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Mothership Zeta is the fifth and final official DLC expansion for Fallout 3.  Fallout: New Vegas is currently being produced by Obsidion, so there is more fallout on the way, but this must just be Fallout 3′s last hurrah, officially speaking.

Sadly, this expansion was a disappointing follow up to the exceptional Point Lookout.  Instead of having half a dozen significant quests, a healthy world to explore, and a dozen separate freeform quests to enjoy, Mothership Zeta traps you on a single alien space craft and hopes you’ll be happy with some new weapons.

That isn’t so say the new spaceship area isn’t cool.  It is.  Graphically, it’s a treat to walk down the polished chrome interior and blast small green-headed aliens away using blaster rifles.  As gameplay though?  It’s just not there.  Fallout 3 is and always has been a role playing game, not a first person shooter.  As entertaining as combat is in Fallout 3 it’s just can’t pretend to be Halo, it can’t even manage to be Mass Effect.  It’s Fallout and they really should have gone back to the core of Fallout for this expansion.

Positives: new guns, interesting interior, a pretty fun boss fight.

Negatives: too small, too linear, not enough ‘lore’, too much repetitive combat, bland characters.

Having finished all the expansions and all of the main game quests, there’s just not that much to bring me back to Fallout universe.  There are a few small things I might try and a couple of areas I never explored, but this is the end…or is it?  Fallout: New Vegas isn’t a sequel and it’s still a few years off, but it’s probably time to start looking at unofficial mods.  The Fallout team did a good job giving the community a ton of weapons and textures to modify, Mothership Zeta included.  I have no doubt the fans will create some very fun and in depth expansion.  By now someone has probably gone off and tried to remake Fallout 1 & 2 (which I’m playing in my spare time by the way.)

For anyone on the fence, Mothership Zeta isn’t quite as bad as Operation Anchorage and it is the last official DLC, at least so far.  It’s expensive for such a small return ($10), but for a Fallout fan…there’s always ways to get more caps, eh?

Favorite Living Author George RR Martin has been announcing the new casting in the HBO series A Game of Thrones.  This week has had some great casting.  Instead of trying to hijack his words, let me just point you to the relevant posts on his blog:

Ian Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont

Tamzin Merchant as  Daenerys Targaryen (Great Great Casting!)

Richard Maddenas Robb Stark

Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner as Ayra and Sansa Stark

Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister

This new folks join Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark, and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.

Good Stuff!

IO9 made a list of favorite last lines from science fiction stories.  It came out about a month ago, but, as always, I’m running on a back log.  I’m still trying to hammer out the last line on my own story and my current inspiration du jour probably comes from Gibson’s Neuromancer.

” So what’s the score?  How are things different?  You running the world now?  You God?”

“Things aren’t different.  Things are things.”

Somewhere, very close, the laughter that wasn’t laughter.

He never saw Molly again.

I like how the ending wraps together very nicely and completely but with enough amibiguity to keep it interesting.  It’s more than just a ‘leave room for a sequel ambiguity’ but an actual confusion on the part of the world of what might come next.  I find it very realistic and intriguing.

The lines Io9 chose are pretty good too…

Adieu!

For months, Batman: Arkham Asylum loomed on my gaming radar always falling short of my interest.  As much as I love Batman, superhero video games are by and large awful, especially those that come during the movie season.  I fully expected Arkham Asylum to be some lame merchandising attempt not worth the time or effort.

In retrospect I should have been paying more attention. Instead of trying to create a Christopher Bale clone they made their own batman, with their own joker, their own harley, their own Arkham Asylum, and their own game.   I should have known Rocksteady got Paul Dini on board to write the story, (He’s the brain behind many of the best Batman: The Animated Series episodes.) or when Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy (voices of The Joker and Batman respectively from the animated series) signed on as well.  I should have known when they showed off their own version of Arkham or their own design of the bat mobile, or when they demoed a game that wowed everyone.

Instead of I was off doing my own things, assuming it was another piece of crap super hero game.  Only a few days ago when the reviews started to come in did I take notice.  ’Best Superhero game ever’, ‘A Batman game done right’, ‘A game of the year’.  My curiosity was peaked.  After watching Mark Hamill’s inimical Joker laugh in the trailer I had to pick the game up.

No complaints.  Not one.  They did a damn good job and managed to make something that deserves its part of the Batman Universe.  It has a story and it’s a good one.  The voice acting is predictably top-notch.  The visuals are stunning and creative.  They took bits and pieces of the comics, the tv shows, the movies and combined them into something that works very well.  Most of all they respected the universe while expanding it in their own way.  They didn’t try to retcon character histories or remake Arkham Asylum into something new.  They didn’t dabble with the Batman origin story in some unnecessary way or try to pull the Joker away from what he is.  They worked with the established story and setting and let it fill out the world they created on their own.  Everything from Iceberg Lounge posters on the wall to the chattering joker teeth toys, they spent an incredible amount of time making things ‘right.”

And best of all, they made a fun game too.  They made use batman’s detective work with the puzzles and pacing.  They made the enemies intelligent enough to require strategy.  They worked with batman’s tools to make them useful, but not overpowering (or underwhelming).   Exploring Arkham is a joy, the plot queues keep the player on track, and the combat/puzzles keep the player engaged. They really did everything right.

No one should be on the fence with this one.  It’s out for the Xbox360, Playstation 3, and the computer so there’s not much of an excuse for missing it unless you’ve got a Wii and nothing else.  (There’s always Wii bowling, right?)

I was so positive that Arkham Asylum would be trash.  I’m happy to say that’s it is not in the slightest.