There is rain, though, it's mentioned in all three of the Fallout games... it's just never shown.

I don't think Fallout has ever set out to be a realistic depiction of life after a Nuclear War, though. I think that's pretty obvious the first time you step out of the Vault and start encountering Radscorpions and Supermutants...

It's "soft" science fiction - "Science!" is only used to the extent that it provides a backdrop for the context within which the game is set. A "hard" sci-fi game might take into consideration the logical chain of events that would occur after a nuclear war. But since Fallout certainly isn't that sort of game, I don't really see the point in trying to hold it up to a different set of standards. It's like talking about how Star Wars is unrealistic because it completely defies the laws of relativity (if Luke travelled from Hoth to Degobah(sp) to see Yodah, he'd arrive to find that the war had been over for a few hundreds years already,) or why a lightsaber defies the laws of physics. (And don't even get me started on The Force and medichlorians...)

Star Wars isn't meant to stand up to scientific reasoning. Neither is Fallout. Of course it presents an unrealistic view of the future, and falls apart under close scrutiny. It's because it was never intended to do anything of the sort.

Tell that to Lucas with his 'midchlorians'.

I would imagine that they omitted plant life from Fallout 3 in an attempt to maintain the same asthetic that Fallout 1 had. Unfortunately, they failed to realize that Fallout 1 was set in a climate that already lent itself to intense desertification; DC probably is not so inclined to desertification. I wish they consulted some ecologists before finalizing their ideas on the asthetic theme of the Wastes. Oh, well.

You're implying, however, that "realism" was at any point much of a consideration with, well, any of the Fallout games -than any amount of research on their part would have had more than a marginal bearing on decisions they're only going to be making for it's aesthetic value. I don't see as how that's the case.

(ie, "Oh, okay - so that's what the world would likely look like 200 years after a massive nuclear war. That's nice. But deserts look cooler, let's stick with that.")

You're sort of wrong there. There are numerous cases of which a person near a nuclear blast who got the effects of radiation were hideously mutated, they look somewhat close to the Hillfolk of Point Lookout.

You're completely wrong.

There was a lot of agricultural activity in both Fallout 1 and 2. And DC is on the east coast which consists entirely of forests and swampland. How is that not an ecosystem? Everything on earth is part of an ecosystem.

Ok heres how this would happen:

Cherynobal (im a bad speller k?) was a reactor malfuction that caused it to leak or explode a small part of the reactor realesing nuclear dust or fallout, when after a short while (a couple monthes to 10 years) this dust settles down and gets washed away or just looses radation. causing life to return quite fast. Also they tried to make it go away and made sure it wouldnt kill anyone and they treated people fast. Ok thats chernobal

Fallout 3's world was nuked, go wacth some nuclear bomb tests on youtube to see what they look like. When the bombs fell they were mostly trying to hit large populated centers (hmm... ney york.. wonder whats going on there *wink* ) trying to kill as many restince as possible. People ran for cover and failed due to the fact that the light that is generated from an atomic weapon burns just about everything and melts everything, cause most houses to burn down and/or get totally blown away from the force of the blast. Making underground seem more better. So as people went underground to seek shelter (vaults) they were protected from most nuclear fallout. Back on track nukes will take your breath away (no i am serious) because of the blast creating so much o2 needs (see when a nuke goes off theres 2 blasts a strong foward blast and a reverse blast of the O2 suction effect), causing most fires unless at the epicenter of the blast (which actually wouldn't have anything there due to the fact that it would A: evaporate due to heat B: atoms are broken apart *insat kill* C: the intense blast knocks you out and u burn/radiate/melt). So most wouldnt survie, thats when the vaults come in most of the world would actually be black, the sky, ground,water would be grey beacuse of the blasts (this is also why it doesnt rain/snow/hail/sleet in fallout all clouds water sources were instally burned when the nukes went off, now the rivers probley came from the ice caps on both bottom and top as the world probley heated well above 1000F (degrees) or about 200C causing them to melt then evaporate and rain causing a massive world ecosystem change. making it all most impossiable for anything to live throught the blast.) also it would be impossiable to do anything becuase of the radiontion of the blasts would murder the upper atmopshere and kill everything with cancer, and anyoen whom would step outside would breath the dust like in chernobal but only 100x stronger.) when your 200 years ahead of this terriable stuff the dust is gone and most things would be dead.... thus making everyone a scavenger or a mutent trying to kill them, making life hard and tuff. So that makes my point

