As always, make sure to tell me what you thought of this so that I can improve later content. Apologies for this taking so long, been a bit of a stressful month. But the Uni year is done, so that should give me a little more time to work on stuff for you guys. I have like 6 scripts in the works right now, some of them are mod reviews, some of them are different, more unique content. IF you have anything you'd like to see, drop it below or hit me up via the discord link the description. I appreciate yall so much, thanks for watching and have a great day :)
Great video my only advice is just stay humble I like how you give criticism but also acknowledge that it was a fan-made mod and that at the end of the day your opinions are only your opinions and not the absolute law, which becomes the main reason why I stopped watching a lot of Fallout TH-camrs.
@@brotherhoodofsteel4751 Opinion is implied. I think the video would get tiring if he kept saying "in my opinion". all analysis/reviews are all opinion based. It's a given.
Hey Ramblelime! A buddy of mine linked me to the vid. This is a super thoughtful (and accurate!) analysis of, indeed, a bad story written by a teenager wrapped in a hopefully nice looking world. Regardless of the fact that it has countless rough edges and nonsensical story decisions, it’s still cool to see people playing Alton so many years later. And hopefully after 10 years, I’ve got something a bit more interesting coming up for my next project ;)
Wow, i never expected you to see this (especially not so early after I put it out). Thanks for working on projects like these, they're what keep the fandom alive. Can't wait to see what you do next, man!
@@ramblelime Thanks! This is the sort of criticism that (in my opinion) both mod authors and the game industry as a whole need. Sure, there are plenty of videos poking fun at everything wrong with The Frontier, but those videos aren't genuinely useful for the mod authors. This sort of clear-cut, thought out analysis is really helpful.
I'm simply impressed by the fact that you finished it. I've lost count over the things I've started, failed to meet my own expectations, and quit. You have actually made everything single thing that is needed to call it a game, and that is something I've dreamed about, attempted many times, without getting any closer to the target. Can I ask you what motivated you at the time, into making a complete game, with story, voice acting, custom assets and everything? For example, you probably knew at the time that your mic and voice acting would never sound like the real deal, but you still went for it. You wrote the lines, learnt the software, recorded the dialogue, edited the material, got it into the game and everything. I would get stuck reading reviews for recording equipment and create an entirely new rabbit hole of complications for myself, before putting the project aside. I hope I don't sound condescending or rude, I genuinly wonder. It is surprisingly difficult to sound sincere in a different langugage. But what I am trying to say is that I am really am impressed by the process you went through here. Best of luck with your new project!
@@olemardy Hey olemardy! First, a few misconceptions to clear up - I finished the mod at 16, not 17, and I didn't voice any of the dialogue lines. While I wrote the lines, I grabbed volunteers to voice them from various modding forums. :) But don't worry - your comment absolutely sounds sincere! I had two big motivations: 1. I found it incredibly fun to imagine what my hometown would look like in the Fallout universe 2. I had a strong desire to learn game design from scratch, as I quickly found that I wanted to make it my profession And it paid off! I got my first AAA game design job at 19, shipped a game I'm incredibly proud of in 2018, and am quickly on my way to a second shipped game. And now I still get to work on my hobby project, A Better World, on the side, which I'm really happy about. My point is - jumping straight into a huge project like this with no experience can seem overwhelming, but what you'll learn from them along the way is invaluable. For me, I learn quicker when I jump into big projects where I need to cover multiple roles. And I think that's true of any self taught hobby, not just game design.
Man, I don't think I could've managed to do what you did here. To actually criticize this would be impossible for me. I would've been all, "OHMYGODHE'SSOPRECIOUS, GOOD JOB!" Which is, sure, much more *nice* but not exactly helpful. It's frankly mind-blowing that some high schooler managed to make this, and the kind of person that would've made this has clear ambition. I'm sure he wanted actual feedback, as opposed to the "attaboy" which myself and others like me would've supplied. great video, fascinating mod, and a really respectful and genuine critique which I hope the original author sees.
Thanks man. Your feedback is always super appreciated (partially because i love your work, partially because you're good at giving feedback). The guy who made the mod actually found this super fast, and he agreed with me on all my criticisms. Part of me fears the worst whenever i criticize something small because i worry that they'll see it and be offended. At the end of the day, game development is a lot harder than youtube analysis videos so i don't want them to feel like i'm in some way saying i'm better than them or anything. That being said, he took it well, so all is good
The use of "Underground Railroad" in Alton is not a "bizarre" choice: the real Alton has an extensive system of underground tunnels that were a part of the historic American Underground Railroad. It's not at all weird to imagine the in-game UR would have named themselves after the actual UR tunnels they are using.
Good catch! I had no idea- and I feel like that's only something you'd know if you lived in the area or had really extensive understanding of US history. I have neither of these things. With that knowledge, i'd amend it with "it's bizarre unless you know this area's history already". There was nothing in the mod to hint at this history so I just assumed it was completely arbitrary. Not as big of an oversight as I imagined, but still definitely could've been helped with, like, at mimimum a terminal entry about it, yknow?
I agree with all of your points. That being said, holy fuck man this kid is going to help make some sweeeet games in the next several decades. I can't imagine having that much drive at 17, kudos to him. Fucking phenomenal teenager.
It’s interesting to see this, as a lot of the stuff you talk about that where the bad parts of Alton, are things we exactly reference when talking about development and Elijah’s current work on A Better World. I originally voiced Hartrick and I can tell you that fake Australian Batman accent is without a doubt one of the worst things I’ve ever done. There was a lot of improvement in world and audio design when Eli and I were originally developing (the now dead) project Ethas. And Eli’s gotten even far better at world design since then. Hope to see your video on A Better World, as that will be a whole different experience from Alton. Modding and game design was a whole brand new world to us when Alton first came out.
It's so funny that this is set in Alton of all places. I grew up around there and was a huge fallout fan as a kid. It was surreal to see this when I was younger.
