yeah the buildings in DC are good. Although I noticed the other day I never went into the Capitol building because I had no quest for there. Is there a quest for there? I missed so many buildings because I never had quests to get there. And getting past the super mutants is a pain (and burns a lot of ammo).
Yeah the FO3 vs. FNV debate can go on forever. I just like Obsidian games better than Bethesda games (I hated Oblivion, but I did like Skyrim for about 120 hours). There are pros and cons to each game. But I still would rather have the game go in the direction of New Vegas. FPS games don't interest me, I need a good plot, and good dialogue to keep me from getting bored. I get bored of shooters in under 10 hours.
I do wish the map of New Vegas was a little bigger. The towns are too close together, and lacks the wandering creatures and enemies you find in FO3.
And as mentioned, the sharecropper farms are pretty big (more than 2 fields- although still not enough to feed all of New Vegas). The beef is obviously imported from other areas. I like that they at least try to explain where the food came from, unlike FO3. And don't get me started on the lack of clean water in FO3. Everyone should be dead of radiation poisoning- or turn into ghouls.
How about the dwellers in Honest Heart becoming neo-Native Americans for a hilariously contrived reason?
The vault dwellers did not turn into native americans. Unless I'm mistaken. The Native Americans are actual Native Americans (although there really aren't any close to Zion today, but there are some in Northern Arizona not too far away). IIRC, the vault dwellers from Vault 22 were killed off. But they did bring in the fauna that spread to that one area of zion. You find their stuff, and iirc their remains in that area with the spore plants. The only thing silly to me is that they would revert to their native language. I would think they would continue speaking English the language they predominantly speak today.
The problem with Fallout 3's location is that it is 200 years after the apocalypse, not 50. There should be large settlements dotting the landscape with large settlements, not pissy little settlements of four people living on a bridge.
Here we run into the realism vs. gameplay debate. It's too late to change the year (people would complain about canon and all that). If you really want to get into is, how realistic is it you find any useful items when exploring? Every useful items should have been stripped bare decades before. You shouldn't be finding weapons, ammo, chems, and purified water at these locations. There should be nothing left. Speaking of ammo, I like that FNV addresses the ammo situation. Ammo would be in very short supply if they were relying on old world stocks. But in NV, they have a way to manufacture new ammo. Both worlds are unbelievable (radiation obviously doesn't create ghouls and mutant instects), but New Vegas just feels more believable to me. There is an explanation of how you can obtain weapons, ammo, water, food etc.
and speaking of FO3 realism- I do love the DC buildings, but seriously, how can the Washington monument and capitol building still be standing?
Include all of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and California along with New Vegas and New Reno.
