I Do Want To Set The World On Fire

For the causal and hardcore gamer alike, the final five months of the year is what we all look forward to. It is the time of the year that the video games industry releases its flagship titles. Last year, Halo 3 adorned the crown as king of Q4 (fourth quarter, fall – winter season of release schedule). This year, the sequels will battle it out for dominance. Gears of War 2, Fables 2, Saint’s Row 2 and Fallout 3 are to be released within mid October to early November. As an intermediate gamer, I will purchase all four games, but the only title I am anxiously anticipating is Fallout 3.

The series was created by Interplay (creators of Descent) and released on September 30, 1997for the PC. Fallout 2 was released a year later on the same date. Admittedly, I have never played Fallout 1 or 2. As a long time geek, I was aware of the series, but around the time of Fallout’s popularity, I was exclusively into first person shooters (Doom, Counter Strike). After Interplay declined, the Fallout intellectual properly or I.P., was up for sale and acquired by Bethesda (creators of Oblivion). Bethesda decided to take the game in various new directions.

Bethesda abandoned PC exclusivity and created XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game. The geographical location of the game changed from Southern California to Washington, D.C... The game’s interface radically changed from the aerial, overhead look of strategy games to the options of playing the game in third or first person perspective. Bethesda also omitted some themes that were featured in the previous two games such as murdering children and nudity. Graphically, the series experienced a major overall. It is powered by Gamebryo, the same engine used for Oblivion.

Keeping with the series conventions, the post apocalyptic, ghastly, nuclear holocaust setting remained. The games RPG elements remained as well. Since you begin the game as an infant, if the race of your character is of African descent, naturally, your father (mother dies while giving birth to your character) will be of African descent as well. In creating the physical characteristics of your character, you will also be able to assign abilities and attributes. Like the pariah dog in Fallout 2, at some point your character acquires a canine companion to explore the outside world.

Although Bethesda pussied out and excluded child killing and nudity, Fallout 3 still tops my list of games to purchase this year (Fables 2 is second). I do not advocate child killing and have no intention of killing a child, but I just hate it when themes that were once present in a game are censored. It just butchers the legacy of the series. I cannot wait to explore a nuked D.C., kill virtual mutants and meet interesting survivors along the way. In these times of terror threats and government fear mongering, I’m surprised the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t banned it on some bullshit reasoning that it has the potential to inspire terrorism.