Washington, D.C. as it will appear in the upcoming video game 'Fallout 3'

The game won't be released until late 2008 but the photo above showing the gameplay arena appeared in the July 3, 2007 Washington Post Business section along with Mike Musgrove's story about the huge amounts of money and effort now being spent by game companies to win the affections of big-name reviewers, who can make – or break — a game.

I have always been fascinated by what's allowable or not in video games, especially as they approach the watershed of photorealism, with in-game virtual reality indistinguishable from a film or video of actual events.