The Lone Wanderer? What about his 'Fawke'ing companions?!

Fallout 3 is epic. When I say that, I don't mean the ill-informed teenage meaning of it's really...REALLY good, I mean it in the poetic term of it consists of it's own Universe. If you continue through doing all the simple missions then you'll never actually realise that there are boundaries that you can't cross; only if you attempt to search for them will you actually find them thus you're pretty much in a world of it's own with it's own Pokédex of differing beastly and still quite grotesque but pretty helpful creatures. First time I played, I for reasons which should now be clear named my character Odysseus.

The game begins with your birth and your first mission is your baby steps. Yes, seriously, you have to go through a bit of your childhood before you're roaming the Wastelands mezzing Ghouls. The reason being to direct your character (who at this point seems much like Tommy Pickles trying to get out of his playpen) to having certain specialities and a reason for having those specialities, so much like an ACTUAL childhood, so I do definitely praise the game for making an alternate timeline appear believable. An aspect which never ceases to astound me is how when you begin the game, all the rooms seem so begin, when you return them later as an adult in 'Trouble At The Homefront', they seem so small (they did actually change the size, but it still manages to give a nostalgic feeling) .

The storyline is amazing. You and your father start in a Vault designed to protect everyone from the Wastelands; everyone seems SO happy, but then your father ditches you and the 'Overseer' turns psycho killing your friends, gee, thanks pops. Then you escape so you can find him, it's a bit of a search but when you find him you find it was to finish his SCIENCE PROJECT! Not to take out some great evil or to save some hot babe that he used to know, nope, just some mundane research. Noble, once you know what the research is for, but still.

One mission which I shall mention specifically due to the greatness of it and the imagination behind it. Tranquility Lane. This is where you're in a virtual reality simulation and being forced to do some tasks by a psychotic child pleasantly named Betty. The area is much like Stepford, pretty much everything is (seemingly) perfect, which makes the tasks all the more fun. They vary from making lil' Timmy cry to murdering every resident in the enclosed utopia, pretty DAMN awesumm!

There are various companions which you can recruit throughout the game, ranging from a 'lil puppy dog names Dogmeat to a MAHOOSIVE grossly disfigured SUPERMUTANT names Fawkes. Each of which will only join you depending on whether you've been a goody-two shoes*, an evil bastard, or a boring shite throughout the game. The best companion to have is more than definitely Fawkes, he only joins if you're a hero at this point, so be good for Fawkes' sake. Companions are fun to have, and well recommended because they make it feel like you're in your own ikkle gang; however, if you recruit one and they die, I would say try not to care, to keep restarting so that you can keep them takes WAYYY too long.

Now, it may seem like the games intended for people who have no life looking at how much is in it and how long it'd take to get EVERYTHING done. However, WHO CARES ABOUT HAVING A LIFE?! When in real life will you ever get to use an Alien gun which you found at an ACTUAL U.F.O crash sight to kill an army of Supermutants to save a captive who should really owe you a favour if you catch my drift. The game is amazing and if you've never played it before, then get off your arse and find someone you can borrow it from. When you complete the game, it gives you a big sense of satisfaction, that's right you've spent a week or so finding your father and continuing his research, well done at making something of yourself (but now you've finished, try to socialise a bit and actually make something of yourself).

Live long and 'You've Gained Karma'

Hugwhore <3

*Do baddies wear one shoe or something? I don't see how that aids in being evil...