Location 02: Goodsprings

Here we are! At the start of the game and the start of my real-world Quest: Goodsprings. And two things immediately become apparent.

Doc Mitchell wasn't in when I
dropped by...

First. your character isn't very tall - a candidate for the Little People of America, in fact: I'd guess only a metre or so. This makes the camera angles very different for my in-game and IRL snapshots; rather than side-by-side shots, my pictures are going to look more like before-and-after hair loss advertisements, where the first shot's kept deliberately pale and wussy to make the B look good. Work with me here.

... but his game shots will increase
his estate value

Second, perspective. The drama of the game's landscape is exacerbated by the forced sightlines; note how much tighter the z-axis is in the game shots, with distant terrain much smaller although closer by foot? The game's played through a fisheye lens. This isn't a complaint of course; it adds to the gameplay. But it plays hell with your framing.

Anyway, onto Goodsprings. It isn't - quite - a ghost town; there are people living there. First, the Prospector Saloon (called the Pioneer in real life.)

The Pioneer looks just as scary IRL

The game's designers have put in a few in-jokes. Note the rusting motorcycles outside? It's a biker bar IRL, and I saw several Hogs parked outside the day I was there.

The nukes hit before they could
even roll out their Harleys

The whole town's a good match for biker culture: low-rent with an outlaw/frontier feel. Shambling wooden shacks and oxidised rooves dominate the town, their browned corrugations a strange mirror of the landscape. It's a fascinating place to walk around.

The in-game saloon sign is a simple nameplate; the IRL one's got a bit more detail to it. The text reads:

This sign was added in 2001

"George Fayle moved to Southern Nevada from Calico, California, in 1904. He settled at Goodsprings Junction, which was later renamed for his wife Jean. 

In 1912, he moved to Goodsprings. He built the Pioneer Saloon in 1913, later building the Fayle General Store and the Fayle Hotel. 

I preferred the real world one

Though he died in the flu epidemic of 1918, his vision lived on through his saloon, still a centre of community life. Later owners have also affected the community, none more so than "Poppa Don" Hendrick, who raised money for local caues and ran a local ambulance service."

Sorry to whoever owns the car

Next door is the Goodsprings General Store, built by the same Mr Fayle.

The car had gone by 2281

The game version's very close to the real thing; note the Wild West typeface on the shingle. Note sure which varieties of reloaded ammo they sell inside, though.

Half a sail is better
than none...

Around the in-game town, there are plenty of riffs on real life. Makeshift windmills, homes, buildings, they're all there: it's just that in the game they're jumbled up, positioned for visual effect rather than as a result of civic planning.

... the game's rebuilt it

In fact, it's shocking just how game-like the real urban area feels.

Disused water tanks, planks of wood leaning listlessly against buildings, ancient hulks of inoperable machinery... it's all here, contributing to an atmosphere of gentle decay.

It's easy to see why the game designers made Goodsprings their choice to kick off FNV.

Schoolhouses are full of
predatory little creatures

The Schoolhouse is instantly recognisable, although the game's repainted it in rustic red. (Somehow, I think it looks better in the game.)

And that goes for the game too!

The perspective issue is very clear in these snaps: I'm approximately the same distance from the building in both shots, but the forced sightline gives the game building far more drama.


So that's Goodsprings. It was one of the last places I visited on my tour (which traversed the game map in an arc from northeast to west) but, as the game's start point, this is where the blog proper begins. Let's walk over to Goodsprings Cemetery.