Product Details
 | Fallout 3 |
| Price: | $19.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Average customer review:
Product Description
3 playable characters, each with their own unique traits, strengths and attributes. Unleash over 50 ranged, explosive weapons on hoards of radioactive and mutant creatures and bosses. Tons of unique equipment to acquire from defeated enemies.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1247 in Video Games
- Brand: Bethesda
- Model: 12690
- Released on: 2008-10-28
- ESRB Rating: Mature
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.25" h x 5.25" w x 7.50" l, .61 pounds
Features
- Fight for survival against terrors of the outside world, radiation, and mutants after nuclear fallout
- Latest in human ability simulation affords unlimited customization of characters
- Expansive world in modern super-deluxe HD graphics
- Features ability to pause time in combat, target specific body parts, and queue up attacks
- 1st- or 3rd-person perspective
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The
third game in the Fallout series, Fallout 3 is a
singleplayer action role-playing game (RPG) set in a post-apocalyptic
Washington DC. Combining the horrific insanity of the Cold War era
theory of mutually assured destruction gone terribly wrong, with the
kitschy naivety of American 1950s nuclear propaganda, Fallout 3
will satisfy both players familiar with the popular first two games in
its series as well as those coming to the franchise for the first time.
The
Story: Vault 101 – Jewel of the Wastes
For 200 years, Vault 101 ,
a fallout shelter, has faithfully served the surviving residents of
Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland.
Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the
residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the
outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super
Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one
fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the
Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for
reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you've ever known, you emerge
from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father,
and the truth.Key Features:
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- Limitless Freedom! – Take in the sights and sounds of the vast Capital Wasteland! See the great monuments of the United States lying in post-apocalyptic ruin! You make the choices that define you and change the world. Just keep an eye on your Rad Meter!
- Experience S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! – Vault-Tec engineers bring you the latest in human ability simulation – the SPECIAL Character System! Utilizing new breakthroughs in points-based ability representation, SPECIAL affords unlimited customization of your character. Also included are dozens of unique skills and perks to choose from, each with a dazzling variety of effects!
- Fantastic New Views! – The wizards at Vault-Tec have done it again! No longer constrained to just one view, experience the world from 1st or 3rd person perspective. Customize your view with the touch of a button!
- The Power of Choice! – Feeling like a dastardly villain today, or a Good Samaritan? Pick a side or walk the line, as every situation can be dealt with in many different ways. Talk out your problems in a civilized fashion, or just flash your Plasma Rifle.
- Blast 'Em Away With V.A.T.S.! –Even the odds in combat with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System for your Pip-Boy Model 3000! V.A.T.S. allows you to pause time in combat, target specific body parts on your target, queue up attacks, and let Vault-Tec take out your aggression for you. Rain death and destruction in an all-new cinematic presentation featuring gory dismemberments and spectacular explosions.
- Mind-Blowing Artificial Intelligence! – At Vault-Tec, we realize that the key to reviving civilization after a global nuclear war is people. Our best minds pooled their efforts to produce an advanced version of Radiant AI, America's First Choice in Human Interaction Simulation. Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results by the latest in Vault-Tec technology.
- Eye-Popping Prettiness! – Witness the harsh realities of nuclear fallout rendered like never before in modern super-deluxe HD graphics. From the barren Wasteland, to the danger-filled offices and metro tunnels of DC, to the hideous rotten flesh of a mutant's face.
System Requirements:
| Minimum Specifications: | Recommended Specifications: | |
| OS: | Windows XP/Vista | |
| Processor: | 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor | Intel Core 2 Duo processor |
| RAM: | XP: 1GB System RAM Vista: 2GB System RAM | 2 GB System RAM |
| Video Card: | Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better/ATI X850 or better) | NvidiaDirect X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series) |
| Supported Video Card Chipsets: | NVIDIA GeForce Series 200, 9800, 9600, 8800, 8600, 8500, 8400, 7900, 7800, 7600, 7300, 6800; ATI HD Series 4800, 4600, 3800, 3600, 3400, 2900, 2600, 2400; ATI Series X1900, X1800, X1600, X1300, and X850 | |
Customer Reviews
Overall, a strong step forward for Bethesda with a few unfortunately major flaws.
The next release by Bethesda
after the gorgeous but surprisingly shallow game Oblivion, Fallout 3 is a
vast improvement on almost every level over the company's previous
efforts, providing an extreme level of high-quality content and a truly
massive game experience at the expense of average writing and a
poorly-implemented main plot.
