Although it's a hugely successful and much-beloved game, Fallout 4 sometimes gets criticized for its continued scaling back of more traditional role-playing elements. It's these elements that arguably made the series such a cult hit in the first place. Since Bethesda took over for the third installment, it definitely feels like things have slid into more action than straight??-up RPG.

Of the later Fallout games that have come about, New Vegas is almost universally considered the best in the series. People are always keen to return to this modern classic, and that includes the modding community, where Nexus Mods user bp42s (thanks, DSO Gaming) brings us "REPUTATION."

Aside from being spelled out in a way that makes it feel like you should shout it out loud with your arms held aloft, this mod adds one of New Vegas' much-missed features into Fallout 4??. Specifically �and as the name implies �it adds reputation, allowing you to gain fame or infamy among kn??own factions.

Just like in the good old days

This means you can now achieve good standing with a number of settlements across the nu??clear-annihi??lated city of Boston, which can yield rewards. For example: having a positive reputation may "provide you with access to their gear, materials, or a tribute chest in your honor."

You can also get access to supply crates, which can become unlocked if that particular faction sees you in a more favorable light. Additionally, you can get unique perks for reaching an "idolized" status. These perks are sai?d to be powerful, but "not game-breaking or unbalanced."

Alternatively, if you decide to be an utter bastard on your Fallout 4 travels, you can earn such negative esteem, that people will send out hit squads, similar to the Legionary Assassins in New Vegas. Vendors will also increase their prices for both buying and selling d??ep?ending on what they think of you.

Also, salutes have been added to the game??, and bp42s says that generic NPCs "in the more organized or militaristic f??actions will have a chance to salute you when you look at them, depending on how liked you are." It's all about making friends or enemies, then.

It's a nice little revival of a role-playing element that seems to have gone away completely in the Fallout series. The fact that your actions and antics can once again influence how citizens and other wastelanders regard you �and whether they want to shoot you in the face �is something I think a lot of fans of the series will be keen to see in Fallout 4.

The post T??his Fallout 4 mod brings back the reputation system from New? Vegas appeared first on Destructoid.

Considered to be the greatest Fallout game ever made, Fallout: New Vegas is simply screaming out for a follow-up from Obsidian Entertainment. Sadly, nearly 14 years later and we still haven't had a new Fallout from the Avowed s??tudio. Oh well, at least we still have plenty of mods to keep us am??used.

And amused I am, thanks to this one from Nexus Mods user SadWeeble in which NPCs in New Vegas literally explode randomly. The game itself is already known for its dark humor and elements of the slightly absurd, so this should basically fi???t right into your normal playthrough.

SadWeeble describes it as turning the wasteland into the "tensest game of Hot Potato." Imagine just strolling through the Ve?gas Strip or the Mojave Desert itself, only to see the denizens and Wastelanders flip and ragdoll via an explosion that leaves very little time to say goodbye to personal limbs.

Customizable booms

It gets better, as well. The mod creator has also added in?? some custom setting?s to allow you to configure the randomness of NPCs exploding. You can, for example, change the delay before said NPC goes all boom. You can change the explosion "type," reward yourself some XP each time someone explodes, and mark essential characters as ones to ignore.

The only downside perhaps?? is you do need a few more downloads for this one to work. SadWeeble says in order to get "NPCs Randomly Explode" to work, you'll need the following:

• The New Vegas Script Extender
• The JIP LN NVSE Plugin
• The SUP NVSE Plugin
• The Mod Configuration Menu (optional)

I recently replayed Fallout: New Vegas, having not picked it up for a few years. One thing people typically praise the game for is its story and writing. It has a certain levity to it that offsets the somewhat bleak aspects of living in a post-apocalyptic world, something that Bethesda can't quite measure up to. I know I'm definitely not alone in hoping Obsidian will give us a New Vegas 2 at some point.

The post A Fallou??t: New Vegas mod where NPCs randomly explode? Sign me ?up! appeared first on Destructoid.

If you ask people, “What’s your go-to nuclear post-apocalyptic story?�Most will probably say Fallout; the action role-playing franchise that has been around f?or more than two decades and is now considered one of the most i?nfluential game series of all time.

Now, with the new live-action Fallout series by Amazon premiering to great acclaim and even reigniting interest in the game series, this might be the perfect opportunity to take a walk down memory lane and review some of the best things this franchise has had to offer. Here's our list for every Fallout game ranked from best to worst.

1. Fallout: New Vegas (2010)

If it’s a gripping story full of great characters and amazing twists you want, then Fallout: New Vegas is as good as it gets. After acquiring the franchise in 2007 and releasing Fallout 3 to critical acclaim, Bethesda contracted ?Obsidian to continue the franchise through a spinoff centering around the West Coast storyline. Obsidian Entertainment was founded by several former Interplay employees, so making the connection and the potenti??al was easy enough.

Fallout: New Vegas received positive reviews upon release, but it would be some time until people came to truly appreciate the game’s brilliant narrative and improvements on Bethesda’s Fallout 3 design. New Vegas is now not only widely recognized as the best Fallout game, but also one of the greatest RPG games in history. The title has a cult following, and even now, whenever I feel like a bit of time spent shooting radioactive creatures in the United States nuclear wasteland might do me good, reinstalling New Vegas is my first choice.

2. Fallout 3 (2008)

The severe disconnect between Fallout 3 and the previous two main installments in the series came as a shock to its dedicated fanbase, but it’s not as if Bethesda didn’t know what it was doing and ended up dropping the ball. If you can bring yourself to appreciate the “new�Fallout for the things it has to offer, then Fallout 3 definitely has a place in the RPG Hall of Fame.

It’s easy to look at Bethesda games now and criticize all the outdated gameplay mechanics. Heaven knows that social media has had a field day doing the same to Starfield. But back when there were only a handful of capable developers carrying the Western RPG tradition on their shoulders, Bethesda was regarded as one of the maestros. Fallout 3 has enough gameplay variety to distract you for hundreds of hours of playtime. The threequel ended up bagging numerous Game of the Year awards and garnered the praise of original Fallout devs like Tim Cain.

3. Fallout 2 (1998)

It’s still strange to contemplate the true scope of the first two Fallout games given the technical limitations they had to work with back then. The original Fallout in 1997 may have kicksta??rted this entire fictional world, but its sequel i?mproved on almost every aspect, and a mere year later, at that.

There’s a sense of depressing bleakness to Fallout 2 that I find absolutely irresistible. Now, I’ve never been one of those people to reject Bethesda’s Fallout simply because it opted to follow a different design philosophy, but I do believe that its take on the post-apocalyptic story could certainly do with a bit more of that nihilistic sense of dread coming from the sure knowledge that humanity ??is forever doomed. And I certainly miss the turn-based action sequences.

4. Fallout 4 (2015)

Bethesda did a wonderful job promoting Fallout 4, but it could’ve saved itself a lot of effort by simply saying: “If you loved Fallout 3, you’re probably going to enjoy Fallout 4 as well.�Perhaps that’s the single most disappointing thing about Fallout 4 for me. Don’t get me wrong; this is a great game. The world design is more ambitious, the visuals have been much improved over Fallout 3, and the variety of activities and mischief you can get up to in The Commonwealth is truly commendable. And don’t even get me started on the mods, because Bethesda certainly took its cue from Skyrim to make the game as mod-friendly as possible.

