Fallout 3

Platform	Xbox 360
List Price	$59.99
	$59.99 (Save 0%)

Published by	Bethesda
Release date
ASIN	B000UU3SVI
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours

For 200 years, Vault 101, a fallout shelter, has 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 Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants. Yet one morning, you awake to find that your father has 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. Fallout 3 is a singleplayer action role-playing game (RPG) that combines 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.

Mind-Blowing Artificial Intelligence - Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results Modern super-deluxe HD graphics

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 Cold War goes Next-Gen
The Capital Wasteland
Welcome to the nation's capital.
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Brotherhood of Steel member
The Brotherhood of Steel is a powerful ally.
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The Pip-Boy Model 3000
Customize characters with your Pip-Boy.
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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:

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.

Customer Reviews - courtesy of Amazon.com

Outstanding game; better than Oblivion.

I got this game a week ago and have already played over 40 hours on it. I found the story and game environment very engrossing. Bethesda did a very good job creating a detailed futuristic world. It's not only the graphics that are amazing, it's the back story. Bethesda spent a lot of effort on the game content. For example, you can go into a museum and read the history of the Fallout world. It's very detailed.

The game world is also HUGE. I still haven't done half the quests and there are probably about a hundred locations I still haven't discovered. This game is massive and well worth the cost.

A lot of fun

I have been enjoying Fallout 3 for about 70 hours now and I am having as much fun now as I was 50 hours ago, which is to say A LOT.

I cannot speak to the bugs that others seem to be experiencing. In my 70 hours I have had my game freeze only a handful of times, and none of them were anything that was game breaking. I have several friends who are also playing and none of them have expressed any serious glitches either.

I have played both the previous Fallout games and vastly enjoyed them both, so to make a blanket statement that "anyone who was a fan of the first 2 Fallouts will hate this game" is just erroneous. I would agree with someone who said this game is more of a Next Gen title in the Fallout Universe rather than a true sequel to the Interplay games.

However, that does not in any way detract from the epic amount of fun to be found in Fallout 3.

The adventuring around the Wastes is the highlight of the game to be sure. The amazing amount of freedom to roam the Wastes is just phenomenal, so much so that once you do decide to progress the Main Story it can seem very limiting and cramped at times, especially when crawling around through the DC Ruins and all the subway tunnels required to get to the Main Mall.

However, compared to the vast scope and size of the experience, this is a minor complaint and really a very short and small portion of the game. It should only take maybe 5 hours to explore it all and finish up some questing, then you can Fast Travel back whenever you want and get back to tearing it up in the Wastes.

Combat is quality, but it is NOT a Shooter. People expecting Shooter mechanics will be disappointed, as even point blank shooting still utilizes an in game Dice Roll to determine whether you it and how much damage you do etc.

It is likely that people complaining about Ammo or clunky targeting are unaware of this game mechanic, but it is what makes the game an RPG, not a Shooter. There is ample amounts of Ammo (I have never run out in 70 hours of gameplay and I have killed over 1000 living -isms according to my in game stat sheet), but it is not unlimited like a Shooter.

The VATS mode is a good way to illustrate the difference. You queue up VATS and it will give you a stop-time targeting system. Within this system, you will be given percentages to hit on various Body parts: 87% to hit the head, 95% to hit the Body etc. However, these percentages are also indicative of how much of a chance you would have to hit those body parts OUT of VATS as well. So if you have a 50% chance to hit a leg in VATS, you have that SAME chance to hit in real-time it just does not illustrate it anywhere. SO even if your targeting arrow is Red, you still only have the same percentage to hit as you would in VATS. Which is to say you will miss and waste a ton of ammo if you just think "my target is red I can unload a clip".

Dice Rolls are a staple of RPGS, Oblivion had them, it was just not as noticeable because you were using Melee weapons, but every time your guy reared back to swing it rolled the dice to see if you would hit, how much of a damaging blow it would be etc.

The game has a wide array of voice acting, some is great, some not so much. The story has its ups and downs, but is overall good enough to not take away from the overall (it certainly helps that the great Liam Neeson is the Vault Dweller's Father, he is an example of the Great voice acting). Various mini-quests are actually more entertaining and interesting than the main story, so there is definitely enough Good story in the game to keep it interesting.

