IO RELAY STATION

Last night I finally ordered something I have been pining over for about 2 years, a Microsoft Zune.  I have tried I Pods, Mp3 and 4 players of various prices and qualities but none of them have seemed right for me, and now my dream of a 120 gig Zune is nearly here.  I managed to find someone on EBay selling them for £170, with free postage which I thought was particularly good.  Now I know the Zune doesn’t have much support in the UK and technically I cant use the Zune store because it is not supported in this country, all the same I just want one of these great bits of kit.  In order to try and use Zune Social I set up a new email a couple of days ago which means I now apparently live somewhere in Adak Alaska, which is apparently Alaska’s southern most point for those who care, all that matters now is that Zune social thinks I am American so I can use it.  My Zune ID is The Phantom2040 and the email is zuneaccount1980@live.co.uk if anyone wants to contact me there.

Also I tried disc 4 of Lost Odyssey last night and I was able to install it onto the hard drive so I will be able to finally finish the dam thing.

In an interview speaking to Joystiq  Christina DeRosa a general manager for Xbox Live gave details on how Last.fm will be implemented to Live and what services will be available based on your subscription, for example gold silver or an extra premium.

"Silver users will be able access what we're considering a trial period of three hours a month, which comes with video advertising. Gold users will have unlimited ad-supported access, so they can use it 24 hours a day. There will also be a premium offering on a subscription basis from Last.fm, that will be commercial free and will also have more sophisticated personalization features, like Loved Tracks."

I have to say I am particularly excited about Last.fm coming to Xbox Live, as after its announcement at E3 I immediately took advantage of the service and fell in love with it straight away.  Its a great service and would recommend it to all, if you do already use it give me a shout, my tag is The_Dark_Fenix.

Hope everyone is ok, I have been a little quiet for a week now, just not had a lot to say for myself to be honest, but I thought a little catch up might be good.  This week so far I have really enjoyed the Murray match at Wimbledon, didn’t expect it to on for so long, and also I was a little disheartened at times.  As well as watching the tennis I have started playing Far Cry 2 again, Laura bought me this for Christmas and due to Fallout 3 consuming my entire life I only gave it a tiny look in.  So after about an hour of playing last night I realised this is going to be a quality game.  As well as getting in plenty of gaming this week I have been planning my Wednesday ride, so far I reckon it should reach about 30 miles of off road and I can’t wait, got to remember to take lots of fluids though because damn its going to be hot!. 

On top of the usual I have been using Last.fm loads.  After it was announced the at E3 that it was going to be connected to Live I had to take a look, and its awesome.  The website works brilliantly and with the ability to listen to so much great music I haven’t put a CD on all week.  If any of you guys happen to use it add me my tag is The_Dark_Fenix.  If you haven’t tried it go to www.last.fm , its a great site and since using it I have been introduced to genres and bands I have never heard of its great.  Anyway hope everyone has a great week, I off now to get some work done, although its already ridiculously warm in the shop and the heat is a little draining to say the least.

Ok so before I explain why I couldn’t play on the Xbox last night I have to tell you that I have a brand new Xbox 360 Elite which my wife has bought me for my birthday.  Now granted my birthday is not for another couple of weeks but I wanted to get the data transfer done as soon as I could so I could see the old Xbox so I could start saving for a Zune.

So Wednesday night I didn’t get any gaming in at all and I was gutted.  The reason was due to a long bike ride that turned out to be more like a test of my endurance, physically and mentally.  Don’t misunderstand me I am physically a really fit guy these days and can go for pretty much any distance and not bat an eye but Wednesday was a little evil to put it mildly.  The distance would work out to only 25 miles but what I really didn’t take into account was just how hot it would be, how many stupid styles there would be and not to mention some tracks I have never taken, which on a few occasions because they were so overgrown I had to result to carrying my bike over my head just to get through, honestly next time I am taking a machete.   On top of this my slightly overweight friend came and he really struggled with the ride, in many ways I wish we had told him to turn back because it really wasn’t fair on him, but although I did leave him in the middle of no where he did manage to get home. 

By the time I got home I was far too tired to play games, and the only thing I could do was have a tea a bath and then fall to sleep in front of the TV with a can of Magners cider LOL.

In my opinion Shia LaBeouf is one of the best actors currently in Hollywood, and recently in a interview with The Big Download he explained how to spot a real gamer:

“This is how in a simple way you can find out if it's a gamer you want to play with. Ask them if they have a Wii. If they say yes, get the f*** out of there.”

