Fans of the original Fallout games, among the greatest RPGs ever made, gripped their mice tightly when word came of Bethesda’s plans to design a new Fallout game. They needn’t have fretted. Fallout 3 is one of the most creatively ambitious games ever made, and its depiction of a post-apocalyptic rubble-strewn Washington D.C. may be the most unsettling (and thrilling) environment ever presented by a video game. A potent combination of open-world exploration and story-driven quests, Fallout 3 grabs hold and won’t let go.