History

The Time has Come

I have come to the undeniable revelation that the Fallout Intellectual Property is my favorite. XCOM is my favorite game, hands down, but the setting, lore and style of Fallout beats it in my book every day. Where I am excited for XCOM 2 to come out so that I can experience the game play, I eagerly await Fallout 4 so that I can, once again, immerse myself in the world.

Fallout 3 has a special place in my heart. It is the game that broke the stranglehold that World of Warcraft had on me.  For nearly four years, I had only played one video game. I had neglected a large portion of the new consoles and had let my old ones languish. Instead of experiencing games the way they were meant to be, I was instead immersed in an enormous glorified chat room.  My roommate had purchased the game earlier in the year, and I watched him play a few sessions before I asked him if I could take a spin. He obliged, and I dived in.

This game was, in addition to being on of my first on a console since the PS2, was my first really open world game. It changed how I play videogames to this day. The little details that Bethesda put into the game really shone through the game design to make a game that felt more real than anything else I’d played. The detail that stuck out the most for me was the Subway Signs. I was lost in the DC subways early on, and I knew where I needed to be. I had been, no lie, on that exact train line before. I couldn’t remember how to get there, though. I was lost.

But wait! I remembered that they had maps of the Metro plastered on these panels in the center of the hallways. So, I wandered around for a little bit, found of of the panels and, to my great surprise, the map of the subway system was replicated in game I was flabbergasted. I followed the map and, now quite unsurprisingly, ended up exactly where I needed to be. That single moment really exemplifies why I cling to the games so much. It really shows, to me, that the developers are keyed in on making the fallout games not simply a post apocalyptic game set loosely on earth, it is earth after an apocalypse. The difference is subtle, yet important.

Days of Future

Every game I play, especially these open-world games, I want to try and play something a little different. I know people who play the same type of character in every game – the sneaky assassin, the brute with a huge weapon, ect. I enjoy branching out and trying to change up how I play each game. This is feeds off of my Rules of Gaming – I’m not likely to play through a second time, so I want to get a new and novel experience out of the game.

In Fallout 3, I played a massive, strong and armorclad master of heavy weaponry. I used Miniguns, Gatling Lasers, Fat Boys, and – most importantly, Missile Launchers as my primary means of self defense. This often meant that I was suffering from massive return fire, necessitating power armor simply to live. I made my living trading missiles to the denizens of Megaton for caps and other supplies while wandering around doing good deeds and setting things right. I collected electronics for the Brotherhood Outcasts, scrap metal for the town plumber, books for the Librarian and all sorts of other collectors. I become a one man wrecking crew trading caravan that saves the lives of everyone in the capital wasteland.

The game, however, broke neatly in half when I was at max level. I’d developed a technique for taking out enemies using vats that was almost always successful. When I targeted the enemy, I would aim for one of two parts of the body – either the portion with the largest hit percentage, which was often the chest, or a portion of the body in front of a solid object. If I hit the target, they would often die instantly regardless of contact point, as a missile seems to be pretty solidly deadly no matter what. If they failed to succumb to the missile, they would often have many of their limbs crippled and be functionally out of the fight. But, on the off chance I did miss the target, the missile would often explode behind the poor target and, as a missile is designed, accuracy doesn’t always matter. An explosion 4″ from your arm and face may as well be a direct hit.

Now, when I was able to get the final level and take Grim Reapers Sprint is when the game fell neatly apart. With each enemy I killed using VATS targeting, my VATS targeting points would completely refill. This would allow me, as long as I had missiles, to chain-gun missile-launcher through enemies if I kept hitting or got close enough. It was simultaneously both the coolest and the worst thing I ever did in a video game. I was so powerful, I never played through the DLCs, and I’v heard that that was a crime.

The Open Road

Though not a true sequel, Fallout: New Vegas was an instant pickup for me and is a game that put almost 180 hours into, including multiple DLC’s. This time, I was not caught unaware. As stated above, though, I was sure I wanted to play a different type of character. I’ve often played the giant brute, so Fallout 3 wasn’t a stretch for me. What I had never played, though, was the accurate long range sniper. I resolved before the game even came out that I was going to play that class, and I approached it with gusto, picking up my first rifle with iron sights and began honing my skills with the crosshairs from the first. It was difficult, to start, but not something I couldn’t overcome. Slowly I made my way up the damage ladder of sniper rifled until I encountered the pinnacle of long range sniper weaponry, the .50 Cal Anti-Material Rifle. That baby was heavy, unstable and pure death at a distance. I learned, much to late, that I didn’t have the requisite Strength in order to wield the weapon properly. With so little strength I was unable to keep the scope on target and it kept bobbling around, making aiming difficult. I spent a few perk slots and cybernetic upgrades making myself stronger, strong enough to hold the weapon relatively still and create a favorable environment for me to shoot with.

And Shoot I did! Taking Boone and Ede, I was able to shoehorn a false pip-boy into the game. I could see farther, through the scope, and my enemies were highlighted in red, making them amazingly easy to spot. There were more than a few towns occupied by the Ceasers forces that met their untimely demise at the end of a hand packed 50 cal. round. I became proficient enough in the weapon, despite all my deficiencies, that I was able to clear the salt mine of all the Deathclaws without sustaining too many injuries. I was good enough, the gun was powerful enough, and the critical bonuses were high enough that if I tagged even a deathclaw in the head with a round, It would be dead. With Hardcore Mode enabled and 50 cal rounds both sparse and expensive, each round was precious to me. Every miss was time, money, and supplies wasted.

The Way of the Tomorrow

Now, next week, I have to look at what I can and might play in the next of the Fallout Franchise. Recently I’ve played a mage in both Skyrim and Dragon Age: Inquisition, a Rogue in Dragon Age II, and both of my Fallout characters above. Now, going into this game, I want to play something different. Long range seems to be out, with Two Mages, a Missile Launcher and a Sniper, so close in seems to be the key. It is a fallout game, and without guns, I think you’d be missing half the point of the world, so I don’t want to be a complete melee specialist. So, I’ve had a long think about it, and I think I am going to try and go pistols and melee weapons. Stealth to get close enough to assassinate them with my handgun, and melee weapons for those close-in times when I need to, absolutely must, end my enemies. I expect that this will take me down a strange and fun path, where I get completely upset at my lack of killing power, and go straight to lopping heads off. I will try and stick it out, much like with my sniper, until the point when I can simply and repeatedly pile the dead at my feet. I don’t know whether I’ll end up as a gunslinger or a ninja, it all depends on the story and the items I found, and I look forward to exploring the game!

only 7 days left!