Buyer's Guide to Fallout 3 DLC

Last week made it official: Bethesda has finally finished releasing DLC for Fallout 3. And what a trail of destruction they have left in their wake - 5 DLC packages at 10 bucks a pop. At fifty bucks, that's practically the cost of whole other game. So, you might be wondering, is it equivalent to the content of a new game, and if so, is it awesome?


In short, it is awesome, but not really worth 50 dollars total. I don't know. It's hard. Each content feels like it's mostly worth it, but when you add it all up... on some level, doesn't feel quite right. But Fallout 3 is a great game, and getting more content for it is utterly delightful.

So let's do a quick rundown on each DLC if you haven't taken the plunge. That being said, if you don't yet own Fallout 3, wait. They're releasing a Game of the Year edition in October with all of this included, and your wallet will be much happier with that version.

Without further ado...

Operation Anchorage
In some ways, it's the most fun I had in Fallout 3; I loved being presented with a very different scenario that was a joy to play through from start to finish, even if it features a smaller scope then some of the later DLC.

Worth it? Probably not; buy it anyway.


The Pitt
Fascinating look into how other parts of the Wasteland are surviving, with a moral choice that displays greater complexity then the typical "kill extended family vs. send kitten to college" option - oh, and it's fun too, albeit a bit short.

Worth it? It's great but 10 dollars? Not sure, but I can say that the thought of paying 20 bucks for the Operation Anchorage/The Pitt combo found in stores seems a little high.

Broken Steel
Of all the DLC it's probably my least favorite quest line (with the exception of the very beginning), but it's a must have; fixing the game's ending and raising the level cap provides some welcome revisions to make this great game work even better.

Worth it? If you only buy one DLC, this is the one to have. Without a doubt, yes.

Point Lookout
Like the Pitt it adds a whole seperate area to explore, but there's much more to see and do here beyond the main quest line, and creates a unique environment reminiscint of the survival horror genre; of all the DLC, this one caters most to those who wish to explore.

Worth it? Oh yeah

Mothership Zeta
This will probably be a love-it-or-hate-it add-on, but I couldn't get enough of it; that being said, it is a very different piece of content, and doesn't particularly feel like Fallout so much as some sort of sci-fi extraveganza - personal tastes are the key factor here.

Worth it? Maybe, if you're down with something different and the thought of taking over an alien ship is your kind of thing.

Honestly, I really enjoyed all of the DLC - in a lot of ways, it's the best stuff the game has to offer. Through deals and discounts, I ended up paying 40 bucks for all of it, which still seems high, but you know what? Price isn't everything. Oblivion's Shiviring Isles expansion cost 30 bucks and while there was certainly enough content to justify the price, I thought it was awful.

You know what? Forget price - if you enjoy Fallout and want more, this DLC is some of the best I've ever played, period.

Posted by Kevin on 8:01 AM
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Mobbing 1 vs 100

Tonight's iteration of 1 vs 100, Microsoft's unique take of an online gameshow, is hosted by the crew of Penny Arcade. Which should be fun. But there's no topping last week's 1 vs 100 experience for me.

As an idea, I think 1 vs 100 is great. There's a basic fun to gameshows, and people have been yelling out the answers to Jeporady! for years. 1 vs 100 gives you a chance to participate in a way that's a bit more meaningful, even if you are just a glorified audience member. Nevertheless, it's a blast, and a fun one to pull out when having a few friends over.

I suppose another appeal is that YOU could be IN the SHOOOOOOOOOOW but to be honest I never put a whole lot of stock into that. Wasn't what made the game fun.

Imagine my surprise when I got thrown into the Mob (the 100 against the 1) last week after playing a few matches. Things got real, fast.

As much fun as playing the game casually is, it gets intense when suddenly you're up for prizes. Compared to typical game shows, the prizes really aren't much of anything, but the idea that you could win something is actually quite exciting.