As a person who's spent a greater percentage of my life in the actual Alton, IL than any other location on earth, this is super strange. However, spend enough time there and you absolutely will want to make a fictional dystopia based off of it. Even if you could release a fully unmodified copy of Fallout 3 and have denizens of Alton say "yup that looks like Alton" Heartwarming to see someone go through with something that has been a possibility in my mind for a while. Unfortunately i never met the mod author as i only spent freshman year in Alton High School before moving quite a bit, then joining the navy active duty at 19 years old in 2007 to escape the area. Corona kicked me out of Alton and all the way past Godfrey to my farming roots. However, i recognize the last names of mod collaborators. After all, the Darr's gas station is now just down the road from me. Congratulations to the mod authors and i can't wait to see what they make next. Love from macoupin county! 👍
Fallout 3 is a weird beast, in a way it does feel like there are some parts here and there where Bethesda really tried to make a decent Fallout game, it certainly has more heart in terms of quest design than F4. But it definitely is rough going back to.
In a world where we get the Sseth trio of Mandalore and Uberdanger, we're finally unearthing the Peach Cobbler posse. C'mon now, debut your third underling!!
Altonian here! The map isn't TOO bad all things considered. The Clark Bridge around 9:40 looks okay. The building the player is going into next to the bridge is the Marion "Heights" building. I put quotes there because it is only about 6 stories and built right down at floodplain level.
@@averagechadlegionary5824 i'm really excited to do new california, i've played through it probably a dozen times. The frontier is going to be a challenge to talk about though. It'll be difficult to find things to say about it that haven't already been said
Love the content! I remember seeing this mod years ago when Al played through it. Seeing FO3 exclusive mods reminded me of Terran Starship Command (Mothership Zeta Crew), I was pretty young when I played through it but I remember enjoying the story, even though its was unfinished at that point.
It's so nice to see thoughtful analysis of quest mods. However niche they are, thousands of hours go into creating these stories and I think they're worth taking a closer look at. Thanks very much!
One of the best game criticism/review video ive seen in few years... I wish there were more in depth videos like this one on most modern indie games, it would help a lot to study various perspective & shortcomings for future reference ♥️ thanks man
I remember my dad talking to me about this! Like, more than 10 years ago ;3; Weird to think that anything good, cool, or interesting came from IL, but great!
Oh crap, I didn't realize this guy was working on A Better World! I remember seeing the first few bits of that mod getting shown off a couple years ago, and it's one I'm really looking forward to checking out once it releases. Hopefully they haven't been too screwed by the next gen update!
literally heard about alton il like 2 days ago. this is quite literally the only comprehensive media form i've found covering this mod LMFAO. really well put together video btw, laughed at a few points and fully agree with your assessment
Picked up the TTW version of this, excited to check it out for myself (Edit: finished it. Honestly I loved the world space but yeah the dialogue and story did draw me out of the experience quite a bit. But honestly my enjoyment of the open world of Alton made up for any flaws for me)
@@jeffreysamson5938 I was running on a very old laptop with TONS of other mods and still got pretty great results from Alton, would still recommend although it doesn’t have great replay value
man, this brings me back. I remember liking this mod even despite its flaws and wished it gotten more expansions/addons to it from other modders. Hope you'll review other not so well known mods like The Institute quest mod for Fallout 3.
Your bewilderment at the usage of the name underground railroad is bewildering me. It is a totally organic sounding name one in the universe can imagine, simple as.
As someone from Alton Illinois (or at least went to highschool here) one thing that tripped me up is the map is upside down. The Mississippi river is to the south of Alton not the north as is in game.
Random video shows up on my feed while on a Fallout binge and this is pretty interesting to me. It’s awesome that a teenager even had the skill to pull this off, even if it didn’t end up amazing, and even recreated parts of his town and own home just makes me smile. I’m also from Illinois and a lot of things, both in terms of Fallout and most other media, focus solely on Chicago when were brought up. So it’s…weird and yet kind of cool to see one of the only ‘complete’ conversion mods for Fallout 3 is centered on a little town here. Honestly if you told me something like this existed ahead of time I would have guessed it have been focused on the capital city of Springfield, just so someone can shove in a crap ton of references to Abe Lincoln. Could have it been better? Absolutely. But I still applaud the kid for doing something not many else would have been able to do, and I hope he’s going far this many years later.
Probably get this requested a lot, you should look at Havasu Blues or Tales of New Reno (or really any major, semi-popular FNV quest/area expansion mod)
Thanks for this. I started playing FO3 with a bunch of mods installed 10 years ago. I'd play it a bit, put it down for a few years, and then continue my game. The desktop PC is old now and I want to get rid of it, but I don't think my modded FO3 will transfer over from Windows 7 to Windows 11 without something going wrong, so I am determined to finish my game now. I looked in my quest log and I have three quests: one is obviously Brotherhood of Steel, one is Point Lookout and one was a mystery - "She Runs on Motivation". So I Googled it, and vaguely remembered the mod "Alton, IL", but I couldn't remember anything about it. Anyway, watching this video has helped me a lot because I can safely skip Alton and just do the other two. I have 450 hours in this playthrough and I've done almost everything including some quest mods, but now I want to do Point Lookout and finish the main quest.
This is impressive, even with the issues and weaknesses. Have you ever played "Into the Ark"? for Fallout 3? It's also got weaknesses, but I genuinely enjoyed it.
Cobbler has sent me to view your video. You're welcome for this unique and original comment that noone else has made (haven't checked but I imagine I'm right)
@@ramblelime nah understandable, just love this series. Having run through a lot of these mods myself it’s cool to see a series like this. I imagine we have different takes on the likes of the Frontier, but I’m really interested to see an actual analysis of the mod that comes after the whole shitstorm.
So, as to why the plague doctor outfit is used by "The Plague" is because the plague doctors might try to cure people and their suits are protective... But their suits did carry the plague on them and they would spread the plague by accident while trying to cure it instead.
