Forty Hours Plus and Still Chugging

I've got more than forty actual hours invested in Fallout 3 and see no signs of abatement. I can't stop playing. My toon is almost 14th level, six levels shy of the cap, but I've barely started the main campaign story line. Side quests, exploration, and looting have consumed most of my time. It's been the finest gaming experience I've had in a long time. In fact, I put Fallout 3 right up there with some of the best games I've ever played. In a bit more time, I might come to proclaim it the very best.

Of particular note, my encounter with Three Dog in the GNR building. A team of Brotherhood of Steel paladins escorted me the short distance I had left to Three Dog. Along the way, a squad of persistent super mutants. We put them down right in front of the GNR building. Everything seemed resolved until we heard a booming in the distance. More followed, increasingly louder until a giant of super mutant burst into the compound. He was massive, more than two stories tall and he began laying waste to everything in his reach.

My quest log prompted me to retrieve the Fat Boy from a fallen paladin. I pulled the rocket launcher and mini nuke ammunition from the armored corpse and took aim. My first nuke flew wide, but yielded radius damage that sent the giant super mutant sprawling. Before he could lumber back to his feet, I loaded another nuke and fired again. This time I hit dead on. The behemoth took the load full into the torso. He exploded into fleshy chunks that rained down throughout the compound satisfyingly.

So fun. So memorable. And just one out of many role-playing experiences.