Fallout Series: Because Arguing Never Changes

I thought that Fallout was supposed to be how the future was imagined in the 50's. So, same culture as in the 50's, only with robots and atomic cars. Basically the world of Fallout turned out exactly as people thought it would in the 50's.

As for a logical, in-universe explanation... Maybe the sudden technological revolution froze the culture as people wanted to keep something as some kind of fixed point.

Considering how the U.S. treated its neighbors in that timeline, it's most likely that the government forced the issue. People TRIED to change the culture, and were summarily executed for it while the propaganda machine of the TV networks covered it up.

I've just started replaying fallout 3. I finished it playing as a girl. This time, I'm playing as a guy. I finished escaping vault 101 and saved.

I've been on a full play myself. Beat the main story over the course of several days and haven't even really started Broken Steel. I explored a while and then took on Mothership Zeta. Finished that yesterday and literally just finished Operation: Anchorage. Then something funny happened, and I know it wasn't meant to. I must have accidentally hurt somebody or touched something I wasn't supposed to, because Scribe Olin said "We must protect our assets" and everyone suddenly aggroed me. While I was wearing the Winterized power armor. And carrying the Gauss rifle. You can guess how that ended.

So now I have some sweet gear, and somehow the rest of the Outcasts aren't bothered by me. So there's that.

How come they never used this?

It's not 60's.

...But they should have used some of Tom Lehrer scores.

Ya think Lehrer and Yankovic's songs would have been allowed anywhere near the radios of Pre-Great War America, under THAT government?

Heh. Heh. Heh. Heh. Heheheheheheheh. Heh. Wait. You're actually serious.

The moment either one of those two looked like gaining that kind of prominence they'd have disappeared into the night and fog and straight into one of those rehabilitation camps that ended up with folks being experimented on with FEV and other such nasties by those fucks that you see in Big Mountain. Peaceniks and refuseniks and those that ripped the piss out of the establishment like them didn't have a long life expectancy.

In the Fallout world, we'd never have heard of Yancovic or Lehrer.

...I, kind of, really want ghoul version of Tom Lehrer. Actually, mutant version of Tom Lehrer wouldn't be bad, either, but I don't think there's any piano that designed to accomodate muties.

Kinda want Michael Dorn doing Tom Lehrer songs in full Worf mode now.

And I want a Ghoul Al Yankovik making parody songs about the Wasteland.

Well you kinda already had that in New Vegas, what with Joshua Sawyer voicing that cowboy-dressed character that you can recruit for the Tops Casino - as all the songs he sings are parodies of classic cowboy shit-kicker tunes that he wrote for the game.

The Lonesome Drifter is Joshua Sawyer?

One thing about the '50s schtick: in Fallout 1 and 2, it was lighter. The alternate history was clear, but it was meant to be an obsolete vision of the future, with old-style cars (which were electric rather than nuclear) and a militaristic, conformist culture (in the vaults). It was Bethesda's 3D world that implied life had stayed exactly the same for a hundred years, and Obsidian inherited this.

What I've never understood is why they set the war in 2067. Putting it in the eighties would have worked fine.

I think the idea is that the technology still took about as much time to develop, but just developed along very different lines. And as I understand it, the decision to go from slightly harder science (ie. ghouls can't be created simply by radiation exposure, but rather have traces of FEV in their system as well, cars are electric rather than atomic, powered armour is state of the art and fairly rare as opposed to any lucky draftee eventually getting their own set) to the goofier Schizo Tech of the later games was happening as early as FO 2. Bethesda took it even further, but my issue with them is more to do with how they wrote people than tech.

edited 19th Oct '16 12:26:46 PM by Unsung

A bit - yeah. The Lonesome Drifter that sings at the Tops Casino's Aces Club is Joshua Sawyer.

See here:

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Home_on_the_Wastes

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Streets_of_New_Reno

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/New_Vegas_Valley

It's a different dude that plays the guitar parts, but Joshua definitely sings the songs. He also wrote the new parody versions of original material. Full disclosure - I learned all this on the New Vegas thread quite a long time ago.

edited to add

The dialogue that you hear when you recruit the LD may not actually be voiced by Joshua himself. Indeed according to the Vault wiki's technical section, it's Gregory Alan Williams who does the talking bits.

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/The_Lonesome_Drifter

edited 19th Oct '16 4:49:37 PM by TamH70

SSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO...what kind of creatures do you think would arise in Central America in the Fallout Universe?

