Finally, I get it. For months I've been wondering what all of the fuss about Fallout 3 was, and now I know. I was excited enough about the game prior to its release that I preordered the crazy Amazon-exclusive special that, in addition to the regular special edition, shipped with an extremely cheap and breakable lifesize Pip-Boy 3000. Playing the game for the first time, though, I got incredibly frustrated with the combat and, exactly as I did the first time I played Oblivion, I quit just four or five hours in.

The recent arrival of the Operation: Anchorage DLC got a bunch of people in the office excited for Fallout 3 again and so, since Wrath of the Lich King is no longer occupying my every spare moment now that my hunter has tamed Loque'nahak (don't ask), I figured I should have another crack at it. I feel better about the choices I made when customizing my character this time around, and since worrying about inventory space tends to be something that I let ruin games for me (WoW included) at times, I made a real effort not to pick up every single item that wasn't nailed to the floor. The real reason I'm enjoying Fallout 3 a lot more now, though, is simply that I'm using the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) that I mostly ignored previously.

Call me crazy, but when I played Fallout 3 for the first time I was under the impression that I should play in real-time or using VATS. It never occured to me that these two very different systems, neither of which is good enough to use exclusively, could become something quite special when used together. Long story short, I'm about eight hours into the game now and loving every minute of it, and that includes the hour or so that I've spent in Anchorage.

So, now that I'm getting into Fallout 3, it looks like I'll be neglecting the rest of the games that I've been playing lately. I'll still be finishing Afro Samurai at some point, I'll inevitably end up visiting Knothole Island in Fable II sometime soon, and my death knight will become my third level 80 character, but for the moment I'm all about the Fallout 3.

First come first served:

X360: FRK8G-HCG4Q-4VDPC-Q2C44-HM9G6

PS3: P7LA-K4BD-LG2L

PS3: BJF2-A2B4-PCF6

I offer no guarantees as to the quality of these downloadable games, but two out of three ain't bad.

I'm a few days late with this, but I only just learned that Michael Crichton passed away unexpectedly earlier this week. He was best known as the author of Jurassic Park, of course, but if I had ever been lucky enough to meet him it's Westworld that I'd have thanked him for. It's one of the few movies I remember seeing as a kid that I'm still crazy about today. Hopefully the upcoming remake will be a fitting tribute to its creator.