Fallout 3

Some might find it irritating, initially, that the real-time combat is so fast and loose compared to the average FPS, but then that's the point. It's rarely if ever desirable to fight this way. This bias towards V.A.T.S. also helps Fallout 3 evade comparison with FPS titles it has very little else in common with, and this aligns it more closely with its RPG roots than, say, Mass Effect, which had a comparatively troubled time integrating action into gameplay. That Fallout 3's combat is distinct from everything out there is a massive achievement; that it's enjoyable merely adds to how much credit is due.

With an eye on progression, the chances are that your first port of call will be the ramshackle community of Megaton, home to two bars, a supply store, a grumpy doctor's surgery, a religious cult, and numerous battered homes for the strange and wonderful individuals who found sanctuary there. If you manage to resist the temptation to break into everyone's home and loot their belongings, it's possible to mine the town for leads and side-quests that may or may not prove useful to finding out the whereabouts of your father. Or, you could just work out how to blow the stupid place up. As a graphic illustration of choice, Megaton is an excellent distillation of the freedom afforded to you and the knowledge that nothing is ever that straightforward. What might seem like a good deed ends up screwing someone else, and the path you take ultimately shapes your destiny.

In those first few hours in Vault 101, and Megaton, and the surrounding locations, it's possible to sink hours into doing almost nothing. You might struggle to come to terms with the freedom, and end up, as I did, clinging to Megaton like a life raft. When you finally do start following up leads and exploring, the sheer scope comes as a shock. You'll come across a seemingly abandoned underground station and see what's inside, only to discover that it's part of a coherent network that spans the length and breadth of Wasteland. Far from a pointless dungeon, this subterranean world has a purpose, connecting discrete areas and providing access to quests you'd otherwise never encounter.

You can also scavenge for loot in these areas, which facilitates levelling. And unlike Oblivion's derided system, which saw enemies level up with you, Bethesda has returned to the more familiar progression of awarding players XP for every kill and successful mission, allowing you to level up as you go. Gone is the ridiculous convention of having to sleep to level, replaced by a straightforward, transparent process that allows players to designate skill points where they see fit, along with a single 'Perk', which grants an extra layer of precise customisation. Do you want to be a smoothie who can talk your way out of things, or a master thief, or throw everything towards brute force?

Whatever your decision, the game's ability to reward you is one of its greatest feats. Far from making you feel you've missed out, the dazzling array of choices heightens the incentive to go back and play again. You'll come across missions with four or more ways of succeeding. Sometimes you'll want to go for the least risky option, especially if you're keen to maintain good karma, so bribery might work best. At other times, you might decide to hack computers, or repair a specific item. Or, of course, just kill everyone. Whatever you choose, it's generally always entertaining. It's a no-lose kind of decision.

It isn't, however, all that difficult, and there's no option to crank up the challenge, other than making things difficult by heading off to areas that are too dangerous. If you even vaguely follow the main storyline, there's rarely anything that feels beyond you. This worked for me - it's more than big enough without the game bashing me over the head every five minutes - but it'll be understandable if others hanker for more brutality.

And when you get all the way up to level 20, you simply become a bit too good for the game. With your abilities capped, you're generally such a badass that the tension is reduced as you explode every head you aim for. With no more levelling possible (at least until the DLC, perhaps), there's no longer the same sense of reward, and it turns into a bit of a victory march. This is a problem specific only to truly committed players, but in a series that attracts an unusually large proportion of hardcore gamers, the endgame is relevant.

Another thing that threatens to undermine Fallout 3 is the massive amount of repetition while scavenging and exploring. As entertaining as it undoubtedly is to check out every last empty office, factory or subway station, you do get into a cycle of checking every locker and desk, entwined with a succession of OCD battles against Super Mutants and Ghouls.

Then again, one of Fallout 3's strengths is that it doesn't seem to matter how long you trawl the Wasteland, or how many times you snap into V.A.T.S. It's always entertaining to duke it out, seeing how many different stylish ways it can cut together the uber-violence as entrails flap around. And even when you feel like you've seen everything the game has to offer, you find yourself greeted by entirely new creatures, characters and architecturally unique areas more than 60 hours into the game. The sheer scope and ambition shames most other blockbuster games.