Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #867 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Bethesda
• Released on: 2008-10-31
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English

Manufacturer's Description
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

Welcome to the nation's capital. View larger.

The Brotherhood of Steel is a powerful ally. View larger.

Customize characters with your Pip-Boy. View larger.

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

Well Worth Trying
Ordered the game pre-launch and became a little nervous about being able to install and play it, having read the initial reviews on the web from those in the U.S.A. who had the game earlier.
Seems a number of those with high-end P.C.'s were having all kinds of problems - both in installation, game launch and crashes/game freezing.
It was not without some misgivings then that I installed the game on receipt.

My P.C. is a bit of an old cobbled up belter (cannot afford a better one at present) - 3gb cpu, 1gb ram, Nvid Geforce 6800GS (AGP),a really old Soundblaster card in vanilla stereo and Windows XP. It ran Oblivion beautifully (two years ago) but looked a bit pants as a bottom spec machine for this game. The game publishers stress that the game was designed around the Ge Force 8 and 9 series cards!

If this helps others who are intending to play solo - here are the tips which seemed good logical advice :-

Following advice of others across the pond, I de-fragged the hard drive first, killed my internet connection and stopped the firewall/anti virus engines prior to a full installation.
Then the game installed no bother at all - it is a very long installation though!!

I ran the game from the "launcher" with the disc in the drive for the first time, to let the game sort out my "default" in game settings - which were pretty low (not unexpected).
Exited out and took out the disc. The disc is only used to re-do the defaults now.
No disc, and re-launch from the "Fallout.exe" file in the Fallout directory on the C drive and away we went - no problems at all. No jerko-vision, no lock ups and (so far) no freezing.(Do not use the "Game Launcher").
Assuming you are playing solo - Just ensure you kill your internet connection and virus/firewall systems, remove screen saver and screen power-off time - outs first and launch from the Fallout.exe folder every time you play.
I've played for 5 days now and (so far) no problems.
I re-clocked my NVid 6800 and was able to bring up some of the details in the video settings slowly, bit by bit which has improved the overall look without penalty (so far).
Hope all of that helped somebody.

As to the game itself - many good reviews here.

Meld of Oblivion and the old Fallout series seems a bit odd but works very well.
Levelling up offers more reward as you get a "perk" every time - do choose wisely!
Money and ammo are hard to find at first (expensive with low barter skill) and it pays to "learn your trade" as soon as you can - survival is difficult otherwise.
Take your time and wander around the Megaton area annd surrounding country first - get some easier xp and useful items.

The repair skill is also essential - you will quickly wear out weapons and armour and be stuck without this. You also need to carry similar (partly worn out) items in your inventory as "spares" to repair with. Get them from the bodies after the usual random "raider fire fights".

Worth using the crazy nut-job trader lady in Megaton for her simpler quests and rewards to get more xp and a feel for the characters and mutated wildlife you will always encounter as you travel further out.
Concentrate on upping small gun, lockpick, sneak repair and science skills as soon as you can. You cannot survive without fighting - unlike Oblivion. Lock picking is a much simpler and satisfying experience than in Oblivion. Computer hacking takes some getting used to - a bit of a cerebral break during a mission (read the manual about how to do it)! Perception, intelligence and agility basics are a must.

I have not followed the main plot line at all yet - having too much fun just mooching around and picking up random quests, encounters and good loot.

Remember that all of your actions (good, evil or neutral) have consequences. Karma does play a part. (I appear to have "good" karma at present - too good it seems, as several hit squads are now trying to take me out from time to time - usually quite unexpectedly after completion of random quests - always stay ready to fight!)

Oblivion had "spell making and enchanting" altars - this game has "workbenches" dotted around - including one at the crazy lady's place in Megaton (use them for free). As long as you get the "schematics" you can cobble together the most strange (but effective) weapons from all kinds of junk you can pick up in the wastes during your travels - worth getting somewhere to live as your base to store all of this useful junk for the future.
My favourite home made weapon so far is the "Railway Gun" - a magnetic rail gun shooting railway spikes. It sounds an American locomotive hooter every time it fires - cheezy I know but somehow most enjoyable when a mutated mole rat explodes in front of you. (Dark humour!)
There is an encounter with a lunatic professor underground - voiced to sound like the character Hubert Farnsworth from Futurama!

I have not bothered to use the "Vats" system - more satisfying to do shooting the old down and dirty way.

Spoiler here (maybe?)

Search around for a scrapyard and pick up Dogmeat (remember the dog from Fallout2) for free - a truly awesome fighter/companion for you.

Scoped guns and rifles do work very well (with excellent sounds) if your gun skills are over 60% - sniping is great fun.
Gun graphics are pretty funky too.

Clearly Bethesda will have to address some (or all hopefully) of the launch/run/crash problems - but which great game has not had to have a few early patches?
Nevertheless, there are some in - game inconsistencies with characters and game play which also need sorting out.

Patches must be released a.s.a.p. please.

Loose a star because of this, but otherwise a fabulous game to immerse yourself in for hour after hour - like Oblivion, say goodbye to friends and family for a long time as it draws you in.

Other critics may disagree with some (or all) of this - but these are my experiences to date - and I will admit I am getting on in years - cut my gaming teeth with my children when Wolfenstein first came out as shareware in the early '90s with an Amstrad 286!!

This game is really worth a shot.

A masterpiece.
Fallout 3 is a stupendously good game. It follows on from Fallout 1 and 2, naturally enough, though you don't need to have played those games in order to enjoy this, far from it.

