Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

The Good
Well, its Fallout 3 plus all the expansions in one convenient package. What's there not to like?

The Bad
It took too long to be released, which hinders main game memory a bit for people who, like me, don't gradually buy DLC as they come out but rather wait for a GotY edition to get it all in at once.

The Bottom Line
It comes with 2 discs, the second one being an install-to-HDD disc containing all 5 DLC expansions. The main game has been thoroughly reviewed at this point, but to keep it short let's imagine that Bethesda's Oblivion is the skeleton and the muscles, and the first 2 Fallout games are both the skin and the brain. This is clearly an Action-RPG, but while other such games usually bait roleplaying fans to what turns out to be Action/Adventure with very few RPG elements, Fallout 3 runs the risk of attracting FPS aficionados who will probably be turned off by its unmistakable stat-derived gameplay.

As for the DLC, there are 5 of them:

• Operation: Anchorage - The weakest of the five, it takes the Lone Wanderer into a pre-war VR simulator, dug up by the Brotherhood of Steel, that re-enacts the events of the retaking of Anchorage, Alaska, by the US. It has a strong focus on the FPS side of FO3, and the least free-form of all mission paths. It is cool as a change of pace and style from the main game.

• The Pitt - The Lone Wanderer travels to Pittsburgh, a region of slavers and deranged mutants, at the behest of a former Pitt slave. It's pretty good, with an even grittier vibe than the main game.

• Broken Steel - Now this is the big one, altering the main game's ending in order to expand the Lone Wanderer's story. It also raises the level cap from 20 to 30. It's hard to provide details without spoiling, so let's just say that it let's you actually see the result of your actions at the end of the main game, and round out a wider sense of achievement.

• Point Lookout - This one brings back the "far away" style of the first two DLC, taking the player to Point Lookout State Park, Maryland, where, despite not having been hit by any bombs, it has become a filthy swamp wasteland populated with aggressive inbred hillbillies. It provides a new map, and several quest lines, but no main goal. It's a lot of fun exploring a completely new environment, and in my opinion it is the only DLC worth revisiting just for some free-form XP-hunting.

• Mothership Zeta - The wackiest expansion, it plays a lot on Fallout 2's trademark humour. The Lone Wanderer is abducted by aliens (of the "grey" variety), and has to escape captivity lest he be subjected to probes (of the "anal" variety). The experience is kept in rails most of the time, much like Operation: Anchorage, but the original environments and zany fun all add up to a nice Fallout treat. This DLC also provides the player with rather unbalanced equipment, but being the last release it probably won't harm the game much.

Wrapping it all up, this is the ultimate Fallout 3 experience, and although niche gamers will love some of the DLC while hating others, regular Fallout fans simply will not do without this lot. Recommended.

The Good
The first time one starts to play with this game, he/she feels so that it will be cool. And why not? A post-apocalyptic world, which is so real for the first time that only thing that's missing the smell of rust, dust and decay. Everything looks so real that one wishes to touch the objects, buildings etc. with his own hands. The map is so great, lot of places to visit, lot to do in these places and lot to see in this part of the east coast of the destroyed but already reviving, awakening United States. It is good to visit landmarks and such even if they destroyed for these premises are still so majestic. The war that burned the face of the earth couldn't destroy them, they became even more sublime. And the people who inhabiting these "wastes" are look like they were really born here. They are dirty, unclean, sometimes violent sometimes civilized. They are somehow still the same though for all of them struggling, fighting sometime literally for survival. And when one starts the game and steps out of the vault door he/she feels it is a new day: the life in the wastes is about to change. And he/she is going to bring this change. Whether a good or a bad change or both or neither. For the player is offered this chance to alter way the people's thinking with his acts. The player can settle grievances through civilized talking or instead of it, let the weapons bark, spit death. And as the limbs are torn from the torsos one can realize that the life is cheap in this world. Although the game offers perks which are letting the player to repent his sins, or even the opposite: one grew sick of being the hero then he can turn into the manifestation of evil. And almost everybody find his/her part in the game: the tinkerers, the gun-lovers, the book-worms, the hackers, the burglars, the smugglers, the thieves, the addicts, the heroes, the helpers, the religious and so on. So in short words the graphics are astonishing, the repertoire of spare parts, weapons, chems, armors are wide. Enormous landscape is ready to be explored, a load of quests waiting to be solved. So this game is game of the opportunity. Of course only for the first glance.

The Bad
For later on the player will surely notice the traces of decay. And I'm not talking about the post-apocalyptic feel but the missed opportunities. For the game has very good ideas but only a few percentage of it are developed. Like tinkering. You can create some weapons and objects, but it's only a handful. And if we're talking about the objects let's talk about the inventory. It looks very good in the beginning but later on we must realize it's really crappy. For there so many different kind of objects in the game's world, that we need to always manage them. And later the player will notice that he is spending more time in managing his belongings than actual playing. You need to click always a lot of buttons the be able to reach you wanted originally. The game suffers the typical Bethesda sickness: after a time you became so strong and experienced that you basically became a demigod and nobody will ever mean a challenge for you. At least in the main game, in the extends the enemies are artificially pumped up. No matter that you are basically at the highest level of xp you won't be able to kill them with just one well aimed shot in the head. So somehow it is unbalanced. And most of the extends are nothing just a Doom-like roaming and shooting. The only exception is point lookout. That was a very good extend that added something good to the game. The worst extend is 'The Pitt'. In that the creators wanted to put the player in a situation where he needs to bring moral decision which is basically can't be good or bad rather just bad. But this was so obvious that one could feel the creators taking the player a fool. The other annoying thing in this extend is its the maze-like map. Because the former Pittsburgh is so small, that the creators made the whole thing to be a labyrinth so they basically increased the "playing time" with this trick. The other extends are about shooting only. One of them, the Mothership Zeta is actually funny but still only a shooter extend. And the last thing is the game still contains some bugs, which are not bothering. Except the extends, because if you saving too frequently and want to enter a building or something, so where game needs load some other stuff it crashes big time.

The Bottom Line
It is a very good post-apocalyptic game but not a Fallout. If you're a fan of Fallout it is only recommended you to play with until the first traces of dislike. Or you'll realize that the game is basically nothing else than a Bethesda's post-nuclear Morrowind-Oblivion experiment.