50 Fun Facts About Fallout 3

Which Fallout 3 town, built in a crater near Vault 101, has Lucas Simms as both its sheriff and its mayor?

Megaton grew up around a dud warhead that some of its residents worship. The player can disarm it for the sheriff or detonate it for a rich neighbour who dislikes the view.

Which Hollywood actor voices James, the scientist father who vanishes from Vault 101 at the start of Fallout 3?

Liam Neeson voices James, who walked away from a plan to purify the Potomac's irradiated water so that he could raise his child in Vault 101.

Which loyal dog can the Lone Wanderer recruit in Fallout 3 after raiders kill its scavenger master at a scrapyard?

Dogmeat was modelled on a Blue Heeler so that he would resemble the hero's dog in the film Mad Max 2, the inspiration for the first Fallout game's canine companion.

Which fast-talking disc jockey hosts Galaxy News Radio in Fallout 3 and reports on the Lone Wanderer's deeds?

Three Dog broadcasts from a station guarded by the Brotherhood of Steel, which turned the Washington Monument into his transmission tower.

Which D.C. landmark appears in Fallout 3 only as a giant crater, because nobody had modeled it in time?

The White House was written off as a direct hit in the nuclear war: with no time left to build another major location, Bethesda showed only its remains.

Which former president of the United States was jokingly offered a voice role in Bethesda's Fallout 3?

Bill Clinton never recorded a line: the joke offer was swiftly rejected, and Bethesda's Pete Hines later said the studio would not have allowed it even if he had agreed.

What are the two-headed cattle that carry merchants' wares across Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland called?

Brahmin is also the name of a class in Hindu society, and Microsoft chose not to release the game in India, citing cultural sensitivities.

Before release, fans joked that Fallout 3 would simply be which earlier Bethesda fantasy game "with guns"?

Oblivion had kept most of Bethesda's staff busy until 2006, so work on Fallout 3 began in late 2004 with a team of only about ten people.

Which giant pre-war robot marches with the Brotherhood of Steel against the Enclave in Fallout 3's final battle?

Liberty Prime clears a path through the Enclave lines to the water purifier, where the player can kill the enemy commander or talk him into surrendering.

Which Fallout 3 combat system pauses the action so that the player can target specific body parts of an enemy?

V.A.T.S. runs on Action Points: every queued attack spends some, and once they are gone the player must wait a short time before using it again.

Which wearable device serves as the inventory menu and fast-travel map for the player's character throughout Fallout 3?

The Pip-Boy 3000 doubles as a radio, picking up the wasteland's makeshift stations and their songs from the 1940s and 1950s.

In Fallout 3's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system of seven character attributes, which attribute does the letter C stand for?

Charisma feeds the Barter and Speech skills, so a character who invests in it starts the game better at haggling and persuasion.

Which Fallout 3 mechanic rises when the player gives water to a beggar and falls when they break into a home?

Karma shapes how the wasteland treats the player: some companions join only at the right level, and slavers offer their services to characters with a negative score.

Fallout 3's Operation: Anchorage add-on simulates American troops fighting which country's army in Alaska?

China had invaded Alaska in 2066 to seize America's oil reserves, and the virtual reality program was built before the bombs fell to ready soldiers for live combat.

In Fallout 3, the Enclave's President John Henry Eden, heard on the radio, is finally revealed to be what?

A computer, not a man, is behind the folksy radio voice: Eden is an artificial intelligence that controls the Enclave's base at Raven Rock.

Which intelligent, friendly Super Mutant does the Lone Wanderer meet in Fallout 3 while searching for the G.E.C.K.?

Fawkes took his name from a historical entry he read on a terminal about Guy Fawkes, the conspirator in England's Gunpowder Plot.

The Citadel, headquarters of the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 3, is built in the ruins of which real building?

The Pentagon's new tenants are denounced on Enclave Radio by President Eden, who calls the base the country's most important military installation.

Rivet City, the largest settlement in Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland, is built inside the decaying hulk of what?

An aircraft carrier that sat in dry dock before the war now holds a market, a science lab, a church and a museum of American history.

Which actor returned as the narrator of Fallout 3, the same role he had voiced in the earlier Fallout games?

Ron Perlman opens a game with more than 40,000 recorded lines, which set a Guinness World Record at the time for a single-player role-playing game.

Which studio, not Bethesda itself, developed Fallout: New Vegas, the spin-off that followed Fallout 3 two years later?

Obsidian gave New Vegas several questlines that can each finish the game, a change some players still hold up against its predecessor.

Fallout 3's National Archives quiz asks who first signed the Declaration of Independence; which answer is correct?

John Hancock is one of eight answers needed for a prize voucher. A single wrong guess resets the whole quiz, though the player can try again without penalty.

Fallout 3's National Archives quiz asks who ruled Great Britain when the Declaration was enacted; which answer wins?

King George III shares the terminal's quiz with questions on the Second Continental Congress, the thirteen rebel colonies and the 56 delegates who signed.

Winning Fallout 3's National Archives quiz earns a voucher for unique fruit-flavoured versions of which chem?

Mentats come in three prize flavours, Glamorously Grape, Brilliantly Berry and Observantly Orange, and the voucher is redeemed at a second terminal on the same wall.

In Fallout 3's Stealing Independence quest, the Protectron guarding the Declaration believes it is which real signer?

Button Gwinnett was a real signer from Georgia, and his robot double will forge a copy of the document if the player fetches ink from the Arlington Library.

Which Capitol Preservation Society character in Fallout 3 asks the player to recover the Declaration of Independence?

Abraham Washington pays 400 caps and the schematics for the Railway Rifle, and he had already sent another relic hunter, Sydney, who never came back.

Besides the Declaration and the Bill of Rights, which document can be looted from Fallout 3's National Archives?