^ Chupacabra.

Well, I've heard of something in Central America called a "bullet ant" so try imagining that huge and irradiated.

Though now I'm wondering what happened to Central America after the bombs fell. We never DO get to visit other countries in the Fallout Universe, do we?

Giant vampire bats.

Oh god, these as big as the ants in the Fallout universe. Please no.

edited 25th Dec '16 10:19:36 AM by GethKnight

I have to wonder what happened to the other countries in the fallout universe. Maybe some later games can focus on that.

And that's only ONE example of monster bugs in the real world. Just take some time to look up insects in Central America or, hell, fauna in general. Now imagine them all big, irradiated, and wanting to kill you. If crabs can become abominations, so can cougars and monkeys.

Edit: In fact, here's a link: http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_1360_23-real-insects-more-horrifying-than-any-movie-monster/

I hope so too.. Did other countries have a equivalent of Vault Tec? How did rich countries prepare for the nuclear holocaust? How did poor countries prepare for the A-bombs? What factions have risen in the ashes of the old world to fight for the new one in other countries? We've only been playing around in America but it just makes me really curious about the rest of the world especially when I hear that immigration to the United States is still going on.

edited 29th Dec '16 10:04:49 AM by fredhot16

So partly because I've been wondering for a while if I could pull it off and partly because this video series spurred some inspiration, I have begun a Pacifist Run of New Vegas. Enter Sue the Stampede, an expert at getting shot at, running away, running away and getting shot at in ways that technically cause the target to die, and currently significantly less a master of shooting weapons out of people's hands (but always badass when it works). Because if war never changes, someone has to try and raise a proper stand against it.

Made it to Vegas so far, Goodsprings, Powder Gangs, Primm and Come Fly with Me all completed to the best of my ability, as well as a lot of other miscellaneous quests. There's not much to talk about since my playthrough has ended up pretty similar to that video series, with the exception that I put more Charisma into my character^note less for any practical reason and more because it just felt more appropriate, though I suppose I could get Animal Friend down the line. Not particularly useful, most of the time I don't even have companions — just having Boone kill everything is what I consider "a normal run" — because they open fire and kill stuff. The other rule I'm semi-keeping to, if I hear gunfire, I have to go and investigate, and intervene if at all possible. Plus, if a quest has a peaceful option, I should probably go for it (e.g. evacuate in Honest Hearts if I ever do it, don't do Boone's recruitment quest), which is one reason why I've been going NCR. Wild Card could also be an option, but a lot of that route has you just sort of choose to ignore things like the Brotherhood rather than actively make a deal with them, and I am an ever-active peacemaker.

Could've gone Legion for some trippy roleplaying, but "I won't kill you, I'll just have you crucified" is an, uh, interesting take on "pacifism". And then there's the Brotherhood, at which point for both Caesar and Mr. House it becomes "I won't kill you, I'll just completely explode the large bunker you're standing in". Christopher Nolan, eat your heart out.

I was worried it'd end up a bit stale, but it's pretty fun so far. Partly because half of New Vegas is spent in dialogue anyway, but also because I've been getting a lot more chance and excuse to mess with the AI and suffer some interesting challenges. I'm honour-bound to save as many as possible, so in one case with Deputy Beagle that meant some distraction tactics while he legged it. Other wacky stuff: leave the feral ghouls alive and Jason Bright will take them with him on the rocket launch; the nightkin attacking the Novac cattle isn't hostile to any of the townies, and if you shoot the minigun out of his hand he'll just walk up to you, hands still like they're holding a minigun, and stare at you — he will do this forever until you walk far enough away (or walk into the nearby feral ghouls...); if you're chased by a single radscorpion in Goodsprings, try to avoid Victor because apparently he'll shoot out a giant explosive, cripple your legs and take out half your health, thanks pal; finally, trying to shoot the melee weapon out of your companion's hands as a stalling tactic has got to be one of the most bizzare things you'd have to explain to your travelling buddy.

edited 5th Apr '17 3:11:27 AM by Lavaeolus

I love this, actual roleplaying.

Any chance Obsidian is going to do a game from Fallout 4? With, you know, good writing, and actual choices? Because from what I heard of the current game, I don't wanna play it. It sounds like a fun but pointless power trip.

I've been playing as a actual cowboy of sorts recently, revolver main weapon, the look (thanks to mods), and doing it classical western. I enter into a town, a big iron on my hip and plenty of problems about.