You might think reimagining Washington DC as a nuclear hellscape for Fallout 3 would have been grim, but it made the lead designer want to set the next game in his hometown: 'It's just kind of fun to blow things up'

Vault Boy demonstrates how to duck and cover.

Far from the deserts of the Mojave and SoCal, Fallout 3 takes place in the shadow of a striking image: the United States Capitol building, partially blown to chunks in an abandoned, irradiated mire.

The team working on the game at Bethesda was based in Rockville, a short jaunt from Washington, so they got a rare artistic opportunity: taking pictures of the local tourist traps to then imagine them battered by a nuclear apocalypse.