Despite the mountain of work sitting on my desk (the work resides on my laptop, of course), I’ve lost 40+ hours of my life to a video game. These are precious hours of my mortal coil burned off in the pursuit of experience points and legendary weapons.

Damn you, Fallout 4!

Reactions to Fallout 4 have varied from “Meh” to “Eh, pretty good.” I’m in the “pretty good” camp.

There are plenty of reasons to knock the game. The graphics can be glitchy. The user interface appears to have been created by someone who has never played a game before. Dialogue pathways have gone from nifty and interesting to incomprehensible.

And these are just the three biggest sins.

But if you’re a casual gamer who likes the occasional triple-A game (like me), then you’ll find Fallout 4 has a lot going for it.

The plot, while nothing original, is interesting and propels forward at a pace that is comfortable to the player. You can dive right in, or you can muck around with side quests and explore the large sandbox world. You’re seeking your child stolen from your spouse’s arms from an incubation chamber. Familiar factions like the Brotherhood of Steel are around.

The game lets you choose your sex and craft your character’s appearance. That was cool. Naturally, I created a sexy red-haired badass.

The big reveal of the Commonwealth (Massachusetts) when your character first exits the vault is brilliant and stunning.

You can attain powerful weapons, but so far, nothing I’ve found is broken. The game does a decent job of escalating the difficulty levels as you experience up. Contrast this to my experience with Fallout: New Vegas where I got my hands on a sniper rifle that allowed me to rip through the last quarter of the game with little difficulty.

Finally, I must compliment the voice actors. The acting is understated and appropriate. So often in video games, the performances are hammy and over-the-top.

Oh, and you can the mod the hell out of the game. My favorite mod? Where you turn all the Deathclaws into the Macho Man Randy Savage. OOOOOOOO YEAHH!

Got to go, the Commonwealth beckons!