GEN7 Fallout 3

PC Action Germany takes a look at Fallout 3. They give the game a 90%, explaining the detractions from 100% as -4% handling of the Pip-Boy could be easier; -2% some boring dungeon-crawling; -1% dreary environment; -1% player character moving too slow; -1% inventory has console-like feel to it.

Tidbits and translation by DJS4000:

[It seems the whole review had not been conducted “in-house”, but was a bethesda-sponsored event-like meeting in a luxury hotel in Nuremberg. They got to play the game for two days, which equals around 15 hours.]
[introduction and history of the fallout universe]
The tutorial is, literally, child's play. You will witness your birth, during which your mother dies, and then play through important parts of your childhood. But first you get to choose Name, Sex and Appearance, ethnic origin, hairdo, -color and one of ten faces.

[further description of the tutorial, how you learn to use WASD, the mouse-wheel, switch between first and third person. your 10th birthday, where you get the Red Ryder and learn about V.A.T.S.]

At the end of the tutorial you can either keep your stats or completely realign them. No big surprise for everyone who has played Oblivion. The tutorial is a strong indicator of the likeness of both titles, gameplay-wise.

[they go on explaining the first minutes after you left the vault, what perks are, etc. no criticism here]

The first settlement you see is Megaton, a city build around a dud nuke. But don't get us wrong, you don't have to go there. Whatever you do is completely your choice. The main quest creates its own story arc throughout the game, what you do apart form it is up to you. You can complete the game without doing any secondary quests, but we strongly advise you to do as many of them as you can. It's very rewarding.

[they explain choice and consequence by going through the megaton quest, and how you, as a female, can talk Bourke out of his fantasies with a high speech-skill and the “black-widow”-perk]

With this particular quest, both solutions lead to the same reward: some money, equipment, good or bad karma and, as the main prize, your own apartment. Here you can store items, rest to regenerate and even practice your Ikea-skills. You even get your own robot butler, who, on request, will tell you a lot of bad jokes. It is at this point, that you realize who the real stars in this game are: lots and lots of details, built into game with love. They put life into the twisted world. Part of this is the excellent dialogue [keep in mind, they have the German localization here, which, quite uncommon, seems to be excellent], the detailed, believable characters and the funny illustrations with the vault-boy, just to name a few. In only 15 hours of testing we experienced so much of the post-apocalyptic world, and everything fit together and made sense. This goes for secondary quests, too, and although they won't have so far reaching consequences like Megaton, they will almost always put you, the player, in front of decisions with moral implications. Re-playability is high.

Just one question remains: How good is Fallout 3 in direct comparison with Oblivion? Localization is excellent, and there are no unnerving abbreviations. Usability of the inventory is good, although the pip-boy-screen could have been bigger. You cannot quick-bind certain functions of the pip-boy, so you always have to go through the pip-screen, which gets boring after a while. Visually speaking, Fallout 3 is not quite up to Oblivion. Washed-out textures, and low-detail characters are a bit disappointing. What looks really good though are weapons and weapon effects, especially the Fat Man. Throughout the review, the game ran smoothly under Vista in a resolution of 1600x1200 with maximum details. The machine was 2.66Ghz quadcore with 4GB of ram and a GeForce 9800GT.

Reviewer's Commentary 1:

I bow down to the programmers! Fallout 3 came out exactly like I wanted it to be. Bethesda managed to force the look, feel and humor of the 2D-predecessors in a 3D-corset. I am especially turned on by the high replay-value. Good or Evil, Man or Woman, Action or Adventure – Fallout 3 offers you all of it, if you let yourself in. Not even Oblivion offered this much detail and complexity.

Reviewer's Commentary 2:

“[he begins the paragraph with insulting the first reviewer, who “drools more than a hungry Giant Schnauzer”] But I have to confess: I like Fallout 3 just as much. Not even for its looks, there are definitely better looking games, but the excellent story and virtually limitless freedom tickle my post-apocalyptic nature. The possibility to engage the hassle-free bodypart-targeting-mode in a firefight is brilliant. [he ends the paragraph by insulting the first reviewer, who is “worse than censored localizations”]