The Shady Sands Shuffle
Generally speaking if you’re going to rifle through someone’s pockets without their permission, you’re probably looking to take something of value. However, for some people, simply removing someone’s valuables isn’t quite as satisfying as say, leaving them a little going away present to remember you by. Enter the Shady Sands Shuffle.
Made popular by Argyle, the “stalwart ghoul manservant” of Herbet “Daring” Dashwood in Fallout 3, the Shuffle refers to leaving a grenade or landmine in the unsuspecting pockets of an enemy and standing back as hilarity ensues. Hilarity in this case refers to the moment when the person’s legs are blown off their body because you put a fucking live grenade in their pocket. Oh, you scamp!
Just About Anything with the Bottlecap Mine
Grenades are cool. Landmines are cool. However, nothing is more indicative of wasteland ingenuity and that old MacGuyver spirit than the Bottlecap Mine. Cobbled together with little more than a metal lunchbox, a handful of bottle caps, a cherry bomb, and a sensor module, the Bottlecap Mine is both larger than your standard landmine and has a larger blast radius. Because, of course, a bigger bomb means a bigger boom.
And the explosive results are worth it. Any moron in the wasteland can come across a landmine, but only the most deranged and resourceful would think to turn a lunchbox and some left over bottle caps into a weapon of mass destruction. Your enemies will know they done goofed when they see the lunchbox and hear the jingle of bottle caps. They might also know because they’re missing all their limbs, because you’re a deranged psychopath. Your dad (Liam Neeson) must be so proud of you!
Firing a Missile / Mini Nuke at Your Feet
If you’ve played any of the Fallout games for any length of time chances are good you’ve blown something to shit. Play for long enough and you might even get bored of the myriad of ways and methods in which you can make something explode. Eventually you’ll run out of options. Eventually you’ll equip that Fat man or Missile Launcher and stare at your feet. Eventually you’ll pull the trigger.
There is a morbid enjoyment to be had with exploding your character. Doing so greets you with a humorously violent death, in slow motion, as your character’s body rockets off into the sky like a villain from Pokemon. The best time to off your Lone Wanderer or Courier with a huge explosion is generally after you’ve saved and are ready to call it quits for the time being. But for best results climb to the top of Tenpenny Tower in Fallout 3, as this will provide optimal method of blasting off again.
Megaton-ing Megaton
This one’s a little obvious, isn’t it? But who can really put together an explosive Fallout list without including this mega-masterpiece? The nuclear blast that levels Megaton is one of several outcomes of the Power of the Atom quest, and boy is it a doozy.
The fate of Megaton, the town literally built around an dormant atomic bomb, rests in your hands. On one side of the karmic pull is Lucas Simms–Megaton’s Sheriff–who tasks you with disarming the bomb, of course the other infinitely more nefarious option is to ignore him and rig the thing to blow instead. Choosing to go this way will see you trek to Tenpenny Towers where you are given the honors to press the button yourself and watch the entire town get obliterated with a huge devastating explosion. Hopefully you didn’t nuke Megaton in an attempt to rid yourself of Moira Brown though, as she becomes the only survivor of the blast (albeit ghoulified). Sorry!
Adams Air Force Base
Fallout 3’s add-on Broken Steel added an extension to the ending of that game. In it, players are given some much needed closure to Fallout 3’s original, somewhat ambiguous ending. Following the events of that ending you find yourself in the Citadel, the Brotherhood of Steel’s base of operations. A new series of main quests sets in motion a final, exciting assault on the evil Enclave and their main settlement, the Adams Air Force Base.
After lots of shooting and mayhem at the base, you eventually reach a satellite tower where you are given the ability to launch an orbital strike on a location of your choosing. The terminal gives you two options: the Adams Air Force Base–effectively destroying the Enclave, or the Citadel–if you want to be especially evil. While lots of evil karma and the ire of every member of the Brotherhood of Steel is nice, choosing to destroy the Citadel only rewards you with the base’s smoldering ruins upon your return. Choosing the Air Force Base allows you to watch the missiles rain down and level everything in sight. Good guys like explosions, too!
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