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Recent Projections
| State | Candidate | Delegates |
|---|---|---|
 Donald Trump | ||
Pennsylvania |  Joe Biden |
Take a closer look at the apocalyptic fun
— -- Fallout 3, Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 each deliver action that rivals big screen blockbusters. USA TODAY takes a closer look at each:
Fallout 3 (out now, $50 for Windows PCs, $60 for Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3; $70-$80 for a special lunchbox edition with bobblehead, art book and bonus DVD).
•Special effects. Early in the game you emerge from Vault 101 in search of your father (voiced by actor Liam Neeson) and look out over the Capital Wasteland à la Will Smith's character surveying post-apocalyptic Manhattan in I Am Legend. And you can set off in any direction you like. "It's this retro-future world, but you have these neoclassical monuments that are destroyed," says Bethesda Softworks executive producer Todd Howard. "It just creates a really evocative image. People look at it and say, 'I wonder what I could do in that.' It's big and epic in its nature."
Not too far along in the story, you are confronted with the major decision of detonating a nuclear device. "You can do it or not do it," says GamePro magazine's George Jones. "For the beginning of the game, that is pretty impressive stakes. It feels like (Cormac McCarthy's novel) The Road with its bleak, nihilistic world view. That makes it real."
•Extra features. The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) on your character's Pip-Boy Model 3000 wrist device lets you stop time, target enemies, fire and then sit back and watch in slow "bullet-time" detail as your shots hit home.
•Critics say. Rating on Metacritic.com, 93 (out of 100) for PC and Xbox 360 versions; 90 for PS3. "I think the story is phenomenal," Jones says. "What Fallout 3 does is something that very few games are capable of doing. The world is like Grand Theft Auto. It is open, and you can be good or bad. You can be a total villain that walks around killing people or a savior."
•Big-screen potential. Nothing to announce yet, but "suffice it to say there's been plenty of interest in the full range of things," says Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines.
