Fallout 3 Preview

So one of the bigger things on the market that is getting both praise and hatred and curiosity and I think that was three things is Fallout 3. The issue is really divided into two very equal groups.

Generally, the fans of Fallout say, hey, this isn't Fallout. This is a Fallout-inspired Oblivion knockoff. This is because the game has been turned from a strategy RPG kinda hybrid into a first- and third-person perspective RPGish game. Bioshock comes to mind.

The other group is everyone else. They say, hey, this looks neat. Being able to target body parts in freeze-frame time and shoot them with an accuracy based upon your skills? Interesting.

I'm of the latter group, but I'm also of the former. Let me elaborate.

I played Fallout 1 and 2, and hey, they were pretty great. They were chock-full of problems but they were really great. I loved the engine and I got a kick out of the After the Bomb setting. My problems with the game were simple; the game was too difficult to play. There were way too many areas where I wasn't clear about the sequence you could go in, and therefore I would sequence break the hell out of it.

It was like to play Fallout you needed a degree in The Fallout Sequence.

Picture this: I go out of the Vault, I find the water chip, return it to my vault, get sent to the Glow, and suddenly there's a mutant who captures me and shoves me in a cell and demands answers from me. I answer with "I don't know," but at that point that was supposed to be a lie.

I totally understand Bestheda's twisting of the game itself as being perverse. I would love to see a fully immersing Fallout tactical RPG just like the old ones, but newer with a new story. But this is the catch; I'm more interested in the Oblivion/Fallout hybrid they've stumbled across.

Maybe I'm just being a Whorehammer, and yes I make up terms sometimes, but the moment he picked up, quote, a "Powerfist", I perked up and paid lots more attention. It severely lacked Space Marine Power Armor or Witch Hunter runes written on it, but punching someone's head off was awesome enough that I forgive them for not committing plagiarism.

Fallout 3 isn't without problems - it's still the Oblivion engine. People talk amazingly stiff, swaying only at the head and, if they feel dangerous, shifting their pinkie. I'm going to place big money on a few points where the game is just going to be loaded with bugs.

I'll still buy it, but the game comes with free redness and irritation.