First of all what he says is true, many moons ago the Nintendo consoles were the home of the hardcore gamer but that is no longer the case in mine and apparently Shia’s opinion.  But although they no longer hold that title what you cannot dispute is Nintendo’s resolve.  What they have done is incredible.  If you had spoken to most people 5 years ago and said which platform do you game on, they would have no doubt said PlayStation, Xbox or PC.  The only Nintendo product most people owned in the western world was a Game Boy.   But now you ask a young boy what console does he own, he says “a Wii”, you ask a man in his forties what does he own he replies “a Wii”, you can even ask a seventy year old couple and they would probably say the same.  Nintendo has broken the market wide open and introduced people would have criticised our hobby only a couple of years ago.

In conclusion I take my hat off to you Nintendo, for creating acceptance for gamers in this world, for pacifying the critics and making it safe for gamers to walk the streets again (ok so that might be a stretch). 

Sorry one last thing, I may have spouted off all that up there but I  will stick to my Xbox 360, that’s for proper gamers LOL.

Last night I got about an hour in on BIA HH, and picked up a couple of achievements, and at that point I realised I am not far off 20,000 points.  I know this isn’t a lot when you consider I have owned my Xbox 360 since day 1, but I blame Oblivion for that, that bloody game consumed my life for so long I couldn’t go achievement hunting.  Anyway I am really chuffed that I am nearly at the big 20 and hope to get a few achievements tonight to get me there.

Other than that just need to say I have definitely bought my last game for the month, Civilization Revolution turned up 2 days ago in the post, and to be honest I really really like it.  Although I think for now its going to be played in the kitchen as that’s where Laura’s Xbox is and she’s hogging Civ at the moment. 

Going to back to listening to some awesome tracks on Last.fm now (and working in case anyone from work thinks I do nothing all day), see you guys and gals later.

Just wondering, that’s all.  Me and my wife recently completed Eternal Sonata and we both loved playing through it, but we got all the way to the end of the credits and we only received about 150 achievement points for one play through, I mean come on!.  I am not saying I want achievement points to come too easy because when they do you don’t actually feel like you have achieved anything (I’m looking at you King Kong) but at the same time it would be nice to actually get something for 25 hours of your time.  Same goes for Blue Dragon, I absolutely love the game, its child like look with an amazing complexity is a great combination but I have been playing for 6 hours and so far only 10 achievement points, are you taking the piss.

That my moan done, thank you and good night. (I know its the morning just to clear that up).

I think that maybe the message Microsoft maybe trying to put across in the most recent advertising campaign on Xbox.com, this video is an example to all avatars to take care of there real, take a look it made me laugh.

For the month I have to add.  Probably the only use I can find for EBay at the moment is buying 360 games really cheap and yesterday another one of my buys turned up, Brothers In Arms Hells Highway.  I managed to get in about an hour last night and really enjoyed it, its a world apart from any WWII game I have played in the last 10 years, in fact it brings back a few memories of Hidden and Dangerous back on the pc.  Just from my initial play one of the strangest elements is the graphics, there not quite the GOW or COD games, but at the same time they have a real charm. Great game, cant wait to get home and carry on playing.  Sure I will share my opinion of the game with everyone soon.

I have been a huge Star Wars fan since I was a small boy, I would spend every Tuesday on the local flea market trying to pick up action figures and vehicles (if I was lucky) from the film.  As I grew older my love for this amazing universe never dwindled, instead it seemed to just grow stronger, I started reading the novels, the comics, I bought schematics, source books, in fact I would buy everything I could lay my hands on.  And of course as well as all that I was playing every Star Wars game I could, I have fond memories of Shadows of the Empire, in fact that game made me buy the N64.  With all of this I knew I would always love anything they made, until I got around to playing the demo for Force Unleashed last year on Live.  To say I was disappointed, would be an understatement, I was horrified, and swore this would abomination would never enter my collection.  But last week it came up on EBay for less than 10 quid and I thought well it might be worth trying again, and yes it certainly was, and I will tell you why.

As any Star Wars game really should be this is based around a fresh new character, a young boy who’s farther was slain by Darth Vader to only be then raised by Vader as his apprentice.  The first level of the game shows you this part of the story as you play as Lord Vader, its a bit like a taster of things to come, showing you the possibility of where your characters powers could go, from force lightening to light sabre throws, to crushing an enemies throat.  I am sure many Star Wars fans and gamers alike loved this level but for me its been disappointing in comparison to the rest of the game.  I just feel its an unwritten rule, you shouldn’t control a character like Vader, fair enough have a character as powerful, just not him.  Ok that's my little whine and am sure I probably on my own in that little opinion.   As always I wont spoil the plot for anyone who hasn’t played this game yet. 

