Fallout 3 at E3 - Gametactics.com interview

[lisac2k]

I wonder how much of a crater you get from an unexploded warhead? Unless there were some conventional explosives strapped to it (for that extra "boom")...

It's unusual to strap conventional explosives to an H-bomb. However, there's a quantity of an conventional explosive (TNT or something similar) in the bomb itself, working as "the ignition". This could generate a small crater, no bigger than a few meters in radius. The problem is, if this "ignition" explodes, the bomb will explode itself too.

I can hardly wait to hear more about this, but my hunch tells me they screwed something up. Again.

 

[Joe Kremlin]

Building in or around a crater created by an unexploded atomic bomb is one of the dumbest things I can think of. I can't wait to explore the town built on top of a chemical landfill.


I'm pretty sure that they said that only one crazy guy actually worshipped the bomb.

 

[Per]

Do we know for sure that the "blow up Megaton" quest will be close to the start of the game in the final release?

Bethesda may have rearranged the order of things somewhat, in order to show off the "cool" quest where you can blow up an entire town.

This has been suggested in other threads, but this interview tells us it isn't so. Or at least I really hope that "a few hours" represents only a tiny bit of the total game time.

 

[Dougly]

Do we know for sure that the "blow up Megaton" quest will be close to the start of the game in the final release?

Bethesda may have rearranged the order of things somewhat, in order to show off the "cool" quest where you can blow up an entire town.

This has been suggested in other threads, but this interview tells us it isn't so. Or at least I really hope that "a few hours" represents only a tiny bit of the total game time.

Hmm. I really need to start reading the interviews themselves again, rather than just the snippets posted on NMA.

I had given that up. It seems rather boring and pointless, given that most of the interviews and previews just keep rehashing the same (often distressing) details over and over again.

 

[esoj]

"and because people worshipped the bomb" - is this stoneage? A generation of wild undeveloped humans? People worshipping / claiming things to be an act of GOD or SATAN, which they can not explain? What? WORSHIPPING A NUKE.. WHAT? It's like people of the post-nuclear world are completely retarded, without any scientific background, worshipping nukes and other WONDERS of the modern life, which already took place in their past... WHAT?

I actually don't have too much of an issue with the concept of people worshipping atomic weapons. Much scientific understanding was likely lost in the aftermath of the war, and I doubt there are very many avenues open for "ordinary" people in terms of education. So, an atomic weapon - coupled with at least some sort of knowledge of the awsome power of destruction that it held in the past - might seem awe inspiring and worthy of worship.

Besides, people already worship all kinds of strange - sometimes outright dumb - things today.

Well, this is definitely not my cup of tea. The idea of building a town around a nuke and actually worshipping the nuke itself is really, well, quite silly. People excited about the chaos, pain and horror - that was brought upon them during the nuclear war - NOW building a town around a nuclear warhead.. No real fear of it blowing up someday, okay.. Worshipping the tool of destruction which is the cause of all their losses - okay.. The settlers have to be complete degraded demoralized scavengers (which ofcourse they should be to some extent) - however, building a town around an unstable 'raw' warhead and worshipping it - hmmm... hmmm...

 

[Dougly]

building a town around an unstable 'raw' warhead and worshipping it - hmmm... hmmm...

Fair enough, though people have been known to do awfully stupid things here in the real world. Also, maybe there's a chance they didn't know the bomb could still be detonated, or thought until just recently that detonation wasn't possible? If I recall, one of the previews mentions that whatshisname who gives you the mission hands you a device that "makes it possible for the bomb to detonate," or something along those lines.

To be honest, I'm more bothered by the fact that the nuke is still there. As has been pointed out by others, with the Brotherhood, and Super Mutants, and the Enclave, and even local slavers and raiders running around in the area, you'd think someone would have decided to come into Megaton with "overwhelming force" and claim the bomb for themselves.

Certainly it would make sense that at least ONE of those groups would be interested in the thing?

Wouldn't it?

 

[xdarkyrex]

you guys act like these people are familiar with nukes first hand.

this is 200 years after the war!

I doubt they grasp the destructive power of it, and it seems just as reasonable as the hubologists attempting to build a spacecraft.

 

[Sander]

you guys act like these people are familiar with nukes first hand.

this is 200 years after the war!

50s retro sci-fi says they damn well know nukes are really powerful, and destroyed the world.

I doubt they grasp the destructive power of it, and it seems just as reasonable as the hubologists attempting to build a spacecraft.

In other words: utterly ridiculous.

 

[Brother None]

What?

You guys are trying to explain Megaton with "people don't understand its destructive power"?

Is that a joke? Explain to me where exactly in 200 years, while people retain understand of guns and robots (a robot is guarding Megaton), they would magically forgot what destroyed the world?

In any case, one preview mentioned they built Megaton because they thought the undetonated nuke was a sign from God or something. And there's only one guy worshipping it.

