Product Description

Fallout 3 X360

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Bethesda
• Model: 12680
• Published on: 2008-10
• Released on: 2008-10-28
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .56" h x 5.43" w x 7.53" l, .28 pounds

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 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

IT'S A BRAND NEW POSTAPOCALYPTIC DAWN
I am old enough to have played the original game when it first came out in 1997. I was a great fan of the series that followed and, thus, was very eager to get my hands on this latest installment. In a short sentence: FALLOUT-3 is A DREAM COME TRUE!

It is a cRPG game in which the player can alternate between the First and Third person perspective roaming a world comparable in size with OBLIVION. The action has moved from Vault 13 and Southern California to Vault 101 and Washington, D.C. and the story brakes away from the previous bloodlines. However, the atmosphere of the original has been maintained and its scents sharpened: veterans will find it fitting like and old glove - whereas the new gamers are in store for a bag of pleasant surprises.

The graphics are wonderful, the guns detailed and the environments highly interactive. Short of a screenshot, imagine what would HalfLife-2 would look if released today. And similar to HL2, FALLOUT-3 does not require an...ubercomputer to run smoothly. Once you see a NPC move though, you understand where the corners were cut.

Character customization is carried out in great style using the new and improved PIP-BOY at the beginning. You exit the vault and the harsh reality of a world that barely survived annihilation slaps you on the face. Adapt or perish.

The main storyline is there to be followed but FALLOUT-3 offers the greatest number of alternative choices I have ever encountered in a game! There is always a great number of paths to follow in order to achieve any goal - but every choice comes with a consequences tag. This is common feature of most classic cRPGs but in FALLOUT-3 I saw it implemented like never before. If nothing else, this sends replayability through the roof.

Side-quests offer little besides distraction and experience points (XP) to be spend on character improvement. XP are gained solely by completing quests, emerging victorious from fights, finding locations, picking locks and hacking terminals - and they are not limited by the action they were earned. Leveling up is based on 7 basic attributes [Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck - acronym?;)] that, in turn, affect your (13) specific skills. Since leveling up is capped at Level-20, the game designers wanted to encourage replaying the game. On the other hand, it also means that your character will never realize its full potential (in case you are wondering why I withheld a star from FUN, that's the second half of it).

The game is violent and gory but well within tasteful limits. Not so with the language - but it is tradeoff with realism. In a radioactive world, Sunday-school niceties are bound to go out the window.
What deserves a special mention is V.A.T.S. (:Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which opens new vistas in cRPG design. It is an ingenious system which lets you pause the game and target specific body parts of your opponents. The success of your attack still depends on your skills but the end effect is cinematic and amazing (remember SWORDFISH?).

After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the LimitedInstallations-defective EA releases), this seems like a postapocalyptic dawn indeed! BETHESDA decided to listen to the gaming community and did NOT cripple this beautiful game with any idiotic DRM scheme. Inputting a serial number and a DVD-check is more than reasonable.
The publishers of FALLOUT-3 understand that there is a fine balance between "protecting the product" and..."insulting your own customers". And they obviously view respect as the two way street that it is - and for this they deserve our support: buy this game, today.

Voting with our wallets is the only argument the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore. And it is about time to cast some well deserved positive votes.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

IT'S A BRAND NEW POSTAPOCALYPTIC DAWN
I am old enough to have played the original game when it first came out in 1997. I was a great fan of the series that followed and, thus, was very eager to get my hands on this latest installment. In a short sentence: FALLOUT-3 is A DREAM COME TRUE!

It is a cRPG game in which the player can alternate between the First and Third person perspective roaming a world comparable in size with OBLIVION. The action has moved from Vault 13 and Southern California to Vault 101 and Washington, D.C. and the story brakes away from the previous bloodlines. However, the atmosphere of the original has been maintained and its scents sharpened: veterans will find it fitting like and old glove - whereas the new gamers are in store for a bag of pleasant surprises.

The graphics are wonderful, the guns detailed and the environments highly interactive. Short of a screenshot, imagine what would HalfLife-2 would look if released today. And similar to HL2, FALLOUT-3 does not require an...ubercomputer to run smoothly. Once you see a NPC move though, you understand where the corners were cut.

Character customization is carried out in great style using the new and improved PIP-BOY at the beginning. You exit the vault and the harsh reality of a world that barely survived annihilation slaps you on the face. Adapt or perish.

The main storyline is there to be followed but FALLOUT-3 offers the greatest number of alternative choices I have ever encountered in a game! There is always a great number of paths to follow in order to achieve any goal - but every choice comes with a consequences tag. This is common feature of most classic cRPGs but in FALLOUT-3 I saw it implemented like never before. If nothing else, this sends replayability through the roof.

Side-quests offer little besides distraction and experience points (XP) to be spend on character improvement. XP are gained solely by completing quests, emerging victorious from fights, finding locations, picking locks and hacking terminals - and they are not limited by the action they were earned. Leveling up is based on 7 basic attributes [Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck - acronym?;)] that, in turn, affect your (13) specific skills. Since leveling up is capped at Level-20, the game designers wanted to encourage replaying the game. On the other hand, it also means that your character will never realize its full potential (in case you are wondering why I withheld a star from FUN, that's the second half of it).