Magna Carta sits in a fenced-off area guarded by two turrets, and the quest's client will pay 75 caps for it, less than he offers for the Bill of Rights.

To boost Galaxy News Radio's signal in Fallout 3, the player salvages a dish from a lunar lander inside which building?

The Museum of Technology displays the Virgo II, which in Fallout's history made the first crewed Moon landing, near a wrecked Wright Flyer and a model Vault.

Which Fallout 3 city of ghouls grew up inside the Museum of History, in the remains of an exhibit on the afterlife?

Underworld's entrance still carries the exhibit's signage, and its founders were survivors who sheltered in the museum while the city burned.

In Fallout 3, what does the G.O.A.T. exam, taken by every Vault 101 resident at sixteen, officially help to decide?

Their future job is the point of the Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test, whose verdicts range from Vault Chaplain to Fry Cook and Jukebox Technician.

On the G.O.A.T. exam in Fallout 3, all four answers to the tenth and final question name which Vault 101 figure?

The Overseer is the only choice offered on all four lines, so the tenth question adds nothing to the exam's tally.

Which childhood friend wakes the Lone Wanderer in Fallout 3 with news that their father has fled Vault 101?

Amata offers a gun and an escape plan, although she is the only child of the Vault's own leader, a man she loves but hopes to turn away from isolation.

Which leather-jacketed gang of Vault 101 teenagers in Fallout 3 is led by the bully Butch DeLoria?

Tunnel Snakes wear a snake on the back of their jackets, pulled straight over the Vault jumpsuit, and count Paul Hannon and Wally Mack as members.

Which book does Craterside Supply owner Moira Brown recruit the Lone Wanderer to help research in Fallout 3?

Wasteland Survival Guide research means testing a repellent on mole rats, visiting a minefield and catching radiation sickness so that Moira can try out her remedy.

Which wealthy Fallout 3 tower owner wants a nearby town's atomic bomb detonated because the settlement spoils his view?

Allistair Tenpenny rewards the deed with a luxury suite in his tower, while a player who disarms the warhead is later hunted by his hired killers.

Which ghoul bodyguard in Fallout 3 serves whoever holds his contract, which the player can buy from a bar owner?

Charon obeys a boss he despises until the paper changes hands, then kills the man as soon as the player becomes his new employer.

Which Enclave colonel, the main antagonist of Fallout 3, leads the armed takeover of Project Purity?

Augustus Autumn grew up on the Enclave's oil rig off the California coast, the son of a senior scientist, and has proved far less obedient than his father.

Which Brotherhood sentinel, daughter of its Elder, can be sent into the irradiated control room at Fallout 3's climax?

Sarah Lyons leads the Brotherhood's elite squad, and the player may send her to her death, go in themselves or simply let the purifier explode.

Which mutant from earlier Fallout games returns in Fallout 3 as a talking tree worshipped in the grove of Oasis?

Harold has been rooted for decades by Bob, the tree growing out of his head, and he begs the player to end his life while his worshippers argue over the growth.

Which Fallout 3 cavern settlement is populated entirely by children, who exile residents on their sixteenth birthday?

Little Lamplight calls grown-ups mungos, elects its own mayor by public vote, and sends those who age out to the nearby settlement of Big Town.

In Fallout 3, the water purifier at the heart of Project Purity is built inside which real D.C. monument?

The Jefferson Memorial stands beside the Tidal Basin, whose irradiated water the purifier was meant to clean along with the Potomac River.

Which pre-war heavy weapon in Fallout 3 is a tactical catapult that launches Mini Nukes at its targets?

The Fat Man leaves its blast zone irradiated for a short time, and an experimental variant of the weapon fires eight Mini Nukes in a single shot.

Which rare soft drink does Girdershade collector Sierra Petrovita ask the player to find in a Fallout 3 side quest?

Nuka-Cola Quantum raises the drinker's Action Points for four minutes at the cost of a dose of radiation, and it is the key ingredient of the Nuka-Grenade.

Which numbered shelter in Fallout 3 holds the G.E.C.K. and proves to be the source of the region's Super Mutants?

Vault 87 is also where Enclave soldiers ambush the player on the way out, seizing the G.E.C.K. and flying their prisoner to Raven Rock.

Which virtual reality simulation in Fallout 3's Vault 112 is run by a little girl named Betty who hands out cruel tasks?

Tranquility Lane was created by Dr. Stanislaus Braun, and the player's missing father is trapped inside it in the form of a dog.

In Fallout 3's Vault 108, scientists repeatedly cloned one man whose hostile copies still roam it; what is his name?

Gary was copied more than fifty times, and the staff recorded that each clone turned out more violent toward non-clones than the one before.

Which Fallout 3 add-on rewrites the ending, lets play continue after the main quest and raises the level cap to 30?

Broken Steel follows the Brotherhood's campaign to wipe out what remains of the Enclave, and it was the third of the game's five add-ons.

The slow-motion kill shots in Fallout 3's targeting mode were inspired by crash replays in which racing game series?

Burnout's wrecks gave programmer Jean Simonet a model for the cinematic combat that the game's executive producer had asked for.

Which cancelled Black Isle Studios project was meant to be the third main Fallout game before Bethesda's Fallout 3?

Van Buren would have ranged across Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah, but it was cancelled in December 2003 as its publisher ran short of money.

Which composer wrote Fallout 3's original score, blending blues and folk with the cadence of military music?

Inon Zur kept the music fully electronic, saying he wanted it to sound as if it came out of a boom box and not like a heroic symphony.

Which vocal group's recording plays over Fallout 3's first trailer as the camera pulls out of a ruined bus?

The Ink Spots sing as the shot widens to reveal the ruined capital; the trailer arrived in June 2007, two months after Bethesda opened a teaser site.