Since my PC is currently unstable (and I’m very disappointed in you, young man) I’m going to have to pick up Fallout 3 for a console. Strike that, for the Xbox 360. As soon as someone at Sony gets the 1080i upscaling working universally for the PS3, I’ll come home. Until then I’m very disappointed in you too, old man. In the meantime, I thought give my European import copy of Fallout (which I’ve had for years) a spin.
I’ve played Fallout just once, about ten years ago when I found a double jewel case of the first and second games. All I remember is that I killed a few rats and couldn’t figure out what the hell to do. Going into it now, I promised myself I’d make an earnest effort to get as far into it as possible. I’ve got to wait for my paycheck to pick up the third one, so now feels like a good time.
After just a couple hours, I’ve determined that this game is absolutely unforgiving. Maybe I’ve just gotten too used to games saving checkpoints for me, but I’ve had to re-do large chunks of this game over and over again. I’m amazed that they would throw you into random situations you can’t possibly survive right off the bat. This is one aspect of older game design I definitely don’t miss.
For example, I had a random encounter with four giant scorpions five steps out of the vault at the beginning of the game. At level one, I had absolutely no chance of defeating them and died. Then, I walked into a town and saw that a guard asked me to lower my weapon. By the time I was done reading what he said, the entire town had gone hostile to me and I was annihilated. I tried again, having put my weapon away first, and walked up to a hospital I saw. There was a doctor inside, and I’d just fought off some scorpions so I thought I’d have him examine me to see if I was poisoned. He said I was fine and charged me ten bucks just for looking at me. After some initial incredulity, I buckled and said I’d pay him. That’s when I found out I was broke, and my punishment was to have his guards execute me.
This game doesn’t mess around. It’s like playing Ultima VIII all over again. And I remember liking that game. Yeesh.
So, I really want to get through this game so I can fully Fallout 3, but it looks like I’m gonna have to wuss out and use a walkthrough the entire way. Normally, I’m against doing that the first time, but… ah, hell. Maybe I should just admit that I suck now and roll out the GameFAQs. I’ll think about it while I play some more Fable II. At least that game loves me. *sniffle*
