That’s why we’re trying something new with our reviews. Over the next month (or less, depending on however many nights I deprive myself of sleep) Silicon Sasquatch will run a series of weekly articles I’m penning on New Vegas to investigate and dissect its noteworthy aspects in set blocks of hours, a section-by-section travelogue if you will. To attempt to review New Vegas after rushing through its campaign would only serve to dilute the experience of the game itself. Traditional reviews may work that way, but we have the opportunity to pace ourselves for this website.

Expect my first entry in the “New Vegas Travel Guide” this Friday, October 22. The initial post will highlight New Vegas’ beginning five hours, and will focus on whatever I see or do that strikes me in a good — or bad — way. Some reviews are painting New Vegas as a near-carbon copy of Fallout 3 but with more noticeable technical issues (at least in the Xbox 360 version, which I will be buying today). Glitches or not, my underlying aim with these articles is to break the game into chronological segments and fairly determine whether or not Obsidian’s efforts overcome any similarities to Bethesda’s work to make a distinct, legitimate product by the time the credits roll.

I’d like to let our readers know that I’m taking open submissions for questions, concerns or hopes you may have regarding Fallout: New Vegas; things that I should keep in mind for subsequent articles. Simply leave your cogitations in the comments section.

Shadow of the Colossus' simple, spare storyline has been repeatedly acclaimed as a high-water mark in video game storytelling.

Even before Mario trekked through the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue the Princess and Pac-Man was pursued by a quartet of ghosts, video games have been a storytelling medium. As games matured from simple sprites to a multi-billion dollar industry, so the scope of video games increased —in terms of graphical fidelity, size and scope of game worlds, and the potential for storytelling.

The problem, though, is that only two of those three aspects have seen real growth to this point. While our favored medium is still maturing, it’s encountered some growing pains in finding the right way to tell a story — and the right kind of stories to tell.

Warning: Spoilers for Grand Theft Auto IV, Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid, Fallout 3, Fable II, and Shadow of the Colossus follow.

The deep, gritty urban environment of Liberty City created by Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto IV opens up to gamers in a way that both advances the storyline as well as the needs of the player.

While storytelling techniques from books, comics, TV and movies may be applicable to games, the nature of the video game medium means not all of these techniques make best use of the gaming experience. A major difference is that video games are an experiential medium: gamers expect to learn new tricks or techniques, or gain access to new worlds throughout the course of a game. While this may not be as true in sports or racing games, for example, players of single-player-focused games of all genres expect a sort of ramp — both in terms of what skills your character has as well as in difficulty. A game like Ninja Gaiden or God of War would feel stale if your character started the game with the abilities, weapons and skills he or she ended with. In order to increase the difficulty of the game (generally from simple to complex as the game nears its close), those skills are needed to introduce new challenges.

Movies and books do not expect you to make such strides throughout the story— however, the convention of unlocking more and more powerful weapons or abilities throughout a single-player role playing game or action game is a video game standby. An issue games have, then, is telling a powerful story within a framework that also makes sense from a gameplay perspective. Done in a banal or uninspired way, a game feels cliché or trite; but when executed well, games marry storytelling and advancement in a flowing, natural way.

A great example is the post-GTA III Grand Theft Auto games. The game world in Rockstar’s flagship series opens up as missions unlock; the key is that it feels natural. An attempt on the life of GTA IV protagonist Nico Bellic and his cousin early in the game forces them from the first opening area of the game to the next one; while it’s still shepherding the player from one area to another, it makes sense in the context of both gameplay (moving from one level to another) and storytelling.

Another challenge to story is in level structure for many games. While movies and novels go through crests and valleys of action and story progression, games take it to another level and build levels around specific action scenes as well as new mechanics. Take a game like Gears of War 2 as an example. Most every level in the two Gears of War games introduces a new technique or experience — whether that’s riding on a giant excavator and firing from mounted turrets, or working your way through a giant worm, the story is oftentimes molded in such a way as to naturally introduce new scenarios for gamers.

Many aspects of Gears of War and Gears of War 2's storyline rotate around the game's level design, crafting the story around what the designers want the gamer to experience. The chainsaw duel, however, is just badass.

The problem that arises from this is that parts of the story can be cut due to difficulty with getting a level functioning properly. If the game’s engine just flat-out can’t handle a level, or the developers lack the time to finish a scene to their desired quality, it gets cut. Compare this to movies, novels and TV shows, where content is cut in the interest of brevity or relevance — scenes are deleted or pages are cut because they’re excess, not because the director or writer doesn’t know how to shoot them or put them into words.

It’s not the case with games because many story-focused games hone in on gameplay first, with the story built to fit. The Gears of War series is guilty of this, with story built to explain away gameplay concepts, but it’s certainly not the only one out there.

Regardless, the medium is still blossoming in terms of finding new and inventive ways to tell stories. There have been advances in taking the best of post-modern storytelling and combining that with the interactivity of gaming to create something that can only be told through the medium of the video game.

