French game print magazine PC Jeux (PC Game) has a review of Fallout 3 in this month's issue, which has hit news stands in Europe.

They gave the game a 93% score.

Keep in mind that often, the earliest reviews are most likely to be the most biased. Nonetheless, this 93% is promising, if not that surprising for this highly anticipated game.

" Quests are quite varied and go beyond the mere extermination of everything that shows up on screen. You'll have for instance to go through several tests for someone who is writing a survival guide, which includes getting exposed to considerable amounts of radiation, steal the Constitution of the USA in order to avoid anti-slavers getting their hands on it, or getting involved in huge military operations with dozens of belligerent parties. Everybody will get his share, with different ways to succeed : with brute force or eloquence. Sometimes you'll even be able to complete some quests by lying on the fact that you have indeed done what was expected of you.

[...]

Bethesda does not have the reputation of releasing finely polished games. Fallout 3 is likely to change that. The game, is not bug-free. There are still collision, pathfinding and lighting problems but they are not too numerous.

[...]

Thus, the fear that Fallout 3 could be a post-apocalyptic Oblivion is totally gone. A few hours with the game will be enough for Fallout veterans to get their habits back and be able to walk with confidence through the game. New players will not feel totally lost either because references to the previous games are rather scarce and discrete. If most changes brought to the series are technical, the spirit is still there, sort of. Indeed, it's a shame that this episode is so serious. It has lost, it seems, a good deal of the humour and even irony that was part of the series. Cinematographic references or completely twisted conversations with NPCs are gone. Aside from this, Fallout 3 is an excellent RPG and a good Fallout. The score is rather different but the music stays the same. "

kspiess via nma-fallout.com »