iafrica.com, 9.4/10.<blockquote>With a landmark release such as 'Fallout 3', we are certainly seeing evidence of a maturing art form. We might also be witnessing a growing awareness that games aren't so much a story-telling medium as a medium centred on world creation.
But the fact that everyone isn't going to love it doesn't mean it is not a great game. After all, there is often a price to pay in not simply catering for the lowest common denominator and doing things by the book.</blockquote>Press Democrat.<blockquote>In the coolest, most inventive tutorial in gaming, you'll witness your own birth and start play as a baby, when you'll take your first steps and interact with objects. (My favorite touch? Your character's baby talk when you push the A button to speak.)
The Capital Wasteland is as brilliantly realized a game world as you'll find, particularly in light of the fact that you're its lone unscripted inhabitant. From the humorous, self-appointed "democratically elected" ruler of the Republic of Dave to idealistic DJ Three Dog, many members of "Fallout 3's" supporting cast feel as fleshed out as characters from feature films. The care that obviously went into crafting each character is helped out tremendously by the game's first-rate voice acting.</blockquote>AdelaideNow, 9/10.<blockquote>Fallout 3 isn't for everyone – there's heavy reliance on inventory management and other role-playing elements. But it's unarguably one of the best games of the year.</blockquote>Suwannee Democrat.<blockquote>So is this game worth your time and hard-earned dollars? Yes, very much so. If you love RPG’s, Fallout 3 has an incredible story for you to step into and tell. If you like just shooting things, well, there’s plenty of that here. I definitely recommend this game to anyone who’s interested in it, it’ll make a great Christmas gift for any young adult!</blockquote>Barry's Rigs 'n Reviews (very long and very spoilery), 9.0.<blockquote>The dialog is well written and acted and the language is often harsh—including some of your character’s dialog responses. But it fits the context of and content of the game, and is not done simply for “shock value.” Fallout 3 does, after all, carry an M rating. Just as they did with Oblivion, Bethesda rounded up some of Hollywood’s premier actors to provide the voices for Fallout 3’s characters.
With a fascinating story that blends courage, honor, hope, humor, love and sacrifice through unforgettable characters; intelligent and challenging quests, a massive, visually stunning post-apocalyptic world to trade, explore and fight in with a wide variety of existing and user-constructed weapons, backed by an awesome soundtrack—and a near-perfect union of turn-based and real-time combat thanks to the incredibly cool and eloquently simple V.A.T.S.—if you only play one game this year, Fallout 3 should without a doubt, be it.</blockquote>Game Chronicles, 9.8.<blockquote>Fallout 3 does something that many other first person perspective role-playing games do not with its actual work to level up. You need to actually perform meaningful tasks to get anywhere and not just kill off mindless animals or run around collecting things lying around. Like in other role-playing games you cannot just go mindlessly around performing simple things or doing away with lower life forms to get easy experience.
Combat here is tough and you have to find things to kill in order to get anywhere so there is no random multitude of animals to pick off for a few easy level ups. Lock picking, bartering and quest completion will fulfill your level requirements but you actually have to work at leveling up here.</blockquote>Ramblings from the Marginalized blog.<blockquote>This game is good, real good. It deserves to be made game of the year and I consider it my favorite game of 2008. If you like post-apocalyptic gaming Fallout 3 should be on your must-play list. It is so much more than Oblivion with guns...</blockquote>PS3 News, 94/100.<blockquote>Free roaming games have been my personal favorite from the start. But Fallout 3 goes above and beyond the call of duty, making a map nearly the size of Oblivion. But not only that, they gave us guns and a first person view. Making this the first game I have ever seen that is free roaming AND a first person shooter.
This game is vastly huge. And deserves game of the year, just for this alone.</blockquote>VGBlogger.<blockquote>The bottom line is this: while RPG’s like Two Worlds get slammed for their stilted language and poor translations, many of those look like fine literature next to some of the blather that passes as dialogue in Fallout 3. They have fixed some of the egregious ’side banter’ you could stumble upon in Oblivion to feel more natural, but there are many times where you will have already killed an enemy but their dialogue continues until it finishes. But even in context the dialogue is just plain poorly written and provides no intrigue, humor or immersion. It isn’t even about comparing to the other Fallout games … the characters are poorly developed stereotypes, the dialogue doesn’t follow anything like a natural flow, and what people say doesn’t begin to reflect the reality of their situation or convey any sense of what is going on.</blockquote>
But the fact that everyone isn't going to love it doesn't mean it is not a great game. After all, there is often a price to pay in not simply catering for the lowest common denominator and doing things by the book.</blockquote>Press Democrat.<blockquote>In the coolest, most inventive tutorial in gaming, you'll witness your own birth and start play as a baby, when you'll take your first steps and interact with objects. (My favorite touch? Your character's baby talk when you push the A button to speak.)