One of the first things that will strike you about this game is the visuals,  they are awesome for the most part and they recreate the Star Wars universe beautifully, from worlds you have seen before such as Bespin and Cloud City, to the inside of Imperial facilities, and others you have only seen small snippets of such as Felucia.   Now I did say for the most part, the reason being at times they can be a little hit and miss, some of the enemies feel a bit weak visually and some of the locations go from outstanding to  quite disappointing in a blink of an eye.  The cut scenes are simply brilliant and are a joy to watch though, the characters are full of emotion and I have enjoyed all the cut scenes immensely.

Audio as always is incredibly strong, and to be honest I would expect no less from a Star Wars game as they have access to some of the best sound effects in movie history, not to mention a phenomenal score.  Also it has to be said the voice acting is excellent throughout.  Sam Witner from Smallville plays our hero and the likeness visually is stunning, brilliant and sometimes a little bit scary at times, the resemblance is that good.

Game play is a simple affair, I would liken it to Too Human, as it is in essence a hack and slash game.  But the addition of the force powers make for an exciting addition and the ability to pick up very large rocks and drop them onto your enemies works a treat.   As with Too Human you also receive experience points from your kills, varying your methods of killing will give you more experience points and then these can be used in exchange for a larger variety of force powers or just increasing the power of existing skills.  The levels for the most part are very linear, but you will be required to keep your eyes out for hidden Jedi Holocrons.  These reward you in a number of different ways, easier Holocrons may just give you experience points, other may provide you with new costumes or light sabre crystals.  Other than that the levels have standard enemies, sub bosses and bosses.  The boss fights are ok although I don't enjoy being prompted to press buttons in order to finish the battles, I would have preferred it to have allowed you to beat the boss and then be rewarded with a little cut scene showing you winning the fight, I was never a big fan of button bashing.

Longevity of this game will depend on just how dedicated you are to find all the Jedi Holocrons and I think the main people who will go looking will be gamerscore whores and Star Wars mad fans, I know I am at least one of those.  Other than that this game was most definitely worth buying at the price I picked it up for, I think I may have been a little disappointed for paying £40, other than that don’t bother with demo’s sometimes they damage the chance of you buying a game.

I remember about a year ago watching the trailer for Mirrors edge and feeling exhilarated, nearly 8 months after its release I have finally purchased this amazing game.  I managed to pick it up for a bargain price of less than a tenner off EBay last week.  My policy is to try and wait a while after a games been released and buy it for a reduced price where I can, mainly because I am frugal but also I have learnt my lesson and I am in an IVA to prove it.  

So where to begin, what’s Mirrors Edge all about, well in a nutshell you are a delivery person in a unnamed city run by a totalitarian regime.  This means lots of security cameras and guards, so how does a delivery person get past all of these problems, well the answer is you become a professional free runner.  Yes that sport that keeps popping up on YouTube and various out of the way TV channels.   Free running in the words of Wikipedia “is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as smoothly, efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body”. 

So you now know what free running/Parkour is, so how would most developers implement this into a game.  From my experience when a game has this much in the way of athletics and agility a 3rd person perspective is always going to be the first choice, you only have to look at Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed and Prince of Persia to see what I mean.  This view suits this game type down to a tee, but the free running element requires you to in the centre of the action and not 10ft behind, it requires passion and heart, and this is what Dice have done with ME.  The whole game is played through the eyes of the young heroine, and this makes for a much more intense and heart pounding game, and unlike many 1st person games, you can see your characters body, look down and you will see her legs and arms just as we can in real life, instead of floating in the air.  As well and intense this view at times can be very disorientating, for example rolling on impact of a long jump or bashing through a door, sometimes a takes a second to realise what’s going off.

Presentation wise this game is beautiful, gone is the dreary wet and dark future of past games and instead a vibrant rich city of beautiful sky scrapers, amazing interiors and shocking colours.  On many occasions I have just stood still looking at this beautifully created city, and non of the view is obstructed by on screen displays.  There is no health bar, no stamina, no ammo just clean lines of the surrounding playground waiting for you to explore.  As well as the world being stunning the NPC’s are also wonderfully crafted, nice trendy style running clothes and modern futuristic look is the order of the day for your team.  Also although this game doesn’t centre around lots of enemies the ones you do encounter look great, totally in tune with the rest of the game.  Some people may complain and say there not enough detail but its breath of fresh air from the Gears of War and Condemned.   The cut scenes for the game are not in game engine, these take the form of a cell shaded cartoon, and again just fit right in.

