Fallout 3: Great Game? Or the Greatest Game?

Fallout 3 raises the bar for what a video game can be. It features an extraordinarily rich world to explore, stunning visuals, tight gameplay that works well, and a unique targeting system that makes the shooter aspects spectacular good fun. It's gory and deserves the "Mature" rating - do not allow your child to play this game - but its artistry and humor make Fallout 3 much, much more than a one-dimensional shoot-em-up game. It won't be all things to all people; the developers did make choices. And it's not 100% perfect. But it is a major achievement in realizing an artful fantasy action game with role-playing elements. No mature player with an Xbox 360 should miss it.

Game Intro: Learning All the Skills You'll Need

As cinematic introductions go, this one starts right at the beginning, depicting your birth in the delivery room. A progression of scenes takes you through teenage years, cleverly sprinkling your bildungsroman with some education about how the controls work and some point-assignment that determines your character's strengths. The plot springs into motion when your father, a scientist, flees the underground shelter where you've been living with a small community of nuclear holocaust survivors.

Many video games have these "cinematic" intros and cutscenes where the gameplay stops and you watch some movie footage to advance the plot. Fallout 3 looks good enough to allow the "movie" portions to occur inside the gameplay space, with non-player characters (NPCs) moving around, talking, and dramatizing the scene. Sometimes you can interact with them on the fly, make choices that affect the scene, and at a few key places you just have to watch as a scene unfolds.

Rich and Varied Gameplay Keeps Things Interesting

In the intro you learn how to move, pick up items, traverse doorways, talk to people, crouch down and sneak around, punch to defend yourself, and even pickpocket. There are a couple of puzzles to solve as well. Locks that need to be delicately picked with a bobby pin, computer terminals with word-scramble puzzles obfuscating their access passwords, and hidden switches you need to throw to open doors in other places. Fallout 3 offers a well-tuned balance of these different gameplay challenges, forcing you to flex more than just one muscle as you play.

If you approach Fallout 3 as nothing more than the newest shoot-em-up game with the best graphics ever, you'll probably be disappointed. Many parts of the game require thought or delicacy to figure out. You will of course need to learn to cut a path through tough enemies but you'll also need to work through word puzzles, keep track of yourself on maps, and listen to what the other non-player characters have to say or you'll find yourself going in circles, unsure what to do next. I think this is another reason not to give this game to children. It demands some patience and consideration they may not be accustomed to, or could get bored by. You certainly can't just sit down and shoot-shoot-run-shoot-shoot your way to the end. That said, as long as I'm reasonably awake and paying attention, I've never found the game intractable or confounding.

But I Don't Like Shooter Games. How Great Could It Be?

I'm not a fan of First Person Shooter (FPS) games myself. I have played a few and while I find them fun for their realistic motion and point of view, they're too fast and hard to aim unless you play them a lot and build up those reflexes. The intensity of all the machine-gun action becomes too much for me pretty quick. They're also just jarringly violent. Playing bang-bang in the bushes as a child is one thing, and FPS games may simply be the ultimate extension of that, but there comes a point when putting a shotgun up to someone's face and making their head explode stops being a fun and you wonder what kind of sicko you must be for considering it a game. Fallout 3 does indeed involve running around with a gun and killing people, but that's only 25% of the game, and the rest keeps it interesting. So even if you're not a big fan of FPS games, read on...

Fallout 3's "Assisted Targeting" Makes Shooter Action More Spectacular and Less Tedious

Remember when I was describing that frantic intensity of trying to aim and shoot at hostile enemies quickly enough? That not-always-fun action is handled in a very creative and spectacular way in Fallout 3. Bethesda really gets points for thinking up "Vault-tech Assisted Targeting System," although they should target a Fat Man at whoever named it. V.A.T.S. is something any other game developer could have done, but Bethesda is the first, and I expect at some point it'll be a common feature in FPS games.

So what the heck is it? Here we go...