Yet something is holding Fallout 4 back. Maybe it’s the high expectations going in after experiencing so many great RPG games between Fallout 3 and the fourth entry. Maybe it’s ??the mediocre excuse of a story that never truly gets its moment in the sun. Maybe it’s all the innumerable bugs that?? Bethesda can’t seem to shake off. And maybe it’s all of these things. Still, none of these will necessarily prevent you from having a fun time playing the game.

5. Fallout (1997)

As discussed earlier, the first Fallout game set the tone for the franchise in more ways than one. Bethesd??a only expanded on the lore already developed by Interplay, so if this franchise has stood the test of time, it’s because of the talented group of people, including Tim Cain, Chris Jones, Mark O’Green, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason D. Anderson, who worked on the game for the better part of three years.

There was a time when the game was almost canceled after Interplay acquired the license to Dungeons & Dragons, and the release of Diablo a little while later gave the studio other ideas about how the project should proceed. Through it all, Tim Cain fought for his project, which he’d initially started as a game engine. And the result? A franchise that’s one of the biggest names in the industry. Even now, even today, you can play the original Fallout game and have a ton of fun with it, which is a testament to the sheer brilliance that Interplay designers employe?d to make their g??ame timeless; a feat that only a handful of games in history have managed to imitate.

6. Fallout Shelter (2015)

Fallout Shelter can be a fun experience for people with a love for Fallout and management games. It was originally released for iOS and Android after Fallout 4, but over the years, Shelter has made its way to other platforms as well. Not much can be said of Shelter, and sometimes I wonder if it ever would’ve seen the light of day had Fallout not been such a huge name in the first place.

7. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001)

Not to be confused with 2004’s Brotherhood of Steel, this turn-based tactical spinoff had a great story and a decent combat system. Tactics is much smaller in scale, and focuses heavily on strategy during turn-based squad fights. It also introduces several elements to the Fallout lore, some?? of w?hich have also been incorporated into Bethesda’s games.

8. Fallout 76 (2018)

One of the most controversial releases in history, Fallout 76 was the first game that made people genuinely question if Bethesda is still the right developer for this franchise. Even on a broader scale, some wondered if Bethesda has still "got it," a concern now exacerbated tenfold thanks to Starfield’s middling critical and commercial reception.

Fallout 76 was Bethesda Game Studios�first attempt at a multiplayer game, and it ended up being a disaster of epic proportions. We could go on and on about how Fallout 76 gets everything wrong about the franchise and perhaps the online gaming landscape, but let’s just say that most people would rather forget it even exists and leave it ?at that.

9. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004)

I know what you’re thinking: A Fallout game worse than 76? That can’t be right. Well, this spinoff from 2004 is definitely up there among some of the worst games ever developed. Gameplay mechanics are almost non-existent, the plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and the hack-and-slash nature of combat doesn’t even work for Fallout. Say what you will about 76, but at least that game adhered to some basic g??ame design standards and had some redeeming qualities going for it.

The history behind the Fallout games

Fallout is one of those massively successful and recognizable names that had very humble beginnings. It may not be as dramatic a tale as two broke programmers grinding in sweat and t?ears, day and night, to come up with an? era-defining masterpiece, but that first game in 1997 is very different from the Bethesda shooter you know and adore today.

In many ways, Fallout was the brainchild of Tim Cain (Pillars of Eternity, The Outer Worlds), who worked on the initial concept for six months before getting the go-ahead from Interplay. By the time the game was being finalized, it had already cost a whopping $3 million to develop and a crew of game developers to finish. Interplay imagined Fallout as the spiritual successor to Wasteland, which was another commercially successful post-apocalyptic role-playing game rele?ased ?in 1988.

It ended up selling 600,000 copies around the world �not quite as impressive as other competitors like Baldur’s Gate or Diablo, but enough to warrant a sequel and a future in the gaming industry. When Fallout 4 came out in 2015, it sold 12 million copies to retailers in the ?first 24 hours, grossing $750 million and setting records.

Comparing the Fallout TV show and Fallout games

The new Fallout live-action series by Prime Video has garnered rave reviews across the board, turning it into one of the handful of video game adaptations to have left an impression on the general populace. Amazon's take on the Fallout universe is fun, faithful, and compelling, so much so that its release on the company's live-service platform made the sales for Fallout 4 skyrocket by a whopping 7500% in just one week. Trust me; you can't help but want to play one of the Fallout games after watching the series. And as for the show itself, we're already impatient to see what will happen to our new cast of characters in season 2, already confirmed to be in production at Amazon Studios.

The post Every Fallout game, ranked best to worst appeared first on Destructoid.

There’s no arguing against it, the Fallout universe is huge. With a canonical timeline spanning over 1,000 years, there’s a lot of history packed into relatively ?few games. Thankfully, the games don’t span the entire timeline, inste??ad spanning a 195 year period between 2102 and 2287. 

Fallout 76 (Set in 2102)

Despite being the latest game to be released, Fallout 76 is actually set right at the very beginning of the timeline in terms of the Fallout games. Set just 25 years after the events of the Great War,?? the residents of Vault 76 are among the first people to resurface into ??the Wastes, leaving the safety of the Vault for Reclamation Day.  

Fallout (Set in 2161)

The first released Fallout game was, until Fallout 76 hit the scene, also the earliest part of the timeline seen in game form. Set 59 years after the events of Fallout 76, Fallout sees the main character set out ??in search of a water chip before ti??me runs out, and everyone in Vault 13 perishes. The main character goes through untold hardship, only to end up exiled for their troubles. 

Fallout Tactics (Set in 2197)

Despite being released three years after Fallout 2, the events of Fallout Tactics occur 36 years after the events of Fallout and 44 years before the events of Fallout 2. Gameplay is very di??fferent from both games, with the focus being more on tactical combat, as the name suggests.

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (Set in 2208)

Released three years after Fallout Tactics, the events of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel take place just 9 years later, although Todd Howard would confirm that neither Tactics nor Brotherhood were considered part of the canon when making Fallout 3, saying, "For our purposes, neither Fallout Tactics nor Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel happened."

Fallout 2 (Set in 2241)

Prior to the release of Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout 2 would indeed have been a direct sequel to the original Fallout. The story of Fallout 2 sees you playing as a direct descendant of?? the exiled main character from Vault 13, who must leave the safety of Arroya in search of a G.E.C.K. 

Fallout 3 (Set in 2277) 

The first Fallout game developed by Bethesda, Fallout 3 sees events occurring 36 years after the events of Fallout 2. This is likely the Fallout game which most people have the most vivid memories of; where you begin the g??ame as a child in Vault 101, aging up and taking the G.O.A.T. before leaving the Vault in search of your father. 

Fallout: New Vegas (Set in 2281)

With events set just four years after those of Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas sees you playing as a courier who, after being shot in ??the head, goes on a fairly violent quest across the state of Nevada to find who did this, why, and what happened to their final delivery.