As well as getting the visuals spot on and fresh the soundtrack is also absolutely brilliant.  The game features a number of remix’s of the same track originally performed by Lisa Miskovsky, now you may be thinking well there not a lot of variety there, but this sound suits free running down brilliantly, it goes from calm and gentle to up beat and fast, perfectly suited.  As well as a great soundtrack the voice acting is excellent through out.  Check the sound track out here.

So we know the game looks great and sound great but how does it play.  Well actually its inspired, the controls took me a few minutes to get used to, but once your running its a joy to explore, you can use pretty much anything from ladders and gutters to climb up to ducts to slide under, its a joy to play.  All the movements are done by just single button press’s although you may require a combination of buttons to get up onto some objects and the wall running is awesome.

My overall impression is this game is awesome and inspired, if you have yet to play it try the demo off live, you wont regret it.

The gauntlet has been thrown. Following Microsoft's announcement of Project Natal, the technology that lets players control and interact with the Xbox 360 through gestures, facial recognition, spoken commands, and without the need to touch any controller, Nintendo has revealed it also tried video-based motion sensing.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told the Financial Times that his company made experimental games controlled by camera-based sensors, but supposedly got better results with the accelerometers it eventually chose to use for the Wii.

Of course Nintendo would say this, how jealous are they!

So as pay day has just past once more me and my wife Laura decided to see if we could pick up a few bargains off EBay, and yes we did.  First game we got for the great price of six pounds was Mirrors Edge.  This is one I have fancied for a while, ever since that first video EA released I was sold on the game, but I couldn’t justify £40 on it.  The next title we picked up was Star Wars The Force Unleashed.  Now all my life I have been a huge Star Wars fan, I loved the movies, the comics, the novels and all the games (and the toys, which I still play with from time to time).  And in all fairness I think I have owned pretty much every Star Wars game there has been to be had, except this one.  When I played the demo I wasn’t all that impressed, but my experience has made me realise not to be put off by a demo, I mean when the game only costs you a tenner you can hardly complain.  In conclusion even if the game is bad its still worth for the achievement points, unless the game is called Two Worlds and then it should be destroyed immediately.

As well as these two great buys Laura also bought me Terminator Salvation, now this would not normally be on my wish list but the Terminator universe has always been my second love.  I remember watching Terminator at at very very young age and loving it so I am looking forward to playing it, plus I can get nearly 800 points for one play through and the other 200 for a second play LOL.

I am sure in the next coming months I will voice my opinion on these three games, good or bad I will have something to say, even if no one reads it LOL.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Steven Spielberg has confirmed he will be making games for the newly announced Natal hardware, have a read here.

Since I saw Microsoft’s presentation for Natal it brought back memories of the technology used in Spielberg’s Minority Report so I can very much understand his excitement in this project.  I just hope he doesn’t cock this up, don’t get me wrong Spielberg is a very creative man, but does he understand games, well we will find out soon enough.

The first proper trailer for the up coming AvP game for Rebellion has been released and it looks stunning, a well put together trailer, felt more like a film than a game, beautiful and I cant wait.  Take a look and tell me what you reckon.

Ok for anyone living in a box on the edge of the world for the past 30 years Alien Vs Predator is the ultimate battle between two immense alien species.  The alien (or Xenomorph) is a natural born killer, no weapons required, as they are the weapon, with an incredible reproductive system which requires a host for the alien young to grow in and then violently explode out of the chest of the victim.  As well as being fast and agile they have acid for blood, so if you are lucky enough to take one down you still run the risk of injury of acid flying everywhere. 

The predator or Yautja which it is called out side of the movies is a hunter.  Their whole civilisation is built on being warriors.  They see other species as their prey but they are not without rules, for example if you don’t use a weapon, they wont, they want a fair fight, not only that they wont fight people who are pregnant or ill.  As well as being amazingly strong they have an amazing arsenal, with offensive tools such as laser cannons with automatic tracking, wrist blades, combi staffs and of course there amazing frisbee like discs that can cut a man clean in half.  As well as weapons they have adjustable vision to detect heat and other properties such as radiation.  And if that isn’t enough they have a camouflage that bends light around them to hide in plain site.

