ur first hands-on time with Fallout 3 was one of the best kinds of surprises. After a short presentation, Bethesda’s Pete Hines guided us to a bank of 360s and told us we had 30 minutes to play. We could go wherever we wanted, do whatever we pleased. The demo did start a little ways into the game, where the main character walks out of the Vault for the first time in his life. (For that, we’re grateful. With only 30 minutes, we’d rather not spend it all “learning” how to use a controller.)

The fact that Bethesda’s plan to bring the beloved series to consoles has been controversial is pretty much old hat at this point. Many people have made up their minds about the game, and after playing it, it’s unfortunate that that’s the case. Fallout 3 is a Fallout game. It’s not Oblivion with guns or whatever other things forum-goers have sniffed since the game was announced. If anything, Bethesda’s worst PR enemy with Fallout 3 is, well, Bethesda.

The demos that Bethesda has given on the game have done a great job of showing off a lot of features in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, that kind of compressed experience has really misrepresented what the game seems to feel like. Mini nukes and tons of explosions are a fun way to show off the game engine’s impressive particle and smoke effects, but they’re understandably off-putting for people who didn’t think the first two games were quite so bombastic.

During my playtime, I chose to walk in the opposite direction than I’d seen in the other demos. I didn’t need to check out that newbie-friendly starting town. After my character’s eyes adjusted to the sunlight (an experience nearly identical to emerging from the first dungeon in Oblivion), I slowly spun in a circle. After locating what looked to be the most desolate place in sight, I headed in that direction.

It was slow going and lifeless. The ground was brown and cracked, with the occasional scattering of litter and debris. An empty shopping cart. A puddle of dubious origin. A ruined highway overpass. I spied a washed-out billboard that simultaneously hinted at the pre-war era’s optimism and paranoia: A long line of smiling people waiting to enter a Vault door with the text “Vault Secured.”

A few minutes passed, and I didn’t see any signs of recent life. This was what I was hoping for—a little isolation. A few more minutes, and I finally encountered a few raiders, decked out in homebuilt armor. While it was great to be alone for a while, I was also eager to check out the game’s VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) combat.

While the game runs in realtime, players are able to pull up VATS in combat by pressing the right bumper. This essentially pauses time, allowing players to target specific areas of their opponents. These specific areas are flagged with percentages, giving players the probability that they’ll be able to hit those specific areas. For example, headshots are generally harder to pull off than shots to an enemy’s torso, but those attacks will do more damage. Each move performed while in VATS mode takes away from a pool of action points. In other words, you have a finite amount of shots or time to use items in each “turn” before you have to disengage VATS and let those points regenerate.