Only this weekend I was thinking how much more time I would have spent with Fallout 3 if the world had just been a bit, well, prettier. Fun game and all that but Fallout 3 never gripped me in the same way developer Bethesda's previous title Oblivion did. And the main reason was the look of the respective worlds. Oblivion was lush and green, inviting and tempting to explore. I often climbed mountains just to admire the view (and wish the draw distance was just a little better). Fallout 3 by contrast is brown and grey. Yes, I appreciate the post-apocalyptic setting but climbing the next mound of dirt to see yet another dispiritingly desolate view really killed my desire to explore – a crucial part of free-roaming RPGs. It looks like I wasn't the only who thought this, with a new-ish PC mod adding trees and grass to Fallout 3's dusty environment.
Sadly this is PC only so Xbox owners are stuck with the brown, but I'm almost tempted to play Fallout 3 on the PC for the first time just to try it out.
What do you think then? Love exploring Fallout 3's desolate world or rather it had a bit more greenery?
