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Fallout 3

User Rating:

ESRB: Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Sexual Themes,Strong Language,Use of Drugs
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genre(s): Role Playing Game
Home Page: http://fallout.bethsoft.com/

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By: Jarno Kokko Nov 06, 2008

Verdict: Excellent

Exploring other Vaults in the area for fun and profit.

Despite the fact that I just vented for a full page about the numerous shortcomings you can find in Fallout 3, the sum of all the different parts of the game is still very positive and the downsides are mostly cosmetic flaws that do not diminish the fun. Most importantly Fallout 3 captures the old Fallout setting and feel very well and the storyline is great. Naturally some old purists with their 2D-bitmap tinted Old Skool goggles have been whining loudly for various reasons - some of them valid, some not - but the truth is that Fallout 3 is a real Fallout game and the shift to modern engine dictated most of the notable changes, and the vast majority of the changes work out just fine.

Some bits do betray the magic of code re-use from Oblivion, but importantly Fallout 3 never felt like "Oblivion with Guns" to me. I personally grew bored of the Oblivion storyline and found the combat to be clunky. Fallout 3 combat with V.A.T.S., while not perfect, works acceptably and the story & setting is just pure gold. You never feel lost, and all the side-stories weave perfectly into a big overall lore about a twisted society living in the ruins left by a nuclear war. To top it all off, the game doesn't take itself too seriously and there is plenty of dark humor to spice it all up.

Okay, I could complain a bit about the relatively short main storyline or the ending, but I'll just consider these to be features - incentives to explore and enjoy all the numerous optional bits before rushing to complete the bits with your dad and his research. Besides, there are so many ways to play the game that there is plenty of reasons for a second round even if you do happen to be surprised by the end of the main storyline. In summary, Fallout 3 is probably the best RPG of the year, serious contender for Game of the Year and something you should definitely experience.

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

The publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:

Component	Publisher's Minimum	Publisher's Recommended
Processor	2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent	Intel Core 2 Duo Family
Memory	1024 MB	2048 MB
Graphics Card	Shader Model 2.0 with 256MB Video RAM	ATI Radeon HD 3800 series 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 series 512MB
Graphics Card Example	NVIDIA GeForce 6800 256MB / ATI Radeon X850 256MB	Not specified
Free Disk Space	9 GB	9 GB
Net Link	Not specified	Broadband (for Games for Windows LIVE)

To learn more about how YouGamers performs its hardware testing, click here. Through our extensive gameplay and hardware testing across the full spectrum of PC configurations, YouGamers suggests that one should use the following guidelines for an appropriate minimum and recommended setup:

Component	YouGamers Minimum	YouGamers Recommended
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 3500+ / Intel Pentium 4 3.2Ghz	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / Intel Core 2 Duo E4400
Memory	2048 MB	2048 MB
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon X1900 GT 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB	ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB
Free Disk Space	9 GB	9 GB
Net Link	Not specified	Broadband (for Games for Windows LIVE)

Scores

To learn more about our scoring methodology, please click here.

Gameplay	90	Some minor flaws, but overall the package works. Fun, playable and hooks you with that "one... more... quest..." feeling even when the clock says it's 4AM.
Graphics	88	Consistent and impressive when you consider the age of the engine. Sadly the character animation is just as flawed as in Oblivion and Bethesda still can't seem to create believable human faces.
Audio	92	Great music. The only downer is that the excellent radio shows gets a bit repetitive at times.
Technology	80	The engine is already somewhat old and it shows in some places. The animation system has it's fair share of problems, but the biggest problem is the overall instability of the PC version.

OVERALL

Great game and definitely worthy of being called Fallout, easily beating my modest expectations. Not perfect, but the flaws are mostly inconsequential when you consider the big picture. Excellent storyline, interesting game world and plenty of gratuitous violence.

Patches and DRM

A PC-specific patch of Fallout 3 has been announced to be available later this week. The initial patch should hopefully fix most of the random crashes.

Retail boxed version of Fallout 3 uses just a basic CD check - no activations or installation limits. Digital download versions (Steam, Direct2Drive etc.) use their normal DRM systems but nothing extra on top of that. Games for Windows LIVE (mostly just achievements) requires you to input an additional CD-key which works the same for both retail and digital download versions and it's not used to limit installations in any way - it's just used to authenticate your copy of the game for Games for Windows LIVE.

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