How Action in Shooter Games Usually Goes:

Imagine you're standing still, looking out with the barrel of your gun in front of you. Standard shooter game, right? Now, imagine a bad guy running toward you with a baseball bat, while another, behind him, shoots at you with a machine gun. What do you do? Before you can properly train those targeting crosshairs, you're getting beat over the head and shot. The game becomes a mess of running backwards while shooting wildly. You glance down at your health meter, applying health boosts to keep yourself alive while blood splatters the screen. Eventually you manage to shove your gun into your enemies' faces and pull the trigger enough times. Quiet falls. The fight is over. You're breathing hard, your health points are almost gone, and you're practically out of ammo. You're also not having any fun (if you're like me).

V.A.T.S. - Assisted Targeting Coreographs Your Attacks

Okay, rewind. You're standing there as these two bad guys start to attack. Push the right-paddle on your controller. FREEZE! All motion in the scene stops, and the game camera zooms in on the closest attacker, showing the guy with the baseball bat in sharp detail. You can move a cursor around his body, seeing the relative odds of hitting him in different spots, and queue up shots where you want them.

How about we target that baseball bat he's carrying and knock it out of his hands? That should keep him off us for a minute while he runs to fetch it.

But we're not done! Before we set our attack in motion, let's toggle to the OTHER attacker, the gunman. We're still in the time-freeze targeting system. We aim two shots at his head. The slugger is somewhat in the way, but at 60% odds, one of the two shots should connect.

Your Attack Plays Out in a Cinematic, Slow-Motion Spectacle

When you've queued up all the shots you want to take (usually limited to around 3), you hit an "accept" button and just watch the action you've coreographed play out in slow motion. The camera jumps to a closeup of you squinting to aim, pulling the trigger... cut to another camera angle and you see the bat fly out of the first attacker's hands... cut to another angle and you see your second shot sink into the gunman's face... he stumbles, letting out a long, slow-motion groan. The camera cuts back to you, this time from yet another angle. You fire, and the final camera angle, from above, shows the gunman's head coming clean off his shoulders.

It looks just like a John Woo movie action sequence - very impressive visuals! When it's over, you're right back into the action. If things went well, the fight may be over. If you missed, you're on your own in real-time to win the fight. Eventually your now-spent "Action Points" will restore themselves and you'll be able to use V.A.T.S. again, but it's limited to only a few shots each time so you can't over-use it. Be smart about those shots, and you won't have to!

Assisted targeting takes the usual run-run, shoot-shoot action and allows you to freeze it, come up with a tactical plan, and then execute. It utilizes your brain a little more than just your thumb muscles, and the results are visually spectacular. Huge win.

Open World Play Puts You in the Driver's Seat

In the intro you should learn quickly that there are no "right" choices. You can talk your way out of a fight with that bully, you can surrender your cupcake to him, or you can puff up your chest and get ready for fisticuffs. Each choice will have a different outcome - it's not a puzzle to "solve." And sometimes the choices don't change the outcome. Maybe the bully is just going to kick your butt, regardless. However not totally arbitrary - some decision outcomes will be better than others and you need to choose carefully. Playing the good guy all the time is no guarantee of success, nor will you get far in the game if you offend and fight everyone you meet.

This choose-your-own-path kind of story is part of what gamers are calling "open world" play these days. Instead of a game where the puzzles all have a single solution, it's more of an exploration game where you make choices and then live with the consequences. Ultimately, the best way to play is probably a mix of saintly and slimy behavior, though to some extent you could go for one extreme or the other and try to optimize your game around that. I probably came in at around 75% good, 25% evil. Make too many evil choices, and your "karma" score sinks low. Some characters won't deal with you at all if your karma is too low (or too high!). Don't strain to make the "right" choice, just use your brain a bit and do what you want to do.

The other aspect in open world play is that you don't move through the game, screen by screen, in a linear fashion. Fallout 3 presents a wide open wasteland landscape in all directions, and you decide the order in which you'll tackle challenges. You emerge from your underground shelter in pursuit of your fleeing father with no idea which way to go. But wherever you venture, you'll encounter enemies, make new friends, and find things that need doing. Eventually, you will pick up your father's trail and find out why he fled and what he's up to next. That storyline makes up the "main quest," but the real fun of Fallout 3 happens along the way.

