Fallout 3 EP20: Anger Management

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Mar 12, 2013

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 54 comments


Link (YouTube)

Since I played as a good character, I always cleaned out Paradise Falls. Because that’s what virtuous people do: They murder dozens of evil people and loot their corpses for money. While tripping on drugs. It’s how we make the world a better place.

I like how the slaves can just wander off once their owners are dead even though they have bomb-collars that oh who cares. It’s all written on drool-soaked construction paper and there’s no point in enumerating all its faults.

 


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54 thoughts on “Fallout 3 EP20: Anger Management

  1. impassiveimperfect says:

    “It's all written on drool-soaked construction paper and there's no point in enumerating all its faults.”

    Who are you, and what you have done with Shamus??

    1. MrGuy says:

      I love a challenge! Let’s try to enumerate all the faults.

      #1: There’s a whole fixed, immobile, and frankly lightly armed town full o’ slavers, which has clearly been here for quite awhile, and the goody-two-shoes Brotherhood of Steel apparently can’t find the time to spare the maybe-2-guys-with-Power-Armor it would take to clean this out?

      1. Trix2000 says:

        Apparently, depending on how you build your character, you wouldn’t even need two guys. Nor power armor.

        1. Klay F. says:

          Well what do you expect? The Brotherhood isn’t nearly as competent as Reginald Cuftburt. :)

      2. Imposing Snail says:

        They would clear it out but they’re waiting for someone who’s not a mercenary.

        1. Austin says:

          I know this is an old comment, but by now, Reginald is NOT a merc. Or so they say.

      3. newdarkcloud says:

        2.) Children who are irredeemable bastards of the wasteland, which you can’t kill or punish to any appreciable degree, are interfering with the main plot in a way players could not avoid, is unfun, and makes zero sense.

        *bolded the important part

      4. Syal says:

        Hey now, the fixed-position slaver camp that can be eliminated with high luck and a good gust of wind has been a staple of the Fallout experience since the first game.

        1. MrGuy says:

          Sure. The difference in FO3 is they’ve set up the BOS as a band of noble heroes, who are exactly the kind of people who would know about and eliminate a place like Paradise Falls.

          In the original Fallout, there’s no one obvious (other than you) that would take out the Khan’s camp. Shady Sands isn’t crawling with fighters. The BOS don’t really care about others. The Children probably don’t know they’re there, and probably wouldn’t do anything if they did.

  2. Deadfast says:

    No Rutskarn, that’s not for beer pong, that beer is there in preparation for Little Lamplight drinking game!

  3. LunaticFringe says:

    Well, if you count Spider Jerusalem as a virtuous person, that’s a totally in-character action.

  4. Paul Spooner says:

    I’m amused by the frequency with which Shamus begins statements with “I actually hate…” as if hating something in a video game was in some way execptional.
    Glad to know this trend has petered out with time, but funny to hear it again in these old episodes.

    1. MrGuy says:

      It’s Shamus for “literally.”

      1. newdarkcloud says:

        I think it’s more Shamus’s way of saying “Get your vodka out b/c it’s almost drink time.”

  5. Sciencegar says:

    Again, while I totally agree that Little Lamplight is terribly constructed and putting it on the main questline was a huge mistake, not *all* of the children are terrible. The ones in the main cavern have personalities, quirks you can enjoy, the ability to be mean to them in a semi-rational way if you’re playing evil, basically a lot more depth.

    That same cavern also has an alternate way into the vault that doesn’t involve waiting for glitchy AI to open another stupid door, an excuse to use your science skill to bypass a whole bunch of those super mutants seen in the end of the video. So it isn’t all bad. Its just that all the most terrible parts of the town are right in front of you as you come in through the plywood door.

    I’m not saying you’re wrong to be so emotional about the town, Shamus, I’m just trying to remind you that you’re on the internet and thus you have to be 100% factually accurate and never exxagerate the actual situation in a game, while still being funny at all times.