So weird seeing my home as a fallout 3 mod We have a neat little River town but most of our big history is well in the past. But it is a neat town We even have our own cryptid the Piasa Bird
i’ve always wondered where the story of the piasa bird came from. i personally don’t believe that there was really a human faced dragon bird thing that lived in our caves but i want to know where and how that was thought up ya know
@@kaiokenconnostories told by natives to keep people away from the cliffs and the river. It was also said the Mississippi River was bottomless and that the Piasa bird was cast away into it.
I know this video is bit old, but if we're talking about DLC sized mods for Fallout 3 that were mediocre, overly ambitious messes, the Mothership Zeta Crew mod comes to mind. I forget it's exact story, but the premise was the Enclave had captured one of the crashed Zetan warships and began exploring space. It even spawned a sequel mod that found it's way to New Vegas. I hope I'm not the only one that remembers it, it was super divisive in the community at the time.
You should make a review of another major Fallout 3 total conversion mod called Fallout New York, it's... Also similar to this mod in terms of quality but still better, more quests, story makes more sense etc
That Ratatouille Snyder Cut joke got me, you earned a sub. Will you do Washington's Malevolence and Zeta Crew (still pissed what happened to it) next since they are the only other BIG mods for 3?
@@questioneverything6667 yeah i think fallout 3 has problems, but i also mention in the video that I like point lookout, so saying that i hate everything remotely associated with fallout 3 is a gross misrepresentation. I think you just want to find something to be mad at my guy
This is so strange given that I live in this area. Not sure exactly what areas it's supposed to be looking at any given location though, especially since there's no literal underground railroad (aka subway), but the historical underground railroad was pretty involved there. It's super close to St.Louis rather than Chicago by the way.
My head cannon for the reason the underground rail road calls them selves that but isn't anything like the on from our world is that they say mention of the underground rail road and figure the literal rail roads under ground are what they are referencing
Your criticisms of the mod are reasonable and fair, but the people in the comments section are being unnecessarily hostile and rude. It was made by a literal kid ten years ago. People need to give him a break.
they should've just made ur character an outcast defender. also the brotherhood being in illinois kinda makes sense bc im pretty sure the brotherhood was in chicago for fallout tactics
I only clicked on this because ive lived in like 20 different cities in Illinois and never heard of Alton. I'm guessing its down south.. *Holy shit i called it, its at the very southern tip of Illinois, about 5 hour drive from Chicago, near St Louis Missouri. ❤
Honestly I enjoyed the Mods story. Nothing fantastic but maybe I was just happy to get something that gave me a choice after playing through fo3's main story again
Well it's second most endorsed mod in the New Lands and Locations category of Nexus Mods - there's a few others that look worth checking out like the Mothership Zeta crew mod and I think there was a mod where you do the MQ but from the perspective of the Enclave. Besides a few here and there in that category, there aren't many decent ones in Quests and Adventures category either. Is it really that bad? For years I've been waiting to find the time to sit down and play through some awesome mods and I was always under the impression there were a bunch that would increase my playtime by 1000+ hours even but the reality is the opposite? There's like maybe ten and everything else is rubbish or unfinished, alpha/beta stuff. Please tell me I'm missing something. It's the same with NV tbf. 99% of mods are armor/weapons mods, body mods and UI or some junk. I'm mostly interested in quest mods, new factions and lands to explore.
Bit late but what quest mods for New Vegas that add new lands have you already played or seen btw I might be able to recommend some you have not played yet
@@olliered9924 Never got round to playing any because while getting greedy with mods, my LOD textures messed up and I haven't been bothered to start all over again lol. The frontier is the one that stands out the most to me so far. I love the Enclave so if you know any good mods involving joining them I'm all ears. Caesars Legion reborn I think it was called... Lots of stuff; companion, lots of dialogue, new look... Not too interested in the more exotic mods that dont fit the lore unless I'm roleplaying a chem addicg maybe lol. I really need to get round to playing it again. 😆
@@H_Grunt If you like the Enclave I would recommend checking out For the Enclave mod, Also apparently there is an Enclave route in Fallout New California which is a massive mod like the Frontier never played either so I can't tell you much about it. And Caeser's new regime Is the mod you are talking about I think I would recommend using Factions Reloaded Legion and Living Desert with that too. Or instead of Caesar's new regime check out We are legion mod it's basically a lore-friendly overhaul of legion armour and characters. It gives them a more intimidating appearance and seem like a more legitimate power in the wasteland. I'm assuming you really like the legion and if you want a good Legion companion, look up Vulpes Inculta mod there is also a Arizona mod called Arizona redux its not fully complete yet but have a look at the description of mod it looks very interesting might be worth waiting till its fully completed before trying it. Some other quest mods I recommend are Havasu Blues,Salt lake stories,Beyond boulder dome,Cabot's quests,Race to the bottom,Autumn leaves,REPCONN blues,The blue note and have look at Th3Overseer and Someguy2000 quest mods their quest mods are very highly rated and regarded as some of the best quest mods for fnv although lore wise if you are doing a Legion playthrough some of their quest mods might not be the best since I know at least one of them has you fighting legion at one point
@@H_Grunt Also I saw you said you searched most endorsed New lands and Adventures on nexus mods try searching most endorsed Quests and Adventures instead on nexus mods :) EDIT: Nvm ignore this somehow I missed that you said you looked in quests and adventures too lol 🤣
the problem is most that get into the series through either 3 or 4 look own on 1 and 2 as out dated. or they call new vegas overrated and not a true fallout game.
@@LasherTimora They work fine as is, personally. Sure, I guess some mechanics in them aren't up to date, but nothing as bad as having to heavily grind in older JRPGs to progress.
came here from DJ Peach Cobbler's recommendation. You got anyone to recommend yourself? I don't know what this genre of TH-camr is called (Video Analysts/Essayists) but it feels like finding treasure, and I want some more. Excellent video btw, especially on a subject nobodie's talked about. 2 thumbs way the fuck up my asshole
No idea as far as people my size, but i've personally got a lot of inspiration from jacob geller, joseph anderson, and noah caldwell-gervais. Check them out if you haven't already!
