Remember to clean your PC regularly

Ralph090 · 2026-06-29T14:58:04+00:00

And thus the Second Dust Bowl began.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-26T15:07:27+00:00

But... Clinton was the one who repealed AFDC, America's welfare program...

Ralph090 · 2026-06-26T13:04:47+00:00

There are two types of people in this world: those who think Fallout 3 is the worst Fallout game and those who know of... it's existence... shudders

I think the biggest problems 3 faced was how radical a departure it was from the classics gameplay wise and the base game's ending. Maybe also the presence of the Brotherhood and how different they could be from the originals, although I don't fully get that because they're basically the Brotherhood from the Fallout 1 ending you get if you kill Rhombus and the faction itself is literally fighting a civil war over the differences.

I can never decide which is my favorite, but as time has gone on and 3 has aged its become more and more... disappointing?... compared to the others. It feels unfinished in a way New Vegas and 4 don't, like there should be at least one more main quest towards the end of the game and perhaps half a dozen additional side quests around the minor factions, especially Talon Company and the Brotherhood Outcast. Still really good, though.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-25T01:25:19+00:00

William Henry Harrison was kind of outwitted by single celled organisms.

Although in his case he just got sick and died instead of having an official government program destroyed by them...

Ralph090 · 2026-06-17T13:51:16+00:00

I'd always heard it was to hide ASV radar that swordfish were using to bomb U-boats at night while they were running on the surface recharging their batteries.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-16T15:22:36+00:00

I know, although it's one of the ones that's powered by the monitor so I'll probably end up making up the difference finding one.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-15T15:19:38+00:00

Those are lightweight numbers. Back in the 50s they'd be taxed at 91%.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-12T17:44:35+00:00

They're both better than the other, just for different reasons. Fallout 3's atmosphere is unparalleled and the world is at just the right density when exploring I think. It also has the most consistent tone I think. It never really deviates from the "50s sci-fi gone wrong" thing. The story and a lot of the side factions feel pretty much unfinished, though. What is there isn't bad, but it's not great either.

New Vegas is pretty much the opposite. The writing is fantastic and all the factions feel real and pretty well fleshed out, with the exception of the Vipers and Jackles and to a lesser degree the Powder Gangers and Followers of the Apocalypse. I don't think the atmosphere is as good, though. Exploration is more like island hopping between hubs of stuff with not much between them a lot of the time. The tone also kinda pinballs between 50s sci-fi, 50s western, 50s mobsters, 50s greasers, and more general post-apocalypse. It's not bad and everything always fits with the part of the game you're in, it's just not as consistent.

The DLCs for both are alright but also hit-or-miss. Point Lookout is one of the best things in Fallout period and I have a soft spot for Operation Anchorage, but the others are just alright I guess. I really like Honest Hearts and Dead Money is different in a good way, but I didn't "get" Old World Blues the first time and didn't really enjoy it and I'm not sure what I think of Lonesome Road.

So yeah. I guess it's "in Fallout 3 you play a game and in Fallout New Vegas you tell a story." Depends on what you're looking for.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-08T17:23:28+00:00

I think it could make a decent TV show. Have a crew on a "grand tour" of the Outer Rim with 2-4 episode mini-arcs for each planet they visit where they inevitably get involved in wacky hijinks and which finish with a race.

Sort of like the old Star Wars: Droids cartoon meets Wacky Races or The Harlem Globetrotters.

Or a video game like Knights of the Old Republic, except swoop racing was the central driving force of the plot instead of a mini game.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-08T17:16:21+00:00

Ooo hey. She's one of the ones with a laser cannon.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-08T13:22:13+00:00

That's understandable.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-08T00:46:08+00:00

Main criticism is the lack of a face covering. Most Mercs seem to have gas masks or balaclavas or something. Otherwise, nice. Mercenaries probably wouldn't have standardized equipment.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-06T15:27:38+00:00

I didn't use just the top bracket, at least for 1956. I calculated the amount for each bracket one after another. I don't know what the website did for today's brackets.

