Beyond Boulder Dome | Analysis and Review 

You single handedly made those creatures funny by giving them the air of "That kid in high school with his gollum impression"

I really like the chimp being such an outlandish twist because it really feels fallout style outlandish which helped sell the story in the world a bit

Those mutant fucker were originally an enemy envisioned for the original Fallout 3, Van Buren, and were planned to dwell in the floor level of the Great Canyon.

The cannibal guys with the big heads were Van Buren content as well. Honestly Van Buren lore is something that I'm surprised you don't see utilized by modders more often, BBD is the only project I recall taking anything from the Van Buren design document at all.

I liked how the first Chinese ghoul sounded like Kahn Souphanousinphone from King of the Hill.

I think Deadpan is a great companion, you can take him to the Mojave and he will have a lot of (often correct) things to say about the factions you side with and the events happening in the main game. Also you can recruit the cat in one of the starting areas if you already have Deadpan in the party, which you can then 'upgrade' after the mod ends.

I appreciate you talking about the mod's place in history as one the early experiments in "dlc style" mods, I think BBD gets overlooked a lot when talking about the evolution of Bethesda mods! New world space mods for Beth games for awhile were mostly just linear and tried to make an illusion of being in a larger area (Dog City Denver, Moonpath To Elsweyr, BBD.), with only a few actually being a true "dlc style" explorable space (Alton Il.). Soon after this mod, true "dlc style" mods started appearing (Wyrmstooth, Faalskar, etc.). BBD is sort of a missing link between these two styles of world space mods. The Tamriel Rebuilt project for Morrowind was uniquely ahead of it's time, probably being the first actual in-style world space project, but it took years later for the same type of mod to start getting worked on for the other games. ____ I don't really like this mod all that much, a lot of my problems with it you brought up in the video (Racist intro, bad writing, predictable character names, etc.), the thing that most annoys about the mod though is that it's environment design and world of Boulder City looks nothing like the real life Boulder, Co. Vegas has a great world space because it actually tries to mirror real life Las Vegas, Boulder doesn't really share any identifiable traits with Boulder, Co and I think that's a major fault a lot of mods at this time and for years later would have. No one really took effort to study the real locations and at best would make vague approximations or just completely make something out of fantasy. Making mods off style in design and writing with the main game of Vegas is a problem that still persists today actually.

Quality of this mod is rather poor with few exceptions. It has terrble start with ghouls, weak main plot line, enemies with too much HP, but I liked Kate and Deadpan and ghoul city was fun.

Man, I am digging these mod reviews. I love mods and I love Fallout. So seeing them analyzed like art is really exciting in a way. Especially with the added history and context behind them to help explain why some of them are the way they are, and why they may be significant to the community.

Having been slightly obsessed with the Van Buren design documents, I remember being really hyped for Beyond Boulder Dome before its release, and thoroughly disappointed after.

the voice acting sounds like it is from freaking south park!

I'm asian and even I like speaking in broken chinglish

2012 feeling like an entirely different culture landscape triggers the Matt Damon aging gif in me.

Thank you for reviewing this! I have this ready to go in my TTW load order and I'll probably drop it after I'm done watching this video.

Am I the only one who gets the Chinese Vs Americans fighting a pointless war between each other in a canyon, as a Red Vs Blue reference?

this pretty much how boulder is irl so this mod is pretty accurate

That Chinese voice acting 😂 holy shit

Love that people are still playing this. I had a lot of fun working on it.

I'm so happy I found your channel, these in-depth mod reviews are gold

Only memories I have with this mod was watching Alchestbreach's playthrough on my phone during a weekend in LA with my family. That was a good vacation. Als looking forward to The Frontier video. Especially considering the recent developments that all but spell the end for the "rewrite" the team wanted to do.

