Fallout 3 writing editorial

As seen above, Anna Holt is probably above 50 years old. Notice the wrinkles on her neck and mouth and the swollen cheeks. Madison Li looks younger.

 

A 16 year old in Fallout 3, notice the wrinkles, not to mention everyone has rather veiny hands too.

 

And yet he doesn't ask of her and Three Dog never heard of her anyway. Which means that, yes, he went to GNR just to get an update of the terribly complex situation of the DC area that I'm sure no one else could have provided.

It's both, I'd say. They should have just found a way to deny access to the structure until you talked with Doctor Li. An access card or something, for example. Say that when you access the memorial the plot lock breaks and when you return after Vault 112 SMs have entered the structure. There, done.

Beth games are full of examples of story and design contradicting each other. Biggest examples being that they made a loot based game in a setting where there shouldn't be loot anywhere anymore.

I call that, at worst, purposedly make the writing worse that it really is. Or he could have forgot that detail, after all you forgot that daddy doesn't ask of Dr. Li. You have no idea to know if he really thought that the Memorial had without a doubt the location of the GECK or not. That is bad faith.

She looks younger than Dr. Li*, nothing said anywhere hints that she could have been part of the original team, other persons are without a doubt new to the project and the fact that she is important in the present means nothing considering how much time has passed.

I guess you could say that the opposite is also true but throwing in a line that she was part of the original PP wouldn't have been a problem, wouldn't it? Either way is bad writing.

*or not, by looking at her portrait. But I played the PS3 version with lower resolution and less detailed textures.

 

Probably my biggest issue as well. Unfortunately the same trend continued in New Vegas and I can only hope Fallout 4 (or perhaps Wasteland 2) will explore survival in a post-apocalyptic world.

 

Cause high heels are SEXY dammnit!. Screw believability, I am just some horny teenager that needs to see SEXY.

In every fiction story, a certain level of suspension of disbelief is requires. Its the nature of the beast.

However, fucking up ALL canon and chocking it up to suspension of dis-belief is a cheap fucking copout.

Bethesda couldn't think of a better story so they re-hashed the FEV plot even though as many, including the wiki, stated that the original site for FEV research was West Tek. They then moved it to Mariposa because West Tek was deemed not secure enough. So it can be inferred that Mariposa would be the sole location to hold FEV simply because it was the most secret and built SPECIFICALLY, for its testing.

Brotherhood of Steel is the same. Time and time again people like myself noticed before F3s release that there is no way in hell the BoS would have had the technology to make a cross country road trip. Power Armor needs constant maintenance, the BoS have no way of reliably transporting such large amounts of soldiers across such vast distances (even if you go they used the verti-bird explanation, you would need re-fueling stations all along the route from Cali to DC, remnants of the masters army shooting them down, etc,), West Tek was close to Lost Hills and the elders STILL had a hissy fit about raiding the place, even though it was assumed it might contain usable lost technology. Now all of a sudden they travel god knows how many miles, on a similar hunch?

Just very very shitty shitty writing.

 

In New Vegas is more believable because there are few places that are supposed to have been completely abandoned centuries ago, the Nevada desert wasn't reliant only on scavenging pre war resources and part of the stuff you find was abandoned/forgotten by the people that moved in from NCR territories. There is still stupid stuff like fresh apples in forgotten places, though.

 

Please don't forget that jewel in the crown, the wet dream of any wannabe RPG writer: Motheruckingship Zeta. Only things that were missing were dragons, nazis and, of course, zombies. If it had those things, it would have been perfect.

Come on, we all know that, it there is a hell for RPG writers, some of those so-called writers and scribblers at Bethesda will have first rows. At least.

 

I'm reminded of the chocolate chip cookie at the Sierra Army Depot in Fallout 2. In fairness, loot placement is more a game design issue than a writing issue, and the Interplay games are guilty of more than a few of the same sins as Bethesda's (for instance, 200-year-old pharmaceuticals don't seem quite as suspect as 200-year-old food at first glance, but should set off the same flags when given even a modicum of thought). Iplay's writing and design just gave us more to keep us impressed and allow our suspension of disbelief a chance to kick in in the background. (And, admittedly, Gamebryo's random loot tables for containers kicked the incongruities up to a whole new level.)

 

Actually strictly speaking, most pharmaceuticals do not really have an expiry date. 200 years might be pushing it, but the vast majority of medicine works just fine even decades after it has "expired." The expiry date is only really in place for legal reasons. We can also give this more of a hand-wave because medicine in the Fallout universe is more advanced than what we have in our world in some ways, and we can conclude it might not be limited by the same factors as our own.

