Do you feel like there are more stories worth telling in the Fallout universe?

I dunno. Fallout 2 is my favorite game of all time and 1 was good as well. The atmosphere was what really made the games for me. The new generation 3d shooters were good but not as amazing as the first 2 and I think that’s because the atmosphere is expected now and there really aren’t any surprises left. I think the color palette has reached the end of it’s entertaining life as everything looks the same everywhere you look. At least Fallout DC was unique but the expansion packs has been less than exciting to me.

I think this universe is close to running out of interesting storied to be told. The only big one left IMHO would be a prequel revolving around the events leading up to the bomb dropping and the immediate aftermath.

Any thoughts?

I have pretty much the opposite view of the situation. Didn’t much care for the first two games and never finished either, but liked FO3 and loved FO:NV. The Fallout universe is so big that I don’t see there being some sort of limit to the stories they can tell - all they need is good writers and they could keep on doing sequels forever as far as I’m concerned. One easy way to “reboot” the series would be to explore what happened elsewhere in the world, though moving away from the '50s USA thing could of course backfire.

I agree with Arrogance, that the setting is big enough that you’re not going to run out of space.

What I want out of the 3d Fallout games is simple: atomic cars. A first person sandbox game where you and your sidekick can load a bunch of junk into your choice of vehicle and go on a postapocalyptic road trip would be awesome.

The great thing about apocalyptic sci-fi is that you’re free to come up with whatever technology or society you want.

Do you want some very advanced tech like plasma? Sure you can, it’s the future! Humanity has had the time to come up with advancements like that.

Do you want to do away with some tech like cars? It’s post apocalyptic so whatever went into making that tech is unavailable even since Apocalypse-Related-Event (ARE) occured which made it impossible/very difficult to get it. For example, we don’t have cars because the process of extracting and shipping oil is too complex and the economic system doesn’t allow bulk shipping accross long distances.

Do you want some social structure that’s never been seen before? Sci-fi allows you to.

Do you want a tribal social structure? How about medieval? Would you like the Wild West? Some geographical/climate-related/major war/ARE makes it so that the group you’re visiting reverted back to that social structure.

You want some people to have a monopoly on something believably? Then the apocalypse took out all the means of making a technology except one factory and one group controls that factory. Or there’s an oasis and the group that lives there wants to keep it secret until it’s time for the oasis to grow. Or maybe some tech-savvy people got together and figured they could maximize their power by forming an enclave.

I think Fallout has a lot of potential.

Played the first game, have no desire to again. You do not place a time limit on the plot of a game! Plus the companions were crap.

I have fantasies of playing 2 again but so little time. 3 and NV I will need to finish some day (all expansions).

I don’t know if it’s ever been definitively said what happened to the world outside of North America and China. Presumably it got destroyed too, because nobody is scavenging the US in helicopters, and the presence of British ghoul Desmond in Point Lookout seems to suggest overseas radiation.

In Fallout 3, in Rivet City, there was a couple dudes who ask you to track down a runaway android for them. I never pursued that sidequest, but that implies that some transAtlantic trade/traffic still exists.

I don’t think I ever played the first 2, however I think Fallout:LV was in many ways an improvement on Fallout 3, despite the bugs.

I’d really like to see them be a bit more adventourous location-wise, i.e. somewhere outside of the US (the same goes for GTA, there’s only so many times you can re-hash a pseudo-New York City, another UK-based iteration would be nice).

I loved 3, and would also like more cities. I thought NV was a great idea, though it could have been more inspired, and would love to see Fallout: New Delhi, or Tokyo, or something.

The Commonwealth? I thought that was supposed to be Massachusetts? IIRC, they mention it’s “up north.”

Now you’re making me doubt myself. Stop it. (I can’t check right now.)

I think Bethesda makes really amazing worlds and is only just scratching the surface in terms of stories and gameplay possibilities.

I’d like to play a strategy game in the Oblivion/Skyrim world, or a first-person military shooter in an Oblivion-like environment.

Fallout 4: Alas, Babylon. The descendants of Randy Bragg and his associates huddle in the ruins of Fort Repose, Florida fighting off marauders, mutants, and other assorted scum, too afraid to leave. They haven’t seen another friendly human in 100 years…until a man named John Titor stumbles into view. Titor claims he’s looking for parts for a time machine so he can go back and stop the Great War. But is he running from the past or from the future? Only you can find out his secret…

General reports is that it’s pretty bad. Allistair Tenpenny is from England and came to the Capital Wasteland to seek his fortune, which tells you how bad it probably is in England. Colin Moriarty is also from overseas. The ghoul Companion Raul Tejada mentions the nuking of Mexico City.

The thing about the Fallout setting is that it covers such a vast area of land and of time that there are countless stories you could set in it without having to deviate too much as to make it a different series. While I was at work today, I thought up a few pitches for possible Fallout sequels/prequels/interquels;

Fallout Genesis. You were just a kid when your parents rushed you from your bed into the safety of Vault 51 and told you you wouldn’t be seeing your friends anymore. You’ve spent most of your childhood learning and training for the day when the Vault opens, and it’s up to your generation to re-create the world. It’s not supposed to happen for another 10 years, but one day the Overseer calls you into his office with some shocking news - the Vault door has opened early, and nobody can figure out how to shut it again. As the senior staff and security team are needed to guard the entrance against anything that might be alive out there, he asks you to venture out alone to scout the wastelands that once were your hometown, find a safe place for the people of the Vault to settle, and wipe out anyone or anything that might be a threat.
(Setting: A bombed-out city just a decade after the war. The Super Mutants don’t exist yet, but almost all surface dwellers are either ghouls or insane raiders, and friendly settlements are close to nonexistant. The player must choose which factions to befriend and which to make enemies of, providing for different main quest lines as in New Vegas.)

