In order to take down the next enemy that charged us, we switched over to the Fat Boy, a portable launcher that allowed us to fire mini-nukes at anyone nearby. Rather than taking aim at the massive baddie, however, we launched the bomb into the pile of cars next to him. Since many of the vehicles still featured working nuclear drives (they're the wave of the future!), the resulting explosion not only blew our enemy to kingdom come, it actually blew off several of our limbs as well. With that lesson learned, we reloaded the game and re-dispatched the foes before continuing on.
The next area we came across featured a powerful turret that would have torn us to pieces if we had tried to charge through the corridor. Thankfully, we noticed a computer nearby and decided to hack it in order to put it to work for us. Apparently you'll need to have your Science skill at a certain level if you want to hack computers, and the higher it is the easier a time you'll have. The hacking mini-game is actually a word game of sorts, as you'll need to figure out the password if you're to be successful. For instance, you might choose the word LOSE and be told that you've got two out of four letters correct. Is the password LOST or BASE? It's mere trial and error, and we're hopeful that it'll be a bit more involved in the final. There's also a new lockpicking mini-game, but we had trouble actually getting it to work. As in the real world (well, some real worlds), you'll need to move a bobby pin with the left thumbstick while jimmying it with a screwdriver with the right.
Once we had hacked the computer and given our enemies a taste of their own medicine, we made our way down a slope and did battle against some sentry bots that had escaped from the military. While it might seem like the world of Fallout 3 is lawless and chaotic, there actually is a government in place. Called The Enclave, the new government is ruled by President John Henry Eden (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) and its laws are enforced by the powerful Brotherhood of Steel. The metal-clad badasses have taken over the Pentagon and are alerted to your presence by eyebots that should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, our time with Fallout 3 came to an end when a Brotherhood of Steel helicopter dropped off a group of troops right in front of us. Let's just say that the battle was over pretty quickly and we were once again short a few limbs.
While it might have taken a while to finally get our hands on the game, it appears that Fallout 3 will be well worth the wait. Sure, the game strays from its roots and it's similar to Oblivion in many ways, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Not only does the game look beautiful and run quite smoothly, it features a number of interesting new gameplay mechanics. While V.A.T.S. seems a bit simplistic at first, you'll likely be surprised by its depth, and it never feels like you'll be able to use it to cruise through the game. After years and years of starts and stops, we're closer than ever to finally getting the Fallout game we've all been waiting for.
For more on Fallout 3 check out more exclusive coverage on IGN!