Fallout Shelter (Set circa 2286)

Fallout Shelter takes place immediately before the events of Fallout 4, though the exact year has never been confirmed. As a mobile game, Fallout Shelter is marke?dly different from all of the other games mentioned here, with gameplay focusing? more on Vault management than combat or exploration. 

Fallout 4 (Set in 2287)

Fallout 4 was the furthest into the future of the Fallout universe that we actually saw until the addition of the new Fallout TV show. Events in Fallout 4 take place only one year after the events of Fallout Shelter, 195 years after the events of the original Fallout game and 210 years after the Great War. Where Fallout 3 saw you head out in search of your father, Fallout 4 sees you head ou??t in search for your son after he was stolen during your stint in Vault 88, held under cryogenic stasis.

All Fallout games in release order

Here are all of the Fallout games ordered by release date:

• Fallout (1997)
• Fallout 2 (1998)
• Fallout Tactics (2001)
• Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004)
• Fallout 3 (2008)
• Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
• Fallout Shelter (2015)
• Fallout 4 (2015)
• Fallout 76 (2018)

What order should you play the Fallout games in?

The order you choose to play the Fallout games in is entirely up to you, and your preference for graphics and play style. While playing chronologically is the best way to learn everything there is to know about the lore and history of the Fallout universe, it's not a requirement to do so.

It is entirely possible to dive straight into Fallout 4, for example, without having too much knowledge of the lore and history.?? While the story is undoubtedly connected to other games and you'll miss out on a lot of easter eggs and lore tidbits, you can enjoy the experience of the game without having to worry too much.

Of course, if you want to play by release order, you will be able to appreciate just how far these games have come in terms of development and graphics, while being gradually introduced into the universe and the concepts t?herein.

The post Every Fallout game in Chronological Order appeared first on Destructoid.

Within the Fallout universe, there are seemingly endless Vaults set up by Vault-Tec for the purpose of safeguarding human??ity. At least, that’s what Vault-Tec would have you believe. In reality, t??hese Vaults were set up with the sole purpose of human experimentation, and there are a truly enormous number of them. 

It’s very hard to establish what should or shouldn’t be included in ‘canon�within the universe. Opinions differ from fan to fan and even Chris Avellone, the creator of the Fallout Bible, has said that his work shouldn’t be used as canon while ??others strongly?? argue that it should. 

It’s a bit of a minefield, so I’m going to stick with the things that are counted as canon by most people �the major games and the TV show. With that said, let's look at some Vaults within the Fallout universe and their purpose within the Lore.

Fallout

The original Fallout game, developed by Interplay Entertainment and first released back in 1997, only introduced four Vaults into the lore of the universe, with two of them going on to be referenced in Fallout 2. 

Fallout 2

Surprisingly, Fallout 2 only brings one new Vault into the Fallout universe, as well as the two that also appear in the first Fallout game. 

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 marks the starting point of what I like to call the explosion of Vaults. From this point on, each game adds a larg?e number of Vaults that each add to the lore and prove precisely how terrible Vault-Tec truly is.

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas really boosted the number of kn??own Vaults within the lore. There are eight in total, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you by this point that they’re all pretty terrible. 

Fallout 4

Including those introduced in add-ons, Fallout 4 introduces eight Vaults into the universe, and the??ir purposes according to lore can ?only reaffirm any bad feelings that you’ve already grown for Vault-Tec.

Fallout 76

Fallout 76 adds the most Vaults into the Fallout?? universe by a mile. In total there are 14 Vaults to go through and Vault-Tec just keeps getting worse. 

Fallout TV series

If you’ve not seen the TV series in its entirety, I suggest you turn back now if you want to avoid spoilers! 

Vaults 31, 32, and 33 interconnected Vaults. The brainchild of Bud Askins, who we come to learn was one of the executives at Vault-Tec before the bombs fell. Only two of these Vaults house a population during the?? show, while the other holds the cryogenically fro?zen bodies of the executives themselves.  

Vault 4 is ??outside of these three interconnected vaults and is where Lucy and Maxim?us are given shelter during the series.

During episode eight of the Fallout TV series, we are shown a map of all Vaults in the United States. On this map, there are 116 Vaults out of the 122 Vaults currently known within the canon of Fallout. One user over on Twitter took the time to plot all of t??he Vaults shown in the TV show ??on Google Earth, which I recommend checking out if you want to know more about the location??s of the Vaults I've discussed here.

Here's the Fallout TV show Vault map:

The post All known Fallout Vaults canon to the franchise appeared first on Destructoid.

Amid fan discourse about the Fallout show's apparent removal of the beloved Fallout: New Vegas from the franchise's canon, that game's director Jo?sh Sawyer has weighed in on the matter to say he doesn't really care what happens with it.

For context, some fans believed Amazon's Fallout show had effectively removed Fallout: New Vegas from the series' timeline. Many consider Fallout: New Vegas to be the best game in the series, so they naturally weren't thrilled about the idea of it being rendered non-canon. Bethesda’s design director Emil Pagliarulo has already assured this isn't the case, but Josh Sawyer has admitted in a Rock Paper Shotgun interview he wouldn't be all that bothered if Bethesda made any radical changes to New Vegas and its lore.

Sawyer explained how he was "inundated with the discourse" as fans directly messaged him to air their concerns and anger about New Vegas' supposed dismissal from canon. While he does understand why these fans would be anxious about the possibility, Sawyer has personally detached himself from the project, saying: "My attitude towards properties that I work on, and?? even characters that I create, is that I don’t own any of this stuff. It was never mine."

He'll certainly have opinions should Bethesda do anything new or different with New Vegas, but he says he's not going to get angry over it. "I don’t get attached to things?? in that way. I don’t feel like it’s healthy for me to be really invested in something I have no control over, frankly."

It certainly seems like Bethesda intends to revisit New Vegas, with the Fallout show strongly suggesting its second season will take its cast to the city of New Vegas itself. Since the show is set 15 years after the events of New Vegas, it'll have to address the game's multiple endings, and either canonize one of them or somehow sidestep them entire??ly. Either way, I can see some fans getting heated with whatever decision is made.

Any backlash the Fallout show has received so far appears to minimal, though. Overall, it's been a huge success, with it sporting high Rotten Tomatoes scores from critics and general audiences. Some have lauded it as one of the best video game adaptations ever made. Even if seas?on 2 winds up making a couple of choices that prove unpopula?r with certain fans, general audiences are unlikely to care as long as it maintains the same level of quality.

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While the games never fully left the limelight, the recent Fallout TV show �with a second season ?now confirmed �has increased the franchise's popularity in a pretty big way. With that in mind, it will not surprise a single person reading this that some of the games have experience?d a big uptick in concurrent players.

For example: Fallout 76 saw a player count of 73,368 on PC in the last 24 hours or so, according to data from SteamDB. The chart itself gives a visual representation of this increase and while the numbers are not as strong as, say, Fallout 4, it's still a testament to the TV ?show's success.

Likewise, the third entry �specifically the Game of the Year edition �also saw an increase in popularity, with a new peak concurrent player count of 11,471. New Vegas has also been getting some love, with 43,632 peop?le playing over the weekend, just a few thousand shy of the player count record that was set some 14 years ago.

