Fallout 3: Point Lookout

Elsewhere, the usual assortment of eclectic residents go about their lives, and you can go and pay them a visit if you're feeling nosy - which of course you have to be in this game. Some offer inconsequential fetch quests, with the usual rewards for carrying them out; others just look like escapees from The Hills Have Eyes, and waste no time trying to kill you in the face.

Going by such names as Bruiser, Brawler, Scrapper and Creeper, these deceptively challenging human foes hunt in packs. First you might catch sight of a scrawny shotgun-wielding short guy screaming redneck cusses in your general direction, but wherever the Creeper goes, a towering Bruiser with crazily bulging biceps goes too. These lumbering, mutated simpletons with faces that even a mother couldn't love can really take some punishment, so it's useful to reach Point Lookout absolutely armed to the teeth.

Once you start following the main story arc, Point Lookout reveals itself to be a strong contender for the best portion of DLC in the series to date. Dancing between the typically contrasting demands of two sets of squabbling factions, your first task is to visit a potty-mouthed ghoul called Desmond, a former secret agent who finds himself going to slightly absurd lengths to defend his mansion from a tribal cult. Under attack by mercs, you go in, kick some butt and pick up the trail.

Without giving anything away, the episode does the usual Bethesda trick of eventually giving you the chance to choose contrasting outcomes. Do you protect the "victim" of an attack, or do you take a contrary view and dig into their past and find out that, in fact, they are the bad guys? Or do you just figure out what the biggest reward is and base your decisions around that? As predictable and transparent as the formula is by now, it's still an irresistible one, and one where you're never quite certain who's the least detestable. As ever, this gives some of the missions a pleasing degree of replayability as you figure out the best outcome for your karma alignment, or simply which of the new perks are most useful to you.

In terms of New Stuff, Point Lookout is a little lightweight, but is certainly no worse an offender than all three previous DLC packs to date. Many of the "new" enemies are simply reskinned versions of familiar foes, albeit tougher to kill, while the majority of new loot and weapons will be all but useless to those wandering around with energy weapons and armour.

Fortunately, the highly entertaining quests and acres of exploration available to you more than make up for any shortcomings in Point Lookout. Also heartening is the amount of non-essential quests dotted around for you to get around to when you feel like it. Like a compacted version of its parent game, this is the first DLC that has felt like a genuine expansion, as opposed to a just a few inconsequential missions thrown together.