Gateway

Issue date: 11/7/08 Section: Arts & Leisure

courtesy of Bethesda Game Studios [Click to enlarge]

"War. War never changes." The voice of Ron Perlman from "Hellboy" re-introduces gamers to the "Fallout" universe with the release of "Fallout 3."

The action-packed role-playing game came out Oct. 24, only 10 years after its last installment. It's available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The game takes place 200 years in the future, after the world was nuked into oblivion at the height of the Cold War. A few survivors in bomb shelters cling to what's left of civilization. You, the player, are one such survivor.

The game begins with your birth. You choose your gender, name and physical appearance. You can edit every aspect of your face, skin tone, hair color, eye color, hairstyle and facial hair.

Flash forward one year to your first birthday. You walk around, hearing the patter of your bare feet against the floor as you chase your father. Liam Neeson from "Batman Begins" provides the voice of the father.

The screen fades to your 10th birthday. You get a pellet gun and a Pip-Boy 3000, a mini computer module that clasps to your wrist that you use to keep track of your quests and inventory.

Years later, you set foot outside the vault. The sun sears your eyes as they adjust to harsh light for the first time. The city that was once Washington, D.C., is now a dry husk. A landscape filled with mutated monsters, raiders and crazed bands of slavers looking to press you into service.

The world is laid out with several real places to explore, such as the Jefferson Memorial, the Pentagon and even the White House, which is now a crater. You can travel in the subway system, but it is crowded with derailed trains and ghouls.

The moral choices players make impact characters and the world. For example, Megaton is a shanty village built around an undetonated atom bomb. The player is faced with a choice: disarm the bomb and keep the village safe, or remotely detonate the bomb, slaughter the town and collect a reward as a mushroom cloud appears over the horizon.

You can defend yourself with an array of weapons. Pistols and rifles are abundant and easy to use, but energy guns can vaporize foes into piles of ash, which is really cool to watch.

Continued...

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