Not just the newer games, either

While the original Fallout installment from way back in the day hasn't bested its peak, more people do seem to be playing it lately. However, the 1998 sequel is show??ing a new peak concurrent player number on Steam. It's good to see the older entries still pulling in fans.

In fact, from what I can tell, Fallout 4 is the only mainline game that hasn't hit a new ??record since the show aired, which is kind of surprising seeing as it's probably the most successful one in the series ??in terms of sales. Although having said that, it's been consistently popular since it was released.

Oh look, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel has a new record number of Steam pla?yers as well. Okay, it's only 243, but it kind of hammers home the influence the recent adaptation has had.

The post Unsurprisingly, some o?f the F??allout games are hitting new concurrent player peaks appeared first on Destructoid.

The Fallout series stealth debuted on Amazon Prime on April 10, and it’s got people ta?lking about the game fr?anchise all over again. Memories are flooding back as we watch Ella Purnell and Michael Emerson live out the lives of our video game dreams... or nightmares. 

With that said, it got me thinking. Can you make all of the Fallout games in Infinite Craft? Is it possible? Well, as it turns out, yes?? it is, albeit in ?a really bizarre order.

How to make Fallout in Infinite Craft

Before you can make any of the other games (aside from Fallout Shelter, which is a bit of a bizarre entry on this list), you’ll need to be able to make Fallout. To do so, follow this recipe:

Now that you’ve got that, we can move on to the other titles in the Fallout franchise. Now, these aren’t in order of release. For some reason, you can’t make Fallout: New Vegas without making Fallout 4, and apparently you can’t make Fallout 2 without Monkey Island. Don’t ask, the answer doesn’t ma?ke any sense. 

How to make Fallout 4 in Infinite Craft

This one comes first because it’s by far the easiest game to make after making Fallout itself. All you need to do to get Fallout 4 is add River to Fallout. 

Voila, Fallout 4.

How to make Fallout 76 in Infinite Craft

Just like Fallout 4 before it, you can now make Fallout 76 by adding River to Fallout 4. I’m not sure why t??here are so many rivers involved here, but apparently, they’re the key.

How to make Fallout 3 in Infinite Craft

This is where the fun starts. To make Fallout 3, you need to have made Fallout 76, and you can’t make Fallout 76 without first making Fallout 4. So, once you’ve made both of them, you’re ready to make Fallout 3, by creating Bethesda.

Once you’ve created Bethesda, you can combine it with Fallout to make Fallout 3, which makes sense, because it was the first Fallout game developed by them way back in 2008. 

How to make Fallout: New Vegas in Infinite Craft

To make Fallout: New Vegas, you need to have made Fallout 4 first, despite Fallout: New Vegas coming out a whole five years before Fallout 4. But seeing as we’ve already done that, you now only need to mak?e New Vegas.

With New Vegas in hand, add it to Fallout 4 and you’ll get Fallout: New Vegas.

How to make Fallout 2 in Infinite Craft

This is where things start to get a little weird. I have no idea how Monkey Island comes into this, and I’m now incredibly worried for Murray, but you need to make Monkey Island before you can make Fallout 2.

Once you’ve made Monkey Island 2, you can then combine it with Fallout in order to get Fallout 2. And this isn’t even the weirdest combination on this list. ??;

How to make Fallout Shelter in Infinite Craft

The recipe for Fallout Shelter, the mobile Fallout game that was initially released in 2015, doesn’t require the recipe for Fallout at all, but it does require you to make Bethesda. If you’re following this list, then you should have it already after making it to get Fallout 3. 

Then, you’ve got to make Pokemon Sword and Shield. Yeah, I’m not sure h?ow we got here either. 

The post How to make every Fallout game in Infinite Craft appeared first on Destructoid.

The TV adaptation of Fallout is due to air on April 12. To celebrate this �and because you need more Fallout in your life �Be??thesda is launching a?n anthology of all the games in the series.

The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (my word, is that a pain to type out!) Anthology set is launching April 11 and comes with a total of seven games. You'll get Fallouts 1-4, New Vegas, 76, and even the 2001 release Tactics.

To cap it off, the set will arrive in a mini-nuke that makes an "audible bomb" sound when you open it. I can't see how that could possibly go wrong in a public setting! You'll also get S.P.E.C.I.A.L. cards, each with a PC code for the games. Pre-orders are being taken now, but the anthology isn't available on consol??e from what I can tell.

The "S" stands for Steam...

We're not quite done with Fallout just yet. As well as the classic games becoming available on Epic Games Store for free at some point this year (after Epic changed its mind initially), we're also still waiting for the next-gen upgrade of F4.

Bethe??sda told us late last year that we need to wait a little bit longer for that. Not to mention the fifth entry in the series, which is said to be in the pipeline. But who knows when we'll see either of those...

Some may prefer the older, non-Bethesda games, while others are happier with the direction the series has gone in since Fallout 3??. It doesn't really matter ?which side you fall on. At least with this anthology set, you get to play them all.

The post Bethesda is launching a huge Fa?llout anthology collection just before the TV show airs appeared first on Destructoid.

You can take the Fallout: New Vegas out of the silly, but you can't take the silly out of Fallout: New Vegas. Or something like that. At any rate, someone has managed to make modding hist??ory by finding an old file that was thought to have been lost to the an??nals of time.

This one is very much for you late '90s/early 2000s nu-metal fans. As spotted by PC Gamer, Twitch streamer Micky D (via Twitter user UsagiCola) has re-uploaded a mod for NV that adds Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame as a companion. Whenever you interact with him, he can only reply in snippet?s from some of the band's music.

Ne?ither Micky D nor UsagiCola are the? original creators of the mod. The story goes that modder lb8068 created and uploaded it around seven years ago. However, after formatting their computer, they lost the files.

It's my way, my way or the (abandoned) highway

The person who has brought it back from the dead said they just happened to have it on their hard drive. As such, we can once again enjoy the stylings of Durst as he accompanies us across the Mojave Desert. You can download the mod from here.

Ah, I remember the?? nu-metal days. Spiky hair, baggy JNCOs, no deodorant. Good times. L??imp Bizkit was definitely at the forefront of the genre, even if Durst himself was pretty much the embodiment of a skater douche.

Personally, I wouldn't really want him singing and rapping at me while I play Fallout, but it's nice to know that the mod has found a new home??. We should all celebrate video game preservation. Whatever form it comes in.

The post Long-lost ‘Fred Durst’ Fallout: New Vegas mod returns seven years later appeared first on Destructoid.

Chris Avellone, the former chief creative officer and co-founder of Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment, has revealed that the company tried to make an Elder Scrolls game in a similar vein. In a thread confirming an old tweet uncovered by 80 Level, Avellone discussed details about the proposal.

He also compared the idea to the way Infinity Ward and Treyarch handled alternate Call of Duty games during that generation, with Bethesda developing a main game and Obsidian working on something that would offer more Elder Scrolls adventures, like Fallout: New Vegas did for that series.

According to Avellone, the idea didn't gain traction with Bethesda, and he suggests that the Starfield studio wasn't happy with the reception that Fallout: New Vegas received, "good and bad."

Although Fallout: New Vegas has become highly regarded over the years since its release, there was initially some backlash toward the game due to bugs and game breaking issues.

