Fallout 4 details

There’s a bit of that in New Vegas - In my current playthrough (hardcore mode), I often run into raiders attacking caravans, Legion and NCR troops fighting each other, random people/groups being attacked by mutated animals and so on.

As you say though, it’s not as lively as Fallout 3 in that regard, but it does happen.

In regard to the lack of transportation: I think the official strategy guide for Fallout 2 said cars weren’t allowed in most towns because of (the very reasonable) concerns they might explode.

I found myself wondering before, however- why aren’t there any bicycles? They’d be easy to make from salvaged (or even new) parts and they’d be a lot better than walking everywhere…

Because you cannot look cool and post-apocalyptic while riding around on a bicycle. QED.

[QUOTE=Martini Enfield]
I found myself wondering before, however- why aren’t there any bicycles? They’d be easy to make from salvaged (or even new) parts and they’d be a lot better than walking everywhere…
[/QUOTE]

Well, besides the deterioration of roads, my WAG would be that the rubber for the pneumatic tires would have long since rotted away. I guess you COULD use some substitute for rubber, but it would be a pain in the ass, especially with the roads all tore up.

Or, the folks who create these games simply don’t think bikes are cool or fit in with the whole post apocalypse world thingy. In the Dies the Fire books they use bicycles extensively to move large foot armies about, especially their long bowmen, so it’s something that has been thought of. Of course, this is only a few years after the end of the world, not decades or centuries, so…

I can just see me tooling around on a bike in my power armor, with Raindrops Keep falling on my Head playing in my helmet. I stick out a middle finger as I whiz right on by a pack of Radscorpions.

The Fallout timeline diverges from our own sometime after WW2, before the 1960s. The Great War happens in 2077. I wouldn’t say they never left 50s culture, but rather the world developed as would have been envisioned by 50s pop culture. Yeah, I’m being overly pedantic, but the Fallout world is one of my favorite settings.