Oct 28, 2010  Great theme from Fallout: New Vegas. I dont own this song, all credit goes toward Bethesda and Obsidian for this great theme.

• Fallout New Vegas Cheats
• Fallout New Vegas Intro Song Video

The Fallout intro is the iconic opening of the classic game, created by Tramell Ray Isaac.^[1]

• 3Narration

Summary[editedit source]

The intro begins with the song 'Maybe' by The Ink Spots and a screen of a Radiation King television set showing a Vault-Tec Industries advertisement for Vault 13, featuring the Vault Boy watering plants and waving at the camera as the Vault blast door closes, followed by the 'Vault of the Future' picture. Next, a Galaxy News Network (GNN) program starts, stating that 'Our dedicated boys keep the peace in newly annexed Canada' and showing two American soldiers in power armor executing a Canadian insurgent and waving at the camera. Then a power armored soldier is shown in front of the American Commonwealth flag and a war bond ad. Next, ads for Chryslus Corvega and Mister Handy appear. The TV shuts down and the music fades, as the camera shows us ruins of a city. The city happens to be the futuristic Bakersfield now Necropolis as evidenced by the outro movie's picture of Necropolis.

Stills[editedit source]

Narration[editedit source]

After the cinematic intro, a series of still photographs with a narration by Ron Perlman follows.

War. War never changes.

The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth.Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory.Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.

But war never changes.

In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.

In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. And from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization would struggle to arise.

A few were able to reach the relative safety of the large underground Vaults. Your family was part of that group that entered Vault Thirteen. Imprisoned safely behind the large Vault door, under a mountain of stone, a generation has lived without knowledge of the outside world.

Life in the Vault is about to change.

Slides[editedit source]

• The Reichstag building after the Battle of Berlin (1945) by Red Army photographer Yevgeny Khaldei

• During the Battle of Remagen American troops at Ludendorff Bridge (1945) by Sgt. William Spangle

• St Paul's Cathedral during The Blitz (1940) by Herbert Mason

• Sinking of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor (1941)

• 'Buy War Bonds' propaganda poster (1942).

• 'The Gadget' - first nuclear bomb in history (Norris Bradbury is standing next to it) (1945)

• The first nuclear detonation in human history: 'The Gadget' explodes in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the new White Sands Proving Ground, on July 16, 1945. Photo taken 12 seconds after the explosion.

• 255th Infantry Regiment in Waldenburg (1945) by 2nd Lt Jacob Harris

• Vault 13, sealed

Analysis[editedit source]

The juxtaposition of the short-lived television feed containing echoes of pre-War programming and the ruined Bakersfield serve as a storytelling device, introducing Ron Perlman's subsequent narration. The short CGI sequence speaks volumes of the Fallout world. The Vault-Tec advertisement introduces nuclear war and indicates that citizens were not only aware of the looming threat, but were also encouraged to secure their future underground, should the holocaust come.

The next scene provides context - the GNN newscast and the tone it's kept in portray a drastically different American society from the one we know. The average US citizen watching GNN is a fiercely nationalist xenophobe, who doesn't particularly care about the welfare of other countries or their citizens, long as his country's best interests are protected. The patriotic image of a T-51b trooper in front of a flag and the following PSA about war bonds serve a dual purpose: they establish that not only is the American citizen different, but the country is too, instead of 50 states, there are 13 Commonwealths, and that USA is not only occupying annexed Canada, but it's also engaged in a war with another country. Coupled with the Vault ad, this short sequence establishes that it was America's aggressive war mongering that brought nuclear devastation upon itself, and it certainly wasn't disappointed.

The last two advertisements also introduce the player to the retro-futuristic aesthetic and the technological level of the world of Fallout, where electronics are rare and bulky, but nonetheless, great advances were made. Finally, the TV cutting off in the finale as Bakersfield comes into view is a simple, but powerful message - the world and society as we know it has come to an end; pre-War America is not coming back.

Then the narration takes place, which is a straightforward storytelling device that glues together what was presented in the introductory animation, and completes the immersion of the player into the world of Fallout.

Behind the scenes[editedit source]

Tim Cain asked me to write a game intro, so I wrote this rambling piece where some half-crazed fellow was ranting about his ancestors and cursing what had happened to the world - what it must have been like to live in a world where brahmin had only one head. What actually went into the game was *much* better ('War Never Changes'), but Tim wanted to stick some drunken barfly somewhere in the game which spouted the original dialogue. It never happened though, and the dialogue's been long lost.

