War. War never changes. (part 1)

So I struck up a deal with Kyle. He plays through (and beats!) Persona 3, and I do the same with Fallout 3. As excited as I am for Kyle (he's going to love that game), I must say I'm enjoying Fallout so far.

The reason I'm enjoying the game right now is exactly the reason I thought I would - exploring. Since the game takes place in a post-nuclear apocalypse, the landscape has changed and humans must eke out a living in a very, very dangerous world. Exploring this world has brought me great joy - I've found a dog (who my character apparently names Dogmeat) and helped him survive, and he will help me find ammo or other items I'm looking for. Granted, there's not much to find out in the middle of nowhere, and the dog is incredible fragile so he's not worth taking into any dangerous areas, I just like finding stuff like that.

Scrounging around in this world is much, much more interesting than Oblivion, for me. I think the reason for that is items that I see are somewhat recognizable - I see fridges and cash registers and pop machines and cars, but they are all ruined and are worthless. I think it's a nice touch that bottlecaps are the currency of Fallout 3's world; you can find "Pre-War Money," but it's worth very little.

Where I'm struggling to like the game is the combat. I mean, I like it; the V.A.T.S. system allows me to eschew normal shooter gameplay most of the time, which is fantastic because I hate that crap. However, you get limited AP with which to use V.A.T.S., so sometimes you have to fall back on your shooting skills. Mine? Not so good. Which I know, says more about my skill than anything else, but I just don't like that kind of gameplay much.

So far, though, the world is drawing me in. And dammit, I'll at least beat the game so Kyle beats Persona 3, because that's something that needs evangelizing. And I want to talk about that game with someone in person rather than on the Internet, dang it.

So anyway, I just reached Level 4 in Fallout 3, and I gave myself the Comprehension perk, which gives me an extra 3 bonus points to apply towards my stats per level. I've beaten the first set of quests Moira gives you at Megaton, where you fill out the first chapter of her book - I beat all the extra optional stuff for them, too. I haven't started helping her with the second chapter yet, since I'm helping some kid rid some little town of Fire Ants - which are incredibly annoying because when you get close to them they spew very damaging fire at you.

Anyway, sorry for the abrupt end but I'm tired. More next time.