I think reusing historical names like the underground railroad but having no connection to the meaning would be fine if the story itself explained that the original context is lost or who ignored it.
Specifically Restoration project or just the patch? if you mean RestoProj, it's Fallout 2 that's better patched, and the new content is neat for the most part (with some that are a like it or hate it deal).
New vegas bounties 1,2,3, the inheritance, autumn leaves, new california, frontier, DUST, beyond boulder dome, deimos, the overseer's mods, ... i'm probably forgetting a few. New vegas has a lot of noteworthy quest mods, and there are several mods for fallout 2 and fallout 4 still in development/translation that i plan to cover when they're out (or out in english)
@@ramblelime Heh, someguy2k quest mods, eh? I'm expecting "lots of swearing that's for sure" but hey, that's Fallout baby!! even classic Fallout swear a lot
I played this on og fallout 3, it ran like shit in my hp dv4000 , I loved it, it was one of the reasons I started modding every game I played on PC. It really isn't that great indeed as a narrative mod, but the map was great and for a starved teen for more postapoc content back in 2009, it was enough. To this day I keep Alton in my load order even in a TTW install. I play it when I'm brain dead and I just want to see quest makers and xp go up.
ya know its wild when people say new vegas is the more stable of the 2 games cuz i first played them both on ps3. never finished new vegas due to a memory leak issue where instead of overwriting saves it just made a new one and causing it to crash constantly after saving so many times and getting so far. i was trying to do the hoover dam with 2 fps and it crashed everytime i hit the welcome center it was literally unfinishable on ps3(i also beat big MT with 2 fps whenever i was outside a building) and no deleting saves from the hard drive didnt work at all i tried that. it gave me a bug of all the ncr being hostile to me in my current save even with max good affinity with them and wearing ncr armor. fallout 3 on the other hand (my first fallout game) i beat almost a dozen times before broken steel came out without issues and it wasnt until i got to the ghoul president tunnels to get to the final mission did it start crashing on me and then infect all my other saves. i know a lot of 3rd party publishers had issues with the ps3 and its much easier to play them on pc (which i do now) and new vegas is now my favorite fallout game but the juxaposition of my memories with how much a mess new vegas was and how when fallout 3 started acting the same way i thought new vegas somehow infected my fallout 3 game. yes i was a teenager when it happened but i had no actual reason other than that why it suddenly stopped working after almost 100% the game with the extended ending fter 100% it repeatedly before hand. i never beat fallout 3 with broken steel since its so unstable on pc when i could just play a barely held together with spit and prayer overly modded version of new vegas instead.
As always, make sure to tell me what you thought of this so that I can improve later content. Apologies for this taking so long, been a bit of a stressful month. But the Uni year is done, so that should give me a little more time to work on stuff for you guys. I have like 6 scripts in the works right now, some of them are mod reviews, some of them are different, more unique content. IF you have anything you'd like to see, drop it below or hit me up via the discord link the description. I appreciate yall so much, thanks for watching and have a great day :)
That is like my name or something idk
Another mod you should do for fallout 3 is Washington's Malevolence. Its the size of a smaller DLC and could fit your description at the start.
Great video my only advice is just stay humble I like how you give criticism but also acknowledge that it was a fan-made mod and that at the end of the day your opinions are only your opinions and not the absolute law, which becomes the main reason why I stopped watching a lot of Fallout TH-camrs.
@@brotherhoodofsteel4751 Opinion is implied. I think the video would get tiring if he kept saying "in my opinion". all analysis/reviews are all opinion based. It's a given.
Are you going to review Fallout Olympus? Or just mods with English translations?
Hey Ramblelime! A buddy of mine linked me to the vid. This is a super thoughtful (and accurate!) analysis of, indeed, a bad story written by a teenager wrapped in a hopefully nice looking world. Regardless of the fact that it has countless rough edges and nonsensical story decisions, it’s still cool to see people playing Alton so many years later.
And hopefully after 10 years, I’ve got something a bit more interesting coming up for my next project ;)
Wow, i never expected you to see this (especially not so early after I put it out). Thanks for working on projects like these, they're what keep the fandom alive. Can't wait to see what you do next, man!
@@ramblelime Thanks! This is the sort of criticism that (in my opinion) both mod authors and the game industry as a whole need. Sure, there are plenty of videos poking fun at everything wrong with The Frontier, but those videos aren't genuinely useful for the mod authors. This sort of clear-cut, thought out analysis is really helpful.
@Starless Thank you! It's fun to reflect back on this old stuff, see where it could have been improved, and where I've grown since.
I'm simply impressed by the fact that you finished it. I've lost count over the things I've started, failed to meet my own expectations, and quit. You have actually made everything single thing that is needed to call it a game, and that is something I've dreamed about, attempted many times, without getting any closer to the target. Can I ask you what motivated you at the time, into making a complete game, with story, voice acting, custom assets and everything? For example, you probably knew at the time that your mic and voice acting would never sound like the real deal, but you still went for it. You wrote the lines, learnt the software, recorded the dialogue, edited the material, got it into the game and everything. I would get stuck reading reviews for recording equipment and create an entirely new rabbit hole of complications for myself, before putting the project aside.
I hope I don't sound condescending or rude, I genuinly wonder. It is surprisingly difficult to sound sincere in a different langugage. But what I am trying to say is that I am really am impressed by the process you went through here. Best of luck with your new project!
@@olemardy Hey olemardy! First, a few misconceptions to clear up - I finished the mod at 16, not 17, and I didn't voice any of the dialogue lines. While I wrote the lines, I grabbed volunteers to voice them from various modding forums. :)
But don't worry - your comment absolutely sounds sincere! I had two big motivations:
1. I found it incredibly fun to imagine what my hometown would look like in the Fallout universe
2. I had a strong desire to learn game design from scratch, as I quickly found that I wanted to make it my profession
And it paid off! I got my first AAA game design job at 19, shipped a game I'm incredibly proud of in 2018, and am quickly on my way to a second shipped game. And now I still get to work on my hobby project, A Better World, on the side, which I'm really happy about. My point is - jumping straight into a huge project like this with no experience can seem overwhelming, but what you'll learn from them along the way is invaluable. For me, I learn quicker when I jump into big projects where I need to cover multiple roles. And I think that's true of any self taught hobby, not just game design.