Rich and Fun Side-Quests Make Up the Meat of the Game

The grand arc of your story with your father advances slowly as you explore the ruined landscape of the Washington D.C. area, but a wealth of mini missions will present themselves along the way to sidetrack you. For example: you stumble upon a settlement of survivors out in the wasteland defending themselves against mutant attacks. They not only ask for your help defending their town, they need a hero to retrieve a couple of their people who were kidnapped. Can you make it over hill and dale to the mutants' hideout, fight your way to the captives, and then lead them safely back? It's not as easy as it sounds. While the captives will follow you, they're quite vulnerable to any enemies you may meet on the return trip. You can tell them to stay put while you scout ahead, but take too long and a wild animal or rogue security robot may stumble upon them. Most importantly: can you do it all and get them back by sundown, when the mutants next attack the town?

Add it all up, including some cliffhanger choices along the way, and the different personalities of the characters involved, and you've got a heck of a little story. This is just one of many side-quests too numerous to mention. Can you find a home for a boy orphaned by marauding giant insects? He's got a relative out there somewhere... Are you willing to help the Ghouls - humans disfigured by radiation - in their quest to rid the world of a few bigots who treat them like animals? Will you help the scientist who's trying to find a way to reverse the monstrous growth of mutated animals and insects? Most importantly: can you even trust the people offering you these missions? Are they what they seem at face value? Or is there some ulterior motive they're not revealing? It's your call.

You can choose to pursue these mini-quests on your way to find your father, or skip them. In most cases, it's even possible to skip them for a while and come back to them later. The game seems pretty forgiving, time-wise, offering no deadlines. If you want to enjoy all the game has to offer, you should pursue every side quest you can. They're fun and well-crafted. You won't miss out on the primary quest to find your father, and some handy lists in the control screens allow you to organize which mini-quest you're actively pursuing, and what you need to do next. Usually every quest involves getting a reward of some kind at the end, often just a bit of currency. But occasionally you'll get a unique weapon or clothing item that will take your combat abilities to the next level.

There are even some repeating quests that pay off again and again. For example, you'll encounter a Ranger station that will pay you for mapping information. The more you explore the world and build out your map of it, the more they'll pay you.

Scround and Barter to Keep Yourself Equipped

Pay-for-work quests like this and bartering items you find along the way will get you started in Fallout 3's well-considered barter system. Many games involve scrounging for gold and weapons to sell as you blaze through the action. If you enjoy the barter-and-trade angle, you'll love Fallout 3.

First, there are items you'll just find sitting around. It's a world ravaged by nuclear bombs, but many buildings are still intact. Search that abandoned house and you may find a shotgun hidden in the closet. Or just a moth-eaten suit. Then there are items you take from enemies after killing them. The wasteland is full of bad news, from human "raiders" dressed-up in Mad Max fashion to mutated animals (like giant ants, engorged to a frightening size by years of radiation). Plundering their corpses gives you what they've got - even if it is just a little revitalizing "ant meat."

You will hit a point where you can't carry any more, at which point it's time to find another character to trade with and cash all your goods in for bottle caps, the world's currency. In the beginning you need to scrounge everything you can find in order to get a decent weapon and keep your ammo from running out. But as the game progresses, it becomes a weight/value consideration. Do you really want to add 15 pounds to your load just to keep this damaged set of armor worth 5 bottle caps? You'll need to backtrack to the trading outpost AGAIN if you do. Bah. Just leave it.

Play the barter game well and you'll find yourself in plenty of ammo, with enough caps to buy better and better weapons, armor, and medical supplies. Neglect the scrounge-and-barter game, and you'll find yourself hobbling through the game with a dull knife, drinking from irradiated water sources because they're the only way you've got left to restore your hit points.

You could also overplay the barter side of the game. Traders only have so much cash on them, so even if you've scoured the entire wasteland for a payload of only the lightest, most valuable objects, there's a limit to how much cash you can get at once, and traders are often out of stock in many items. In other words, there are some healthy limits to keep you from buying your way through the game. This blend of richness and balance are the hallmarks of Fallout 3.

