1) How about a Fallout game that begins before the war and focuses purely on the resources war - you are a young man living in a perfect city somewhere in America. Just imagine the typical city atmosphere, nice streets, good weather, good food, laughing, joking, confidence oozing out of American citizens in relation to the war - propoganda everywhere relating to the war effort - generally everyone seems happier.... a carnival atmosphere. Your duty is to enlist as a soldier to fight againt China and you are to be sent to defend somewhere with your brother. After a number of quests in your home town, mostly military training and exploring a perfect city you head off to fight on the front-line.

2) The middle part of the game then involves you fighting against the Chinese - a bit like Operation Anchorage I guess - say around a month before the nukes fell. Intense fighting finishes and in 2077 the Nukes then fall giving us a perspective of what happened at this time.

3) You manage to somehow survive the nuke bombardment and you seak shelter with other surviving soldiers for 2 years before it is barable to escape into the radiated wastes. You then begin a long journey back to your home town - hearing news that some cities may still be standing and hope that once you get back it will be fine. But once your back the city is obliterated and deserted or is still standing - a twist in the game could be that a decision you make during the fight with the Chinese could be the difference between your home town being hit or spared. Either way you are left to either help restructure the town with fellow survivors and subsequently elected mayor as you are now seen as a hero from the war- or you are left in the wastes of your old town - and can trace what happened to your family and friends and drive out any unwanted occupants.

- I would love to a see a game that offers a perspective of the Fallout world before the bombs fell, during and just after. It would be great. Offer your thoughts.

Thanks

That would be like GTA 4 + Stalker + Metro 2033 + fallout 3

The typical city environment would itself make things a lot uninteresting for hardcoe fallout fans, But i do like i idea of the world 5-10 years after the war

I can see what you mean by that but - I think over the course of the game you would feel an attachment to your home-town and the Fallout humour would be at its best in a more peaceful situation, a perfect little American town. That part of the game could be quite small - the real fighting 80% of the game could be hardcoe Fallout stuff. It would be nice to see a perspective of before, during and after so we know what it might have been like then.

Yeah the tutorial could be a peaceful suburban upbringing with half of the real game taking place in an expanded version of operation but it takes place in China and is more fallout less combat and after the bombs fall you try to find your way back to America only to find it destroyed at the end. Wouldn't really be fallout but it would be a nice change of events from the start out trying to do one thing and end up saving the wastes in the process.

Here's a variation of the same theme, for ya... it just totally exploded into my brain after reading this thread. >.<


Fallout: Prepare for the Future



You start out as a civilian in one of the major urban centers right around the time of the Limit-115 (The New Plague) outbreak in the American Midwest. As the screen fades in, you find yourself standing in a rather sizable line within an otherwise small office structure. On either side of you are black and white televisions hanging from racks on the ceiling, each tuned in to the Galaxy News Network. A very professional-looking reporter is busy talking about the rampant shortages of fuel and food nationwide. He goes on to comment about the growing unrest in Denver, Boulder, Chicago, and New York following the implementation of nationwide "Power Rationing".

As the line moves along, you experience a number of commercials... as well as get to see a few advertisemants here and there.

As there -are- people behind you in line, you are goaded along by these folks to proceed. The news returns in the meanwhile, likely drawing your focus away. From somewhere outside comes the sound of sirens as well, further immersing you in the sounds of the city. Fire trucks follow soon after, and if you watch the window at the back (front?) of the building, you can see Emergency Response Vehicles speeding by.

After a few minutes longer, a familiar face in the line next to you spots you and begins to chat you up. It's at this point that whatever tutorial or message for properly conversing with NPCs pops up. As this makes up the end of the 'waiting in line' portion of the introduction... the last person ahead of you will move aside from the counter, revealing a man in fatigues with a shaved head waiting for you patiently.

He says something along the line of "Well, do you have your paperwork?"

At this point, you are given the character generation screen... and are allowed to create your character, assign your skill points, and allocate your SPECIAL stats.

Unfortunately, hair options are limited to shaved, crew, and Sarge. But them's the breaks.

(Since I liked the bit about the player having a brother, I say that he already have gone through the line and be waiting for you outside the doors when you leave again.)

You and your brother do some stuff in your neighborhood... talk to some friends, maybe visit the 'romantic interest' for a while. Then you head back home and tell your folks about what you've done. They're not surprised... but definitely look and sound terrified about sending both their sons off to Alaska when the 'real' trouble seems to be the riots and unrest back home. Your sister tells you that she's very proud of the both of you, and that she'll take care of Mom and Dad while you're gone.

Certain actions taken, during this point could also affect any future interactions with survivors after the bombs fall.


Flash-Forward a few years:


Next thing you know, you're standing on the front lines of Anchorage for REAL... and it's a lot different from the way that you played it in the simulator for Fallout 3. This place is an absolute hellhole. The Chinese have occupied the city for years, now... and many of the citizens living there have suffered rather unduly. Worse still, of course, is that a great many Chinese civilians now live there as well.

