Fallout 3 (Collector's Edition) (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

Graphics: Breathtaking 9/10
Sound: Great – 8.5/10
Gameplay: Spectacular – 9.5/10
Replay Value – High (for a single player only game) 9/10
Overall – Near Perfect 9.5/10

Please note: I have never played any prior Fallout Titles, and this is from a n00b prospective.

Graphics: Breathtaking 9/10
The graphics are make you look twice – When you first exit the vault and see the landscape, you think to yourself “what next”? The graphic interface, use of PiP Boy and the movements really show that Bethesda took the time and care to make this well worth your hard earned money.

Sound: Great – 8.5/10
The sounds, music, effects, and voices take you immediately into the game. The time specific music, the radio channels, and the voice acting are all A+. The reason for the slightly lower mark is the repetitiveness of the radio, some of the sound effects, but overall, a lot of time, and thought, went into putting in effective music, voice acting and emphasis, and surrounding wasteland. The best, yet simplistic feeling is when you first turn on this gam for the first time, and all you hear is the old 50’s radio sparking on with the tube. Well done.

Gameplay: Spectacular – 9.5/10
Smooth animations, huge world design, and interactive and smart A.I. This game can be streamlined to do the main quest, or you can help the citizens of wasteland in their personal affairs. The single player game takes a lot of chances, but succeeds, in making the player make hard choices and customizing the game to their own path. Some find out too late that it is important to make hard choices to choose which attributes to build up. This aspect alone warrants multiple play times.

Some critics and players are commenting on the ending (no spoiler), but I must say that for the amount of customization a person can have in this game, it goes right along with the story.

Replay Value – High (for a single player only game) 9/10
Even without multiplayer, this game has replay value with the limitless ways you can play as – via good, bad, neutral, thief, etc. This did not feel like an RPG to me, and was well done to the point that I am on my second playthrough.

Overall – Near Perfect 9.5/10
I am not a fan of RPG’s, nor long drawn out games over 30+ hours, but I was swept away in this post apocalyptic wasteland. This holiday season is rough with the shear amount of great games, and this is definitely in the Top 5 for contention of game of the year.

This would normally be a game I would run from, but I rented it, and then bought it. It is so engrossing that others will want to watch you play and help you make those hard choices.

The game is not perfect, but close to. The story flows, as with the action, and it makes you feel as if you were there with your character trying to survive.

It has elements taken from genres such as RPG, puzzlers, action-adventures, but is not pigeonholed into this experience and to say it is an RPG is gives too little credit. This is an experience that should be played by any hardcore gamer.

The art book and dvd are interesting, but the bobble head is cool and the lunchbox is awesome.

As for the game, its a pretty good game. You are a young boy or girl growing up in a vault with your dad because the world outside is hostile from the bombs that destroyed it. But long story short your dad leaves the vault(which is forbidden by the way) so you go after him and discover a huge world outside with something like 100 places to find and many more people to meet.

The game has a lot of fun things to do like all the weapons and clothes you can find and make. Plus the VATS system lets you slow down time and target individual parts on an enemy to attack. One other thing is the ability to chose the path you take, their are all kinds of choices to make that arch the story which gives you the chance to play it more then once. Lastly is just how cool it is to explore a ruined washington d.c. and all of its monuments.

But there are some things that i didn't like about the game. One being that even though you can do things different in some places, playing the game more then once will still have you doing a lot of the same things over. Then theirs the huge open world which is great and all but then you spend a lot of time running around in the desert with not much to see, plus your character doesn't so much as run as he does skip slowly. I feel like the whole thing is a little clunky and lastly they say it has a third person view but it is the worst I have ever seen but luckily the first person works better anyway

Overall I'd say its a really good game that is worth playing just maybe not for 60 bucks. But I really did enjoy it and probably wont get rid of it because it is worth picking up and playing from time to time.

When all things are equal, I prefer the quiet reliability of the PS3, and much more so the PS3 controllers far better analog trigger feel and response. Unfortunately, all things are NOT equal with the 360 and PS3 version of Fallout 3.

The publisher, Bethesda, took two different approaches in rewriting Fallout 3 PC code for the 360 and PS3; the 360 version is capable of 1080P,- but actually sacrificed some fine detail of characters hair and faces, as well as some terrain and objects,- in order to maintain a constant playable framerate,- ...while the PS3 has 720P max resolution,- but in fact has retained much more of the fine detail in characters, terrain and objects,- being as near to the PC version as possible (virtually a direct port),- which would be a good thing if it could have retained the detail without sacrificing framerate down to as low as 15 fps in some instances.

