Super PLAY, 7.<blockquote>Naturally, I've toyed with the idea. Thought of locking a few missiles onto selected targets in Cyrodiil – the realm where The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion took place. Press the red button and just let death rain from the skies. Let atoms split and let all the annoying indifferent inhabitants drown in a sea of fire and radiation. Let the ashes settle like a warm blanket over a world that's fallen asleep.
Now it's not left to my imagination any more. Bethesda has pressed the button for me. Blown Oblivion to hell. Burned down all its forests, plants and fields. Fallout 3 is what's left when the smoke has cleared. But something's not right. When I open my eyes I see the steel-grey interior of Vault 101 and a birthday party in my honour. I'm ten years old and four pairs of empty eyes stare at me out of four faces which are wrong somehow. They smile like a newly botoxed Idol jury, and I'm struck by a realization that freezes the blood in my veins.
They're still there. Even though the world of Fallout 3 feels like a Cyrodiil where all my apocalyptic fantasies have come true, the great nuclear war wasn't enough to kill the creepy inhabitants of the fantasy realm. Maybe because they were never alive to begin with.</blockquote>FZ.se, 4/5.<blockquote>V.A.T.S. mode is as close to the turn-based original as we'll get and I take it to be a compromise to make it more accessible (console-adapted) while still trying to keep some of what went before. V.A.T.S. is entertaining but grows tiresome after a while. It's Max Payne rather than Fallout.</blockquote>totalplaystation, 9.0.<blockquote>It's an incredibly bizarre feeling, being torn like this. On the one hand, I want to absolutely rip the game apart for being such an obvious descendent of the Elder Scrolls games, but I have such a love affair with anything post-apocalyptic and liked the storyline so much, spent so many hours just running around (probably close to 50 now, all told) that I can't let the feeling of sameness get in the way of what the game offers, which is, simply stated, a whole hell of a lot of fun.
There's a reason why Bethesda didn't want any of us press folks playing through the story missions of the game: it's actually a pretty short trek. Were one to know what they were doing, it'd probably be possible for even a normal user to breeze through things in about five or six hours. Luckily, in those five or six hours, you're going to get a great storyline -- arguably Bethesda Game Studios' best yet -- and of course at nearly every single point in the game, there's always a lingering kind of tugging feeling, an urge that can't be denied to just run out into the world and blow shit up.</blockquote>eDome, as translated by a passing robot.<blockquote>Against this background I consider the Fallout 3 as a real top game. It is difficult to say if the game is better or worse Fallout like the old legendary games, the games that so different and have been made during a separate period are in question. It however, I can say that the game will postpone its original idea finely for the present and succeeds in serving to the lot from the tightest game experiences of the year.</blockquote>Destructoid, 9.0.<blockquote>Bethesda’s vision of the Fallout universe is decidedly less tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top when compared to other games in the series, particularly Fallout 2. That’s not to say it’s without humor, but it’s certainly darker and far more subtle than what many fans might be wanting and even expecting. What it is, however, is well-crafted and intelligent, with mostly-believable characters just trying to find their way through a torn world. From the shunned ghouls of the underworld to a surprisingly articulate Frankenstein's Monster-esque mutant, there are plenty of memorable character encounters throughout Fallout 3. And because the characters and world feel so real, your actions have a real weight, and the story has many points that elicit true emotion.</blockquote>
Now it's not left to my imagination any more. Bethesda has pressed the button for me. Blown Oblivion to hell. Burned down all its forests, plants and fields. Fallout 3 is what's left when the smoke has cleared. But something's not right. When I open my eyes I see the steel-grey interior of Vault 101 and a birthday party in my honour. I'm ten years old and four pairs of empty eyes stare at me out of four faces which are wrong somehow. They smile like a newly botoxed Idol jury, and I'm struck by a realization that freezes the blood in my veins.
They're still there. Even though the world of Fallout 3 feels like a Cyrodiil where all my apocalyptic fantasies have come true, the great nuclear war wasn't enough to kill the creepy inhabitants of the fantasy realm. Maybe because they were never alive to begin with.</blockquote>FZ.se, 4/5.<blockquote>V.A.T.S. mode is as close to the turn-based original as we'll get and I take it to be a compromise to make it more accessible (console-adapted) while still trying to keep some of what went before. V.A.T.S. is entertaining but grows tiresome after a while. It's Max Payne rather than Fallout.</blockquote>totalplaystation, 9.0.<blockquote>It's an incredibly bizarre feeling, being torn like this. On the one hand, I want to absolutely rip the game apart for being such an obvious descendent of the Elder Scrolls games, but I have such a love affair with anything post-apocalyptic and liked the storyline so much, spent so many hours just running around (probably close to 50 now, all told) that I can't let the feeling of sameness get in the way of what the game offers, which is, simply stated, a whole hell of a lot of fun.
There's a reason why Bethesda didn't want any of us press folks playing through the story missions of the game: it's actually a pretty short trek. Were one to know what they were doing, it'd probably be possible for even a normal user to breeze through things in about five or six hours. Luckily, in those five or six hours, you're going to get a great storyline -- arguably Bethesda Game Studios' best yet -- and of course at nearly every single point in the game, there's always a lingering kind of tugging feeling, an urge that can't be denied to just run out into the world and blow shit up.</blockquote>eDome, as translated by a passing robot.<blockquote>Against this background I consider the Fallout 3 as a real top game. It is difficult to say if the game is better or worse Fallout like the old legendary games, the games that so different and have been made during a separate period are in question. It however, I can say that the game will postpone its original idea finely for the present and succeeds in serving to the lot from the tightest game experiences of the year.</blockquote>Destructoid, 9.0.<blockquote>Bethesda’s vision of the Fallout universe is decidedly less tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top when compared to other games in the series, particularly Fallout 2. That’s not to say it’s without humor, but it’s certainly darker and far more subtle than what many fans might be wanting and even expecting. What it is, however, is well-crafted and intelligent, with mostly-believable characters just trying to find their way through a torn world. From the shunned ghouls of the underworld to a surprisingly articulate Frankenstein's Monster-esque mutant, there are plenty of memorable character encounters throughout Fallout 3. And because the characters and world feel so real, your actions have a real weight, and the story has many points that elicit true emotion.</blockquote>
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