Fallout 3: Game of The Year Edition

"It's an instant classic and one that will occupy you for a long time to come.  GamePro.com
"A massive, enthralling achievement.  Russ Fischer, The Onion A.V. Club
"...amazing in everyway and we could not have expected a better Fallout title.  Brian Edey, GameFocus.com
"That's the beauty of survival, and this world of Fallout: It feeds on adventure and breathes in freedom, yet it dreams of order and the safety of the Vault.  GameRevolution.com

IGN.com 9 of 10
Fallout 3 is a special videogame. It's an open-world role-playing game that delivers an experience unlike anything on the market right now. It's a gripping and expansive showcase of how much depth and excitement can be packed into one videogame, and it does justice to the Fallout franchise. This sequel is the first made by Bethesda, the developers responsible for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You don't need to play any of their past games or any previous Fallout games to enjoy this one. It stands on its own as a memorable and well-crafted videogame...The Fallout universe paints a picture of a dystopian future. It exists in what people on the cusp of the atomic revolution in the 1950s saw as the sci-fi world of tomorrow...if several thousand nuclear bombs were dropped on it. It's a quaint sci-fi view of a future filled with atomic cars, robot servants, and incredibly basic computer terminals. A nuclear war has taken away most of these technological comforts, providing the backdrop for a game with a dreary, desperate atmosphere filled with glib and dark humor. It's a world that is both fantastic and somehow believable. And it is one that's exciting to explore...When it was first announced that Bethesda would be developing Fallout 3, many assumed this would be "Oblivion with guns." While that isn't such a bad prospect, it isn't the case. The heart of the game, experience points, level progression, and character development, runs on an entirely different system. Everything is governed by the base attributes that follow the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (an acronym for each of the 7 base stats) system. Each of these, in turn, play into individual skills which can be improved through leveling up. And, of course, various things you find in the game such as bobblehead collectibles, books, and certain types of armor can further improve your stats...It's rare that a game can hit the mark in so many different and often conflicting areas. Fallout 3 offers freedom without sacrificing a focused story. It delivers fantastic combat without forgoing a deep role-playing system. The characters you meet are engaging and oftentimes hilarious without feeling out of place in this harsh world. The game has a few flaws -- most of them technical -- but it's a case where the whole is greater than the sum. It's a fantastic game with incredible atmosphere that offers fun in so many different ways that you're almost sure to get hooked. This is one of the best games you'll play this year. - Erik Brudvig

Variety 9 of 10
When the team behind Fallout 3 created a vision of Washington, D.C., following nuclear holocaust, it didn't just wreck the buildings, it twisted the American Dream itself. This long-awaited new installment in the cult franchise from publisher-developer Bethesda Softworks continues in the spirit of its predecessors by giving players a massive post-apocalyptic world to explore, exploit and try to save, while shrewdly integrating classic themes like patriotism, tribalism and mankind's capacity to destroy itself. Gamers of all stripes will find plenty to play with and ponder in Fallout 3, which is sure to be one of the year's biggest hits.

Life starts for Fallout 3's main character in "the Vault," a city-sized bomb shelter where generations of survivors wait out the apocalypse. Childhood doubles as a character creation system that teases out whether the player prefers to sneak and cheat his way through life or beat her way through with brute force and explosives, to name just two choices. In fact, few games accommodate such a wide range of play styles. Although Fallout 3 is fundamentally a role-playing game, its success lies in the way it balances -- and sometimes betters -- the approaches of other videogame masterpieces: the retro immersion of BioShock, the paranoia of Portal, the exploration of Oblivion and the seamless storytelling of Half-Life 2.

If the main story's plot twists are sometimes hokey, at least they fit with the '50s nostalgia that guides the design -- emblemized by an ever-cheery mascot. The style is rooted in the naive early days of the nuclear era, when optimism and the fear of annihilation went hand in hand. In Fallout 3, the American Dream is a charred blueprint survivors are struggling to follow. But hope never dies, and the final stretch of the story includes a Strangelovian display of national power that's spectacular, ironic and heartfelt. The player leaves thinking America might just survive this war, right in time to start some new ones. - Chris Dahlen