Ok so I beat it.
[spoiler]Considering that I went through the game as a paragon of goodness, I kind of didn't care about Lyons at all. It was just another opportunity to showcase how fucking nice I was.
With Fawkes the super mutant standing there! For Fuck's Sake.
I am pretty "meh" about the ending. If anything, I'm the most pissed that the last boss is Colonel Unique Voice Actor. You guys could've ripped off Fallout 1 entirely, it would've been neat to see that model in 3D! Something! Anything! Not another VATs 4-shot unique plasma rifle head shot! Did they honestly implement the entire Liberty Prime sequence without considering that the player might like to shoot an Ultra Behemoth or something? Cool cinema, bro!
Seriously the lack of final boss monster is like a grave sin against Dooms. I activated Liberty Prime with 50 Bottlecap Mines, Missile Launcher, a Flamethrower, a Minigun, Unique Plasma Rifle, Chinese Assault Rifle, 10 Plasma Grenades, 30 Frag Grenades, 10 Plasma Mines, fully repaired Shishekabab, fully repaired Tesla Armor/Helmet, 8 Nuka-Grenades and 50 shots on the Alien Blaster. I was going to end the Enclave soldier-by-soldier.
But after our walk in the park... yeah walking into the chamber and seeing the "super deadly" 8 radiation per second tic was pretty underwhelming. Hey, I have an Advanced Radiation Suit in Megaton, I could go get that, guys!
What's up with the lack of "Because you did X, X happened!" I wasn't the nicest cocksucker in the world to not see how I touched the lives of everybody in the Wastes, Bethesda! Maybe I accidentally breathed on my mouse and skipped over it? "Well, you didn't use the FEV virus and you sacrificed yourself." YES I WAS THERE FIVE MINUTES AGO.[/spoiler]
I've already mentioned that Fallout 3 was basically some sort of divine, heaven-sent survivalist gift from God where my first ten levels are spent hectically poring over every abandoned pile of rubble I see to cobble together the base materials, bullets and nuka-colas I need to live. I racked up 80 hours in two weeks. It is easily Doom's 2008 Game of the Year. Throw money at Bethesda, they can kidnap any fucking IP or license they want and use their delightful Oblivion map engine on it.
I think I'll either muster up the moxie to move on to Mass Effect or STALKER next... or start a FAQ-in-hand comb-over of the game with some other interesting new combat character. Small Arms/Explosives/Sneak on Pure Evil, maybe. Drop difficulty to normal, just have a grand old time and prep a character or two or three for the Steel DLC in March.