Game Review: Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is one of the greatest games this year. It's an amazing representation of how games are art. Because any mission, any moment, could be made into a movie or book. And this just shows who much work goes into games. Not just a nuclear wasteland. But a 1950's styled nuclear wasteland! And just miles of interesting places, interesting characters and everything.

The story is great, revolving around you searching for your father. But the starting 30 minutes are amazing. You are born in the Vault and grow up. It a rich experience. Then in the theme of Oblivion, when you finally get out and see the world for the first time, you're amazed. There's a sign saying View Point or something and you got up to it and there's this sprawling land in front of you with dead trees, a broken freeway bridge and a small decimated town.

The big problem is the level cap is 20 and the game ends when you complete the main quest which is extraordinarily lame. And now, to fix those you'll have to buy DLC, how cheap is that!? I haven't played it since I beat it so I'll be playing it again in March when the last of the DLC comes out. Really lame that they did that. But it's an amazing game none the less.

Programming: 9/10 : A couple of bugs, and who thought a level 20 cap was a good idea?
Graphics: 10/10 : Brilliant representation of a nuclear apocalypse it's so rich to look at the sun come up over the wasteland
Story: 10/10 : Amazing. The greatest start to a game ever and there is such a twist near the end I was just amazed.
Atmosphere: 10/10 : Who knew an 1950's nuclear wasteland would be so fun
Controls: 9.5/10 : Well implemented, although the pip-boy seems out of place in B button
Overall: 10/10 : One of my favourite games of all time.

Games That Have Annoyed Me

1. Mass Effect
Last Played: I honestly only played for a few hours after I beat the game.
Reason: First off, I was lied to. That's right, LIED to. How you ask?



Notice the end of the trailer. How you switch from person to person? That was completely cut from the game. Also the longer trailer showed how you could dynamically effect conversation, that wasn't in either. I never heard that before the game was released and I checked the website and forums frequently.

Finally the worst offender to me was that once you finish the final mission, that's it. Your character is done. You have to create a new character or reload a save if you want to explore the other worlds.

These betrayals hurt me because I was extremely excited for the game. I bought the book, had all the trailers on my 360 and watched them religiously, and pre-ordered the Limited Special Edition.

2. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Last Played: 3-6 Months Ago
Reason: Someone thought that I'd like the idea of losing all my multiplayer 'mini' achievements so I could rank up more. NO! That is a big pile of bullshit. Fuck you! I don't need your fucking ranks! I earned this fucking achievements and I'm damn well going to keep them! And since I'm not ranking up anymore I'm not going to play! So fuck you!

3. Fall-Out 3
Last Played: A week ago or more
Reason: They borrowed a page from Mass Effects shitty ideas and ended the game after you beat the story. They didn't do this for Oblivion! I read on the Fallout 3 forums where people complained about this: "People don't get that this isn't an Elder Scrolls game it's a Fallout 3 game" Well that reasoning is fucking stupid! Is there a story line? Check. Is there dozens of missions, characters and areas to explore that don't involve the story? Check! THEN DON'T END THE GAME WHEN THE STORY ENDS!

The big reason this pisses me off is because no other games do this. FPSs let you choose a level for example, so if I need a certain achievement I can just go to that level and play. You can't do that for RPGs!

Finally fuck Mass Effect for their play the game over! but this time with so and so only achievements! And the same for Fallout 3

4. GTA:IV
Last Played: Months ago
Reason: I got fucked over by their completion score, I got like 99.3% completion and I've done fucking everything!

November Ramblings

I'm surprised we're already at 10 (11 now I guess) posts for November. It snowed for pretty much the first time yesterday. And today it was cold as f**k. So I'll let Lew speak for me on this subject.


This weekend was great. My cousin was down for a hockey tournament which was fun to watch. I got a slushie and a fries with gravy at the arena which was good. We went to Turtle Jacks afterward and later on I introduced sister #2 to Fallout 3. I then played some NHL 2k8.
Sunday we went to see sister #1 and ate at East Side Mario's. We finished by picking up some groceries and then went home, watched some tv and I play some more 2k8.

Right now I'm watching Help! (WTF?) and now I'm gonna play some more 360

Demo Review: Mirrors Edge

Mirrors Edge
Good/Bad: GOOD
Although short the Mirrors Edge leaves you wanting more. The combat and some of the more specific moves can be a bit hard to master, you can see that there's a ton of room for the game to let you move around a bit. I think 10-20 years from now Mirrors Edge will be referred to as a Concept Game for First Person Shooters, sort of like Dark Side of The Moon for Rock, in line with Portal and Doom. The basic idea is that you can jump from rooftop to rooftop, trying to escape police in a big brother dystopia. The game has a sort of Matrix feel to it. Think about it, your trying to escape police by jumping long distances in a dystopian world, disarming enemies with martial arts-like moves, with gun play, in a city, and heck there's even "bullet-time". If you were a fan of the matrix you will like this game. Hell I wouldn't mind if this game were called the Matrix.

Anyway like I said at the start I can't really get into the plot because the demo was pretty short and also like I said it left me wanting more. Eventually I will buy this game (After Fable 2, Fallout 3, Rock Band 2 and Gears of War 2), or at least rent it.

My E3 Thoughts...

E3 is/was the Christmas of my gaming religion. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is my Mecca. Unfortunately, this year I was on vacation the same week as the show. But now that I've gotten a chance to take it all in, here are my thoughts on Microsoft presentation and miscellaneous E3 items:



Microsofts Presentation

• Fallout 3 looks bloody amazing! (And I'm not kidding about the blood)


• Resident Evil 5 comes out March 13! Can you say birthday present for me?!


• Fable 2 is going to be a must by for me this year. It looks incredible!


• All I can say about the Gears of War 2 trailer they showed: Damn!


• All I can say about the Gears of War 2 demo they showed: GOD DAMN!


• How the hell am I going to afford Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3?


• Live Party (you and friends able to talk and go into different game instantly) sounds sweet.


• Primetime, which is basically a game show channel where you compete and possibly win prizes, looks amazing! Especially 1 vs. 100. My only concern is that Canada is gonna get screwed over again.


• The dashboard update looks great, I'm also excited about the harddrive installation idea.


• I'm uncertain about Avatars, they look better than Miis but still a little too cartoony for many people.


• Microsoft's Lips looks fun, if it works for Rock Band 2, I may get it for Christmas! I love that you can play iPod songs on it!


• 500 songs for Rock Band 2 is amazing! But not as amazing as AC/DC!


• I'm not a fan of RPG's (Role Playing Games, not Rocket Propelled Grenades) by any means, but you'd have to be an idoit to not know that Square Enix and Final Fantasy are huge for the Xbox 360.

Mischellanious

• The boys at Ensemble have done a great job with Halo Wars, it looks great, fun to control, and I'm glad it comes out next year (I can't afford more games!)


• I Am Alive (surivial game) should be good if it's done right, which Ubisoft should be able to do.


• Red Alert 3! Do I need to say more?


• Fine then, the units look awesome, the buildings look awesome, Christ the landscape looks awesome! Take a look a the water in RA2-

Compared to RA3-

Need I say more?

Ghostbuster looks okay too.

Finally I have sad post E3 news, Splinter Cell has been delayed until 2009-2010!