Triptych: Nuclear Wasteland

"Fallout 3: Vault 101" by Julio Juarez

"Keep Calm and Drink Nuka" (t-shirt) by Kiji

"Enjoy Vault Life" by MarkuzR

Triptych: Ring-a-Ding-Ding!

"Minimalist Fallout Poster" by Stuntman Kamil

"Megaton Deathclaws" by Adho1982

"Fallout" by Balvarin

I'm deeply amused that a post-apocalyptic shantytown like Megaton would have a sports team (I mean, what the hell are they playing? Keep-From-Starving-Long-Enough-To-Kick-A-Ball?) and even more amused that they would name themselves after, admittedly, the most bad-ass creature in the entire wasteland.

Also, I'm mainly posting Balvarin's image because it captures the exact moment I am at in Fallout: New Vegas - Arcade Gannon's been following me around for a bit, and I just managed to "borrow" Rex from The King. When I played through Fallout 3 I basically avoided acquiring any companions, because they tended to run ahead and get themselves killed by monsters that required a more strategic approach. This time around, companions just seem to be glomming onto me, and while I was exasperated at first, I'm coming to realise that they completely change the tone of combat in the game, and usually for the better at that. Case in point: I ran around the Nevada Desert for HOURS before I paired up with Arcade and Rex, and every single time I stumbled across a nest of Cazadors, I got my ass handed to me. I started to hate the hell out of those little bastards and their poisonous stingers.

Fast-forward to now, with Arcade and Rex in tow. I'm slogging along and suddenly I hear the sickening, rapidly-approaching sound of buzzing. Before I can even react, Arcade and Rex have leapt into action and are tearing the Cazadors into tiny, bite-sized chunks, while I sit back, fumbling with my All-American. AND I'M GETTING ALL THE XP. Not a ton of XP, mind you, but holy ammo conservation, Batman.

All of this to say that I'm digging my little crew of Wasteland wanderers, and Balvarin's illustration feels like it has particularly personal - or at least satisfyingly synchronicitous - meaning. And also to say that you should be playing Fallout: New Vegas, because it's flippin' phenomenal.

Showcase: The Minus-World's Box Art Demakes

The Minus-World website is now sadly defunct, but in their heyday they were sort of an Onion for the gamer set. They had some genuinely talented and hilarious writers and artists at their disposal and could have had a significant impact on the videogame blog scene if they'd stuck around a little longer. To my chagrin, I discovered them about a week before they went down for good; subsequently, I spent months trying to track down the above series (which I had browsed through just the once) until I finally found an archival Minus-World post somewhere on the internets. I know this sort of thing tends to get done a lot these days, but if Minus-World weren't the first to pixelate Sackboy and Isaac Clarke, they were at least one of the best.