History Videogame / Fallout3

->''"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the waters of life, freely."''
-->-- '''James''', quoting [[Literature/BookOfRevelation Revelation 21:6]]

->''"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. For it is better to be alone than in bad company."''

->''"Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone, than in bad company."''

->''"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the waters of life, freely."''

->''"'Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone, than in bad company."''

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: One exists which is fairly short even by video game standards. It is most notable if playing as a sniper-type character, where shots you could easily make in other games fail to reach the target due to the range.

* ShortRangeLongRangeWeapon: All the guns in the game have an ArbitraryMaximumRange, but it can be especially noticeable with the sniper rifle. Sniper-type players are known to fail to make long-distance shots that are quite possible in other games, never mind RealLife. The bullet simply disappears before it reaches its target. However, just because you see the bullet disappear doesn't mean it won't hit it's target (assuming that it is indeed within the maximum range). It doesn't matter how far away you are from the target, the game WILL notify you if you score a critical hit.

** Pittsburgh, as seen in ''The Pitt'', crosses straight into DeathWorld territory. The sky is choked with pollution, and the water is not only irradiated even more than in DC (taking a swim in one of the rivers will kill you within seconds) but is also full of unknown mutagens, leading to horrific mutations within some of the residents. Many of the original residents have either gone insane and become Wildmen or mutated into Trogs. It got to the point that when the Brotherhood of Steel arrived, their solution was to just [[KillEmAll slaughter everything]] except the few unmutated residents left, and attempts to bring about order afterwards only led to the Pitt turning into a brutal slave den.

** [[InvisibilityCloak Stealth Armor]]. FlamingSword. [[BloodyHilarious Bloody Mess perk]]. Town full of innocent people. [[KillEmAll You know what to do]]. And nuke the evidence.

** Three Dog often says "Ghouls are people too", which can either be ignored by the player or not, but even he admits that Feral Ghouls are dangerous to everybody, going so far as to say [[KillEmAll "So kill as many as you damn well please"]].

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** To the surprise of many gamers, [[AceCustom Lincoln's Repeater]] is ''not'' fictional - it's based on an actual, custom-made Henry repeating rifle given to UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln as a gift in the hopes that he would adopt the design as standard-issue for the US Army. That said it likely would not have fired modern ammunition without some serious custom work.
** Point Lookout is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Lookout_State_Park a real place]]. Calvert is a fictional member of a real family who own a manor in the area. Also, there really was a Civil War POW camp there, and the lighthouse is another actual point of interest.
** Griffon and his Aqua Cura look at first like a classic example of a SnakeOilSalesman with a ''Fallout'' flavour (selling radioactive water as a miracle cure), but [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_quackery selling radioactive items as medicine]] was a real-life practice from the first half of 20th century.
** The Soil Stradivarius from the "Agatha's Song" sidequest is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_Stradivarius a real artifact]], and finding it in the Eastern USA in the future is plausible, since the actual violin belongs to Itzhak Perlman, a musician living in New York.
** While finding documents from US history (like the ''Bill of Rights'' or the ''Declaration of Independance'') in Washington DC's National Archives makes sense, discovering a copy of the ''Magna Carta'' (a document from medieval English history, bearing UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland's signature) may seem strange. However, in real life the National Archives really have a copy of the document (a copy made in 1297, permanently loaned since 2007).

** There not a single half decent alien in the Mothership Zeta expansion. You also find they like to do cruel experiments on abductees and even [[KickTheDog shock them with their batons just for fun at times.]]

** The Mothership Zeta DLC also starts like this, and leaves you that way until you can find your gear and clothes in a conveniently close storage container.

* EpisodeOneTwist: If you meet Moriarty (which you likely will if you don't know where to go) then he'll reveal rather quickly that you and your father are wastelanders, and that you moved to Vault 101 after your birth.

* AlwaysAccurateAttack:
** At 100 Energy Weapons skill, the Alien atomizers and their variant the Atomic Pulverizer will always hit dead on the crosshair. The only way the gun can miss is by the user messing up their shot.
** Similarly, the unique hunting rifle Ol' Painless is one of the few weapons with zero "sway". With a 100 Small Guns skill, it will hit exactly where the crosshair is aimed with every shot.

** To the surprise of many gamers, [[AceCustom Lincoln's Repeater]] is ''not'' fictional - it's based on an actual, custom-made Henry repeating rifle given to UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln as a gift in the hopes that he would adopt the design as standard-issue for the US Army.

* DarkSkinnedRedhead and DarkSkinnedBlond: You can set your race to Hispanic or Afro-American, then choose crimson-red or platinum-blonde hair.

* PoweredArmor: Per series tradition. However, it requires specialized training that limits it to the Brotherhood (both factions) and the Enclave. Advancing far enough in the main questline will get you training from the Brotherhood, as will the ''Operation: Anchorage'' DLC which [[DiscOneNuke can be accessed from day one if you choose]].

* CaffeineBulletTime: Nuka-Cola Quantum gives you enough of a kick to make this a literal example, by boosting your AP.

* HonorBeforeReason: The game will treat [[spoiler:sending Lyons into the Control Chamber instead of going in there yourself as cowardice. Alright, fair's fair, you just ordered her to death for no reason. What's not fair is the game treating you sending the radiation resistant Fawkes, RL-6 or Charon in just as cowardly as sending in Lyons even though it'd just be common sense to send one of them in instead of sacrificing yourself. Of course, you can only send them in with the ''Broken Steel'' DLC, where the effects of the chamber are much less lethal, but it's still better safe than sorry.]]

** Catherine, the Lone Wanderer's mother, is the first character to die in the game. While the game never shows you what she looks like (other than her legs, which are unusually dark for the lighting effects used in the scene), use of PC console commands and an EasterEgg in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' show that she's black.

* FastKillingRadiation: The radiation mechanic guarantees your death if you accumulate more than 400 rads. Many areas of the game subject you to low amounts like 1 or 2 rads per second, sometimes 7 to 15 in "dangerous" areas. Nothing you can't survive if you stock up on Rad-X and Rad-Away to buff up your resistance and remove the radiation every now and then. However, outside the entrance to Vault 34 is the single-most irradiated area of the Capital Wastelands. The rads per second start to skyrocket the closer you get to the entrance. The entrance itself actually counts as a fast travel location once properly discovered. Any Lone Wander who is foolhardy enough to fast travel to this location, even well prepared with maximum radiation resistance, will be dead within a ''second'' if they're not fast enough to pause the game and start popping rad away and booking it out of there.