I must say that exploring in this game seems to be far more rewarding than in Oblivion. I still haven't made it into DC yet, so tonight I made a point of trying, even though I'm only level 5. I made quite a bit of progress, tracking around Arlington toward the south end of the map, where I got into an absolutely massive firefight with some Talon Co. Mercenaries! I am utterly astounded I came out alive.

The encounter involved 5 mercs and a robot, called a "Brainiac," I believe. The battle took about 15 minutes, and I was very impressed at the mercs use of cover. A couple chose to charge at me with melee weapons, while others took cover behind pillars or crouched behind low walls while taking pot shots. I went through most of my food and quite a bit of ammo before taking everyone down. I really can't remember an unscripted battle like that in any other game I've ever played, and I am looking forward to more! I still haven't made it quite into the district yet, but I can see the Jefferson Memorial from where I am.

I still have yet to pick up the main quest. I think if I have to fight my way out of a situation like I just had, I may get discouraged and turn back and track around back through Arlington to try to get to my quest objective and try to gain some levels. I have done a couple of side quests, which were surprisingly rewarding. I've even received some stat boosts and perks from them -- much better than a leveled amulet!

Also, exploring the various buildings you can enter tends to yield much more loot than I ever remember getting in Oblivion (sorry about all the Oblivion comparisons -- I can't help but think about Oblivion while playing this, and I've never played the original Fallout games). Ammo is especially valuable, so I'm finding it worthwhile to explore buildings when I can. It gets a little bit stressful after a while, as Raiders can easily overwhelm you. It's very much worth it for the ammo and weapons you find, though.

I have to stop now to go to bed, and I'm a bit worried I'm going to have nightmares of that Centaur bearing down on me before I exploded it's cranium a moment before it got to me.

I love this game!!! My life has been consumed by it ever since launch. I like it so much more than Oblivion just because of the guns. The ability to snipe across great distances and then watch the remaining survivors scramble around in vain trying to figure out who's shooting at them and where the hell are they shooting from is a complete blast. The freedom of exploration. The ability to save anywhere and try different strategies to see how they will play out with different outcomes is favorable. The post-apocalyptic landscape is a sight to behold. I sneak everywhere I go just to gain the edge of sneak attacks. The V.A.T.S. is especially rewarding when you've got some poor slob up close and personal. The Bloody Mess perk was a pure stroke of evil fun genius.

That's exactly the way I'm playing it too, although I did go to Megaton first just to check things out. After that, I've been wandering the game world on foot, going deep into the city and literally just heading in whatever direction I see something interesting. So far without fail even after 8 hours of play there are still new and amazing sights and discoveries. The entire world feels like it's been hand-crafted and organic, it doesn't look generic or artificially generated. The attention to detail is amazing, so many items scattered around the game world in all sorts of places, so many nooks and crannies to explore. It's very hard to determine where an encounter is going to occur, or when you're going to find an inhabited building - a ruined vehicle, house or building may be empty, it may have some great or unique items, it may be something very important; you can't tell until you get right near it and start exploring. I stumbled into a major enemy nest yesterday just by going through a seemingly innocuous door in an otherwise empty-looking building. It was a very tough encounter but I got a lot of very nice items. It all feels seamless and natural in my opinion.

I'm also finding the VATS system very handy as it helps strategy - for example if you're up against a seriously strong enemy or multiple enemies, you can decide to target their legs and cripple them so they can't move around. If they have a strong weapon, you can focus on damaging the weapon itself or crippling their arm(s) so they can't aim as well. In other words VATS lets you go beyond the simple options of either killing the enemy or running away; you can actually systematically take them down by reducing their abilities and weaponry. So far I've been up against some very strong foes in the city and I've been able to win because of a combination of using different weapons, different tactics, stealth and VATS. It feels very satisfying when you beat a group of heavily armed enemies who otherwise have you pinned down.

I find the AI to be very good. It's not amazing, but it's definitely not stupid and the enemy will usually use their weapons appropriately, use the right sort of tactics (not just blindly rush you or sit back and shoot you from a mile off). Challenging but not ridiculously so.

I also think the item repair system, the computer hacking system and the lockpicking system are very well done. For example rather than the reaction-time based hacking system used in Bioshock, Fallout 3's hacking system relies on observation and a bit of thought to get the right password.

The one thing I'd recommend to anyone new to the game is to read the manual. There are a lot of functions and tips which you would otherwise not know or take a while to work out if you don't read the manual, and it can make things a lot easier.

Anyway I really hate the fact that I have to write a guide for this game, I'd much rather be playing it. I haven't felt this way about a game since Oblivion in 2006, in fact I'd say aside from Crysis, this is the first game in two years that has really got me interested in gaming again.