I remember playing this mod years back, probably within a year of its release. I got to the Chinese and American ghoul part and was confused to if I was playing the right mod, I looked up a walkthrough to be sure. I remember getting to the end of the ghoul factory and just not knowing what the fuck was going on and nearly putting the mod down. I should have because in my opinion the rest of the mod was not worth it at all. I was a lot younger when I played this mod and had a muddy understanding of it and what actually happened in it. I guess I was hoping that your video would prove my memories wrong, but all it did was dig out my specific reasons for not liking the mod.

I need a lot more of this level of content it’s amazing! More content pls it legit is something i could binge all the time.

I did some thinking about this mod. If it had to be remade, what I would do at the helm. 1. Change the Opening. If there is gonna be Chinese Ghouls, there's gonna be Chinese Ghouls. But they won't be in active war with American Ghouls. Maybe everyone bar one were killed, and the only survivor assists in pushing your through the gauntlet. Replace all interaction with them yelling "get out" in Mandarin. And why they are there? It's Colorado, lets say they were from a POW Camp/Interrogation Facility in Colorado Springs, near Cheyenne Mountain. And for plot relevance? Well, the Brotherhood would need someone capable. Going through a gauntlet of Ghouls seems capable enough for a test. 2. Brotherhood. The Western Chapters aren't so altruistic. But... lets say for instance, they were transporting and disposing a bioweapon. There was an accident. It got out, people got infected. The Brotherhood have a mission to take Old World tech to protect humanity *from itself*. If they caused this incident, they must fix it. This gives them motive to cure Seltsam Syndrome. And instead of having Leader Betrayal betray you, have him be genuine. Instead, he gets mutinied by his Number 2. Seltsam Syndrome gives them a great incentive to get into the Boulder Dome. But a Pragmatist would see that the Seltsam Syndrome gives them opportunity, The Legion cannot get through the infected, which grants the Brotherhood time to catalogue all the technology, and bail. Maybe they'll cure the disease. After they finish. The Mission comes first. 3. Did I say Legion? That leads me into point 3, replace the NCR with The Legion. It's Colorado. They are in the area. The NCR wouldn't perform such a heartless Scorch The Earth campaign. The Legion *would*. With great justification. When a wound becomes infected it becomes gangrenous, and to save the patient, you have to amputate. The Legion, medieval as they are, would use Amputation quite liberally. In this case, killing the infected, and burning the bodies, so it won't infect The Legion and the greater wastes. They are doing us a favour. More compelling, wouldn't you agree? 4. Give Companions more... anything. Commentary, involvement. Make them more than Damsels in Distress. 5. Where are all the infected? Where are the Towns under quarantine? Medical Tents? Infected Berserkers? Something lively, to show the presence of death. 6. Keep the Boulder Dome experiments as is, it is utterly perfect. Monke. 7. Have the Ghoul Doctor more integral to the story. This is just from two instances of me thinking on the toilet. If I sit there more, who knows what else I can come up with?

The reason your game was crashing so often is due to NVAC. After having it in countless mod packs I have found that it causes more problems than solutions. Remove it and you will crash less

All that was missing from the Chinese ghoul lines was "Me so solly! Me eat flied lice!"

Ramble, please review/discuss the Fallout New Vegas mod "Race To The Bottom" it is a quest mod that recently came out for New Vegas and it is of really good quality.

Just found your channel thanks to the Fallout: Dust review, and I hope you keep growing, you´re doing awesome content, keep up mate!

3:22 peak 2012 humor 😂 it really was a different time back then

Wake up babe new ramblelime video

They have the monkey I like this mod by default. Apes together strong

Just finished this mod, sided with the BoS since I'm a big sucker for em. The ending twist for em though was a huge slap in the face, didn't make any fucking sense at all. Especially since I was under the assumption, especially due to the dialogue options, that I was working with him voluntarily. He wants the fucking dome, sure fine man I agree have the dome, then he fucking just decides to go comically evil for no reason. Was really hoping to see the Brotherhood actually take over the dome too. Up until that point I thought the mod was damn good, well good enough for a decade old mod.

