Yet another long day in Fallout 3:

I don’t feel up to writing out a detailed recount, so the highlights are:

– Entering the Museum of Technology and just finding some minor loot.
– Finally getting to the National Archives, where a woman named Sydney helped me fight my way down to a robot who thought he was some historical politician.
– Convincing the robot that I was Thomas Jefferson in order to get the Declaration of Independence.
– Making a nifty railway spike gun that makes train noises.
– Getting rid of the fire ants in Greyditch, helping out the nerdiest NPC ever along the way.
– Discovering a pair of “naughty underwear” in a box and having someone immediately burst into the room demanding it back.
– Finding a friendly super mutant named Uncle Leo.
– Brokering a deal between the ghouls and the residents of Tenpenny Tower, only to come back later and see that it…didn’t go so well.
– Heading back to Vault 112, doing the Tranquility Lane simulation, and finally finding my dad. Main quest continues at the purification plant, but it’s on hold for now.
– Finally getting to the GNR radio building and fixing the radio dish for them, having to go back to the museum.
– Wandering a bit and finding some more spots like the Chryslus and Bethesda buildings and the Natural History Museum.

And I made it all the way through some raider stronghold in the NW only to find that I get an instant “Dogmeat died” message as soon as I load the autosave or quicksave I’d been using, so I had to revert back to my last full save and will have to redo the entire stronghold. Ugh.