Game Journal: Giving Fallout 3 Another Chance

I've made no secret of the fact that I didn't much care for Fallout 3. I played several hours of it and all it did was depress me. This was, however, back shortly after the game came out, with none of the DLC and on the PS3. I've decided to give the game a second chance because I want to try to play it a different way.

There are many ways you can approach a game when you go into it: From a technical standpoint, from a graphical standpoint, focusing on the story or focusing on the game play, just to name a few. I think I got bogged down in focusing too much on the setting and comparing it too much to Oblivion. This time, I think I'm going to go into it focusing on the moral decisions that can be made. I always tend to make the upright moral decisions in just about any game I play - Fable 2, Mass Effect, inFAMOUS, etc. This game will be no different.

I feel that, perhaps, by focusing on the good in the game - not how good the graphics are, how good the game play is or how good the story is, but the good moral decisions you can make - it will draw me into the game more and I'll be able to place myself in the shoes of the protagonist. Focusing on good moral decisions might also take my mind off the bleak, depressing setting in which this story takes place. Its kind of like making the best of a bad situation.

When Katrina hit the gulf coast and there were days (or weeks?) of mass chaos in New Orleans and similarly distressed areas, each individual in that situation had one basic choice to make - do I want to wallow in my misery and make those around me feel it too by looting, complaining or just generally making an ass of myself or, on the other hand, do I want to do my best to be patient and help others who may have the same problems, thus making the best of a bad situation?

Now, apply that same basic scenario to Fallout 3 - in this post-apocalyptic world, would I help people because I can, or hurt them because I want them to feel the same pain I do? (Reality check: Did I just compare Fallout 3 to Hurricane Katrina? I think I did.) I'm hoping, if I approach the game from that standpoint, I will be able to see what quite a few other gamers out there have seen in this game - push beyond everything else and make it personal, make the best of a bad situation.