You deserve way more subs man, good video quality, great mic quality, pls don't give up😍

Thank you for taking the time to mention the crashes you were getting with the mod, and the time intervals it occurred. I thought it was either another mod confliction or it was my computer having fits. I had tried reinstalling my game and tried a different mod loadout (surprise, still with Beyond Boulder Dome), but now that I know it does that I'm steering clear completely.

That NCR death squad armor is one of my all time favorites, I put that on almost all my Couriers.

I like the voice acting, has a lot of heart put into it

Cant believe Deadpan is actually the author of Fallout: Equestria

captain despot, faithfully serving president tyrant

It's really nice to see someone go over quest mods objectively. I get that they're hard to make but it seems like a lot of people are afraid to say anything negative about them sometimes. I had no idea how rough boulder dome was after hearing it hyped up for years. And again for fallout 4 people saying the america rising mod is better than the base game which is absolutely absurd. 4 has its issues but it at least has themes and characters and something to say

A Fallout: Equestria reference once more? We're getting there, bois! But seriously, the video was real good! BBD was one of my favorite mods when I first played it, but upon playing other DLC sized mods, I can truthfully say that BBD hasn't aged well Nevertheless, I still find the mod intriguing and fun to play with SOME content sped through. BBD was the grandfather of DLC mods and we should respect that for what it achieved -- be it frustrating or not Who knows; maybe someday we'll get a remake of BBD with more content and stability!

The opening section with the pre-War ghoul soldiers doesn't pertain to the rest of the mod and could've safely been left out, but it's my second favorite aspect of the mod (the first is the concept of the NCR death squad troops). Within the logic of the _Fallout_ universe, I can totally see ghoulified pre-War American soldiers and ghoulified pre-War Chinese soldiers fighting each other even after 200+ years. It could've been better written for the mod (or, like I said, not included at all), but as a standalone side quest, it's entertaining. The voice acting is hilarious.

21:21 I’m so happy you went full “A P E - M O D E”.

Great job! Love your work

It's easy to defend, its a mod they dont have many options when it comes to voice acting

I recently played it with a huge ass load order, I only crashed in one section of the game, I just used movetoqt to avoid it, and game run smoothly

i had crashes a lot for FNC but i found i was running NVSR which i think (it's been a while) has been replaced by many other stability mods the rest of FNC went fine with no hitches

You seem to be forgetting that fallout canonically have remnant soldiers strewn across the wastes, and that they were also given funny accents.

its worth noting this was effectively the only game in town in the DLC sized mod niche when it came out and im intensely nostalgic for it for that reason but yeah it dont hold up so good.

Damn. Nice dig on the Frontier at the end there

Doctor Fabler is THE voice ever

18:04 Wait if new plague "never made the cut" then why and where was it mentioned?

do you play with fixes for mods?

Kinda convenient that the player gets cured of this new disease that is supposed to be devastating and really gives no reason for the player to care if they get immunity from the disease straight away

Does that ending mean you're gonna tackle the frontier ?

Damn completely forgot this mod existed *adds to list of things to not play and review*

I tried this mod once upon a time. Not sure if I genuinely got lost or if the game bugged out, but I got to a point where no matter what I did, I could not progress. I also could not return to the Mojave, so I ended up scrapping that save - and the mod - and never looked back. It was okay when I played it. But as someone who actually enjoys playing without compass / map / waypoints, this game was not very easy to navigate.

Are you planning a video on cube experimental by sure ai

ur videos are awesome man

Instead of just killing everyone for no reason i feel like the ncr could still have that goal, but they only do that because they don't see any other option, and since they're basically at war with the brotherhood, they don't talk to them and they don't care to, leaving the possibility of curing it as well since they don't have any trained scientists on standby

This just makes me want to mod, I have loads of ideas but I dont even own a PC so my only good fallout experience is new vegas on 360 and the DLCs lol

I look forward to seeing this mod in a future mikeburnfire series tbh.