We had no early draft of the intro designed, and the outro was always supposed to be some sort of hero's welcome for saving the vault and defeating the master. When we started planning the intro, Jason and I designed pretty much what you see, with things like the guy being shot being added during development - but overall, we designed it very quickly and executed on that design. For the second part, Tim wrote the narration and we put together the images underneath it, that was about all the design that went into that one. The visual of the waterchip just evolved into a visual joke while I was modeling it - I thought it would be funny to be showing the simplest, most basic motherboard type thing while the overseer was describing something so complex they couldn't hack together a workaround. That was how a lot of the design went on those things - we'd just come up with something we thought was funny while we were filling in the details. A specific detail I've never seen anybody mention is that the schematic behind the waterchip is actually for a Moog synthesizer. I've told the story of the ending before, but, in essence, it just occurred to me and Jason when we actually sat down to do the thing that #1, we had no idea how to make a 'celebratory scene' impactful, and #2, there was no way that their xenophobia would ever let them allow the player back in the vault.​

We tried to model the power armor as T-Ray did in the opening movie and game, but he could get away with clipping that would look really bad at close distances or certain angles. Simply put, building the Fallout power armor as it originally looked would have resulted in a suit with a tiny range of motion or a hilarious amount of clipping. We changed as much as we needed to allow for more flexibility in movement, but tried to stay very close to the original design whenever possible.

See also[editedit source]

References

1. ↑J.E. Sawyer, NMA: 'We tried to model the power armor as T-Ray did in the opening movie and game, but he could get away with clipping that would look really bad at close distances or certain angles. Simply put, building the Fallout power armor as it originally looked would have resulted in a suit with a tiny range of motion or a hilarious amount of clipping. We changed as much as we needed to allow for more flexibility in movement, but tried to stay very close to the original design whenever possible.'

Truth is..the game was rigged from the start.

The Fallout: New Vegas intro is the introductory cutscene for the third game set in the west.

• 1Transcript

Transcript[editedit source]

Fallout New Vegas Cheats

begins playing the song 'Blue Moon' inside the casino of the Lucky 38 with a crooked portrait of the casino, the camera slowly rotating upright and moving away to reveal more of its surroundings. It proceeds to exit the casino, picking up pace as it tours the Strip while Blue Moon slowly becomes fainter amidst the background of the carousal about the street. The camera zooms out further to the perimeter of the auroral city to an NCR Ranger Veteran firing a lethal shot at an armed fiend just beyond the confines of New Vegas.

In the distant hillside, a scout observes the hotbed of activity beside a flag bearing the mark of Caesar's Legion, Legionaries passing behind him as a veteran commander gives them calculated orders. Once more, the camera resumes even further from the city distinguishable only by its glow amidst the dark, night air of the Mojave. The scene becomes Goodsprings cemetery, presently active with a small group of Great Khans digging a shallow grave intended for the unconscious Courier, and Benny standing only feet away. The opening narration by Ron Perlman begins.

Narration[editedit source]

War. War never changes.

When atomic fire consumed the earth, those who survived did so in great, underground vaults. When they opened, their inhabitants set out across ruins of the old world to build new societies, establish new villages, form new tribes.

As decades passed, what had been the American southwest united beneath the flag of the New California Republic, dedicated to old-world values of democracy and the rule of law. As the Republic grew, so did its needs. Scouts spread east, seeking territory and wealth, in the dry and merciless expanse of the Mojave desert. They returned with tales of a city untouched by the warheads that had scorched the rest of the world, and a great wall spanning the Colorado River.

The NCR mobilized its army and set it east to occupy the Hoover Dam, and restore it to working condition. But across the Colorado, another society had arisen under a different flag. A vast army of slaves, forged in the conquest of 86 tribes: Caesar's Legion.

Four years have passed since the Republic held the Dam - just barely - against the Legion's onslaught. The Legion did not retreat. Across the river, they gathered strength. Campfires burned, training drums beat.

Through it all, the New Vegas Strip has stayed open for business under the control of its mysterious overseer, Mr. House, and his army of rehabilitated Tribals and police robots.

You are a courier, hired by the Mojave Express, to deliver a package to the New Vegas Strip. What seemed like a simple delivery job has taken a turn…for the worse.

The graveyard scene[editedit source]

The Courier slowly regains consciousness. Benny immediately follows to hold a compunctious, yet professional monologue with the Courier as his audience:

You got whatchu were after, so pay up.

