A few things we've all seen and read about with the previews and trailers of NV so far are that House is the 'king' of New Vegas, he owns Vault 21 after having won it through gambling and has turned it into a hotel, he lives in the Lucky 38 Casino, and he apparently froze himself in stasis for a while. My question stems from noticing the Pip-Boy on his wrist, as seen right at the end of the trailer where he is walking towards us with an explosion going off behind him.
So just who is House?
Given that so many of Van Buren's elements are making their long-awaited appearance in a released Fallout game, I have a theory, and rather than it being a simple case of "he got a Pip-Boy when he won Vault 21"; it's got to do with Dr Presper.
From those design documents (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Victor_Presper), Presper's plan was to infect the Tibbets Prison with the 'New Plague' virus, let those prisoners loose into the world - including the PC, and then wipe out selected areas with B.O.M.B - 001. Interestingly enough, it states in the early designs that Presper and his team of scientists were all frozen in hibernation (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/New_Plague). Hmm...
The other thing that intrigues me is that Presper's crew in Van Buren were all meant to be equipped with Pip-boys, and he himself had a 'Super Pip Boy'. Which leads me back to House and several plot predictions:
- Will we see an overall story arc and game ending similar to what was intended with VB?
- From those 'escaped convicts' we've seen from the latest gameplay footage, I assume there will be a prison in the game - if so, are these convicts already unwittingly carrying the virus?
- Did House freeze himself over a certain time period in order to 'awake' at the best possible moment to take advantage of the ongoing war between NCR and Caesar's Legion?
- Is Doc Mitchell (who I presume will play an important role based on the choice of voice actor) who happens to give you a Vault 21 jumpsuit - the same Vault 21 House controls - in on the plan, using the Courier as the needed catalyst/wild gun to effect change in New Vegas as several factions teeter on a knife edge? Mitchell is a surgeon and presumably has robotic expertise - surely he has connections with House from when they were in Vault 21?
- Does the package the Courier gets jumped for contain launch codes? Or, perhaps more likely, as with the Water Chip and the GECK, is it a McGuffin used to send the Courier on this revenge mission which inevitably leads him directly into the middle of the conflict - maybe as House's pawn? Perhaps the package contains nothing at all - just a fake carrot on the end of a stick.
- Is Helios One going to replace B.O.M.B - 001, with the same massive choice at the end of the game where, like it or not, nuclear Armageddon will find its way into New Vegas, and hence explaining why you can't continue playing after the ending?
I'd love to hear your thoughts

So just who is House?
Given that so many of Van Buren's elements are making their long-awaited appearance in a released Fallout game, I have a theory, and rather than it being a simple case of "he got a Pip-Boy when he won Vault 21"; it's got to do with Dr Presper.
From those design documents (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Victor_Presper), Presper's plan was to infect the Tibbets Prison with the 'New Plague' virus, let those prisoners loose into the world - including the PC, and then wipe out selected areas with B.O.M.B - 001. Interestingly enough, it states in the early designs that Presper and his team of scientists were all frozen in hibernation (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/New_Plague). Hmm...
The other thing that intrigues me is that Presper's crew in Van Buren were all meant to be equipped with Pip-boys, and he himself had a 'Super Pip Boy'. Which leads me back to House and several plot predictions:
- Will we see an overall story arc and game ending similar to what was intended with VB?
- From those 'escaped convicts' we've seen from the latest gameplay footage, I assume there will be a prison in the game - if so, are these convicts already unwittingly carrying the virus?
- Did House freeze himself over a certain time period in order to 'awake' at the best possible moment to take advantage of the ongoing war between NCR and Caesar's Legion?
- Is Doc Mitchell (who I presume will play an important role based on the choice of voice actor) who happens to give you a Vault 21 jumpsuit - the same Vault 21 House controls - in on the plan, using the Courier as the needed catalyst/wild gun to effect change in New Vegas as several factions teeter on a knife edge? Mitchell is a surgeon and presumably has robotic expertise - surely he has connections with House from when they were in Vault 21?
- Does the package the Courier gets jumped for contain launch codes? Or, perhaps more likely, as with the Water Chip and the GECK, is it a McGuffin used to send the Courier on this revenge mission which inevitably leads him directly into the middle of the conflict - maybe as House's pawn? Perhaps the package contains nothing at all - just a fake carrot on the end of a stick.
- Is Helios One going to replace B.O.M.B - 001, with the same massive choice at the end of the game where, like it or not, nuclear Armageddon will find its way into New Vegas, and hence explaining why you can't continue playing after the ending?
I'd love to hear your thoughts