A game like Bioshock is a step in this right direction. It takes a rather ordinary story idea, with a relatively simple plot progression throughout, but throws the player for a loop by manipulating the story within the context of gaming. Bioshock doesn’t succeed because its dystopian, Ayn Rand-inspired story is groundbreaking, but because it takes certain video game tropes — that gamers have a choice, have control, and that a person giving them instructions can be trusted — and uses them to bring meaning to the player. It takes the idea that the narrator and guiding voice in a game can be taken for gospel and stands it on its head. While it’s a simple concept (and one explored in books like The Catcher in the Rye or Catch-22), it’s one that has not been explored in detail in videogames.

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima utilized many interesting technical tricks with the PlayStation, including reading from the memory card for other Konami games in the form of Psycho Mantis reading Solid Snake's mind.

You think you have the game figured out, then it turns out you’ve been a pawn all along. Metal Gear Solid did this, too — along with other mind-tricks that took advantage of the medium. This is best exemplified in the battle with Psycho Mantis, a specially trained super-soldier who could read the protagonist’s – and the player’s – mind. How was that achieved? Psycho Mantis could “read your mind” and counter all of your actions if you left the PlayStation controller in the first control port; this boss also read the PlayStation memory cards to see if there was any save data for other games by Metal Gear Solid’s publisher, Konami. Players had to learn to either adapt to the fight…or just move the controller to the second port.

Fortunately, more games are playing with the structure of the narrative for dramatic effect. PlayStation 2 classic Shadow of the Colossus uses bare minimalism to create an emotionally meaningful experience. It’s gaming structure at its simplest — the protagonist must go defeat a series of bosses to save his beloved princess — but the sparseness of the world that the player rides and hunts in creates a stillness, a narrative white space that contrasts with the brutal climbing and killing of the gentle yet gigantic colossi the player must slay. It’s powerful and moving in ways few other games are.

Bioware’s RPGs, including the Baldur’s Gate series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect, all seek to evoke emotion through a different method: choice. Knights of the Old Republic popularized a trend towards good/evil choice in games — actions and dialogue in KOTOR affected your character’s development and standing within the game’s community, as well as storyline options that were available. Some characters’ quests were only available if you were good or evil enough, and the theory was that gamers would go for one path or another but must live with their decisions.

Fallout 3's Broken Steel downloadable content retroactively changes the ending to the game from a hard, final conclusion, to a jumping-off point for more end-game content.

Other games, like the Fallout series and the Fable series, have highlighted this as well, but the concept of choice and decisions making last affects on characters hasn’t been executed as well as possible. Why? Gamers right now do not want these choices to be permanent. Downloadable content for Fable II allowed gamers the opportunity to shortcut around the game’s end-of-storyline decisions; everything from weight (gained or lost by diet) to the story’s final impossible choice are reversible now, albeit for a price. A similar effect is achieved in Fallout 3’s Broken Steel downloadable content, which ret-cons the game’s ending, adds new storyline content, and allows the player to continue playing with their character. In Fallout 3, enough good (or evil) karma will balance the other side out; some choices are permanent, but many aren’t. The emotional impact choice and living with decisions can have is washed a bit when it lacks permanence.

One of the highest achievements for all art — including television, music, movies, and, yes, video games — is to convey a strong emotion. Whether that’s happiness, sadness, fear, joy, or whatever the case may be, if a song moves you to tears or a movie makes you laugh for days, that piece of art has succeeded. With gaming, there is a unique opportunity to provide an even stronger emotional connection with a medium because of the interactive nature of video games. While games have not had that watershed storytelling event — there hasn’t been “a Citizen Kane of gaming” as of yet — watch how developers continue to find new ways to tell powerful stories that utilize interactivity and personal choice.

Marge would be proud

It’s been a bit of a difficult week for the Silicon Sasquatch staff. Nick spent much of the week reformatting and fine-tuning his computer before hauling it up north for the sixth annual Penny Arcade Expo and its thousand-seat LAN — a stressful experience, and one that leaves precious little time for gaming. Doug’s third Xbox 360 fell under the alluring spell of the Red Ring of Death and is currently drifting towards Valhalla. And Aaron? Well…Aaron’s the lucky one who actually got to sit down and play through Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Biff! Pow! Zing! Bort!

Aaron:

I’ve spent a wonderful portion of my week with Mr. Bruce Wayne in Rocksteady’s amazing Batman: Arkham Asylum. To be honest, I didn’t expect the game to turn out as masterfully as it has. Thankfully I misjudged the project, because this game has it all. The pacing’s perfect, the combat is always fresh and the various cameos from Batman’s rogues gallery are worthy of giddiness. Even someone like me, who hasn’t read a Batman comic in years, can feel like they’re the Dark Knight and become absorbed in the comic icon’s universe.

It’s baffling how Rocksteady makes creating the best Batman game ever look like child’s play. Why couldn’t anyone do this sooner? Oh well, at least we have Arkham Asylum now…and, if the ending pans out, a sequel to come!

Read our final thoughts on the game when we post our review next week.

Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do

Doug:

Well, the week started off on a sour note as my Xbox 360 succumbed to the throes of Red Ring of Death failure in the midst of playing Fallout 3. Since shipping it out on Tuesday, I’ve turned my attentions to playing some games on my PS2 instead. I fired back up Winning Eleven 9, still my absolute all-time favorite soccer game, which is what I’ll probably also play tonight; I also popped my copy of Gran Turismo 4 back in and took to the virtual track.

What’s on the docket now is to finish Shadow of the Colossus. It pains me that I haven’t given this game as much attention as it requires, but hopefully I’ll be able to wrap it up before I receive my fourth Xbox 360.

Punch-Out!! – Endearingly racist prizefighting since 1984

Nick: Apparently my Windows XP machine got something called “Spy-Ware” and wasn’t keen on running smoothly. While I spent a couple days backing things up and reformatting, I decided to plow through Nintendo’s latest entry into the Punch-Out!! series on Wii.

While it was a joy to see so many familiar faces, my nostalgia-drunk adoration turned to disappointment by the time I’d claimed my rightful title as world champion of the WVBA. Dropping Glass Joe in the first round felt great, but it was also something I’d done twice before. While sticking very close to its roots was a smart decision, I couldn’t help but feel like the game’s familiar trial-and-error design just wasn’t compelling enough to have justified a full $50 purchase.

But with Punch-Out!! back on its way to GameFly, I’ve got time for two fantastic titles that arrived this week:

1. Dissidia: Final Fantasy — Like most recent Square Enix games, it’s a convoluted, bizarre mess of a story. But thanks to some impressive depth of design and scalability of play modes depending on your commitment level, it’s shaping up to be a fantastic game.
2. Batman: Arkham Asylum — Until we post our review next week, there’s just one thing I want to make absolutely clear: This game is every bit as good as it looks.

So, uh, if you’ll excuse me…

Why hello there, future purchase

What a week it’s been. The inaugural Gamescom in Cologne, Germany opened on Wednesday and guess what: Sony kindly unveiled the new PlayStation 3 Slim. Media outlets weren’t exactly surprised by the announcement, but I think we’re all glad the rumor mill has finally ceased its incessant turning about the damn console. Looks like I finally need to go get a PS3.

Oh, and a little event in Anaheim, California called BlizzCon flung its +10 Doors of Nerd Barricading open to the (literally) unwashed masses of Blizzard fanatics today, and so far we’ve already been made privy to the next World of Warcraft expansion, a new Diablo III class and StarCraft II being confirmed for release in 2010.

You know, as a gamer I like it when these big gaming-related events run back-to-back with one another. The ESA might as well wedge E3 2010 between next year’s Gamescom and BlizzCon to mentally and physically destroy every games journalist in existence. That could be Silicon Sasquatch‘s in!

An image so good it makes the prequels look half-decent

Aaron:

For some odd reason I’ve devoted a large amount of my gaming time this week to Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. I’m under the deluded notion that I can reach 100% completion in the game without going insane. It’s not a particularly hard title, it’s just tedious…incredibly tedious. Still, I have to hand it to Traveller’s Tales for making what’s overall a fun and goofy title. Just don’t ruin the experience by trying to do what I’m doing.

Other non-block-themed bytes I consumed this week were Fallout 3′s Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta — mostly for review purposes. Go ahead and check out each write-up for my impressions of Bethesda’s final two post-nuclear roleplaying simulator DLCs. Now, to be completely honest, I’m glad to wash my hands of the game. Hundreds of hours sunk into one title (that’s not an MMO) makes you feel way too involved. Strange, I know. I’m ready for Fallout: New Vegas, though. Get to it, Obsidian Entertainment!

Next on my gaming queue: Halo Wars, Shadow Complex, Batman: Arkham Asylum (which is getting many glowing reviews) and…more Lego Star Wars.

Doug's local sports pride is fantastic. But why are they called the Vikings anyway? Vikings usually burned and pillaged, I recall.

Doug:

This week has been busy — class Monday, finishing homework, quizzes and team projects for accounting on Wednesday, then a test in Finance on Tuesday, more class Wednesday, being social (bars, basketball and more bars) and finalizing some back-end paperwork stuff for grad school. I haven’t fired my 360 up since…maybe Monday. All I’ve done gaming-wise is play with the NCAA 10 TeamBuilder — it’s super powerful and, being the kind of person to toil over minor details regarding team jerseys, it’s right up my alley.

Above is a photo for the work-in-progress team I’ve created; the fun part will be editing the roster from head to toe. Thankfully, you can now do that through a web browser instead of on a console.

Nathan Drake/The Prince takes flight in Shadow Complex for Xbox Live Arcade

Nick:

With this scorched-earth Oregon summer winding to a pleasantly breezy conclusion, my gaming backlog is finally getting the attention it deserves. Having made my way through the wonderfully crass House of the Dead: Overkill and Namco’s doting recreation of PlayStation platforming classic Klonoa, I’ve almost finished clearing out my GameFly queue. I hope to finish Killzone 2 and Punch-Out!! this weekend.

