Fallout 3 has a glitch. Imagine that.

I started playing Fallout 3 in earnest yesterday. I played for a minute before a friend came over once, but he arrived sooner than I had anticipated, so I didn't even get a taste.

We spent a few hours at the Tea Garden working last night. Becky and Brian showed up to keep us company. But after we left, it was Fallout Time.

It took a while to really get into. It's structure is very similar to Oblivion, you start out in a small, enclosed space (Oblivion, a jail cell. Fallout, a Bomb Shelter community, or Vault 101). The game takes you through the paces for a while, before finally opening up into the huge, intimidating world (Oblivion, a beautiful and lush Kingdom. Fallout, a harsh, depressing wasteland).

And much like Oblivion, Fallout's charm comes from exploring the environment and see all that's out there.

So once I got out into the world it grew on me fast. I now love Fallout 3. At least, as much as you can love a game after only playing for a few hours.

But, like Oblivion again, it's such a huge world they couldn't possibly QA all the glitches. And I already ran into one. A big one.

I was in Megaton, the shanty town built around an active, but unexploded, Atom Bomb. Also the first town you come to. I had spoken with everyone in town and
done a small quest or two.

But then I misjudged a jump, trying to take a shortcut across the rooftops of Megaton, and I fell to my death. The game automatically reloaded my previous save, no big whoop.

But I found that my right analog stick was useless. For those that don't know, that controls left, right, up and down movement. I could still move forward, backwards and to the sides, but I could only stare straight ahead.

And I could not figure out why. The first thing I did was try to go into a building that happened to be facing my way, thinking the loading screen would fix it. Nope. And now I was stuck inside, because I couldn't turn around to face the door.

I shut down the system. I tried multiple controllers. I ejected the disc, cleaned it. I did everything I could. Nothing. I'd reload the game and be stuck facing the same direction, unable to look anywhere but straight ahead.

Finally, I reloaded my only other save, which was immediately before I left Vault 101. And it worked.

But that meant I had to sacrifice all the progress I had made. Which was really annoying.

SoI ran around at a breakneck speed re-talking to everyone and getting my quests and adding locations to my map. I was pissed.

But, having said that, everything after that point just got better and better and totally won me over.

The lesson? Save often and use multiple save slots... or just don't be a loser wasting your life.