<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Grinding Down]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://grindingdown.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Paul]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://grindingdown.wordpress.com/author/mylifecomics/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Fallout 3: Status Report (Level&nbsp;30)]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="327" data-permalink="https://grindingdown.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/fallout-3-status-report-level-30/fallout3lv30/" data-orig-file="https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg" data-orig-size="640,346" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}" data-image-title="fallout3lv30" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg?w=640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-327" title="fallout3lv30" src="https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg?w=500&#038;h=270" alt="" width="500" height="270" srcset="https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg?w=500&amp;h=270 500w, https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg?w=150&amp;h=81 150w, https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg?w=300&amp;h=162 300w, https://grindingdown.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fallout3lv30.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p>Previous status updates include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://grindingdown.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/fallout-3-status-report-level-10/">Level 10:</a> Where I grew up in a vault, chased after my dad, and hightailed it to faux-Alaska for a bit</li>
<li><a href="https://grindingdown.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/fallout-3-status-report-level-20/">Level 20:</a> Where I found my dad, learned of his plan to purify the Capital Wasteland, and got probed by some aliens</li>
</ul>
<p>And here we are now&#8230;Level 30. Experience-wise, I can go no further. I&#8217;ve gotten all the perks I can get for my super-duper messiah, and enough ammo to shoot whatever I want, wherever I want, how ever many times I want. Bottle caps up the who-ha, too, thanks to the <em>Fortune Finder</em> perk. Which is a shame, because I now feel like everything from here forward is pointless (maybe that&#8217;s too harsh a word), a little less satisfying because there&#8217;s no more XP to earn.</p>
<p><em>[Some vague spoilers to follow]</em></p>
<p>But let&#8217;s talk about what I&#8217;ve been up to these past final 10 levels. Well, to start, I &#8220;took it back&#8221; wherein I, some Brotherhood head honchos, and Liberty Prime stormed against the Enclave in order to retrieve the G.E.C.K. they originally stole from me. This was a pretty epic fight hampered by the fact that I roleplay a sneaky sneak, meaning I basically hung back and watched my friends do damage. After that I continued on to wipe out the Enclave entirely (though, as a few continue to pop up later on in the game, this is not accurate), and then decided it was time for a change of scenery.</p>
<p>Enter: Point Lookout, Maryland.</p>
<p>What a creepy and quiet place. Now, the bombs did not drop in Maryland, but the state certainly has been affected by radiation. There&#8217;s shovel-weilding inbreds and a host of ghouls, as well as an abandoned amusement park pier and some unnerving caves full of coffins and booby-traps (&#8220;That&#8217;s what I said, <em>booby</em>-traps.&#8221;). The main missions involve protecting a mansion, and then picking a side between a foul-mouthed ghoul and Mother Brain. I was level 25 when I arrived, and I found it harder in the beginning and a breeze to complete come the end. It&#8217;s really more of the same, which isn&#8217;t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to <strong>Fallout 3</strong>, but I would&#8217;ve liked more enemy variety and quest choices in this DLC. There&#8217;s some sidequests which I started, but left to the wayside, returning to the Capital Wasteland to finish up some miscellaneous tasks.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s right. <em>Miscellaneous tasks</em>&#8230;at this point, it&#8217;s all I have left besides a few quests which I won&#8217;t do until I replay as an evil-doer (specifically, &#8220;Strictly Business&#8221; and &#8220;You Gotta Shoot &#8216;Em in the Head&#8221;) . I&#8217;m missing two Bobbleheads at the moment, need to kill three more Super Mutant Behemoths, and win some more Speech challenges. Once those are done, I&#8217;m starting all over to play <strong>Fallout 3</strong> completely different. And this time I mean it because I said the same with <strong>Fable 2</strong>, but just found it to be the same game with a slightly different outlook. Evil woman avatar is basically good male avatar that scares people away. No terrible punishments. I really do get the impression that, in <strong>Fallout 3</strong>, your character&#8217;s actions (i.e., <em>your</em> actions) truly have consequences, making the world real, making the experience real.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s it for now. I absolutely love this game, probably the first I&#8217;ve absolutely loved in awhile since <strong>Suikoden II</strong> and <strong>Super Metroid</strong>, and I can most certainly assure you I&#8217;ll be back once more to summarize the entire experience <strong>Fallout 3</strong> brings to the player, and to the genre. Don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll do status updates for the evil character though. Unless she holds a Chinese assault rifle to my head, that is.</p>
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