Geek Nostalgia.

I've actually been planning this for some time, but...things happened. The most major of which is related, I guess.

Sickened of grinding the EXP in Maple Story (believe me, you couldn't possibly come up with a new comment or disdainful look I haven't already experienced for playing the game T_T), sudden nostalgia struck, and I rummaged through the stack of old CDs I had to see if it was still there. Aha!

Fallout 2: A Post-Nuclear Apocalyptic Role-Playing Game.

Yeah, I'm that much of a geek I wax nostalgic over games. It's just one section, bear with it.

Gaming on the PC platform has evolved considerably, and one rather important aspect is multi-player support. Everything goes online these days, for you to "be part of a fun and dynamic community!". A rather interesting illustration of this was the release of Doom 3 not too long ago. Highly anticipated? Yes. As drool-soakingly beautifully rendered as the pre-release screenshots claimed it to be? Yes. Multiplayer? ...No. And so, it was released, snapped up for a bit, and then quietly sank into oblivion.

Peculiar, isn't it? No one cares about a storyline anymore; it's all about how high-levelled you are, in relation to other players. And, really, that's the sickening bit about all the massively multiplayered online games these days: The Assholes. The ones who were there before you were, or play for longer each day than you do. They have more life, take less damage, do more damage, wear better gear than you, and they want to be sure you know it. Depending on the game, this is illustrated in a variety of ways, but make the real-life analogy of the pimply kid with the rich parents who gets chauffered to school in a Mercedes, is full-body designer-decked, and who gives you that pond-scum look...and you get the idea.

This is not to say, of course, that only Assholes play these games. I play them. Hmmm, wait, ok, bad analogy. I've made my fair share of friends from the games I play, and at least one has resulted in a fruitful, semi-homosexual and lasting friendship. But the occasional encounter is enough to put you off, and additionally, there basically isn't much of a storyline for any of them. You get a world-setting, some superficial background, and that's it. Now go level up, earn virtual money and show off. Shoo.

I like stories. Growing up a deprived kid without much company but the books probably has something to do with it. And while the levelling treadmill is engaging on its own, as you watch your character grow, there's only so much appeal in that.

Enter Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Apocalyptic Role-playing Game, with the emphasis on Role-Playing. The world has seen the third world war, and the first two were little boys scuffling at the playground in comparison. The world powers all blew their big ones, and life on the planet was virtually wiped out. As the international tensions mounted, various giant, fuck-off big Vaults with water-recycling and food production facilities were comissioned and built all over the world. Whoever could fit, if it meant shooting that brother you grew up with and hated to reduce family headcount, went into the Vaults. When the A-Bombs and N-Blasts went off, the people in the Vaults were all that were left of Humanity. When radition levels finally fell to safe limits after decades, the people in the Vaults emerged to a desolate nuclear wasteland, and began, like bipedal cockroaches, to infest the Earth once more.

In this sequel to the original, you are the Chosen One of a small tribe living in the desert. Having totally exhausted the land, the village is dying, and you are tasked to go forth into the world and bring back a device called the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, an invention from before the war meant to rejuvenate the land and make it fruitful once more. And so, off you go, into the New Human World, only in its infancy, and already a fuck-off big mess.

I just completed the game, after about three days of straight play. Most of them were wake up in the morning, double click, and Exit when unable to stay awake any longer affairs. Like, 9am to 12am, or something. Along the way, I kept my head low in the beginning, honed my skills, performed rewarding tasks, did drugs, picked up companions, stole from people, screwed the wife and daughter of a prominent Mob boss of whose Family I became a Made Man, and returned to totally fuck up the assholes giving me lip when I was weaker. All in the name of saving the village, of course.

If the above doesn't sound fun to you, wtf, d00d. You should probably stop reading if you even had to patience to get this far and go get another 2% on your l337 h4xx0r level 25276 pwnage character. Or, if it just doesn't sound like your idea of a good time, try here. I was just panting for more to the end, heh.

Fallout 2's graphics, by today's standards, are uh...fine, utterly retarded. It has pathetic resolution, a sore lack of distinctive sprites, and ten thousand fatal bugs that caused me to lose 4 hours or more of straight play each time because I hadn't saved. Not to mention the whole epileptic save/loading during tight combat situations where a single bad shot assigned by the computer rips you a new one. And despite all these, it's maintained a cult following all the way to the present, from when it was released back in 1998 or so. With me a proud, dark-circled, pasty-skinned member, of course.

Don't get me started on Ultima Underworld. It was 1995-ish, I was (seriously this time) a dinky, shaven-headed piece of shit kid, and the computer and I had times too good to speak of in polite company.

If you're a gamer, particularly a role-playing one like myself, do yourself a favour. Play Fallout, and re-discover the joy of a interactive, enthralling story. Or if you seriously enjoy attaining some wonderfully high level in your MMO and love the "OMFG PRO" comments from new players, and that rush of power as you kill-steal hapless lower-levellers, do humanity a favour and get yourself neutered. Or I kill your kids kthxbye gg no re.

Now that Fallout's done with, the other pieces in the dusty stack of CDs call out to me, pulling me with an almost tangible force. Stay tuned, though, for subsequent Get Medieval!s, and more sad failed nerd-geek romances in subsequent About a Girl-s.

...and in the meantime, I -still- need to get a damned job. Sigh.