I said there was still radiation too much for human populations. And that type of source of radiation is worse than a nuke, and if it is nearing normal conditions after 30 years then 200 years should be pretty normal.

If I ever head to Nevada or New Mexico (someday I hope to) I am going to visit those places

Well chernobyl was only 1 nuclear power plant. What about all the nuclear plants that would have been blown up during the war? It would be even worse.
It also says in chernobyl, nearly 2,000,000 acres of agricultural land was taken out of production after the disaster and was only returned to production years later and after using special cultivation techniques and additives

Ok once agian I will explain.

When a nuclear bomb goes off the radioactive elements in the Bomb get converted to radiation and that radiation will go away in 2 to 4 months.

Now chernobyl was not a nuclear explosion. There was a steam build up and the core blew, again not like a nuclear bomb think giant boiler blowing up. Now that explosion sent large amounts of radioactive fuels and graphite and other metals all over the place, in this case 2,000,000 acres.

Now keep in mind the reason why its still radioactive is because the fuel and the metals and other crap weren't vaporizer and converted into radiation. They stayed intact and still give off radiation. Now going around and picking up all the pits and pieces would take a very long time.

With a nuclear bomb there are no pieces to pick up because they were all converted into radiation.

Edit: Chernoblyl in Fallout would be like the Gecko Nuclear Power Plant in Fallout 2 or Vault 34 and Vault 87 in that they still have intact nuclear fuel rods giving off radiation.

No one is saying a few weeks after the war everything is all nice, especially Styles. At least once a week he mentions how the world was burnt to cinders. We are trying to say 200 years after the war radiation won't just be lingering around.

That's because of the radiation levels in the plants, not because the plants were killed off, they just became uneatable for people.

I am going to post this again. I know there can be a delay when alot of people are posting and posts can be missed until it finally updates it is annoying.

Ok once agian I will explain.

When a nuclear bomb goes off the radioactive elements in the Bomb get converted to radiation and that radiation will go away in 2 to 4 months.

Now chernobyl was not a nuclear explosion. There was a steam build up and the core blew, again not like a nuclear bomb think giant boiler blowing up. Now that explosion sent large amounts of radioactive fuels and graphite and other metals all over the place, in this case 2,000,000 acres.

Now keep in mind the reason why its still radioactive is because the fuel and the metals and other crap weren't vaporizer and converted into radiation. They stayed intact and still give off radiation. Now going around and picking up all the pits and pieces would take a very long time.

With a nuclear bomb there are no pieces to pick up because they were all converted into radiation.

Chernoblyl wasn't a nuclear bomb going off. A nuclear bomb and what happened at Chernoblyl aren't the samething.

Edit: Chernoblyl in Fallout would be like the Gecko Nuclear Power Plant in Fallout 2 or Vault 34 and Vault 87 in that they still have intact nuclear fuel rods giving off radiation.

I dont really agree with this, not everything is vaporized after a nuclear bomb. there was still building and structures standing after hiroshima and nagasaki.
If bombs were dropped all across america, its possible nuclear power plants could leak radiation for years.
I just don't understand all the fuss about fallout 3. Its has a few mistakes but so does every game. IMO the landscape and setting has been the best of any fallout game. They kinda had to make it like the way it was to introduce the new fanbase to the series. It was a good introduction to the series for the newbies

Because it's inconsistent, not with just the radiation. DC is the capital of the US, and would have been nuked to hell and back, uet it looks like it was hit bu a squadron of bombers.

I am talking about the damn bomb the Uranium and Plutonium gets vaporised. I wasn't talking about the the buildings. All the weapons grade Uranium and Plutonium and the entire bomb gets vapories, worse than vaporised, fusion turns the bomb the whole bomb into energy. Energy = Radiation.

Chernoblyl wasn't a nuclear explosion. It is still there, it just blew up, again think giant boiler explosion that threw radioactive crap all over the place, metal chunks and other debris all over the place. You don't get this with a nuclear explosion.

As for the nuclear power plants still leaking radiation, I agree with you and we have seen it in Fallout. Gecko power plant in Fallout 2, Vault 87 in Fallout 3 and Vault 34 in Fallout New Vegas and there is one in Tactics. A nuclear power plant is different than a nuclear bomb.

The problem with Fallout 3 is that the radiation (from the bombs) wouldn't last 200 years. The city would have been vaporised because its DC. Radiation does not stop plant life from growing.

Would you rather have a boring empty desert like NV?
I hope they never make another fallout game in a desert, what a boring idea.
I loved walking through the DC ruins

Yes, a thousand times yes. At least FNV kept in line with the originals. Like it or not, FO3 is the black sheep of the herd.