First off, graphics. I'm running
the game at High quality (as opposed to Very High) on a computer using
parts that were cutting edge about two years ago. Visually, this game is
a total knockout; painstakingly and stunningly rendered down to the
smallest detail, from the wreckage and debris everywhere even to the
level of most NPCs. The character models in particular stand out as a
vast improvement over Oblivion's, although the character animations -
particularly on hills - is still as stilted as ever and you will notice
some repetitive faces. Where the game truly shines is in the
environmental design, particularly on the graphical level - I can safely
say that no other game has ever felt as real and vibrant (albeit dead,
considering it's post-apocalyptic) as Fallout 3. The environment truly
feels real, especially coupled with a surprisingly logical and
high-quality approach to level design - office buildings and schools are
laid out like office buildings and schools, most buildings have
bathrooms inside. Wreckage and debris are used strategically to block
off areas and direct the player, rather than bizarre architectural
choices as in Oblivion (who builds a fort in the shape of one long
tunnel?). I can't rave enough about the high-quality graphics, a few
relatively minor animation issues and mild NPC face repetition
notwithstanding. Downtown DC, with its half-demolished monuments and
museums, is absolutely breathtaking. The game is also fully voiced, and
the voice acting is relatively high-quality. Although you'll likely
begin to notice NPCs who sound suspiciously similar - especially old
women, who all sound identical - the acting is considerably better and
they've reused voice actors a lot less than in the Elder Scrolls games.
People who follow such things may recognize Raphael Sbarge (KotOR) and
John DiMaggio (Futurama; FFX) in a few places. Liam Neesan does a decent
job with fairly bland lines as the PC's saintly father and Ron Perlman
is back to narrate the surprisingly tepid introductory and final movies.
But Malcolm McDowell steals the show as the unsettlingly patriotic
President Eden, mostly through a series of Roosevelt-esque radio
speeches the player can choose to listen to at will through.
This
is easily the most fun game I've played in a long while. They've
stripped out a lot of things that bogged down earlier Bethesda efforts
and even to an extent earlier Fallout games, which lends itself to a
much more fast-paced, almost survival horror-esque feel to much of the
game. The VATS system is a huge disappointment to anyone expecting true
turn-based combat - it's much more like bullet time than anything else -
but taken on its own merits is a pretty clever gimmick that is actually
pretty fun to use. Combat in general is satisfyingly fast-paced, and a
clever, logical approach to level design keeps the player moving along
nicely in most areas while still giving the feeling that you might be
down to your last clip of bullets or stimpack. Radiation - and
particularly irradiated food, which heals you at the cost of adding to
your rad level - is an interesting new dimension which is unfortunately
barely touched on, as weightless, radless Stimpacks are weightless and
much more effective than drinking water or food. Buffs take the form of
drugs with a variety of effects, and can make the difference between
survival and death - but watch out for (easily cured, and mostly
pointless) addictions. There are a few glaring issues with the gameplay,
however: the speech and dialog options, while again an enormous
improvement over previous Bethesda games (FO3 features dialog trees
instead of topic buttons, allowing for more dynamic conversations),
require little to no thought on the part of the player - a far cry from
the clever dialog puzzles former Fallout developer Black Isle was known
for. High stats in Lockpicking or Science basically just buy you the
ability to play their associated minigames at higher difficulty levels;
if you're bad at Mastermind or have poor reflexes, don't expect to
succeed at them, even with a maxed-out skill value. Combat is decently
balanced but startlingly illogical in places, and at low levels it
frequently takes an entire clip of shotgun shells to the face to take
down a single human opponent; similarly, the economy is bizarrely
stacked, with the reward for single-handedly saving a town from total
annihilation being less valuable than a single night at the local inn.
Cash in general is hard to come by for much of the game; even vendors
rarely have enough to buy more than a fraction of your loot at a time.
Fortunately, there are a few nearly limitless sources available to you,
if you're willing to put in the work for the money, and the trade system
allows for direct bartering. Character design and advancement is
basically just a dumbed-down version of the previous games' systems, and
badly in need of balancing. A few of the non-combat stats are
ridiculously overpowered (you'll have a tough time getting through the
game without a high Lockpick and Repair skill) and, unlike its
predecessors, you won't be able to get through much of Fallout 3 without
putting a significant commitment into combat skills (which comprise
about half the skill set). However, it's still easily possible to cater
to most play styles, and clever players with an eye on the strategy
guide will have little trouble maxing out all their skills and most of
their attributes before hitting the level 20 cap.
