Fallout 3: Difference between revisions

* [[Base On Wheels]]: The Enclave's massive Mobile Base in the climax of the ''Broken Steel'' expansion.

* [[Beam Spam]]: There are ''Gatling Lasers'' in the game, as apparently the brother of [[More Dakka]] would ''not'' be left out.

* [[Because You Were Nice to Me]]: Being nice to Gob in Megaton will net you a 10% discount from him. He's even willing to risk pissing off Moriarty.

** At the gates of Megaton, Tenpenny Tower and Rivet City are beggars asking for purified water. Giving them water gives you an instant karma boost. With enough water and some patience, you could boost your karma to Very Good in just a few minutes. This can result in a player with a history of being a lying, cheating, thieving, enslaving, murdering bastard becoming a saint in the eyes of the people, [[Disproportionate Reward|all because they gave a hobo a drink.]] Or you can donate a few hundred bottle caps (the game's currency) to one of the in-game churches for a huge instant karma boost.

* [[Bishonen Line]]: The mirelurks are mutated crabs and look crustacean with shells and pincers. Mirelurk kings however are implied to be mutated from turtles, and have humanoid heads, fingers and toes with no shells.

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: Many of the sidequests, although the [[Karma Meter]] will often have its own ideas about Good and Evil.

* [[Black and White Morality]]: As far as the overarching Struggle Between Good And Evil goes, the factions line up pretty neatly. The Enclave are firmly on the "Evil" side aside from their [[Utopia Justifies the Means]] intentions, and the East Coast Brotherhood are pretty much totally good guys aside from being [[Fantastic Racism|Fantastic Racists]]. Meanwhile the vast majority of the Super Mutants and Raiders are [[Chaotic Evil]]. Whatever your Karma is, [[But Thou Must|you still have to]] fight for the Brotherhood against the Enclave and Super Mutants to get anything done.

* [[Black Widow]]: The name of a perk, that enables a Female PC to deal more damage to men, and also opens a [[Femme Fatale|lot of dialogue options]] while talking to them. It also has a [[Spear Counterpart]] for male PC's called "Ladykiller" that has the same effect for women.

** [[Guide Dang It|If you can find it,]] the Xuanlong Assault Rifle. A unique Chinese Assault Rifle, with an expanded magazine and jacked up stats. More than powerful enough to buzzsaw Raiders and Mutants apart.

** The Silenced 10mm Pistol. Easily repairable, plentiful ammo, and obtainable early on, if you need someone dead quickly and quietly without alerting every hostile in range during the early parts of the game, this comes in very handy.

* [[Broken Pedestal]]: The Enclave, if you play the previous Fallout games, you should know this already. It certainly comes as a surprise to Nathan, the Enclave-loving citizen of Megaton.

* [[Bucket Helmet]]: The Mechanist.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Once you first behold Liberty Prime, you know that he's going to be kicking some ass by the end of the game.

** "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." -[[The Bible (Literature)|Revelation 21:6]] {{spoiler|That is to say, '216' is the code to activate the purifier at the end of the main story arc.}}

** In particular there are Mayor MacCready of Little Lamplight (particularly striking since [[Troubling Unchildhood Behavior|he's eleven at most]]) and Desmond Lockheart from Point Lookout. Neither of them seem capable of forming a sentence without swearing.

* [[Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs]]: Known simply as "Sugar Bombs". The cereal pieces are even shaped like miniature nukes.

== Tropes D-G ==

* [[Death From Above]]: The Highwater Trousers Easter Egg, and {{spoiler|how the Enclave destroy Liberty Prime in the Broken Steel expansion.}}

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: {{spoiler|Old Man Harris used to be one of the lunatics in Andale until he had a [[Heel Realization]] and realized just how batshit insane his family had become and how horribly fucked up what they practiced really was. In fact, if you kill them all he not only thanks you for what you did, but he also take in their children and promises to teach them how to be something other than practitioners of [[Villainous Incest]] and being prone to [[I'm a Humanitarian]].}}

* [[Enemy Chatter]]: Most humanoid and robot enemies taunt you if they detect your presence. This is quite stupid on their part since it helps you locating where and who or what they are.

* [[Energy Weapons]]: They are generally the most powerful ranged weapons apart from the biggest of big guns and unique small guns.

** Averted and then subverted with the Animal Lover perk, which stops most non-insectoid animals - including the Yao Guai - from acting hostile toward you. With two points into the skill, the same animals will come to your ''aid'' in battle, as long as you aren't fighting one of the animals affected by the perk.

