Fallout 3

I’m 16+ hours in and still playing. That should say something. There are a few things that keep bugging me though.

The settlers in Megaton talk with the other named NPCs and produce some funny encounters. Jericho, for example, greeted a settler with “What the fuck do you want?” to which he said “Goodbye.” Jericho then replied with “See you later.” Halfway through the conversation Jericho went from angry to nice for no reason. Another example comes from when an NPC has one emotion when they greet you but then switches emotions two or three branches into the conversation only to return to the same initial emotion. Crazy mood shifts.

The combat becomes rather tiring. Once enough perks or levels are gained, shooting enemies becomes rather easy. Using VATS for headshots over and over becomes really annoying. Not that I don’t think the game can have challenging combat at times but I want more than just shooting enemies one after another while exploring.

The Wasteland is rather boring. Once I got within a town or other location, the exploration was good. Looking through rubble and pilfering from random houses was great. Having to walk across a barren field with nothing but occasional rocks or Molerats? Not so great. Of course, once I walked somewhere I can Fast Travel there again, but still… the walk there is deary.

Oh, and I wanted to note that, yes, I do have the dog Dogmeat. It took a couple of tries in order to make sure he survived to a Fast Travel point but now he is in my Megaton house.

Burnout Paradise

I like driving fast. Sometimes I crash into other cars or a wall. Nothing much more to say. Well, maybe that using motorcycles is really cool too.

Gears of War

Most “macho talk” I’ve ever heard in one sitting.

It’s a tactical shooter. The cover system works very well. The combat is fun but repetitive.

I put about an hour in and got through a half dozen checkpoints in Act 1. I might play more but that’s doubtful. Without a friend to try out Co-Op, I’m not sure I want to keep brute-forcing my way through the game with die-retry cycles.