When I first got Fallout 3, I was impressed with the graphics and in some ways the gameplay, but I wasn’t impressed with the staggering amount of crashes, glitches, and overall graphical tomfoolery in the game. The worst part is, that this problem still exists. I can understand you want to keep a schedule for the game being released, but you’re only going to hurt your future prospects by releasing an unfinished game.

What I want to bring up now is Too Human. That game that was in development for something close to 10 years. With development time like how, how could the game be released with so much shit in it? It seems like Silicon Knights only advertised the game for 9 and a half years, and spent the last 6 months actually making the game. Too Human was suppose to be one of the best games ever, or you would expect so with a 10 year development time. Instead we get a severely bugged and horrible experience, as if no one had tested the game. This was even during successful economic times, so there’s no excuse.

The main point is patches and fixes are suppose to fix small things in games, things like balancing online, fixing small graphical glitches, not fucking releasing 200 megabytes of patches because you couldn’t finish the fucking game in the first place. Why release a game when it’s not done? Sure you may make some money off it but customers now will look at you and think to themselves “Didn’t those guys make <X>, uhm.. I don’t think I want it now”. This is certainly the case between myself and Silicon Knights. Too Human was an awesome idea completely ruined by the half-assed job they pulled off for the gameplay and the performance.

I know nothing when it comes to how companies work and how they release products, but speaking from a consumer point of view: people don’t like having to buy a game then having to download extra content just to play said game.

Gameplay
Fallout 2 has a simple gameplay system, but it can be a little confusing at the start. The battles are turn based with an AP system (action points).

For example: you have 10AP, a punch costs 3 points, a kick costs 4, a shot costs 5 and walking costs 1.

There’s also the character building system where you must spend points in Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck (The famous S.P.E.C.I.A.L).

With this, you will be able to make completely different characters each time you play the game.

You can be a sniper so you can kill your enemy from afar, but if you prefer close combat, you can go unarmed and destroy your enemy’s chest with a punch, or train in big guns and use a minigun to turn your enemies into pieces.

Customization
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Strength
Basic attribute for pretty much everything. Increases how much weight you can carry, melee damage and HP. Every weapon has a requirement of strength that can modify your accuracy with it.

Perception
Important for many skills (Lockpick, First Aid, Doctor, etc.), this attribute determines how long and far your character can shoot without missing, and it helps you detect traps.

Endurance
Attribute that also modifies your HP, determines your resistance to poison and radiation, and it reduces the chance of fracturing a bone and receiving a critical strike.

Charisma
Attribute that increases the skills Barter and Speech, also determines the number of NPCs that will follow you. A high Charisma means more people are going to like you.

Intelligence
Intelligence helps you speak with NPCs. Characters with high Intelligence will be able to ask wiser questions and will be able to answer wiser too, and some quests can be finished only by talking. This attribute also increases the number of experience points won with enemies and quests.

Agility
Attribute that increases attack and defense, and influences most of the skills. It also increases the amount of Ability Points you can have.

Luck
Attribute which influences the gambling skill and increases the chance of inflicting a critical strike, but also increases the chance of random encounters.

The character building system also has traits, which let you choose two characteristics for your character like Kamikaze, Chem Reliant, Small Frame, Jinxed, etc. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

Story
You are the chosen one of your Vault sent to recover the GECK – Garden of Eden Creation Kit – which can transform even the driest desert in a rich land full of life. That is the main story, to know the rest, play it.

Every city has its own history and problems, it is up to you to help or not. The ending is open, your actions during the game can change the game’s ending.

Conclusion:
Fallout 2 is absolutely one of the best RPGs ever, it will give you hours and hours of fun. You can do almost anything you want! I’ve already beaten it 13 times, and every journey had its unique moments. It’s really hard to get tired of this game.

Preface

Everyone has an opinion. There’s a rude saying that compares opinions to a part of the human anatomy that practically says one’s opinion is worthless. So why read any reviews? If you’re not a terrible cynic you may be able to pore through a handful of reviews, develop and understanding for what sort of lens the reviewer sees games with and define some sort of truth from the fluffy words of praise or harsh criticisms that would have no tangible value.

You might be thinking, “Get to the review already!” or “Stop wasting my time and give me your score!” but without a preface you may not understand the “lens” I see games through and how to get what you need from my opinions. If you really can’t stomach anymore though feel free to jump ahead and read the review.

