A while

Hi all 0 of my readers.

Well, I just thought I'd inform you that I've been playing multiple games that I feel are all good contenders for a post on this blog. Dragon Age stands out the most, but I think I'll actually do a TWIP on Fallout 3.



Why? Because Fallout 3 was pretty much a perfect gaming experience for me. It was everything I had hoped Oblivion to be, but in a better setting.

The SPECIAL system is a good old-school rpg system, it only falls down on some of the "you must have x points to continue" aspects. I'd prefer a bioshock system, where you didn't NEED x to continue, but it sure did help. Look at the engineering plasmids and the hacking system for an idea.

But I loved the setting of Fallout 3, I've got an unhealthy nostalgia (weird as it was 30 years before my birth) over the juxtaposition of 1950's america, the fact that everything was all happy and free while in fact they were just coming out of a massive depression, a huge war and were constantly at risk of MAD. Their technological optimism and "nuclear will fix everything" attitude makes for beautiful pseudo-science fiction. I'm also a massive nerd, and that tends to mean I don't mind the concept of 99% of the worlds population and a large portion of livable areas being blown to hell in a nuclear holocaust.

I also loved being the Lone Wanderer. This was a guy (or girl, though canonically they tend to be the white-straight-young-atheltic-brunette, more on that and gender-bias at some point) that I'd seen grow from infancy. He had friends, enemies, a history and depth. Surrounded by the struggling, the hungry, the down-right evil, you really got the feeling that the whole place was going to hell and you were the only one that could do anything about it. Something I'm afraid New Vegas has failed to deliver quite as well, as it focusses more on politics. Though this isn't a "what makes games good" so I won't dwell too much on its succesor.

Anyway, my first "TWIP" will most likely be based on Fallout 3, one of my favourite games, and it ticks all the boxes having a long, expansive and evolving storyline, character growth and customisation, and deep environments. However I might also throw in something random like TF2, as there's a degree of character customisation in it and it'd be a good "training" excersise, as I don't need to worry quite so much about the depth.

Until next time

Steve