Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

Leave it to GOG to release a version of Fallout 3 that ACTUALLY WORKS OUT OF THE BOX! This game was the main reason I wanted to build a Windows XP machine after fighting a losing battle to get the Steam release working, but with GOG's release, it runs on Windows 8.1 Pro with no issues at all. The inclusion of all the expansion packs is quite a meaty bonus as well. I simply can't praise GOG enough for going the extra mile by tuning up old games for modern systems before selling them on Galaxy, Valve could really learn a thing or two from these guys.

For me these are the most important positives: no GFWL nonsense nor other bugs and crashes for me. I owned a box copy of this baby and couldn't play it without loads of grief for a long time. Even with the unofficial patches and mods to run it it'd still crash like crazy. I like New Vegas'n all but FO3 always had a special place in my heart, it got me hooked. I own NV on a different platform and after playing the GOG version of FO3 I am very tempted to try the GOG version of NV. GOG has done an awesome job of making this game smooth and bug free. I'm not sure if these are included in GOG connect but if NV is fixed and smootehened up like FO3 I'd go for that as well. If you've never played this game before I'd suggest giving it a try, you wouldn't be able to resist the rest anyway.

I will start with the negative. The metro parts I always found very annoying to navigate through. Especially since initially you need to navigate them to reach for the first time certain parts of the map. Having said that. This is a fantastic sci-fi RPG based on the Fallout universe. You come out for the first time in your life, outside a fallout shelter built before the nuclear war which almost destroyed the planet. Your goal is to find out what is going on with a specific person that went missing and deal with that and everything that is inevitably connected to that person. The game is in first and/or third person view, though the first person view is the best in all ways. (got to play new vegas for an improved third person view). You get to explore the wastelands that is the ruins of the American capitol and the surrounding areas. You will find interesting people and monsters to talk to or kill. Or talk and kill. Or just avoid. It's up to you. Cool weapons and artifacts. You can do this on your own, or with other AI companions you will find during your adventure. Including a dog. The game is huge, not perhaps if you just stick to the main storyline, but if you try to visit most places, it will take your 100s of hours. That does not include the very meaty expansion packs that are in this pack. Seriously fantastic game.

I don't know where all the hate for this game is coming from! The atmosphere is sublime, the choice of music is inspired, and the setting - Washington DC? so awesome. Not to mention you can mod the heck out of it! Like every Bethesda open world RPG, it has its fair share of bugs, but after all this time, most of them have been addressed. Now, if you're coming from the original Fallout games, this is something different. I feel like it retains the spirit of those games, but they are in many ways apples and oranges. But the wandering and the discovery - always something new to find. With all the DLC, I sunk 144 hours into this on Steam, and I'm going to drop the money to own it DRM-free.