P.s. this was made by a 12 year old got out smarted bah me!

Heres the Point I'm gonna make if Beth wouldhave made it life like the game wouldn't be funand if the game would take place right after the war you guys would all say Oh theres too much radiation and now this!..Bethesda can't win

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html

In real life if a nuclear war did happen, the chances of people or tree's living would be very slim. Some individuals would survive, but eventually disease and nuclear winter kicks in. People start dying of cancer, starvation and even simple things like exposure to rain.

Scorpions are actaully not usually desert creatures as you put them, yes there are a select few that are... they are for the majority forrest dwelling creatures. The Emperor Scorpion which the Radscorpion is mutated from is from africa, which most people picture desert when they think of it, is actually quite lush in the lower portion which that scorpion comes from. And the general explaination for the radscorpions is that they came from pet stores and privately own pets and the Emperor Scorpion is actually so popular it's been placed on the potential endangered species list due to being over harvested from the wild. so them being in the wastes makes perfect since seeing as how alot of apartments won't allow pets bigger then a small rodent, they are a popular alternative. I actually own one, so I'm kind of adament when people are ill informed about them sorry for the speel.

Carl Sagan might have been a crackpot...a philanthropist, but a crackpot...
A 1986 article by Russell Seitz in The National Interest reported that prominent physicist Freeman Dyson said of the TTAPS study that it was "an absolutely atrocious piece of science, but I quite despair of setting the public record straight....Who wants to be accused of being in favor of nuclear war?" However, the Brian Martin article mentioned above reported that Dyson had no memory of making this comment, and had said "I don't believe I ever said what Russell Seitz said I said, but I can't prove it." Seitz also mentioned that the Jan. 23, 1986 issue of Nature included a comment that nuclear winter research "has become notorious for its lack of scientific integrity." Steitz's assessment also introduced politics, stating that nuclear disarmament would lend an advantage to the Soviet Union, which harbored strong conventional forces.
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Many scientists secretly know that nuclear winter is a myth...but if it keeps the bombs in the silos then let it be the "saint nick" of nuclear war.

Yes, decades. Not centuries, certainly not 2 centuries.

Let's face it. There' no way FO3 makes that much sense. Yes, the building would be gone. There would be grass.

But then...we'd have a very not fun game now wouldn't we children?

I still would like to have some trees.

Well, when a world is post-apocalyptic enough, it becomes medieval

Or it becomes like Mad Max minus the working car and motorcycles.

Life after people takes the the setting of all humans suddenly vanished.

So they completely ignored the whole nuclear war, radiation etc, etc. things that make up the FO universe.

Well...isn't that what Bethesda make Elder Scrolls for? x3

No, the topsoil gets irradiated as well, blocking plant life. Some buildins shouldve caved in, but not much is known about how well buildings were built in the Fallout Universe, but id imagine with 60 years in the future, buildings shoudlve been built extremely well.

Oasis. That's proof that there is still plant life alive in the Fallout universe. Also in Point Lookout, the bog has living trees and "Punga Fruit" growing there.

Radiation irradiates plant life, not "blocks" it. Chernobyl is still dangerously irradiated but plant and animal life are flourishing there more than 20 years after the reactor exploded.



Actually the proof is the farm plots in every town in Fallout and the forests of trees and cacti in fallout 2 in addition to farms.

Again, the reason for this is because Fallout 3 would have ran too slow for older machines.