Fallout 3

It's not often I experience something I feel worth formalizing into a written piece to share with others but I've just recently spent sometime in the D.C. Wastes.
Fallout 3 is, in short, an incredible game thus far. Lots of quests, lots of slow-mo goodness. Lots of great voice-acting and nothing short of amazing visuals.

However, underneath it all I really do feel there's something much more worth experiencing. After playing Fallout 3 for 20+ hours I've grown to attach a certain feeling with it. The game is bleak, and even though it's very fun (there's that "f" word), it illustrates some incredibly sad things opposite it's caricatures of American pop-culture.

That's nothing new though, right? I mean the original fallouts were also about the destruction of entire worlds and they seemed to keep everything on the up and up. Well, in my opinion there's a few different things in the mix.

First of all, the play-style is incredibly different. Wandering around the wastes in third person view; managing ammo, attempting to discover new locations all as myself. It's really daunting, really scary, and kind of depressing seeing all these people barely scrape by.

Second of all, with today's graphics you really... empathize with the destruction. The visuals in the game are incredible, and incredibly sad. It's so much more poignant to see the wastes portrayed in such visceral definition.

Finally, I think writing plays a huge part in this. In the past, although the wastes have been a similar concept they've often times (at least in my opinion) had a lighter side to things. I could be misjudging due to my limited experience with the first two games but in Fallout 3 I've encountered more sad stories about families or people just trying to help humanity being slapped back down by the cruelty of fate and their government, than I could shake a stick at.

It's kind of moved me in a place that seems disturbed and slowly twisted. Bethesda, I commend you for making your own game out of an amazing, rich, and diverse world. I'm not sure if I'll be the same once I'm done experiencing all you've offered with this game.

Thanks.