* [[Every Bullet Is a Tracer]]

{{quote| "Hurry up and die! ''I'm hungry!!''"}}

** Braun if you {{spoiler|activate the Chinese invasion.}} Everyone else in Tranquility Lane if you don't.

** [[The Hero]]: You, obviously

** [[The Lancer]]: Somah, your first ally and the only one from the same timeframe as you.

* [[Happy Fun Ball]]: The Giddyup Buttercup machines in ''Mothership Zeta.''

* [[Have You Tried Rebooting]]: The computer used to reach Vault 87 appears to be non-functional. To proceed, you have to ask one of the children why it doesn't work (that child turned it off), and ask him to head to the terminal to turn it back on.

** [[President Evil|President]] [[Heroes (TV)|Linderman]] [[Star Trek Generations (Film)|drops bridges]] [[A Clockwork Orange (Film)|with his droogs!]]

*** In Japan, [[Yosuke Akimoto|Master Asia]] has uploaded his brain into a super computer and instead of using Devil Gundam cells, he is using the FEV to wipe out humanity.

* [[Indestructible Edible]]: All the Pre-War junk food is still nourishing, if slightly radioactive. Who knows what they did to make "YumYum Deviled Eggs" last more than 200 years.

** Conservation via irradiation. It's been exposed to so many rads for so long, bacterial contamination has been completely fried.

* [[Intentional Engrish for Funny]]: In ''Operation: Anchorage'', you may come across Chinese computers. Your Pip-Boy will attempt to translate the text on their screens into English, but does a poor job of it. The terminal in Mama Dolce's is also this, but already in [[Engrish]].

* [[An Interior Designer Is You]]: You can purchase decoration themes for your house as well as useful upgrades such as a workbench, lab table, and a soda machine (it makes your soda cold, improving its HP restoration ability). And any clutter (old books, dinner plates, teddy bears, etc) you can pick up around the game world can be placed in your house. Trying to do the last thing can cause much frustration thanks to a rather wonky physics engine.

{{quote| '''Singer:''' And when they landed on Plymouth Rock / Plymouth Rock had landed on them!}}

* [[Joke Item]]: Some of the weapons you find are totally useless, such as BB gun and pool cue which you are better off using your fists.

* [[Katanas Are Just Better]]: The katana in the game is well above average.

** The main game features one [[Reporting Names|code-named Highwater Trousers]], which is controlled from a radar station in the north-central area of the wasteland. It's mainly an [[Easter Egg]].

* [[Mouthy Kid]]: Some of the children in Little Lamplight.

* [[Mundane Utility]]: After completing ''Mothership Zeta'', you've got an entire alien spacecraft at your disposal with unimaginable technology inside, and are probably carrying on your person alien firearms, chemicals and other gizmos that could offer huge technological breakthroughs in the hands of someone who could study their workings, like say, the Brotherhood of Steel or Rivet City. Nope, those firearms are actually inferior to our earth weapons and are just [[Vendor Trash]], while the chemical agents are worth pennies and are best kept in your backpack for healing and repairs to your weapon.

* [[Musical Theme Naming]]: Interestingly, even many of the original songs on the soundtrack are named after hit tunes by The Ink Spots, such as "Whispering Grass" and "When the Swallows Return" ("When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano").

* [[Mysterious Protector]]: The Mysterious Stranger, a [[Trenchcoat Brigade|trenchcoat-and-fedora-clad]] man who shows up in VATS occasionally to kill a target for you.

* [[Nicknaming the Enemy]]: Ghouls refer to humans as "Smoothskins." However, it's not clear whether this is necessarily a slur, as even friendly, sympathetic Ghouls refer to humans as this, sometimes even to their faces. On the other hand, when humans refer to Ghouls as "Zombies," it's ''definitely'' intended to be derogatory.

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: If you've reached Good karma, the Talon Company Mercs will go after your head, calling you a "holier-than-thou white-knight". It matters little for some people though, since it also means more things to kill. That turns into more XP, ammo, armor, and weapons, as well as [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|more things]] [[Catharsis Factor|to shoot at]].

** If you've managed to reach both Evil karma and Good karma at least once, you get ''both'' after you giving you [[Up to Eleven|even more]] people to kill. If both groups are near, you can also potentially [[Set a Mook To Kill A Mook|set them to kill themselves]] [[Pass the Popcorn|since they're hostile to the other group]]. Never leaving Neutral karma will avoid the hit squads.