Of course, that all depends on whether I can release my vice grip on Shadow Complex. Chair Entertainment created a game that went right for my Achilles’ Heel: side-scrolling, Metroid-style adventures. While I’m not convinced it’s the greatest game of its kind, it’s a pleasant surprise and a nice homage to some of the finest games ever made.

And hey, it’s always nice to hear Nolan North playing another character who looks an awful lot like Nathan Drake; maybe it’ll hold me over until Uncharted 2 struts in and dictates how I live my life for the next few months.

Here we are, dissecting the final downloadable addition to the Fallout 3 universe.

Throughout the year, Bethesda Softworks has given gamers a grand total of $50 worth of extra content to one of 2008′s finest games. The finale, Mothership Zeta, is certainly a bold move on the studio’s part to try to go out with an edge-of-your-seat bang. Putting Fallout in space, even with the series’ trademark exorbitant scenarios, is definitely a head-tilting decision. But cosmic setting aside, don’t expect any climactic end to the story of the Lone Wanderer here; the developers are smart enough to realize that after rectifying Fallout 3′s ending with Broken Steel, setting a finite conclusion to the mythos would kill the immersion.

Unfortunately, the end is nigh…and not that great. Zeta is a linear and uninteresting bookend to a fairly massive collection of expansions. It’s not as bad as Operation: Anchorage, but that’s not saying much.

Thanks to Zeta, most gamers are going to feel like their wallets have been probed. Take me to your refund counter, please.

Domo arigato, soon-to-be-exploding roboto

To be absolutely clear, Mothership Zeta isn’t bad DLC, it’s just unimpressive and extremely devalued when compared with its immediate ancestor, Point Lookout. After crafting an expansive, intriguing and thoroughly disturbing trip to the swamplands of Maryland, Bethesda decided to next release what amounts to a repressed collect-a-thon of powerful weaponry.

Sure, most fans won’t complain when by the end of Zeta they’ll have a suit of samurai armor, a cowboy outfit and roughly a metric ton of alien weapons, crystals and worm food (disgusting but nutritious!) to pad their hidden caches — but for $10/ 800 it amounts to a lot less content than Point Lookout. This isn’t a complaint about the overall value of the downloadable content market; it’s about a company setting expectations high with one title, and then somehow failing to deliver on those expectations a little over a month later with the next (and final) release.

The problem with trying to review Zeta as a piece of individual content and the final piece of Fallout 3 DLC is in what each individual may think is worthwhile about it. Like I mentioned, the items and weapons are fantastic. But on the other hand the plot is boring and practically non-existent. Even Anchorage, which I’ve harped on numerous times, had the overarching war between the United States and China to lend a bit more credibility to the entire scenario.

This looks way more interesting than it actually is

It’s disappointing in many ways to be left with Mothership Zeta. The alien captive audio logs are Zeta’s steel ingots, and while they aren’t nearly as tedious to collect, the fact that another achievement is tied to finding easily missable items is frustrating.

The quests themselves are hard to distinguish from one another, and you’ll only happen to notice when one transitions into the next by the popping of an achievement. The singular quest chain sends players around the massive spaceship to do the same thing over and over again: blow up alien generators. Even the ship’s massive death ray (which can be pointed earthward and fired to produce a massive, Texas-sized nuclear explosion — easily one of the best moments of the DLC) is effortlessly conquered by shutting off four generators. Let me reiterate: you shut down generators to get to the death ray, and then to turn the beam off, you do the same thing four times over again. Extremely lazy design? Absolutely.

Perhaps the best thing Zeta has going for it is its scenery. While you’re trapped in the spaceship for the entirety of the add-on, the interior at least looks like a corny, classic sci-fi movie. Lots of “beep boop” lights and big red buttons contrast well with the silver and stainless steel look of the walls, ceilings and floors. The aliens themselves are stereotypical little green men, and speak in a harsh gibberish reminiscent of Mars Attacks!.

Zeta is more or less an homage to 1950s sci-fi, just like much of the Fallout universe. References to probing, human experimentation and abducting cows (though they’re brahmin in this case) are all over Zeta, and they’re good for a few laughs. It’s a cheeky add-on for sure, but it’s easy to wish Bethesda had gone farther with the idea of killing aliens in a spaceship than it simply being “cool.”

Hey, I can see my charred ruin of a house from here!

Take it or leave it, Mothership Zeta will always be the last piece of Fallout 3 DLC Bethesda released. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s not the worst add-on for the game. Bethesda accurately created a 1950s-type of alien abduction story, but managed to leave out the plot, fun and excitement. The finale will impress, but that’s not enough to make this a for-sure recommendation.

If you must absolutely have every expansion to the core Fallout 3 title, then you’ve already made your choice. But if you’re on the fence about how worthwhile Mothership Zeta actually is, ask yourself this: Is $10 is worth it for what boils down to a four-hour, super weapon shop-till-you-drop marathon? Save those Microsoft points and get Point Lookout instead. Or, pick up Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, which includes all five DLC packs, when it drops on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this October 13th.

