I've been playing Fallout-3 for a couple of months now and I'm still steep on the learning curve. The game is about a kid (you) that is born in a Vault after the Thermal Nuclear War, late in the 21 century. You create your character. Pick a color, a look, height, weight and age. Male or female with skill sets for either. At the age of 19 you venture out into the Wastelands to follow your father. The game is only structured to this point, from here you can do whatever you want. Most games (first person shooters) use the rat in a maze approach. There are certain mile stones you must pass to get to the end and there is no other way out of the maze. This game is unstructured and there is no right or wrong way to play it. You can kill every thing you run into or you can sneak around disguised and blend in with the bad guys, never firing a shot. There is a small town, close to the vault, called Megaton. It is a shanty town of corrugated metal buildings. It is a safe haven for rookies and supports a few businesses.

You venture out into the waste lands scavenging what you can. Then go back to Megaton and barter with it. You can follow your father but that requires arms and supplies or you won't get very far. There is a spectrum of villains just waiting for your ass. It is more a game of economics than anything else. You have to get more out of a fight than you put into it or you will die of attrition.

The graphic are good, the game is a little course (you hit a lot of walls, with bullets, that aren't really in the way), but the freedom is refreshing. The Save is very different than in most games. Usually you save as soon as you get past a big problem to save your forward progress. In this game you save after you find out if the reward justified the means. You can fight all day to get past an enemy just to find out that it wasn't worth it. The next day, you go around. This game is very unforgiving in its saves. Normally you will have several saves you can return to but in this game, once you save, you live with it or back way the hell up.

The introduction said that the game really did have an end, but at this point I have no idea of how or where. The game is pretty much infinite in it's possibilities and could be played forever and not repeat itself. I may revise that statement in the future. I'm desperately seeking a key to this game. The villains seem to be finite. In some games or portions of a game, they are infinite. That's all I've come up with so far.