The first game I have chosen to review is Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360. Fallout 3 takes place in the year 2277, 36 years after the setting of Fallout 2 and 200 years after the nuclear war that devastated the game’s world in an alternative post-World War II timeline. The character starts off as an inhabitant of Vault 101, a survival shelter which is designed to protect a limited number of humans from the nuclear fallout. The player, when chosen lives with his/her widowed father James (who is voiced by the actor Liam Neeson). In the game, the player’s father disappears from Vault 101 and from there the player is forced to escape from the Vault as the Vault Overseer becomes suspicious and orders his men to kill the player. This forces the player out into the ruins of Washington D.C. which is also known as "Capital Wasteland" to track him down. In the game the player also comes across a number of human survivors of the nuclear fallout and must fight against a number of enemies such as the Brotherhood of Steel, who are a group of technology-coveting survivors from the American west coast, the Outcasts who are a group of Brotherhood of Steel exiles, and the Enclave, the elitist and genocidal remnant of the U.S. government that inhabit “the wasteland”, during this you also complete numerous missions a total of a 100 hours of game play to be exact. Fallout 3 is a typical action role-playing game but also has elements of first-person shooter game but can also be played as a third-person shooter.Game play
Attributes and Karma
The main character creation occurs at the start of the game. At the beginning, the character in the game reads a book entitled “You’re SPECIAL”, after reading the book the player can set the character’s main attributes or which are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. The skills are similar to the previous Fallout games, skills can be
assigned up to a maximum of 100. For example if the Lockpick Skill was increased, the player will be able to access doors that are locked. The maximum level the player can achieve is 20. After each level/gaining experience, a new perk can be selected which offers advantages of quality and form.Health and Weapons
Your health is reduced as you would expect when damage is taken through combat, although it can be restored by sleeping, using medical equipment that is available, or eating food that isn't contaminated. There is also other health factors such as radiation poisoning from the viewing environment or contamin
ated food or water as well as addiction to drugs. Some of which will blur the characters vision. Weapons and armor that are used and damaged in combat become less effective the more their used. Firearms do less damage although you can repair your weapons at work benches, but for this your repair skill has to be at a certain level to do this. Players can also create their own weapons using various items found while exploring the wasteland.V.A.T.S. [Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System]
This feature plays an important role during combat. VATS pauses real time combat and the action is played out by various different camera angles giving you a percentage on specific body areas to inflict the most injury towards. These actions cost actions post which limits you during each combat.
Graphics
The graphics play a big part in fallout 3 like most other games. When you leave Vault 101 after escaping, you will notice your eyes having to adjust to the glare coming from the sun. Once your out you will be surprised by the size of the environment around you, and all of it you can travel to! Your viewing distance is also very good, everywhere you go you can almost see the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. One negative however, the graphics for fallout 3 on the Xbox 360 are slightly bland as everything is either light yellow, grey or brown. And having looked at the graphics on the PS3 for fallout, some textures look better whilst others look broken. Colours on the Xbox 360 look vibrant while others look washed out. There is some bugs in the game regarding graphics, when walking through the wasteland, all of a sudden a building will come into view in front of you. This can be a little annoying!
Sound
The sound on fallout is quite mixed. You have your PIP-Boy 3000 which enables you to listen to the radio, which they are only 3. Enclave Radio, Galaxy News Radio and Agatha's Station. Galaxy news is the best in my opinion as it plays real music and the DJ Three Dog informs you of the latest going on around the wasteland. I was slightly disappointed with the gunfire as most of the weapons sound like cap guns. The biggest disappointment is that the character voices become a bit repetitive as more than one character has the same voice, this also gets a bit annoying and gives you a feeling as if their are no unique people out there. Another thing, there is no emotion with the characters when they talk, they don't move apart from their mouths.
Interface
The interface is extremely easy to navigate between weapons, ammo, aid, your map etc. Overall in my opinion Fallout 3 is immense. It's up there with the best RPG games i have played. I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of RPG games to play Fallout 3 as its truly is one of the best games ever made.