So what does any of this mean for my reviews? Why should you care what I think? Some would claim that the big boys writing up game reviews on their ad-congested sites will proudly throw a bold ‘9′ to ‘10′ up for the right price. I’m the farthest thing from that. Not only am I not getting paid for a specific opinion (and who seriously would?) but I’m going to tell you exactly what sort of lens I look through when I play a game.

I’ll admit that I’m hard to please with games. Like many of you, I’ve played them as far back as I can remember, but they are a fierce passion for me. When I play a game and I’m up to my neck in “fun” or “frustration” a sliver of my mind, somewhere in the back, will ponder something along the lines of “This part must have been hard to code“, “They must have run out of time and rushed this part” or a multitude of similar thoughts.

General Review

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! I apologize if the previous four paragraphs felt unnecessary but hopefully that was ample preparation for this review.
Fallout 3 is an ambitious, sandbox game similar to Bethesda’s previous well known title, The Elder Scrolls series. In this game you play the “Lone Wanderer”, a former vault dweller, who has left the safety of his subterranean home to find his father in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once Washington D.C. This game offers you a lot of freedom, so much that if the player chooses, the ultimate motivation may end up not being to search out your paternal unit but to abandon the main story and romp about the wasteland doing what they please. Best of all, the player even gets to decide what their character looks like and wears.

As is the tradition of RPGs, Fallout 3 features stats, which are called skills in this game, that dictate your proficiency in using and repairing of weapons and armor, communicating and bartering with people and a plethora of other factors that influence your game experience. While the player can sneak by, outwit or run from danger the game is primarily a shooter.

With the charm and immersion offered from this bleak but fleshed-out world, along with the flexibility in play style and the ease of the VATS (Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System) the game should have no trouble appealing to anyone above the target audience age (16 and older in the U.S.) The violence, gore and demoralizing wasteland is not for the young or weak at heart.

Some players end up not only molding their respective characters’ abilities, but their identities as well. After spending hours in the Wasteland and making choices time and time again the players’ gestalt realizes a character (hopefully) as real as the world Bethesda Softworks has presented.

The Basics

Visuals – They’re good. Whether you can get to see all the fancy bloom, water, light and shadow affects depends on how powerful your PC is. I can’t really tell you what it looks like on the Xbox 360 or PS3 but I imagine it’s no slouch. In the post-apocalyptic world your color palette is somewhat limited to various shades of worn and ruined yellow, grey and brown. For the areas that do not sport these melancholy hues the game uses a filter that makes the entire world look aged. Some people like this artistic choice while others don’t. Personally, I got used to it and forgot about it.

Gameplay – Plenty of freedom and fun. When I couldn’t outwit someone verbally or swipe a key from their pocket I would reload my game just to see how many ways I could get around a conflict. This was even something I’d do for combat. When approaching an enemy I’d try settling the dilemma by running in firing my assault rifle, decimate the entire room with explosives or (my favorite) my opponent with a single well-placed rifle shot.

Sound – It’s okay. I’d like to praise the sound design of this game but can’t do so in good conscience. The music fits the dramatic tones and futuristic 1940s themes and the sound effects are never that distracting or irritating. My dissatisfaction rests primarily with the voice acting. Liam Neeson does a great job voicing the player’s father and a few of the other voice actors delivered believable performances. I understand that when you’ve got as many characters as this game has and ALL of them speak, time and money quickly run out. However, this does not excuse the awkward acting and repetitive voice clips. Such flaws not only chip away at the player’s immersion into the game but they are annoying,

Score

I don’t like the idea of trying to quantify something as abstract as the experience of playing a game. Instead, I use what I like to call the AUSE system. Each letter in AUSE represents a level of enjoyment, as delineated below.

A – Awful

U – Unsatisfactory

S – Satisfactory

E – Excellent

I really do hope you read my preface, because you still might find yourself a bit confused even if you have.

Fallout 3 – Awful

I really wanted to give this game at least a Satisfactory but, after discovering the presence of a multitude of bugs (both small and large) and flaws, I can’t rightfully say it’s satisfactory. After installing the recent update I experienced AT LEAST two crashes a day and in my search for answers, I found that a large number of people were wrestling with similar or worse frustrations not just on the PC, but also with the XBox 360 and PS3 versions. One mission in the main storyline was almost completely broken and I was only able to get past it after cleverly working around it. Even before the patch I found myself opening up the console and learning commands to fix the problems that were left in the game.

