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Fallout 3 (October 28)

The Scoop: Fallout 3; Genre: role-playing; By: Bethesda; From: Bethesda Softworks; For: PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360; Rating: Mature

Info: One of the most popular role-playing series ever gets a ten-years-overdue sequel from the folks responsible for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Track your missing father through the post-apocalyptic debris of Washington D.C., clashing with tech scavengers and genocidal elitists on the road to some 200 possible endings.

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Matt: This one has been steeped in controversy ever since a wildly vocal minority elected to brand it as "unfaithful" to the originals. Don't buy what they're selling. First, those originals got better press than they deserved because RPGs in the late 1990s were rarer than jackalopes. (Beware crabby fanboys swathed in blinkered nostalgia!) Second, Bethesda has already done a pretty bang-up job capturing the spirit of the originals in promotional clips, so this skeptic's cap is tipped, and his fingers are triple-crossed.

Darren: I've actually had the chance to play through about a half hour of the game, and what a huge mistake that was--I wanted more. Lots more! The thing that's most frightening about Bethesda: Those people make huge, massively single-player offline games that'll chew up well over 100 hours of your life. But you won't miss the lost time as you traipse around a nuke-blasted Washington, D.C. From what I've seen so far, the inky-black humor from the original games remains intact. One thing that the haters jump on is the notion that it isn't a turn-based strategy game. Wrong! Hold down a button in combat, and it stops the clock, allowing you to call your next targeted shot. If you want, you can play the whole game that way.