Fallout 3 Preview

The guys at Kikizo have previewed Fallout 3 after spending some hands-on time with the game.
What struck me first about Fallout 3 is how depressingly real the world seems. The crumpled highway that crisscrosses your immediate terrain, the delapidated buildings and the all-too-depressing landscape of rocks and boulders ring true with my own imagined post-apocalyptic world. The feelings of desertion and desperation are amplified by an ambient soundtrack that resonates with the visuals.

My first destination was the ramshackle town of Megaton, a reconstructed burg where desperate people live clustered around an unexploded device that gives the settlement its name. On my way to Megaton I came across an old man on the side of the road. He was begging for water, which I had in my inventory. I offered the old man, Nick, some water and felt a warm feeling course through me as he thanked me and chugged it down. I then shot him in the face, seeing his head explode, earning me bad karma in the process. But that was about it for negative repurcussions. In areas outside of the cities where the law is enforced, it seems that anything goes. The only barriers are those erected by your morality - or the morality you've chosen to live by in the game.