Fallout: Cascadia. After the defeat of Caesar’s Legion and the annexation of New Vegas, the NCR turned its attention to its northern border, the vast forests of the Pacific Northwest. Traders and wanderers have told tales of the “Republic of Cascadia”, a peaceful, technologically-minded enclave along the banks of Puget Sound, and President Meade decides to dispatch an official NCR delegation to establish diplomatic relations with them. You are an NCR ranger assigned to protect the delegation during the long hike up what once was I-5. Not long after fording the Columbia river, though, disaster strikes as the team is attacked and routed by creatures the NCR has never seen before; giant humanoids covered in hair from head to toe, taller than a Super Mutant, faster than a deathclaw, and smarter than a robobrain. Your allies torn to shreds by the beast, you find yourself alone in the woods, far from home, and with the fate of both Cascadia and the NCR in the balance.
(Setting: Western Washington, which in the 200 years since the war has returned to nature and regrown its vast forests. The city-state of Cascadia is technologically advanced and environmentally friendly, but lacks military might. Principal adversaries are the Sasquatch, who as the result of radiation have become intelligent and desire to take the human cities for themselves.)

Fallout: Luna. Vault L was the best-kept secret of the entire Vault project - constructed on the far side of the Moon, some of America’s best and brightest minds were sent there as the ultimate test of man’s ability to live on and colonize another world. With a uniquely-designed GECK, they even managed to terraform a large crater, creating within it a breatheable atmosphere, a temperate climate, and plants and animals capable of flourishing in the Moon’s low gravity. Luna City is a peaceful and comfortable place to live - until a massive alien mothership swings by and sets up a colony of its own. Now, with the aliens growing ever more menacing, and their visits to Earth itself growing more and more frequent, the Council chooses you to find a way to send them back to their own solar system.
(Setting: Just after Fallout 3, specifically the events of Mothership Zeta. Luna City and its surrounding Earthlike environs, as well as a terraformed alien biosphere on the Moon and the unterraformed area in between. It may also be possible for the player to briefly visit Earth, perhaps to acquire lost data from an old Enclave base. Going there would be a major quest chain as the player must find a way to survive in a gravity field six times more intense than the one he grew up in.)

Fallout: Ghoul. The earliest memory you have is the sound of thunder, the burning hot shockwave tearing at your flesh, and the blinding light of dozens of nukes toppling the tallest buildings in the world. You can’t remember who you were or what you did, but it doesn’t matter, because on that day you were born again. For God knows how long, you were little more than an animal - lurking in the darkness, feeding on anything or anyone that came too close to your lair. That all changed after your last meal stuck you with some kind of needle while you were eating his face, and now you’re starting to experience all kinds of new feelings. Sadness. Guilt. Remorse. Anger. Hatred. And beneath it all… hope. You don’t know where you’ll go, or who will accept you, or whether you can make a difference in this world, but you’re going to try.
(Setting: New York City, around the same time as Fallout 3. Parts of the city are ruins, while in others the skyscrapers still stand tall. Factions could include “Mole People” living in the ruins of the subway system, the Commonwealth, a group of patriots living on Liberty Island in a half-toppled Statue of Liberty, a group of aristocrats in Long Island who live in a gated community like the war never happened, and a Mafia family run by a ghoul from before the war, possibly having a history with the PC.)

There are always stories to be told. The question is whether the writers are good enough to tell them.

I just feel like, story wise, it’s starting to feel like the Zelda series in that each game is telling a story that is slightly different from the last but each one feels the same as all the rest. No one can claim that they tune in to Zelda any more for the story right? I think Fallout is moving in that direction.

It’s present-day-but-1950s Massachusetts.

I think you’re confusing plot with gameplay. All of the first three games have a “start out saving your home, wind up saving the world” theme going on. That doesn’t mean the stories are all the same. One thing I like very much about the fourth game is that you aren’t trying to save your home; you’re just pissed and out for revenge.

I have a strong suspicion that the player character in the fifth game will be a ghoul or super mutant trying to build a safe haven for his people where they can shelter from the mean old humans. Maybe it’ll be Marcus, and you’ll play through bits of the first, second and fourth games from his perspective as he protects the Vault Dweller/Chosen One/Courier in order to make the Wasteland a better place.

I’d like to see more of the American Midwest–any parts around major cities because I really liked the urban environments in Fallout 3. It’s also fun seeing regional mutations like the Trogs in The Pitt or the swamp folk around Point Lookout.

Failing that, a Fallout: London would be keen.

Eh. I think one of the trademarks of the Fallout series is that the main character is an AFGNCAAP - you’re encouraged to believe that you, yourself, have been transplanted into this post-apocalyptic Smallville, and to solve problems and interact with people the way you would in the real world. Replacing the PC with an established character would take away that aspect.

I hope they stop the “progress of civilization” theme, though. The setting in Fallout 3 felt legitimately post-apocalyptic, while in New Vegas, it just felt kind of run-down.