Your Post-Apocalyptic Wonderland

Well, we all know there's nothing like a stroll through one Washington D.C., checking out all the historic monuments and museums, but then again, there's REALLY nothing like taking a stroll through what's left of it in Fallout 3. Sure, there's still the historic landmarks and monuments, but they're either missing half of the structure, or it's turned into a fortified base for either Super Mutants or Raiders.

Lately I've found myself hooked on this game, probably for numerous reasons. One of them being it's probably the first 3D RPG I've played, or the first I've played in a while. Last one I remember playing was Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age on the Game Boy Advance. But then, it could be because it's a mix of a multitude of genres. It's a shooter, RPG, FPS, or third-person shooter, even bringing back the roots of Oblivion and bringing in Melee attacks.

Or, because it's just so damn fun­. watching your character blow another guy's head off in slow-mo has never been so much fun to watch, untill Fallout 3, where, sure you can still have fun shooting stuff real-time, but then you can just pause the fight with V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), and targets an enemy, even specific parts like his head or arm, and watch your character deal some real damage, in a cinematic-style sequence.

Though another thing that appeals to me with the game is the interesting mix of the retro-futuristic style. Sure, you get laser rifles, and there's advanced robots going around, but one look at the old, ripped-up posters, the objects around the place, gives a sense of being in the 50's-60's, especially turning on your radio and being greeted with 50's era oldies music. Of course, turning on your radio takes away the whole corrupt, wasteland-ish appeal and brings in an amusing, fun feeling to your gameplay, even while in battle.

This setting, I gotta say, reminds me a LOT of Bioshock, how even though you get plasmids that let you conjure fire with the snap of your fingers, release a bolt of lightning from your hand, and let forth a swarm of killer bees hatched from the veins of your arms (making you sort of like a freakin' stem cell Harry Potter), the game kept a great emphasis on its early-60's era setting. Of course, these games differ in multiple aspects, but there's a few things between them that you could find that relate between the two.

The game's also got its fair share of enemies, ranging from Raiders, who are sort of like unregretting wasteland scavengers, Super Mutants, which are huge, yellow-green irate and also barbarian-ish guys, some defect robots, some mutated animals, like giant scorpions, mole rats, cockroaches, and bears who seem to be twice as aggresive, and missing half its fur. Another enemy that's interesting is the Feral Ghouls, which are just mutated, crazed humans who look like corpses, but it's not them that's interesting, it's the normal Ghouls. Basically, these are humans whose appearance and cell structure were changed from the radiation, but still retain their minds and sanity. I mean, sure they look like crap, looking like a live, talking zombie, but they're nice folk, such as long as you don't get on their bad side.

If you're a fan of RPG's, shooters, or at least a fan of Oblivion, I'd suggest picking up this game. It's worth more than the 60$ it's priced for. (70$ for the special edition version, which is what I got.)


Oh, and even though I got the PC version, I'm still getting the achievements for my Xbox Live account that I'd normally get if I got the 360 version instead, thanks to Game For Windows Live, which is basically Xbox Live on your PC. So far I've only seen this feature on a few games, like the Halo PC-version games, Lost Planet, Fallout 3, and Gears of War