Betheseda brings us Fallout 3 this Christmas and honestly I don't care at all. I never played any of the Fallout series and I don't really care about Betheseda either. Justin is totally hyped for the game though, so I wanted to see if there was more to this game that I was missing.
Fallout 3 had a huge presence at PAX this year. From the completely filled up live demo, to the huge crowds piled around the kiosk in the exhibition hall. So, It was rather easy to see it for myself. Though, I didn't actually play the game, I think I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from it now.
Betheseda's goal was to bring the Oblivion like experience to the Fallout series. But I don't think anyone knew how literal they were being. The game IS Oblivion, except with a Mad Max skin over the top, and a 1950s like theme fitting in with the old games.
Fallout 3 feels like a hand-me-down. "Well Oblivion did really well. Let's just polish up the engine and buy a franchise to put on top of it." It's almost comical that Fallout 3 begins in roughly the same way Oblivion did. In Oblivion, you break out of prison and get blown away by the massive lush world outside, a stark difference of environment. In Fallout, you braek out of your nuke vault and get blown away by the massive scared dirt work outside. Then you kill some rats.
Though, I did have some fun with Oblivion for the first couple of hours. But the experience ultimately failed from the thin string of a story and boring useless quests that I couldn't care less about.
Fallout has the neat zooming targeting system, but you're still just grinding for some level or some quest. It's probably a game I could get into, but I don't really want to. It's another title for my gamefly list.
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It should be noted that Fallout 3 will be available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. I'm not sure when it comes out because I don't really care. Probably October.