The game is violent and gory but well within tasteful limits. Not so with the language - but it is tradeoff with realism. In a radioactive world, Sunday-school niceties are bound to go out the window.
What deserves a special mention is V.A.T.S. (:Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which opens new vistas in cRPG design. It is an ingenious system which lets you pause the game and target specific body parts of your opponents. The success of your attack still depends on your skills but the end effect is cinematic and amazing (remember SWORDFISH?).

After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the LimitedInstallations-defective EA releases), this seems like a postapocalyptic dawn indeed! BETHESDA decided to listen to the gaming community and did NOT cripple this beautiful game with any idiotic DRM scheme. Inputting a serial number and a DVD-check is more than reasonable.
The publishers of FALLOUT-3 understand that there is a fine balance between "protecting the product" and..."insulting your own customers". And they obviously view respect as the two way street that it is - and for this they deserve our support: buy this game, today.

Voting with our wallets is the only argument the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore. And it is about time to cast some well deserved positive votes.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Fallout 3, fall out your chair goodness
When I say Bethesda, the first thing that pops into most people's mind is what a horrible name to call a company. But to those enlightened gamers, Bethesda is a premier game developer that doesn't churn out titles like a Ubisoft or EA, but make no mistake, the few titles that Besthesda has released as well as the expansions are nothing short of gaming brilliance. Bethesda specializes in massive games that last and last and last with a huge amount of content. Oblivion, Shivering Isles, and Morrowind have all be developed by Bethesda and all have been massive successes.

Fallout 3 is yet another great addition if not one of the best to the library that Bethesda has created. I actually like Fallout 3 more than Oblivion for various reasons. Fallout 3 takes place in an alternate reality Washington DC after nuclear winter and Chinese invasion. Your character begins obviously at birth then flashes forward from infancy to childhood and into adulthood. Your character lives in Vault 101 in the Capitol Wasteland along with your father and few other survivors, in these small, cramped quarters roughly 200 years after the apocalypse. The game is a massive contrast to what happens in the claustrophobic Vault. One day or night your father escapes the Vault, a big no-no, and soon after the character follows, and Fallout 3 truly begins, with the sun blinding you when you first see and then you see the ruined world that is yours to explore.

Many questions arise from you leaving the vault mostly what is going on with your father and why he left. And from those questions about what to do next comes a massive amount of choice in everything from character development, like what skills to focus in on which there are many, to the many perks that could become yours as well. Then there is the massive amount of questing, there is of course the main storyline of finding your father and some other interesting quests surrounding who and what your father is and was, this is about 20-30 hours of gameplay, then there's the side-quests, which brings the game up to over 100 hours. It is unbelievable at the sheer amount of content within the game, and how it still remains interesting throughout, although the side-quests might be similar the way as far as going from point A to B, finding that bit of information to help the world you live in. Also one of the interesting things to this game is how you discover the quests, either through exploration, which this game does extremely well, or through finding journals or sound clips, dealing with NPCs, or just finding a place.

Fallout 3 does everything right as far as the visuals being photo-realistic, the sounds or music is a great addition as well, with period music being played through radio stations that are accessible with Pip-boy 3000, your big wrist PDA, the music is used to set the whole tone that culture was ended at one point and then everything went into just survival, as well as adding that little bit of creepiness. Essentially this world is ruined and humanity is just about done, but the environments look gorgeous in that ruined world aspect, also in this world you can explore right from the outset, however, as you move further north, south, east, and west enemies become stronger and more in numbers, so tread cautiously.

Now the technical aspect to this game, the only complaint that I do have with this game is the 3rd person perspective, although you can see more of your character this way the movement of your character looks odd and ugly at times if you were to look to from side to side rather than having the neck and head move the character's entire body moves with an odd side-step, so just stay in the FPS mode, but there will be a few times where the 3rd person view does help, really with gauging jumps. The graphics are beautiful, the sounds and atmosphere is genuinely great, the fire fights you get into get loud and you can get disoriented easily when someone tosses a grenade or shoots a missle or a mini-nuke at you and you're temporarily discombobulated.

Did I mention the disarticulation, for all those folks that enjoy blood and unrealistic gore, the VATS targetting system is for you. VATS is a combat system within Fallout 3 that allows for the player to deal out damage to specific body parts to a single enemy or a few depending on the weapon and the AP that you have available. And with the Bloody Mess Perk, when you kill an enemy sometimes everything gets taken out, if you were to shoot of a leg and kill an enemy you'd end up sending the enemy flying with other body parts flying off. It sounds horrible and somewhat unrealistic, which it is, but it is so satisfying, and as your character levels up killing becomes an easy task with some enemies. A tip though when you're starting out weaken your enemy with the shooter aspect then go to VATS to finish them off, and not in that massage parlour sense either.

Fallout 3 is an example of what games could be if given a great storyline and a massive amount of content and just having everything work right. Sure there are some same issues as far as character interaction being somewhat stiff with characters you speak with becoming extremely rigid and with almost no personality sometimes, but this is a small issue when compared to what Fallout 3 does right. Also characters look great too, with some voice recycling and character models being re-used, but I doubt anyone will even care considering that this game is massive, it is wide, far, deep and high, you'll understand when you play it, which is something that PC, 360, and PS3 owners should all do.

And I apologize for the long winded review, this game is by far the best I've played in this current generation and perhaps in the previous one too. Fallout 3 is a keeper, and I will definately be playing it a few times considering there are multiple endings and character customization is just massive.