FALLOUT 3

Fallout 3 carries the RPG freedom of the series into a first-person view and a bleak, ruined Washington, D.C. wasteland. Exploration is the real hook, because every metro tunnel or shattered neighborhood feels like it might hide a story.

Stepping out of the vault is still one of the series' great moments because it frames the entire game around discovery. The Capital Wasteland is bleak, strange, and full of little side stories that reward wandering, giving the game a lonely but inviting sense of post-apocalyptic adventure.