Your mission, at this point, becomes to infiltrate and secure strategic positions within Anchorage itself. The American Field Headquarters is currently outside of artillery bombardment range... but falls under siege shortly after your unit is dispatched. When you return, your brother has been wounded and is being patched up in the medical tent.

Now, you begin to experience a familiar mission or two. Your squad is tasked with an aerial infiltration of the mountaintop artillery base. With a number of explosive charges, and only as much equipment as you can carry, you will have to fight or sneak your way through a Chinese-Occupied facility, get to the guns, and disable them before they can put an end to the Anchorage Reclamation before it even begins.

This will be almost exactly like you experienced it from Fallout 3... only this time, there's no immersion-breaking disappearing bodies/ammo crates/Health Tubes. This time, you have a medic, you have Benjamin, and you have a couple other fairly skilled guys to help you get past the much more difficult opposition.

Alternatively, if your character is of Asian descent, he will be not only the subject of abuse and jokes from the other American soldiers... but capable of donning any felled Chinese soldier's jumpsuit and impersonating a member of the Occupation Forces. Mind you, doing this might also get you shot by your own guys if they don't -know- about it. So be careful where you go wearing that thing.

After a great deal of work, you successfully destroy the artillery guns.

As you are escaping, however, a bullet from behind takes you down. As you scream in pain and roll about, another round pierces the goggles of one of your two nameless comrades. The soldier goes down instantly as Benji kills the sniper. It's too late for the man you lost... but hell... you're still alive. That's got to count for something!

Upon returning to the infirmary, you learn that your brother has been selected to lead the charge for the Pulse Field.

The rest of Anchorage goes down fairly differently than how the simulation explains it... and you and your brother continue to fight on through mission after mission across the frozen wasteland of Alaska. The fighting literally goes on for years. However, every time a year or so span of time comes around, you and your brother get to go home for a few weeks. These spans of time further develop relationships between family and friends and romantic interests. You can even persuade your family to take a chunk of your pay and buy themselves entry into the local Vault. Your status as an American Soldier gives them some leeway.

Ultimately, when 2077 rolls around, you and your brother may wind up in any number of places.

Depending on your actions and interactions with Army personnel during the Anchorage campaign... you (and perhaps your brother as well) might find yourselves re-assigned to a number of different locations when the bombs fall (including everyone's favorite Military Base, Mariposa). If you work it out right, you may both end up together. However, if you are separated, it becomes as much a part of your mission to find one another... as it is to get home.

Ultimately, once you have either been re-united... or confirmed that your brother is dead... your mission becomes to return home and find out what fate has befallen your loved ones. Along the way, you are presented with a number of communities and locations to explore and aid in the development of. You can even assist in the foundation of a number of series-important organizations, if you play your cards right.

The end-game comes in the form of series of variables. Depending on the actions you have carried out throughout the game, a 'end-game' McGuffin will pop up somewhere and trigger a series of 'final events'. It could be a familiar face from the past, or someone driving up in a still-running Chryslus Motors Highwayman.

In this example, it's your hand-held radio from during the war. It crackles to life quite suddenly after being dormant for a very considerable amount of time. On the other end, a man claiming to be the Acting Secretary of Defense is recalling all available soldiers to active duty. Overhead, Vertibirds can be seen heading West... to the coast.

Picking up the radio and replying will cause an end-game scene in which one of those Vertibirds lands a few feet away from you. This one in particular has the Great Seal of America on it, and identifies itself as Marine One.

The first man to step off of it is a pale, pasty-skinned man in his middle ages. He's wearing a black suit, a red tie, and an American Flag pin... and proceeds to introduce himself as the President of the United States of America. After a short conversation about your time in Anchorage, he explains what an honor it would be to share a flight with a 'True, Red-Blooded American Hero'. As you step aboard, he explains to you that America might be down... but she's certainly not out. With the whole world in ruins, devastated by nuclear war... safe 'Enclaves' were constructed across the country to ensure that all surviving military and governmental personnel could effectively rebuild the United States in a fraction of the time it would take a country like China to recover.

Then bam, the scene fades out as the chopper takes off and the credits roll... with some ironic (and maybe even creepy) 50's music to play you out.

Colonel Tannnanbaum is a genius.

I... wouldn't like that. Fallout, for me, is about the POST apocalypse, and as such, the apocalypse needs to remain a shadowy, far-past, vague event. Like Mad Max.

That would be fine... except that it wasn't all that far away or vague in Mad Max...


In fact, the first movie pretty much had him LIVING -through- the apocalypse. By the second, civilization had pretty much completely broken down. By the third, it was a distant memory... but meh.

The game would seem to me very linear. Having to fight in China and that being similar to operation Anchorage which I didn't like because it was very linear. That would be a large portion of the game that we would have to play it in China.