After years of patches and updates, Fallout: New Vegas has gotten the recognition that it deserves. It's disappointing to think of what we could have had if this had ultimately panned out. It has been over a decade since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released, and it doesn't look like we'll get to play The Elder Scrolls VI anytime soon.

If only we had an Obsidian-developed Elder Scrolls game to fill the decade plus gap between releases. It seems like Bethesda missed a trick with that one. Maybe Obsidian's (remarkably Elder Scrolls looking) fantasy RPG, Avowed, can fill that hole in my heart.

The post Fal??lout New Vegas dev says studio once pitched an El??der Scrolls spin-off appeared first on Destructoid.

Over the years, there's been debate among fans about who fired the first nukes that kick-started the events of Fallout. Well, it looks as though this has been answered, as Tim Cain let the ??cat out?? of the vault, so to speak.

In a recent conversation with YouTube channel TKs-Mantis, Cain �who co-created the first two Fallout games �let it slip that China struck first. At around the 1:26:40 mark, he discusses the reason why America was nuked as?? part of the lore, related to how the US was creating an artificial virus known as FEV. It's then China is mentioned in the conversation, basically confirming the country was the first to strike when the states refused to cooperate.

Host Mantis then, with raised eyebrows, tells Cain that what he just said was "earth-shattering." At this point, Cain becomes a little coy, seemingly unaware that Fallout fans were not sure who "shot?? first," adding, "Oh, well then I don't know... Who knows? It was probabl??y some rogue nation."

Let's hope there's no immediate fallout from this revelation

Leonard Boyarsky �the other co-creator of the early Fallout entries �has gone on record saying that it doesn't really matte??r ?who launched the first attack. However, this recent slip up from Cain basically confirms what some may already have suspected.

In any case, it's a neat little bit of extra lore for those who are big into the post-apocalypt?ic franchise's universe. Who launched t?he first nuclear bombs is something that's been talked about for over two and a half decades. Now, it looks like we have closure.

On top of that, we've also recently learned that the Fallout TV show releases in April 2024. With the success of the Last of Us adaptation, others will no doubt be wanting to follow in t??hose footsteps.

The post Fallout co-creator lets slip who shot first in the great??? nuke war appeared first on Destructoid.

Traverse the wastelands of Fallout New Vegas for free

The official Epic Games Store Twitter revealed today that the Ultimate Edition of the hit 2010 action role-playing game Fallout: New Vegas is currently available for free via the Epic Games Store platform. You can download it now on the EGS here or by clicking on Free Games on the client. Be sure to add the game to your account soon, as it is only free th?rough June 1.

Every week a game is free on the EGS, but typically they are indie titles. Occasionally though, a AAA title like Fallout: New Vegas is the free?bie of the week. Once claimed you will have access to the game permanently through the client, even after June ?1.

[caption id="attachment_252388" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The best Fallout

Many devout Fallout fans regard Fallout: New Vegas as one of the best entries in the series to date. Praised for its story, the game features a well-crafted narrative?? that has become a staple for developer Obsidian Entertainment.? Even though the franchise is known for being sandbox in nature, this one takes it to the next level.

The world feels alive and the freedom to explore the Mojave Desert however you want is second to none. All of the quests are extremely well-written and feel meaningful, especially the side quests. Almost every quest has a branching path you can ??take that impact and changes t??he world in some way. Every playthrough is truly unique. Few games achieve the goal of creating a realistic and living breathing world, but this one succeeds in every way.

Furthermore, a lot of the best systems from Fallout 3 not only make a return but are improved upon. Gameplay wise there are ways to make almost every build viable, i?ncluding brawler and melee characters, whereas in the rest of the franchise you typically have to build around gunplay in some way. The game features some of the franchise's?? coolest weapons and armor, like the Desert Ranger armor set.

Also, every pi?ece of DLC for the game is worthwhil??e and features even more incredible story.

Playing on PC is also probably the best way to enjoy the game as it has incredible mod support. Even though there is plenty to enjoy in the base game, mods add hundreds if ?not thousands of hours of content to the experience.

There's no better time to break out your Pip-Boy and freshen up on some Fallout in anticipation for the upcoming TV series releasing early next year.

The post Fallout: New Vegas is curre??ntly free on the Epic Games Stor?e appeared first on Destructoid.

One more run for old times' sake

We're only a week out from Obsidian's new RPG The Outer Worlds, but in the meantime, Fallout: New Vegas is calling my name. It's joining the Xbox Game Pass catalog today, and honestly, one little run across the desert couldn't hurt. I wonder what Craig Boon, Lily Bowe??n, and ED-E are up to these days.

We all have our favorite New Vegas memories, I'm sure. One immediately s??prings to my mind.

All these years later, it's hard to piece together what actually happened in the game and what my memory thinks happened, but my playthrough definitely involved working my way into the Caesar's Legion stronghold, hearing ??the baddies out (like you do in any RPG with multiple factions), and accidentally getting the party started with a Power Fist punch. My wanderer was l?ow on supplies and wasn't specced for brawls. Didn't matter! I kept reloading an ill-advised autosave until things finally worked in my favor. When everything was said and done, The Fort was even more of a deranged mess.

For me, a huge part of the fun of the Fallout series (and New Vegas in particular) was always getting in and out of jams. Also, we've all done ?some sinister shit in the?? name of Xbox 360 achievements.

Beyond New Vegas, Game Pass also added the original Xbox rail shooter Panzer Dragoon Orta – a long-time curiosity of mine – and Felix the Reaper – a peculiar romcom puzzle adventure – for subscribers.

Maybe you can squeeze one of these in before The Outer Worlds hits Game Pass for Xbox One and also ??PC (!) on October 25. I'm not entirely su??re what to expect in terms of length, but knowing Obsidian, they'll find plenty of ways to keep us absorbed with stray story threads and distractions.

The post Fall??out: New Vegas is on Game Pass just in time for The Outer Worlds appeared first on Destructoid.

Ring-a-Ding-Ding!

Who doesn't love a good non-lethal run? It both challenges the player as well as reconstructs the violent norms by which most video games operate. How about an extra hard difficulty run? Most of the time it's just a way for someone to brag about what they've accomplished, and for good measure, as I'm still proud of my survivor difficulty with no Vita-Chambers run in the first BioShock.

What if we combined a non-lethal and hardest difficulty run and threw them into the best modern Fallout? Well, you'd have Rhetam's run in Fallout: New Vegas with his character "Sweetie."

From the very start, Sweetie vowed not to kill anyone, so how would Rhetam do it? First, it started with the correct build. On the standard S.P.E.C.I.A.L. character creation scale, Sweetie woke up in Goodsprings with a?? 10/1/10/1/10/7/1. One could call this the Hemingway build but as it usually goes in these types of specialized runs, everything was done for a reason.

Strength and Endurance obviously needed to be jacked for Sweetie to be able to use the KO-producing boxing gloves effectively while not taking too much damage. Intelligence was put to 10 so the most skill points could be gained each level, and Agility was put to the minimum required level that would allow for the Slayer perk. Everything els??e including Charisma was allowed to drop to 1.

