Because I’m a Bad Person

I finished Fallout 3 last night. If you know my gaming tastes this should blow your mind. That’s right, I played an open ended RPG to completion. Okay, I didn’t do all of the side quests and probably won’t be buying all of the expansions but this is still a first for me. I’ve played a large number of Bethesda’s games but I’ve never completed one of them. But the reason I bought Fallout 3 and played it isn’t because I was interested in any of the gameplay or company history. In fact, why I played it sort of makes me feel guilty.

I played it because I got the feeling to play it after visiting Hiroshima.
Yeah, that’s terrible. One of the most terrible things in our history¹ inspired me to play a video game. It sounds terrible at the onset but is it really that bad? The history got me interested. Sure, I can’t choose to live in a post-nuclear setting and really, who in their right mind would? There are plenty of brilliant books and films on the topic which But the game was probably the only thing I could experience to interact with to see such a setting.

Now of course, I realize there is nothing at all similar to playing the game and experiencing it outright. Why do I feel the need to defend myself for these feelings though? Seeing the landscape and walking around it, the sense of emptiness and dread resounded with what I saw in the museum in Hiroshima. It felt like some questions I didn’t even know I was asking were answered just by seeing the game in motion. It was bizarre.

As for the game itself, I guess I enjoyed it. Were that not the case I probably wouldn’t have played it to completion. My standard qualms with the genre apply. I just hate how realistic they try to be with all the unrealistic things that happen. I’m not complaining about any themes or what is going on in the game itself, I’m talking about how I can talk to someone in the middle of the night, they’ll stand up, talk to me and then walk over to another bed and sleep in that. That’s just ridiculous. Dragon Quest III had characters acting differently during night and day. Sure, they were static at both points but getting up to go sleep into another bed after having a conversation at 3 in the morning without any complaints? It’s hard for me to buy.

And that’s the thing. I’m okay with suspension of belief. But when you are pushing for realism in one aspect, namely the dialogue in most of these style RPGs, then your suspensions of belief are going to be harder and harder to accept the more you push for realism. It’s not an easy thing and I’m sure these developers are looking into ways to handle it, but man, there are so many little things that it seems they are ignoring.

All in all, if there is ever a Fallout 4 perhaps I’ll give it a try. I don’t have the desire to play another open world RPG at the moment, in fact I’m feeling the urge for quite the opposite. But Fallout 3 still gets my feel good seal of approval.

1. Don’t go telling me there are worse things. I said “one of the most” dangit! [↩]