I have Bioshock on my computer and, despite experiencing many drops in frame rate and choppy sound, it never crashed. These show-stopping bugs in Fallout 3 were not a result of my computer’s inability to run the game but rather some very poor coding.

I’m sorry Bethesda, but I can’t save Big Town if you’ve given me no robots to repair.

I’ve worked as a Quality Assurance Tester and have studied game design. Not only does Fallout 3 have more bugs than a suspiciously cheap motel but  the game designer seems to have forgotten their number one responsibility, “Be the advocate for the player.” For example, like most modern game developers, the designer failed to realize that not all gamers own a HD set up so the tiny menu text is nigh unreadable. I’m looking at you, Dead Space.

So, in the end I choose Awful over Unsatisfactory for one reason. If Fallout 3 were an eagerly anticipated car that had a broken fuel gauge, a radio that gets only a few stations, no air conditioning and an engine that gives out at one point in your commute or whenever it feels like, it means the car wasn’t properly manufactured. It is particularly reprehensible when hundreds of people, if not more, encounter these flaws, especially when they paid for what they were led to believe was a finished product. Giving us a new coat of paint and seat covers (in this case, downloadable content) isn’t going to fix any of the existing problems.

The ending sort of sucks too.

2008 is forever going to go down in history as one of the greatest years for the gaming industry. No matter which platform or genre you follow religiously, there was something for everyone. To the casual gamer to the hardcore, there is something that will appeal to you. This is just one person’s modest opinion of what stood out in 2008.

1) Dead Space (XBOX 360, PS3, PC)

You are Isaac Clarke, engineer and resident badass. Stepping onto the USG Ishimura you are dragged into the beautifully twisted, horrifying atmosphere from start to finish. In an industry plagued by sequels and rehashes EA decided to start a new IP, and they did everything right. From the first five seconds of the game you are pulled into the atmosphere, and you never know where a Necromorph is going to hop out, knock you over, slice your head off, and make you soil yourself.

2) Fallout 3 (XBOX 360, PS3, PC)

Bethesda took a chance, moved away from their running Elder Scrolls series, and brought players back to the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. You take the role as a resident of Vault 101 who leaves after his father disappears, something that never happens in the Vault. You are thrown into a sprawling wasteland, interacting with other survivors and looking for the secrets it has to offer. You will lose hundreds of hours to the desolate world of Fallout 3.

3) Braid (XBOX 360)

Platforming and manipulation of time have been done before, but never in a way so artistic, so simple, and so beautifully before. You play the role of a man named Tim, searching for a princess. This is a game that has to be experienced to truly see the beauty that this game truly beholds. If you think games aren’t art, Braid would like to speak with you.

4) Little Big Planet (PS3)

Media Molecule decided to do something different in the platforming genre, and made a game that is fun, addictive, and you can always find something new. With Little Big Planets’ level editor you are bound to find something new from the community every week. This game is bound to entertain and grow in the future.

5) Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

Metal Gear Solid 4 is a return to the series, ending the story of Solid Snake. The game gives you a rollercoaster ride throughout the final chapter of Snakes’ legacy. While a major complaint is that you spend more time watching the game unfold before you rather than playing it, it simply must be experiences. The writing, the characters, the world will draw you in from start to finish. You will find yourself going through a full set of emotions from start to finish.

6) Patapon (PSP)

Patapon is one of the few reasons that everyone should own a PS3. Featuring a mix of a rhythm-tactic-god game you will find yourself immediately addicted. You control a group of “Patapons” by using different rhythm combos to control their actions. This addictive, stylish game is a prime example that creative games still exist.

7) Castle Crashers (XBOX 360)

Castle Crashers is an XBOX Live arcade game developed by The Behemoth (same creators of Alien Hominid). The story is based on four knights as they chase down a wizard after his army steals a large magic crystal and four princesses from the palace. This stylized beat ‘em up will provide hours of entertainment as you and three friends run through mowing down anything in your path. If you miss games similar to Golden Axe you will want to give this game a shot.

