Before New Vegas was released, ED-E was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. Obsidian played him up to be the only connection to the Capital Wasteland this game had, and not only was he from there, but he contained information on it. Oh wow, I thought, what could this information be? Will Obsidian be using it to let us know what has happened to the Capital Wasteland between the end of Fallout 3 and the beginning of New Vegas? That was really the only logical assumption, and so the very first thing I did in New Vegas was head to Primm and find him.

And do you know what information he contained? No? Neither do I. Because we aren't told what data the Followers or the Brotherhood got from him. The only things, and I repeat, the only things ED-E's existence added to Fallout's lore was that:

1. The development of Hellfire armor was referenced, so Broken Steel is pretty much confirmed to be canon
2. There are Enclave in Chicago
3. Navarro and the DC Wasteland communicated with each other.

But that's it.

Really, Obsidian, really? I'm honestly wondering if ED-E was some king of sick, sick joke that Obsidian decided to play on Fallout 3 fans. "Hey guys, lets add a character from the Capital Wasteland, that doesn't actually tell the player anything new about the Capital Wasteland! It'll be so funny!" Because other than some sort of sick joke I can't understand why Obsidian would hype ED-E up as the only link to the East coast, only to not actually tell us anything about the East coast.

I don't normally rant like this but Obsidian really pissed me off with this. Does anyone feel the same?

I wasn't following anything about ED-E before release, nor have I completed it's quest line, so I didn't exactly have any expectations. But I can definitely feel your frustration. This has turned me off from finishing it's quest, TBH.

It's only 3 years after then end of fallout 3, it is likely that ED-E was sent out before the events of Fallout 3 took place. Getting past the Radioactive twisters in the Midwest would probably take some time:)

It's been 4 years, it really wouldn't have been hard to believe he was sent at least 2, even 3, years after Broken Steel. Not saying he was, but it wouldn't have been hard to believe if he was.

Obsidian hyped up ED-E?

Thats new to me, but I can understand why you are angry, maybe becuase people would use that in their argument that FNV is just an F3 expansion.

I hadn't even heard of ED-E until I found him in the game, so there was nothing to be disappointed about. Sometimes there is a benefit to deliberately avoiding pre-game hype.

Well it wasn't a huge amount of hyping, however in that blog post a while back detailing all the companions, it was revealed he was from the East and carrying "important information." Plus, in one of the Bethesda podcasts they mentioned he was the only link to the East in the game. And there was the fact he was shown in the first real trailer to be coming from the Capital Wasteland due to his Roosevelt Academy bumper sticker. That's enough for someone to assume he actually does carry important information from the east.

I don't even think I was setting myself up for disappointment with the expectations I had, either. It seemed only logical we would learn new, apparently "important" information about the Capital Wasteland.

I can see how someone wouldn't be disappointed if they didn't know about him before New Vegas, but to someone that did, this feels like a really messed up trick.

ED-E dissapointed me no more than several other things in this game, anti-climix moments appear to pop up often, generally the game is good, but there are times when you've gone through a convoluted process to complete a quest and the outcome has been less than the effort was worth.

And now you know how a lot of us felt about Fallout 3

I don't know. ED-E was hyped up abit by being in the first trailer and all. I really thought he had a lot more importance than he did.
I guess the biggest letdown for me, was the lack of difference in which faction you turn him in to. I was hoping for something like crazy overpowered BoS'ers now patrolling the wasteland if they got him and the equivalent for Followers. But sadly, nothing changes.

It only takes a few weeks walking from coast to coast. It has been 4 years since the end of Fallout 3. And clearly from the trailer, he was traveling much faster then a person could walk, and he wouldnt need to stop for bathroom breaks or rest. At most, including detours, I con only seeing the trip taking maybe a month or 2.

Even if you think that , his info states he is 6 years old, and went to Navarro Base first. FO3 was 3 years before NV, so that means he likely has a lot of Enclave data but nothing about the events of fallout 3 anyway.

I still think it would take a good while to cross the wastes for a lone floating robot.

Fallout 3 was 4 years before New Vegas (as I already said), and no, he didn't go to Navarro first. He was headed to Navarro, but was shot down in the Mohave. He's 6 years old, and if he left even a year after the events of Fallout 3 when he was 3 years old, getting to the Mohave Wasteland in 3 years would have been no problem. After all, we have no idea how long he was sitting broken in Primm.

Fallout 3 ended in 2278, NV Starts in 2281. 1,2,3. That's 3 years.

Sources:

Fallout: New Vegas takes place during the year 2281, 3 years after the estimated end of Fallout 3, and 204 years after the Great War of 2077,[/]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas


Fallout: New Vegas takes place in 2281, three years after the events of Fallout 3, and thirty-nine years after Fallout 2, making this installment set the furthest of the series.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas

I trust those sources more then your 4 years you pulled out of the air.

I still think the whole thing about ED-E is to give you a tiny tie in to FO3 (Like Harold was in FO3 a tie in to the cannon universe). But not to tell you"After you saved the daddy figure the super cool good guy superhero BoS gave water to the people of the wastes, and we all lived happily ever after"

It's a little easter egg, that's all.

2277
+4
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2281

Fallout 3 ending in 2278 is only http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline#2278. We know the game began August 17, then Broken Steel added 2 weeks to that, so at the very minimum it ended in September 2277. Not quite 2278.

And since you trust wikis so much, http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_FAQ#When_is_Fallout:_New_Vegas_set.3F_How_long_after_the_previous_games.3F from the same wiki you quoted backing me up.

K, I still say 3. But whatever. It does not matter. (how much did point lookout add? How long were you in stasis orbiting earth in the ooo scary spaceship? mid 2278 is more likely then 2277 )


It's still an ester egg. Get over it. It's not there to continue FO:3 story, it is there to make you smirk and say oh cool they included that neat.

This is not an easter egg, it's an incredibly poorly written backstory for a companion. If it truly was an easter egg, Obsidian would have never mentioned where he was from, as developers, if you haven't noticed, don't tell players about easter eggs.

Fact is if Obsidian never claimed ED-E to be something he's not, I wouldn't be disappointed. But they did, and saying "Oh it's just an easter egg" is no excuse.

Well taking into account that he was sent from Adam's Air Force base, where you kinda kill pretty much anything enclave and then the BOS claim the base as their own. I think that pretty much means that ED-E must have been sent before the end of fallout 3. It's stated that his internal positioning hardware is badly damaged so that's why he's so far away from Navarro.

I never claimed he wasn't sent before the end of Fallout 3, obviously he was. I'm trying to say that it would have been perfectly believable if his story was different and he was sent after the end.

I only listened to 2 of the recordings before turning him in, are there more recordings? How many? Do they reveal any additional details?

This wouldn't be the first time they've had issues with timelines in the Fallout series. Point Lookout in RL is about 80 or so miles south of DC - a person could easily walk there in three days, and could cut that down to a day and half or so if he/she really wanted and could do it non-stop. Yet it takes a month of game time to get there via the ferry boat in FO3.

I'm going with the belief that we have not gotten everything yet, it maybe wishful thinking. I was under the impression that there would be more info as well, but maybe it will be so pivotal that we will have to pay for it (via DLC).