4 Hour Review: Fallout 3

Against my better time management judgement, I bought Fallout 3 and, sadly, it's a keeper.

There's work to do in the basement. There's painting to be done in the nursery. Vacations are coming for the holidays. Christmas is only two months away. But here I am, ankle deep into Fallout 3, knowing full well that this is the role playing action shooting game I was hoping Mass Effect was last year.

What I've actually come to realize is that I enjoy spending time between areas, sometimes rooms even, manipulating inventory, applying experience points, fixing weapons, applying medicine, and all the other busy work that's involved in roleplaying games. I feel like I have more control over my character, when in other games, I'm more worried about controlling how the game ends.

Having started the game by escaping your home of a fallout shelter for 20 years, looking for your Dad, you immediately get the feeling that finding your father isn't the only thing your going to run into. And I think that's what I'm liking most about the game so far. Your not feed the game ending objective right from the start like 95% of other games. It's open for you to figure out on your own by talking to characters, doing missions for people, and making game altering decisions about your character.

Fallout's setting, post-nuclear Washington D.C., is unlike any game I've ever played. Gears of War had a war time, massive destruction type of feel to it, but Fallout's distraught landscapes have you feeling desperate to find your father, or whatever your current mission is, especially when you can see for miles and not see any refuge. The city is dirty and broken. You constantly wonder if the next life sign you run across will be friendly or not. You want to keep moving. You want to listen to what characters have to tell you.

I easily find myself getting sidetracked sucked into any building that has a door to see what's inside. I tried exploring a picked-clean grocery store, but the rebels inside had other ideas (and bigger guns). Buildings and subways that you can enter each feel like separate challenges. Some have new groups of people to talk to. Some just have giant fire breathing ants.

My complaints about the game so far are technical. Save points are non-existent in big areas. If you forget to save the game yourself, you'll be starting over sometimes 30 minutes back with none of the items you collected, dialogue you previously heard or experience points you had assigned. Also, the targeting system is slightly broken: when I can clearly aim at someone from behind cover, most of the time I shoot the cover instead. Luckily, moving out of cover isn't as detrimental is it sounds because enemies can shoot through cover that you wouldn't think they could.

So with game reviewers talking about spending 30 and 40 hours playing the game, I have a feeling this games going to be in and out of the 360 for a couple months. I can tell I'll be looking forward to the baby sleeping a lot more than for just my own peace and quite. I'm going to want to play this.