Review 001 --- Fallout 3

So Fallout 3... to be honest I haven't looked forward to a game this much since Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears. And since this isn't a Square title, that should say something about it. I missed Fallout 1 & 2 the first time around, I thought "meh they're sci-fi games, not my thing." Little did I know, that they were in fact fairly in depth RPG's as well. Anyways, Fallout 3 is gorgeous, especially on the higher viewing settings (to be expected). But even with the "low" setting the environmental effects are stunning. Coming out of the vault for the first time, the HDR bloom of your eyes adjusting to sunlight for the first time, as things become clearer you see the skyline, and the miles of open terrain of the post-apocalyptic landscape.

This Game is immense, I"ve played about 10.5 hours now and havent done anything to progress the actual "story" along, and I'm still having fun. In fact just yesterday I made friends with an inbred cannibalistic community (which is really just two family's and an old man who I believe is the father of both), oh the times we had. A friend of mine said he beat main story, in about 20 hrs, and he was rushing. So... say goodbye to your family and friends and put a little extra food in the dogs bowl, you're going to be gone awhile.

Graphics....7-10
Sound.........8-9
Gameplay..7-10
Replay........10 (finished the game as a goodie goodie, try again as a sadist)

Overall.......9

Rant 001 --- Mechwarrior/Battletech

So I recently popped in my old copy of Mechwarrior II (in my opinion the best of the Mechwarrior franchise, I don't know if I've played Mechwarrior III yet, so my opinion might be a little biased) and played through a few missions. After customizing my mech a few times I came to the conclusion that we really need a new Mechwarrior game, or even better yet (reaching back into my tabletop days) a Battletech game. With the popularity of the Armored Core games, and the graphically capabilities of the next-gen consoles, somebody out there could make a phenomenal classic franchise mech game. The reason for using the Mechwarrior/Battletech franchise, is that they were the last ones to allow the player to have "flying" mechs via LAMs, or straight Jet Fighters. There are so many possibilities for great game play by including not only land based combat, but high-altitude and even space combat into a single game. And by adding the use or just the inclusion of drop ships, interplanetary campaigns become available (on a side note usign drop ships as "towns" could also open up the possibility of making a MMO, there certainly is enough content in both franchises). SO DEVELOPERS OUT THERE, TALK TO FASA OR WHOEVER STILL OWNS THE RIGHTS AND MAKE SOME AWESOME VIDEO GAMES!!!