Top 50 Video Game Moments: Number 24

The following moment is a moment from Fallout 3. The moment itself doesn't have to come up, it can be replicated anywhere, and is permanent, since deaths are always permanent in that glorious game. It not much of a spoiler, but I suppose you could stand treading lightly if you simply cannot allow yourself to know details of games you haven't played.

One of the beauties of Fallout 3 is that you can walk for hours and hours, doing various different or good (or evil) deeds, and still manage to stumble on an encampment or place that you had never seen to that point.

Okay, I admit... I probably should've seen that... I may have been high on jet at the time.

Throughout the course of the game, I had heard references to slavers and their creepy little commune, Paradise Falls. The game never forced the issue, though (you could easily play through the entire game, and do a massive number of sidequests and never encounter it - especially as a good player, since good players really had no business in that town). Since I had bigger fish to fry (like finishing that damned survival guide for that Minnesotan chick), I never sought it out.

Then one day, as I wandered semi-aimlessly through the wasteland, I suddenly stumbled what looked like an old shopping complex, but the place was impenetrable except for one opening, with a billboard semi-cheerfully welcoming me to "Paradise Falls".

Best deals anywhere! Also... slaves!

As I approached the main entrance, I was stopped by a guard who informed me that I was way too much of a goodie to think about stepping foot in town, and he invited me to leave.

Obviously, I shot him dead on the spot.

I then went through the town, shooting guards, freeing slaves. The whole thing felt like the world's most empowering action sequence. Hiding behind buildings to calmly reload, before bursting from around a corner to unleash more wrath on the slaver haven's inhabitants. It was like a mix of that one scene in Revolver where the hit man just wordlessly destroys all the people and the famous lobby scene from The Matrix.

I finally made my way to head slaver Eulogy Jones' office and burst in. The game obviously sets everyone in town to go 'hostile' the instant you start some shit, but I could have sworn that for an instant, Eulogy froze, as if he was shocked by the one man army that had cut through his life's evil work.

Then I shot him.

Goodbye, Paradise Falls. I look forward to not hearing of your exploits on my radio anymore.