“Fallout 3″ is an awesome game, but it’s not one for everyone. The first person RPG takes place is a post-apocalyptical Washington, D.C. and it’s very reminicent of Bethesda’s “Elder Scrolls” so if you aren’t a fan of big open worlds then it’s definitly not the game for you.

What really works in “Fallout 3″ is that there is an open world, but it doesn’t get in the way of the main storyline. Normally in an RPG I ditch the main quest as soon as I can to go hunt for special weapons or other secrets, but in “Fallout 3″ I was so mesmerized by the main story that it was hard for me to turn away from it.

The gameplay is simular to last year’s “Mass Effect.” The RPG/dice-rolls are all done behind the scenes so that first and formost the game feels like a shooter. I think in the 30 hours or so that I played, the only times I ever went to a third-person view was to see what the clothes I was wearing looked like.  So if your’e a fan of FPS but want to dable into some RPG goodness then “Fallout 3″ would be a smart move for you.

The game of course isn’t perfect. It takes place in a destroyed and crippled D.C. and having lived in D.C. it was frustrating because the scale of the world is warped even more then NYC is in games like “GTA IV” or “Spider-Man 2.” So after several hours of playing and seeing only grey’s and browns it gets depressing. It would have been nice if more than just one area had trees and was pretty to look at. I know this may sound like a weird thing to nitpick, but games you play for fun shouldn’t make you feel depressed.

Another lackluster aspect of the game is the limited amount of weapons. There are more guns and type of guns in any FPS than there is in “Fallout 3.” In such a weird ass world I was expecting some really fun weapons. Maybe a gun that shoots bones, or a amor made from dogmeat? Nope. We just get several standard weapons that after the first hour or so just feel boring.

All in all, “Fallout 3″ is a good game. If you like RPG’s then you shouldn’t pass it up, but if you are more of a casual gamer and can’t devote the time to the story or world you may be better off with something like “Fable.”