As well as these to species there is one more stuck in the middle, us the helpless humans.  In comparison to the Yautja and the Xenomorph we look helpless, but where we lack in strength and speed we make up in numbers and need to survive.

Aliens and Predator come together seamlessly, in the comics published in the 90s you got to see the war between the species raging on and it was a joy to read.  In 1999 a developer called Rebellion brought out an amazing game based on this universe and in fact was the game that inspired me to buy a PC.  Now Rebellion are about to bring this franchise to this amazing generation of hardware, and it finally feels like they have the platform to create the game they always wanted too.  Take a look at the first screen shots to come from E3.

With all the fond memories of the original pc release I am very excited to see this game running how it was all meant to.  Its a shame that the AvP movies didn’t have as much time and effort put into them as Rebellion put into their AvP games. 

I think I will start this blog by saying “WHAT THE HELL!”, that makes me feel a little better.  Last night I was sat at home on my Xbox looking at the latest from E3 and I came across a video about a little project called Natal.  Up until last night I had never even heard of this but after watching the video its fair to say I will never forget it again, if you haven’t looked at this yet take a look here. 

In many ways there has been a shift with 2 of the big 3 console manufactures.  At one time Nintendo were the at the forefront of pioneering new ideas, when you look back and remember what they tried with the N64 (I am talking about all the things they teased us with but never released in the western world) and the Gamecube and of course the Wii.  I now feel Microsoft are doing what Nintendo once did, you only have to look at how far Microsoft have come with the online service the platform they have given to developers to work from.  And now with this amazing device that picks up your whole movement this is what the Wii wanted and needed, all they have a motion sensitive controllers, where the Natal reads your whole body.  This is the console to get you fit in the home.

I am incredibly excited about this device, the fact it has voice recognition, facial recognition, ability to scan your own objects, you can control menu’s with a flick of the hand, and of course where game developers could use this will be amazing.  I know I haven’t done this item justice with this blog but I just had to scream about how excited I am.

Just got these new screens and trailer from off the internet for the new Fallout DLC.  Point Lookout takes you to a swampland area, and by the looks of things a fair way from the normal super mutant infested DC.  After watching the trailer it feels more like a Hills Have Eyes movie or Wrong turn than Fallout, with psycho hill billies replacing ghouls and Mirelurks it has a real dark and eerie feel.

My excitement of course is more about what new weapons and clothing we get our hands on, I have a funny feeling we will be able to steel the hill billies dungarees LOL.  Take a look at the trailer and make up your own mind.

Publisher:       Microsoft
Developer:     Chair Entertainment

As E3 2009 kicks off, all the games you have been excited about since they where last shown at E3 2008 have either been released and are sat in your collection or on the verge of exploding into the stores.  So its now that time to get excited about the expected Halo titles, Mass Effect 2 and other big name titles, but also to find those little gems you might never have heard of if it wasn’t for E3.  Shadow complex is one the latter that I had not heard of until about 30 minutes ago.  Its going to be released onto Xbox Live Arcade and will be released with periodic episodes.  It use’s the unreal engine and looks magnificent, especially those stunning backgrounds.  Interestingly it is not another 1st person unreal shooter, instead it is a side scrolling game with stats to build up progressively as you pass through the game.  Take a look below at some great shots:

Check out those back drops! 

That is one big ass mech!

When I look at these images it makes me very nostalgic and makes me think of an up to date Another World or Flashback, I really hope it offers that level of story and imagination, but after looking at these shots and this video I don’t think I have a lot to fear.

I love my riding, I love to go out everyday, even yesterday when I had the worst stomach bug I still road to and from work (with a toilet roll in my bag I must add), but even I wouldn’t try anything from this video.  Take a look I found this about 2 months ago and its a video of Danny MacAskill this is one skilful guy.  Even if you don’t ride a bike you will respect this guy, you cant help but do anything else.

Think I will stick to my trails and stupid speeds as aposed to hitting trees and doing backflips LOL.

Yes Sunday night saw the finale to one of the best shows to ever grace the screens of our televisions and what a finale it was.  Although this show is by the same creator of Lost, JJ Abrahms, he has not followed the same formula by asking lots of questions with no answers.  Instead every episode offers puzzles, action and small plots with a large under swelling plot waiting to explode.  We have seen everything from terrorists releasing gas on a bus for it only to turn into a jelly that suffocates everyone, we have seen worms wrapping around hearts and a chemical that seals up every orifice.  And every show was done with flair and was not afraid of showing gore and violence.  I don't want to say to much about the final show just in case you haven’t watched it yet because that wouldn’t be fair, but what I can say is you wont be disappointed and you haven’t seen anything yet.

