One thing I never figured out about Fallout 3 - did they ever give an explanation why, in 200+ years since the nuclear war, plant life hadn't started to re-grow in the Capitol Wasteland? Surely the nuclear war didn't destroy *all* plant life (there must be some remote areas - think west virginia, the midwest, parts of the rural south) that the Chinese didn't bother to nuke, where plant life would have survived, and should have "spread out" to fill back in in the 'burned' areas?

Radiation isn't a very good answer, because many forms of plant life are very resistant to radiation damage and can live and thrive despite radiation. Also, after 200 years, radiation levels would fall significantly (something which, IIRC, is acknowledged in one of the computer journal entries in Vault 101 right at the beginning of the game).

Radiation and [censored]. Seriously your not going to get a better answer. Before you ask the other massive environment question, i.e., why are most of the buildings still standing - even across the streeet from nuclear blast craters - well you don't even get speculative explainations.

Point Lookout has a significant amount of plant life.

But yeah, in the Capital Wasteland, it doesn't really make much sense but the best explanation that is going to be presented is "SCIENCE!"

What fun Fallout would be if it was a realistic portrayal of a nuclear war? If it was:

Either,
1) The Enclave would have recaptured the nation in the months following the War (a good thing, but maybe boring in a gaming sense)
2) USA would have mostly been reunited and centralized by Fallout 1, reconstructed by Fallout 2
3) By 2277, people would be living rather normal lives, gross national product would likely be same or even more than pre-war.
4) However, human population would be rather low (pre-industrial), infant deaths high and several areas in United States would still be uninhabitable (heavily nuked military locations and surroundings).
5) Nations not nuked in WW3, mostly South American, African and other Neutral nations would have taken over the world or at least would dominate world politics.
6) Radiation would have returned to non-lethal levels although still very carcinogenic

So basically Fallout 3 would be just The Sims: hardcoe.

Or,
1) Everybody died in the years following the War, killed by radiation, carcinogens, climate change and other nasty byproducts of nuclear war.

That's basically the way I look at it.

It may not make much sense, but for me, Fallout 3 was better because of its wasteland atmosphere. I tended not to dwell on the fact that its 200 years after the war.

I'm guessing Washington, DC, being the capital, would have warranted a direct hit by a nuclear blast. With the intense heat turning the ground to glass, the firestorms inevitably following for months or even years after and of course the radiation which can take thousands of years to completely dissipate I'm surprised that there's any plant life so soon after.

well i don't think plant life could exist in a place where a bunch of nukes hit and created a wasteland.

Nuclear Holocaust.