Fallout 3' maximizes positive aspects of increased popularity

                Ten years after the release of its predecessor, "Fallout 3" brings players back to the post-apocalyptic wasteland for more tales of deceit and heroics. Published by Bethesda Softworks, the game is an ambitious attempt to imagine a living, breathing Washington, D.C. after a nuclear war. Fortunately, the game's setting delivers the freedom of choice without sacrificing the quality of execution.
    Like the previous "Fallout" games, "Fallout 3" puts the player in the body of a vault-dweller. Born and raised in an underground shelter, he is a newcomer to the harsh reality of the nuclear wasteland and is forced to make do with whatever resources he can find.
    Upon leaving his vault, the vault-dweller is greeted with a dystopian vision of human nature gone awry. Nuclear war has laid bare man's basest tendencies, and he must struggle to survive in the most hostile of environments. Whether he does so by forming an alliance with the greedy crime lords or by running errands to gain the trust of small-time merchants is entirely up to the player.
    The game's various crossroads affect how the story progresses. Early in the game, the character discovers a town of people who worship an active atomic bomb as a religious idol. One can choose to disarm the bomb in exchange for a shack in the humble town or to detonate the device in exchange for more a more luxurious apartment owned by a xenophobic aristocrat.
    "Fallout 3's" primary quest consists of the search for the vault-dweller's father and is driven by well-executed in-game cinematic segments. The plot loses some credibility after the sixth helpful bystander explains that the character's father "just passed through here." Even at its most repetitive points, however, the conversations are some of the best examples of dialogue writing found in video games today. Taking up most of the game-play time are various sidequests which challenge the player to help cure a friend of an addiction to one of the game's numerous narcotics or to use irradiated sugar cereal to develop a stronger brand of the same drugs.
    While the dark humor and morose realism of "Fallout 3's" dialogue distinguish this game from its many competitors, the combat system is equally appealing. Eschewing the turn-based systems of the previous "Fallout" games, "Fallout 3" uses the same first-person active combat system of Bethesda's "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" (2006), from which the game's engine is derived.
    Fans of first-person shooting games, such as the "Call of Duty" or "Halo" series, will find most of the combat familiar. "Fallout's" RPG heritage is apparent with the stop-time targeting system. At any point in combat, the player can choose to enter into a turn-based combat mode, selecting which body part belonging to which enemy he or she wants to attack.
    Because it is only advantageous to one side of the combat, this targeting system can become a crutch. If first-person shooting skills are not enough to get out of a tight situation, one can simply stop time and fire four bursts at the head of the nearest enemy without fear of retaliation.
    The combat system is also heavily biased toward conventional gunplay. Although "Fallout 3" includes melee weapons, grenades, mines and other interesting combat choices, most encounters are clearly designed to be approached with either a pistol or machine gun. Melee weapons are difficult to aim, they cannot target specific parts of the enemy's body, they do less damage than most guns, and they are useless against enemies in elevated perches.
    Fans of the previous "Fallout" games may find other features missing as well, although each has been traded for a new one. Characters with particularly low intelligence scores are no longer given unique dialogue options, but every line of speech is beautifully voice-acted. The targeting system no longer includes the eyes or crotch, but the slow-motion effects animate the explosions of irradiated limbs. The band of well-armed children is completely invincible, but players can still sell the gullible ones into slavery.
    These faults are minimal, excusable and predictable. A game as darkly comic as "Fallout" could not be brought into the mainstream without some reservations. Fortunately, its mass-market development has created one of the most compelling and technically complex games available today.