What followed was a full base game run that took almost a year and a half to complete. Not only did Rhetam complete the main quest line, he also completed all of the character and faction-specific quests. Yes, some characters had to die for the story to continue, but none of them were directly killed by Sweetie's big meaty hands. The entire run is viewable on YouTube and clocks in around 17 hours.

Madman beat??s Fallout: New Vegas on max difficulty without dying or killing any?one [PC Gamer]

The post Fallout: New ??Vegas non-lethal run on extra hard is a sight to be seen appeared first on Destructoid.

Sadly, you can't build bases, but everything else is surely here... Right?

Judging by the general reaction and comments lately, I'm sure many of you are highly anticipating your adventures and online interactions in Fallout 76! But, what if you could access those wonderful online interactions and experiences you might discover in Fallout 76... prior to Fallout 76 even releasing?

Yes, even earlier than the upcoming Fallout 76 B.E.T.A! Hell, what if could experience it right now? Well, you're in luck! Thanks to Nexus Mods user Funky Swadling, now you too can play a simulated online experie??nce of Fallout 76 within the comfort of Fallout: New Vegas; known si??mply as “The Fallout ?76 Experience.”

As a general warning and heads up: this trailer (and the mod itself, obviously) contains plenty of choice wo??rds and language you'd generally hear in an online session or community within any popular game. Except now you can't immediately mute them or disable voice chat altogether -- exciting!

So, if you're looking for an experience like no other in Fallout: New Vegas, this mod might be it! For those of you brave enough to check the mod out, Funky Swadling mentions his personal favorite NPC is in Nipton.

The Fallout 76 Experience [Nexus Mods]

The post T??his mod for Fallout: New Vegas giv??es us an early glimpse at online interactions in Fallout 76 appeared first on Destructoid.

Also, several more games are available

You, the people have spoken -- Fallout: New Vegas is the best Bethesda-era Fallout game. And now it's ?coming to Xbox One in the form of backward compatibility!

Also joining the service is I Am Alive, Crystal Quest, Comic Jumper, Red Faction Battlegrounds, Joe Danger, Chronicles of Mystara, and Blood Knights. That's not a bad lot. Some are better than others, but Mystara definitely stands out the ?most outside of the aforementioned Obsidian classic.

I've said it time and time again that Microsoft has turned this generation around a lot since their ill-fated announcement of the Xbox One. I have a date with New Vegas this weekend.

Major Nelson [Twitter]

The post Hot damn! Fallout: New Vegas gets backward c?ompatibi?lity support on Xbox One appeared first on Destructoid.

FALL. OUT. FALL. OUT. FALL. OUT.

When you think about it, Superhot and Fallout: New Vegas are already pretty similar. They’re both first-person shooters that play around with time-bending mechanics (Superhot has its everything, while Fallout has VATS), and they’re both set in awfully grim?? worlds that’re happy to ?see you die horribly.

So why am I so surprised to see a New Vegas mod that introduces Superhot’s central premise?

Currently a work in progress by modder Xilandro, New Vegas’ SUPERHOT mod makes time move only when you do, and enemies will gib ridiculously when they die. While that could get annoying for some of the more story-focused parts of the game, in combat it looks fantastic. Bullets flying all over the place and ??getting deflected by swords before some New California Republic soldiers explode into wonderful clouds of red. Glorious.

The only ETA given for the mod is “in a few days”, so you won’t have to wait too long before you can get your hands on it. I’m looking forward to this one, because I’ve been trying to find a reason to go back to New Vegas after Fallout 4 disappointed me, and it s??ounds like this might j?ust be it.

Mod Makes Fallout: New Vegas' Combat SUPERHOT [Kotaku]

The post Who put this Superhot in my Fallout: New Vegas?! appeared first on Destructoid.

Now available

Fallout 4 may not have been as impressive as past entries as far as the narrative goes, but it brought about a number of great quality-of-life changes. Of course, those can easily be modded into past games, which is just what Xilandro Axeuora did for Fallout: New Vegas.

As of last week, prospective Vegas players can grab the quick loot mod, which lets you easily grab items out of containers in an instant -- especially useful for those tiny boxes that have a giant collection of Nuka Cola bo??ttles.

Also, yes, New Vegas is the best Bethesda-era Fallout game. Don't just take my word for it -- the community agreed as well!

Fallout 4 Quickloot for New Vegas [Nexus Mods]

The post Fallout: New Vegas, the superior Fallout game, gets a quick loot m?od appeared first on Destructoid.

Someone call Benny

I'm glad that people are still supporting Fallout: New Vegas. After all, recently, you guys unofficially voted it your favorite Fallout game here at Destructoid.

A team has been hard at work trying to get multiplayer in the game, and it...kind of works. It basically seeds the host's game and other players are just kind of there. It can spring a heap of glitches, but it technically works.?? The next phase is getting it out the public, which you can sign up for on the official site, but for now, it's a thing that exists.

Project NV: MP [NV-MP via Reddit]

The post Fallout: New Vegas is ??getting a multiplayer mod, baby appeared first on Destructoid.

"You're a hero... and you have to leave"

There are plenty of people who’ve been introduced to the Fallout series thanks to the recently released Fallout 4. That means there are also plenty of people who might like to go back and play the older games to see how far it’s come. Let’s be honest, though: Fallout 1 is a very difficult ga??me to get into these days. It came out 18 years ago after all, and it's nothing like the more recent releases.

Well don’t worry, as Fallout: The Story is a mod for Fallout New Vegas currently in development aimed to recreate Fallout as accurately as it possibly can while retaining the modern gameplay of Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4.

Usually when these mods are announced, we have to wait years and years for there to be any sign of progress. This time it seems as though they’ve already made quite a fair bit of headway in the project: two of the? Vaults are 100% complete, and work is progressing on other settlem??ents like The Hub, Necropolis and Shady Sands.

They’ve even managed to port the navigation system of the older games into New Vegas. Fallout wasn’t a continuous open world back then. Instead, there was an overworld map and nodes indicating major settlements. The Story i??ncludes this system as well as the random encounters and events it includ?ed.

The video up top shows the very early portions of the game, where the Vault Dweller must leave Vault 13 to find a replacement water chip. The voice acting is uh… not great (thanks, copyright laws), and making an isometric map explorable in first person feels kind of weird, but otherwise it seems like a pretty dang faithful recreation of the Fallout I remember.

Best of all, this mod only requires New Vegas. You can pick that up in the currently running Steam sale for dirt cheap. And you can get the original Fallout too if you want to compare it to the mod. You might need a bit of?? jiggery-pokery to get it to work on modern systems?? though.

You can follow the development of the mod over at Nexus, or on the developer’s Youtube channel, which shows way more of t?he mod than jus?t Vault 13. Right now it isn't available for download, but considering how much work has already been pumped into the project I wouldn't expect an incredibly long wait.

The post Fallout: The Story is? recreating Fallout 1 in New Vegas appeared first on Destructoid.

What happens in Vegas is a bad joke

As we learned in "No fucking the robot," Fallout 4 will have romance options for the human percentage of its 12 c??ompanion characters.