Weapon Schematics

You may find it odd that the game is strewn with items like "lawnmower blade" and "surgical tubing." They don't seem to have a use or much monetary value, and you'll be tempted to sell them cheap or just ignore them. That is, until you find your first weapon schematic. A schematic is like a recipe: 1 lunchbox, 1 cherry bomb, 1 electronic sensor and 64 bottlecaps. What do they add up to? A powerful landmine, once you find the schematic for the "bottlecap mine." These schematic documents allow you to piece together all kinds of trash into powerful and sometimes hilarious weapons. Tired of running low on ammo? Build yourself a Rock-It Launcher, which can fire all the random coffee mugs and ashtrays lying around the wasteland. It ain't the most powerful weapon, but you'll always have more ammo.

I guarantee you'll have more fun shooting enemies with a dart gun you made yourself out of carefully saved surgical tubing and scorpion poison, even if it's not as powerful a gun as that assault rifle you bought. And if you're lucky enough to find a second copy of the dart gun schematic, the dart guns you create will be even more powerful. You could ignore schematics and weapons building if you wanted to, but you would miss out on a couple of the best weapons in the game. Once again, Fallout 3 presents you with something interesting you can explore and profit from or just plough past and ignore. It's up to you. You get out of it what you put into it.

Speaking of Weapons: Weapons!

The standard weapons you can find or buy are also quite varied, with a well-thought-out system of criteria for how effective they are. Each weapon has a "damage" number describing how many hit points it can take away with a successful hit. This number depends on the type of gun, naturally, but also its repair condition. As you use a gun, wear and tear slowly begins to tell on it, reducing its "condition" rating and its damage done. You can repair poorly-functioning weapons by taking them to a qualified trader, or combining the parts from multiple guns of the same model yourself. "Repair" is a primary character skill you'll have to build up in order to do this more and more effecitively.

Each weapon also has a certain ammunition capacity between reloads. You may be carrying 800 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition, but you'll need to pause and change clips on your assault rifle every 24 shots. Obviously you can't fire during reloads, which makes you vulnerable. But also key to remember: you cannot apply Stimpacks to recover hit points during a reload. So if your health is low and your ammo counter shows a reload coming up, you better be careful not to get caught with a facefull of lead while you swap magazines.

In the beginning you'll focus only on damage rating, but as the game goes on you'll find that while your combat shotgun packs a good punch your 10mm submachine gun holds much more per clip and its reloads are faster. For certain kinds of fighting, with large numbers of low-HP enemies, it will be much more effective. Stick with your combat shotgun in all fights and you'll soon find yourself getting riddled with bullets while you slowly reload your awkward gun for another measly 12 shots. Occasionally you'll notice your character fumbling a reload, too, having to do some of it twice, or pausing to adjust a part on the gun that needs alignment before you can fire again.

Range is also a factor with weapons, but it's not explicit. Weapons don't have "range" numbers and you don't know necessarily if you're in range for them or not. You'll simply find that some are hard to use at a great distance, while others work better. It sounds complex but it's all elegantly presented and you develop a "feel" for your arsenal pretty quickly. You also have the choice of using melee weapons and skipping the whole ammo & range factors completely. Melee battle is functional but not comparable to dedicated melee games. There are no special martial arts moves - not even so much as jumping while striking. Just run up to your enemy and swing a baseball bat at him until he's dead. Effective, but hardly elegant.

Stealth Sniper Play

And then there's the opposite extreme: sniper play. A couple of weapons are fitted with scopes that enable a superb zoom-in-and-fire interface. A carefully placed headshot with the sniper rifle can be devastating, especially if you've managed to sneak up on your enemy without being detected. Even if it takes three shots to kill an enemy, it's fun watching them run around, trying to figure out where the shots are coming from.

Sneaking involves moving while crouched down. The goal of sneaking is to get close to an enemy without their detetcting you, and a number of factors play in. If you are wearing noisy clothing, like metal armor, you won't have much luck sneaking. Enemies will hear you around corners and come after you. Leather armor works better, and you'll even find some stealth reconaissance armor along the way which is specialized for sneaking. Other sneak factors include how quickly you move, whether you are in line of sight to the enemy, if there's a light source illuminating you (including your own flashlight - turn it off!). It's not easy to sneak up on an enemy but if you can do it, you'll be rewarded with a very high-damage first strike. Sneaking is a primary character skill you can choose to emphasize when you first build your character, or build up later as you play.

