Embarked on a journey to 100% complete this game again and get all the achievements on my current Xbox account (lost access to the account I originally did it on). The game is showing it's age but I still had fun! Nostalgia clouds my judgment but there's still something special about walking out of Vault 101 every time! Finding Megaton, traveling to Rivet City, exploring the ghoul-infested metros, and fighting Super Mutants in the ruins of Washington D.C. will forever be burned into my memory. No matter how many times I play, the Capitol Wasteland keeps surprising me with unmarked locations and subtle visual storytelling.
Glitches and crashes along with random bugs, broken quests, and horrible AI are tiresome and immediately break immersion. However, there is a theory brewing in my head, that if you let Stockholm syndrome set in, you will look past these problems and your mind will adapt to still pull enjoyment from playing. Bethesda really tanked the story in terms of respecting established lore, so that is frustrating. However, many threads of potentially fantastic stories are interwoven throughout the game. One can tell when the team had random, neat ideas they wanted to implement but the engine or time did not cooperate. And even though the main quest is the most vanilla, white-bread, cookie-cutter plot, there is enough to stay hooked through the world-building on its own.
Obviously, the soundtrack is phenomenal and this game sparked my interest in early to mid-20th-century music. And an interest in 50s Americana and culture also developed thanks to this game. So even if it has its issues - Fallout 3 stands as an early 2000s icon of gaming and is deserving of the praise despite the flaws!
Glitches and crashes along with random bugs, broken quests, and horrible AI are tiresome and immediately break immersion. However, there is a theory brewing in my head, that if you let Stockholm syndrome set in, you will look past these problems and your mind will adapt to still pull enjoyment from playing. Bethesda really tanked the story in terms of respecting established lore, so that is frustrating. However, many threads of potentially fantastic stories are interwoven throughout the game. One can tell when the team had random, neat ideas they wanted to implement but the engine or time did not cooperate. And even though the main quest is the most vanilla, white-bread, cookie-cutter plot, there is enough to stay hooked through the world-building on its own.
Obviously, the soundtrack is phenomenal and this game sparked my interest in early to mid-20th-century music. And an interest in 50s Americana and culture also developed thanks to this game. So even if it has its issues - Fallout 3 stands as an early 2000s icon of gaming and is deserving of the praise despite the flaws!