The Courier wakes up trying to get free from the restraints.

Guess who's waking up over here?

The Courier looks up to see Benny, Jessup, and McMurphy looming over him. Benny then takes a hit from his cigarette, drops it and pats it out with his foot.

Would you get it over with. Kkl vag-com for 409.1 windows 7.

Benny raises his hand to quiet McMurphy while keeping eye contact with the Courier.

Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face, but I ain't a fink, dig?

Benny proceeds to remove the Platinum Chip from his coat pocket and flashs it in front of the Courier.

Benny conceals the Platinum Chip back inside his coat to remove another item in its place.

Sorry you got twisted up in this scene.

Benny draws his 9mm pistol, Maria, from his coat.

From where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18-carat run of bad luck.
But, truth is.. the game was rigged from the start.

Benny executes the Courier with a climactic shot to the head. The player then starts the first playable part of the game.

Developer quotes[editedit source]

We initially attempted to do the opening cutscene in-engine. We based the cutscene’s design upon things that we understood as technically possible based on the cutscenes we saw in Fallout 3. I.e., there were no features we were relying upon that did not already exist in the engine.

We attempted this for about a month, but the cutscene was unstable. Animations would desync and the sequence would break with high frequency. It may very well have been that we were using the technology incorrectly, but I made the decision to move to a pre-rendered cutscene to move things along and ensure stability.

Behind the scenes[editedit source]

Originally the intro was supposed to run entirely in the engine. This would show the entire scene with Benny and the Great Khans Jessup and McMurphy that takes up the second half of the finished game's FMV sequence. At some point in development, a press demo was created that commented out the intro and skipped straight to the character creation part of the game. As the in engine intro proved difficult to implement, the press demo code was used in the release game, with an added line that played the FNV.

In the original intro, the scene starts with the player hooded and standing in the grave. The dialogue follows the same basic arc, but the words spoken are completely different (in particular Benny's 'bad luck' line is much less pithy and polished than the one used in the FMV). This sequence also features Victor actually digging the player out of the grave, something that is only spoken of but never actually shown in the final game.

The code that runs the intro sequence is a battleground of commented out contradictory lines where different iterations have introduced and then removed new effects and ideas. For example, one iteration uses the setscale command to make the player half the size to give the impression of kneeling (the player is actually standing bolt upright the whole time). This then breaks the later character generation sequence as it triggers an engine bug where the player is classified as a child. There is a later workaround to this where the player's age is reduced and then immediately increased with agerace -1 and then agerace 1. This doesn't seem to work right either (if you enter these commands by hand in the console they DO fix this bug, they just don't seem to work right called in a script) and usually still results in the player still being classified as a child despite having an adult body, breaking the Vigor tester sequence.

Even stranger, there is full dialogue for TWO different versions of this sequence. One is twice as long, with extra lines featuring the three characters bickering about how to get home again. There is also an extended version of the final scene with Victor digging up the player where he actually reaches out to help the player out of the grave (in the shorter version the player stands up of their own accord and promptly collapses again). There is an idle animation for this (NVVictorpickup), but it has no actual animation file so does nothing. I was actually told a rumour once that this was so the game could have the extended intro if the player had bought the collectors edition (that contains the comic book filling in the backstory of Jessup et al). Take this totally with a grain of salt (if you weren't taking the information contained within that way already!) as I've seen no corroborating evidence of this, although it would make sense.

Finally, at the point in the intro where the player is shot and collapses into the grave, there is code to run an FMV file called FNVLogo2.bik. This is of course not present in the game, and would likely either simply be the game's logo (and of course the inevitable 'war never changes part'), or possibly be the early teaser video shown of Victor digging up the player, as it would fit in perfectly with the next part of the sequence.

The digging/burying scene relies on using the blood spatter effect to slowly cover up the screen. It also uses a command that controls how long the spatter effect stays on screen to ensure it remains until wiped off by the script. However, this command is not implemented in the final game! Calling this command at any time instantly crashes the game.

There are also lots of AI Packages created for this scene that were eventually abandoned in favour of directly calling some of the actions from the quest script (e.g. Jessup pistol whipping the player). Speaking of which, Jessup is supposed to pistol whip the player, but he actually sort of punches them instead, without the pistol equipped.

Fallout New Vegas Intro Song Video

Videos[editedit source]

• Cut intro scenes

See also[editedit source]