All the talk on Giantbomb about Fallout: New Vegas kind of reminded me that I never really played Fallout 3, so now I am. It's pretty good. I'm not immersed in the world to the point that I was immersed with Oblivion, but that probably has something to do with the fact that the world of Fallout 3: sucks! I mean, this is nothing against the quality of the game, because I think it's fantastic, it's just that the world they live in is totally lame. Everything's blown apart, there are giant mutated insects and raiders and orc-like things (they call 'em super-mutants, be we all know that's just an anagram for orc), you have to fight to get your hands on dirty water, and a lot of people are jerks.
Still, the game's a blast. I do feel immersed in the sense that i'm really scavenging the wastes for food, ammo, stimpacks, money, and whatever else, while all the while completing quests that are usually somewhat interesting. When I first heard of this game a few years back (you know, when it was still cool), I heard it described as "Like Oblivion with guns". To clarify, the guy I heard that from isn't exactly a genius in terms of... anything, but this game is not Oblivion with guns. It has such a different tone, not to mention the combat pace is much different with the whole VATS thing (by the way, VATS= Very Awesome Turn-based Shooting), though the sheer amount of dice-rolls in the non-VATS shooting is frustrating, to say the least.
Also, this game is pretty intense at parts. I'm a bit of a squeamish gamer, with the scariest game i've played through being Bioshock (loved that game, but i'll admit it's not too scary). I realize that Fallout 3 isn't supposed to be a horror game, but more of an atmospheric one, but still, I had a few moments... Alone late at night, 6 inches from the screen, headphones on, when I could hear something crawling ever so slightly... I'd turn around and BAM! I jump eight feet in the air from startlement.
I think some of that tenseness comes more out being very weak at the beginning of the game, with only a broken-ass pistol, a few rounds, and a baseball bat to defend against hideous creatures all around. Now that i'm further in with a more well-developed arsenal, i'm not afraid of the creatures as much. Once they rear their ugly faces, I just blow 'em to smithereens and skip off in search of loot.
I've also been playing a little (and I mean a little) L4D2, which is pretty ok. I really want to play that with a bunch of dudes I know (in real life) in the same room, so I can scream at them and shit instead of the silent sentinels of efficiency that I always seem to match up with on random. Oh well, it's a pretty good game, but no Fallout 3.