Man, I don't think I could've managed to do what you did here. To actually criticize this would be impossible for me. I would've been all, "OHMYGODHE'SSOPRECIOUS, GOOD JOB!" Which is, sure, much more *nice* but not exactly helpful. It's frankly mind-blowing that some high schooler managed to make this, and the kind of person that would've made this has clear ambition. I'm sure he wanted actual feedback, as opposed to the "attaboy" which myself and others like me would've supplied.
great video, fascinating mod, and a really respectful and genuine critique which I hope the original author sees.
Thanks man. Your feedback is always super appreciated (partially because i love your work, partially because you're good at giving feedback). The guy who made the mod actually found this super fast, and he agreed with me on all my criticisms. Part of me fears the worst whenever i criticize something small because i worry that they'll see it and be offended. At the end of the day, game development is a lot harder than youtube analysis videos so i don't want them to feel like i'm in some way saying i'm better than them or anything. That being said, he took it well, so all is good
Y’all should voice act for passion projects like this that’d be dope
@@NoOne-hr9ti I'd love to, no one's reached out though
@@DJPeachCobbler aight, bet. I'll reach out when it's time.
@@DJPeachCobbler you should try out for F4NV, they need as many voice actors they can get
Wild to see this, the creator is a friend of mine and I voice acted for the mod
that's crazy!!!!!!!!!! Never expected anyone who worked on the stuff i make videos on to see it
@@ramblelime well I linked most of the group that worked on the mod so... I hope you don’t mind 😳
@@thearchivistofold tell your friend I'm looking forward to playing his mod now that I got my PC fixed.
Oof.
Damn, glad you kept going
The use of "Underground Railroad" in Alton is not a "bizarre" choice: the real Alton has an extensive system of underground tunnels that were a part of the historic American Underground Railroad. It's not at all weird to imagine the in-game UR would have named themselves after the actual UR tunnels they are using.
Good catch! I had no idea- and I feel like that's only something you'd know if you lived in the area or had really extensive understanding of US history. I have neither of these things. With that knowledge, i'd amend it with "it's bizarre unless you know this area's history already". There was nothing in the mod to hint at this history so I just assumed it was completely arbitrary. Not as big of an oversight as I imagined, but still definitely could've been helped with, like, at mimimum a terminal entry about it, yknow?
@@ramblelime good point 🤷♂️👌
I agree with all of your points. That being said, holy fuck man this kid is going to help make some sweeeet games in the next several decades. I can't imagine having that much drive at 17, kudos to him. Fucking phenomenal teenager.
The fact he actually went for it is amazing like that's some dedication
It’s interesting to see this, as a lot of the stuff you talk about that where the bad parts of Alton, are things we exactly reference when talking about development and Elijah’s current work on A Better World. I originally voiced Hartrick and I can tell you that fake Australian Batman accent is without a doubt one of the worst things I’ve ever done. There was a lot of improvement in world and audio design when Eli and I were originally developing (the now dead) project Ethas. And Eli’s gotten even far better at world design since then. Hope to see your video on A Better World, as that will be a whole different experience from Alton. Modding and game design was a whole brand new world to us when Alton first came out.
as someone with tons of unfinished personal projects, shoutouts to this mod author
Wow, I just looked at his next mod and I'm impressed, he's really talented
It's so funny that this is set in Alton of all places. I grew up around there and was a huge fallout fan as a kid. It was surreal to see this when I was younger.
BTW there is an updated converted version of this mod made for Tale of Two Wastelands, it's really awesome
As a person who's spent a greater percentage of my life in the actual Alton, IL than any other location on earth, this is super strange. However, spend enough time there and you absolutely will want to make a fictional dystopia based off of it. Even if you could release a fully unmodified copy of Fallout 3 and have denizens of Alton say "yup that looks like Alton"
Heartwarming to see someone go through with something that has been a possibility in my mind for a while. Unfortunately i never met the mod author as i only spent freshman year in Alton High School before moving quite a bit, then joining the navy active duty at 19 years old in 2007 to escape the area. Corona kicked me out of Alton and all the way past Godfrey to my farming roots. However, i recognize the last names of mod collaborators. After all, the Darr's gas station is now just down the road from me. Congratulations to the mod authors and i can't wait to see what they make next. Love from macoupin county! 👍
I watched Alchestbreach played this mod back then.. it's kinda nostalgia seeing this review.
Same bro, I used to watch Al all the time in middle school
Fallout 3 is a weird beast, in a way it does feel like there are some parts here and there where Bethesda really tried to make a decent Fallout game, it certainly has more heart in terms of quest design than F4. But it definitely is rough going back to.
it’s the one i wanna play the most yet when i try to, it’s the hardest to stay dedicated to a save
Bruh its literally just an older new vegas, and the dc ruins is awesome. Your a chump
Ramblelime destroys an 17 year old's mod with facts and logic
In a world where we get the Sseth trio of Mandalore and Uberdanger, we're finally unearthing the Peach Cobbler posse. C'mon now, debut your third underling!!
Altonian here! The map isn't TOO bad all things considered. The Clark Bridge around 9:40 looks okay. The building the player is going into next to the bridge is the Marion "Heights" building. I put quotes there because it is only about 6 stories and built right down at floodplain level.
It is interesting to see this mod. Not exactly good, but interesting.
I wanna see him do New California and The Frontier I love NC but TF? Not so much..
@@averagechadlegionary5824 i'm really excited to do new california, i've played through it probably a dozen times. The frontier is going to be a challenge to talk about though. It'll be difficult to find things to say about it that haven't already been said
@@ramblelime world good, ncr quest and weird shit bad? Or more
Love the content! I remember seeing this mod years ago when Al played through it. Seeing FO3 exclusive mods reminded me of Terran Starship Command (Mothership Zeta Crew), I was pretty young when I played through it but I remember enjoying the story, even though its was unfinished at that point.
