The Final Atomic Buster -- Now With More Destruction
Now on to the gameplay: This is what makes HD Remix a stand-alone title. Many of the moves in HD Remix have been slightly tweaked to make the fighting experience more enjoyable. For example; Blanka's hop can now be done by pressing a punch and kick button of the same strength instead of hitting all three kick buttons. Vega's wall bounce can be canceled in mid-air which can be used to bait an opponent into an opening. Guile's flash kick now travels farther forward which gives him a better advantage against airborne opponents but balances out by leaving him a lot more open if he misses. That's just the beginning; there are so many more adjustments that make the game just all around more fun and less frustrating than before. One of the greatest things about HD Remix is that the damage system has finally been balanced when fighting against a computer opponent! Unlike Super Turbo -- or as I like to call it, "The Quarter Gobbler" -- it now doesn't take 30 hits anymore to beat the computer when the computer could knock you out in three hits. Taking and giving damage against the computer is now as balanced as fighting an actual human opponent.

Right about now is the time when I tell you how bad or how good the game is and if you should get it or not, but chances are you've already downloaded it! In less than a month, the damn thing has sold more than 250,000 copies and has destroyed both day-one and week-one records across Xbox LIVE and PSN. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is one of the few games that have reached absolute fighting perfection. It's great that so many people now have it so it'll never be a problem finding an opponent but unfortunately you will also find some cheap dirt-bags online as well. Either way, HD Remix still kicks butt.

Fallout 3 proves that being a PC gamer has its perks.

Fallout 3 for the Sony PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC; Publisher: Bethesda Softworks; Developer: Bethesda Softworks; Release Date: October 28, 2008; ESRB Rating: M for mature; Genre: action / RPG; Players: 1; Support: N/A; Online: N/A

It's Christmas at Ground Zero
Being a PC gamer has its perks. A PC gamer gets to enjoy the release of many mainstream titles at a much cheaper price than the console versions and often gets to enjoy those titles with much better graphics than their console clones. Not only that but PC gamers also enjoy the added accuracy and speed of using a mouse and keyboard when playing a first-person shooter. What really sparks a PC gamer's fire though are those epic, few-and-far-between games that bring innovation and outstanding gameplay to the PC gaming community; games like Diablo, Starcraft and Spore. That's why many PC gamers haven't strayed too far from the PC herd. Another long and respected franchise among PC gamers is the Fallout series -- well... all except the Brotherhood of Steel games on consoles.

Help Me Find Your Other Eye
Fallout 3 was released to a very welcoming PC community along with an Xbox 360 and PS3 version as well for the hardcore console gamers. The same story goes as the others; there's been widespread nuclear destruction and the only way to get away from the radiation and live safely is to live in an underground vault. You play as custom, male or female character that you create and name. Your mother dies giving birth to you and your father raises you alone. You play as a baby all the way up to a full grown adult and your whole life you are told that you are special, you are told to listen to the Overseer and you are also told that morbid yet famous motto among vault dwellers: "We're born in the vault and we'll die in the vault." Well, one day dear old dad decides to take a stroll right out the front door and into the nuclear wastelands. The Overseer blows his freakn' stack; he up and kills your father's assistant and now he sends out a few goons to take care of you. Your only option is to escape the vault like your dad. Once you are out of the vault you have many options: you can look for clues to find your dad and find out why he left the vault without saying anything to you or you can forget that dear old dad ever even existed and live life your way.

Combat in Fallout 3 is just awesome. The view can be switched from first or third person and it plays just like any shooter but with the added advantage of using the targeting device Pip-Boy 3000. © Betheseda Softworks.

Graphically, everything looks real good; the all around style is more of a realistic design with great looking character models, environments and outstanding lip-sync animations. Nothing too innovative about the style but it starts getting interesting once you meet up with mutants. The gameplay is very different from the first two Fallout games, which were turn-based strategy RPGs. Fallout 3 is like a very sophisticated Fable with first-person shooter controls. You can go anywhere, do anything, be good, be bad and kill almost anyone. The character level-up system is your typical "gain experience, level up and build attributes" fare with the inclusion of a list of perks that can be accessed as your character upgrades to higher levels. The perks allow you to acquire many obscure advantages like expertise with big or small guns, doing extra damage to the opposite sex or turning your opponent into a flying glob of flesh pudding when you shoot them. As you talk to many different characters throughout the game, you'll find that they need help in many areas and helping them will often make them so grateful that they reward you but you also have to be on your toes because some characters will also try to take advantage of you.

Combat in Fallout 3 is just awesome. The view can be switched from first or third person and it plays just like any shooter but with the added advantage of using a targeting device called the Pip-Boy 3000. Using the Pip-Boy freezes time and allows you to target multiple parts of an enemy and multiple enemies for a series of attacks. It also tells you how successful you will be when you try to attack each part. Using the Pip-Boy depletes Action Points and once they're gone you have to wait a while until they replenish. As you venture through the wastes you will also be able to find and build more powerful armor and weapons which you are definitely going to need especially when you come across huge enemies like the Behemoth. The combat difficulty is balanced pretty fairly and builds gradually as you progress.