I’ve got to say, overall I’m a bit disappointed in Fallout 3. What I’d wanted was a game much closer to Fallout 1 and 2. That is to say, a role playing game with turn-based strategy elements. What I got instead was something much closer to Oblivion, which is of course not a bit surprising given that Fallout 3 uses Oblivion’s game engine. And while there are a great many differences between Oblivion and Fallout 3, the new game fails to capture the spirit of the original two titles. If only the good folks at Bethesda had played through Wasteland and taken copious notes.

Still, I can’t claim that I’m not enjoying the game. I enjoyed Oblivion quite a lot, and even if I do wish that Fallout 3 had a greater number of weapons, something akin to Oblivion’s alchemy system, and vehicles (a drivable jeep, tank, or helicopter would be really nice) I’m still enjoying the game. I’m finding that I love the combat shotgun, Chinese assault rifle, and sniper rifle, and that I don’t like the minigun, laser rifle, or hunting rifle very much. Grenades and mines? Awesome. Rock-it launcher? Piece of crap. And the flaming shishkebab sword is made of win.

I’m cranking up my stealth, explosives, and repair skills, as well as my big guns skill. While I’m not a fan of the minigun, the rocket launcher and flamer are very nice, and I look forward to eventually finding some kind of gatling laser. It really does seem like the small guns skill is the most valuable skill so long as you’re using V.A.T.S., but I can’t help but wish for something more. This playthrough, I’ve totally eschewed conversation as an option – my charisma is 3, speech is 14, and I made my character ass-ugly. Yet despite the fact that I’ve sold two people into slavery, my karma is simply through the roof. And I’d thought this was gonna be my bad guy playthrough. Oh well, maybe I’ll go back and free the people I enslaved. Meh. I’ll do it right after I enslave the three others on my list. That way I get the achievement for enslaving them, plus I get to free more people.

Man, I’d never considered the sick kind of thinking that achievements produce. Can you imagine how people in the game would view that kind of behavior if they were real people rather than rudimentary AI? That guy is effing crazy! He just helped that lady get all the notes together for her Wasteland Survival Guide, then blew up the entire town before she could get the book written!

But the characters in the game are themselves a bit off their rockers too. I’ve talked to people who claimed that they could fix just about anything, and then when I went into the fix menu, I’d find that their repair skill was 12. And the physics are a bit off sometimes too. And I’m not just talking about revisiting an area where you’ve killed a few supermutants to find their corpses convulsing wildly for 10 seconds or so after your arrival, coourtesy of bad ragdoll physics. I’m talking about that time when I was running along, my trusty mutt Dogmeat at my side, and he bumped a barrel as he passed it. The barrel flew through the air and hit me, nearly killing me. Seriously! That heartbeat sound started and I had to take a stimpack quick before Dogmeat ran over and stepped on my foot or something.

I’ve got a few gripes about the whole Windows LIVE! system too. After I’d been playing the game for long enough to get my first character up to level 10 or so, I decided to click that “LIVE” button to see what it did. It prompted me to connect to my windows live account, and when the whole thing was done, I’d lost the ability to use my old character. Oh sure, I could’ve signed out of Windows LIVE and kept playing, but it’s sure more fun when you can get those achievements. Heck – this is the first achievement of any sort I’ve gotten. So I created the ugly mofo you see at the left here and started all over.

Also, the interface they ported over from XBox live is just plain broken. I’m sure it works great if you’ve got a 360 controller, but with a mouse it’s nearly unusable. The buttons act as if they’re about 25 pixels away from where they actually are. If your mouse is over a button, clicking it generally won’t work. You’ll need to click a little ways below it or to the side. Effing broken.

I’m also dying for some good community mods for this game. Given the amazing mods that were available for Oblivion, I know it’ll only be a matter of time before we see mods that change and improve AI, mods that add Fallout 2’s traits, mods that slow you down when holding a minigun and speed you up when unarmed, or mods that add new monsters like golden geckos, giant rats, and cyborgs. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get a proton axe.