The Capital Wasteland feels like home to me. Its probably the game ive spent the most time on, although I dont have concrete numbers on that since I didnt have it on steam until a couple years ago. I know some parts of it like the back of my hand, but its still so big that there's many parts that ive either spent little time in or haven't explored fully.

I don't know if I will ever stop playing Fallout 3. It came at such a critical time in my life when I was in deep with anxiety and mental health issues. The Wastes were the perfect escape, the Lone Wanderer's problems were a lot easier to quantify, and those problems he could solve with ease and heroism. While I was afraid to go outside due to hard to quantify brain problems, I spent so much time in a different world, that sometimes felt just as real to me as the real world.

New Vegas, Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, all games that I have love for, but I don't think ill ever imprint on those games like I did with Fallout 3. Whoever is left in these forums, please share your stories of how post-nuclear DC has made a imprint on your life. Will you ever stop walking the wastes? Did it or any other of Bethesda's masterpieces help you through a rough patch? Many people may have moved on from the Capital Wasteland, but I am sure that I will never forget it.

I also love the Capital Wastelands and a big part goes to a lot of the small details Bethesda put into the game world and quite often I find new ones which I did not notice before. I still have not really set foot in of the DLC's except for some of the Broken Steel. I still have them to explore and likely will do so sometime, maybe by the end of the decade I will have explored one of the DLC's.

Looking at what you were going through from an outsider's perspective, I feel like the plot of Fallout 3 may have been running a parallel with your life and your need to escape from the world of anxiety you were locked in.

Maybe that's why it resonates with you the most.

To be honest, I don't think the Lone Wanderers story was really similar to mine, but every single time I bring it up to therapists they say how great it is that I do this heavy roleplaying thing. Apparently it is extremely good for people with anxiety, they have also said that I should go to a LARP if I could, but I don't think im anywhere near fit enough to carry and use what would be the equipment of the character I would play (Not yet, anyways).

There is still probably new things waiting for me out in the ruins. Things yet undiscovered. That is one of the reasons why Fallout 3 is my favourite game of all time, and why I think the post-nuclear world suits Bethesda a lot more than Tamriel. In Fallout, you are able to go through the ruins of the old world, and find things that may have been left undiscovered since the day of the bombs. Then there's all of the societies that have sprung up that would be completely different from one another. In TES, well, I was able to read up on the province of Skyrim before I actually went there on 11.11.11, and I mostly knew what to expect. Likewise if the nex TES were to take place in another province, I could mostly get a rough idea of what's going on over there. But I had no idea what to expect of Point Lookout when I boarded that ferry and arrived in a strange new world. Or when I first started Fallout 3 and experienced the Capital Wasteland for the first time. Popping out of a vault is also really nice for the heavy roleplay thing, since my characters have no idea what the wastes are like, and they get to go on a journey of discovery of their own, despite me knowing pretty much everything about the wastes.

The Capital Wasteland is definitely amazing, I agree, on one hand empty and desolate, on the other hand a few settlements scattered around, trying to survive in the harsh wasteland. There is a certain charm just walking through the wastes, exploring ruins of the Old World and trying to survive; because every day that you survive in the wastes, really feels like you had to deserve it. As said before, there are new things that I still discover, although I'm familiar with the DLCs, I did most of them years ago so whenever I'll do them again, it'll feel like being there for the 1st time. *

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It had an impact on me when I discovered it for the first time, but I fell in love with the wasteland only in 2011 when I put more personality and effort to my characters, instead of creating walking tanks as I used to do when FO3 was released. The wasteland can give you a lot if you 'invest' in it a lot, I think. I couldn't play a lifeless tank that'd own any kind of enemy with ease, if I did, I wouldn't enjoy the wasteland, no matter how brilliant it is. I have to invest into my characters first, give them personality, morality, small knick-knacks to make them feel alive, only then will I truly enjoy the wasteland, when I'll see how they fare through it, will they be brave, scared, selfish, ignorant etc.

I'm really lucky in my life and never experienced anything particularly stressful, but I can easily say that I spent one of the best years in my life playing TES games. And there are still evenings when I'm looking forward to being just me and Fallout. Like today's.