Bit-tech’s Top 10 PC Games of 2008

Not to be left out, the editors at Bit-tech.net have cranked out a list of their favorite PC games released during the past twelve months. #3 goes to Mass Effect, while #2 goes to Fallout 3:

Set in the future, Fallout 3 tells the story of a young person who grows up in a Vault a vast underground complex that exists to shield a clutch of people from the nuclear war that has raged above and devastated the world. Safely imprisoned underneath the ruins of Washington DC, all is good for you in your microcosm until your father goes missing and Vault plunges into chaos. You flee to the surface in pursuit of your dad.

As soon as you get outside though, the entire game changes and the training wheels are taken off. You can go anywhere in the Capital Wasteland, revelling in this 50s view of a post apocalyptic future. There are funny-voiced and impossibly technical cyborgs at the corner of every ruined street, looming super mutants and giant scorpions warring against bandits and settlers.

Comparing Fallout 3 to Oblivion is a natural path to take as the two games seem fairly similar at the start. Both are free-roaming FPS/RPG hybrids, both are developed by Bethesda and both put a heavy focus on raiding dungeons and collecting increasingly powerful weapons.

In reality though Fallout 3 far surpasses Oblivion in exploratory depth, easily eclipsing the former king of the FPS/RPG genre and proving that Bethesda has listened to fans well enough and worked hard to improve the faults of Oblivion. Gone are the annoying persuasion mini-games and the bandits who scale in level as you play.