In addition to the framerate issue, rather than permit antialiasing to drop in and out and frame sync to turn on and off (both of which the 360 does to maintain framerate, resulting in the occassional crawling image outline and minor tearing at top/bottom of screen frame),- the PS3 turns off antialiasing altogether, and maintains frame sync no matter how much framerate slows, resulting in a stuttering slideshow affect at the worst possible times of outdoor intense action.

The occasional aliasing lines can be distracting with the 360,- but are impossible to ignore with the PS3, when a character is talking to you.. and the edge of their suit appears to be a constant movement of a trail of ants! In an RPG, where immersion into characters and environment is so important,- this is unforgiveable.

As I have both game systems and game versions, I will be playing the 360 version, which also has some exclusive downloadable expansions coming available as an added incentive. Both PS3 and 360 have some retail expansion sequals coming,- and I would certainly not miss this game if you only have the PS3 game system.
(If you have a serious gaming PC, you could also play the PC version and if you prefer the tactile feel and feedback of a controller, you can use the 360 controller to PC USB adapter and spend the time required to properly adjust sensitivity before playing).

Other notes: The PS3 version is clearer, brighter and has higher detail, regardless of being limited to 720P,- and if one can ignore the distraction of aliasing lines on object outines, and the few times that framerate becomes noticeable,- then the PS3 may be preferable for brightness and detail,- not to forget that the PS3 version did a FAR better job of fine tuning the controller smoothness and accuracy compared to the 360 version. The brightness, controller sensitivity, etc, can be adjusted for the 360, but it still appears darker and less detailed,- and if I wanted to spend an hour adjusting controller sensitivity to make it playable, I would play the game on PC. (I may play both 360 and PS3 as completely different characters and write reviews based on those unique experiences and issues encountered throughout the game on both game systems).

I love this series and will no doubt be playing through it again and again while I admire the lunchbox, bobble head, and the great extra content of the collector's edition as a souvenir of my adventures.

This game is one of my new found favorite games on the PS3, maybe even of all time. With literally hundreds of hours of replay value not including the downloadable content.

With over 250 hours clocked into this game bugs really begin to become noticeable. The game will crash and lag and glitch unexpectedly. However, there is a simple solution to this problem, start a new character, preferably with a different mind set(of good, neutral or evil). This way one would ensure an entirely different ending and set of side quests. There is literally so much to see and do that if you are a completionist who must check every corner and find everything (like me), then you'll spend up to an hour in each new location, and there are a lot of places to go in the game(over 200).

The atmosphere is very chilling and realistic and the soundtrack fits this post-apocalyptic themed world quite well. Also the creatures and mutations along with the gangs you encounter throughout the game will have you running for the hills, or fighting back with an arsenal of pistols, rifles, assault rifles, smgs, laser rifles, and fatmans(mini-nuke launchers).

If you are a fan of RPGs and haven't played a good one in a long time I highly recommend Fallout 3 on any system for its fluid gameplay, extensive dialogue trees, decent graphics(for such a large game), story line, characters and good variety in side-quests that make this game everything that it is. Awesome.

Introduction – Fallout 3 is an open world RPG set in 2277 and the U.S. has become a barren wasteland because of a nuclear war that happened 200 years earlier.

Gameplay – The game is very fun to play, you will be glued to your T.V. for hours trying to find out what happens next or to just get that next level. I find the difficulty settings very well done, the game is already pretty challenging on the default normal mode. If you still find it too hard, the game's easy and very easy modes let gamers that are having trouble in this game have a little more fun. The controls are smooth and the buttons can be remapped if need be.

Story – The story is very well done and there are some exciting and emotional sequences. The beginning of the story is that you are a resident of Vault 101, where no one ever enters and no one ever leaves. As you grow up you set your stats, skills, and do some tutorials. Then one day your Dad escapes from the vault and leaves you with no information on why he left or where he went to. So this provokes you to also escape the vault to try and find your Dad and find out why he left the Vault without even one word to you or to anyone else.

Graphics/Sound – The graphics in this game are amazing. They really set the feel of a nuclear apocalypse. The draw distance can sometimes be a problem though. Objects can pop into sight or details not loading at the right times. The sound are also amazing and spot on. Everything from the explosions to the occasional Raider cussing you out, sounds great and very well done.

Play Time/Replayability – You will be playing this game for hours. The main story quest lasts about 20 hours. That number can easily exceed 100 due to the large amount of exploration, collecting, and errand running you can do. Even if you get bored you can make another character and try out some other skills or other stats and it feels like playing the game for the first time all over again.

Final Recommendation – This game is definitely worth buying. I feel that a rent would only let you scratch the surface of this game and by the time your rental is up, you will probably go out and buy this game anyway.