Granted, I didn't actually win anything. Unfortunetly for me, the 1 that my 100 was up against wasn't all that great, and was using a lot of lifelines early on to get through some fairly easy questions. When he had a chance to take the money and run, he did... even though it was only 800 points (10 bucks :P)

So yeah, had a taste of the agony of gameshow defeat. Kind of felt like the guy who bid 1 dollar on the Price is Right only to get screwed by another contestant who bid 2 dollars instead. But it was still fun and made me enjoy 1 vs 100 all the more, which is probably the point. It's something very unique and fun, and these days those are the two things that I want to experience most when I pick up a game.

Posted by Kevin on 6:47 AM
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The Woes of Machines

Commanding an army of ancient machines can be a lot of fun. Maintaining them... not so much. For the most part, they don't really require a whole lot of attention. They're plugged in and ready to go whenever, but they don't recieve anywhere near as much use as they did in their hey-dey. So, in theory, you'd think they'd last indefinitely, but you'd be wrong.

Unfortunetely, the laws of nature dictates that all things must march on towards a state of entrhopy, a law that technology is not inherently immune to. Sometimes stuff just doesn't work. One month you're playing your Dreamcast without any issues, then next month you're got it upside down with a towel wrapped around it with a book inbetween. There's no real law to it and a million reasons why it might not work. Stuff happens.

When something does go wrong, I've found that the problem tends to fall into one of three stages of broken. The higher up it goes... the worst it gets.

STAGE 1: Game is Busted - The first go-to check on a old console that's not working is to try another game. More often than not it's the game, not the system, that's giving you problems. Sometimes you can fanagle something, but almost always this means your game is dead. Not fun, but sometimes preferable to a dead console

STAGE 2: Cords are Busted - If the games clearly aren't the problem, the next stage involves praying that it's just a console's power adapter or A/V cord that's the problem. This isn't as unusual as you think - I've lost a couple power adapters over the years, and have had some A/V fail on me. Usually it's not a big problem to replace, although some of the more unusual systems may give you trouble. However, often times you'll find that certain systems share components with each other - the Sega Master System and the Genesis share the same A/V and RF cords, and the Virtual Boy has the exact same power adapter as the Super Nintendo.

STAGE 3: System is Dead - This one hurts. Sometimes your system is just dead. You can attempt surgery, and you might have some luck with older systems, but often times there's no clear indicator of what the problem is. Some systems also change their hardware over time - I have three different Dreamcasts and none of them look the same on the inside. When system failure does occur, most often the only result is complete replacement.

My Atari 2600's been on the fritz the last couple months and finally bought it. It's the third system I've had to replace (2 Dreamcasts, 2 360s) , and while I'm not thrilled about it, it's a pretty good track record all things considered. A funeral may be held sometime soon, we'll see. I have to decide on a replacement first. I had a jr. model, so I might opt to get one of the more classic, boxier versions manufactured by pot smoking hippies. Or I might delay a 2600 replacement and finally get a 7800 (which is backwards compatabile).

Either way, hitting Stage 3? Always a bummer, but I think the fun of having a console army on hand more then makes up for it.

Posted by Kevin on 6:55 PM
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One Sentence Reviews: [PROTOTYPE]

Despite featuring a nonsensical plot and a protagonist that's closer to serial killer than "anti-hero", running off buildings, falling from skyscrapers, and kicking helicopters is a blast from start to finish.

Side Note: wtf is with those brackets in the title?

Posted by Kevin on 9:53 AM
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Dying Breed

A few weeks back Colure and I decided to embark on a small adventure for my birthday: visiting any and all legitimate, non-Gamestop used video game stores in the Greater Orlando region. I knew of one, and a few phone calls and google searches confirmed two others, one of which was part of a newer chain that had a few stores open in the region. The other had a name and logo that was practically begging Gamestop to sue them. That's not a whole lot of stores, but then again I didn't expect to find much more.

I've always had an affinity for independent used video game stores. As a rule, they were always more likely to have more unusual products, and the selection just seemed vast. I've been trying to frequent them all my life: when I was a kid in South Florida, it was the Video Game eXchange; in middle school, I always counted on Microplay. For college years, it was Cybertron. But all of those stores had the same ending; none of them lasted.

