Not sure if someone brought this up but Fallout Yesterday just came out and its a Fallout 2 TC mod that seeks to replicate Van Buren as close as it can to the original plans.
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout2/mods/91?tab=posts
Havent tried it out yet but I sure love the first two games getting some modder attention.
The Railroad ending canonically ends with an even shittier world where raider gangs just start taking over everything because the only two groups that could impose order or defeat them the Brotherhood and Institute are all dead.
Railroad is by far most reddit of the endings, "sure cannibalistic rapists might be taking over but at least there's no le hecking slavery anymore!"
If I didn't know better and know what Emil's writing is generally like I would think I was supposed to hate the Railroad.
Total Railroad death.
At least with the minuteman ending you can picture them taking over and putting things back on track on the commonwealth in due time. A slower progress but a far more natural and honest one that will ensure that it will last this time.
The Railroad really offers nothing to the greater wasteland. Hell, with the end of the Institute, they are even more worthless as the lack of any plan beyond saving synths becomes even more obvious and dire.
Ironically an institute minutemen ending is the best ending in my opinion. The people of the institute just wanna do science and generally don't give a fuck about anything else. in my opinion it wouldn't be too hard to convince them to play nice if you're in charge (or do like some mod storylines and teleport in minutemen to threaten em). Shut down unethical experiments, Give residents synth guards, give minutemen courser chips to be able pop up in literally a minutes notice. Everybody's happy.
I hate that there is no vanilla option to say to the other faction leaders
"Look, Im not with The Institute, they are with me. I just gotta play my cards right, maybe do a few morally questionable favors and then they will make me Director. And my first order will be the end of the production of synths and the infiltration missions. No more kidnappings, no more slavery, no more deaths. All you all need to do is to be patient and tolerant if Im forced to do somethings that go against your interests and have my back when some members inevitably try to get back to the way things were. Its all for the sake of this mission. The Commonwealth can be a shining beacon of civilization, we can advance 20 years in just 1, we are so close. So please, trust me."
I take facists over goody two-shoes any day. Still find it weird normalfags still love the brotherhood even with their fascists roots.
I mean, they just started off as tech nerds hiding away in their bunkers (probably playing Fallout's equivalent of DnD in their spare time). They were meant to be true neutrals, they wont bother you if you dont bother them.
You know what sucks? Preston is actually a somewhat interesting companion when you take away him constantly handing out radiant quests. Dude was demoralized, broken, and without purpose thanks to the Minutemen disintegrating as a result of internal politicking and Quincy and this random stranger comes out of nowhere to save the day and restore his faith in not just humanity but himself. He didn't expect anyone to come, and would have found a way to go out in an utterly pointless blaze of glory.
Preston is conceptually a good character, Im sure you can do a lot with a strong base like that. But, of course, it goes to show how Emil and crew can screw up a gift wrapped character with weak dialogue and weaker voice acting.