Yes, and thankfully we elect people who do that. The average schmo doesn't know about international relations, war is a necessary tool to combat genocidal maniacs who want Joe and Jane's head on a platter. Nothing pretty about it, but humanity, humanity never changes.

You have to admit that Girdershade is a disaster waiting for a group of raiders to find them.

Sierra is certainly not playing with a full deck and Roland is seriously distracted.

In Arefu, they can think Evan King is crazy and paranoid and still be scared stiff.

A bunch of dead Brahmin will do that (something that will critically effect the settlements food supply) and they haven't even found out about the deaths of Lucy and Ian West's parents.

In wiki it also mentions that the settlement of Arefu has shrunk from 30 families to five families (Evan King entry).

On the Caravans, volume of scale is important. If you are too small scale you can't recover from serious setbacks. It is the difference between barely getting by scratching a living out and making enough to set some aside. Of having one guard or having three guards.

I mean I would loved to have some additional quests show up reflecting consequences of your actions.

Getting Deputized by Sheriff Lucas to go after slavers that have taken Maggie or some thing like that.

Or getting a chance of catching Colin Moriarty with his hand in the cookie jar.

Or being asked by Uncle Roe to find and convince Scott "Bean" Wollinski to come back and fix those robots of his because Uncle Roe thinks the town is being scoped out by a raider gang.

Hopefully we will see more of this in Fallout 4 or in a Broken Steel like DLC.

I mean I can see your point about people's reactions being muted, but reading between the lines, the DC wasteland was not recovering.

If the Brotherhood hadn't shown up and made a radical about face in policy, the DC Wasteland would have been nothing but rad scorpions and Super Mutants.

Hopefully Fallout 4 will be more like Fallout New Vegas. The Faction system was a great addition to Fallout.

1 Ugh this is filled with holes, you originally stated that Fallout is nothing but bleakness from the get-go.Now you're asserting that Fallout is by our real-world perspective bleak but in-universe it's anything but? You also must realize how inelegant and fallacious your original comment was "the entire series from the get-go has been nothing but bleakness." if there's at least two caveats, one of which (in-universe) seemingly refutes your own claim?

2 You must have missed the moment when the tenpenny tower populace coward in fear as they were being mauled .Also you're tasked with potentially killing Roy Phillips, that instantiates that he was a source of distress.I also never claimed the Enclave made a move to Rivet City.

How is a settlement of murderers and cannibals, of which has a hut filled with abominably obtained organs not bleak by any means?That's definitely bleak by real-world convention and I struggle to imagine a world where the notion of the bleak can exist and abject unconsenting-murder-derived-cannibalism doesn't qualify?

There's usually a brightness option.

... sorry was just watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkYsTYyjE8

Theme-wise, we'll never know how "dark" or "not so dark" it's going to be until we get our grubby little mits on it. Time will tell, speculation only makes the gamer loins burn.

I don't mind a dark story... as long as it has a sense of humor. The last thing you want is darkness-induced audience apathy. And a sense of humor really helps to stave that off. Codsworth's robotic sensibilities and Dogmeat's cuteness factor help.

As long as I can listen to Butcher Pete again Im in.

To be honest when I saw the trailer I saw the contrast between 'civilisation' and the areas outside of the towns. I like that. I think in FO3, the wasnt that contrast. Perhaps thats location based. Washington DC was the capital of the country. It stands to reason its the prime target of the area. Boston isnt as integral a city.

The future should be bleak. It should be 'f---d' up. Its the player characer VS that future and what he or she can shape out of it.

Fallout is also about pairing music with strange situations. Thats why you have swing jazz songs to murder sprees.

I dont mind the occasional point of light between the dark, thats what makes fallout for me. For every down the dumps local, there is a Moira Brown ready to brighten up the area with cheer!

Just so long as it's not so god awful depressing and bleak, that I need anti-depressants just to sit through an hour of it, I'm fine.

You gotta balance that stuff. Like sweet and sour. Like getting a jump scare in a horror movie every five minutes, it wears out it's welcome. There's an art to themes and presentation.