That is totally incorrect.

Ivan's largest warhead was on the Mod 3 of the SS-18 mod 3. That was 25 megatons. And if I remember correctly, the russians had only 50 of them, and they were mainly targeted at Cheyanne Mountain.
The Soviets roughly 10k warheads at the height of the cold war (1988) ranging from 100kt to 5 mt. Figure the average yeild would be 1mt. That means *25000* rv's would be hitting the DC-Baltimore area. Which, btw would be more that 2 1/2 time the amt of the total warheads that the Soviets actually had.

I didn't find FO1 and 2 boring.

I thought my numbers were off and apologize, it's been many years since I read the source. All I know is in event of nuclear war, I wouldn't have to worry much about the aftermath.

3 uses a lot of artistic license with how well the city is preserved. Of course this is a game, not a documentary. Plus it makes me think of the DC scenes from Logan's Run.

Yes, I knew that there are people now saying that the Nuclear Winter wouldn't take place, however I didn't check my facts before posting.
Thanks for pointing that out.

Ausir,

Fallout 1 and 2 weren't boring at all, but they took place in a 2d top down view, tall buildings would only get in your way there, that's why it bothered no one.
Since they have made the step to full 3d first person, you've got to give the people some eyecandy. That's why the destruction is way less in fallout 3 than compared to fallout 1 and 2.

but it's the nation's capital, surely they'd strike it the hardest...

Probably not. When you go to Tenpenny Tower, you can see many of the large craters near one another. And also, the White House was . Bethesda just didn't do a good job on the destruction with DC as a while, the rest was better and more plausible. Like the landscape around The Temple of the Union and Canterberry Commons.

I think it's a mix of bad writing, and lack of understanding on the part of Bethesda. They generally didn't much care to stay true to the original story, and basically just cut and pasted in whatever they thought was "cool". That explains the thousand and one mistakes and issues that plagued Fallout 3.

You realize of course, that the simple answer is "it is a game, therefore does not have to make any sense to reality"

If you must have a reason though, EVERYONE who wonders why there has been no rebuilding effort is forgetting one BIG thing, human nature. Yes, one area has successfully re-established itself, that does not mean others would have done the same. People fight, dont get along, etc. Human nature alone could explain the lack of development. Oh and before you say "banding together to survive" I would point out thats what the towns have done, you live in a dream world if you think ALL those humans would band together to form one large group. The only reason it works today is because of YEARS of positive development and modern advancements. If you dont believe me, take a look at "Lord of the Flies", it might be fiction but they portray ACTUAL human behaviour. Get used to it, we arnt the fluffy, loving, always work for the greater good, beings we pretend we are.

its easy: humans vs.humans vs.humans vs.cyber nazis(enclave) vs.(Super)Mutants=the reason why DC is still [censored] up.

There are a lot of factors at work here... some have been misrepresented here in my opinion.

First, as said, Vault 87 had been doing FEV experiments before the bombs even fell, making the super mutant infestation that came from there something that could have happened as soon as the day after the bombs dropped. A steady stream of super mutants into the capital wasteland could curb human rebuilding pretty quickly I would think.

Second, the "benevolent Brotherhood of Steel" people have mentioned only arrived in the area 20 years before the game begins. The reason Lyons stopped and built a base in order to protect the people of the area was because it was so bad off, indicating in-game that the wasteland is worse off than other areas of the nation, like the West from whence Lyons came.

Third, while not nearly as well off as things we saw in Fallout 2, Megaton and Rivet City are pretty well off in wasteland terms. Remember that like all Bethesda games, and even the original Fallout games, what we see in-game is scaled down... Megaton probably has hundreds or even low thousands of people living in it in actual fact. It also has running water, neon signs, etc. etc... Rivet City has the same kind of stuff, as well as researchers and, in Broken Steel, an active water shipping service. I don't think these are too far off from the original Fallout's settlements, really...

Lastly, let's remember that Fallout 3 was designed as both a continuation and a sort-of reboot of the franchise, in that it strived to reintroduce everything unique about Fallout to a new audience, and also to the old. In this regard, I am sure Bethesda wanted to start with the more Fallout 1 style of total post-apocaliptic wasteland desert civilization vibe... their next game, or New Vegas, given its location, might be more in tune with Fallout 2 and such.

Very often fictional series do things for real-life reasons that fans explain away... I think we have a lot more ways of exlaining away the FO3 differences than a lot of other fiction series changes.

No. Lyons stopped because the Pentagon was his Mission Objective - His mission was to go to the pentagon and secure all the technological wonders there within. he recieved his Field promotion to Elder for the discovery of Liberty Prime.