Recommended for:

• You crazy people who need each piece of Fallout 3 DLC
• That one Mars Attacks! fan who’s been waiting for someone to remember the movie, and as a result will go and buy the game right now

Not Recommended for:

• Value-conscious gamers
• Fans of Point Lookout expecting Mothership Zeta to be equally as good
• Someone with only $10 to spend: Go grab The Maw or ‘Splosion Man instead!
• Humans who’ve been traumatized by probing at some point in their lives

Read our policy on reviews here.

It’s comforting to trek through the swampy bogs of Fallout 3′s fourth downloadable content pack — it’s just like the Capital Wasteland, only with (slightly) more inbreeding.

That feeling of being at home within the game is Point Lookout’s strongest asset. Unlike the uneven experiences in both Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, this DLC effort takes a page out of the core Fallout 3 experience. Players are given a familiar set of rules and goals: explore, scavenge, kill and quest. Even Broken Steel, which was a remarkably solid piece of extra content, timidly reproduced the basics of Fallout 3. But with Point Lookout, Bethesda Softworks has created a real sidestory to remind us why its rendition of the Fallout franchise is so supremely addictive.

Your arrival in Point Lookout: looks like you got screwed on that timeshare

Point Lookout is an entirely new area of irradiated United States soil set apart from the Capital Wasteland. What was once a vacation hot spot — based on the actual Point Lookout state park in Maryland — has become a haven for mutated hillbillies 200 years later. This is as close as we’re getting to Deliverance: The Game…thankfully.

Players arrive via the Duchess Gambit, an old paddleboat captained by Tobar the Ferryman — one of those characters who’s too nice to be trustworthy. Point Lookout is separated from the Capital Wasteland by a loading screen; the boat serves as the link to the island just like the rail cart in The Pitt. After a slick arrival cutscene and departing from the rickety old boat, most players will likely head straight toward the burning mansion on the hill. It’s a good thing the house is so visible: it marks the starting point of the add-on’s main quest.

Point Lookout is unquestionably the most visually appealing addition to Fallout 3: There’s always something new to draw your gaze while traversing the swamps. Notable sites include a massive lighthouse and the run-down boardwalk, complete with Ferris wheel and bumper cars. There’s an interesting set piece on every horizon; even on top of the rocky coastline of the park players can spot treasure-laden ships and a few buoys in the mist marking hidden weapon stashes.

Rusted ship hulls, beached hundreds of years ago, eerily litter the coast like misplaced trash spat out by the sea. Each vista in Point Lookout tells a story with its warped steel, charred trees, scattered litter and bleached skeletons. Although Fallout 3 did a fantastic job of creating an expansive and fulfilling landscape to sift through, Point Lookout’s compact size and hazy wetness create quite the environment to get acquainted with.

All that learnins and edumacations did a number on ol' Zeke's mind

It’s all about small surprises in Point Lookout. Finding a dead Chinese spy in a hotel room leads to a roundabout but thrilling quest involving safety deposit boxes, a submarine, double-crossing and cryptochromatic spectacles hidden in the water tank of a toilet. One of the better sidequests in Point Lookout, the sheer fun of it makes up for duds like “The Dark Heart of Blackhall,” a fetch errand with an inconsequential endpoint — 1000 caps does not a good quest make. What does make a good quest, however, is what Bethesda puts players through in the main plot of the DLC, starting with “The Local Flavor.”

Beginning with Calvert Mansion and the temperamental, curse-prone ghoul Desmond, the main questline is one of the most winding chains seen in the Fallout 3 universe. Your new and angry friend sends you, the Lone Wanderer, to uncover the secrets of a tribal cult attacking his house. The tribals worship the punga fruit, a mutated plant that provides enough sustenance to keep their community going. From there the entire thing devolves into serious “What the hell?” territory: Giant mother punga fruit, unwanted brain surgery, house explosions and the holographic mind of a diabolical scientist all stem from this singular quest. Without spoiling too much, this sole quest is just about reason enough to purchase Point Lookout. It won’t disappoint you.

Those hoping for smashing (pun slightly intended) new weaponry will be moderately satisfied, as Point Lookout adds a few new items. As far as weapons go, the lever-action rifle is a fantastic replacement for the hunting rifle, and will finally put to use all that extra 10mm ammo. The double-barreled shotgun fits right in with the backwoods setting, as does the two-handed axe; though melee characters don’t seem to do much damage with it.

Why yes, you CAN "axe" me a question!

Unfortunately, the clothing options leave a bit to be desired: a Confederate hat is the most prevalent piece of gear. Really, it seems like a missed opportunity for a full-on, hick-like outfit considering the rusted car, bear trap and moonshine atmosphere. Instead, Point Lookout’s enemies wear their plaid with pride.

The most notable opponent inclusions are the disfigured, Sloth-like hillbillies of Point Lookout’s vast swampland. Skinny creeps, aptly named Creepers and Scrappers, move fast and shoot accurately, while the burly Brawlers and Trackers/Bruisers (two variations on the same model) hit incredibly hard. Watch out for these guys: apparently the generations of inner-familial intercourse led to super strength. Who knew?