It's so nice to see thoughtful analysis of quest mods. However niche they are, thousands of hours go into creating these stories and I think they're worth taking a closer look at. Thanks very much!
Just watched peachcobblers video now It’s time to watch you off his recommendation YEEEHAWWWW.
One of the best game criticism/review video ive seen in few years... I wish there were more in depth videos like this one on most modern indie games, it would help a lot to study various perspective & shortcomings for future reference
♥️ thanks man
On some level, I like any mod of this size that even make it to the light of day.
I remember my dad talking to me about this! Like, more than 10 years ago ;3; Weird to think that anything good, cool, or interesting came from IL, but great!
Terran Starship Command was fun. No, really. It's also Fo3 exclusive, features some neat quests and stuff. I liked it.
Oh crap, I didn't realize this guy was working on A Better World! I remember seeing the first few bits of that mod getting shown off a couple years ago, and it's one I'm really looking forward to checking out once it releases. Hopefully they haven't been too screwed by the next gen update!
literally heard about alton il like 2 days ago. this is quite literally the only comprehensive media form i've found covering this mod LMFAO. really well put together video btw, laughed at a few points and fully agree with your assessment
Picked up the TTW version of this, excited to check it out for myself
(Edit: finished it. Honestly I loved the world space but yeah the dialogue and story did draw me out of the experience quite a bit. But honestly my enjoyment of the open world of Alton made up for any flaws for me)
Did the mod crash ur game at any point? How smooth is the mod?
@@jeffreysamson5938 I was running on a very old laptop with TONS of other mods and still got pretty great results from Alton, would still recommend although it doesn’t have great replay value
man, this brings me back. I remember liking this mod even despite its flaws and wished it gotten more expansions/addons to it from other modders. Hope you'll review other not so well known mods like The Institute quest mod for Fallout 3.
Such a cool video! I'm from close by and in the modding community and had no idea about any of this.
Your bewilderment at the usage of the name underground railroad is bewildering me. It is a totally organic sounding name one in the universe can imagine, simple as.
As someone from Alton Illinois (or at least went to highschool here) one thing that tripped me up is the map is upside down. The Mississippi river is to the south of Alton not the north as is in game.
I personally found this mod pretty fun for such a small project
Random video shows up on my feed while on a Fallout binge and this is pretty interesting to me. It’s awesome that a teenager even had the skill to pull this off, even if it didn’t end up amazing, and even recreated parts of his town and own home just makes me smile. I’m also from Illinois and a lot of things, both in terms of Fallout and most other media, focus solely on Chicago when were brought up. So it’s…weird and yet kind of cool to see one of the only ‘complete’ conversion mods for Fallout 3 is centered on a little town here. Honestly if you told me something like this existed ahead of time I would have guessed it have been focused on the capital city of Springfield, just so someone can shove in a crap ton of references to Abe Lincoln.
Could have it been better? Absolutely. But I still applaud the kid for doing something not many else would have been able to do, and I hope he’s going far this many years later.
I Love how i saw Alton and immediately clicked thinking "Oh yeah, that place still exists"
"Point Lookout, my favorite DLC of the base game."
Patrician taste. Subbed.
Good video; nice to see what mod player want out of a Fallout mod.
It’s so cool to hear about a mod based on my hometown
Probably get this requested a lot, you should look at Havasu Blues or Tales of New Reno (or really any major, semi-popular FNV quest/area expansion mod)
Thanks for this. I started playing FO3 with a bunch of mods installed 10 years ago. I'd play it a bit, put it down for a few years, and then continue my game. The desktop PC is old now and I want to get rid of it, but I don't think my modded FO3 will transfer over from Windows 7 to Windows 11 without something going wrong, so I am determined to finish my game now. I looked in my quest log and I have three quests: one is obviously Brotherhood of Steel, one is Point Lookout and one was a mystery - "She Runs on Motivation". So I Googled it, and vaguely remembered the mod "Alton, IL", but I couldn't remember anything about it. Anyway, watching this video has helped me a lot because I can safely skip Alton and just do the other two. I have 450 hours in this playthrough and I've done almost everything including some quest mods, but now I want to do Point Lookout and finish the main quest.
This is impressive, even with the issues and weaknesses.
Have you ever played "Into the Ark"? for Fallout 3? It's also got weaknesses, but I genuinely enjoyed it.
Cobbler has sent me to view your video. You're welcome for this unique and original comment that noone else has made (haven't checked but I imagine I'm right)
Was getting worried we weren’t gonna hear from you again!
Just a busy school month. I'm not going anywhere :)
@@ramblelime nah understandable, just love this series. Having run through a lot of these mods myself it’s cool to see a series like this.
I imagine we have different takes on the likes of the Frontier, but I’m really interested to see an actual analysis of the mod that comes after the whole shitstorm.
I remember playing Alton a few years ago, not sure if I ever finished it as I think the voice acting grated on me.
So, as to why the plague doctor outfit is used by "The Plague" is because the plague doctors might try to cure people and their suits are protective... But their suits did carry the plague on them and they would spread the plague by accident while trying to cure it instead.
So weird seeing my home as a fallout 3 mod
We have a neat little River town but most of our big history is well in the past.
But it is a neat town
We even have our own cryptid the Piasa Bird
i’ve always wondered where the story of the piasa bird came from. i personally don’t believe that there was really a human faced dragon bird thing that lived in our caves but i want to know where and how that was thought up ya know
@@kaiokenconnostories told by natives to keep people away from the cliffs and the river. It was also said the Mississippi River was bottomless and that the Piasa bird was cast away into it.