Food doesn't have that luxury, and even if food remained edible for hundreds of years (rather than crumbling to dust/compost/etc.) then it's still ridiculous to think that there would be enough edible food in the Capital Wasteland to sustain anyone for more than about a year. Seeing grocery stores inhabited by raiders that are still stocked with goods 200 years after the war is ridiculous. What, do the raiders just not eat?

 

meh, com on. All faces look as ugly like that in F3 just as they do in Oblivion. This is more an issue because of the shitty engine and the fact that guys at Bethesda didnt knew how to make proper faces.

not sure if its true but in an absolute vacuum a banana can be keept edible for 7 years I think.

 

Uh, guys. I've already invalidated your discussion.

 

If they had done something different with the Enclave, like they actually being a remnant of a remnant, imagine like Autumm's dad and Autumm escaped the oil rig with the President AI, and after traveling to the capital escaping the persecution of the NCR they stumble upon a rather large military base full of old equipment like power armor, vertibirds and weapons, Food supplies and the like.

After a few years of living in the base, isolated but well fed Autumm jr. starts to get weird ideas about restoring the Enclave, probably thanks to the President AI so he starts hiring mercenaries by giving them the equipment in exchange for work, they take over a few vaults acquiring needed scientific personel to prepare for a takeover of the Capital, but they know they have limited resources, so they mostly keep on the downlow, they may have the base and equipment, but their vertibirds barely have any fuel, the armors they have are either in poor condition or are all rather old models, while they could try and force everyone under their flag with force a battle of such proportions would drain them rather quickly, after learning of this Project that seeks to purify the water of the Wasteland they decide the best course of action is to take over it so the people of the region have no other choice but to join them. The AI may have it's own shortsighted plans for the Projectm but Autumm actually looks forward to use the Purifier to gain power rather than genocide.

The Capital BOS could have similar intentions but different approaches, so the concept of Helping either group would have it's own set of pros and cons. And then there would be a reason for all those people that want to have a "join the enclave" option to want it.

 

This is rather off-topic, but... Bioshock Infinite is actually good? o_0

 

Six pages of discussion on the topic of "Why does feces taste like shit?" and dissections of it in the vein of "Are you dumb or what? Come on, if you look at it on particle level...."

EDIT: I actually like a few points in that idea of yours Walpknut. Would be an OK mod

 

I think the only real way how the Enclave would have worked for me in an new game (as faction) is by making them actually a faction you can join. Either as "gray" and rather neutral faction, or one that is very selfish as far as their goals goes, but not as an outright "evil in your face action" that just wants to do some mass genocide. No just a faction that would for example ask the people if they want something and trade for it maybe, but not hesitate to either use violance, intimidation and bribery to achieve their goals. Like if the citizens of Megaton dont want to hand over their nuclear weapon to them peacefully they would just move in with their troops and march away with it, and shoot everyone in the process that doesnt agree with them.

Actually if I think about it, the nuclear bomb in Megaton should have played a much bigger role in the game. Megaton should have been not a town build around a stupid crater that makes no sense but actually a town build around an old nuclear missile silo



with the town on top of it, where the "usual" and poor citizens reside and the more privileged people living underground inside the base with the leaders, nuclear cult etc. directly inside the missile room, which they see as their sacret temple. I mean seriously which faction would not want to controll an fully operational nuclear missile silo? Could have been at least an major side plot.

 

Meh. Coulda been worse.

They could have ended it like Mass Effect 3.

Interesting concept, but I don't know what they would do with one single missile anyway. Destroy the Citadel to fuck up the BoS? Pull a Ulysses and nuke some important trade route or another?

Still, it's already much less stupid that sacrficing all to hold a water purifier that is placed downstream of running water, when the game also shows purified water is already fairly easy to come by. Fallout 3's plot was a mess, but it's Bethesda so that was a given.

 

I was worse than the ending of ME3, ME3's ending is bad because it was very rushed, and the original game didn't even have an epilogue aside from the Buzz Aldrin thing. But after the free DLC the endings, while still rushed are explained better and well they actually show you little images of characters in the aftermath.

FO3 on the other hadn gives you the option of dying or dying, the endings only change 1 line of dialogue and it doesn't feel like you accomplished anything, and you had to pay 10 dollars to at least get a peek of what happens with the purified water.