What ho, vault dwellers. Having a buggy time in Fallout 3? Well, no matter what your version of it is, things should be looking up right about now, as Bethesda has just released a very big patch update for the post-apocalyptic RPG. Yes, they just released it yesterday, and it fixes whatever flavor of the game you’ve got: the PC, the PS3, and even the Xbox 360 one. It’s also available in five different languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) and will be required to play the upcoming DLC pack that’s slated for January 27, Operation: Anchorage.

Here’s a list of the fixes:

Bug Fixes
Friends notification no longer causes the game to pause. (Playstation 3)
Fixed occasional crashes during loading and waiting.
Friendly or neutral NPC health bars, when taking damage, no longer flicker repeatedly.
Fixed issue where certain NPCs would occasionally disappear from the game.
Fixed issue where dead NPCs would occasionally come back to life.
Fixed rendering issue with the Gatling Laser gun’s tracers.
Fixed issue where the haircut menu would occasionally not appear properly.
Added ability to remap your VATS and pip boy buttons.
Fixed rare load/save issues that would cause NPCs to behave incorrectly.
Fixed issue where quest objectives would occasionally not update properly due to talking activators,
intercoms and conversations.
Using Radaway from the Pip-Boy’s Status Menu repeatedly no longer crashes the game.
Player no longer gets stuck in level up menu if their skills are maxed out.
Fixed issue where multiple followers would occasionally not load into an interior.
Fixed rare issue with getting stuck in VATS mode.
Fixed rare crash with fighting NPCs with corrupted data.
In game radios will now play properly if player was listening to the radio in the Pip-Boy first. (Playstation 3)
Fixed rare crashes while loading and saving games.
Fixed rare issue where player would fall through the floor while in VATS.
Fixed occasional crash after scoring a critical hit in the head with a Railway Rifle.
Prevent NPCs from inadvertently dying from falling.
Fixed occasional issue where the controller would stop working properly.
Fixed crashes related to repeatedly equipping and dropping clothing and armor into the world.
Quest Fixes
Fixed several instances where quest item stayed in inventory permanently after completing quests.
Fixed an issue where the distress message would occasionally not play in Trouble on the Homefront.
In The Waters of Life quest, the Citadel gate will open properly if the player fast travels away after exiting the Taft Tunnels but before reaching the Citadel gate with Doctor Li.
For the Home Sweet Home quest, the broken protectrons in Big Town become active at the proper time.
In The American Dream quest, fixed specific issue which prevented the player from accessing their belongings in the locker by the door if they left the room first.
Fixed infinite caps exploit in Strictly Business quest.
Fixed rare instance where Dad would have no valid dialogue during The Waters of Life quest.Prevent issue during the Finding the Garden of Eden quest where player would fade to black, instead of traveling to Raven Rock, while in combat with a follower.
Fixed several XP speech exploits with certain NPCs.
Fixed XP exploit with a robot in Fort Bannister.
Fixed issue where player’s controls can become locked permanently during The American Dream.

Ah, the Fallout series. An iconic post-apocalyptic RPG set after a nuclear war that forces humanity to live in underground Vaults for years as radiation dies down. The series was originally developed by Black Isle, before Bethesda took the reigns for the game. Bethesda, as you may know, developed the popular Elder Scrolls series of games, the latest of which being Oblivion.

Although Oblivion is a great game, as are the other Elder Scrolls games, their gameplay mechanics are completely different compared to Fallout 1 and 2’s, so this aroused much concern from fans as to whether Bethesda could faithfully reconstruct the much loved series or if they would just make Oblivion with guns. Well, judging on face value alone, it’s easy to say they went with the “Oblivion with guns” option, but how true is this? Read the review to find out.

Straight from the get go, Fallout 3 is better than Oblivion. Oblivion’s introduction consisted of you being in prison for some reason,  then following the emperor for some reason, and then being sent on a quest to save the world…for some reason. Fallout 3 starts differently: you start at birth, which is a very clever way of setting up the character creation process. Select “Male” and the Doctor says “it’s a beautiful baby boy!”. It may be a small thing, but it really adds a certain punch to the intro. You then fiddle around with your appearance before going to infancy. This is where you learn how to move, and set up your stats using a baby book called SPECIAL. Some might find this method of creating your character too long, considering most other RPGs give you one screen at the beginning to do it on, but it really adds to the atmosphere and helps you immerse yourself in the game. After the character creation and some various quests in the Vault, you’re told your Dad has run away. You are then kicked out the Vault, and this is where the game truly starts.

