The Road by Cormac McCarthy

An inspiration for the title of my blog with obvious parallels to Fallout 3, being set in a post-apocalyptic America. I've been reading this book over the last week or so when I could catch a half hour here and there.

In summary there are not enough superlatives to describe this book. A dark, disturbing, hypnotic and beautiful piece of writing.

I went through the full spectrum of human emotions reading this book, it really rocked my world and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The concept is fantastic. McCarthy, by stripping away the points of reference to everyday life and replacing it with desolation reveals the intrinsic hope and humanity which makes up our being. Simply Stunning.

Capital Roads: A Post-Fallout Journal

Perched in an alcove above a winding gully in the shade of an overhang, I had a good view past rocky grey outcrops and into the barren wastes beyond. The coolness of the shade was punctuated by the heat emanating from the rocks. I couldn’t feel the breeze through my sealed attire but could see the movement of my canine companion’s coat as he devoured a fist-sized chunk of insect meat and in the stripped branches of the dead carcass-trees.

A low growl at my side alerted me to an intrusion into our world, further emphasised by the crack and echoes of a gun shot in the gully. A tattered figure; a man in yellow-brown rags, a dark stain on his left upper arm, appeared in the dusty bowels of the small canyon, running, fleeing, looking back over his shoulder anxiously. My scope revealed the look of fear on his weather-beaten, dirty face as he sought to escape the pursuer.

A stunted pop-sound ended the pursuit in less than a second from my finger gently squeezing the trigger. The hunter dropped to the floor before I had finished switching the safety catch back on.

I thought in the instance it took to position the rifle correctly for the shot; I had seen the hunter’s type before, profiteers on the misery of those without liberty. As if I needed to justify the cheapness that life has in this place now. One man’s life saved, another’s extinguished.

As we made our way down to the tattered escapee, rocks dislodging underfoot, the man cowered from my dark form, screaming to be left alone.

I glanced down the valley to the corpse of the hunter and noticed the vultures starting to circle. I muttered to the wounded man that he should take the rifle, the instrument that dealt his wound. He tells me to mind my own business and I walk away.

I am hunted too, but I don’t look back over my shoulder.

My Top Games & Mods

My Gaming Favourites

After consuming over 60 hours of my life so far (and I’m sure a good few more to come) and despite the fact I have yet to finish it, I’m crowning Fallout 3 my favourite game to date. Previous favourites included; Dungeon Master (1987); Turrican (1990), Captive (1990), Civilisation (1991), System Shock (1994), Baldur’s Gate (1998), Unreal Tournament (1999), Neverwinter Nights (2002), Stalker: Shadow of Chenobyl (2007).

Now I’m likely showing my age there but I’m also showing my taste in games; First person RPGs, shooter elements, deep and expansive gameworlds in the main. I had flirtations with various sequels to these games but the originals remain unsurpassed in my nostalgia-soaked brain-box. I also played some of the previous Fallout incarnations and whilst the setting and humour appealed I never quite got on with them well enough so they could be absorbed into my list of favourites.

High Praise

In my opinion Bethesda and the community at large have managed to create what is the pinnacle in the evolution of gaming which suit my taste! A combination of the elements, features and playability which has provided me with an almost perfect fusion of what I look for in a game.

So as well as the off the shelf Fallout 3 which I have enjoyed for the majority of the time I’ve been playing the game, what else is offered by the community? I’ve been scouring the web for resources detailing recommended mods and thought I would put my own spin on the same subject. http://www.fallout3nexus.com/ is my main source of mods and over the course of the next few weeks and possibly months (dependent on real world commitments) I want to catalogue primarily the mods I use and also what I’m up to in-game.

The Obligatory Top 5

What I’m looking for is stability, immersion and quality. I want my Fallout 3 experience to be fairly pure, so don’t want to change the game too fundamentality so I’m not looking for overly complex changes to the game mechanics or anything which will cause too much imbalance.

Night Vision Goggles – Powered A very slick mod which gives you wearable powered night vision goggles turning your view into an authentic and cinematic green-tinged view of the world. This is my favourite mod for fallout 3 as it makes fire-fights and exploration at night practical and atmospheric. It also adds some inventory management as the goggles consume a user-defined number of energy cells. The goggles also look awesome with the Chinese stealth suit armour.

My Megaton House inc. Basement Storage A simple, well executed, no frills (i.e. no silly over-powered machines etc.) addition to the Megaton house providing a lot more storage, new bedroom, basement and external balcony area. Very nicely done mod with good support from the author too, it also works well with Megaton house extra storage. However you will just need to disable (make sure they are empty first!) the two suitcases in the bedroom as they look odd when used with My Megaton House.

MTUI A must have in my opinion to make navigating the pipboy, storage/merchant and conversation menus much more user friendly.

G36c A bit of gun porn as this is such a nice looking piece of equipment. I made a few tweaks to the weapon in GECK so that it was more in line with the unique Chinese assault rifle and renamed to add the H&K prefix as that was my preference.

BlackWolf Backpack A good looking model which has the added bonus of allowing you to carry a little extra weight (either 35lbs or 50lbs), I prefer the scale of the smaller model myself. This adds a little more realism as how the hell could The Lone Wanderer carry all his equipment without something similar?

Other Mods Used

Slof's Dogmeat
Blackhawk black texture
Sniper Rifle black texture
Silenced Ultra SMG
Normal weapon degradation in VATS
Comics
Selected containers respawn





Mods to Test

I've been looking for a eat/drink/sleep type mod which isn't overly complex and Simple Needs appears to fit the bill.

I was irritated to find out upon arriving in Canterbury Commons that the merchant Crow was dead so Tougher Traders should help keep the rest alive.

Silenced Sniper Rifle just because it suits my character.

Darker/non-shiny helm Chinese stealth armour as it looks more appealing than the vanilla version.

More Mod Shenanigans

I mentioned in my last mods post that I was testing out SimpleNeeds and I've been playing with it for the last few days and absolutely love it! This is definitely into my top Fallout 3 mods and I look forward to seeing what happens with it in future.

Prior to this mod I was taking or leaving food as the HP regeneration was so minor it didn't really compare to stims, sleeping or drinking water. Now with SimpleNeeds there is a reason to actually manage my food inventory. Additionally I used to just hoard Nuka-Colas, but the caffeine content is invaluable when out stalking the wasteland as it will reduce thirst and fatigue.

I highly recommend this mod if you want a simple, elegant physiological mod which really adds value to the food, snacks and drinks across the Capital wasteland. It also encouraged me to organise the kitchen.

More Mods I'm Using

Magic Piplight
Wasteland Weather Overhaul
Creature Poses
Some Poses
YoJimbo (darker texture weapons and Pipboy)
Darker Nights

Random Thoughts

I'm considering overhauling ammunition weights in GECK if I can figure out how to do it for more added realism and inventory management. I know there are mods out there which do this but I fancy doing it myself.

I've been desperately searching for recon armour across the wastelands to repair the fantastic Chinese stealth suit and finally tracked some down at Flak and Shrapnel's in Rivet City. Result!

Also, I think my screenshots should markedly improve with the pose mods and the discovery of the "TM" console command to remove the HUD/menus.