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Fallout: A Post Nuclear Satire

Lumpy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
Messages
8,525
If you look at Bethesda's hype, it seems that Fallout's ironic humor was its greatest feature, and the thing that the whole game was built on. It also seems that ironic humor consists of British insults and heads asploding.
WTF? Did Fallout 1 actually have any humor besides the intro?
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
Lumpy said:
WTF? Did Fallout 1 actually have any humor besides the intro?

Fallout's humour was a great mix of occasional downright funny things, like Harold, Harry, Iguana Bob, Butch Harris (voiced by Ron Perlman), the Lou Tenant...

But mostly it was the dark irony that did it...

Like FEV was designed to be the saviour of civilized man (the USA) against the barbaric hordes (China) but ends up being the biggest threat to humanity, in both games.

Like how atomic bombs destroyed the planet's society, but an atomic bomb destroying the "boss-layer" is the ending of both games and thus the solution of the new threat against humanity.

World upside down in bleak, dark irony. Like how, originally, helping Killian would turn Junktown into a dictatorship, and helping Gizmo would make it thrive...

But y'know what? I guess Pete Hines' description is close; "Well, Todd Howard (Executive Producer at Bethesda) has talked a little about this. We're not big fans of jokes… developers that try to tell jokes, it tends not to work very well. You know, the humour in Fallout 3 is that you can get a weapon and blow a guy to a bloody mess, then when you pull up your interface, you see a little smiling cartoon character holding his thumb up. Like that's funny… funny not in terms of jokes or winks at the camera and such… "

That's right, Pete, you got it.
 

jeansberg

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Messages
173
World upside down in bleak, dark irony. Like how, originally, helping Killian would turn Junktown into a dictatorship, and helping Gizmo would make it thrive...
Really? All I can remember about the Killian ending is something about him being a hard but fair ruler.
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
Fallout 3 will have toilet humor that so many kiddies like. Don't you get it? F3 will be ESRB-Teen in everything except BLOOD - which is funny - HA HA HA.

damn it
 

Lumpy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
Messages
8,525
Harold, Harry etc. weren't outrightly funny, they were mild comic relief that is present in most games. Iguana Bob was funny, but besides that, there was little actual humor.
Dark irony doesn't really count as humor. There's nothing funny about the nuclear bomb being used for destroying and saving the world - it's just something you can observe.
So, IMO at least, Bethesda are way off.
 

Texas Red

Whiner
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
7,044
What was the reason again for changing the outcome if you help Killian? At first he was supposed to be come an evil ruler but it was changed. Why?
 

JoKa

Cipher
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
Messages
689
Location
Nordland

Texas Red

Whiner
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
7,044
"marketing department decided at the last minute that the game had to "reward good and punish bad"

Jesus fucking Christ! Would this really matter? Would this have ANY impact on sales? Did they expect somebody, who completed the game and got this ending, to start writing hate reviews because of this and discourage potential buyers?

Please, save us from the blight of the marketing suits!
 

Bradylama

Arcane
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
23,647
Location
Oklahomo
The Gizmo ending still wasn't a bad ending for Junktown.

Besides, I don't see how you can really punish somebody with a bad ending when the intent was to do bad.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
3,585
Location
Motherfuckerville
This makes me wonder....is there an Unfinished Business mod for Fallout that restores all this cut content, like the Baldur's Gate 2 mod of the same name? Because an actual ending for the Followers, the Hub, and restoring all the Adytum quests and alternate paths through the existing ones would be amazing.
 

Klaz

Scholar
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
208
Location
Spain
With Gizmo out of the way, Killian enforces his brand of frontier justice on Junktown. The city remains orderly but small, as travelers steer away from his rigid sensibilities.

Well, it isn't exactly a "bad ending", it's just that the original Gizmo ending is better.
 

Andyman Messiah

Mr. Ed-ucated
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
9,933
Location
Narnia
I don't remember any jokes in Fallout 1, really. There were a couple of moments, like Iguana Bob and Loxley (yeah, I know, but I loved that bugger), but they didn't stand out like the gag-o-rama that was Fallout 2. Fallout had a thriving absurdism thing going and that's what I liked about it in terms of "jokes".

I came to remember F1 more for the freedom and "shit, boy, you can be whatever you want"-gameplay (in opposition to Oblivion's "shit, boy, you can be whatever you want as long as you can cut monsters in half with a big broad sword and can use one sentence lines in dialogue"-gameplay.

I could complete the game without pulling a trigger even once. That's awesome. Yes, it took a lot of running away from battles, but heck, it was fucking awesome to convince the Master to blow himself up and then just powerwalk out that cathedral of doom all cool like Jesus of the freaking Wastes.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
Klaz said:
Well, it isn't exactly a "bad ending", it's just that the original Gizmo ending is better.

No, but the Gizmo ending is really quite a bit better. Marketing worried. They always worry. Have to hold hands, have to be predictable.

Good thing they let Fallout be, for the most part.
 
Joined
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Messages
3,585
Location
Motherfuckerville
Brother None said:
Klaz said:
Well, it isn't exactly a "bad ending", it's just that the original Gizmo ending is better.

No, but the Gizmo ending is really quite a bit better. Marketing worried. They always worry. Have to hold hands, have to be predictable.

Good thing they let Fallout be, for the most part.