The main plot
is extremely short by design, taking somewhere between 8-10 hours for
players progressing at normal speed to complete; taking note of one of
the defining characteristics of the Fallout franchise, Bethesda opted to
make huge swaths of the main quest optional (you can stumble upon
information or people who will lead you further into the plot, bypassing
intermediary steps), lending the game a feeling of versatility that
more tracked-in games lack. Consequently, the game feels a lot more
dynamic and flexible, even accounting for several quests that are
essentially good guy/bad guy choices and at least two where there isn't
even a bad guy choice. However, because Bethesda opted to only consider
quests with their own subplots "sidequests", there's a lot to do in the
Wasteland that is entirely freeform, and the game often rewards players
for free-roaming and for following clues provided in the game's copious
flavor text. The result is an unusually detail-oriented, lovingly
crafted world that feels logical and realistic, aside from the
relatively limited dialog options. The game is well worth buying solely
for the wealth of awesome content lurking in the wings of the game, and
already has an active modding community likely to produce still more
content to keep you entertained long after the game's disappointingly
average main plot has faded into memory. This is even true on the item
level: there are a variety of awesome and entertaining gimmick weapons,
the opportunity to buy and customize houses (which provides extremely
tangible benefits, unlike the Oblivion equivalent) and several unique
items lying around that can by claimed and repaired by the player.
Fallout 3 has a level of detail rarely seen in any game.
On the
downside, a few of the sidequests have glaringly obvious logical errors
in them. Your character generally acts like an old hand at wandering the
Wasteland straight out of his hermetically sealed childhood home,
regardless of what dialog options you choose. And despite the general
emphasis on free roaming, you do get railroaded in several places - your
response options to a given NPC's behavior generally consist only of
fairly transparent light side/neutral/dark side options where they exist
at all, and the main plot abandons all pretense of player control in
the second half - but for the most part, you're free to turn around at
any point up until the very end and go back to free roaming, which is
where the real meat of the game is anyway. The main plot itself is
significantly better than Oblivion's, but falls apart at the climax,
leading into an unexpected, abrupt and deeply unsatisfying resolution;
also, in a radical departure from the rest of the game, the last few
subquests in the main plot are essentially mandatory dungeons followed
by a staggeringly black-and-white moral choice. Fortunately, the weakest
elements of the game are mostly contained in the last two or three
subquests of the main plot, and you can easily get months of playtime
out of this consistently excellent sandbox exploration game without ever
having to sit through the most disappointing parts ever again.
A
few other things to mention that I left out of the review:
-The only
DRM included with the game is a simple disc check (you only even need a
serial number for Windows Live)
-There is a large and skilled pool
of modders already producing custom content for the game, even without
official word on a Construction Set.
-The load times are blazing
fast. I have Word files that take longer to open than FO3 maps.
-The
game is excessively buggy at the moment, and only PC users will be able
to use most of the bug fixes. Console users may want to hold off until a
patch is released.
Not Your Parents'
Fallout
Fallout 3 represents Bethesda
Softworks' first take of the legendary game franchise since they
purchased the rights from the failing Interplay in 2004. So, how did
Bethesda do? In essence, Fallout 3 is Oblivion (Bethesda's most
well-known game) with a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic skin on it. The Good,
Bad, and Ugly on this game includes...
Good:
- Spectacular
Graphics (I'd have said beautiful, but we ARE talking about a
post-apocalyptic world here). From blown-up highway overpasses to angry
super mutants, players will be completely visually immersed in the game.
-
Massive World. Fallout 3 is not a "first ten hours and you're done"
game. The developers have said that F3 contains over 100 hours of game
play if all of the side quests are done and, having played a good
portion of them, I can say that this seems to be correct.
-
Interesting World. There's a lot to see and do in post-war D.C.! Visit
the Washington Monument, try and find historical documents, join a cult,
stop slavers, or become one yourself! There are plenty of new (and
different) things to do in Fallout 3.
Bad:
- No Turn-Based
Combat. Fallouts 1&2 featured turn-based strategic combat; Fallout 3
is primarily First-Person Shooter style. The V.A.T.S. system of
location-specific targeting has been added to sort of simulate
turn-based combat for those interested, but it is poorly done (EX: what
appear to be high-percentage VATS shots with a clear view from
first-person end up being completely blocked by the target's slight
movements; VATS will not stop the shooting even though precious ammo is
wasted). Gameplay is primarily first-person, though a buggy "shoulder
camera view" can also be used. If you love FPS games, this will not be
an issue.