Glad to see someone critiquing the work instead of mindlessly mopping the kid off for slapping the mod together solo
I know this video is bit old, but if we're talking about DLC sized mods for Fallout 3 that were mediocre, overly ambitious messes, the Mothership Zeta Crew mod comes to mind. I forget it's exact story, but the premise was the Enclave had captured one of the crashed Zetan warships and began exploring space. It even spawned a sequel mod that found it's way to New Vegas. I hope I'm not the only one that remembers it, it was super divisive in the community at the time.
Nice touch of the background music I like it
Thanks
Would you ever consider doing videos for cube experimental or return to shady sands?
mr pogchamp with the amazing legal editing!!!!!!
Shows that 3 was liked by the players and hating on the game is a new thing
While you are right about the 76 map, the map design itself, while exploring, is probably one of the series best. It's just really well designed, imo.
Fuckup 76's map is lame.
I love this video
Could you possibly do the mothership zeta crew next ?
You should make a review of another major Fallout 3 total conversion mod called Fallout New York, it's... Also similar to this mod in terms of quality but still better, more quests, story makes more sense etc
0:20 WRONG! FALLOUT 3 IS AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE & THE BEST FALLOUT GAME EVER!
Bro. It was awesome when it was the only 1st person Fallout but after New Vegas, 3 is good, not great.
This mod makes you FEEL like Alton Illinois. Gotta love vice city amirite fellas?
So true bestie
He made a second mod called Washingtons Malevolence which is supposed to be way better
That Ratatouille Snyder Cut joke got me, you earned a sub. Will you do Washington's Malevolence and Zeta Crew (still pissed what happened to it) next since they are the only other BIG mods for 3?
Never heard of them but i'll check em out fo sho
He’s literally just going to say they are bad by sin of being connected to fallout 3
@@questioneverything6667 not surprised the ancap is strawmanning me LMAO
@@ramblelime you literally said in this video at the beginning “yeah I agree with these videos that says fallout 3 isn’t good.”
@@questioneverything6667 yeah i think fallout 3 has problems, but i also mention in the video that I like point lookout, so saying that i hate everything remotely associated with fallout 3 is a gross misrepresentation. I think you just want to find something to be mad at my guy
I remember this! I haven't found anything on this in years!
This is so strange given that I live in this area. Not sure exactly what areas it's supposed to be looking at any given location though, especially since there's no literal underground railroad (aka subway), but the historical underground railroad was pretty involved there. It's super close to St.Louis rather than Chicago by the way.
My head cannon for the reason the underground rail road calls them selves that but isn't anything like the on from our world is that they say mention of the underground rail road and figure the literal rail roads under ground are what they are referencing
man I couldn't remember which mod it was but i've played this for sure
Your criticisms of the mod are reasonable and fair, but the people in the comments section are being unnecessarily hostile and rude. It was made by a literal kid ten years ago. People need to give him a break.
You said you're going to review a few other mods, i hope dust is one of them, its a really cool premise, it'll be cool to see someone talk about it.
Dust is 100% on my radar
@@ramblelime sweet!
they should've just made ur character an outcast defender. also the brotherhood being in illinois kinda makes sense bc im pretty sure the brotherhood was in chicago for fallout tactics
LETS HOOO ANOTHER VIDEO BABBYYYYY
I only clicked on this because ive lived in like 20 different cities in Illinois and never heard of Alton. I'm guessing its down south..
*Holy shit i called it, its at the very southern tip of Illinois, about 5 hour drive from Chicago, near St Louis Missouri. ❤
Honestly I enjoyed the Mods story. Nothing fantastic but maybe I was just happy to get something that gave me a choice after playing through fo3's main story again
I wanna know who made this mod. I was going to the Alton IL highschool when this came out.
Alright ramblelime I have binged all of your videos. Now can you please upload about 20 more so I don't go into withdraw?
Right away, sir yes sir!
I like everything about the alton Illinois mod
Well it's second most endorsed mod in the New Lands and Locations category of Nexus Mods - there's a few others that look worth checking out like the Mothership Zeta crew mod and I think there was a mod where you do the MQ but from the perspective of the Enclave. Besides a few here and there in that category, there aren't many decent ones in Quests and Adventures category either. Is it really that bad? For years I've been waiting to find the time to sit down and play through some awesome mods and I was always under the impression there were a bunch that would increase my playtime by 1000+ hours even but the reality is the opposite? There's like maybe ten and everything else is rubbish or unfinished, alpha/beta stuff. Please tell me I'm missing something. It's the same with NV tbf. 99% of mods are armor/weapons mods, body mods and UI or some junk. I'm mostly interested in quest mods, new factions and lands to explore.
did you find any good ones?
Bit late but what quest mods for New Vegas that add new lands have you already played or seen btw I might be able to recommend some you have not played yet
@@olliered9924 Never got round to playing any because while getting greedy with mods, my LOD textures messed up and I haven't been bothered to start all over again lol. The frontier is the one that stands out the most to me so far. I love the Enclave so if you know any good mods involving joining them I'm all ears. Caesars Legion reborn I think it was called... Lots of stuff; companion, lots of dialogue, new look... Not too interested in the more exotic mods that dont fit the lore unless I'm roleplaying a chem addicg maybe lol. I really need to get round to playing it again. 😆
@@H_Grunt If you like the Enclave I would recommend checking out For the Enclave mod, Also apparently there is an Enclave route in Fallout New California which is a massive mod like the Frontier never played either so I can't tell you much about it. And Caeser's new regime Is the mod you are talking about I think I would recommend using Factions Reloaded Legion and Living Desert with that too. Or instead of Caesar's new regime check out We are legion mod it's basically a lore-friendly overhaul of legion armour and characters. It gives them a more intimidating appearance and seem like a more legitimate power in the wasteland. I'm assuming you really like the legion and if you want a good Legion companion, look up Vulpes Inculta mod there is also a Arizona mod called Arizona redux its not fully complete yet but have a look at the description of mod it looks very interesting might be worth waiting till its fully completed before trying it. Some other quest mods I recommend are Havasu Blues,Salt lake stories,Beyond boulder dome,Cabot's quests,Race to the bottom,Autumn leaves,REPCONN blues,The blue note and have look at Th3Overseer and Someguy2000 quest mods their quest mods are very highly rated and regarded as some of the best quest mods for fnv although lore wise if you are doing a Legion playthrough some of their quest mods might not be the best since I know at least one of them has you fighting legion at one point
@@H_Grunt Also I saw you said you searched most endorsed New lands and Adventures on nexus mods try searching most endorsed Quests and Adventures instead on nexus mods :) EDIT: Nvm ignore this somehow I missed that you said you looked in quests and adventures too lol 🤣
Daddy cobbler left me here but he's just going out for cigarettes...
