Van Buren Van Buren was the project name Black Isle Studios assigned to their version of " Fallout 3 " . The game was going to use an engine that Black Isle had made for " Baldur ' s Gate 3 " , commonly referred to as the Jefferson Engine . It was a fully 3D engine , but was never used . Black Isle Studios planned to include a dual - combat system in the game that allowed for the player to choose real - time ( like " Fallout 3 " or " Fallout Tactics " ) or turn - based combat ( like " Fallout 1 " & " 2 " ) , but real - time was only included due to Interplay ' s demands . Nonetheless , Joshua Sawyer had stated that the emphasis would be on the turn - based version . Co - operative multiplayer was also going to be included in the game , again because of publisher requirements . In 2003 , the game was canceled due to financial difficulties . Setting . " Van Buren " would have taken place in the American southwest ( Arizona , Nevada , Colorado , Utah ) . The westernmost sites on the game map are the easternmost borders of New California Republic . According to the design documents , it was to be set in the year 2253 . Some places that appeared in " Van Buren " : Places cut from the final version of the game : Plot . The Prisoner . The game would have begun with the player character in a prison cell . Because of this , the player was given a choice . The prisoner could be an innocent that was imprisoned because of some misunderstanding , or they could choose to be a criminal and take bonus traits that would bolster some of their skills . The player would awaken in a prison cell , but not the one they remembered falling asleep in . Suddenly , the floor rocks violently from an explosion and the player is knocked unconscious . When they awaken , they find their cell door open and a hole in the wall leading outside . Leaving the prison , the character is under attack by some unknown assailant . Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor , the player flees into the night to explore this new world . Unfortunately , this newfound freedom may be short lived . The player is relentlessly pursued by robots who want to return them to the prison . As they explore the world and try to outwit their pursuers , they begin to uncover an underlying plot . Why was the character in a different prison than the one they fell asleep in ? Why can ' t they remember being transferred ? What was the attack on the prison about in the first place ? Then they find out about NCR ' s problems , and a few things don ' t add up . . . Just like all the titles in the " Fallout " series , the story ends with multiple different endings for every community and faction that you interacted with . Their outcome depends on your actions . Presper ' s plan . Eventually , the player would discover the true reason behind the prison and the attack on it . It turns out that , through extensive research , the mad scientist called Presper , disgusted with what the world turned into after the War , discovered the history of New Plague , the virus that FEV was initially created to cure , and its genocidal potency , and also discovered a viable means to cleanse the world . Using ULYSSES , the quarantine prison , and a ballistic satellite known as " B . O . M . B . - 001 " , the way to human planetary domination and order became clear . He needed to get to " B . O . M . B . - 001 " and use the nuclear weapons to clean the filth and wretch that currently have occupied the surface . Presper and his followers released the New Plague virus in the remote areas near Boulder and Denver . It was close enough to the quarantine prison to spur ULYSSES into action , but not near enough to cause huge populations to start a general panic . Once enough people were infected and ULYSSES “ arrested ” enough people to just about fill up the prison , Presper ’ s men would stage an attack on the prison which would allow everyone to escape . This event would start a countdown of sorts for missile launch on " B . O . M . B . - 001 " . ULYSSES would assess the viral spread , try to gather up the escaped prisoners , and , once 90 % of the prisoners had been retrieved , launch nuclear missiles to “ clean & prevent ” any further infection . By the time this happened , Presper had planned to be on , and in full control of , " B . O . M . B . - 001 " and reprogramming targeting solutions to clean the areas he wanted . Humans of his choosing would wait out the second nuclear holocaust in the Boulder Dome , until the day came where he declared the Earth safe for pure blood humans once more . Tech demo . < section begin = " VB tech demo " / > A tech demo of " Van Buren " was created during the game ' s development . When asked about it , Bethesda ' s Pete Hines replied : " ( . . . ) releasing someone else ' s unfinished product , or assets from it , is not something we intend to do . " Several screenshots and one video of the tech demo were released at No Mutants Allowed on April 30 , 2007 , followed by the tech demo itself on May 2 . The plot of the tech demo is not connected to the main storyline and was going to be included in the finished game as a tutorial . It takes place in the United States during the Great War , somewhere in the Great Midwest Commonwealth or the Pacific Time Zone . The player character in the demo is referred to only as Citizen ( even though the Citizen uses the Prisoner ' s model ) . The Citizen ' s parents were reduced to ash , as they didn ' t believe the government ' s bombing raid sirens . The Citizen made his way to the relocation center and was escorted to a Vault by Corporal Armstrong of the 4th or 13th Armored Infantry Division . To reach the Vault , they must fight communist insurgent s . After they enter the Vault , the Citizen must help turn on the life support system . There are several things of note in the tech demo . The first is that the female PC appears naked from the waist up , without the prisoner suit with the " 13 " legend . The second and most curious is that the male PC ' s character portrait appears to be Eric Wu from Eric Conveys an Emotion ( or simply Emotion Eric ) . The female PC has no character portrait whatsoever . < section end = " VB tech demo " / > Character system . The game used a highly modified version of SPECIAL , the character system used in previous " Fallout " games . The changes were introduced mostly by J . E . Sawyer . Some of his changes were accepted well in the " Fallout " community , while some , such as merging combat skills and dividing Speech into Deception and Persuasion , were quite controversial . Behind the scenes . According to the IGN article Obsidian CEO reveals Fallout 3 that was never released — IGN Unfiltered , " Van Buren " was Black Isle Studios second attempt at Fallout 3 . The original attempt was created using the NDL 3D technology ( later acquired by Gamebryo and used to power Fallout 3 ) . Due to financal issues at Interplay , the studio redirected their efforts on the project to produce Dungeon - crawling RPG Icewind Dale . Video . A short video demonstrating the Van Buren tech demo created by Black Isle in 2003 . Presented by No Mutants Allowed .