  6. McNutcase says:

    Ah, yes. The episode where Josh not only went off the rails, but tore up the rails, built a fire, and twisted all the rails into Sherman’s neckties as he went into full-on let’s-get-this-over-with speedrunning to make it STOP.

    I’m glad to see the not-actually-widescreen effect remains. That was amusing at the time as we tried to figure out what the heck was going on; it was around this time that I went widescreen, and I couldn’t get full screen usage.

    Now I think I might re-watch my downloaded version of this with a forced aspect ratio…

    1. Raygereio says:

      It’s probably more accurate to say that Josh went of the rails, attempting to get of the rails.

      And failed miserably.

  7. Grudgeal says:

    Ah yes, this episode. The one that brought the page quote to Spoiler Warning’s TVTropes page.

    I’m sure more fitting conversations have been had since, which would encompass the essence of Spoiler Warning even better, but this 20-minue rant tirade is still one of the show’s more memorable moments of rage-induced hilarity.

  8. StashAugustine says:

    The moral of Fallout: If you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t figure out what to do, and just can’t get past it, take drugs. All the drugs. At once. And then murder people.

  9. MrGuy says:

    Josh, we have our cat! Also, putting on of hats.

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/07/16

  10. Re: Talking corpses. Does any other game do that on purpose? That’d be kind of fun to deal with, being admonished for transgressions after you kill someone by the someone you just killed.

  11. The Rocketeer says:

    Josh: “I thought we were playing BioShock.”
    Shamus: “Yeah!”
    Josh: “Where are the- the whales in diving suits? I wanna meet some of those guys, those guys are cool.”

    For posterity. No reason. *stifling laughter*

    1. newdarkcloud says:

      Yeah. Considering how the next season played out, that was ironic.

      1. Gruhunchously says:

        This should be added to the drinking game “A moment or quote that becomes extremely ironic in retrospect”. There have been at least three in this season thus far.

  12. MrGuy says:

    By the way, since this was (IIRC) the episode after The Drinking Game was invented, I was really rooting for Josh to hit every addictable consumable in his inventory, just to see how many things he could get addicted to in less than a minute…

  13. Zoe M. says:

    *Conspiracy*
    What if the writers just brought their kids in for the weekend and, as a favor to the tykes, let them write part of the story?
    */Conspiracy*

    1. MrGuy says:

      Have you ever read a story written by children? They make WAY more sense than this.

    2. What if management brought their kids into work one day and basically dumped them on the writers while they went out to lunch?

      That’d be a more fitting explanation of the results.

  14. Deadpool says:

    After reading the rumors on Fallout 4 taking place in Boston and having a heavier connection to the Androids, it makes me wish you guys had done THAT quest…

    1. X2-Eliah says:

      Wait, rumours on Fallout 4? whowhatwherereliable?

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Why so surprised?It was obvious that one will happen ever since this one was so well received.

        1. It was well-received, won awards, etc. Its story doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, but few games (or movies) have watertight scripting. It’s far more glaring when it’s an RPG.

          As has been noted before, it was fun enough, sold well, made money, and lead to the much better Fallout: New Vegas.

          Of course there’s going to be a Fallout 4. The sales alone pretty much guarantee it. I also think Bethesda’s purchase of the IP was for at least three games.

        2. X2-Eliah says:

          I’m not surprised that there are rumours, I wanted to see the source of those particular rumours stated above.

    2. Raygereio says:

      The “Fallout 4 in Boston” rumor was false. It was made up by someone on reddit and then was reposted by every gaming newsite.

      1. StashAugustine says:

        Was it explicitly false or just unconfirmed?

  15. Keeshhound says:

    I still can’t get over just how misinformed the three were Re: Nuka-grenades. Rutskarn’s “mediocre weapon” comment just boggles my mind, even three seasons later.

  16. Astor says:

    Hey mungo, I just met you
    And this is crazy
    But here’s my slave collar
    So disable it, maybe?

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Booo!

  17. Tvtim says:

    I will admit, it took me about 6 playthroughs of Fallout 3 before I found Paradise Falls. I knew it existed, I heard people talk of slavers, but I never saw it. I never even knew the kids asked you to save their friends, I always just managed to walk through the door…guess that’s why I never minded the little brats.

