as you know Tranquility Lane is a virtual reality simulation in vault 112 .

Have you guys noticed that the level  is a direct reference to The Matrix . the fact that all the people were stuck in the virtual world and dying in the simulation would kill the real world person as well is just one proof .  also the brownish color of the level was a reference to the movie Pleasantville, in which a pair of teens, wind up in a 1950's black & white sitcom and then try to get out while blending into the town.

I personally loved that level a lot ! it was so different and novel .

have you enjoyed that level ? how did you pass it ? have you killed everyone or used Fail Safe Terminal ?

I personally used the Fail Safe Terminal and it took me almost 2 hours to figure out

While I liked the idea, I found the sepia tone really hurt my eyes after a while. Did this happen to anyone else?

My first time through I tried to do it the non-evil way by using the fail safe terminal. As soon as I realized this will take longer than I would have liked I quickly switched gears and started ruining people's lives and killing them.

Ah, fun times.

"While I liked the idea, I found the sepia tone really hurt my eyes after a while. Did this happen to anyone else?"

As strange as it sounds, that part creeped me out a bit at first.  The developers did a good job with that one.

"My first time through I tried to do it the non-evil way by using the fail safe terminal. As soon as I realized this will take longer than I would have liked I quickly switched gears and started ruining people's lives and killing them.

Ah, fun times.
"

Yeah it is much easier that way , though I wanted to be the good guy thus decided to spend quite a bit of time figuring the Fail Safe Terminal

Sparky_Buzzsaw said:

"

As strange as it sounds, that part creeped me out a bit at first.  The developers did a good job with that one.

"

I liked Tranquility lane and thought it was a nice break from the wasteland, I think you're overestimating the amount of influence that was involved. I don't think it would have been hard to come up with a virtual reality sitcom world that people could escape into without the help of the movies you list.
I thought the scene was definitely a reference to Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie & Harriett, and the tropical island sim references might have been a reference to Gilligan's island, but I doubt Pleasantville was the big point of inspiration. I can also list you a few hundred novels and comics that predate the Matrix that had this sort of virtual world trap thing going on in them. The idea of a simulated reality that seems real to the people in it goes at least as far back as Decartes and his "brain in a jar" theory.

Sory this seems pedantic, but I get kind of annoyed when people talk about the Matrix like it had anything original in it.

I like the design and Tranquility Lane is my favourite quest

Tranquility Lane was my "Oh My GOD, game of the year" moment in Fallout... it threw me over the edge...

I sorta knew a virtual reality scene was coming as many of the podcasts I listened to were in such a rush to spoil many bits of the game when it first came out but I'm glad they at least had the decency to not go into details about this particular quest. The Matrix and Pleasantville were what I instantly thought of when the reality booted up. One of the rare times I felt like I was part of the world and the cool things happening rather than just playing a game...which is kind of odd since it's a virtual reality inside a virtual reality. O.o

Yeah, I also had Tranquility Lane slightly spoiled for me, sadly.

I quickly figured out the fail-safe terminal, but saved and did the long way first. Ahhhh, that's the good stuff.

"Tranquility Lane was my "Oh My GOD, game of the year" moment in Fallout... it threw me over the edge..."

I just finished it yesterday and it was awesome...!

Not only did I think that this was the best mission from the game, I loved all of the refrences to the Matrix, like you pointed out, Leave it to Beaver, and The Twilight Zone. It was really a well developed mission.

"While I liked the idea, I found the sepia tone really hurt my eyes after a while. Did this happen to anyone else?"

I liked the level, yeah
it was a fun part in fallout 3.
but what was so goty about it?

Tranquility Lane was awesome! Really enjoyed that part of the story. great design.

"I liked the level, yeah
it was a fun part in fallout 3.
but what was so goty about it?"

"HandsomeDead said:

"While I liked the idea, I found the sepia tone really hurt my eyes after a while. Did this happen to anyone else?"

Oh, you don't know sepia tinting till you've played STALKER's X-16 mission. Now THAT hurt my eyes.

Anyway, that level was awesome. I doubt it was a reference to The Matrix, more likely Pleasantville."

Weird... the first thing I thought of when I appeared in Tranquility Lane was The Twilight Zone. The place was actually kind of freaking me out.

I love this level, one of m favorite of all time.

"Sory this seems pedantic, but I get kind of annoyed when people talk about the Matrix like it had anything original in it."

The Matrix was original in that it brought it to a mass audience. It is done well enough that the parts it borrowed don't bother me.

Yeah, I just did this yesterday.  Damn was it really good.

The place was actually kind of freaking me out."

"Weird... the first thing I thought of when I appeared in Tranquility Lane was The Twilight Zone. The place was actually kind of freaking me out."

my balls dropped when we entered that world...

I started being evil, then the old woman approached me and told me about the abandoned house and I solved the thing.

The combonation of the music, setting and blissfully unaware NPC's really creeped me out quite a bit more than any other part of Fallout 3 did.
You know if you set the lighting to normal, to get rid of the sepia, it's actually quite a pretyy place :P Altohugh it loses it's effect quite a bit

"my balls dropped when we entered that world..."

yea awesome quest