By Jeremy Azevedo

Fallout 3 is destined to be the standard-bearer for all Post Nuclear Apocalypse Action Role Playing games to follow. Critical reception of the game at this year's E3 was sweepingly, unanimously positive, despite the fact the 90% of the press had never even heard of Fallout 1 or 2. (Myself included.)

The story of Fallout 3 in the words of Bethesda Game Studios is as follows: Vault 101 – Jewel of the Wastes. For 200 years, Vault 101 has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec® engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you’ve ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth.



On your way to find your absentee father, you will be presented with numerous moral choices that will affect your gameplay experience and the way your fellow survivors interact with you. You will also be presented with numerous individual body parts that you can target (and blow to smithereens in glorious showers of slow motion blood and gore) on the various nuclear mutants populating the wasteland, using your totally awesome Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System.

Check out these pics and trailer from the future game of the year, 2009: