Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition, a fresh perspective.

Here we go, fans of Fallout 3 have received it in the form originally envisioned by Bethesda. Is this the Fallout that fans of the first two parts were waiting for? Is this the game that was named Game of the Year? Almost a year has passed since the release of the third Fallout. During this time, five DLCs have been released (for those who don't know, they are: Operation Anchorage; The Pitt; Broken Steel; Point Lookout; Mothership Zeta), I celebrated my birthday, received my diploma, and spent some time in the hospital... Yet it feels like the game came out just a couple of days ago.

In my article, I will try to present the game as it looks with all the patches, and all the DLCs. Did these additions benefit the game? The answer to this and many other questions, I hope, you will find in this article. It will be formatted as a diary with some lyrical digressions. Oh yes, don't miss the story about the journey inside the alien ship near the end of the diary.

Day 1

I saw the game Fallout 3 The Game of the Year Edition in the store (this is just to make it look more like a diary entry, considering that such a edition has not yet seen the light of day). Hmm, Game of the Year, it must be a good game. Well, let's see...

...An interesting menu, styled like slides, not bad. Let's start a new game. The beginning from birth? Original. ... It’s somewhat boring to go through this training. I could figure out how to run and jump by myself. Well, okay, it's a nitpick. What's next? A birthday and receiving a Pip-Boy? This is already more interesting. And I got to fight with some bully. It's a pity that the robot ruined the cake. ... So, next the hero is already 16 years old and has to take the GOAT. To be honest, I love such tests, even though I understand that they are pointless. ... "Zed, I will carry your bag all day if you let me sleep for another 10 minutes...". Come on, they won’t let me sleep, what the hell? Father ran away? Jonas is dead? I have to run! Gear in the bag, legs in my hands, and let's go! Alright, that's enough for today, tomorrow I'll check out the Wasteland.

Day's Summary: An impressive start, on the birthday you can hear the Overseer's conversations about our holiday (saying, have fun and wrap it up!), after the GOAT you can stay and listen to what other students will become (not jokes, but it all sounds quite comical). To be honest, I am a staunch opponent of comparing Fallout 3 with TES 4: Oblivion. However, I can't help but admit that the beginnings are quite similar in these games. Nevertheless, I can't say that Fallout 3 has a bad beginning. Let it be similar to Oblivion's, rather than something conceived from scratch and, consequently, worthless.

Day 2

Here it is, the Wasteland! Endless expanses, ruins, radioactive puddles, raiders... It looks impressive! And I caught a Pip-Boy and a radio. "Galaxy News", something familiar. And there's a DJ named Three-Dog. A ray of light in this dark world. Stop! What is this? A distress signal? About some Pittsburgh. I’ll check it out later. Again, stop! What’s this? An invitation to swim in "Point Lookout"? Well, I’ll swim later; I still have to find my father. On the way to Megaton Another signal! This time from the Outcasts. Something is off; it seems the Wasteland is saturated with radio signals. It’s quite far to walk to each of them on the map, so I’ll head to Megaton first, looking for my dad. In the city, I’m greeted by the sheriff. By the way, a city like Megaton deserves a few lines. Exploring the game thoroughly, your humble servant noted that Megaton is probably the only city in the game worthy of the title of city. All other settlements are no more than settlements or perhaps hamlets. Rivet City, though large, has narrow corridors that don’t allow for freedom. The Big Town is really not big at all. In Little Lamplight live only children; there’s no infrastructure there. But back to Megaton. It’s no wonder it was the one shown before the game's release in the trailer. It’s very atmospheric, rusty, seemingly about to fall apart at any moment. And they built the city around an unexploded atomic bomb. That bomb can either be detonated or defused. For me, Megaton is the embodiment of the Wasteland in the form of a city. That's precisely how a city should look after a nuclear winter.

I got information about my father; I’ll have to go to Three-Dog for details.

Day's Summary: As they say, "To see Paris and die," in the Wasteland, Paris is Megaton. Dying is certainly not necessary, but Megaton is, as stated above, "the embodiment of the Wasteland in the form of a city." The best creation of Bethesda designers. However, the radio signals are a bit frightening. I just left the vault and immediately am bombarded with radio calls. It seems they should have been introduced gradually. While the DLCs are made quite well, they don’t quite fit into the game’s atmosphere. Operation Anchorage is reasonably executed, although it's short. But for completing it, the player receives the best gear in the game. The best heavy armor, the best stealth armor, and the best melee weapon. The Gauss Rifle disappointed. The damage isn't bad, but it has several annoying bugs: the projectile can pass through enemies, and you can fail to gain experience for a kill. Plus, only one round in the magazine. This is not the kind of weapon it used to be.