Point Lookout is simply a joy to play through. It’s thoroughly disturbing and rewarding at the same time thanks to an adherence to its Fallout 3 roots — unlike Operation: Anchorage, which suffered in quality because it deviated so awkwardly from the core experience. Bethesda has finally learned that additional content works best when it shares common ground with the game it descended from.

Recommended for:

• Fallout 3 completionists, of course
• Players turned off by previous add-ons like Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, which did little to play like “vanilla” Fallout 3
• People like me who have lived near small town/hillbilly people; I had quite the laugh at the swampfolks’ expense
• One of the greatest questlines that can be found anywhere in Fallout 3

Not Recommended for:

• Weapon enthusiasts looking for the next Gauss rifle or Auto Axe. While the weapons in Point Lookout are nice, they’re not super-powered
• If inbreeding hits a bit too close to home for you

Read our policy on reviews here.

No? Hm. Well, here, check out Stephen Colbert’s exclusive preview of Microsoft’s Project Natal:

They always look.

Nick:

The stars have aligned. Not only will this year mark the release of games by Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman — three veterans of the Golden Age of Adventure Gaming — but it will herald the resurrection of Monkey Island, the game that brought the art of insult swordfighting to the masses.

In celebration of the upcoming remake of The Secret of Monkey Island and Telltale’s first season of Tales of Monkey Island, I dove back into my collection of LucasArts adventure games. First up: The Curse of Monkey Island on Mega-Monkey mode, to truly test my puzzle-solving prowess (and alliterative aspirations, apparently.)  Once I’ve killed Dread Pirate LeChuck again…again, I’m planning on paying a few of my favorites a visit: Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle and The Dig, most likely. And to cap it all off? I’ll be returning to the colorful streets of El Marrow in Grim Fandango. (Fact: Grim Fandango is the best game ever made. Honest! Look it up somewhere.)

And lest I forget the current generation of gaming, I oughta mention I’ve been plugging away at InFamous (50% completion rate and still excellent) and Red Faction: Guerrilla. Talk about an underdog of a game; Guerrilla’s only been out for a couple weeks and its price has already been slashed from $60 to $40.

Lemme give you some advice: No matter what opinion you may have of Saints Row or the older Red Faction games, toss it right out the window. Red Faction is relentlessly satisfying both online and off. Don’t be shocked if it ends up at the top of my list for Best Games of 2009.

Still the best at what he does.

Aaron:

Purchasing the Xbox 360 version of XMOWUE (that’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Uncaged Edition — which makes for an awful acronym) for $37 dollars at Target was the best gaming decision I’ve made this week. I’ve patiently waited for a sale on the game since its release, and I’m glad I finally got a chance to scoop it up.

The game is absolutely ridiculous, disgustingly gory and extremely family friendly (not really). Now I’ve never really read any of Wolverine’s comic series — give me Batman or Spider-Man anyday — but I can tell Raven Software lovingly nailed the feel of being Wolverine. It’s brutal, but also beautiful in a demented sort of way.

I’ll also admit within this allotted virtual space that I’ve become addicted to The Sims 3.

The last time I played any Sims title was way back in 2002 when the first game’s vacation expansion came out. After that I quietly put away the voyeuristic notion of controlling virtual people in favor of more conventional gaming experiences. Plus, I was annoyed with the hundreds of expansion packs EA and Maxis kept releasing (honestly that’s written with just a tinge of hyperbole). Even so I’m back for the third game, and it’s as crack-like as I remember. I have to stop sometime soon though, otherwise it’ll become my new World of Warcraft.

Which, by the way, keeps telling me to play it. I need help.

With Bill Clinton and the Fresh Prince in the rosters, NBA Jam really is the quintessential '90s sports game.

Doug:

Still working on games like Fallout 3, FIFA 09, and others, but have brought out some oldies this week as well as taking in some brand-spanking-new demos.

Kicking it old school: Been taking in some SNES games thanks to the power of emulation, specifically NBA Jam: Tournament Edition and International Superstar Soccer, the precursor to the Pro Evo Soccer series we know now. Gotta love some 16-bit goodness every now and then, but I’m still kind of tweaked that I can’t get the cheat codes for NBA Jam to work. Ah well.

Two big sports game demos dropped this week, though: NCAA Football 10 and The Bigs 2. I put damn near 120 hours in to NCAA 09, and am still kind of looking forward to 10, but man…I was not very impressed with the demo upon playing it for the first time. In fact, you could say I’m kind of down on the game. It just didn’t feel right — I had wanted the game to feel different, to make some improvements, but it still feels odd now that they’re here.

The other demo was The Bigs 2, 2k Sports’ take on arcade baseball. I only ever played the demo of the first one, but it was well liked by a lot of people, including 1up.com’s Sports Anomaly podcast. Well, the demo is incredibly good — fairly easy to pick up, a ton of fun to play, great mechanics, and it doesn’t feel unfair like a lot of arcade sports games can. I would definitely love to get my hands on the full game when it comes out soon.