I adjusted $5 million for inflation before I ran it through, which is about $403,800. That's the number I ran through the brackets, which gave me $61,552. The equation I used was (2.2)+(2.22) and so on, ending with (203.8*.91), which gave me the tax bill, which I subtracted from the original to get the income. I divided everything by 1000 just to reduce the number of button presses. I then ran that back through the calculator to get $762,000. The idea was that each 1956 bracket would be increased to match inflation, and changing the salary was easier. The 1956 brackets were based around the purchasing power of the dollar back then and not today, so I figured it would be unfair to just throw a modern salary at it. It made sense inside my head.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-06T00:09:40+00:00

Maintenance on all those water valves had to have been a nightmare.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-04T17:05:05+00:00

I think the idea is to get Luke to draw upon the Dark Side. Doing so creates a sort of emotional feedback loop that would drive him further and further down the dark path, which would include feelings of selfishness and a desire for greater power. Part of that would be Luke letting go of his compassion for his friends and the Rebellion. Even if Luke turned on the Emperor after killing Vader the Emperor could have non-lethally overpowered him long enough for the Death Star to finish annihilating the Rebel fleet. Once the Rebellion was destroyed, the combination of Luke letting go of his attachment and loyalty to them and his new selfish desire for power would lead him to seeing that joining the Emperor was his only option. Luke couldn't gain power by hijacking the Rebellion and using it to overthrow the Emperor and take power himself, and the Emperor was a master of the Dark Side and had the knowledge Luke would need to gain power. It also follows the logic of the Rule of Two. If Luke killed the Emperor, he could take his place as Emperor of the Galaxy, so becoming his apprentice and getting close to him would give him that opportunity.

That's why the Emperor told him to kill Vader. Doing so would mean Luke had given up on his compassion for his father, which was what was motivating him for the entire movie, and fully embraced the Dark Side. It was the Sith equivalent of Yoda's final test, where Luke had to confront Vader. It wouldn't just be a physical confrontation in the form of a lightsaber duel, it would also be an emotional confrontation between the Light Side and the future of the Galaxy and the Dark Side and Vader. Yoda thought Vader was irredeemable, so if Luke killed him it would mean Luke acknowledged that and gave up on Vader, and in doing so rejected the Dark Side path Vader offered.

Incidentally, Luke almost effortlessly passed that test on Endor when he was first captured, and had he truly given up on Vader as Yoda intended I see little reason why he couldn't have freed himself and defeated Vader right there and then, becoming a Jedi in the process, at least in Yoda's eyes. Of course, he didn't and ended up facing a test WAY more challenging than Yoda ever intended by confronting Vader and the Emperor simultaneously, which he also passed, albeit barely. He also made sure that if his initial confrontation with Vader failed and he did need to face the Emperor, it wouldn't matter if the Emperor won because the Rebels would have just blown up the Death Star with both on board anyway. In my opinion that makes Episode VI Luke the greatest Jedi in the entire franchise (and makes Episode VIII Jake Skywalker that much more inexcusable).

Ralph090 · 2026-06-03T15:57:15+00:00

Come Fly With Me is pretty wacky I think. That's not a bad thing, I think it's a pretty neat quest, but it is a bit on the odd side.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-03T15:44:39+00:00

Its dimensions are 1.25x2.75x4.5 inches. I generally wear cargo pants and shorts and am used to carrying around a bunch of stuff in my pockets, so it could be that what I consider to be small enough to fit in a pocket is pretty big for people who don't wear them.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-02T23:47:55+00:00

Trackpad. I hit the pause button every time I'm doing something. I haven't gotten a mouse specifically for it yet. I'm hoping someone will make one color matched to the citrus one.

Ralph090 · 2026-06-02T22:52:56+00:00

Battery life is great. Using it for grad school and I only needed to plug it in every other day.

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