http://www.xboxfocus.com/columns/2-the-xbox-g … away/index.html

When it comes to my impressions on pre-released games, you can pencil me down as a cynic. After having my expectations trampled, […]
Show full quote

When it comes to my impressions on pre-released games, you can pencil me down as a cynic. After having my expectations trampled, spat upon, and raped so many times in the past, I have come to the conclusion that if I convince myself that every game with a release date is going to piss me off, I'll enjoy it much more than I would have thinking anything else. Since I've implemented this theory into work, I haven't been disappointed by a game in a long, long time, and since I tend to like enjoying the games that I buy, this is a status I would like to maintain.

Well, too bad Bethesda doesn't give a shit about my streak. No matter which way I slice it, I am knees-bent over Fallout 3. I cannot stop drooling over every Fallout 3 screenshot, video, and news releases that reaches me, and my addiction to any and all Fallout info can be compared to that of a cocaine addict's.

The game has firmly held me with the grip of anticipation from the moment I set eyes upon it, and I account this to the fact that Fallout 3 is the "perfect storm" for a gamer like myself: longtime fan of Bethesda, lover of open-world games, and post-apocalyptic storylines are a personal fetish (I really enjoyed "I am Legend", even though I put into practice the same "everything is going to suck" policy for movies as I do video games). When you mix all of that gaming divinity together, and then toss a bunch of what can only be described as "Bioshock-esque controls" on top, you have a nominee for "Best Game of All-Fucking Time" in my opinion.

Hell, I have been in love with Fallout 3 since the first moment I saw rendered footage of it so I guess the term "love at first sight" could be best used to describe my feelings towards the game (and yes, I'm completely aware that I am talking about a video game in the manner you’re supposed to do with those creatures called "women").

So what it is exactly that has me so excited about Fallout 3? While I could make this my first one-word column by jotting down the word "everything" and calling it a night, I'm pretty certain my readers want a bit more substance than that. So in light of that, here's a small list of particular aspects of the game that has me pulling out my pubic hair in anticipation (my crotch area is so red lately that I woke up yesterday morning believing I had herpes).

1. The backstory.
According to the Fallout universe, sometime after McCain-Palin are voted into office in 2008, nuclear war ravaged the Earth leaving our planet in a post-apocalyptic state in which cows have two heads, humans resemble zombies more so than humans, and half the world's oxygen supply is radiated and toxic. Fortunately however, bomb safe vaults intended for social experiments were cobbled together, keeping humanity alive in a deformed state for hundreds of years as it slowly tries to rebuild from the ground up through fascist organizations and underground city-states.

If you just read that last paragraph and didn't feel a tad of excitement rush up your veins, then I'm just going to assume you're illiterate.

Rarely do video games have this much to work with, and when they do, they tend to resemble a trash can with a kitchen sink on the top of it more so than a coherent story (I promised not to mention anymore Halo 3 bashing in this column- oh....damnit). Still, if there is one developer I can trust to make good use of such a wide-range of creative story elements, it is Bethesda, who has just recently caught their breath after writing over 3,000 years worth of Cyrodillian history. They must have had a shitload of block once they got into the annals of the Argonian race...

2. Slooooow-moooootion death animations.
One can look at this much-heralded facet of the game and label it as the title's "Wow" factor, which will invariably wear off after a week of gameplay. While they are probably right (and when I use the pronoun "they", I mean refer to the "Union of Global Crybabies"), it still doesn't take away from the fact that the one week of enjoying it will be more satisfying than one thousand present-day chainsaws animations and Spartan teabags combined together (*facepalm* for another Halo 3 reference again).

The slow-motion kill camera that Fallout 3 boasts is going to be an absolute treat for gamers, and for me to state it as anything else would be lying through my off-white teeth. Whether it be the hundreds of unique animations that play, the various amount of weapons at your disposal (why someone hasn't yet thought of "mini-nukes" in this industry is beyond me), and just to have something different than the standard chainsaw/pistol whip combination is a welcomed change of pace.

And to the haters: rather than moaning about how this feature has the possibility of becoming boring, why not embrace its originality? After all, this is the industry that has so willingly adopted such singular practices like giant laser beams as means to kill; why give an innovative animation feature so much heat? I'm not.

3. Liam Fucking Neeson is in it.
You know that guy! Ra's Al Ghul, Aslan, Oskar Schindler, that Jedi who tried to make Medichlorians sound as least lame as anyone possibly could (Aside: am I the only one who after listening to Jinn's description of medichlorians originally accepted it without thinking, then five minutes later said to themselves "Oh, what the hell did he just say?!?!"). Rarely do you see acting of this caliber reach the medium of video games, and his appearance is a sigh of relief to the ever-so standard testosterone injected, Ron Pearlman voiced characters. His dramatic voice and his subtle, yet noticeable emotions portrayed in past characters might be able to push Fallout 3 past the standard video game realm of "entertainment" and into the area of "art". Wouldn't that be something.....

4. Stunning level design.
To me, what separates good games, from great games, is how much the experience immerses you. To some, Pac-Man can be as fun as any mainstream video game, but if you tell me that you become so immersed by Pac-Man that you actually feel like a yellow crocodilian-orb, I would probably suggest you call up information for the directions to the nearest mental hospital.

Video games have a larger plethora of reachable emotions than any other medium of entertainment. Games can make you lose your sense of reality, they can allow your mind to release the endorphins of accomplishment and success, and they can pull you into their respective worlds to an extent that no film or album can possibly reach. More so than gameplay, a game's level design can truly suck you into a game's universe. If the game's design feels out of place, then so will the gamer who is playing it. But if the game's design flows with every element of gameplay, then somebody needs to plug in the coffee maker and order some Domino's, pronto.

