Yup, that thread title means that Fable 2, Fallout 3, and Gears of War 2 are all completed. In my opinion they are the 3 biggest releases this year, on the Xbox 360 at least, and they all came out one after the other. After finishing the storyline for all 3 games, I can definitely say which one is my favourite so far, and that game is Fallout 3. I’ll take each game in turn though…..
Fable 2 was a huge release for me. I absolutely loved the first game, despite the fact it delivered on so few of the promises that came from Peter Molyneux. The 2nd one was much better in that respect, but it still wasn’t everything that it Peter originally said it would be (I’m still waiting to plant that damn acorn and come back later to find a tree. Perhaps he’s saving that for Fable 3). Despite that though, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It had a fairly interesting story, though I was waiting for a twist that never came. There was plenty to do in Albion, from woodchopping to gambling to serving beer. You could romance the citizens in Albion, get married and have a family. There was more than enough to do to keep you busy, and it never felt like it was just tacked on as an afterthought. It was there to give you variety and a wide way to spend your time, and the game needed it as well, as the main story was relatively short. The combat was good, though far too easy at times, especially if you used magic. A quick level 3 time control spell to slow everyone down, then a level 5 fireball area spell and pretty much everyone was dead. I think I only ever got knocked out once, and that was my own fault for not keeping an eye on my health. I did enjoy the game very much though, to the point where I happily spent ages running around the whole of Albion finding all the Silver Keys and Gargoyles to get the full 1000 points for the game. Always nice to get the full 1k.
Next on the list was Fallout. It came at the perfect time for me, as I went off work for nearly 2 weeks with back pain, and gaming was one of the few things I could do without much pain. I must have put about 75 hours into Fallout in about 8 days, which is a hell of a lot of gaming! I enjoyed the game so much though. It wasn’t a game without flaws (what game is?), but the minor flaws in the game didn’t spoil the game at all for me. The Wasteland was an incredible place to just walk around and explore, with so much to see and so many places to go. It was amazing just how much there was there, random broken down buildings and encampments, that were nothing to do with any story whatsoever, they were just there to explore. The main niggle I had was how difficult it could be at times to navigate through the ruins of DC itself, as most roads were blocked by broken down buildings. It meant you had to use the Underground system a lot, but you could go into one system hoping to come out where you want, only to find you’re somewhere completely different. Having a slightly better navigation system could help this, but I guess it would take away from the feeling that you’re alone in a vast wasteland. The main storyline in the game, while short, was very well done although it, like Fable, had no twists that could change the way you look at everything. Why don’t more games have a Knights of the Old Republic style twist to them?! Still, after finishing it, I could easily have gone through it again, had I not needed to sell it to fund future purchases. It’s definitely one of the games that will end up in my permanant collection when it comes down in price in a few months time. I think I’ll be ready to go through it as a good character by then.
That brings us nicely on to Gears of War 2. I played the whole thing in co-op with my good friend Leo, which definitely made the game more fun. The storyline was much better than the first game, with one small twist I definitely didn’t see coming. The ending was weak though, like everything just stopped dramatically because they ran out of time to finish it up. The story though is completely open to a 3rd game, which I’m sure will feature 4 player co-op (the success of Halo 3 in co-op should ensure more and more games do this as well). Action-wise it delivers more of the same from the first game, with some new additions, as you’d expect. I like the new weapons, and the ability to use your grenades as a proximity mine by tagging them onto a wall (only really useful in online play though). If you enjoyed the first game, there’s no reason for you not to enjoy this one just as much. And then there’s the Horde mode. With up to 5 players, surviving wave after wave of Locust attacks makes for an amazing game mode. It’s fairly easy early on if you have 5 good players, but as you push through the levels it can get quite challenging, even on Casual difficulty. Over a couple of nights a group of us managed to survive all 50 levels of Horde, which we were very happy about. It’s a great game mode, probably the one addition that will see the game stay in my collection for some time, as it’s just so much fun to play.
When it’s all said and done, Fallout for me picks up the honour as game of the year so far. With so much to see and do, a great storyline, wonderful combat (the VATS system is awesome), interesting characters and some excellent enemies (Deathclaws are great fun, but hard as nails), it’s a near perfect role playing game for me. Bethesda have come up with another classic (I put nearly 300 hours into Oblivion), and I hope they stick by the series and make a Fallout 4.
Saying that though, I’ve not finished Dead Space yet, so there’s still for that to change. It’s been awesome so far, easily the scariest game I’ve ever played in my life, with some genuine pant-changing moments. I’m about half way through and really need to spend some more time on it, if only so I can loan it to Nokkon and stop him badgering me about it 