Still pretty stupid. In this world of great evil and strife Mr Burke never found someone to arm the bomb, nor any other angry people/group? Stupid.

 

[xdarkyrex]

I do admit to it being a bit weak, in the same way I thought the hubologist space shuttle was weak.

I honestly think though, this is 200 years, thats a LONG time.

America is only a little older than that!

 

[Brother None]

The Hubologists weren't a bit weak, it was frikkin' retarded. And that's been said for the past decade. I'm a bit tired of people using Fallout 2's silly mistakes to explain stuff in Fallout 3. Fallout 2 had wanamingos, a fully functioning gangsta town, a rushed san fran, a stupidly peaceful NCR, talking animals, space shuttle, etc. etc. No need to repeat their mistakes.

200 years is a long time. But people regressing into primitive states doesn't fit Fallout's world. Fallout 3 looks like it has scavenging societies built on the ruins of the old world, and that's perfect, that's Fallout. But that means they don't forget how guns work, they don't forget how robots work, and they don't frikkin' forget that nukes go kabooom

 

[radnan]

in contrast to this i remember there was a FOT mission with some ghouls and a warhead which made a lot more sense then this ... since the ghouls were very old and demented it was quite funny and a bit more rational ... even if just a bit

 

[xdarkyrex]

The Hubologists weren't a bit weak, it was frikkin' retarded. And that's been said for the past decade. I'm a bit tired of people using Fallout 2's silly mistakes to explain stuff in Fallout 3. Fallout 2 had wanamingos, a fully functioning gangsta town, a rushed san fran, a stupidly peaceful NCR, talking animals, space shuttle, etc. etc. No need to repeat their mistakes.

Yeah...

200 years is a long time. But people regressing into primitive states doesn't fit Fallout's world. Fallout 3 looks like it has scavenging societies built on the ruins of the old world, and that's perfect, that's Fallout. But that means they don't forget how guns work, they don't forget how robots work, and they don't frikkin' forget that nukes go kabooom

I can understand guns and robots and things they deal with on a day to day bit. But nuclear physics isnt quite as natural and intuitive...

I dunno

 

[Morbus]

I can understand guns and robots and things they deal with on a day to day bit. But nuclear physics isnt quite as natural and intuitive...

I dunno

Are you kidding? It's all around you. Devastation, it was not the wild dogs that made 99% of humanity disappear...

 

[Sander]

I can understand guns and robots and things they deal with on a day to day bit. But nuclear physics isnt quite as natural and intuitive...

I dunno

Since when do you need to understand nuclear physics to understand that a nuclear bomb goes boom?
Ask any random person who knows absolutely nothing about nuclear physics in the 50s, and he'd go 'nuke= big fucking boom'.
It isn't like all that knowledge just got wiped out when the bombs dropped. Especially not when nukes created the world everybody sees around them.

 

[xdarkyrex]

I can understand guns and robots and things they deal with on a day to day bit. But nuclear physics isnt quite as natural and intuitive...

I dunno

Are you kidding? It's all around you. Devastation, it was not the wild dogs that made 99% of humanity disappear...

say there was a nuclear war 200 years ago, and you are 19.

Do you think, without a government infrastructure or any sort of means of recording information (in most cases) that its likely you understand why the world looks like it does as opposed to something else you cant even imagine?

It's like platos allegory of the cave.

 

[Sander]

say there was a nuclear war 200 years ago, and you are 19.

Do you think, without a government infrastructure or any sort of means of recording information (in most cases) that its likely you understand why the world looks like it does as opposed to something else you cant even imagine?

It's like platos allegory of the cave.

Ehm, no it isn't. It has absolutely nothing to do with Plato's cave.
Ever heard of people, you know, *talking* with eachother and hence sharing tales of how nukes destroyed the entire fucking world? There doesn't need to be some central institution to tell everybody that.

 

[Morbus]

say there was a nuclear war 200 years ago, and you are 19.

Do you think, without a government infrastructure or any sort of means of recording information (in most cases) that its likely you understand why the world looks like it does as opposed to something else you cant even imagine?

It's like platos allegory of the cave.

Vault-tec propaganda? At least I think that's what you mean by "you": the vault dweller. Anyway, its sure as hell people would pass the word (tradition, you know, that cute thing each and every single culture has) as to what the fuck made hell break loose...

 

[xdarkyrex]

:/ well tradition failed megaton.

I agree that in most cases, people would end up understanding a little bit about the history of the world, but their grasp would be limited and not everyone. When survival is your number one priority, you tend to live in the now.

I'm hardly claiming that Megatons premise is great writing, but I do not find it hard to suspend disbelief for it at all.

 

[Sander]

:/ well tradition failed megaton.

I agree that in most cases, people would end up understanding a little bit about the history of the world, but their grasp would be limited and not everyone. When survival is your number one priority, you tend to live in the now.

Horseshit. People always remember the past, especially when that past includes nearly destroying the entire world. Just because people are focused on one thing doesn't mean they suddenly forget everything else.