Fallout 2

This feels like something similar to what your viewer's talking about.

So for example, in something like Fallout 2 or Borderlands, which has a lot of referential pop culture kind of humor um which might be fun at the time and then as time goes on it starts to feel a little painful uh that sort of feels what we're talking about here um

i actually completely agree with him because the thing is is that ultimately when we're critiquing and reviewing things from a modern perspective we still bring to it our limited modern perspective If I was reviewing games from 1990 and 2005, the things that might stand out to me as amazing might be very different to the things that I'm reviewing and discussing them from 2026.

You just do not know when with this close in time to when these things were created, what's going to actually still be remembered 50 years from now, 100 years from now.

And says, only 32.

I'm old enough to still enjoy Fallout 2.

Well, thanks for sharing.

That is incredibly old.

Uh, I was a b- uh, there was that one in GTA-

Fallout's had so many.

[clears throat]

Which one?

Fallout has so many.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

A lot, but a lot of people reference Fallout 2 as well.

Well, let me explain.

This isn't just a movie reference because giant rats do show up in Klamath in Fallout 2, so they have been in the series.

It's the use of the acronym ROUS, rodents of unusual size, that is the reference to The Princess Bride.

And interestingly enough, in Fallout 2, they use an acronym that's very similar, but they just don't use the O, RUS, which feels kind of like another nod to The Princess Bride.

The Princess Bride came out in the 1980s, so it would've been something that the developers of Fallout 2 and New Vegas would've known.

So this one's kind of a fun little puzzle.

Is it being referenced in both games, and it's just in the wacky wasteland part of New Vegas, or was that acronym just simplified and used in Fallout 2 without even thinking about the original reference? That feels less likely for Fallout 2.

So I don't know.

Anyway, a permadeath was something that came to mind because that's not something you find all the time, but it is one of the most punishing mechanics attached to death in video games, I'd say.

I think one of the earliest examples that I ran into was Fallout, Fallout 2 specifically.

Matt and I had that growing up for the PC series.

And NPC characters in that, when killed... there's no way to bring them back.

I mean, my default in any RPG is to basically white knight it, but like there is a part of me that would feel kind of scummy like not scummy but just like wrong like being like i know this is gonna get me killed it's like we can fudge we can fudge the character and the morality just a bit if it keeps me from dying

and the killer part is she just goes well i wish you to die and then all of a sudden it's like no death scenes or anything you don't like you don't like turn into ash it just goes up your party your party died do you want to restart the last save or start a new game i

do think like a lot of modern rpgs are moving in that more in that direction though because i share again trevor's sentiment i usually try to white knight everything because you used to be able to do that but now they're offering so many complex choices where a lot of time and especially now with the whole morally gray kind of uh storylines that they love to interject but um but i do feel like a lot of games like even you know fallout 2 like i think it's kind of intended if you're playing it the right way to kind of let your companions die along the way and that's supposed to be just kind of the part of your journey as as you're traversing the wastes and um So, yeah, it is kind of neat, like that narrative component of death where it just like they introduce like these sequences where you can completely like if you're actually playing it like a tabletop role playing game as opposed to just a video game, like there's so many more complexities involved.

So that's an interesting one, Dave.

Three.

Which Freeside landmark mentioned in the episode is actually an Easter egg reference to a location from New Reno in Fallout 2.

So these are Freeside landmarks that you see in the show, but One of these may not actually be in the game, but it was in Fallout 2, and that's a reference.

So is it the Silver Rush, the Atomic Wrangler Casino, the Golden Globes Adult Studio, or Mick and Ralph's?

Must be that third one.

Golden Globes Porn.

It's actually Golden Globes Porn is what it's called.

It is a location in New Reno, and it's the adult film studio in Fallout 2 that you can find.

You know? Uh, the...

One of the things that comes up in this is when people talk about Brother of Steel, they're like, "Oh yeah, this is, like, bikini babes and stuff," but Fallout 2 was very juvenile as well.

And that's a drop in a bucket.

Yeah.

Like, yes, in Fallout 2, like, you can become a porn star.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, uh, you can get shotgun married-

Just press play.

Welcome to the Fallout Lore Cast, the podcast that explores the boundaries of our knowledge about the world of Fallout.

Wastelanders and Vault Dwellers, welcome back to the Fallout Lore Cast.

It's the end of the month.

We're- we've got a patron chat, and we're talking about some funny, silly, goofy things because they all voted, and they decided that we're gonna talk about some of the silliest stuff that's in the Fallout games.

And joining me this month, we've got kind of a smaller crew.

We've got a few people who couldn't make it.

This, this thing's pretty weird.

Yeah, no, if you didn't do two, um...

Yeah, so I, I started with Fallout 2, um, because I'm a much younger PC gamer.

Or, or older PC gamer.

[laughs] So at the time I was gaming a bit younger.

That's another one.

It's kinda...

It would be largely impenetrable if you didn't like Fallout 2.

Oh.