From what has been made available to us, Fallout 3 has a chance to reach the current generation's pinnacle of gaming design. This open world appears to be a shining light amongst today's titles, peaking its head above this industry filled with repetitive games with clunky, incoherent layouts and design. If all the stars and planets align, there's a chance of Fallout 3 can reach the state of gaming nirvana, in which the gamer will be completely immersed into the game itself and unaware of his physical surrounding. While this may seem like an overstatement, all you have to do is take a gander at some of the game's screenshots to get an idea of what I'm referring to.

One cannot possibly look at a tarnished Capitol Building and not feel a tad irked inside. The game's stomach turning images already have me brought into the game's universe of despair and death, rendering the controller as a mere addition to product as a whole. The game looks absolutely horrifying, yet also so inexplicably enchanting. Let's put this way: this game has me staring at my calendar more often than I should.

5. New and Innovative Health System.
Sometime in the middle of last generation, some bimbo said "health bars suck!", and suddenly, they were never seen in a video game again. What was once a staple amongst all releases has become outdated as fast as Michael Jackson jokes, with the entire industry switching to the "magically replenish" system for a more realistic feel (yeah. riiiiiiiight).

I have many problems with the new system, but after years of hating it, it has eventually grown on me (hey, if you were forced to eat dog shit for four years straight, eventually, you would start to tolerate it). Still, now that we're entering a time where new, more interesting health-related ideas have come into fruition, it's about time we open up the jar of hate and replace it for good.

Fallout 3 is going to offer the best answer to the problematic system of today. One thing that has always pissed me off about the current health system is that it can't really differentiate the severity of the locations in which you're affected. For example, if you're shot in the foot, you recover just as fast as if you were shot in the neck. Last time I checked, breathing heavily for ten seconds isn't the cure to a gun wound.

Fallout 3 has introduced a newer, more realistic system: rather than having one, almighty health bar for the entire body, there are different, specially designed bars for your head, torso and legs. While the words "health bars" may be synonymous with "1998" these days, the mixture that Fallout 3 is expecting to put into use can be something more realistic than anything you will ever see in, Call of Duty 4, Crysis or Bioshock (I don't care what excuses Bioshock used to guise it's recovery system, it was still the worst part about the game.)

Here's a blast from the past: health containers will be coming back to Fallout 3 in all shapes and size. Love them or hate them, it just makes plain sense: if you're bleeding, get a fucking first-aid kit! Don't sit on your ass and wait for the magical fairy to come around and sprinkle you with her pixie dust.

6. Over 300 Different Endings.
People love a good story. Whether it's the "The Night Before Christmas" tale your mother told you when you were a toddler, or it be the "Alien XXX Sex Invasion" you tuned into last night at 3 AM: everything has a story. Gaming is no exception, and a game's plot is critical to its success.

However, for a medium that relies so much on user interaction, it's surprising to see how little you can possibly affect a game's story in mainstream video games. Sure, you can push a story forward, but rarely do you have any say in its outcome, nor can you choose how your fate will be decided. That has been the cutscnes job.

Fallout 3 spins that all of that on its head, then proceeds to kick it the nose, and fart in its face. Fallout 3 is promising over three-hundred, separate endings that can be attained. While all of these aren't complete changes, the subtle differences are expected to be noticeable from ending to ending; which is still unheard of in any video game to date. Even Oblivion, which was so heavily heralded as being a game that allowed you to choose how you play, had one rudimentary ending involving a giant devilish humanoid receiving a spanking from an angel. Fallout 3's wide array of story options and the hefty amount of user-based interaction with its overall plot is something unprecedented in this industry, and if it ends up being all we expect it to be, Fallout 3 can truly be endless.

7. Truly Interactive Weapons, AI, and More
As if the massive size of Fallout 3's world isn't enough, the game's smallest parts will have a level of depth and realism that you cannot find anywhere else. Weapons eventually deteriorate after months of usage, forcing the player to fix them through collecting parts and other metals. Clothing and armor work better for different skills; so if you were fixing a weapon, wearing lighter apparel would allow you to work faster and quicker. The world's radiated oxygen supply will add an even thicker level of depth to every aspect in the game, forcing the player to think out every action he performs to check the radioactivity of certain objects.

NPCs also have been granted some extra smarts. While we're used to the standard brand of semi-retarded, bogged down, constantly resurrecting teammates in most video games, Fallout 3 is a cut above the norm. In Fallout, NPCs will not be able to spontaneously reappear after dying: if they die, they are gone, adding a level of responsibility to the player. Not only that, but NPCs will also be given a karma system which gives them the ability to accept or deny you. Some characters will turn on you as you do interact with other factions and groups, and sometimes they will not due to the news not reaching their ears (this is a fully interactive game world: you interact with other NPCs on a daily basis and they interact with each other in the same manner.)

8. October 28th isn't that far away...
I can go on and on listing the intelligence that is behind Fallout 3, and even after days of writing and bowing I wouldn't be able to properly give this game its due justice. October 28th is when we all will be able to truly discover the artistry that is Fallout 3. Knowing my luck Fallout 3 will turn out to be the most glitch-infected title since Spore, which can be considered an achievement in itself. Don't count on it though. This game is going to be special, and no matter what my lofty expectations are, there is no way I can take that away from it.

Fallout 3 is the game to watch for, and if you're not watching out for it, then you should have your eyes gauged out.

NMA Thread
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.ph … 148e2de33ec949e