There's not much to say about this game that hasn't already been said, at least when it was originally released. But now that Fallout 3 has released three expansions, it's time to take another look at it.

Bethesda's installment of the existing Fallout series using their Gamebryo engine (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) takes us far into the future, following an apocalypic meltdown that has ravaged America, but narrowed down to the DC area in the game. Our protagonist, the "Lone Wanderer", is in search for his father who left the safety of their Vault bunker in pursuit of a way to reverse the nuclear fallout. Much like Oblivion, we wander across the map - meeting, trading, killing, etc - to complete main and side quests.

At first, I was very hesistant to play this game. I'd played Oblivion and didn't have the motivation beyond the first gate. With the gameplay mechanics almost identical, I thought I'd have a similar experience. Somehow, the sci-fi story transcends the gameplay experience, with help from the unique V.A.T.S. RPG combat mechanic. The mixture of traditional and futuristic energy weapons make it very enjoyable to blow stuff up, from mutated bugs to Hulk-inspired monsters. The story is cohesive and easy to follow, no matter if you stick to the bare minimum or seek out additional content.

Some of the decisions are hard to make. Unlike maybe Elder Scrolls games where you just burn through meaningless dialogue, the scripts in Fallout 3 are intriguing and consequential. Like with KotOR games, I find myself on the Light side easily, but one evil act throws everything off balance quickly. Nothing really affects your gameplay experience, aside from which companions you can have. The hardest decisions come when you do what you're meant to in this type of game - survive. Playing by the rules and hunting for XP and loot, you'll frequently exhaust your ammo and maybe break your weapons, which means you need to buy/trade/kill for more. One mini-nuke to a trading caravan could mean tons of ammo and food, but seriously hurt your karma.

This isn't a horror game. The monsters here have nothing on Deadspace, but there are some times where the more grotesque creatures (Centaurs) sneak up on you and make you jump out of your seat. Complemented with superb sound engineering, every location is unique in its acoustics and the lighting changes appropriately, especially when you launch nukes and the camera aperature briefly goes dark. I would highly recommend getting the Bloody Mess perk, which gives you more damage and higher chance of splattering your enemies' guts on the ground (ie eyeballs, intestines, jaws). Definitely gory and definitely hilarious.

Downloadable content

Fallout 3's DLC is only available on PC and XBOX 360, hinting at an exclusivity for Microsoft, leaving PS3 owners with not only an inferior port of the game, but a dead end for the content. Each expansion costs $10, meaning that at $50/$60 retail for the game, you could be paying upwards of $100 for the entire game. Keep this in mind when you play by the hour.

Operation: Anchorage

The first expansion makes itself out to be more of a contained mission, a very contained mission. After meeting some exiled Brotherhood, they get you to unlock a weapons cache with completing a simulation re-enacting the war to save Alaska from the Chinese. The major gameplay difference is that because it's a simulation, weapons/ammo cannot be stolen from enemies, but are instead refilled at bottomless stations. This curves the difficulty in your favor when you can trackback whenever you want. No matter what the difficulty, everything seems to be in your favor and it's not that easy to die. However, the final boss changes that. If you cannot convince him to surrender, he'll chase you around with his sword and bulletproof hide while you do you best to waste him. The problem is that if you accidently hit a friendly, they all turn on you and it becomes death time. After a few tries, I just turned the difficulty down and got him to surrender. You get a lot of swag afterwards, but the Brotherhood turns on you before you leave. My response? Nuke them before they had the chance.

The Pitt

The Pitt takes you to the ruins of Pittsburgh, a steel mill powered by slaves. The whole goal is to liberate the slaves or find a way to make their lives as slaves easier. Instead of Super Mutants, people have mutated into trogs, crawling cannibals who would like to eat you. As interesting as this expansion was (relative to O:A), the first major assignment was to work the steel mill and collect ten ingots. Wow. I've seen this formula before. Anyway, after slaying all the trogs in the mill, they're not hard to find and you get to progress. It's pretty straightforward and there isn't much to explore, meaning that you burn through it unless you want to collect all 100 ingots for the achievement. Of all the karma decisions to make, this was the hardest. Either you set the slaves free to revolt against the masters (good) or you help the masters develop a cure to prevent the slaves from getting sick.

Broken Steel

The last expansion so far extends the game beyond the original ending and increasing the level cap to 30. It is only accessible if you convince Lyon to sacrifice herself, although it does not affect your karma. You're primarily assigned to investigate the remnants of the Enclave, even though I explicitly convinced President Eden to disband them! Oh well, more XP for me. This is my favorite expansion, only because it's relevant to the game. The rest are just side missions that are completely missable even if you paid to have them. There's just some weird pleasure to be had in convincing a robot that you are George Washington and then blowing him up. The most important part about this expansion is that it turns the game into a free-roam after you complete the main quests, meaning you can still go after side missions. This is great for achivement hunters who don't want to start a 30-hour game again. Definitely check out as many as you can.

Lastly, I want to say that I highly recommend playing this on PC (if you can), whether it be on keyboard or with an XBOX controller. As a Games For Windows title, it is connected to the Microsoft Achievements system and increases your gamerscore. What's the difference? You can still cheat on PC. Excessively. The native cheat system is still accessible, you still get XP and you still get achievements. Don't want to deny yourself the pleasure of God-mode? Just give yourself money so you can survive the wastes. Remember that I play by the hour? All said and done, I got about 30 hours out of an $80 game. Still not a great time value, but still a very fun and indulging game that will boost your gamerscore quickly. For more tips, tricks and random goodness, check out the Fallout wiki.