Fallout 3

What was fallout 3?  a good game : yes.  Fun : hell yes.  A good story : whatever.  Complex characters with personality : no.  very one-sided transparent people. Yes.  Story was interesting, but nothing profound.  China attacks USA via Alaska.  Bombs dropped that slaughtered mankind.  The survivors were transformed into freaks if they weren’t protected in some kind of vault.  Now it’s a dog eat dog world. But the salvation for mankind is simple: clean water.  And surely there will be two opposing ideas about how this technology should be used to make clean water.  That religions, and monsters, and new kinds of guns sprout up during all this isn’t anything surprising.  But I still don’t quite understand how I am emotionally with it.  I enjoyed the exploring.  I enjoyed finding all the secrets on my own, and I enjoyed how the game rewarded me my efforts with secret items, extras places to explore, and even the occasional quest. 

But what is my relationship with Fallout 3?   How could I dedicate 181 hours to something and not walk away with some kind of relationship?  Maybe he is a good friend.  Someone who I know very well, with whom I am very comfortable.  There is no need to get angry with him because I have no expectation;  I know exactly what to expect.   Maybe Fallout 3 is my child hood friend. Someone with whom I fight only for entertainment purposes.  Where there is never any real malice.  Dead space produced true anger and hatred within me.  Dead space is definitely not my friend.  But all my hours with fallout 3 were spent in a general state of enjoyment.  What is happening in the next town?  Can’t wait to use my fat man.  How do I get a death claw pet?  Every curiosity was born in a womb of peace and comfort.  There were of course times of surprise, unease, and frustration, but they were natural reactions to a life well lived with you buddy.  Nothing felt unnatural between me and fallout 3. 

Natural.  I was curious about destroying Megaton, but just on a “what if” level.  And I DIDN’T destroy it because I felt like I needed to make my home there.  Natural.  I killed Confessor Cromwell because HE was killing people with his brainwashing.  And damn do I hate brainwashing!!!!  Natural.  I stabbed the tree’s heart in Oasis (not burn it) because that is what I would want someone to do to me.  Natural.  I killed Tenpenney and flooded the building with ghouls because even though I know rich snobby people will always be, that doesn’t stop me from wanting them not to be.  Natural.   I didn’t turn over the android to the doctor, I actually killed Dr. Zimmer because I feel that is what everyone needs to do one day with their emotional umbilical cord to their parents.  Natural.  I know that the actions of Dr. Lesko didn’t have the safety of the inhabitants of Grayditch in mind, so it could have been "correct" to just kill him and the queen ant, but there is something noble about being concerned about the FUTURE of mankind so much that you are willing to damage the present.  Regardless if the doctor was wrong or right about his ability to return the ants to there former size, every living creature on this earth is after all a product of a series of very meticulous selections and sacrifices.  The ability to bite fear in the face and make sacrifices now for what you believe will be a better future is a dope characteristic, so I chose to let him and the queen live.  Natural. 

I played Fallout 3 with a constant part of my brain comparing it to me and my current situation is life.  I couldn’t really do that in Dead Space.  All I could do there is KILL THOSE DAMN SPACE MUTATIONS!!!!!  Fallout 3 put me in a world where my decisions really did matter.  Although I could just save, decide, see result, if undesired, load, repeat; I didn’t do that because playing in a “never look back” state of mind makes for a more realistic experience.  (until the end of the game, since I didn’t know when if ever I would play the game again, I was too curious what the two results of the final decision of the game could be so I saved; though now I feel like a sell out to myself)

I know there are a lot more games out there that would provide a lot deeper of an experience for me if I play them this way and that thought makes me happy like an angel but also tired like a zombie.  It requires a lot more energy to play a game with your attention in it 100%.  I understand the times when you find yourself just playing the game to get it over with and that those times can be hard as hell to avoid, especially when you are nearing then end of game #1 and game #2 is the long awaited “The misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom”.  But I challenge every “gamer” out there to play games not just so you have more knowledge with which to judge future games or debate in favor of your current favorite game, but also to play games to improve the perspectives your currently have of your own life and help sharpen how you will undertake future endeavors.