It’s been a summer of great anticipation over some great games and Fallout 3 is set to be one of this years biggies. This post-apocalyptic action RPG has been developed by Bethesda Game Studios and produced by both Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Media and follows on 36 years after Fallout 2.

The change of both producer and developer to Bethesda from Fallout 2 to 3 is evident; the amount of Washington D. C. you are able to explore is huge, over 16 square miles of explorable environment which rivals Bethesda’s huge hit, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
The plot itself is being kept under wraps and very little has been released, from what we do have though we can discover that you play a resident of Vault 101 underneath Washington D.C. and the first thing the protagonist does in the game is be born. I t is here that you decide what you will look like through an advanced DNA reader-computer-thingy, also how you choose to look affects how your father looks through a family resemblance feature. Pretty cool huh?
Your early childhood is used as the tutorial to the game and at your tenth birthday you receive a Pip Boy which, if you played the first two Fallout games, you will remember as being your book of essentials, used to alter you attributes after levelling up, give you quest data etc. At sixteen you are given an exam which determines your skills: sneaking, science, medicine, guns, speech, etc and finally your nineteenth birthday which is when the game really kicks off (although Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo estimates players will spend about 1 hour in the Vault alone).Your father disappears and during your search for him in the Vault you draw the attention of the Vault leader, the Overseer, who suspects you have something to do with his disappearance. Before accusations start flying you leave the Vault and begin searching for your father in the Wastelands of Washington D.C.
Clearly Bethesda have put in a huge amount of effort simply on the tutorial and opening few quests and we all hope that reflects in the full game which will hit North America on 28th October, 31st for Europe and 4th December for Japan. Fallout 3 will be available on Xbox 260, Playstaion 3 and PC.

Lewis