The White House is a radioactive crater in Fallout 3 because there were no quests there, so why build it? 'It is our version of [Indiana Jones] shooting the guy rather than pulling out his whip and going into a fight'

The White House is a radioactive crater in Fallout 3 because there were no quests there, so why build it? ‘It is our version of [Indiana Jones] shooting the guy rather than pulling out his whip and going into a fight’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Fallout Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii has played 10,000 hours of Fallout 4 while refusing to do the main quest, build settlements, or travel with anyone but Dogmeat: ‘I’d much rather be beaten to death by Deathclaws’ Fallout Fallout was a ‘B-tier product’ that lost both the licenses it was banking on and had its lead dev joking, ‘In a week, we’re going to be asking whether people want fries with their meal,’ but now he thinks those trials ‘turned out to be positives’ Fallout The best thing about Fallout New Vegas was right there in Bethesda’s initial pitch to Obsidian Fallout Fallout 76 devs were surprised the community turned out to be so friendly: ‘It’s post-apocalyptic, it’s Fallout, they’re going to all want to kill one another … it’s the complete opposite’ Fallout ‘It took about 5 years’ for people to start liking Fallout: New Vegas, says Josh Sawyer, and even longer for Obsidian to see that ‘players actually liked the design choices we had made’ Fallout Fallout’s original creators say that Fallout 3 and 4 aren’t quite what they would’ve done, but ‘sales say people love what they did’ Fallout Todd Howard says Bethesda really didn’t expect people to hate the way Fallout 3 ended with a full stop: ‘We thought this is Fallout, it’s great! People hated it!’ Fallout Is it just me or did Season 2 of the Fallout TV series effectively wipe Courier 6 from existence? Fallout I am once again tapping my ‘Todd Howard genuinely loves Fallout’ sign: He’s an OG Fallout 1 fan and still hasn’t given back the disc he nicked from his brother Fallout The Fallout VATS system was inspired by Burnout’s crash mode of all things or, as Todd Howard puts it, ‘imagine the car parts are, like, eyeballs and guts!’ Fallout Fallout’s co-creator again recalls nixing ‘Terminator-style’ robots in the original game, which has me rubbing my chin real hard at Fallout 4’s entire plot: ‘Mr Handy and Terminator robot do not belong in the same universe’ Fallout Bethesda originally thought Fallout 3’s metro system should go all over the map, then realised running through miles of tunnels was dull as hell: ‘Being realistic sometimes isn’t fun’ Fallout How to have the best Fallout New Vegas experience today The Elder Scrolls Bethesda’s former Elder Scrolls loremaster on why he left, Starfield’s ‘communication breakdowns’, and how he wanted The Elder Scrolls 6 ‘to be The Empire Strikes Back’ Fallout Fallout 76’s design director is still defending its original absence of NPCs: ‘At the beginning, we wanted it all to be player-driven’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Arc RaidersBest PC gearFalloutGame Quizzes Games RPG Fallout Fallout 3 The White House is a radioactive crater in Fallout 3 because there were no quests there, so why build it? ‘It is our version of [Indiana Jones] shooting the guy rather than pulling out his whip and going into a fight’ News By Rich Stanton published 17 February 2026 “There was no gameplay around the White House.” When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Bethesda) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Bethesda worthies have recently been on the interview circuit, reminiscing about all the good times when the studio was making Fallout games (note: it has been 11 years since a singleplayer Fallout game, and eight since the release of Fallout 76). Game Informer’s excellent oral history of Fallout is one of the best, not least because we get to hear design lead Emil Pagliarulo recall that time he thought having an entire subway system under DC would be cool… until he realised endless underground tunnels were dull as hell.One of the most interesting topics is the setting, with many at Bethesda delighted to work on a destroyed Washington DC because lots of them lived there. “It’s cool to work in an area that you’re deeply familiar with, because then you can include things that [other] people may not be familiar with, unless they live here,” lead artist Istvan Pely told PCG recently.Washington DC isn’t exactly short of landmarks, but this in