There ' s definitely a vocal group of fans of the old fallout games that didn ' t like the change in direction . No Mutants Allowed is their usual stomping grounds . The Capitol Wasteland in Fallout 3 is strangely underdeveloped , IIRC the date the game is set in was originally supposed to be much closer to when the bombs dropped . I think they tried to make up for the lack of civilisation a bit with The Pitt though . The Commonwealth of Fallout 4 is underdeveloped because the Institute was using it as a testing ground . Unleashing Super Mutants on the city and roving bands of murderous Synths can ' t have helped . The attempt to establish a government in the region fell apart as well , and the Institute was involved there too . I think there ' s decent justification given for why the Commonwealth is in a worse state than a lot of the West Coast . Ultimately though , the earlier games and NV are much better example of the postpost apocalyptic genre . Especially with the NCR .