So I played a whole lot last night. Did a bunch of Megaton quests, disarmed the bomb (which was really easy, all I had to do was take a Mentat and suddenly I knew all about pre-war nuclear munitions
), blasted my way through the S-Mart (that was really fun), and am already carrying around an assault rifle, a dozen frag grenades, a laser pistol and my trusty unbreakable pistol you get at the start of the game. I have a feeling it is entirely possible to win the game using just that pistol alone.
I still get lost in Megaton. Half the time I'm like "Where the FUCK is my house?", I get lost, reload my last auto-save and it ends up being right next to me. Christ on a pogo stick.
Apparently they just decided that every single character gets the "Bloody Mess" perk because I have seen more heads flying off in slow-motion than the 17th century.
Speaking of VATS, I'm really glad I figured out that you can queue up multiple shots. It makes the bullet-time combat less annoying and more cool, especially when you shoot some guy twice, he starts to run away backwards, and you land the killing blow causing his body to fly back.
The reviews that say "There's no reason to not shoot someone in the head" seem a bit off. I have gotten the message "Raider head crippled!" plenty of times, and apparently having a crippled head has absolutely no bearing on your ability to, you know, move and shoot. What the hell, Beth? Also, when I was trying to save the Sheriff from Burke, before I did it the easy way, I tried shooting him in the arm so he couldn't use his gun. I crippled his arm. He still shot the sheriff. Again, poor game design, shame.
And while the game is, no doubt, drop dead gorgeous, why in fuck are they still using the same exact engine that makes first-person feel like you're playing a low-budget Quake 2 clone and your third-person character model look and move like EverQuest? Seriously?
In fact, I think the game would be improved to near perfection if they actually dropped VATS and used a GTA4-type engine - realistic movement, targeted combat, taking cover in a meaningful way, etc. Playing the game on a console without VATS is just annoying, unless, as has been pointed out, your doing melee, but even melee LOOKS cooler with VATS. Seriously, beat up a dog with a baseball bat using VATS and tell me it isn't bad-ass.
The characters and voice-acting are actually fine so far, but I'm assuming I'm not very far. The only quests I have now are "Find the GNC (or whatever, in DC)" which seems like something I should hold off on doing, and "Deliver a message to my family", which I sort of did but can't totally complete because there are a couple of Super Mutants hanging around somewhere I need to get to and I'm real low on healing items.
Oh wait, I also have a quest to get radiation poisoning, but that seems like it'll take forever, or just patiently standing in the radiated water in Megaton for an hour or two.
I am kind of disappointed that the game is so PG-13. Oh, sure, there are token cuss words and body parts flying and drug use, but so far the game is really low on sex and rock and roll. Yeah, I know you can "rent" that hooker but all she does is sleep in your bed.
Oh, but the radio stations are an awesome touch. They really got the feel of Fallout down, even down to the "OH HAY I JUST SPENT MY WHOLE LIFE IN A VAULT AND YET I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT".