We almost didn't see the game here in Australia, but Fallout 3 has finally emerged from Vault 101, and is ready for gamers everywhere. Sure, you can't use drugs with real-world names, but that doesn't detract from the fact we've been waiting for this for a long time.

Matt Keller was patiently standing in line on launch day, got his grubby mitts on a copy for Xbox 360 and raced back home to review it for us. If you're one of the few who haven't decided that you need this game and you need it now, perhaps this review will change your mind - one way or the other.

Read full article by Jessica Citizen

just to clarify the article, VATS does not put you in an invulnerable state during the play sequence, you can and WILL be hit in VATS mode without any means of dodging or responding if someone open fire on you while in VATS sequence so bloody damn well make sure that whatever are in the vicinity are not pointing their guns at you or at least make sure your shot terminate them in the VATS mode.

otherwise you'll experience the joy of watching THEM unloading their entire magazine worth of bullets into your body in VATS mode, not pleasant to say the least.

PS: almost forgot, real time combat is actually viable once you have decent weapon and perks.

in fact long range combat is more viable in real time than it is in VATS because with weapons like hunting rifle you CAN in fact hit things from extreme range, which is impossible to hit in VATS because the range penalty means your chance of hitting in VATS would be next to none, and let's not even go to laser weapons which probably makes the best long range real time weapon because they are practically hit scan weapon.

Are you sure? I've never died in VATS, infact sometimes when I have almost 0 health I purposely use vats because I never seem to die.

Edit
Acutally you must be wrong because there is a mod to turn off god mode in vats
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=68

For those of you lucky enough to own the pc version, There are a ton of great mods out already, Tons of fixes (craptasic UI) and tweaks.
I cant wait until the tools are offically realeased.
Looking forward to more of the original fallout weapons
I want my fallout 2 Enclave power armour! (not the fallout tactics power armour the enclave are wearing in fallout 3)

Not wrong. I hate it when you get a few enemies on you and you happen to kill one of them in VATS. You get a nice, long, gory, slow-motion clip of them dying. Unfortunately the other 3 guys around them don't find the flying eyeballs as amusing as I do.

dying might not be possible, but you will lose health that's for sure...

i've witnessed one too many times cases where i go to VATS mode, shot the head of one super mutant, and the super mutant next to him unloaded his minigun at me... and while the VATS go in slow motion showing the death of the first mutant the second one in the background is firing his gun with no abandon.

when i go back in control of my character i've lost 25% of my HP compared to just before i activated VATS.

pc version you can die in the VATS mode.
i love the game.

You probably need to be playing the game on the PC, real time combat is far easier with a mouse and keyboard than with a retarded controller. At the moment I am up to 55 hours... but I have been exploring everything I can.

The humour is there, but it is more in line with the humour found in Fallout rather than the over the top humour found in Fallout 2. As a massive fan of the original, I find Fallout 3 is a fantastic evolution of the franchise, and I would rate it up there with the first game (i.e. superior to the 2nd game).

they did reduce the damage that a PC will take during VATS compared to what it was initially, however. you have to be pretty terrible to die in VATS as it is.

I particularly liked the questions at the beginning of the game. Such as the the one about your granny giving you a pistol and the best sexual innuendo ever.

The thing that has had my actually laughing my arse off was an email saying that due to complaints of people not flushing the toilet they were instituting swipe card access and logging name, time taken and the contents of the bowl until such time as the deem it no longer necessary.

So funny, but possibly only because I had previously discussed with friends a similar system to institute at work...

I LOVE this game. I'm going to be spending a long time playing it through. I love talking to my friends and finding that they have completely different experiences of the game. There is so much detail and love in there.

console noobs strike again.. and i Loathe to think what its like lootting all the items and accidently opening up all the empty containers and picking up all the trash items using a controller instead of the trusty mouse

Suprisingly easy, really. Square to take all, or up/down and X on the items you want. I'd actually go out on a limb and say that it's faster with the controller than with a mouse.