I'd agree with you on the offensiveness of the accents in the opening section of the mod if it weren't for the fact that the _entire situation_ was clearly written to be absurd, and that the racism it contains goes both ways. Yes, the Chinese remnants are depicted as stereotypes, but so are the Americans. The idea of a stupid, racist 1950s White-American that doesn't understand foreigners is in itself a racist stereotype. It's a caricature of the anti-Communist, post Red Scare culture of the early Cold War era. It's also accurate to what talking to a soldier from Fallout's prewar era might be like, just dialed up a little. The anti-Communist and anti-Chinese sentiments that permeated throughout American culture before the bombs fell is well established. General Chase from Fallout 3 is a good example of the kind of stereotype that the general in this mod exaggerates. Really, the problem with the voice acting is not that it's offensive, it's that it's offensive *and* not funny. South Park plays with stereotypes all the time, and it gets away with it because it's funny and it's not coming from a place of hate. Comedians have built entire careers out of humor that could easily be deemed offensive, but they get away with it because their bits are funny and obviously satire. The reason it doesn't work here is simple. There's no real joke and therefore no point. The accents themselves are meant to be the joke, but unlike South Park, nothing clever is done with them. There is no _'shitty wall'._ Just bad writing and terrible microphone quality, which undermines any potential humor. Racist humor can be done, but it has to done right, or else people will just think that the person telling the joke is racist.

just found your channel, i love the vids + ur voice is cute!

Its so interesting seeing the ambition of a mod like this from all the way back in 2012, as kinda bad as parts of it are I'm honestly pretty proud of the mod authors. Good on them.

This was supposed to crash lol? I have so many mods on a cheap laptop and I’ve only experience one crash and it was while doing the someguy series

Nice video! Have you considered covering Salt Lake Stories? It’s a really well made mod imo

I had no idea there was channels like this reviewing quest mods other than new releases

Oh my god, all the Chinese ghouls are Mick Rooney.

So theyre just the midwestern brotherhood of steel from tactics. they helped the tribes and towns but only if they gave them like 10 able bodied citizens a yr to be recruits and also gave them a steady supply of food and water.

First Mod I ever played in Fallout New Vegas. And is still part of my Mod load out. One of the biggest bug was the Dome. There was game breaking bug which I was never able to figure out. Had to use prompts to move or get out of the area. And I played with pretty stacked mods. With little or bordering on stability.

I don't remember what happens at NCR ending. Does captain turn on you and try to kill you? I remember the elder's betrayal only.

I was that kid in the 5th grade who insisted on everyone hearing my golem impression

But does Guile's theme go with this?

i was tempted to add this to my modpack but i decided against it looks fun now tho

The second example sounds EXACTLY like those badly dubbed Godzilla movies

Those offensive accents capture fallout aesthetic

That first guy sounded exactly like Khan from King of the Hill.

The moment you said Monkeys it was 10/10

Should’ve brought in some swamp folk inspired npcs and enemies instead of ghouls and just called it the new plague.

Crap I better get working on my crazy fallout 4 mods before he gets to that game

I JUST got the "Big MT" joke / double entendre holy shit

This is my 2nd playthrough of Boulder Dome, my first time was 5 years ago with my first time playing modded New Vegas, I did the Brotherhood ending because I thought their goals were better but I wasn't paying close enough attention to names. Anyway this time around I was gonna try the NCR route (even though I'm doing a Legion playthrough lul), but when I got to the Dome, I wasn't able to progress it. My quest objective was "Kill Savant, then kill the other guy who has you go to the android facility, then kill all the raiders". But I couldn't progress past Cryogenics into the Common area where the raiders are, because the door was locked but there was no key I could find. So I used console commands to unlock the door and keep moving forward. After like 40 mins of exploration, I had scoured every inch of the dome, used Project Nevada's enhanced senses wallhax mode to make sure I killed everything, I still wasn't advancing the quest. Kinda just gave up, reloaded my save to do the Brotherhood route, and ended up having to kill all those raiders AGAIN. That last part left kind of a sour taste in my mouth, and honestly now having done it twice, I think my favorite parts have just been reading the terminal entries. It's a shame how undocumented the mod is, there's 2 let's plays on YT but neither do the NCR route so couldn't use them to figure out what I was doing wrong, there's no wiki, etc. I replayed it because I'm trying to build a mod profile for when he eventually comes to PC New Vegas that's mainly vanilla +, but I think I'll exclude Boulder Dome. I'm going to try out Dog City, made by the same guy, but this time you go to Denver.

