Raygun Gothic Paradise!

Author's Rating:

Pros: UNLIMITED replay value, beautiful scenery, great story, excellent gameplay.

Cons: First Person Shooter this is not.

The Bottom Line: 
Get this game = say goodbye to friends and family and live in your room for the next 250 hours. Seriously, it becomes your life.

Author's Review
Let me begin by admiting I have spent over 200 hours on this game. I own two copies (one on X-Box 360 and one on PC), and I will not sell either of them. Ever. I have never loved a game so much.

Firstly, I am NOT an Role Playing Game kind of guy. Actually, to be honest, I HATE role playing games; they take too long, they get old after a while, too much collecting stuff and not enough action. I think the last role playing game I enjoyed was Pokemon, and that was like a million years ago. So, going into Fallout 3 was a bit of a chore. But once I sat down, I was IMMEDIATELY gripped. Every part of the character creation was interesting, there was a great narritive, the shaping of your character from childhood on was done incredibly well. The game doesn't even really START until a few hours after getting into it, but that's fine because when that happens you've already said to yourself, "it can't get better than this".

Gameplay is phenominal. Collecting still happens, but in a much more action-packed way. Admittedly, the game is NOT a first person shooter. It wants to be, but sadly, is not. I don't really know what it is that makes it every-so-slightly clunky in that regard, but it doesn't really matter because it's still so unbelievably fun. 

Graphics are out of this world (and with the Mothership Zeta add-on, literally). Raygun Gothic is an interesting aesthetic move on Bethesda's part; the broken-down old decrepid buildings have a once-grand, art-deco feel that has been irradiated beyond recognition. The setting (D.C.) was a GREAT choice for this kind of game. If you have a PC capable of it, get it for PC. It can look much better with a great graphics card like my NVIDIA 9600. Otherwise, go for the console version. Controls are slightly weaker, but this is a pretty game; enjoy the beauty of it.

Add-ons are very well thought out and worth it. So far, I have Operation Anchorage and Mothership Zeta, both which furnish you with extras you can use in your quest later. Operation Anchorage gives you the use of the almost gamebreakingly unfair Chinese Stealth Suit, which makes you invisible and if you have over 85 percent sneak skill, totally undetectable. Mothership Zeta gives you access to a BUNCH of alien guns, which are much better on Earth than on the ship. Also, it lets you use the spaceship for a home base later, which is nice.

I wish there were more I could say that would convince you to get this game, but words only go so far. I'm working on 250 hours, with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Really, best game I've ever played.