FALLOUT 4

I played FALLOUT 3, NEW VEGAS, and FALLOUT 4 years ago, with the third of these sort of languishing (I tag-teamed playing it with my kids, in that we shared the Sole Survivor character, would take turns).

Anyway, for whatever reason, we never actually finished F4, so I had, on a whim, started playing it again, and remembered why I'd enjoyed the game so much back in the day.

I even played through to the end of the primary narrative (siding with the Railroad faction, focused on liberating the android slave caste tethered to the sinister Institute).

It's interesting to me that the game keeps going on, even after you've finished one of the various primary avenues of story. F4 is a wonderful blend of first-person shooter and sandbox game. Bethesda did a great job with it.

And that's what got me thinking about how games really are the future of entertainment, versus books. A well-structured video game has an immersive quality and (re)playability that you don't get with books.

For example, how often does one reread a book? How many times? Contrast that with replaying a game.

I would also say that the moral stances one can take (or not take) in F4 are interesting. You can be good, bad, or ugly in it. The participatory, Choose Your Own Adventure style of it is fascinating. As one who has written stories, I look at what Bethesda did with F4 with wonder -- because they mapped out several rich (and interwoven) narratives that play out depending on what you do. I'm sure the flow charts they used in the creation of F4 were mammoth. I can't even imagine it.

There's more to be said about it, but for now, this'll do.