The first thing you’ll want to do upon leaving the Vault is go to the much touted Megaton, something Bethesda talked about a lot during promotion. Megaton is a small town of survivors, with a nuclear bomb sitting dead center of their little Hoover-ville. This is the first real taste of “Good or Evil” in the game, as the player can leave Megaton the way it was, or as a huge crater. As a fan of “choice” in games, I really enjoyed this part of the game, but it ultimately sets up for disappointment. After you’ve destroyed an entire town, there’s nothing more evil you can really do. I feel that Megaton should of been further into the game, as after that every evil deed seems shallow in comparison. “Okay, I told a beggar to shut up. But that’s not evil considering I murdered an entire town” is something I thought a lot during my travels through the wastelands. That’s really a minor annoyance, thankfully the greatness of the rest of the game makes up for it.

The graphics in Fallout 3 are well done. It’s not the most beautiful game on the 360, but then again it’s not supposed to be. Broken houses and debris litter the ground and the view distance is impressive, to say the least. The textures aren’t as great as they could be in places, but with a game this massive we’ve come to suspect that the graphics wouldn’t be spectacular. However, that’s not to say they are bad, and suit the game very well. The designers must have spent ages twiddling them and it shows, as they’re one of the main factors that draws you into the experience. The frame rate handles surprisingly well, considering the large amount of data having to be handled on screen at once. One thing I do have to mention about the graphics, is that I’ve heard the PS3 version of the game is far inferior to the 360 and PC versions. I haven’t seen this myself, considering I’m playing the 360 version, but PS3 owners should keep this in mind.

The sound in this game is fantastic. The voice acting is far superior to Oblivion’s (I saw a mudcrab the other day) and the music…well, I’m going out on a limb here and saying it’s the best music in the history of gaming. There are various radio stations the player can select to play whilst out in the wastelands. Admittedly, I don’t know if I have all of them, but I will tell you about the ones I do have. The first is the Enclave Radio. The Enclave are people claiming to be the new US Government, and their radio station shows it. The “DJ” reminds me of 1960 Stereotypical Communist Hating Radio Hosts, and tells you constantly about how great the Enclave is. This is broken up by patriotic American music that fits the overall theme of this station well. The second radio station I obtained (you might get it later, seeing on how open the game is) was Galaxy News Radio, and let me tell you, I LOVE this station. The DJ has a cool rebellious voice who tells you news on the Wasteland, and also talks about your travels. This is broken up by 1930s Big Band Music, which is the best music to be wandering the wasteland with. Sounds like it’ll be out of place, but no, it really fits. Having this radio on whilst playing is a must, it completes the game and proves that music can complete a game. The third station I’ve got is Agatha’s Station. You get this station by completing a series of quests for an old lady named Agatha. Her station consists of her sitting there playing Violin all day, whilst occasionally saying “thanks to the young man who helped me”. Yeah, I found this station particularly uninteresting, and more confusing as to why she was thanking me after I shot her in the face with her dead husbands revolver.

The story of the game is well…lacking. It’s over before you know it, and doesn’t really instill the emotion that other games have with with their stories recently. There isn’t really much to say on the story, but I will tell you one thing: there’s a Vault where you look for your dad in. You go into a hallucinogenic machine, and trust me, this is the best part of the game, hands down. That one mission makes up for the otherwise gigantic waste of disk space that is “The main story”.

Ah, and now I talk about the meat of the game: the gameplay. How does it compare to the original Fallout games? Is it just Oblivion with guns? Well, it certainly compares well to the games. But, in some ways, it also is Oblivion with guns. In fact, if you’ve played Oblivion, you will know exactly how to play Fallout 3 as soon as you start, but that doesn’t mean it’s a complete copy. The game’s much touted “VATS” system is a treat to use, and some Fallout-inspired humor is certainly present, but the niggling thought that you’ve played this before never really goes away. I remember not long into playing I saw a human wielding a melee weapon, running exactly the same as a person with a dagger runs in Oblivion; which really threw me out of the experience. It also upset me that Bethesda would reuse animations like that, especially after all the Oblivion stick they got during development. It seems like a really cheap move, and something I would not expect from Bethesda. However, ignore these things and you’ll find a truly deep and immersive gameplay experience. The VATS feature works well, and 30 hours in I’m still not bored of it. It adds to the Fallout flavor and doesn’t make things as easy as I originally feared, but even though a lot of work has obviously been put into VATS, shooting without it works just as fine to. In fact, in some situations it works better.