- Lacks Original's Dark Humor. Forced jokes do not make a
Fallout game - the creators simply were not able to capture this aspect
of the original.
- Linear Solutions. Initially, it seemed that there
would be a lot of choices in how Fallout 3's quests were to be solved
(EX: Lie to solve a quest or do the actual legwork? Blow up a city or
disarm the bomb?); the problem is, these options tend to disappear
shortly after the game starts - especially in the main story line. Most
of the time, players can choose between the "Good" option and the "Evil"
one - and that's it. Small choices like hacking a gun turret to clean
out a room of Super Mutants or tossing in a few grenades to clean them
out (two different skills) still exist, but the results tend to be the
same. Fallout 3 tends to offer players the illusion of choice rather
than actual choices, and that's not in the spirit of the Fallout series.
-
Poor Music. The background music is both repetitive and boring; The
"radio" songs are too few/not fitting to the zones.
Ugly:
-
Quest Bugs. Many of the side quests have bugs in them that, while they
can be worked around, still detract from the game. The Big Town quests
have many examples of this.
- Crash Bugs. I didn't have any problems
installing the game on my Vista system (many people report such install
problems, however). I played the game for many hours without any
crashes. A few days after installing the game, however, it crashed on
loading a saved game and then refused to load up at all. Allowing my
game to connect to the internet/Live seems to have cleared the problem
up, but it is still very strange.
- SecuROM. Parts of your system
will be scanned and various aspects checked to see if installation will
be allowed. This is a very serious issue for some consumers (especially
those that get installation errors), but not a big deal for others.
Fallout
3 is an excellent First-Person Post-Apocalyptic Action Game. Older fans
may be extremely disappointed with the changes that have occurred to
the series since Fallout 2, and may want to avoid this game if they are
looking for a direct update. New players, however, will greatly enjoy
the game if they liked Bethesda's previous game, Oblivion, or if they
had fun with 2K Game's Bioshock. In my view, Fallout 3 is definitely
worth playing - it just isn't the Fallout fans of the franchise might be
expecting.
12/18/2007 Update: For those interested, Bethesda
Softworks - the creators of Fallout 3 - have released an official
worldbuilder/editor for the PC version of the game. It is called the
G.E.C.K. (like the item in the game), and can be downloaded from the
official Bethsoft website.
WOW...Even
Better Than I Hoped
First, understand my bias. I'm a fast-twitch FPS fan who never had much joy with RPGs (unless it
stood for Rocket Propelled Grenades). I just couldn't get excited about
the spells, wizards and magic which dominate the genre. But after about
20 hours of play, this game may have changed my mind. It's not a
traditional FPS and it's not a traditional RPG.
1)It's a
polished, complete piece of work, especially compared to alternative PC
games in 2008.
There are a few bugs here and there, but there is an
overwhelming sense that Bethesda actually tested the game and outside
people actually played the game before it was pronounced ready to ship.
2)The
replay value is huge.
The variety of paths and complexity of open
world experiences tell me I'm going to spend at least a hundred hours
with this.
3)It's configuration friendly.
I have a rig that
can smoke most fast-twitch PC games out there, but you don't need that
level of investment to enjoy this game. It's cool to have a new $50 game
come out that doesn't expect people to spend $500 on hardware just to
enjoy it.
4)The DRM is reasonable. (Said while holding nose and
grimacing)
I have nothing good to say about DRM. Software DRM remains
totally ineffective against piracy. It only hurts honest people.
Bethesda has made this DRM very light. You need to have the DVD in the
drive when you install it, but there is no on-line activation and no
requirement to have the DVD in the drive when you play. No DRM would be
better, but I can live with this.
5)It doesn't feel like a
console game tweaked for the PC
Except for a couple of changes around
key bindings (like being able to bind keys to mouse wheel movements),
it feels like the PC experience was part of the design from the start.
That said, I urge you to run...not walk...to your shopping cart and buy this game today...not tomorrow...do it today...click it right now. Once it arrives, you will lose sleep and your family may complain when you say, "just a couple more minutes", but you are in for an immersive experience with what I think is the best PC game of 2008 and one of the best ones I have seen in a long time. Props to Bethesda for a job well done.
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