Some areas of the game are incredibly hard to fight your way through directly. Imagine a compund of several buildings, with enemies up on all the rooftops. Good luck getting into each building in turn and making your way to the roof to clear it. They'll pick you off from above before you get close. But, if you're stealthy enough, you might be able to sneak into the first building and even the odds a bit. And don't forget to check the surroundings. Is there a nearby hill where you could crouch down within range to snipe everyone off the rooftops completely? That sure would make things easier...

Drug Use and Addiction

Yeah, you read that right. In Fallout 3 you use drugs and can become addicted to them.  Drugs affect your performance and some may seem harmless at first. Med-X can be bought from any of the doctors and it temporarily reduces the amount of damage you receive from enemies. Jet increases your "Action Points" in V.A.T.S. and Mentats allow you to detect enemies sooner. However, each time you apply a drug of any kind, you roll the dice on developing an addiction. If you get addicted, then bad things start happening as soon as your last fix wears off. Mainly, this means the screen goes blurry for about 5 seconds every so often. It's not that big a deal but if it happened during a firefight it would really disadvantage you. Some people have spoken out against Fallout 3 because it makes addictions very easy to get rid of. Just visit a doctor and he'll give you a shot, clearing your addiciton for the low price of 50 caps. Easy, huh? If only addiction were so easy in real life... Bottom line? Use the drugs. They help. And addiction is only a minor annoyance you can easily get rid of. Great huh?

Content: Not For Kids (or Serene Roommates)

I hope no one ever considers letting a kid play this. It's really intense and rough and will give them nightmares. There is strong language in the game, and some of the enemies scream really horrible things at you. "I want this one's head on a f**king plate!" comes to mind - mercenaries tend to yell that as soon as a firefight begins. And there's other grim content as well. Hanging corpses decorate any raider hideout. And the flesh-hungry "super mutants" like to leave organs and limbs out on a cutting board with a knife stuck in. Be sure to explore their "gore bags," where ammo and cash are hidden along with other tasty loot such as "mutilated torso (2)." Yum. When my 9 year old nephew came to stay with us, I hid Fallout 3 very well for the duration of his visit.

TIP: if you find that the noise of the game is disturbing others, check in the audio options. You can control the volume of different game aspects separately. Gunshots are part of "Effects" - turn that down and you'll still hear footsteps and voices just fine but the action will not be so LOUD. My fiancee quite appreciated this :)

Realism: Very Well Done. Details Sell the Scenes.

Quite often in Fallout 3 you'll pause and marvel at how beautiful the game is, and how real it seems. Get up somewhere high with a nice view at sunset, and you'll be blown away. Fire your machine gun at a still pond, and watch in amazement as each bullet creates and individual ripple outward, right where it hit the water. Throw a grenade at an enemy and watch as items on a table some ways off get shaken to the ground. Shoot at the hulk of a burned out car until it begins to burn, and then explodes - the explosion sets others on fire in a chain reaction. Walk up to a stack of books and take the one on the bottom. If you're quick, the others will drop down without the stack toppling over. The graphics look amazing - really, they're very good. But it's these details that sell the illusion.

Other games are full of carbon-copy hallways and rife with inconsistencies. Kill an enemy, turn your back for a minute, and the corpse is gone. Wha? Fallout 3 isn't perfect in these regards but it's very good. Corpses and items stay where you put them pretty much indefinitely. And every hallway, every house, every room and hillside is unique with gorgeous detailing. You begin to wonder how all these locations, all these characters, all these sounds, etc can all fit on one disc! It's a whole world! Very impressive.

It's not perfect. Occasionally you won't be able to find the body of an enemy you shot (becuase it fell down and is lodged below the ground) And while every rusted out car you find will explode if you shoot it, no, you can't shoot out every lightbulb in the game. Occasionally these inconsistencies jump out at you, but I find Fallout 3 was much more consistent and realistic overall than any game I've played before.