Honestly, I don’t think anyone wants to hear that much about the combat when it comes to Fallout 3. The main pull of the game is of course the massive moral choice system, as well as huge dialogue trees and interesting characters, and yes, it does have all of these. The moral choice system, though seemingly a bit weedy after the impact of Megaton, works very well, a lot better than some games anyway. The dialogue works in every aspect, usually with a wide variety of things to say, and most of the characters seem lovingly crafted. I say most because there are people called “Rivet City Villager” who don’t say anything, but the majority of the people you meet will talk to you, and respond differently to things you say; Which is a major difference from Oblivion, let me tell you. Here, asking two people “How to get to place A” will warrant two completely different answers, unlike Oblivion where you were given the same answer by the same voice actor. The game really shines in this respect, and will be one of the factors that keep you playing.

So, is Fallout 3 a worthy addition to the Fallout series? Well, yes, it is, but it would fit better as the Elder Scrolls V. It feels more like a flavor of Oblivion than a Fallout game, but this is by no means a bad thing. People who enjoyed Oblivion will definitely love this, and old Fallout fans…well, if the Fallout-esque humor doesn’t pull you in, then the interesting characters, brilliant combat system or even the beautifully crafted environments probably will. One of the better games out this year, and any person who calls himself a WRPG fan should have this on their Christmas list.

96%

So much to do . . .

A child-like accord has swept the gaming mass: The majority seem to prefer the sandbox. When I say that, I am, of course, referencing the sandbox-style gameplay that is introducing itself into all manner of game as “nonlinearity”. What the public doesn’t realize while playing with their little, sand-soiled, plastic Ferrari knock-off is that they’re actually playing a blatantly linear game with mini-games carelessly mottled in.

“Nonlinear” video games utilize a couple of devices in order to mask their true nature. Firstly is the multi-mission structure that suggests it’s offering varied constructs for the player to follow in order to shape his own in-game identity. Instead, it’s actually just one set of missions linked exclusively to the story mode that all lead to the same end no matter what you do, and another set of side missions that can be interesting, but offer little to no effect on the main story. Fallout 3 is perhaps the biggest offender here, with Grand Theft Auto IV entering as the most deceptive and offensive: It offers exactly the same sort of structure despite being the industry leader.

Niko’s notorious crime simulator also hints at the second device: the allusion of choice. The game offers points in the story to choose whether or not certain characters die. One problem with this is that it acts like a dialogue tree out of a Bioware game. It pauses the action so that the player can choose from one or the other as if it were a selection on a menu, which generally detracts from something that would normally be intense and spur-of-the-moment (I’ve played God many a time in my day). However, the biggest problem is that it, again, has little to no effect on the overall story. The player still heads to the same drawn-out conclusion, which could be a slight on the pointlessness of life, but lets not pretend that the developers actually hire competent writers (that’s a rant for another day).

The final proponent of the nonlinear delusion is developer’s assessment of good vs. evil. Countless games capitalize on this epidemic, and they do it amazingly arbitrarily. The ability to steal and slaughter and then dance away the sin as if emotes were baptismal, never, never gets tiresome. My personal favorite is starring at the screen wondering if Dialogue Choice A or Dialogue Choice B is the one that the developer defines as “good” and then having to reload, because my already heavy conscience and rife personal distress wouldn’t allow me to see Little Stevey form a robotic frown. Goddamn. In the end, it’s all arbitrary, anyway, because it either leads to the ending or the same ending but with horns.

So, what have I learned today? Hmmm.

Developer’s are overtly ambitious. However, I can’t fault them for that. If you have a passion for creation but you don’t have the tools to create, you do your damnedest to do it anyway. One day the technology will catch up with developer’s ambitions and then they’ll overshoot the mark again and fall flat. The world’s a vicious cycle; what can I say? At least we might have legitimate nonlinear games by then.

Maybe.