Fallout 3 DLC

My little brother just went on his school trip to Washington D.C., so I was inspired to play Fallout 3 again. Lucky me, Deal of the Week on Xbox Live is all Fallout DLC half off. I already paid full price for the first 4 (shut up, I hate you) so I picked up Mothership Zeta for 5 bucks. If you're gonna pick up DLC, this is a good time to do so.

I <3 Fallout, so more of it is always a good idea. Here's my experience with the DLC if anybody is on the fence.

Operation: Anchorage
You pick up a strange radio signal from the Brotherhood of Steel outcasts. Head out to investigate and, surprise surprise, they need your help accessing some pre-war technology. To unlock this cache you'll have to play through a simulation scenario used by U.S. soldiers during the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from Chinese communists.

Overall, it's a fun little mission, but it doesn't have much in the way of role-playing, just straight combat (with some memorable dialogue, COMMY!). It's a big departure from the typical Fallout experience, you start and are stuck with a certain set of weapons with limited pickups, there is no ammo or health to be found outside of designated health/ammo stations. The last part opens up with some squad-based strategy for an interesting change of pace and it works out pretty well.

This is a solid expansion if you're looking for more in the way of fighty fighty parts. The best part is that all your gear is provided in the sim, so you get lots of free experience without much trouble. Best of all, once you're done, you'll have access to a lot of high level tech and get power armor training for free (normally you'd have to progress through a good chunk of the main story). It's borderline game breakingly easy if you do it early.

The Pitt
Time for a field trip! Let's head over to the ruins of Pittsburgh to go free/doom some slaves/the world. One quick train ride gives you a brand new map to explore.

This is Fallouty goodness, right here. Exploration, interaction, and lots of stuff to do. Problems with the early version caused it to freeze up (lost a save file that way on release, jerks) but now it works fine. It's short and can be quite linear at some points, but a good expansion to try out with lots of worthwhile rewards and an interesting story with a tweest ending.

Broken Steel
Do you have it? No? Buy it now, you silly goose! Raises the level cap, finishes the main story, and gives you a whole lot more things to do.

Awesome.

Point Lookout
Let's go to Maryland and hang out in the swamp with a bunch of hicks, druggies and zombies. Also there's a carnival.

It's got some good points (the drug trip, southern gentleman zombie, and giant brain in particular) and kudos on the unique weapons and environment, but this is easily the weakest.

The difficulty is upped and in the poorly conceived "stupid hard" way. Swamp squatters (you got a purty mouth, boy) in overalls can take a full clip of plasma to the face, more than any number of Enclave troopers in full armor? Feral Ghoul Reavers that ignore armor and make Deathclaws look like kittens? Stupid.

If it's cheap, it might be worth it, but the others are a lot better.

Mothership Zeta
Fallout....in SPAAAAACE! Aliens are abducting people, you in particular, and it's up to everyone, again just you, to stop them. Cool, futuristic/retro environments, lots of zappy lasers, little green men, Aliens references, and more than a few probulators. Also a samurai.

I haven't played through it all the way, but I'm liking it so far.

So, there you have it, my thoughts on Fallout 3 DLC.