Well, we’re all a little burned out here. I mean, you all saw the media deluge last week, didn’t you? The countless trailers, the hours of presentations, the Brütal Legend lawsuit . . . it’s just exhausting.

So, we failed to deliver on the E3 commentary we promised, and I wanted to personally apologize. We weren’t sure how we were going to discuss the event as it raced by, and thanks to each member of our bustling staff of three having something major come up, it just didn’t happen.

If you’re still with us, I want to thank you for your patience and understanding. All three of us have busy lives, and I know that it’s been a constant struggle for me at least to have a full-time job and keep up the quality and consistency in blogging that I aspire to.

We’ll be getting back on track shortly. In the meantime, excuse our flakiness.

Now, let’s talk about some games, shall we?

Nick:

I’ve been rounding up notes on about a dozen games to start discussing them on the site. And while there are a couple of standout titles among the bunch — InFamous and Red Faction: Guerrilla in particular — I’m eager for a nice, carefully structured linear experience. All this open-world exploration is great, but we all need some variety now and then.

And in about ten minutes, I’m going to be playing resent Apple for announcing something cooler than my iPhone 3G while I follow the Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s a little ridiculous of me, of course, but let’s be realistic. I play games on my iPhone more than any other platform at this point, and I’m gonna feel a little snubbed when people start buying something way cooler than the thing I’ve got. Oh well. That’s simply the way of things — especially when Apple is involved.

Aaron:

E3 slightly cut into my gaming capability for part of the week, but since Tuesday I’ve been enjoying Red Faction: Guerrilla. It’s really a slow start, but the destruction-based gameplay builds on you over the first few sectors in need of liberation. After awhile you’ll be bringing down buildings strategically by targeting their weak points (go for support beams!) and discovering your favorite combination of weapons (I’m fond of an upgraded rocket launcher, an upgraded nanomachine rifle and max demolition charge capacity). It’s really an amazing title overall, but I still see it being a sleeper hit despite THQ having saturated various media outlets with marketing for the game.

Oh, and multiplayer is ludicrously fun. More on that when we post our review sometime next week.

Doug:

It’s all Fallout 3, all the time. Hoo boy — time to go find a doctor and get injected with some pre-war stuff to clear out the addiction. I think I’m only about a third of the way through the game, but I’m still completely hooked. I’m to the point where I feel comfortable with the controls, how to get around the Wasteland, and how to fight. Not being at level 1 or 2 also helps — I’ve customized my character through weapons and skills. Unfortunately, though, the enemies don’t get any easier. I do look forward to kicking ass with the Brotherhood, though, as I’ve got the Broken Steel DLC installed too.

I got a bit of time to play a few other games, too — NCAA 09, FIFA 09, Mass Effect, Super Street Fighter II HD Remix — and hooked them up in HD, too. That was a situation I could get used to.

Here's a shock: Aaron ran into his fair share of Snipers and Spies after the Spy and Sniper update! Jarate for everyone!

Aaron Thayer:

It’s been a spastic two weeks for my gaming appetite. I finished a “hard” playthrough of Battlefield: Bad Company, and I was reminded just how great of a job DICE did in their first real singleplayer console game. Hell, the multiplayer’s a lot better than I remember, too. Team Fortress 2 has been my true online obsession however, thanks to the recent Spy/Sniper update. Itemization issues aside, it’s one of those titles that remains constant fun, plain and simple.

Thanks to Xbox Live’s Deal of the Week, I caved and picked up (or should I say downloaded) Bionic Commando: Rearmed for the low price of $5. I never played the original NES title so $10 wasn’t that much of a motivator for me, but the half-price deal certainly was worth it. GRIN — despite their current issues with layoffs and mediocre releases — did a wonderful job making a modern 2D/3D shooter feel fresh and challenging.

I also went achievement-hunting in Gears of War 2 and started Tomb Raider: Underworld, something I look forward to reviewing down the road. Ms. Croft has certainly improved in her digital raiding antics (which might not mean much considering I haven’t played one of these titles since Tomb Raider 2), but I can’t help missing Prince of Persia’s Elika and her guiding hand during the similar acrobatic feats found in Underworld.

Oh, and the Red Faction: Guerrilla multiplayer demo is some of the best online chaos I’ve ever played on a console. Fire a few rockets at the support structure of a three-story building hiding the enemy team and you’ll know what I mean when you watch the entire thing collapse in on itself. Ah, deconstruction. Poetic.

Nick's been burning up that iPhone battery on the go with what was once the pinnacle of PC gaming.

Nick Cummings:

This week has seen quite a few games come and go for me, but there’s one undeniable standout: InFamous. After a half-dozen hours or so, I’m certifiably in love with this game. Of course, when its toughest competition is the heavily flawed Bionic Commando, maybe that doesn’t mean so much.

I sought relaxation in Myst on my iPhone. When it first came out for the Mac, I was too young and impatient to enjoy the slow-paced, rich exploration. Fortunately, the iPhone port allows for a balance between blissful immersion and pick-up-and-play puzzle solving that’s essential for an on-the-go game. And coupled with my new Sennheiser headphones, it’s the same surrealistic adventure I remember from fifteen years ago.