Replay Value: Playing the Whole Game Again is Worthwhile

I've now finished this game twice but could easily see myself going back for a 3rd. The first time, I went along at a good pace, unsure of when the main quest would come to an end. Then it ended and the game was over. That's right: you cannot go back into free play and explore the rest of the world after completing the main quest. So don't rush it. A good guideline that doesn't spoil anything: when you can use Power Armor, you're probably 75-80% through the main quest. It's a great time to divert and explore more of the rest of the world. Another caveat is that once you've cleared an area of enemies, it stays clear. There's very little reason to return anywhere once you're done, which also means you won't get any replay out of particularly fun areas without starting an entirely new game.

The second time I played the game I was much smarter about how I assigned my level-up points. I also planned better for some of the quests I knew I had ahead of me, and went early to the spots where I knew I could score a good weapon. One of the bonus options you can select when you level up is called the "Explorer Perk" which reveals all as-yet undiscovered map markers to you. This really allowed me to scour the map and suck the marrow out of the game before ending it the 2nd time.

But still, even after that, there's more to do. There are plenty of doors I never found the keys to. And my bobblehead collection is not even half complete (bobbleheads are unique trophy items, 12 of which exist to be found). And then there are all the choices I decided against. What happens if instead of fixing that nuclear bomb you decide to blow up the town like that gangster wants? Is it even possible to continue the game without that town as a home base? Hmm! I wonder...

In Summary: An Amazing Game I Truly Enjoyed

What more can I say? Fallout 3 is awesome. It was one of the first games I bought when I picked up my Xbox 360 and I'm afraid that my expectations have been set incredibly high for all other games now. I tried getting into Fable II but it felt like a jerky NES game to me by comparison (although it has its charms). I understand if the shooter aspect or the gore is a deal-breaker for some gamers. Not everyone is into those games. But there's no denying the incredible amount of work and artistry that went into Fallout 3. You may decide ultimately that it's not for you, but I'm reasonably sure you'll be impressed before you put it down.

That said, here are my criticisms of the game. If you are considering buying this game, go for it. I don't want my petty gripes to dissuade anyone. I'm just noting them as nitpicks I wish were different.

Shortcoming: It's Too Easy

The game can feel a bit short on action sometimes. There are trios of enemies every 5-10 minutes, but that's usually it. I moved the difficultly setting all the way to Very Hard (which I almost never do) and it's still too easy. My character is maxed out on experience and skills, and I've optimized my weaponry, including a few uniquely powerful items. I just blaze through everyone now. I have to really try to make things more interesting with stealth approaches or by limiting myself to one weapon. It's rare for me to die and have to continue from a previous save point, and when it happens, it's just a brief inconvenience. It seems that dialing up the difficulty just gives your enemies more hit points. It doesn't create more enemies. IMHO, greater numbers of enemies would be harder, because they could concentrate their firepower on you. Oh well. Like I said, fighting isn't the whole game. My Fallout 3 world does seem pretty lonely now, though. I've pretty much emptied it out of bad guys. And they don't respawn when you return somewhere. Only occasionally a troop of raiders will pass through a previously cleared area and give you some more action. Rapidly re-spawning enemies would help.

Shortcoming: Your Character Maxes Out Too Early

As you gain experience points, you advance through levels, getting a chance to beef up your character's various skills and aptitudes. However, once you hit level 20, that's it. No more experience points, no more perks. This caught me off-guard my first time through and I thought something was wrong. I would have made different choices about what skills to build and what special options to select if I'd known they were so limited. And even now that I do, it just seems like the ceiling is too low. I want the game to be much harder, and I want to keep advancing my character. It seems odd to hit the max with still over half the map still unexplored. Doesn't it?

Shortcoming: Social Interactions

I can't fault Bethesda too much for this. They just didn't choose to make a game with very rich character interactions. You do have choices of what to say when talking to an NPC, and sometimes they get peeved with you and respond differently if you're rude. But overall NPCs are quite wooden in their appearance and movement, and quite boring to talk to. Sure, sometimes threatening one of them will make them cough up info or cash they wouldn't have otherwise, but big whoop. By contrast, Fable II from LionHead explores social interactions in great detail - allowing you to amuse, impress, scare, and seduce other characters, with all kinds of variation. That's Fable II's big trick, and I don't knock Fallout 3 for choosing to focus on other things. But it is one area where they didn't meet the emerging standard and could have done more. For one thing, even though there are several characters with romantic potential, including some outright prostitutes, you can't actually liaise with them. Not even a kiss. Even the prostitute, when you hire her, simply goes to sleep in your bed. Huh? Oh well. Typical American culture where violence is okay but sex is off limits. Lame. Other interactions are just off... you can enter someone's house while they're asleep, go up to their bed and click to talk to them. They'll perk right up, stand, and greet you "Hi there friend, what can I do for you?" It's just weird that such a sophisticated game has some aspects that are so off.

