Five Improvements for Fallout 4

The editors at Gameranx have slapped up a lengthy editorial covering five different improvements that they feel are most prudent for Bethesda Softworks to make in the unannounced-but-inevitable Fallout 4. Spoilers are fairly rampant, but it’s worth reading if you’re already well-versed in Fallout lore:

Old World Blues is perhaps the most creative piece of DLC written for the Fallout series. It brings back one of the most enjoyable elements of Fallout 3–elaborate sci-fi weaponry–and splatters it with colorful characters and hilarious dialogue that marked some of the funniest moments in Fallout history. It not only exercised all corners of the human imagination, but also created enormous potential for the series’ future. Set in Big Mountain, a secret government research facility manned by brilliant but disturbed robo-scientists, the technology produced by these malfunctioning geniuses is poised to make a huge impact on the wastelands and beyond.

In a few ways, it already has. Big Mountain’s robot scientists were responsible for the creation and spread of Cazadors and Nightstalkers, which the Courier encounters many times in the Mojave. It is likely that their constant negligence and routine blunders would result in more errors, regardless (or perhaps because of) of the Courier’s presence and intervention following the events of Old World Blues. In one Wild Wasteland ending for the DLC, several panels reveal Big MT’s impact on the Mojave, resulting in bizarre fates for many towns across the desert. The experiments wreak havoc ranging from exploding genital infections to man-eating battle Brahmin. One of them even alludes to the events of Washington DC, roping Tranquility Lane into the mix.

While this ending was ultimately cut, it’s worth noting its potential. Is it possible that a research facility with the resources and knowledge of the Big MT could remain in an impact-free bubble?

This brings us back to the Brotherhood of Steel. Christine, the ex-girlfriend of Veronica, is a scribe for the BoS who manages to track the rogue Elder Elijah across the Mojave all the way to Big MT and the Sierra Madre. It wasn’t easy for her, but any other determined BoS member (perhaps one looking for Christine herself) could probably figure out the trail as well. There’s no telling what the BoS would do with access to all that tech–hoard it, yes, but the resources there would be enough to see the BoS rise to a national security force. They could easily bridge the gap of communication and resources between the coastal chapters and further establish authority across the slowly-recovering United States. Though of course, there’d be new sources of power to contend with.