I also tried to play the universally abhorred Rock Revolution. Just…don’t even get me started.

Doug has been getting quite comfortable with VATS in Fallout 3. The Bloody Mess perk is purely optional, however.

Doug Bonham:

I’ve been down with a nasty head cold for most of the week, but I’ve still had some time to game. I’ve finally started digging into Fallout 3 — I’m really getting engrossed into the story, combat, and now not feeling totally overwhelmed by the Wasteland. I’m not all that far in and still a measly level 7, but it’s awesome – I played until 2 a.m. last night and, more importantly, am totally getting ahold of VATS. Nothing like being able to pop ghouls in the dome with my hunting rifle.

It seems like I’ve been (strangely) getting my RPG on this week – the other game I’ve sunk some hours into is my second play-through of Mass Effect. This time, instead of the goody-two-shoes guy I made the first time, I’m not taking any shit – and while it’s not a straight-up fully evil character, I’m not afraid to be an asshole. It’s very fun. Between playing through it some more again and all the new info coming out about Mass Effect 2, I’m getting super stoked to see the second part of this series.

And it also wouldn’t be a week for me without playing a sports game – this time, it’s the Tiger Woods 10 demo that hit Xbox Live and PSN last week. I golf a little bit in real life (not very well, granted) and am a big golf gaming fan. I’ve skipped the last two Tiger Woods games, but heard 09 was good – well, based off the gameplay in the demo, 10 is spectacular. Same great swing physics that the series has had nailed down since the 2005 edition, but with even better putting controls and amazing graphics. I wish I could play it in HD.

Lastly, the one thing I want to get done with soon is finally finishing Braid. Time to redouble my efforts and get past the puzzles that have stumped me for the better part of a year.

But, I’ll be honest here and say I’m completely fine with not playing Fallout 3 in any capacity for a few months.

Please, Vault Boy…no more

Today’s batch of industry news has annoying legal teams crushing fan-made dreams, enough Japanese DS owners for Nintendo to start a conscription-based army, one announced title that no one really is surprised by and a perplexing possible addition to the English language that all gamers love to hate, but also use incessantly.

Unless it's a paid-for DS re-release, Square Enix doesn't approve of this gang having additional adventures

It’s a sad day for Chrono Trigger fans as  Square Enix’s legal team has terminated fan-made ROM project Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes. The collaboration, a five year long effort nearing its release date, was supposed to add to the original Chrono Trigger experience with 35 hours of brand new content written and created by devoted fans.

This is certainly not the first case of “Squeenix” cease-and-desisting fan projects for fear of copyright infringement. Chrono Resurrection is another perfect example of how much passion and effort can go into projects doomed for cancellation by intellectual property holders. These talented people simply have a lot of love for a particular title made by a profit-seeking company, but that doesn’t mean much to the suits. It’s not to say Square Enix is heartless, but the truth is these projects seek no monetary gains–really they’re no more than elaborate love letters from a cadre of fans who worship the original creators’ work.

If I were the company, I’d be enormously flattered. But I’m not, because if I were the human embodiment of an RPG development powerhouse I’d have deported Wakka from Spira and made another Vagrant Story by now.

20% of Japan having DS units pales in comparison to the 50% of college-aged American women wearing Ugg boots

According to internal Nintendo sales numbers posted by Kotaku, one-fifth of the entire population of Japan owns a Nintendo DS. And here we were thinking Nintendo was surely down in the dumps. Comparing the population sizes of Nintendo’s other key markets of the United States and Europe–who each have a much higher number of people living in their respective territories–truly makes the Japanese consumption numbers a staggering statistic.

And while the DS has remained extremely popular to gamers and non-gamers alike since release, the fact that the DS has sold nearly the same number of units in a country almost three times smaller in terms of population than the United States is quite impressive indeed.

So that's who Altaïr gets his fashion sense from

Eidos has finally confirmed the development of Thief 4, something known to–or at least expected by–most of the gaming community for quite awhile now. Although I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never actually played a Thief title, I’ve always heard great things about the series’ stealth-based gameplay. Plus, it’s wonderful to know Eidos is working on projects other than further Tomb Raider sequels.

Let’s see what the company’s new overlords (and fan project deniers) Square Enix can do for a series that hasn’t seen a release since Thief: Deadly Shadows in 2004.

Lastly, multiple websites have reported today that “noob” just might become the unofficial millionth word in our poor, dear English language. Don’t expect to see the online trash talk favorite appear in any notable dictionaries in the near future. Still, an Austin, Texas-based piece of analytics software known as the Global Language Monitor analyzes word trends by tracks the number of usages of a particular term throughout thousands of legitimate online sources like magazines and news feeds. If a linguistic newcomer is used enough, the Global Language Monitor declares it a word.

I don’t intend to sound snobbish about the word, because in truth language changes daily and is meant to change. Without adaptations, we wouldn’t have such wondrous gems as “blog” and “tweet.”

Oh god…what have we done?