However, the game's strength is in solo-adventuring IMO. While you can get sidekicks and helpers, the real fun is being a Hero of the Wastes and taking down Super-Mutants, Raiders, Slavers and Death Claws all by your lonesome as you scour the Wastes in search of unique weapons, caps, ammo and mini-quests littered throughout.

Overall, I would rate the game a 9/10 and consider it the only game on Xbox 360 that gives Mass Effect a challenge for best title.

Minutes of play.. Hours of frustration.

First I'd like to say that I really enjoyed Oblivion despite the glitches.

I've replaced this game twice already and I'm still having freezing/ lockup issues. This game completely locks my system. I've tried the whole turn off Auto Save and/or Subtitles. I've cleared the cache memory on my hard drive.. even deleted some games and videos. I've disconnected my internet cable in some insane attempt to make it work, (which helped a little for some reason) but nothing has worked.

I've noticed that on my Fallout disks there is a very slight, circular line on the disk (not a scratch) that appears to be missing code on the disk.. or maybe some other flaw, I don't really know what it is. In order to see it you need to have the disk in just the right light. It's about 1/4 inch in from center where the disk information actually starts. I'm not sure where the 360 disks get printed, but nice job on the quality assurance there guys. My friend had a disk that he let me borrow. It was absolutely flawless on the disk read side, so I figured that this one had to work. This one locked up more often than my other disks.

The game freezes at random. Sometimes right at the beginning.. walking around.. during reload.. talking to people.. during load screens. I never know when it's going to happen. And I can't just press the power button on the controller to restart. I have to physically get up and turn the console off and then on again. Can you imagine doing this every five or ten minutes for an hour or two? I've done this for 12 hours of play.. every five or ten minutes getting up and pressing the power button and hopefully restarting the game where I left off. UGHHH! This isn't on just one disk. This is on EVERY Fallout disk that I've put in my system! My console plays all my other games just fine.. Great even. But not Fallout 3.

In the few precious moments of gameplay I've enjoyed this game. It's almost enthralling to me (as I'm still at the beginning and haven't had a chance to play through the game). I think most of you will agree that I've given it an honest effort with 12 hours of play and 3 different disks. However, I cannot get past the constant freezing of the game and continual restarting of the console. This makes the fun factor nearly non-existent and the frustration factor soar. I don't know about you, but I don't need any more stress in my life and Fallout 3 provides stress and frustration in abundance. This game, obviously, has not been adequately tested and I'm disgusted with with Bethesda for pushing it through untimely. My advice to the average consumer is this.. either wait until it's much less expensive, save your money, or buy something else.

Not a fallout game,, this is its own

This is an oblivion in a new theme. Do not think of it as a sequel to fallout.
One would think that a game 10 years in the making and with the title of the long enduring fallout series would have the feel of fallout. No, not so much.yes, it uses the name and theme, but not the feel. I would rather play fallout 2.

Firstly this game does have excellent graphics and almost no bugs.
For someone who hasn't played fallout before this may be a great game.

For those fallout veterans this is a great disappointment. I wish i had saved my money.
The main thing that bothers me is that even though the world is large and the game seems to be free form, almost everything you do results in a similar end.
I really really miss having to think about my actions rather than just brainlessly wander about and kill stuff.
Gets old.

The only real choice of consequence is the megaton city choice. thats it.
The creators went to great lengths to make it so your choices DON'T limit or help you later on in the game. Why would my decisions do that? in real life my actions only have immediate short term effects, right?

You may have different ways of completing a quest or various things to say, it always comes out almost the same. It lacks much of the decisionmaking from the first two. I lost interest after i realized that nomater what i do i can still complete everything on the map.
One would think if you go and start killig everyone you may limit yourself or make it impossible to do other things. Not here. Any created character can complete every quest. To the same end, some have two outcomes but they are fixed.
Why even create my own character?
It was like a one or two time watcher movie.