Completing the DLC doesn’t affect the main plot, but we are still lured to explore new lands. The player gets distracted from the Wasteland, acquires better gear, and breezes through the main storyline. Only one DLC made me truly admire: Broken Steel. It really feels like an expansion, not just an extension of gameplay content. Continuation of the plot, a massive battle, raising the level cap. This DLC should have been part of the original game. Or at the very least, it should have been released first.

Day 3

"Galaxy News." Soon I’ll talk with this cheerful Three-Dog. And how does he know so much about me? Oh! And who is this big green guy? Master Super Mutant? A frightening name. Let's see how he performs, let's lure him onto a mine... Oops, my mine seems like peas against a wall to him. I need to do something urgently! ... Phew, barely killed him. Hope there aren’t many such monsters around here. And who are those people in shining armor? The Brotherhood of Steel. Maybe they can help me find the entrance to the radio station? Oh, God! What is that Behemoth?! Run, run! ... If it weren’t for the Brotherhood members, the life of a great traveler would have ended right there. What an interesting weapon lies on the ground: the Fat Man. I’ll try it on a mole rat later. ... Well, and that merchant, Three-Dog, won’t say anything for free. I'll have to go fix the dish, and there are sure to be many mutants!

Day's Summary: The radio plays a massive role in the game. It’s probably the best means of creating the atmosphere of the Wasteland. The Pip-Boy keeps catching signals and losing them. The characteristic crackles can be heard. There are three waves in the Wasteland: "Galaxy News," Enclave Radio, and Agatha’s Wave. To start the last one, you need to find a Stradivarius violin and take it to Agatha. On this wave, you can hear only violin compositions dedicated to various characters. The Enclave Radio plays President Eden's propaganda day and night.

Who, according to the constitution, cannot be president

Well, on "Galaxy News," the most energetic radio, you can hear excellent musical compositions from the 50s, stories about one’s own actions, and intriguing tales of Herbert Dashwood and Agatha the Ghoul. By the way, both can be encountered in the Wasteland.

Day 4

The historical museum. A bunch of mutants. Well, let's grab a stronger weapon and fight! Wow, what a big green one! Hurry up, I need to press "V." Whew, just made it. So, one shot to the leg, one to the arm, and the last one to the head. Got him! How beautifully the head flew off. Would be nice to have enough ammo for everyone... Oh, and I didn’t have enough, damn it! What do I have left... Damn, he’s already close... Oh, here’s the Fat Man, but he hasn’t undergone the tests! To hell with it! Kaboom! What an explosion! A mushroom cloud just like from a nuclear blast. The Fat Man is not a toy for children. ... And here’s our dish. The mission is almost complete. ... Wow, what a view from the monument. All of the Wasteland laid out before me. Well, okay, looked long enough, time to look for my dad. ... Why couldn’t they just say at once that Dad went to Rivet City! Like a boy running errands, going back and forth. But what can you do, a new path means new adventures.

Day's Summary: The battle with super mutants became perhaps the first difficult moment in the game. Playing without the VATS system becomes challenging. This system is somewhat reminiscent of targeted attacks in Fallout 1/2. Time slows down, and the camera selects beautiful angles (though it doesn't always manage that). It’s much easier to play with it. Although players accustomed to FPS genre games are likely to disagree with me. In fact, the game is only difficult in the early stages and on "Very Hard" difficulty. It’s especially tough in the town of Greyditch, where fire ants have settled in. By the middle of the game, when stimpaks are measured by the dozens, and ammo by the hundreds, and skills are nearly maxed, it becomes quite easy to play on any difficulty.

Day 5

Rivet City, so this is what you are! A city built inside a wrecked aircraft carrier. My father is not here, as expected, but there is information on where he might be. I’ll take a look around the city. There is a lot of interesting stuff here too. For instance, a runaway android, a doctor performing plastic surgeries (though I wonder where he got the necessary equipment). If you wish, you can go to the roof of the aircraft carrier and roam around there. There’s nothing particularly valuable up there, but I found it interesting just to jump on all the ledges. Inside the ship, you can find a church (source of good karma), get involved in disputes between Council members, and meet a slaver. You can buy or sell almost anything your heart desires at the market. In a word, the second contender for the title of the capital of the Wasteland.

