2404's Best PC Games of 2008
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At the tail end of the year, Bethesda unleashed its (sequel) to Fallout, Fallout (3). Way before that, the RPG market received Mass Effect. I loved Mass Effect more than I should have not for its role-playing, which wasn't all that good, but for its combat. I enjoyed shooting it up more than I should have, and BioWare's habit of making everything CRAZY EPIC AND BOMBASTIC did get my spine tingling in the endgame.
Then came another RPG. I loved The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. I'm only on Act III, but it's provided me the most satisfying role-playing experience I've had since Mask of the Betrayer. Someday, we'll get a review in for Obsidian's jewel of a game. We're not a site known for being prompt, anyway.
Okay, well, point is, Bethesda's game didn't really have a quality that truly stuck out to me. Mass Effect had combat, Witcher had a lot of cool things, like sexy sex cards with sex-related images on them, and Mask of the Betrayer had almost everything but Fallout 3 didn't have much of anything. The game's sense of exploration was its best quality, until dungeons became meaningless after hitting the level cap. Combat was fun, until V.A.T.S. got more and more irritating. Dialogue was. never good. Quests varied from awesome to (Hey, go to [insert location] to get [insert object], and I will give you [insert forgettable reward].) Still, Bethesda made huge strides, like skill checks and some branched quests. I didn't know Bethesda was capable of doing that kind of stuff. I didn't even know that they knew that those things existed after all the bags of money they made from Oblivion fell on their heads. The Angelic Peacekeeper/Douchebag of the Wastes morality chart is still very much there, but obvious role-playing improvements gives Elder Scrolls V a lot of promise. I liked Fallout 3 until I hit the level cap, a little more than our Kyle Stegerwald, and I hope it's a pre-cursor for greater things to come from Bethesda.
