You make me want to wait until that day - but I don't think I can. I've cooled off on Vegas after playing at least 30-50 hours over around two weeks, not for boredom as such but just because of that unavoidable symptom of overexposure to a bloated, freeform RPG. Something like ennui, something like becoming bloated and overfed yourself.

I've saved so many lives, ended so many hundreds more, I am a walking god of around level twenty-something and few things in the game bar a horde of Ghoul Reavers or several Deathclaws at close range can really make me pause for thought. Or die horribly.

It feels unreal. I've done so much in such a short time, -too much-, much more than is -reasonable- to have achieved. The Bethesda design ethic pervades through the fundamental design of Fallout 3 and Obsidian can do nothing to escape it; there is an element of dungeon-crawling, stat-maxing  grind, and an undiscriminative intention that every player should be able to access virtually all of the game's content.

So few locked doors. So few things you can't do because you've done something else. So few meaningful choices.

I'm left feeling dreamy and confused. Unable to believe in myself as a character because once again, as in F3 and Oblivion, I have become a legend, verging upon a myth.

You could do this in Fallout 1 and 2, but not without earning or stealing the armour of the 'hero' or villain - but F3/NV just lacks that emphasis on the massive game-change of power-armour acquisition.

I know I'll return to NV soon enough, if I don't lose my saves... But I don't know whether I'll be able to care about the Mojave when I get there.