Day's Summary: To be honest, I don't understand why plastic surgeries were introduced into the game. After all, in a world that has just survived a nuclear war, it’s hard to believe that there could be equipment for such experiments. By the way, you can adjust your appearance not only with the doctor in Rivet City but also in your own house in Megaton or Tenpenny Tower. Although the butler can only change your hairstyle, he does it for free and as many times as you like. You can obtain your nest in Megaton by defusing the atomic bomb, while in Tenpenny Tower you can get it by blowing it up. The choice is yours. You can furnish the house to your liking, buy special upgrades like a workbench or a Nuka-Cola fridge. The robot-butler, besides changing hairstyles, can tell you a joke (though you can only laugh at them after drinking a few bottles of Nuka-Cola) or provide some clean water. It is crucial to note that gear doesn’t disappear from the cupboards in the house, meaning you can stockpile whatever you want and not fear that it will vanish. Oh, and the house has a stand with all the bobbleheads you’ve found. They just stand there and amusingly nod their heads.

Day 6

Today I was abducted by aliens. I approached their ship (I was curious, thought I’d find something interesting), and they grabbed me with some ray. And - aboard the ship. Well, everything goes as usual: they took my gear, performed an operation on my brain, and put me in a cell. Ugh, I’ll get to those green guys... In the cell, I discover another human being, a female one, indeed. Also, I guess, abducted for experiments. What a feisty one, I’ll fix her face! ... It worked! The sounds of the struggle brought two little fellas over. Well, they’re next... ... Here’s my first weapon - an electro-baton, that’ll do for the time being. And speaking of which, we see a little girl. She seems suspiciously familiar with the ship. "I ran away while they weren't looking and roamed around the ship." Alright, let's move on. ... And what happened next... well, I won’t say! You won’t find it interesting to explore everything later then. Let me share my impressions in general. And the impressions are very contradictory, I must say. On the one hand, a beautiful ship, new weapons, new foes. On the other hand, an absolutely linear shooter with a couple of mini-game insertions. The mini-games, by the way, should be noted as positives. Though primitive, they at least provide some distraction from endless shooting. On the ship, you can even find (how unexpected!) cows. More precisely, their two-headed relatives. Various journals from the captain will make you smile. By the way, I am very disappointed with the captain. When the diary entry appeared stating "Defeat the ship's captain," I envisioned a boss encounter. In reality, he was distinguished from the crowd of other aliens only by his named blaster. During my trips around the ship, I encountered much more powerful specimens.

Day's Summary: Overall, I am satisfied with the DLC. A low-level character may only clear it, but only with great difficulty. There’s absolutely nothing groundbreaking in Mothership Zeta, but there's also nothing outright off-putting. A good addition to a great game.

Day 7

What a pity: the pages in this diary are running out! I fear that this entry will be the last, so I will try to briefly describe the entire game and leave you with a pleasant impression of it.

Fallout 3 rightfully earned the title Game of the Year, and it truly turned out to be wonderful, securing a deserving place in the glorious series. It’s frustrating that many do not wish to see it as a standalone game and compare it to Oblivion. Fallout 3 is primarily an RPG, and it values not graphics (though that's important too), but the plot, freedom of action, and the ability to live and explore the world. That's why I consider the statements about its relation to The Elder Scrolls series utterly pointless. Most importantly, the atmosphere of the Wasteland was transferred with surgical precision. Captivating landscapes, ruthless raiders, interesting finds (like Harold, what a gift for the fans!). The spirit of the game was fully preserved, and therefore I personally declare: if you haven’t played Fallout 3, then you've missed the best game of recent times. There are only two things Bethesda missed. The first is the DLC. They should all have been out immediately and not for separate payments a year later, smoothly integrated into the game (instead, after the start, the player gets bombarded with mission signals). And it gets worse! The DLC introduced terrible imbalance. My personal experiment: without progressing through the plot, sequentially complete all the DLCs. And what do you think? Even without starting the main storyline, the player reaches level 30, ends up with the best gear, and playing further becomes simply uninteresting. The second is the title. It should have been named not Fallout 3, but ******** based on fallout story, and all complaints would have been off the table. The fans wouldn't shout "This is not Fallout!"; everyone would have been indifferent to the fact that "This is Oblivion!", and only gamers would have played and enjoyed.

Unfortunately, in our time, games are made too quickly for any to become a classic. Alas, or maybe hurrah, but very soon we will have Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4. Soon Fallout 3 will sink into the tides of time, so you simply must familiarize yourself with it now, especially since the game is now complete: all patches and DLCs are available. This is your last chance to touch a masterpiece.