Those of you who read the Post’s letters to the editor over the weekend might have heard of the videogame Fallout 3, which hit store shelves today. Those of you who’ve been through Metro Center in the past few weeks have certainly heard of it — ads for the game are plastered over seemingly every available surface. It’s those ads that prompted the aforementioned letter. Its author, Joseph Anzalone, objects to the post-apocalyptic renderings of D.C. that feature prominently in some of the advertisements:

The people of our city do not need a daily reminder that Washington is a prime target for an attack. We do not need a daily reminder of what our worst fears look like.

He has a point: the possibility of being subjected to a tedious character-customization process and wooden voice-acting by Liam Neeson is, indeed, a grim prospect to contemplate — yet it’s one that Washingtonians face every day (the radioactive destruction sounds like a drag, too). More seriously, the renderings from the ads — many of which can be seen on Flickr — really are pretty grim. And Anzalone is certainly right to point out that defenses of the campaign on First Amendment grounds — like this one — are a bit silly.

But in the end they’re just advertisements, and far from the most offensively stupid ones in the Metro system (does Raytheon really think that Crystal City shoppers are likely to pick up an extra attack helicopter on the strength of a vinyl banner?). Besides, we generally get a kick out of pop culture’s attempts to portray the city, and this is no exception.

But maybe others don’t feel as cavalierly. What do you think about the ads?