Fallout 3

I am a rabid consumer of media. I love to learn from all sorts of things. One thing I have always enjoyed learning from, even if only a few small lessons, has been video games. So, here, I'd like to bring them up. Lest we get to thinking that this blog can only be about music (which I am also a big fan of, to be sure), I want to talk about a video game- and a PC game at that.

Recently, a game was released to great fanfare. This game utilizes a celebrated engine and design from a celebrated company that is just a few scant miles from my home.

Bethesda Softworks, makers of the amazing Elder Scrolls series, have created Fallout 3. I'm not going to review the game in it's entirety. I've only completed about 1/10th of it so far. I don't know if I will ever finish the whole thing. I may never see every stitch of it, despite working hard to complete almost every game I've ever owned. 

The problem isn't with my resolve (hah! of course not...). It's just that the game is almost too big to play in it's entirety.

A trend that has not worked well for all games.

But I cannot find fault in Fallout 3 for this. The game is immense in proportion and frightening in it's prescience. But alluring and interesting. It is well designed and well thought-out. It smacks of reality while showing a terrible fantasy.

The characters are alive and realistic, despite being made so obviously of pixels, even at an amazing high 1920 x 1200 resolution (high definition has always had better resolution than real life for me).


And while the experience is so amazingly and obviously simulated, I can't help but find myself wanting to come back for more.