If i am in a conversation and i flat out insult someone one would think they wouldnt trust you or at the least wouldnt want to talk to you again.
Not like that "Hey you! Ugly!"-"well thats not a very nice thing to call someone new. So what would you like to talk about."
The dialogue is dumbed down and you always have a good, bad and maybe a neutral option. occasionally a skill based one too. but why would you as an angel have the option to insult the hell out of someone? Or as an evil villian i would expect to have special extra evil stuff to say instead of the standard ones, including the suck-up goody two shoes option.

In summary, my biggest complaint is that since i can do everything with any given character, where is the drive to try a different aproach or play the game differently?
And i never think about the choices i make,, they dont have more than an immediate and local effect.
Maybe they will put out a "make this game be fallout"-Patch.

Oh..and for the love of god,, has anyone heard of a soundtrack?

A review from an impartial gamer

I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.

PROS:

- You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests.

- Over 100+ hours of places to explore

- Tons of perks and ways to develop your character. Become a science genius or concentrate on stealth and your lockpicking ability. Invest in large guns and go into places with guns ablaze. Play the game how you want. Be good and people will love you, be bad and people will fear you.

- Replay value. This is rare in RPGs but Because of the many different ways you can play the game I see myself playing this game again to play a different type of character.

- Some people complain about the targeting system known as VATS. This game is not an FPS. VATS gives you a wonderful 1st person shooter feel with an RPG style or turned based combat. Score a critical by shooting your enemies head and it might explode. Shoot the enemy on his weapon hand and he will not be able to attack you very quickly.

- The graphics are amazing. Its a beautiful post apocalyptic mess. The detail from the stains on a found mattress or a found comic called "Grognak the Barbarian and the Lair of the Virgin Killer" are all amazing. You can tell a lot of thought went into detail.

- The voice work is nice. Almost every character talks out loud. This allows you to listen and respond instead of just watching a mouth move and reading dialog all the time.

- Enemies do not automatically level with your character. This was my biggest problem with Oblivion. Some people liked the fact that enemies would always be your level. I found it totally unrealistic. Go ahead, run your level 1 character through the Wastelands. You might come across an easy roach or a mutant with a minigun. In my book this makes the game more fun and much more realistic.

- I have read on the forums and some bad reviews here that they can not find tons of ammo. This is not Halo, Call of Duty or any other FPS. People need to take the right mindset. This is a world 200 years after major Nuclear war. Things will break, ammo is sometimes scarce, radiation is a fact of life, bottle caps are money, people trade everything and you live in a harsh world. I think some people need to watch the Madmax series just as a primer to understand the world created here.

- Instant travel. Once you have visited an area you no longer need to walk to the location. You can locate the area on your map (through the PIPBoy 3000) and select it to instantly travel.

- The PipBoy 3000 Interface works great. This allows you to keep track of stats, items, equipment, quests, notes, maps, and karma very easily. The UI is easy and it keeps all the data you need at your finger tips.

CONS:

- AI is nothing special. It's not bad, just nothing special. Just once I would like to see an enemy run away instead of at me when they are clearly out matched. When I am shooting a shotgun at you, running at me with a pool cue might not be the smartest thing to do... Again, no worse then any other games AI just no improvements here.

- Lack of music. You can use Jukeboxes and find radio stations but sometimes when alone in the Wasteland you want some good background music (even if it takes away from the reality of the game).

- I had the game crash once but not a lot of times like some people are reporting. Still unacceptable but manageable. Loading and saving times can take anywhere between 10-30 seconds which is kind of slow.

- No item descriptions. The important data like weight, condition value, and perks of the item are still displayed but full description of the items are no longer available. This is different then Fallout 1 and 2 where each item had a paragraph describing it.

Additional thoughts:

You can't play this game with kids in the room. This isn't a Con for me but this might be a problem for all you gamer mom and dads out there. Seriously, no kids allowed. Women offer there "Services", cussing, blood splatter on the screen when you get injured, mutants hanging people on meat hooks, tons of drug use, and of course blowing peoples limbs off. Good times but not for the kiddies.

No, its not perfect but it is a lot of fun and the best RPG currently on the market. My 5 star (which is rare for me) review was based on that fact. Best RPG I have played since FFX (Final Fantasy X)