wander to this dented burned out little sign that says, Scenic Overlook and you get this epic sprawling view of an obliterated Washington D.C. with the Washington monument all torn up way off in the distance. And when you let it sink in that you can walk all the way to it, you're like holy crap this is gonna be HUGE.

The few characters I have met and interacted with so far, mostly your father and a few friends/people you grew up with were pretty good. They show early signs of how the Karma system will come in to play, and are very impressively voiced. At one point it's your tenth birthday party and as you wander around the room receiving the well wishes of your guests, a robot companion goes to cut your cake but uses a buzz saw and ends up sending the cake everywhere and utterly destroying it. So the game definitely comes with a great sense of humor as well.

All in all, it looks like it's shaping up to be pretty great so far. I can't wait to play more and dig further into all the tons of things you can do. With a wide open destroyed world to explore and a similar interaction system to games like Half Life 2, or Bethesda's previous Elder Scrolls titles, Fallout 3 is definitely my pick so far for best game of the Fall.