Despite requiring mods to even function (and still crashing on me 20 times throughout my playthrough), it's the one game that's so great I can't let that knock my experience. Breathing in the rust of the Sierra Madre, getting a full view of the wasteland through the sky-high windows adorning the Lucky 38, scrapping with Cazadores and lobotomies on the moon, befriending a robot dog gifted from an Elvis impersonator, I was never not amazed at the creativity and wit in the writing that was laced through every quest and character decorating the apocalypse. It's the first game I've played in a while that feels like a breathing world, not just because of the previously mentioned variety, but the way it responds to your actions.

Picture this: early into my run, I came across the little town of Novac. I quickly found out that an ex-NCR soldier's wife had been sold into slavery, and you just know I had to find out who did it. To find out, though, I needed to crack a safe; but I didn't have a high enough lockpick to do it. What's a Courier to do? I took a brisk walk over to the HELIOS-One power plant to gain a little xp from a quest, hopefully enough to upgrade my lockpick skill and bring that slaver to justice. Long story short: in an attempt to boast my relatively high science skill for the early game, and a wee misunderstanding, I accidentally nuked about 30 NCR troopers stationed at the plant. They weren't particularly happy with me after that! Went from neutral to shunned in one event, but I shrugged it off and got the note proving the little old woman sold Boone's wife to the Legion. Took her outside, he shot her, went upstairs to collect my reward and shockingly: Boone didn't want to talk to me! Apparently killing a lot of people he considers allies will do that to your personal relationship with someone. Slightly sad about this, I helped out the NCR with little quests here and there until I went from shunned to accepted, went back to Boone, and he became my partner (not before a talk where he told me I needed to quit fucking with the NCR like I did in the past). It was so rewarding gaining the trust of not just an entire faction, but individual members; it felt like my choices really did matter in the grand scheme of things.

The story doesn't end there: much later, I tried to help the NCR recruit troops for the relief effort of Bitter Springs, and what do you know? They want me to go back to HELIOS-One and ask for help. Only problem? Because I killed all the NCR there earlier, the Legion took over the plant. I was astounded in that moment, a place that I had all but forgotten about completely changed under my nose. That's what I mean when I say the world is an entity, even when I repaired my personal problems with the NCR, it didn't make what I did earlier in the game justified. The wasteland kept revolving even when I didn't look at it--and that's the secret sauce that makes the RPG elements come together. The skills you choose have uses and impacts, the friends you make have uses and impacts, there's no such thing as an irrelevant decision in how you play your character and I think that's just brilliant

This game is truly a gem of its time. It has a ton of bugs that sometimes enhance the experience but can also cause it to become a massive mess. But, despite all this, the game persists in my mind to be one of my favorite fallout experiences out there. Seeing the Mojave while trying to track down the man who attempted to kill you and blasting old country music hits so different that it's really hard to describe. Take all of those experiences and then add the possibility of mods, you got yourself a good amount of content for a long time. Would definitely recommend the game.