Obsidian almost beat Bethesda to the punch in 2010. Fallout: New Vegas lead designer Josh Sawyer told PCGamer at PAX, "We actually had some ideas for characters that would… like in one story draft we had, Ca?ss would get drunk with the protagonist and then would wake up with The King having married them at The King’s School of Impersonation.

"That seemed very Vegas, but we were also like, that’s kind of a complicated series of events, so we decided not to do it. But it’s also in the vein of the Fallout 2 more humorous romance, rather than in-depth and serious. It’ll be interesting to see how Bethesda approaches that in Fallout 4."

Fallout: N?ew Veg??as almost had a funny, trashy romance story [PC Gamer]

The post New Vegas almost beat Fallout 4 to player romance appeared first on Destructoid.

It's definitely not for a beverage

Could a new Fallout game or property be in the works? Recently, ZeniMa?x Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, quietly filed three separate trademarks for "Nuka Cola." Delicious and informative, yes?

Nuka Cola is a favorite of both vault-dwellers and laypersons alike, so it should come as no surprise that the name is a familiar and beloved one, but what exactly does ZeniMax plan on doing with the trademark if it ends up beings granted? Joystiq reached out for com?ment for additional information, but alas, none was supplied.

As Joystiq points out, two of the trademark applications are aimed at videogames and electronics, with a third covering clothing. This could hint at a sequel, a remake, or just about anything to do with merchandising. It could also mean nothing just the same, but I like to have things to look forward to, so I'm going to assume this is all for a really cool advertising campaign like the fictional "Dunkaccino" bit with Al Pacino. Nuka-nuka-nuka-nuka-nuka cola! Probab?ly not, but it's still kind of?? fun to think about.

What do you think is brewing in the wasteland?

Zenimax Media files trademark for 'Nuka Cola' [Joystiq]

The post ‘Nuka Cola’ trademark applications filed by Zenimax Media appeared first on Destructoid.

Does Metacritic matter? Ask your average gamer, and they will likely sneer with contempt, blame it for all the ills in the world, and declare that the collector of review scores is useless. Ask a developer like Obsidian, however, and you'll ofte?n find they rely on it for monetary bonuses.? 

Obsidian's Chris Avellone was recently asked by a fan if they made a boatload of cash from Fallout: New Vegas, and was informed that the studio received a straight payment, with no royalties from sales. Extra money would only have been awarded if the game scored over 85% on Metacritic -- which it just missed. 

The concept of the Metacritic bonus is nothing new, but always interesting to consider. It's strange when a publisher puts such st?ock in things, especially because, in my experience, the major companies really seem more focused on sales than scores. Perhaps it's a passive way of making studio's spend more time polishing. Money's a good motivator, after all.

In any case, it's something reviewers risk feeling bad about when having to pour scorn on a new title. Of course, it's not a reviewer's job to make money for developers, and they always need to keep that in mind when slapping the big ol' number at the end?. 

[Thanks, Adam]

The post Obsidian? missed Metacritic bonus for Fallout: New Vegas appeared first on Destructoid.

There are undoubtedly weirder and more ambitious mods for Fallout: New Vegas, but this one -- put forth by the game's lead designer Joshua Sawyer -- is interesting in its specif??icity.

He calls it "a general difficulty tweak and bug fix mod," which provides a "more challenging" New Vegas and fixes "a bunch of the more obvious balance and .esm incompatibility issues." You can read through the lengthy list of individual twea?ks at the above link.

A word of warning: you'll need all of the downloadable content for the game, and Sawyer says you?? may run into issues with other mods installed. Still, seems like a worthy endeavor if it's a harsher Mojave Desert you're craving.

The post Fallout: New Vegas lead designer releases new mod appeared first on Destructoid.

Ashly is a man's man (???). A permadeath run of FarCry 2? That's for babies. No, she's got ??a bigger fi?sh to fry. Will she succeed in her quest? Hit the jump to find out.

Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'? Fallout: New Vegas [GameTrailers]

No.

The post HAWP: The ultimate permadeath run appeared first on Destructoid.

Ahead of Lonesome Road's September 20 release for PlayStation Network, Steam, and Xbox Live, Bethesda has put out a trailer showcasing the Fallout: New Vegas add-on. For a game that is largely about exploring, they sure do an admirable ??job at making these t??hings come across as dynamic.

The story here is that the original Courier Six -- the one who didn't want anything to do wit??h the Platinum Chip plot -- is now at the Divide. With his? promise of answers, you'll naturally have to navigate through the harsh environment. Looks interesting from a story perspective.

The post Lonesome Road’s explosion-filled New Vegas trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Bethesda is finally ready to release the "Lonesome Road" downloadable content for Fallout: New Vegas next month. ??The expansion will hit all platforms -- PlayStation 3, PC, and Xbox 360 -- on September 20. It'll cost you $9.99, o?r the MicrosoftPlanet equivalent, 800 MS Points.

Also announced are two additional DLC packs, "Courier's Stash" and "Gun Runners' Aresen?al." Both will be avail??able on September 27.

"Courier's Stash" gives players immediate ?access to the previously pre-order only packs (Caravan Pack, Classic Pack, Mercenary Pack, and Tribal Pack) that offer up new weapons, apparel and more. It'll cost you $1.99 or 160 MS Points.

If you'er really into weapons, "Gun Runners' Arsenal" is for you, adding unique weapons, mods, ammo types, and recipes to New Vegas. You're looking at spending $3.99 or 320 M?S Points for the p??rivilege.

The post ‘Lonesome Road’ Fallout: New Vegas DLC hits September 20 appeared first on Destructoid.

We recently got some vague details about the Lonesome Road add-on for Fallout: New Vegas, courtesy of Steam achievements. They were specific enough to get me interested, but now Bethesda is ??say??ing the content won't see a release this month.

"We just wanted to drop in here and let you know that due to circumstances beyond our control, Lonesome Road won’t be out this month," writes s?enior producer Jason Bergman. "This isn’t due to any major issue with the code or content, but there are lots of factor??s involved in releasing these things, and one of those is causing us to slip past our intended release date."

"We don’t have an exact date yet, but we’re working to get it ??out as quickly as possible," he continues. "We’ll be announcing the final date, along with a couple of other interesting FNV-related items in the near future."

Fallout: New?? Vegas' 'Lonesome Road' DLC delayed, ?launching 'as quickly as possible' [Joystiq]

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Recently I had the pleasure of reading ctrl+alt+defeat’s first issue, "War", in which Dilyan Damyanov ponders the meaning of the phrase "War, war never changes." By taking the general events that occur in the Fallout timeline, Damyanov comes to the conclusion that the words are meaningless, because there is no underlying constant in the Fallout wars to validate the phrase.

I will concede, albeit only a smidgen, that Damyanov is right... if we look at the conflicts in the franchise very broadly and literally. If we take a close look and dig into the story, though, we’ll find that that’s not the case at all, as the Fallout franchise has always had an intrinsic consistency that permeates everyth?ing in the?? games: absurdity.

War, war never changes

The iconic phrase almost inspires goosebumps when Ron Perlman says it, doesn’t it? The words relay an infinitude of information regarding not just the world that the Fallout franchise occupies, but also functions as a stark critique of society and our ideals. Or so says my particular interpretation of?? the words, anyway.

