Thoughts on Fallout...12 Years Too Late

I thought long and hard about just what to say in my post regarding this game. It's old. It's groundbreaking. It's famous. Playing through the game for my first twenty minutes I could honestly not tell you why it is held in such high esteem, but after leaving for a few days and coming back, I fully understand.

I was about to start out with a few complaints mostly regarding combat, but instead I'll just get right to what about this game really grabbed me.

I wanted to be in the world. It didn't matter that I thought the combat was boring, or that the story had too little direction (and a god-damn-ball-busting-timer!!!) I wanted to explore what is essentially an entirely open ended world that was created before anyone truly knew what open endedness could be. Maps that gradually reveal themselves as you explore them are always the most rewarding. I wanted to learn the lore and collect crap and talk to people (fucking phenomenal voice acting) and just learn about this post apocalyptic waste land that seemed so unbelievably alive. I only have a pdf copy of the original game manual, but GOOD GOD is that thing incredible! Clearly, what made people such huge fans of these games is that they wanted to live out this existence in a world recovering from nuclear holocaust; the game designers did such an amazing job in making it seem real. I can completely see why a company like Bethesda, who make the Elder Scrolls games, would want to develop a property like Fallout 3. They pretty much write the wiki on how open a game world can or should be. Not owning a 360 or PS3, I have haven't had the chance yet to pick up numero tres, but you can bet that when I buy an Xbox, the first game I get will be Fallout 3. If the world is this detailed in a 1997 game with an isometric view, I'm sure the same details with updated graphics will just blow my mind out the fucking window.

So, just to wrap things up: I get it. I went in to these games expecting everything (combat, story, overall great gameplay) and what I came away with was an experience and a longing to be in a world that was alive (sorta, ha). This is a perfect example of "lasting gameplay" - why people still lavish praise on these games twelve years later. Experiencing a world this vivid takes a pretty long time to get old.

Take this experience, ramp the detail up ten times and give us the Fallout mmo, please!

-Max

Watched a great documentary on Hulu last night about remixing and the nature of copyright law in today's world. It's definitely worth a look: here.

Also, the band (guy) Girl Talk who features prominently in the show is one of my favorite musicians and his work can be downloaded here for free! My favorite quote about his music is that, "If you like music, then you like Girl Talk."