So a little bit of moral ambiguity in the whole crime boss/storekeep thing was too much, but screwing the caravan master's daughter for drugs wasn't? I'll never understand some facets of marketing and game rating committees.

A bit of a tangent....but how in the hell did Baldur's Gate get a "Teen" (13+) rating while Fallout got a "Mature" (17+) one? Actually....how the hell did Baldur's Gate not cause a shitstorm in the media? Does Bioware have some serious connections?
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
A bit of a tangent....but how in the hell did Baldur's Gate get a "Teen" (13+) rating while Fallout got a "Mature" (17+) one? Actually....how the hell did Baldur's Gate not cause a shitstorm in the media? Does Bioware have some serious connections?

If I'm correct at that time Fallout got some 15+ rating not 17+. Or am I wrong?
Anyways - BG didn't have so much gore, so many children, had next to no whores and was built in another generic fantasy setting, because at that time there were shitloads of such things - unlike Fallout when you compare games of that time to it.
So I think that was the reason why Fallout got so much attention - because it was something rare among other generic rpgs

edit> and it had no world-reacting-to-your-actions which also called choices & consequences.

Yes, it took a lot of running away from battles
a feature UNSEEN in todays and recent years games ;)
 

User was nabbed fit

Guest
"Fallout 3" is a corruption of "Fallout", which is a Computer Role Playing Game. Bethesda did it for the lulz.
 

Durwyn

Prophet
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
1,132
Location
Erewhon
Bradylama said:
Fallout has guns, and guns are bad. :(
No! Guns are good but only when good people use them... They can be used to blast off someones head which is good and liek funny...
 

Claw

Erudite
Patron
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
3,777
Location
The center of my world.
Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
"humour" doesn't mean "funny"

Fallout wasn't terribly funny, although I'll admit to a certain glee when watching Super Mutants being torn to pieces by my SMG.
 

Globbi

Augur
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
342
Humor in Fallout was great because it wasn't expected. One of the best jokes were one Harold told you, and it was quite natural but still surprising. You're talking to a mutant that had a hard life in the wasteland and he jokes about it, but he's just a funny guy.

In F3 it's going to be like "Hey, look, that robot is insulting me, we a have nice humor in Fallout 3" (even though noone laughed I suppose)

The cartoon characters and dark irony in intro were a bit humoristic but it also showed a funny things of the gameworld. It won't be funny when repeated and will suck if (and propably will) overused.

The funny things in Fallout (like quite a lot of what was well made in a good game) are memorable so it's not strange that people talk about it and expect Beth to put it in thier game. Still, they should say that they will make humoristic thing when they feel something will be funny instead of this empty and stupid "we have humor" hype.
 

Globbi

Augur
Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
342
Edward_R_Murrow said:
So a little bit of moral ambiguity in the whole crime boss/storekeep thing was too much, but screwing the caravan master's daughter for drugs wasn't? I'll never understand some facets of marketing and game rating committees.
But drugs are bad and screwing is also bad. When you help good people in a good way you should see good consequence. I see no problem in that. if it doesn't make the game worse there may be some advertising of good put in it.
A bit of a tangent....but how in the hell did Baldur's Gate get a "Teen" (13+) rating while Fallout got a "Mature" (17+) one? Actually....how the hell did Baldur's Gate not cause a shitstorm in the media? Does Bioware have some serious connections?
Come on, play again Fallout and BG and compare then. In BG there is a bit less gore, no sexuality, no drugs, no swearing. And the game also felt less emotional I think.

Sometimes there is a shitstorm in the media while noone knows why but that's not a reason to cause another shitstorm about another thing.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
3,585
Location
Motherfuckerville
Globbi said:
But drugs are bad and screwing is also bad.

Uhhh....I happen to find them both to be very good.....maybe not morally acceptable though...

When you help good people in a good way you should see good consequence. I see no problem in that. if it doesn't make the game worse there may be some advertising of good put in it.

In BG there is a bit less gore

Agreed.

no sexuality

Did we play the same Baldur's Gate series?


Does alcohol count?

no swearing

Liberal use of bitch, bastard, ass, and such. No fuck, shit, dick, and such, but then again those are a bit more modern, and would feel a bit out of place in Faerun.

And the game also felt less emotional I think.

I can agree with that notion totally. In Baldur's Gate I really never felt any remorse, at least not much. My actions didn't seem totally real. Whereas in Fallout, there was a bit of remorse. Especially when I first blitzed Mariposa and thought that woman in the cell needed saving from a knight in shiny power armor. Turns out....I'd just juiced her mutant lover. Uhhh.....whoops. I kind of felt like a bit of an asshole then. But of course my conscience was cleared when my character juiced that dirty, mutie-lover.

Sometimes there is a shitstorm in the media while noone knows why but that's not a reason to cause another shitstorm about another thing.

I suppose you're right. It's just odd that a game that sold millions never raised any flags despite having killable children, violence, gore, alcohol, and the freaking mariliths.
 

Keldryn

Arcane
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
1,053
Location
Vancouver, Canada
I rather enjoyed the revelations in Fallout 2 about Vault 13's water purifier. :cool: A lot of the other humour was somewhat misplaced though. I did get a chuckle out of "Tragic: The Garnering" trading cards ("It looks very addictive") and packets of Cheesy Poofs, however.

The humour in the original Fallout was definitely a bit more sophisticated.
 

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