The game is an RPG set in a post-war wasteland USA. Well, almost. One of Fallout's many charms is that the pre-war USA seems to be on a parallel universe where the Fifties never went out of fashion. So its futuristic and retro at the same time.

Anyway, prior to the bombs dropping, lots of people were put into vaults to ensure survival. 200 years later, you emerge from one such vault to find a world full of scavengers and tyranny. And you've lost your Dad.

If you have played Oblivion the feel of the game will already be familiar to you. It is full first person perspective but you can elect for third person should you desire. Graphically, the game is stunning. I don't know why a ruined wasteland is so fascinating to me, but it just is. There is a huge area to explore, and I mean huge. The first time you complete the game you will probably have not even seen half of what is out there.

Right from the start, the game oozes quality. The character selection process is a lesson in integrating minutiae into the main plot. With not a dice in sight you create your character based on your actions in the first section. If you aren't happy you can change these before the game proper starts, in the more tradition fashion, but its a nice touch nonetheless.

Once you have your character, you emerge into the wasteland, in all its terrible majesty. Your first port of call will probably be the town of Megaton, so called because there is a large unexploded bomb at its centre. I've played the game three times through now, and believe me, the way you treat that bomb will drastically affect the rest of your game.

And thats just a foretaste of the various choices to come. This game is one of those increasingly rare beasts, a role playing game where you actually play a role. Ok, the main role is either good or evil, but there are certain missions whose outcome varies greatly depending on your associated skills. For instance, at one point you are presented with a building full of fairly unpleasent people. The local ghouls (hideously radiated yet intelligent humans) wants to use the building and be treated as equals etc. You can either do nothing, side with the ghouls, side with the people, or try and mediate. If your speech is low, you haven't got a hope of mediation, yet that is the only path (other than doing nothing) that doesn't involve bloodshed. Fortunately, it is only a sidequest, so if you are squeemish you can just avoid it.

Speaking of squeemishness, the game is very, very gory. If you attack somebody with a sword, expect a limb to go flying and a stump to spurt blood. Oddly enough though, it fits in with the mood of the game, and doesn't seem at all gratuitous.

There is a main quest to follow, but there are A LOT of side quests which I strongly recommend you complete first. One particular quest starts in Megaton and involves you exploring large portions of the map and gaining valuable experience. I would advise you to start there. I won't give anything more away, other than to say that it features a girl with a particularly annoying voice. (Actually, I will say one more thing, if you go bad and decide to nuke Megaton, can you guess who the only survivor is? Go on, guess.)

Not only are there loads of side quests. There are also loads of stuff in the wasteland which is just there for you to explore. Occasionally you will find an old radio receiver, you can get it to broadcast its signal, and if you understand morse, work out what it is saying. You can do absolutely nothing in game with it. Its just there to add atmosphere.

And Lovecraft gets a mention too! In one location (called the Dunwich Building) you will find a strange obelisk, and the nearby holotapes will relate a ghastly tale all too familiar to fans of the genre. You can complete the game without visiting this place at all. Its just there to be found by the more adventurous explorer.

I mentioned briefly about radio transmissions. There are also radio stations still broadcasting. The only one of any interest (unless you like violins and are prepared for an awfully long quest) is a pirate station which blasts out old classics from the forties and fifties. Oddly enough, the songs grew on me, and I looked forward to some of them when they came up. The DJ will also give out the odd quest clue, and news reports on what you've been up to. There is one down point to this. If you are a bad character, he will slag you off. If you are a good character he will be full of praise. If you are a mix of the two he will alternatively be full of praise and slag you off. This just sounds silly. This is a very minor point though.

Game high points:

1. Nuking megaton. I'm bad, I know. But when I did this the second time playing through, it was a joy to behold.

2. Tranquility Lane. A trip back to the fifties with a somewhat macabre twist.

3. Getting 100% lockpick. This was needed the first time through. I waited ages for it as well.

4. The first time I fired up the shish kebab.

5. Eugene.

Game low points:

1. Occasional crashes. Fortunately as more patches have been released, these have mostly been eliminated. But when I played through first I was constantly have to restart the computer.

2. Ending could be better.

3. DJ gets annoying.

Play this game multiple times, and you will keep enjoying it.

A masterpiece.

Fallout 3 - The Truth
Ok before I get onto the game itself I feel obliged to mention two things.

Firstly DRM - This game uses a disk cheker - end of, the 1 star reviews that mention otherwise are misinformation by trolls, I hate Securom as applied by EA and Ubisoft but that system is not inplace in this game - END OF.

Secondly Crashing - For the first day this game froze like anything, then I updated my graphics driver and it ran like a dream. If you cannot properly maintain your PC and it's hardware buy an Xbox or a PS because a PC does require some tweaking at times, always has and probably always will.

Ok now the good part, the game itself.

From the whole character creation process to the early days in the vault the game educates you while also immersing you into the post nuclear world. When leavign the vault the imagary that people complain is grey and desolate is perfect, what do you expect with a post nuclear environent pretty red flowers growing in radioactive earth.

The way this game plays is entirely upto you and your conscience, you can do it the good way, the bad way the inbetween way, the combinations and options are incredible, and the way the game unfolds is different every time.

I am still enjoying this game and still exploring it, but I could not possibly give it a lower score then 5, even with the issues that I put down as mere teething troubles that any PC user should expect time from time, this game has and still is a joy to play.

Bethesda has official forums that outline potential PC problems and how to fix them so please use them if you too had trouble and then enjoy the game before you post a half cooked review based upon heresay