These sort of stores have always struggled, and there's plenty of reasons why. One Cybertron employee once summarized the problem by saying that their biggest issue was that people were trading them crap they couldn't sell. It's a fair point. My eyes might light up when I see a stack of TurboGrafx games, but how many people actually care? Other issues come into play when gauging how much new stock to take in, and how much you can expect to turn around. Gamestop has done well for itself in this regard, but it's a big name brand with deep pockets - chances are good that the casual customer is much more likely to dump their old games with them. A Cybertron customer would probably just ebay it. Maybe Gamestop customers are fine about just getting store credit, but at Microplay? No dice - it had to be cash.

But as much as these stores have struggled in the past, I really think that nowadays it's a sort of business that's impossible to do, for two big reasons.

1) Internet - It is impossible to compete with the internet in two critical categories - price and selection. Price is incredibly low, selection is virtually unlimited. How do you compete with that? There's a lovely little shop in Winter Springs called S+F Video Games that I visit once every few months or so. I'd go there more often except that their selection is fairly so-so; you're not likely to find the older game you had in mind, and the times they do have something worthwhile, it's marked up higher than it's worth. If anything, my visits there just inspire me to hit up ebay for something, and that's not good.


The solution for a lot of stores is to utilize the internet, whether it be selling on ebay or operating your own storefront. That's certainly a step in the right direction, but it still presents difficulties - instead of just competing with other stores, you have to compete with the guy cleaning out his attic, who doesn't really care what he gets for any of the things he's selling, just that he gets some money. That's stiff competition, and while it's something I think these stores have to do, it's still no guarentee of survival.

2) Virtual Console - Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network could be counted in this as well, but I want to focus on the Wii's Virtual Console, because the Wii has both the largest user base, and the biggest online store for old games.

The Virtual Console is, simply put, the worst thing that could ever happen to used video game stores. You can't compete with it. It reduces your potential customer base down to collectors and aficianados - losing perhaps the most profitable customer in the process, the nostalgic guy. Because why would he go to your shop if he can just get it from his home? Virtual Console games are cheap. Rarely do you see one that's being sold for more then the actual cartridge. Furthermore, they all run on one console, with no need to actually dust off old hardware and pray it still works. They're more reliable, cheaper, and in almost every tangible way, better. How do you compete with that?

Honestly? You don't. You can't. And I'm not sure how these sort of shops, which have always struggled to make a buck, can hope to stay in business.

It's a depressing thing, but that's the reality of the situation. Which is a little tragic. So much for my childhood dream of owning one. I really love visiting those stores, and I don't particularly like using ebay to buy things, but yet, more often than not, it's ebay that my money goes to. I'd rather have the actual catridge than a virtual Wii version, but if the latter has a copy of Secret of Mana for 8 dollars, then that's the one I'm going to buy.

And if I can't be a reliable customer to these stores... then who can?

Posted by Kevin on 12:25 PM
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Cultural Differences

Ever wonder how much American TV gets released internationally? Answer: A ton. But that shouldn't mean it's entierly intact. Sometimes changes are necessary for cultural reasons. Or something.

Example #1: German Teenage Mutant... Hero... Turtles



Apparently Ninjas are evil in Deutschland? Maybe? Either way, they're Hero turtles overseas. I'd probably find this more offensive if that German intro wasn't totally awesome.

Example #2: X-Men Gone Anime



I always liked the regular X-Men intro and theme, but I guess it was too American for a Japanese audience, so they just ripped off every anime convention possible and threw this together. Stereotypes aside, I kinda like it, I have to admit.

Example #3: This is Where Things Go Wrong



Yes this is real. No, it does not make sense. Yes, it is a crime against mankind.

Example #4: Some Things Need No Change


It's comforting to know that, no matter where it airs, The Super Mario Super Show is still absolutely insane.

Posted by Kevin on 11:01 AM
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Deja Vu: E3 2006

When I put up some thoughts on E3 last week, something about it seemed a bit... familiar. Turns out I did the same thing on my old 1up blog (which I will not link) back in 2006, albeit with a little more... passion. For fun, let's take a look back and see how well I predicted the future.

Just for clarification sake: Back in 2006, the 360 had launched, but the Wii and PS3 had not. In a lot of ways, it was the latter two's "coming out party", while the former was eager to prove itself.

I definitely felt the Wii really performed the best at the show, and it did a lot to get me very excited about the system... they completely deliever[ed] on content for the system... I have a hard time making notable comments about Wii games; there is literally too much I am excited for."

