I’ve had a good bit of time to get my teeth into Fallout 3 now, and I’m loving it.

Having spent a bit of time in Megaton wandering round (and acquiring a house. Very handy ) I’m now starting to head more into the Washington DC part of the game. At the moment I’ve been sticking to the main quest to guide me through the game, and not really exploring much, but I’ve had a few random quests come up (investigated The Family attacking a town in the Wastelands, and another town under seige from giant Fire Ants).

Moving into Washington has shifted the landscape though. Kicking around Megaton etc, felt very much like the Wastelands they’ve called. There wasn’t much to see outside of the odd town. When you get to Washington though, they’ve captured the ruined city feeling well, as you constantly find yourself working your way around debris and surrounded by ruined buildings, as opposed to the more open terrain of the wastelands.

Its nice that it doesn’t take too long before you start picking up a variety of weapons as well. The very initial stages of the game were pretty dangerous, as I was very underarmed compared to most threats in the Wastelands. However after my first run-in with a group of raiders I picked up an assault rifle and a hunting rifle, and from there things started to get a bit easier.

The V.A.T.S. targetting system is a nice concession to those players who miss the turn-based style of combat, versus the FPS stylings of combat in this game. As long as you’ve got action points stored up (they regenerate reasonably quickly over time), you can engage the system, which lets you target specific areas of your opponent’s body, and then get a cinematic of you taking those shots. Its very handy for quickly disarming or crippling enemies.

Its also given me a good look at how gory the game can be. Raiders don’t tend to last long when I’m targetting their head with my combat shotgun, as their heads explode with a satisfying (if “urgh”-inducing) squelch. However, there’s also plenty of severed limbs and the like on display should you happen to step on a landmine or the like. Unlike Oblivion, which wasn’t bad (if at all) on the gore factor, this game doesn’t pull its punches. I’m slightly surprised there’s no option to turn it down or off. The game is 18 rated though so people can’t say they aren’t warned.

I’m now looking forward to exploring the ruins of Washington DC properly tonight.  The only real problem I’ve got with this game so far is the sleep I’m losing playing it…

Last week saw the release of the latest in the Fallout series of RPGs.

I’ve got Fallout 1 & 2 in the house, but I’d never really played them much (should really dig them out), however when I saw the hype for Fallout 3, I was very excited.  I’m a huge Oblivion fan, so the idea of an Oblivion-style, post-apocalyptic future-set RPG was very interesting.

And so far, the game is living up to expectations.  I’m not far in, having just completed the introductory level where you define your character, and run a couple of quick quests for the first town, but its off to a promising start.    Starting your character from birth and then jumping to various events in your childhood (10th birthday party for example) is quite a nice way to break you into the game, and build a bond with your character.

The feel of the game is very similar to Oblivion so far.  Graphically, its obvious this is a souped up version of the same engine (or at least, that’s what it looks like), and the introductory level being used to define your character and establish the main plot reminded me a lot of the prison break sequence at the start of Oblivion.

Visually however, the landscape is very different.  Whereas Oblivion was lush landscapes, woods and mountains, this is the world after an atomic war.  Outside of the vault you are greeted by what’s left of the town where the vault was located, only most of it has been reclaimed by the desert, with only a few shells of buildings remaining.  The main feature you quickly find is the town of Megaton, recognisable by its town walls, welded together from various bits of sheet metal.   The whole town has the feel of something thrown together from scavenged materials (which it is), which is in sharp contrast to Oblivion’s towns, which felt like great care had gone into their construction and layout (especially the likes of the Imperial City).

Atmosphere is also added via the radio stations your wrist computer (Pip-Boy) can pick up.  From the start, the main radio station setup by survivors is only static (there’ll be a quest there I imagine), however you can listen to the Enclave Station and have the sound of President Eden (Malcolm McDowall) to keep you company as you explore the wastes.

So far the feel of this game is spot on for me.  The immersion and everything I loved about Oblivion, but the post-apocalyptic setting is a sharp contrast and well-realised.  I’m looking forward to exploring this game properly over the next few weeks and getting to grips with it.

Well, Mass Effect was released last week, although I was away, so I didn’t get a chance to play it until I got back on Sunday night.

