Fallout 3 Musings

As you can see from my reviews, I have now played through Fallout 3 and the five DLC add-on packs. I've invested over 100 hours in the series since the game's release in October 2008 and I'd happily play through most of it again - if only to experience the game as an absolute deviant with a negative karma score. I can't help but go for the moral choice every time - I can only conclude that I've been conditioned during my years of gaming to try to act 'heroic'. Something will have to be done...

If you've played the game it's likely you'll agree its numerous accolades and 'game of 2008' awards are deserved. However, it may be the case that you didn't enjoy the game for a number of reasons. I can understand people accusing F3 of being repetitive and having a poor ending, but these issues were essentially addressed in the DLC, and if you didn't enjoy the sheer variation offered in Point Lookout- you've missed the point of everything. Of course, a game this revered was bound to have its detractors and some gamers, although entitled to their opinions, have made some poor criticisms of the game.

Less brains than a head-shot feral ghoul

Some early reviews of the game essentially called it unrealistic. Calling a game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by supermutants, ghouls and robots unrealistic, is like remarking that the sun is bright as your retinas hideously melt inside your eye-sockets. Of course it's unrealistic - it's a game. If Bethesda had created a genuine post-apocalypse simulator it would probably play like this:

Day 1: Writhe around in agony due to massive radiation poisoning.

Day 2: Try to find anti-radiation medication but it doesn't exist.

Day 3: Expire in a pool of bloody vomit and clumps of hair. Ron Perlman says something about a 'pathetic, decaying mass of blubber'.

Not enjoyable unless you're an utter mentalist or someone who enjoys playing Flight Simulator (essentially one and the same). Anyway, these supposed fans, who probably never got over the shelving of Van Buren, have said that F3 is unrealistic because there's too much un-looted ammo and supplies lying around. The fact is, these people are able to suspend their disbelief over the wider content of the game but they then spout ridiculous claims like faecal matter from an overflowing sewer. The original games also had un-looted supplies available, maybe not in abundance, but it's a necessary device. Some have asserted that, 'there wouldn't be any ammo left there', yet they don't have a clue about such things - they aren't in an irradiated wasteland dystopia. Why didn't they pick on the fact that it's unrealistic that people don't die when you shoot them in the face with a combat shotgun? How about the fact that you never have to vomit or defecate behind some rocks? It's all pointless nitpicking. If one wants concessions to be made in the name of supposed realism, the whole game would have to be altered. If, as a gamer, you believe in the universe of Fallout in the first place, any subsequent criticisms about unrealism are preposterous - even if it's only a small detail about ammo. Fallout 3 is a gaming benchmark - maybe these gamers should focus on that fact instead of trying to pick holes in it. They may as well throw rotten eggs at an oncoming bulldozer.

The future is not bleak

There is a small possibility there will be further DLC released for the game but it's highly likely Bethesda is already in the process of planning Fallout 4. The potential of F4 is extraordinary to say the least. Bethesda will be building on a modern classic that's already thoroughly established in the gaming psyche. If the sequel can do what Gears of War II did for Gears of War (bigger, better, more beautiful) then that would be ideal to say the least. I'd personally like to see either a larger map or several varied maps that you're able to travel through, maybe with Half-Life 2-esque rickety vehicles if not a besieged fuel-carrying juggernaught (helloooo? Post-apocalyptic fiction geek-boy in-joke here!). Entirely new races of creatures would be welcome alongside the classics, and a few boss-like enemies wouldn't go amiss either (behemoth deathclaw anyone?). If only I had a time machine.

Luckily, fans won't have to wait too long for their next fix, though, as Fallout: New Vegas is well underway, with a release schedule for 2010. The game, developed by Obsidian Entertainment (ex Black Isle), will exist in the Fallout universe, but it won't be a sequel to F3. Details are very scarce but it will be set around whatever has become of Las Vegas, and it will be of a similar FPS RPG style to F3. So far, it sounds like a sure bet...