Slaughter Manslaught said:
1. If those cars didn't explode along the bombs and all the firefights that SURELY happened during those two-hundred years, why the hell are they going to blow NOW?
Its called the "Half-Life" syndrome. Anyone ever wonder what Black-Mesa was doing with a few thousand unstable exploding barrels? Or what the Combine was doing with thousands more of the same barrel in Eastern Europe?
Its more explosions for explosions sake. It can give combat a nice twist or add a little tactical planning into it (trying to draw an enemy close to a barrel/car and then shooting it).
Its a decision that is driven by gameplay reasons. Plus Beth probably justified it by saying something like "those reactors in the cars would still hold a small spark of juice after a few centuries".
2. I can imagine a leaking reactor irradiating the surrounding area. It would kinda fit with Fallout, although it would not realistic happen. But EXPLODING WITH A GUNSHOT? Sorry, Nuclear Power, never, ever worked that way.
Well technically it did. . .
From wikipedia: "The Mk I "Little Boy" was 10 feet (3.048 m) in length, 28 inches (71.12 cm) in diameter and weighed 8,900 lb (4 036.97 kg). The design used
the gun method to explosively force a hollow sub-critical mass of uranium-235 and a solid target spike together into a super-critical mass, initiating a nuclear chain reaction.
But I agree with the sentiment: if a massive war and years of neglect didn't cause the cars to explode by now, why would a half-dozen 9mm bullets fired into the door do it?
3. <Snip> I can totally imagine how Bethesda sees the use of nuclear cars:
"A Highwayman crashed with a bus in the Queens and exploded in a nucler blast. The blast took out the whole block and irradiated further blocks. Firemen in Hazmats are evacuating the irradiated area at the moment. Current casualities are at two-hundred and the irradiated are between two-thousands and five thousands. And, now the sports..."
Well, in the game play footage they only explode out about 30 feet, so I doubt they feel it would be that explosive. Its hard to imagine a world where the consumer could buy such a dangerous vehicle that it could kill thousands, even in a 50's esque world the "U-238 Atomic Energy Lab".
http://www.radaronline.com/features/2006/12/gilbert_u238_atomic_energy_lab.php
4. This is Fallout. Fallout is a Scavenger world with a big S. "Oh hai, there's a abandoned car with fusion cells/reactor. Let's scavenge and sell/use them!" Things like Fusion Cells and Reactors are very, very rare. And expensive.
If they had nuclear cars, maybe they had smaller nuclear batteries in most homes and appliance stores. Just idle thought really, but again I agree with you. After a few centuries almost everything of value would have been looted.
1. Nuclear weapons being thrown around like stones are ridiculous. The world was destroyed by nuclear weapons.
Yeah, the Fallout world had a real love-hate relationship with nuclear power. One the one hand, it was everywhere: cars, weapons, etc. That kind of everyday exposure meant that people would have grown comfortable with "everyday" uses of nuclear power.
But they also feared it, to a great degree. The threat of death from radiation or creatures spawned from radiation was a real one.
But the concept of such a small nuclear explosion being used multiple times is what bothers me. I wouldn't mind the Fatman if it were a one-shot special weapon, or something that had a timer to give you a chance to escape the blast radius during a boss fight, etc. But if I find Fatman ammo in a desk drawer, its going to ruin my immersion.
I personally won't use the weapon once I get the game (or at least, won't use it more than once
), just to avoid the sillyness factor.
It was already said in canon many times: Ghouls can barely shamble. The most prominent was when Lenny said he saw the Vault Dweller running all over the place in Necropolis. He knew it was the Vault Dweller because he could run, while ghouls could't.
Also, there were feral ghouls in Fallout, but they were pretty pityful. Fallout 2 had no feral ghouls at all, the crazies and ghoul scavengers that atacked you near Gecko were inteligent, as they could use firearms.
Beth probably had to make them possible of running/shambling faster because combat is not turn based. In the previous games, a goul could cover a fair number of squares in his turn while you calmly watched him get closer and closer.
But in a 1st person shooter, you would be shooting them the entire time they advanced, meaning that giving them the 'zombie' speed-setting would give the player no challenge at all (back away slowly, aim for the head, fire, repeat).
I think its another case of ignoring/changing something in the Fallout universe to aid gameplay, because theres some wiggle room about what the 'proper' speed for a ghoul would be.
).
