So I recently started a new play-through of FO3 and I just completed The Replicated Man again (the biggest link between FO3 and 4 obviously). Anyways, I just realized how much interesting information from that quest alone was never fully revealed, not even in a DLC for FO3 which would have been a very convenient and expected way to reveal more about the Commonwealth area. I remember my first time playing through this quest I thought the Commonwealth was an area in the capital wasteland I had to find; wasted my time exploring the north just looking for it. I mean c'mon, they had the whole background set up in that Replicated Man quest: the Railroad faction, the Institute with its super-advanced android technology that even amazed Pinkerton (who imo was the smartest scientist in the whole capital wasteland). Everything about that quest intrigued me, even finding out that Zimmer was an android himself! Just can't wait to find out all the mysteries of the Commonwealth in FO4!!!

Er, Zimmer's not an android. That was just Harkness.

Unless I completely missed something in my playthroughs of Fallout 3, anyways.

It's kinda in the air, if you kill zimmer you can loot the same kind of android part as you can from Harkness, but whether that mean Zimmer is a android or if he was carrying it in his pocket is unknown.

Maybe it was for the android that was missing. A parting gift

Zimmer isn't an android. His bodyguard Armitage is. That quest was okay, but I wish it was more extensive. The stuff we learned about the Commonwealth (and the perk/A3-21's Plasma Rifle) was the best part.

If Insitute is anything like Old World blues, the brain buddies home. It might be the most advanced Place for tech ever. There might be some pre-war experiments, some more modern biology research going on like Arcade Canon did.

I would be disapointed if it just has some old Computers and nutty scientist poking a cactus. Shouting Heureka.

Zimmer is a human, not a robot. And while there's links to F4 in the quest, Bethesda didn't start on this game until later and I don't think they necessarily had it figured out that the next game would have Boston as the setting and contain the Commonwealth and The Institute but I'm sure it gave them ideas to build off of.

Actually Todd confirms that they where talking about where to set 4 before 3 had hit the shelves.

I'm wondering what other than androids they have up their sleeve. You know, little things. Like new energy weapons, Power Armor models, and mutants.

It would be awesome if they had anything like the Large Hadron Collider over at CERN. Even a scaled down version would be beyond cool.

Alright, but that doesn't say they had made up their minds on the setting since conversations I've listened to showed they took quite a while and deliberation to come to a decision, nor does it mean that this decision making process occurred while they were making Fallout 3. I don't think they would have.

Yet we are hearing about the Commonwealth all the time in 3, both base game and at least one DLC, not to far fetched to assume they did so because they already more or less knew 4 would be set in Boston.

They did start with the groundwork for 4 right after 3 hit shelves after all.

I agree. You have the Replicated Man, Jamie from Dunwich building holotapes, Point Lookout, The Pitt and even Vault 112 from FO3. Pinkerton gets the memory chip and the diagrams for the circuit neurallzer from vault 112. I think it's ironic the memory chip he finds for Harkness contains the memory of an old combat veteran...just like the PC in FO4. Makes you wonder. Vault 111 and 112 deal with cryogenics. FO4 you play an old war vet, Vault 112 has old war vet memory chip. See where I'm going with this? Oh, one more thing. Pinkerton makes a remark about Braun, he states,"Where does he get off robbing people of their 'souls' like that." As in Sole Survivor or Soul Survivor?

But there are inconsistencies between Harkness' memory and the memory of the sole survivor, if that's what you're getting at? I think what you're saying is Harkness has the memory of Fallout 4's PC? In Harkness' memory, his wife ran away to her mother after he fell into a coma. But in the sole survivor's memory, he was going to the vault with his wife and child when the bomb went off in the area.

As to what Pinkerton says about Braun, he was probably referring solely to the inhabitants of Vault 112 whose souls were indefinitely under Braun's control for all his evil experiments/simulations that he got off on.

Exactly my point; I was expecting more about the Commonwealth later on in the game, or at least in a DLC. But I guess they just created a whole sequel surrounding it! This is why I believed all the rumors of FO4 taking place in Boston, because it made a lot of sense given that the backstory of the Commonwealth, the Institute, and the Railroad from FO3 had a lot of potential content to offer.

Actually it is hinted in the FO 3 game guide that Zimmer, Armitage, and Pinkerton are all androids.

If you attempt to steal from Zimmer, there is no android part. Same with Armitage and Pinkerton. Yet, once the quest is over, if you kill all three, there appears an android component. If the item is just in their pockets, it should be visible upon stealing attempt, so that it appears only after their death, tells me the guide is correct, and they are trying to suggest those three are androids.

Oh, God. Our PC is going to be the new Gary.

All i was saying is they might have been hinting at the next Fallout at the time.

He also says,"My wife disappeared while I was in a coma. The only good memories I have are of her, the rest are... Trust me, those are as real as they come." But thanks. Now we have V111/2, cryogenics, war vet, coma