Jesus, too much content for the Wii? Alright, well, I was justified to be excited about the Wii - back then it was a very exciting product with limitless potential. And I'm not the only one who bought into that - it's the number 1 selling console this generation for a reason. But I think we can all agree my enthusiasm was a bit too... overzealous. Nintendo Kool-aid was in no short supply back in 2006. But how about the 360?

[T]he 360... did an awesome job in it's approach to E3 by plugging up Xbox Live users with tons of E3 content, some of it as it was happening. Really looking forward to Enchanted Arms and Nintey-Nine-Nights which look great, and the Fable 2 trailer was really nifty and got me excited.

That was the first time any console really put up trailers concurrently with E3 and it was exciting for the time mostly because it was new... whereas nowadays I generally watch things on my computer. But it's still a neat feature. That being said Enchanted Arms was okay and I never actually bought Ninety Nine Nights, or N3 as was eventually called. However...

[B]ut what impressed me the most, of any game, was most certainly Bioware's Mass Effect... it just sounds... incredibe... I am uber-psyched.

Mass Effect went on to become one of my favorite games ever, elevators be damned. So that's justified at least. As for Sony...

PS3, on the other hand, depressed the hell out of me. I mean, the 500-600 price thing was something we all saw coming, but that doesn't make it any less lame... Sony has completely failed to prove how superior the PS3 is to the 360 like they did with the PS2 against the Dreamcast... The whole new controller with no vibaration but motion sensitivity comes off... cheap... It's just pretty terrible.

Wow! Ouch! Calm down there bud, you're going to buy one of those overpriced paperweights one year later. Not to say I was really offbase - price has been the constant issue for the PS3, and that whole vibration business was a blunder they've corrected and tried to forget rather than excuse. Back then I basically called out the machine as being deadset for third placedom. To date, I haven't been proven wrong. So what else do we got?

On a similar note, Final Fantasy XIII has got to be the biggest disappointment I have ever seen in the series... We've all done some whining about FF12, but I still believe it will be an enjoyable game, and nothing FF12 has done compares to what FF13 is looking to do. When I first saw it, I declared the series dead to me... and in the coming days, that has not changed.

Man, chill out fanboy. I was actually pretty surprised by that. I remembered not thinking much of it, but man - I guess I was pissed. I think it's mostly because, at the time...

The "real" FF13 really does just look like a Devil-May-Cry-esque Final Fantasy...

Which it's totally not. Ironically it's probably more traditional than FF12 was. So, first impressions aren't always everything. But that's not the only thing I was upset about...

[T]he game is PS3 exclusive, which is really the nail on the coffin. I mean, despite all of the above, if this game was multi-console, I'd probably give it a shot. But, it's PS3-only, and I don't really want a PS3, and I don't really want this game, so I'm not gonna get either.

But of course you'll get both, dear boy, and you should never have fooled yourself into thinking otherwise. Plus, you got your wish - the game is multi-console now, thanks to the PS3 failing with Western markets. Any more predictions before we close?

Quite frankly, with Sakaguchi and Uematsu gone and now working on Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, I consider those two games much more Final Fantasy then FF13 ever will be.

Uh, definitely no on Blue Dragon. Sorry about that. But actually, Lost Odyssey was very reminiscent of a Final Fantasy game from the FF7-FF9 era. Had Sakaguchi had more control back then, it might very well have been Final Fantasy 10.

Okay so it turns out I'm a little 50/50, but cut me some slack - I was a little more passionate back then, still had a few things I had a tendency for fanboyism about. It's all part of the maturing process. For the most part, there's good lessons to learn here - avoid getting sucked into the hype, try to keep an open mind with new products, and rest comfortably knowing that a $600 price tag is always bullshit.

In another news, expect my E3 2009 retrospective sometime in 2015, where I'll comment on our naiveté in believing motion controls to be the future when in fact the Virtual Boy 2 would prove that VR brain simulators were the only games worth playing.... That is, until the discovery of Holodeck technology in 2020, which would ultimately lead to the destruction of the human race. Until then!

Posted by Kevin on 11:09 AM
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