* [[No One Could Survive That]]: {{spoiler|Colonel Autumn, you, and Sentinel Lyons. Autumn clearly injects himself with some sort of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] before being hit with the radiation wave, while Lyons was outside the control room and therefore took a less powerful blast. You, on the other hand, have no such explanation for your survival.}} However, {{spoiler|you do ultimately survive even if you go into the room, which kills Lyons, so maybe the Lone Wanderer is just that much more durable to this situation.}}

* [[Obvious Beta]]: Getting stuck in the scenery in the Wasteland, constant crashing, missing textures, an innumerable number of bugs that cause the game to hang (including the giant [[Badass]] anti-communist robot refusing to move, which ''always seems to happen once every playthrough''), Radscorpions and Brahmin spawning stuck in the ground half the time, the [[PS 3]] version locking up if one of your friends signed into PSN (patched, thankfully), framerate and control lag that randomly appears to the point where you have to reset on the ''console versions'', all the Operation: Anchorage equipment being glitched somehow, The Pitt being completely unplayable at launch, Broken Steel making your companions invincible and have Three Dog spoil the entire game even if you just left the Vault...Seriously, it can get really bad at times. Thankfully, there are plenty of unofficial patches that clean things up a bit...unless of course you have the console version, in which case, you're completely screwed, because the official patches barely fixed a thing. At least this one has a higher ratio of [[Good Bad Bugs]] compared to New Vegas, although it's really no less buggy overall.

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: In ''Broken Steel'' when you wake up two weeks have passed since the end of the game. Apparently while you were under the Brotherhood was systematically tracking down the Enclave remnants with help from Liberty Prime.

** Several areas in ''Mothership Zeta'' can only be explored once, particularly frustrating since there's an achievement for finding alien captive logs in those areas, and they're quite easy to miss.

* [[Only One Female Mold]]: Even the old wrinkle faced women have young shaped bodies.

* [[Padded Sumo Gameplay]]: Especially in the DLC. It is possible to use stealth or cover, but the game's economy makes stimpak spamming a much easier tactic.

* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: You do not get karma penalties if you do 'evil' things to evil people (including stealing from them or chopping their heads off in broad daylight).

* [[Peek a Boo Corpse]]: Stepping on a skeleton causes the same rumble feedback as a bear trap or tripwire. It doesn't do any damage, it's just there to make you jump.

* [[Perky Goth]]: Bittercup, much to the annoyance of the other denizens of Big Town (mostly because she would rather [[Skewed Priorities|look for makeup components than keep an eye out for Super Mutants, etc.)]].

* [[The Pollyanna]]: Moira Brown, who takes everything from her bleak surroundings to her catastrophically failed experiments to her own ghoulification with the same sunny enthusiasm. [[Break the Cutie|Breaking her spirit]] by persuading her to give up her Guide project is treated as a [[Moral Event Horizon|special kind of evil]].

* [[Powered Armor]]: Standard issue for the Brotherhood of steel and the Enclave

{{quote| '''Talon Company Merc:''' I want this one's head on a fucking platter!<br />

'''Super Mutant:''' I'll wear your bones around my NECK, human!<br />

* [[Second Hour Superpower]]: The Pip Boy 3000 and the V.A.T.S targeting system is given to you during your 10th Birthday Party.

* [[Sequel Hook]]: Picking up on a mention from ''Tactics'', both this game and ''New Vegas'' imply there's another faction of the Brotherhood of Steel operating in Chicago, and it's also hinted that super mutants have been sighted and the Enclave is suspected to have another base nearby.

* [[Shout Out]]: Way too many to list here, but the ''Mad Max'' films are referenced most prominently. A full list can be found [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_cultural_references here.]

** In the Georgetown townhouse there is a robot that says a very familiar poem for those who have read Ray Bradbury (actually that whole house is a reference to that short story)

* [[Sniper Pistol]]: The Scoped .44 Magnum, one of the best standard pistols in the game.

* [[Songs in The Key of Lock]]: {{spoiler|Tranquility Lane has a hidden computer interface that allows you to shut it down}}; accessing it requires a musical code based on {{spoiler|the [[Leitmotif]] you can hear on the soundtrack}} and which {{spoiler|Betty}} occasionally whistles to herself.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: The radio on your Pipboy is [[Soundtrack Dissonance]] on demand. With it, you have the choice of listening to either uplifting golden oldies music from the 50s, patriotic American army music, or even violin sonatas while going around and killing random mutants and animals.

** {{spoiler|Tranquility Lane}} takes it [[Up to Eleven]] with it's constant usage of an uplifting theme while you're busy committing murder. For bonus points, that happy little jingle {{spoiler|is the [[Songs in The Key of Lock|musical key]] to triggering the simulation's failsafe.}}

* [[Spock Speak]]: Mr Handy and Mr Gutsy robots, each have English butler and [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] voice respectively. Also, the Prototype Medic Armor.

* [[Subliminal Seduction]]: The true purpose of Vault 92 was to brainwash its residents -- all musicians -- through white noise seeded through the speaker system and recording equipment, with the purpose to make them ultra-loyal super-soldiers upon receiving a simple command phrase. [[Foregone Conclusion|Naturally]], [[Ax Crazy|things]] [[Insane Equals Violent|went]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong|horribly]] ''[[Gone Horribly Wrong|horribly]]'' [[Gone Horribly Wrong|wrong]].

