I was in a shop, looking for games for my new pc (It was in 2001-2002, I'm not sure). I purchased some game magazines (the ones that come with games in the cover), one of them, was CD Expert #52, with Fallout 2. The power armor picked my attention, and I liked the story described in the magazine, so I purchased it. Thank god I did, because this game is very good, even with the bugs (I was playing the vanilla version, 1.0). But I recommend that you install patch 1.02 (unnecessary if you have the GOG version, because it's already included in it) or killap's unofficial patch (1.02.27.3), search in NMA, or you'll find many bugs in vanilla version, like: Gecko inhabitants will attack you for no reason, the trunk of your car will dissapear, and appear in random places, like in the middle of the desert, The too many items bug (search in Google, if you want to know about it), and try to be a boxer in New Reno, the fights in the ring are impossible (it's full of bugs. the game crashes, or the screen freezes, or the woman says "Round 1" forever, and the fight never starts). If you liked Fallout 1, it's very possible that you'll like Fallout 2. The size of the game is huge when compared to Fallout 1. There are more NPC's, more quests, more dialogue, more weapons, more bugs (the patches I mentioned should fix most of them, just don't forget that killap's patch already have patch official 1.02 included in it), more of almost everything. If you have never played Fallout 2, let me say some positive points: * Combat, if you like turn based. * Non-linearity. You can do whatever quest you want, you're not forced to follow a road. * Story. You're descendant of the man who saved the world years ago. You have the same fire of him, the same inner strenght. Chuck Norris has two balls of steel. You have thirteen balls of steel. * Replayability. I've lost count how many times I played this game. The replay value is great. * Dialogue. There are some unique dialog choices, you have to see it. And you have to see the hilarious things that the characters say if your character is dumb. And some negative points: * Bugs. * Combat can get repetitive or boring. You can use Timeslip's engine tweaks to make battles duration shorter, by changing game speed. * AI could be smarter. You can use a enemy as meat shield, while other enemies shoot hundreds of bullets on him, killing him and doing small damage at you. An advice for who is playing for the first time: Don't save while you're in a fight. Never. There are bugs that happen if you do this. Don't come blame me if your save file got corrupted. Once you have completed the game for the first time, it might be in your interest to experience new things, so I recommend these 2 mods that I have played and liked: MIB88's Megamod and killap's Restoration Project. There's also other mod, not so big like the two mentioned above, but is good: Lexx's Fallout: Shattered Destiny. Of course, first you might wanna play with as much different characters you would like. You want to play a stupid guy, wich solves his problems with brute force? You can. A mad doctor wich makes his skin more resistant to all damage types, through surgeries? You can. A prostitute wich uses her beauty to her advantage? You can. A drugged, addicted by all types of chems, wich would do everything for another Jet canister? You can. The diplomat, wich solves everything with his/her tongue, and when that's not possible (hostile creatures in the wasteland, for example), ask his/her fellow companions for help? You also can. If you like RPGs, you shouldn't miss this one.
Definitely worth the download.