''A Fallout 3 mod by Elijah Houck''
Well isnt that a coinkydink?
Fallout 3 made the series atleast mainstream elevating the former 2 in relevance
the problem is most that get into the series through either 3 or 4 look own on 1 and 2 as out dated. or they call new vegas overrated and not a true fallout game.
@@megamike15 1 and 2 ARE outdated. I really want to see a remaster of both that brings them to at least the same visual/UI level as ATOM RPG.
@@LasherTimora They work fine as is, personally. Sure, I guess some mechanics in them aren't up to date, but nothing as bad as having to heavily grind in older JRPGs to progress.
@@peppermillers8361 The mechanics are fine, I agree. The UI is not, not for me at least.
@@LasherTimora the UI can be a bit clunky, but nothing you can't get used to in your first playthrough.
"Hi, I'm Gay NPC Michael Douglas."
Dude, I keep reading it as Afton IL
came here from DJ Peach Cobbler's recommendation. You got anyone to recommend yourself? I don't know what this genre of TH-camr is called (Video Analysts/Essayists) but it feels like finding treasure, and I want some more.
Excellent video btw, especially on a subject nobodie's talked about. 2 thumbs way the fuck up my asshole
No idea as far as people my size, but i've personally got a lot of inspiration from jacob geller, joseph anderson, and noah caldwell-gervais. Check them out if you haven't already!
@@ramblelimeI've never heard of Noah, thanks I'll check him out
To be fair, the world is after a nuclear war, information could be distorted (I doubt the mod dev thought of that, but it could explain it).
this is on the new vegas nexus for those who run ttw instead of fallout 3 :)
Do you have a list of all the mods your doing?
Also what about terran starship command?
There wasn't much discussion on what was good about the mod
well....
When u beat the mod can u walk back & shoot stuf in Alton?
I'll watch anything about a game with my town in it
I think reusing historical names like the underground railroad but having no connection to the meaning would be fine if the story itself explained that the original context is lost or who ignored it.
in his defense, most game designers now days don't know game design.
Name one AAA game that came out recently that wasn't a disappointment.
4:09
Haha!
Chill, dude
(I did laugh though, so good job)
Here from dj peach cobbler.
Same
Fallout 3 was my first fallout game. Ill put it 4 on my list of favorites. 4 at the bottom. We dont talk about 76.
I know no one will see this, I saw the title and got legitimately scared cause wasn’t expecting a mod in a town with 35 miles of my house.
This is literally me when joe cobbler
You should review Killap’s patch.
Specifically Restoration project or just the patch? if you mean RestoProj, it's Fallout 2 that's better patched, and the new content is neat for the most part (with some that are a like it or hate it deal).
I do remember seeing a mod called fallout zero for fo3 but I don't remember if it was a tc or If it was even finished
it wasn't finished, and the creator moved on from it to work on Fallout: The Story (Fallout 1 remake in NV)...which also died.
The fact that a high schooler made a large mod is so incredibly impressive.
Wait u got 20 more mods to review. What are they?
New vegas bounties 1,2,3, the inheritance, autumn leaves, new california, frontier, DUST, beyond boulder dome, deimos, the overseer's mods, ... i'm probably forgetting a few. New vegas has a lot of noteworthy quest mods, and there are several mods for fallout 2 and fallout 4 still in development/translation that i plan to cover when they're out (or out in english)
@@ramblelime holy jesus that's alot I salute u sir
@@ramblelime Heh, someguy2k quest mods, eh? I'm expecting "lots of swearing that's for sure" but hey, that's Fallout baby!! even classic Fallout swear a lot
@@ramblelime
*Sees Dust on the list*
“N-no not again I’m not strong enough for this.”
I played this on og fallout 3, it ran like shit in my hp dv4000 , I loved it, it was one of the reasons I started modding every game I played on PC.
It really isn't that great indeed as a narrative mod, but the map was great and for a starved teen for more postapoc content back in 2009, it was enough.
To this day I keep Alton in my load order even in a TTW install. I play it when I'm brain dead and I just want to see quest makers and xp go up.
I hav seen much of the Alton ill level it looks great
Neat
ya know its wild when people say new vegas is the more stable of the 2 games cuz i first played them both on ps3. never finished new vegas due to a memory leak issue where instead of overwriting saves it just made a new one and causing it to crash constantly after saving so many times and getting so far. i was trying to do the hoover dam with 2 fps and it crashed everytime i hit the welcome center it was literally unfinishable on ps3(i also beat big MT with 2 fps whenever i was outside a building) and no deleting saves from the hard drive didnt work at all i tried that. it gave me a bug of all the ncr being hostile to me in my current save even with max good affinity with them and wearing ncr armor. fallout 3 on the other hand (my first fallout game) i beat almost a dozen times before broken steel came out without issues and it wasnt until i got to the ghoul president tunnels to get to the final mission did it start crashing on me and then infect all my other saves. i know a lot of 3rd party publishers had issues with the ps3 and its much easier to play them on pc (which i do now) and new vegas is now my favorite fallout game but the juxaposition of my memories with how much a mess new vegas was and how when fallout 3 started acting the same way i thought new vegas somehow infected my fallout 3 game. yes i was a teenager when it happened but i had no actual reason other than that why it suddenly stopped working after almost 100% the game with the extended ending fter 100% it repeatedly before hand. i never beat fallout 3 with broken steel since its so unstable on pc when i could just play a barely held together with spit and prayer overly modded version of new vegas instead.