By the way, not really boring if you know where to look.

Nuclear missiles nowadays use an air burst technique for maximum effectiveness. The reason why the radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki cleared up much faster then it would have done(which would still be mush sooner then 200 years) is because the bombs were detonated between 1800-2000 feet above the ground. This is because the Americans wanted to land occupation troops as soon as possible. Air bursts also magnify the power of the blast and ensures that the maximum amount of buildings are destroyed which means that the amount of missiles needed to turn the ground of the Capital Wasteland would have completely decimated the city.
I actually loved the Mojave Wasteland and loved how unpatronizing it was. The Capital Wasteland was a theme park, littered with interesting things that have no connection to anything else in the area, done in an attempt to keep the interest of the player. The Mojave felt like an actual place for me and has actually partially ruined the Capital Wasteland for me. Fallout 3 is still a great game and I have fun exploring it, but the exploration feels like a shallow experience compared to the Mojave. That's just how I feel about it.

Joined the series with Fallout 3, the world was great it was different and posed a challenge but lacked choice and any real struggle to survive (except random spawns).
New Vegas was a far better game in comparison, more story choices, more realism and more believable

I agree that NV was more on track with what FO should be like 200 years later. But for arguments sake....I recall a lot of toxic waste barrels around DC and in FO3. so there is your "nuclear waste" radiation factor. Maybe DC was a prewar/postwar toxic dump site. At least that's what it kinda looked like to me.

Could have explained the high radiation better, but this is not stated ingame so it's no more than speculation. :/

I understand where you're going with that, but if I show you a picture of an apple do I need to state that it's an apple? Unless written otherwise, the landscape that is created in FO3 should explain itself and/or give you the tools to "figure it out". At the least, it gives you the ability to formulate your own account of what happened.

OT-I liked Zion and I can see all FO stories and environments working cohesively to paint a unique picture of FO America.

Zion was cool. All the dlcs were cool and i would love to have more of the dlcs like that.

I agree they could have explained the high radiation better. There are toxic sites and there is Vault 87 but that doesn't explain it all. Also radiation doesn't stop plant life from growing, So this doesn't explain why there is no plant life but for Oasis. Point Lookout has high radiation and yet it has alot of trees.

In real life plant life grows in areas like Chernoblyl. Plant life simply doesn't get killed off by radiation. So I kinda find it funny that people say New Vegas is a boring desert, yet Fallout 3 is the boring desert, an unrealistic on at that.

Just using your post as a jumping off point.

You liked the subways? I found them incredibly boring after the 1st two of them, then having to traverse many more made me want to run up to a Super Mutant, goose him and stand there to get pummeled to death.

Just cause it has radioactive waste and barrels doesn't make DC into a dump like you stated.
And yeah, you might show me a picture of an apple, but who's to say that apple isn't poisoned`? Of that it only shows one side and it's actually split in half but positioned so you can see the cut side?

That's the problem.
We're shown an apple but given no additional information on it, we can agree that it is in fact an apple, but what else is there to this apple?
That is what we need information on, that is what information we're not given, and speculating doesn't lead us anywhere as speculation without any basis is not canon.

What if this apple is green and has a red spot on the other side?
Is there a hole in it from an insect?

We don't know.

So there are toxic dumps.
There are radioactive barrels around there.
But are they responsible for the rest of the radiation?
Who placed these barrels here? And for what reason?

And it's not up to us to fill out what Bethesda failed to explain to us.
Other Fallout games did just fine explaining things to us, why should we not demand for clear cut facts from Bethesda?



[edit]


Styles, well the water radiation is explained at least, somewhat.
The Pitt has three radioactive rivers that connect into one, creating a hyper radioactive river that eventually reaches the CW, at which point the radiation is dropped to lower levels.

Ahh I failed to see it that way! Thank you, you make a very good point. When I first played FO3 I played from the perspective that my person did not fully understand or could not comprehend the environment around him outside his vault. So as I played the game I problem solved the why's and how's of the game from my characters (comparatively) small exposure to the unknown world. I never played the first two FOs but I've read a lot about them on the wiki and it is very fascinating so I sympathize with those that say FO3 messed it all up but I like the game...even if it is omitted from cannon all together (not sure if they can do that!).

Why the hell would the sky not be blue? :s

Aliens.

Seriously though, what Savage said.

EDIT- I think they mean the Green "haze" left behind by radiation, ala FO3.

The Allegheny... and other river I don't know the names of, flow into the Ohio river, so they go west. The potomac is a smallish river that starts in West Virginia from a mountain source.

Edit: There are also only two rivers, their meeting point is referee to as a triangle. (There is a specific name for it)