Rule 32: Enjoy the little things in life.

theindiegeek on: Fallout 3

Picture the following scenario, if you will:  The apocalypse has come and gone.  All of the 1950s nuclear war-fearing citizens’ worst dreams have come true.  Global nuclear war.  Imagine all the powers of the world almost simultaneously launching all their nukes.  Whatever was the cause or reason, it matters not.  The nukes were launched, and the fell and they fell hard.  M.A.D. happened and it was Mutual, it was Assured, and there was definitely an insane amount of Destruction.  The only folks to be spared from this hellish nightmare were those lucky enough (or rich enough) to make it to the safety of an underground vault, a sealed bunker deep underground.  Totally self-sufficient, these vaults were designed to save the last of humanity from the tortures of the hell above.  Now fast forward a hundred years or so after the nukes dropped.  Things on the surface aren’t much better than right after the nukes dropped.  The landscape is overrun by horrid Mutants, feral ghouls, and evil raiders.  Pockets of humanity trying to simply survive day-to-day.  Radiated monsters, no crops, little food and absolutely no law whatsoever.  Welcome to the Wasteland.

Sounds like a great scenario for a game, eh?

Despite the incredulousness of it all,  it was a great opportunity.  In September 1997, Fallout was released for the PC by Black Isle Studios, who would later become famous for fantastic RPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment.  A big success, Fallout 2 was released almost exactly a year later.  Bigger, badder, and all around simply ‘More’ and ‘Bigger’,  Fallout 2.  If you have any questions about how great it was, just ask Ctrl-Alt-Del’s Ethan .  So naturally, Fallout 3 would come soon as well.  Only it didn’t happen that way.  Black Isle got busy with other projects, and shortly after they got around to working on Fallout 3 (then titled Van Buren) Interplay, their parent company, went belly-up.  Bethesda would acquire the license and started working on it in 2004, although they didn’t really focus on it until Oblivion was completed.

When fans of the series (myself included) heard about the transfer to Bethesda, there was a great deal of excitement and doubt.  How will it relate to the previous games?  Will they keep the same tone and dark humor?  Will it be just another Elder Scrolls clone?  How faithful will it be?  And most importantly, will it be fun?

Fallout 3 was released on Oct 28th in US and slightly later elsewhere.  US gamers had a very happy Halloween.  And just to kill any sense of suspense, yes, the game was good.  Insanely good.  Beautifully, bloody, awesomely and crazy good.  Hell yes, the game was good.  Winning many ‘Game of the Year’ awards, it was almost universally recognized as a success.  Released on PC, XBOX 360 and PS3, the game had a huge potential market.  Some hardcore PC fanatics were angry about the game being on consoles, thinking that Fallout belonged PC exclusive.  In my experience since then, I believe that releasing Fallout 3 as a PC exclusive would have been a bad idea.  Many friends I know who love the game cannot afford to keep up with PC technology and remain strict console gamers.  I would hate to have selfish pride have kept them from such an engrossing game.

So it was good.  Yes.  But why?

It was fun.  Let me describe something that actually happened to me in the game.  I was given a task by a store owner in the town I lived to go to a nearby minefield and retrieve a few mines for her stock.  I would be nicely rewarded for my troubles.  So I made my way north, just me and my rifle, to the area she had specified.  I arrived at night, so the lights from the mines were easy to see.  I crouched low, to give my self the best chance of seeing and disarming the mines.  I followed the main road into the town and successfully disarmed and retrieved the first couple mines, when suddenly a few bullets hit the car to my immediate right, igniting it and making a nice fireball.  I barely had time to get out-of-the-way.  I looked up the road ahead, and at the end, on top of a worn down three story building was a sniper, rifle in hand, trying to kill me.  I started running through town, ducking and crouching and getting my quota of mines, things exploding in the night.  If I wasn’t so scared of dying, I would probably would have thought it quite beautiful.  Once I obtained the requisite number of mines , I had a choice to make.  I could either simply return to the store and get my reward, or I could kill the sniper first, and then get paid.  The decision wasn’t that hard to make.  That fucker shot at me.  No one does that and gets away with it.  I pulled out my hunting rifle, a very nice gun, although the range was significantly less than the cheeky shit’s sniper rifle, so I had to get closer.  So I maneuvered through the remaining mines, disarming when I had to, just getting close enough to get a clean shot off.  Eventually I was in range.  I crouched down, focused and aimed for his head.  I fired and my aim was true.  The .32 bullet went straight through the enemy’s head, a clean shot.  It was as it should be.  One shot, one kill.  I looted his corpse, then returned to the store, got paid, and had a very nice dinner.

That’s all from the Wasteland for now.  Look for more tales from the Wasteland later.  Until next time, this is theindiegeek, signing out.  pe@ce