  18. Klay F. says:

    Hey, you are sure to be a goody two-shoes when you are doing all the drugs. That just means less drugs available for children or other people to get their hands on and misuse. XD

    1. StashAugustine says:

      I shall kill this wicked drug dealer for his crimes! And then sell all the drugs to the Gun Runners, which doesn’t make me a drug dealer at all.

      1. Gordon says:

        Actually, how would people feel about getting bad Karma for selling drugs at all? I mean, you’re either a supplier or a pusher, since whoever you’re selling it to is either going to turn around and sell it to somebody who needs to get their fix, or they’re addicts themselves. would this be too harsh? I mean, it doesn’t take into account the people who buy med-X from a shop because they want a little of the sting taken off their next gunshot wound. but what about jet? Psycho? and where can the line be drawn between “harmful narcotic” and “utility?” after all, the tins imply that mentats were a consumer product, and I think buffout was, too. what about alchohol? Rad-X?

        1. MrGuy says:

          Another idea would be a “Junkie” perk (and maybe, separately, a “Drunk” perk) that you “earn” by abusing chems or alcohol. Similar to the “Child Killer” perk in FO2, it would be a mostly negative perk – people would react to you differently if you had it (for example, a potential quest giver won’t give you the “save my baby!” quest if you’re a junkie).

          Ah, the Child Killer perk. I miss you so! And your associated “you’re able to kill children in this game” ability.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            A negative perk?In my fallout 3?!

          2. I don’t think a perk would be needed. Since many find the withdrawal symptoms more entertaining than annoying, perhaps a curable -1 to CHA or PER would be a solution. At least then the Munchkins would want to go out and get cured once in a while.

            1. StashAugustine says:

              I’d like to see a return of the old addiction mechanics, where you don’t have to be constantly high but the effects are much more severe. You could also toss in increasing levels of addiction. Plus, I’d like to have more visual confirmation that I’m on drugs- Psycho oversaturates, Mentats produces tunnel vision, alchohol weaves, other little things to make it cleat you’re not thinking straight. Also,drunk/ stoned dialouge options would be funny.

              1. I’d love it if you had a 3 INT and were under the influence of a heavy amount of drugs, the game would change everyone’s dialog, as well as your replies, to very that of upper-class British nobility.

  19. Daemian Lucifer says:

    This couldve been such a dark quest,if only a few things were tweaked.Imagine this:

    These kids are being under the protection of supermutants.So if anyone is mean to them,they just “tell to their guardians”,and a bunch of supermutants ambush you and kill you*.

    In return for this,whenever someone turns 16,they have to go to supermutants to be drafted into their workforce(translation,they are eaten for dessert).Not much is needed to show this,just a single room with bones in it,and maybe a piece of paper with names and dates.

    Also,in order to keep their population steady,they have to mate when they reach puberty.Again,not much is needed for this,just show a weeding between two 13 year olds that looks like a game they are playing.Or just have them planning one.That would give a really creepy vibe with little effort.

    And with this,youd actually feel sorry for the kids,instead of hating their guts.And killing all the supermutants would be another good deed.The only one youd hate here would be the supermutants,and you already hate those guys.

    *No matter how annoying teleporting enemies is,it is still less annoying than doing chores for a bunch of kids because they have a wooden gate.At least supermutants are dangerous.

    EDIT:Ive just realized why this wouldnt work.I was thinking about the smart supermutants from original fallouts*drink*.But hey,a few could be in here.

    1. LunaticFringe says:

      Fawkes and Uncle Leo seem to be Bethesda’s nod to the original smart super mutants, of course they seem to believe that intelligence makes super mutants naturally good as well. *Sigh* I miss the days of Lou Tennant.

  20. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Woohoo!I edited my comment and made it disappear into moderation queue.Moral of this story is:Never edit your comments.

    1. Even says:

      Oh, I’d know. The last time it happened was when I added a single word to fix a sloppy sentence. Didn’t get out of the queue till the next day.

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