The setup for the universe is pretty interesting.   All races in the galaxy owe their technology to the remains of a previous civilisation, The Protheans.  There’s a council of the various alien races who govern galactic affairs and humanity is somewhat frowned upon as the newcomers, who the other races dislike.

When a new Prothean artifact is uncovered, your ship is sent on a covert mission to retrieve it, as its impact on galactic affairs could be incalculable.  Needless to say, things don’t go so well, and a threat is revealed.

I’m a huge fan of RPGs and Bioware in general.  In many ways Bioware were synonymous with quality PC RPGs, thanks to the Baldur’s Gate series.   A success they continued with Neverwinter Nights.   Sadly these days, their focus has moved more to the console market (which is understandable given how that market has grown).   They released Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire on the X-Box which eventually got PC conversions (although in Jade Empire’s case, it was some time later).

I’m undecided what I think of Mass Effect however.  To me it seems to continue the trend of showing preference to console gaming over developing a good RPG.   Jade Empire was great, but the combat system seemed to point to bringing in beat-em-up aspects to the genre, which meant if you weren’t quick-fingered, you could be in trouble.   Mass Effect continues this, by relying heavily on FPS gameplay.   Once in a firefight, survival depends on your ability to quickly target enemies and shoot at them FPS style, and duck behind cover.

My big problem is that a lot of the time it feels more like I’m playing Halo, rather than a Bioware RPG.  No I like FPS games, but that’s not what I paid my money for in this case.  The scenes in the Mako landing craft are basically driving around in a Warthog.    I played through the introductory missions, with the stuff on the Citadel Station being the only bit that actually felt like I was playing a proper RPG again.

I then got to the section where you have to fly around to different planets, KotOR-style.   Sadly, there’s not much direction here, and I was having to land on various planets and explore them to see if they were the right ones.  Cue more FPS action as I stumble onto mercenary camps.

I’ve now restarted the game, dropped the combat difficulty to Easy to try and stop it annoying me, and re-rolled my class to try and affect the gameplay.  I’m hoping that it improves matters, as the story is interesting and I want to like this game.  But so far I’m finding it a dissappointment, and a pale reflection of Knights of the Old Republic.

How did I miss this news? Bioware announced a couple of months back that contrary to their previous “No PC version” statements they’re releasing Mass Effect for the PC.

Its getting a June release here, and from the sounds of things on the Bioware forums and podcasts they’re taking it seriously. Its not going to be a straight port, instead they’re re-jigging some aspects of the game to better suit the PC market.

I’m a sucker for Bioware RPGs, and I’ve been wanting to play this since it came out for the 360. I’ve got my copy pre-ordered

Well, since I previously talked a bit about replaying Knights of the Old Republic, I figure I should revisit its sequel as well.

Set an uncertain amount of time after the original, the player takes the role of the Jedi Exile. The Sith have returned to the galaxy, wiping out most of the jedi, and they’ve now set their sights on the Exile, believing him/her to be the last remaining Jedi.

Unlike the first game, the sequel starts you on your Jedi path straight away. While owning a lightsaber only comes much later on in the game, right away you get to start selecting force powers. The upshot of this being, that as you proceed into the later stages of the game, you’re a veritable Jedi powerhouse, cutting down enemies with lightning, and healing your companions from near-death with ease.

This game also introduced the influence system with your travelling companions. As is usual with these RPG games, as you travel to different locations new NPCs join your party. What was new in this game however was that your actions could determine the amount of influence you had with these party members. So if you helped out someone in trouble with the local mob, then your good-aligned companions would look more favourably on you, while you’d lose influence with those more inclined to the dark side.

The great thing about this system being that having increased influence would mean that your companions would only tell you certain things once they trusted you, and for some of them, once that trust reached a certain level, you could actually train them in the ways of the Force, and they’d become Jedi characters. Really helpful having a couple of jedi around to use Force Healing in the tougher fights.

However, the game suffered from one big flaw. Lucasarts had been incredibly keen on a tight development timescale for this game, so as a result, it was rushed onto the market. As a result of this, bugs are rife (some causing big gameplay issues), and huge sections of the game had to be abandoned, leaving several parts where its clear something was significant, but doesn’t actually lead anywhere.