Another scene epitomizes the limits of the character interaction: the wedding scene. I'm not giving anything away here, but at one point in the game you're invited to a wedding. You show up at the appointed time and other characters you've met in the town also start filing in. They take their seats around you on the benches, looking up to the front. The minister goes and stands at the altar. It's shaping up - an in-game wedding! Then the bride and groom appear and stand facing each other while the minister gives a reading. Everything's coming along, but upon "kiss the bride" the happy couple do not kiss. They do not embrace. Despite the game's complex characterizations, hugging and kissing just weren't programmed in. And so they walk head-on at each other for a second, bounce off each other, and leave the room separately. At that moment, the "wedding" subroutine hits end-of-line, and all the attending characters turn to you at once with their individual "Hi stranger! New in town?" subroutines. It's deafening and hilariously bad.

Shortcoming: Physical Movement, Especially Jumping

I honestly don't know why they even made jumping part of the game. It works really poorly and is almost never necessary, if ever. Most of the times I try to jump over a gap I fall, and even things that look waist-high sometimes can't be jumped over. It's a little disappointing if you're expecting an agile 3D experience where you can really scramble around over rocks and through wreckage, so keep your expectations low. It's a running game. Run from point A to point B. If you think you're in a place where jumping is required, look again. It probably isn't.

Shortcoming: 3rd Person

They advertise this as a "1st or 3rd person" game but 3rd person is not usable. In 3rd person, instead of looking out from inside your character's own eyes, it's like you're seeing through a camera above your character. Other 3rd person games sometimes give you control over which way the game "camera" is pointing, and, separately, which way your character is facing, so you can make the character run toward you or away from you or side to side through the scene somewhat. Or keep your character still but sweep the camera to take a look around. But not in Fallout 3. The 3rd person character is stuck in the middle, back to you, and the camera angle swoops around him, fixed so it's always looking where the character is facing. The camera also jumps like crazy to give you a clear view of him as he runs past trees or through tunnels. It's nauseating. Aiming during fights becomes a much more clumsy task, and looking through items to pick up is harder also. Jumping looks ridiculous:your character basically continues gliding along as if running but picks up his feet momentarily. Don't bother.

Shortcoming: Maps and Fast Travel

The game provides a large-scale "world map" and also detailed "local maps" showing more precide room-and-hallway level features of the place you're at. These work pretty well, but I have one complaint about the maps. When you're in a 4 story building, your local map has only one level, displaying the general shape of the building from a bird's-eye view. It tells you that your goal is in the northeast corner of the building, but it doesn't tell you which floor. Or where the stairwells are. Or how many floors there are. Sometimes, trying to use the local map to move around becomes particularly maddening, especially in some of the places where there are complex networks of multiple-story structures and tunnels. I can't think of a great reason for this to be so hard, except that it serves as a bit of a "time to go to sleep" warning for me when my brain loses the ability to work with the lousy maps.

Getting lost indoors brings up another problem: fast travel. Like many games, Fallout 3 lets you quickly jump to a place in the world where you've been before to spare you the tedium of humping back and forth over familiar territory on foot. It does prevent you from fast-travelling when enemies are near, which is good. That keeps you from using fast-travel as an escape from a fight. BUT the game also prevents you from initiating a fast-travel jump whenever you're indoors. This means that when you finally get to the end of the long, complex tunnel maze with the lousy local map, guess what? You get to do it all again, in reverse, even though there's nothing more to discover and all the enemies are already dead. Boo! If you're going to have fast-travel, let it work from wherever.

Overall: GREAT GAME! I'm sure this will be on many folks' list as a contender for best game of all time. It's just that good.