Yep we are finishing off the house move this weekend, and hopefully I will actually get to relax at
some point.  The largest part of the move is done, all we have left are some bits out the kitchen,
the electrical appliances, beds and other bulky furniture.  I think the reason it takes quite as long
as it does is that as we empty cupboards we clean them, take the items to new property,
clean those cupboards and then fill them.  The last thing we want is to be living with endless amounts
of box’s in the house over a number of months. 

Last night me and Laura spent the evening sorting out the kitchen, I promised Laura this time I would
not prioritise setting up the TV, I lied LOL, I must have spent 45 minutes drilling through work tops
in the kitchen trying to make room for power cables, power extensions and so on.  As you can
imagine she wasn’t all that impressed, but it looks awesome now.  Tonight I just need to set up all
the media in the corner cupboard, and defiantly get Laura’s 360 set back up.

As soon as we are all done I will make sure I take some photos and get the loaded up for you all
to have a nose at.

We are pleased to announce that Fallout® 3 downloadable content (DLC) is coming to PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. We have been working on implementing it for a while and look forward to bringing it to PS3 gamers via the PlayStation Network. Operation: Anchorage will be released for PS3 in late June, followed by the release of The Pitt and Broken Steel 4-6 weeks apart. Release dates will be forthcoming.

In addition, a new update will be released for PS3 that will allow users to download and play the new DLC. The release date for that update will be announced at a later date.

There are also two new DLCs planned for all three platforms:

• Point Lookout – Explore a massive new swampland area filled with new quests and content.
• Mothership Zeta – The aliens have returned, and they're pissed. Experience an alien abduction first hand and find out if you're tough enough to survive.

Point Lookout will be available in late June for Xbox 360 and PC. Cost will be 800 points or $9.99. It will be available through Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live and through token cards available at retail. Point Lookout will be available on PS3 after the first three DLCs have been released.

Mothership Zeta is scheduled for release in late July for Xbox 360 and PC. Cost will be 800 points or $9.99. It will be available through Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live and through token cards available at retail. Mothership Zeta will be available on PS3 after Point Lookout.

Finally, new Fallout 3 products will be available at retail this year.

Fallout 3 Game Add-on Pack #1 includes The Pitt and Operation: Anchorage on a disc and will be available for Xbox 360 and PC on May 26.

The Fallout 3 Game Add-on Pack #2 includes Broken Steel and Point Lookout on a disc and will be available for Xbox 360 and PC in August.

Retail versions of the game add-on packs for PS3 are not possible and the DLC will only be available for download online via PlayStation Network.

A Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition will be available in October. It will include the original game plus all five add-ons for $59.99 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and $49.99 for PC.

So yes finally the PS3 are DLC we 360 gamers have already enjoyed which will be nice for them, but the more important part of the press release in my mind was the news of 2 more DLC to arrive in June and July, cant wait.

I have finally spent 100 hours exploring the wasteland since I got Fallout 3 for Christmas and I am still exploring and finding sections I have never seen before.  The beauty of this game is the unexpected things that happen for example: for a while now I have had a good deal going with the Brotherhood Outcasts down at Fort Independence, when I arrived there the other day I found the fort under a large sustained raider attack, in fact the largest I have seen happen.  Rather than getting involved I decided to sit back and let it play out, even at the risk of loosing a great source of stimpaks.  After about 5 minutes the battle was over and to my amazement the raiders had won.  Now I could have reloaded and helped out but I choose not to as you would not have that chance in real life and I do prefer to role play wherever possible.  I decided to search the bodies laying around and found a key card to Fort Independence, this made me very happy as I have always wanted to explore there facility, and I was not disapointed.  Lots of computers with logs to read and plenty of weapons to salvage, unfortunately I let my guard down and broke cover to move faster (I was wearing the stealth suit) and was detected by a member of the Outcast, this resulted in a small fire fight and me winning.  Since this unfortunate discovery I am now attacked by all Outcast patrols.  

I have to be honest I have my fingers crossed for more DLC from Bethesda, I know I probably sound greedy especially when I am sure I haven’t seen everything in the main game itself but I just know there is so much they could do with this Universe and Bethesda are the masters after all (just a little creeping in case there reading, doubt it!).

Awesome Fallout 3 video all Fallout fans should watch, amazing video take a look, I thought it was hilarious.