Despite this, I still love this game. Revan’s character in the first game was very well defined (in terms of his/her backstory), whereas I find it more easy to role-play the Exile, as their past and motivations are a blank text. Getting influence with your companions and having them become Jedi was a great addition to the game, and gives you lots of different things to attempt on various run-throughs.

The new Sith Lords are great as well. Darth Sion is a really great, freaky creation, and Darth Nihilus had a great sense of mystery.

The bugs are the main downfall. Just the other night, I had a quest which stuck whenever I tried taking the light-side path to completing it, and so I eventually just had to take the hit and gather some darkside points in order to progress. Perhaps not a huge issue in terms of making progress, but in a role-playing game it really drags you out of the character.

Oblivion had petitioned LucasArts to allow them to complete the game in a later patch, straightening out the bugs, and providing some of the missing content, but sadly LucasArts said no. Some of what was intended (The HK Droid Factory for example) can still be found in the depths of the PC data files, and there is a project making progress at trying to restore some of this content.

Overall, I really do love this game. Its just such a shame it was never completed to the developer’s original intentions, as I reckon it’d have surpassed its predecessor. As it stands, the first game probably pips it to the post for stability, and having a more complete, coherent storyline, which is a shame, because the potential really was there.

So, last night I cracked and started playing through Knights of the Old Republic again.

It and its sequel are two fantastic games (although the second has its problems due to its rushed nature), and I never tire of playing them. I tend to play through each of them a couple of times a year, especially since Bioware seems to have moved away from making PC games.

It was a great idea, picking a time in Star Wars lore that wasn’t as well known, and being able to build up their own story with it. Especially since its now spawned the fantastic Knights of the Old Republic comic series which is acting as a prequel.

Sadly, it does now mean I’m going to end up sleep-deprived for the next few days.

I’ve been barely gaming at all over the last couple of months. With being a bit burned out by work, most nights on the PC have been spent either updating missing album artwork in iTunes, reading Wikipedia articles and forum posts, or seeing what’s on Youtube.

However, this weekend I finally managed to get in some gaming. Inspired by a recent article in the Metro, I downloaded and played the demo for Hellgate London. I was pretty impressed, so nicked out to the local Woolies and nabbed a copy of the full game. Its really well made, and good fun, combining RPG elements with a more action-focused gameplay. The setting is interesting, and its refreshing having something set in London rather than somewhere in America. Great fun.

Being an RPG junkie as well, I decided to reinstall Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I’d been playing it on my old PC, but fell out of it when I changed over to my new one. Not having played in a good while, rather than start straight off from my previous save, I thought I’d play through it a bit from the beginning to get back into the swing of it.

Its a really well-made RPG, with great characters and an interesting storyline. I also found it more engrossing than some RPGs out there which lean towards hack-and-slash. Granted, there’s quite a bit of action, but its always centred around a well-formed plot. I love things in RPGs like having my own house (such as the flat in this game, home ownership in Oblivion or the Ebon Hawk in Knights of the Old Republic) which just add another layer to my involvement in the game world.

I don’t remember this game making a huge splash when it hit, but its definitely worth a look for anyone who likes a good RPG.

Ran the latest bunch of Ubuntu updates last night, which nicely killed my installation. Fortunately I eventually twigged that the updates had included a new kernel image, and was able to reboot off the old one. Fiesty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04) was released yesterday, so that’ll be the weekend’s project.

Finished replaying Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic again the other night. I do love those games. Work’s been quite busy lately, so I’ve been tired at night, so not really in the mood for anything real time. So the turn-based combat of KotOR was pretty appealing. I’ve played through it and its sequel loads of times now. I really do wish they’d get round to making KotOR3. I’ve been quite dissappointed that Bioware seem to have started favouring consoles over PCs for their games. Admittedly, its where the money is these days, but as a PC gamer, I do miss having good, new Bioware games to play.

With it finished though, I do need to try and play through the new Oblivion expansion: The Shivering Isles. I’ve started playing it, although so far I’m not sold on the new area. When it comes to RPGs, I tend to prefer running around woods and grasslands, bumping into towns and such on the way, which is probably why I liked Oblivion so much. However, the new area is designed to be a bit weirder. Still, I imagine once I start finding my way around it, I’ll get settled in.