The theme of absurdity is obvious in the franchise’s depiction of culture. We have the chipper fifties retro-futurism of western culture-- which is that confidence that a Jetsons-like future is our destiny--contrasted with the ugly reality of the Fallout world. Instead of having these hopes for a futuristic empire of the grea??t United States of America become nothing more than a semiotic phantom, Fallout postulates a reality in which we continue to be defined by that futurism.

What's a semiotic phantom? Well, William Gibson describes a semiotic ghost in Burning Chrome as the "'Futuristic' thirties and forties architecture you pass daily in American cities without noticing; the movie marquees ribbed to radiate some mysterious energy, the dime stores faced with fluted aluminum, the chrome-tube chairs gathering dust in the lobbies of transient hotels…segments of a dreamworld, abandoned in an uncaring present.”  So in the Fallout timeline, instead of that ghost being hidden away in the architecture of the cityscape or as a broken dream in the recesses of our cultural consciousness, we continue to embrace it, to allow it to define us as a culture. Nothing conveys the absurdity of this idea better than the intro cinematic of Fallout 1.

The first time the words "War, war never changes" are uttered are during this cinematic, the?? screen flickers and crackles, but we’re soothed by silky, almost eerie lyrics of "Maybe", by The Ink Spots.

Maybe you'll think of me when you are all alone

The visuals go from an advertisement for the infamous Vault-Tec Vaults to a scene where government officials are "keeping the peace"over in Canada. They shoot one bullet, two bullets, into the back of someones head, and without missing a bea??t, a cackle ensues, they turn to the camera and start waving cheerfully. Then, we see a soldier in a power suit looking out into the horizon with the American flag swaying in the wind, and this transitions into an adverti?sement commanding us to buy war bonds. Nothin’ like some good ol' propaganda, no?

The camera pans out, and we see that this advertisement is playing on a television set....which happens to be functioning in the remains of a destroyed city. Somehow. Not even a minute into the game and the juxtaposition of absurd patriotism (the cause of war) and destruction (the result of war) gives us the fe?eling that perhaps the price of war is too high to pay, perhaps, just perhaps, the principle behind war is idiotic and not justifiable in the face of consequences like these. You can draw parallels to the real world if you’d like--I’m sure there are many that would argue that there’s nothing worth the ten year war with Afghanistan, for example--but I speak primarily of the in-game politics.

Of course, what makes the history of the Fallout universe so delicious is that arguably, its reality isn’t too far off from our own. "The Great War," refers an energy crisis where nearly every last bit of oil is depleted, resulting  in global atomic warfare. It sounds like something that could happen to us, should we fail at finding an alternate energy source to oil, no? Playing through Fallout 2 might reveal that the specific reason for the nuclear hol??ocaust wasn’t some government losing it and pressing the big red but??ton, though.

There’s a lonely AI in San Francisco called ACE who implies that boredom and neglect caused self-aware AI to launch nukes for their own amusement. Even if ACE’s absurd story is a dirty lie, the refusal by global powers to find and adopt an alternate energy source, their willingness to burn the world to the ground in the name ??of technological advancement, of war?? mongering and actively using the "big stick" speaks volumes on the ridiculous context that caused those series of events. Nail on the coffin? The advertisement prior to the propaganda makes it clear that the public was not only aware of what was going on, but actively encouraged it.

All of this is contextualized with history itself. “The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shap?ed a battered Germany into an economic superpower. "But war never ch?anges. ”

Which is to say, the war in the game is in the same vein as war waged for avarice and lust, both of which cannot be said to be reasons for "just" war. That’s what I believe the phrase refers to: never changes because it is never justified. An unjustified war is an absurd war. The absurdity of this all is further implied when we take into consideration that the “Spoils of war wer?e also its weapons.” W?ar is being waged...so that more war can be waged. How stupid is that?

The same can be said of the "war" we find in the game itself. In the first Fallout specifically, the war between the super mutant army and humanity i??s the central conflict. Super mutants are a direct consequence of pre-war actions. West-Tek developed a series of technologies for the American government in the game, one of which included a drug that was meant to help defend against possible biological warfare from China. While the drug was successful in combating biological weapons, the side effects caused extreme growth in muscle and brain function. Naturally, these effects enamored the government, who then wanted to use the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) to create super-soldiers??.

The experiment was never fully finished, but facility in which this all took place was later rediscovered by Richard Grey. Richard Grey is exposed to FEV and ends up becoming "The Master," who then decides on using the virus to create a master race of super mutants. While his intent was "noble" in that he w??anted to evolve humanity into something that would be beyond misery, conflict and war, it is still misguided, and the parallels? to Nazis is obvious. Thus the war between humans and super mutants can be said to be a result of absurdity on two counts: a deranged, insane villain, and the ridiculous result of previous war-mongering.

In Fallout 2, the central conflict is the war between the “government” and the wastelanders. The government, who now call themselves "The Enclave," want to reclaim the land that was o??nce theirs. While some semblance of a government could be considered to be a beneficial thing, nobody has appointed these folks into office. They’re just the descendants of the people who were elected before the nuclear holocaust. Aside from that, the manner in which they want to reclaim what was once theirs is absurd: they want to remove all genetic "impurities" and create a society of those with a "pure strain." 

Now, let’s entertain the idea that maybe the wastelanders cannot be considered human anymore and thus do not deserve to live for a second. The reason they have mutated into "something" else is because of the government. It’s not just that the government caused the world to be so heavily radiated, but that the government toyed with the vaults and made them into experiments. The Vaults were not meant to allow people to survive and one day ??rebuild society. They were meant to be a social experiment, to see how people would react when under specific conditions. One Vault, for example, housed a single male and 999 females.

While classification as a human is debatable for the wastelanders, they still have a willpower, are still capable of rational thought. Personally, when the future of humanity is at stake, getting rid of the bulk of its remains does??n't sit well with me. I'm no scientist, but I would imagine that having the mutations that allow people to live in a post-nuclear world is a beneficial thing? In any case, none of this matters to the Enclave, because to them, the wastelanders are nothing but lab rats. Here, too, the cause of war is absurd.

In Fallout 3, it becomes more difficult to pick a "central" conflict. We have the war between the super mutants and humanity, which is similar to the war we see in Fallout 1. The storyline focuses mostly on the conflict between scientists who want to provide clean water for the population under "Project Purity," and the government, who still want to get rid of the "impure." The Enclave figure they can commit genocide by contaminating the same water that the main character's father seeks to purify. Here, there's not too much to be said that hasn't been said already -- the plot is a rehash of the conflicts we see in Fallout 1 and 2.

And what do the people behind the game think? I contacted Chris Avellone, one of the minds behind the Fallout franchise, who most recently worked on Fallout: New Vegas . "The argument around here (well, mostly from me) is that 'the urge to make ??war' never changes," explains Chris. Of course, it's still worth noting that in some sense, 'War Never Changes' isn't much more than a tagline. "History has clearly shown us that yes, war does change. In fact over the past 20 years, the whole notion of war has changed dramatically, and the techniques have also ?changed dramatically. So it's a really nice tagline, but I don't feel it makes any sense logically."

So it would seem as if it comes down to personal interpretation. This begs the question: what do the words mean to you?

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