Beware Spoiler, if you haven`t blown up Megaton then read not!


It`s just a game.

It`s just a game.

It`s just a game.

So why did I feel so bad blowing up Megaton?


I bought FO3 when it first came out a few years ago. Brilliant game- Would`ve bought FO3 Vegas if they hadn`t Steamed it.

Anyway, in all that time (and several games) I refused to blow up Megaton. I had no wish to kill innocent people, even pixellated ones. Killing others trying to kill me or bad people- fine, but leave me alone, I leave you alone. I am never bad in that way even in games as I believe what you do in a game can reflect on you in life someways, especially if you`re very young.

But late last night I was testing a new Mod install of the Beauty Project ( a face-change Mod for the PC, Xboxers) and just before bedtime, I thought, `What the hell, I`ve had the game for years, let`s pretend I did blow up Megaton. Be interesting to see what really happens`.

So I loaded an oldish save in Megaton.
I went to Mr. Burke (or the devil in a suit as I call him) and agreed to destroy Megaton. I also had a trusty, loyal female companion with me called Crystal.
I set the detonater and ran all the way to TenPenny Tower. I even get to set off the nuke (adding to the guilt). I hovered my hands gingerly over the switch as Burky watched and pressed the buttom.

BOOM.

Flash, things shook, big noise, mushroom cloud. Pretty much what I expected, except real nuke explosions are bigger. Crystal, behind me, burst into tears... Actually, no she didn`t. She just stood there, impassively watching, as usual. Good thing she was wearing sunglasses.

"Well done, "says Mr. Burke, "You should be proud."
"Yes, that was fun, "came a squeaky voice from Mr. Tenpenny on my right that I hadn`t even noticed, "Wish we had more bombs we could detonate!". It seemed like all this was for his viewing pleasure, he was the real devil.

Then Burke gave me a real nice apartment, top floor with a servant robot, balcony view and cash. Ooh. I get rewarded for mass murder of men women and even children.
I stood in my new apartment for a moment listening to my stupid robot servant talk. If crystal talked much, she would have asked, "What`s wrong?"

I liked the Sheriff, I even avoided telling him about Mr. Burke so he wouldn`t get shot in the back. I liked Moira with her stupid quirkiness. I liked everyone else, even the annoying preacher, who certainly didn`t deserve being blown up. I pondered a bit longer... Crystal stared at me, was that concern on her face? "Whatever you decide, I`m with you, " she said. Wait? Did she really just say that?

I went back to Burke, Crystal following, she was holding out her pump-action shotgun because I now also had my pump action shotgun out.

"You should be pro-" he began, I shot him in the face, he collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

"Oh no!" screamed Tenpenny, I blew him away before he could use his sniper rifle. Crystal dealt with the guard.

I went down stairs where the pleasant mood music was playing and shot the first security guard, Crystal, always totally behind me in what I do had no qualms and blew away the other security guard. We fought and killed off the rest of security. I was a bit busted up and so was Crystal, but it didn`t matter now. There were no more seciurity. I went from room to room looking for and shooting cringing civilians that lived in Tenpenny. Every now and then I heard shotgun rounds from Crystal who was also searching out hiding civilians.
Sometimes we`d cross by eachother, shotguns in hand as we searched, "You can`t hide forever, "she`d say, "I`ll find you". Sometimes a civilian would run out of a room I was searching straight into Crystal`s shotgun.

It was quite disturbing as we slaughtered everyone in the place.

Yes, disturbing. I know it`s only a game, but I lived thru the fear of instant nuclear annihilation as a young lad in the `80s, so, no, it wasn`t funny blowing up Megaton, so Tenpenny Tower had to die.

But shooting everyone in Tenpenny Tower wasn`t funny either. I gotta say the AI (perhaps it`s the Mods) certainly acted realistically with people hiding and tryng to get away as you would expect and even Crystal, my AI companion needed no instructions, once she knew what I was doing she went along with it all.

I really didn`t enjoy any of it at all. I simply did not enjoy the act of doing so much wrong (although there was a scary perverse pleasure there for a moment).

Thankfully, I will load my present game and carry on as if it all was a bad dream.

Pity I can`t dream away the existence of Nuclear bombs in reality.

Hey, without nuclear scare we would have had plenty of world wars in the period we call Cold War.

But, I also didn't like nuking Megaton. I have nothing against self-defense, but any violence against any animal or individual in the name of sport or the sake of it - no, just no. Maybe I'm an utilitarian of sorts but I don't like anything that doesn't serve a purpose, especially if it means cutting life/production etc. from somewhere else.


Also, why massacre Tenpenny Tower? It's that crazy Briton and his sycophant fellow that were responsible (and you!) Those living in the Tower are trying to get past the day alive - just like those poor folks who died in Megaton. Do two wrongs make a right?

I'm doing a 'Kill everything that moves' playthrough for the first time and so I finally got to see what happens when you nuke Megaton. I took a sledgehammer to Burke afterwards and, hilariously, when I took out the old boy with the sniper rifle, he went flying over the balcony rail and landed in the courtyard below. I then proceeded to clear out the entire building with a lead pipe after I shot up the guards.

Because you are bad. Very bad.

You're going to Hell.

So you killed everyone in Tenpenny Tower because one rich, insane old man and his thug were bad? That's pretty monsterous of you really isn't it.

Also, it being a game has nothing to do with anything I hate people who say that's it's just a game like some kind of insult whereas if it's a movie nobody bats an eyelid if you say it was lifechanging or something :confused: (Confused emoticon is the best!)

I did a lot of playtru,s and somehow i cant play the game as an evil char i blew up megaton once just too see how the animation of the explosion will be and i must say it was awesome but i uploaded my save and went on as an goody two shoes

i asked myself why is it that i cant play the evil char in this game and i came with an interesting anwser, if you are evil people across the wasteland react in a very harsh way if you communicate with them regardless how much you like those persons .
and somehow i find that an very disturbing emotion for me i mostly wanna be liked by people that is the basic psychologic reason why i dont feel comfartable by playing an evil char.

I may say that creating a game in this way and make it think about yourself as a person is an incredible achievement and i believe its the intend of gamesas too raise these questions for your self thats one of the reasons i admire gamesas and todd and his team for theyre work

I just blew up Megaton for the caps. My character is listed as "Very Good", but thats just because being nice sometimes earns more money. In all honesty, even though you feel guilty, you can always reload a save and kill Burke before he talks to you.

I've never blown up Megaton simply as it has the most useful resources. The key thing for player housing is proximity to a fast travel point - Megaton is perfect for that, whereas Tenpenny Tower requires numerous loading screens.

The same applies with Novac and the Lucky 38 suite in New Vegas - if I can't reach my home within one load screen of a fast travel point then I'm not gonna live there. :shrug:

Yep, Megaton is also much more central than Tenpenny Tower. It doesn't matter all that much, but I prefer a fasttravel to last less than half a day.

I would be most annoyed by the buzzer dialogue though. Imagine that you have to buzz your way into the tower every single time you're hauling some loot back home. That would drive me mad.

And, well, for some reasons, the balcony door of the apartment was open when I was stealing everything that wasn't nailed down a couple of days ago, so I went in and had a look. There isn't even a fridge. Or a sink. And when you enter that apartment, you're looking straight at the bed. That's a big no. The bed shouldn't be in plain sight of the front door.

I did It becouse the room In tempany tower is epic plus I AM SO TIRED of being the good guy EVERY game EVER playthrough I'm good, NO more shall this happen!