Fallout 3

[Harrison]

There is never anyway that it is possible to make a decision about a game unless you first play it. I personally think the finished game is far better than I was expecting. In previews they were just showing of the VATS combat system and nothing else. There is so much more to this game than that.

[Demon Cleaner]

Just found a map of Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3.

http://planetfallout.gamespy.com/map...ital-Wasteland

[Harrison]

That is a great map. Thanks for the link. One of the best interactive maps I've seen created for a game I think. I wish they had made a map like this for Guild Wars when I used to play it.

There does however seem to be many things still missing from the map as there are locations and other things I've found in the game that are not marked on there yet. So it is obviously being added to as more is found. There are no towns marked for example.

BTW, I'm still really enjoying Fallout 3. I've been exploring the main ruins of DC and it is great. You really do get the sense that you are exploring a ruined and abandoned city, but with an ever present threat around every corner and in every building.

I jumped when I was attacked the other night. I was exploring along one side of the river and had just killed a couple of raiders that had been lying in wait, when suddenly some intense gun fire hit me from across the river. I quickly ducked down behind some old tires for cover and stuck my head up and activated VATS to see what was attacking me, and two big ugly super mutants were standing on the other side of the water with mini guns. It took some time to bring them both down though as I only had hand guns and rifles at that point (hadn't obtained/discovered any lasers or rockets yet), so I had to just pop up, take some shots using VATS, then duck and wait to fire again. A great tactic against super mutants is to aim for their main weapon. Destroy that and they become defenseless at long range and can be killed easily. However even if you get rid of their main weapon at close range they usually still have a nail board to hand that hurts!

And talking about super mutants some more, but without ruining the location, I encountered the Brotherhood of Steel and was tagging along with them when the boss super mutant attacked us. He killed one of the Brotherhood, so naturally I searched the dead BoS Soldier for anything useful and they were carrying a Fat Man! That is such a cool weapon. It took this boss super mutant out with a single shot.

I've also really enjoyed going into some of the big buildings so far. They are normally occupied by raiders so it is great sneaking around inside picking them off one by one. You can come unstick sometimes though by taking a wrong route through a building and letting too many of the raiders hear you, with them all converging on your position at once. Not much chance at survival when that happens. Best to reload a point further back in the building and try and alternative route.

Venturing down into the underground Metro is also really great. The Ghouls and dark tunnels reminded me a lot of HL2 and exploring the tunnels allows you to find loads of stuff and also different exits to the Metro to allow you quite passage to further areas of the map.

Oh, and activating security robots is fun too. Seeing them go off on their merry way shooting any raiders they find with a laser. Always feels a little sad when they eventually get blown up though.

[Demon Cleaner]

That sounds like a lot of fun. I got my copy 2 days ago, but I'm currently playing Dead Space. I'm now at chapter 7 of 12. Sometimes I was so shocked and scared that I almost fell off the couch Playing it in the dark with my 5.1 BOSE system makes tremble the walls and of course me too. Too bad I didn't get my dualshock controller yet. I ordered it together with Dead Space and Fallout 3, but it didn't come with it.

[Harrison]

As you have been getting into FPS style games recently, plus you love RPGs I think you are going to really enjoy Fallout 3 when you finally get around to playing it.

The key to enjoying the game the most is to explore. Don't try to complete all of the early missions straight away. Instead explore a bit into the city and have some fun discovering new locations and meeting people. Then start to do some of the side quests. Also don't follow the main quests too much until you are ready to complete the game, because if you complete the main quest the game ends. I'm avoiding the main quest mostly at the moment and exploring and doing side quests mostly to see as much of the wasteland as I can. And looking at the map you posted I've so far discovered only a small proportion of the locations in the game. Really looking forward to finding more.

Regarding Dead Space. I've just installed that but not played it yet. Looking forward to trying it out.

[Demon Cleaner]

Difficult to say what I'm going to play next, I still have to play:

- Lost Planet
- Crackdown
- GTA IV
- Assassin's Creed
- Halo 3
- Lost Odyssey
- Folklore
- Gears of War
- Gears of War 2
- Mirror's Edge (will probably get it next week)
- Metal Gear Solid 4
- Eternal Sonata
- Blue Dragon
- Enchanted Arms
- Bioshock
- Fable II
- Dead Rising
- Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

...and of course Fallout 3.

And I still have to finish Mass Effect, Burnout Paradise City and Mercenaries 2. How you probably can imagine, I still have a lot of stuff to play, I need some free time, damn work

(Wish I could take my consoles to work )

[Harrison]

Some really great games in that list so I can imagine it will be very hard to choose what to play next.

But out of them I would highly recommend Bioshock before Fallout 3 as it has an amazing story and is better scripted than probably any other game to date. Well worth playing, and the environment it's set in looks amazing and is great to explore. The game also creates suspense and apprehension with some brilliant set pieces and characters.

BTW, noticed FarCry 2 isn't on the list yet

[Demon Cleaner]

I didn't want to buy Far Cry 2 yet because there are other great FPS coming out like CoD5 and Resistance 2. Far Cry 2 has got some good reviews, but not as good as many others. I'm probably not gonna buy it, as I still have a lot to do, and I'm sure there are some other great games coming out now for Christmas time.

Some great RPGs are also soon getting released, like The Last Remnant, White Knight Chronicles, Persona 4, Star Ocean: The Last Hope...

[Harrison]

The only solution is to somehow create a room where time runs slower. So we can use it to play games for days, but the world outside isn't moving. That way we can play everything released and still have time to go to work!

[Demon Cleaner]

I now got my copy of the Fallout 3 Collector's Edition Guide and it just looks gorgeous. If I take a closer look at it, I can imagine that you can play around a long time with the game, the guide itself contains 496 pages.