You should do a review of unsupported, abandoned or just unpopulated “New Lands and Locations” mods… I’m pretty sure San Francisco and LA both exist in some mostly complete form, just without enemies or NPC’s

You should do salt lake cities next

Another great video keep it up! I played this mod in the past and disliked it heavily and you brought up all of the same points I was thinking.

Hey guys sorry I’m late. I was busy playing vice city. I really like your vice city video.

20:50 I don't think it's a reveal that the science in the Boulder Dome is unethical, given the pre-war US was stuck in an eternal 50s. You should just assume that. Also I think a Follow of the Apocalypse cell that has grown desperate enough to kidnap and experiment on random people is more interesting that a Brotherhood chapter that is helping outsiders. Can their principles of free association stand up to reality? Although having the leader of the cell turn on the Courier and betray the original plan wouldn't work.

7:40 Those must be the canibals from Van Buuren.

Pretty sure a lot of the unique armors in this mod are inspired from the TTRPG Exodus

The first part is with the American is literally just a bunch of characters from a TV show

Not sure why, but the Chinese accents are just funny to me

I had a lot of mods topped on this one, but I'll be honest didn't mind the ghouls or the starting place in the brother hood of steel area but I didn't enjoy much of anything after that.

Thanks for doing these mod reviews. I’m looking forward to a particularly controversial mod that was of recent note. Though technically impressive, I think a lot of the aspects of it were kind of corny, and not well-written, and on the nose. I believe if you do a review, I trust you will have a balanced take on it.

man wish this review was a thing back when i was playing. just like you mentioned in the video i did not know Harold was an option for another ending. it's a bit of a either dick move or just dumbest design decision to hide such ending like that behind the NCR route. the faction that was clearly going to betray you by saying "we're killing all the carrier even the potential one". this mod really could have used the independant ending even if the outcome would be still bad as the other endings. it's really a shame how the story just turned into nothing. this mod gave me very eerie feeling about the whole thing which i haven't felt in at least 10 years. none of the horror themed games, movies or any medias could made me feel this way. hell, even Sierra Madre couldn't do that to me. yet seeing it just end like that was very disappointing for me. in any case thank you for the review man. i'm glad i found this review at least now.

Love the Chinese ghouls, need one as a companion

3:20 lol, the character sounds like Kahn Souphanousinphone from King of the Hill

ratio+monkeyman+L+ghoulsbetter

Love your videos. Would really like to see your take on The Frontier some day; it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

I'm gonna be on the level with you, the casual racism in the mod was actually quite funny when I first encountered it but the whole "war" between the two ghoul factions just overstays its welcome and no amount of funny voice acting or racist jokes out of left field can undo how boring that segment gets.

Im sure captain despot wont be an evil... Despot

My opinion is very mixed about this one, I both love it and hate it, some sections of it feel entirely poorly put together while others are wonderful, most modeling work is great but the map is a massive hit or miss sometimes. That initial narrative with the ghouls was completely random as a good example and such a weird opening to the narrative that fails completely to hook you in such a way that the mod should want, a person can take one glance at that opening and walk away and nobody could blame them. So much of the narrative has issues with keeping interest, I'll be incredibly interested and then the narrative will shit itself and suddenly I want to do literally anything else. I feel like the final narrative "Twist" is indicative of much of the issues, it feels like the author just wanted it to happen because they thought it'd be neat not because it fit well into the narrative. The parts of this mod that are good are really good, but the parts that are bad are both bad and boring.