* [[Sunglasses At Night]]: There is no penalty in doing so: You get a Perception bonus, even at night.

* [[Sure Let's Go With That]]: Since you meet a lot of brain-fried, deluded, misguided or outright crazy people wandering the Wasteland, your dialogue options often have at least one which enables you to politely humour them in order to progress to the next part of the conversation. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|Naturally, you also have the option to]] [[Jerkass|bluntly and rudely tell them that they're nuts]].

{{quote| '''Penelope Chase''': Why is your Ghoul friend picking their pockets? This is no time for sticky fingers, Daring!<br />

'''Herbert 'Daring' Dashwood''': It's not what he's taking out, my dear, but rather what he's putting in! DUCK AND COVER! }}

* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Some may have difficulty using weapons that have rare ammo or cannot be repaired except by merchants. In the case of weapons like the Alien Blaster, it has both a finite ammo limit AND it is unique and cannot be repaired by the player.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: The Vault 101 Overseer, who decides that after repeatedly attempting to murder the Lone Wanderer, something that has obviously failed, the best idea to deal with them is to taunt and be sarcastic.

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: John Henry Eden wants to {{spoiler|kill off every mutated human (read: 95% of the population) in the Capital Wasteland as he believes it is the only way to save it}}. Also, in ''The Pitt'' DLC, the leader of the {{spoiler|slave-driving Raiders in the ruins of Pittsburgh was trying to resurrect Pittsburgh as a functioning, producing city, with the intention of ending the slave labor once a cure for the mutations plaguing the city's workers could be developed}}.

* [[Vasquez Always Dies]]: Well, you can kill them anyway, but none of the obvious [[Action Girl|action girls]] die plotline deaths. Not even the most blatant Vasquez, Brick from Reilly's Rangers. It's the new recruit that gets killed instead.

** From setting [[The Woobie|Harold]] on fire, to [[Mind Control|mezzing]] Wastelanders into slavery, to backstabbing the Brotherhood of Steel with a [[Kill Sat]], almost ''every single quest'' has at least one "[[Complete Monster|unspeakable bastard]]" option.

** Dr. Braun gives us an in-universe example, his only source of amusement is cruelly tormenting the other inhabitants of Tranquility Lane.

* [[Weapon Jr]]: The tutorial has the player learn to shoot with a BB gun on their 10th birthday.

* [[We Can Rule Together]]: [[Affably Evil]] President Eden suggests that there may be a place in the Enclave for the Lone Wanderer, perhaps even replacing Colonel Autumn as his [[The Dragon|dragon]], if they agree to help Eden implement his Final Solution. Nothing ever comes of it, though, for two important reasons; 1) even if you don't destroy Eden yourself, in ''Broken Steel'' Liberty Prime will level Raven Rock, either destroying Eden or burying him under a few thousand tons of rubble. 2) Despite being raised in a Vault, the Lone Wanderer is descended from Wastelanders, so Eden's FEV turns out to be fatal to him / her as well.

** Just about everyone in Canterbury Commons believes The Mechanist is doing more harm than good. While he's sincere about protecting the town, it's agreed that his heavilly-armed robots are doing a lot more damage than the mutated ants.

* [[Wham Episode|Wham Mission]]: ''The Waters of Life''. Specifically, {{spoiler|the point when its revealed that not only are the Enclave still active despite the events of ''2'', but they also intend to forcefully take control of Project Purity for their own sinister ends.}}

** Dad gives you one when he finds out you destroyed Megaton, while Three Dog calls you a "scumbag" if you kill the mutants wanting to get into Tenpenny Tower -- and calls out the mutants when they ''kill'' every human in Tenpenny Tower.

*** Three Dog will call you out almost any time you take the "evil option" in a given mission.

** You get called on this if you kill the Overseer during your escape. And again if you kill the new Overseer in the sidequest "Trouble On The Homefront" (or the same one, if you didn't kill him before). And, no, they won't accept "but he was shooting me" as a good reason.

** In ''Broken Steel'', if you choose to target the Citadel after reaching the Satellite room in the Mobile Base Crawler, upon landing back at the [now destroyed] Citadel, the Brotherhood of Steel will immediately find out that it was your doing. They will then declare you a traitor in their eyes, and will shoot you on sight.

** The Replicated Man quest is about an android, and both his pursuer and "helper" give reasons on why or why not he's human.

** [[The Pollyanna|Moira]] is convinced that Mirelurks must have a complex underwater society. {{spoiler|They don't.}}