The Capital Wasteland is as brilliantly realized a game world as you'll find, particularly in light of the fact that you're its lone unscripted inhabitant. From the humorous, self-appointed "democratically elected" ruler of the Republic of Dave to idealistic DJ Three Dog, many members of "Fallout 3's" supporting cast feel as fleshed out as characters from feature films. The care that obviously went into crafting each character is helped out tremendously by the game's first-rate voice acting.</blockquote>AdelaideNow, 9/10.<blockquote>Fallout 3 isn't for everyone – there's heavy reliance on inventory management and other role-playing elements. But it's unarguably one of the best games of the year.</blockquote>Suwannee Democrat.<blockquote>So is this game worth your time and hard-earned dollars? Yes, very much so. If you love RPG’s, Fallout 3 has an incredible story for you to step into and tell. If you like just shooting things, well, there’s plenty of that here. I definitely recommend this game to anyone who’s interested in it, it’ll make a great Christmas gift for any young adult!</blockquote>Barry's Rigs 'n Reviews (very long and very spoilery), 9.0.<blockquote>The dialog is well written and acted and the language is often harsh—including some of your character’s dialog responses. But it fits the context of and content of the game, and is not done simply for “shock value.” Fallout 3 does, after all, carry an M rating. Just as they did with Oblivion, Bethesda rounded up some of Hollywood’s premier actors to provide the voices for Fallout 3’s characters.
With a fascinating story that blends courage, honor, hope, humor, love and sacrifice through unforgettable characters; intelligent and challenging quests, a massive, visually stunning post-apocalyptic world to trade, explore and fight in with a wide variety of existing and user-constructed weapons, backed by an awesome soundtrack—and a near-perfect union of turn-based and real-time combat thanks to the incredibly cool and eloquently simple V.A.T.S.—if you only play one game this year, Fallout 3 should without a doubt, be it.</blockquote>Game Chronicles, 9.8.<blockquote>Fallout 3 does something that many other first person perspective role-playing games do not with its actual work to level up. You need to actually perform meaningful tasks to get anywhere and not just kill off mindless animals or run around collecting things lying around. Like in other role-playing games you cannot just go mindlessly around performing simple things or doing away with lower life forms to get easy experience.
Combat here is tough and you have to find things to kill in order to get anywhere so there is no random multitude of animals to pick off for a few easy level ups. Lock picking, bartering and quest completion will fulfill your level requirements but you actually have to work at leveling up here.</blockquote>Ramblings from the Marginalized blog.<blockquote>This game is good, real good. It deserves to be made game of the year and I consider it my favorite game of 2008. If you like post-apocalyptic gaming Fallout 3 should be on your must-play list. It is so much more than Oblivion with guns...</blockquote>PS3 News, 94/100.<blockquote>Free roaming games have been my personal favorite from the start. But Fallout 3 goes above and beyond the call of duty, making a map nearly the size of Oblivion. But not only that, they gave us guns and a first person view. Making this the first game I have ever seen that is free roaming AND a first person shooter.
This game is vastly huge. And deserves game of the year, just for this alone.</blockquote>VGBlogger.<blockquote>The bottom line is this: while RPG’s like Two Worlds get slammed for their stilted language and poor translations, many of those look like fine literature next to some of the blather that passes as dialogue in Fallout 3. They have fixed some of the egregious ’side banter’ you could stumble upon in Oblivion to feel more natural, but there are many times where you will have already killed an enemy but their dialogue continues until it finishes. But even in context the dialogue is just plain poorly written and provides no intrigue, humor or immersion. It isn’t even about comparing to the other Fallout games … the characters are poorly developed stereotypes, the dialogue doesn’t follow anything like a natural flow, and what people say doesn’t begin to reflect the reality of their situation or convey any sense of what is going on.</blockquote>
