Preview Hype Machine 1, Fallout fans Nil

[Stephen Amber]

Rehash? It took place on a bus. It looked completely different to me... I thought it was a cool trailer.

 

[Futile Rhetoric]

Why was there that awful bit of music at the end? They had a decent atmosphere until then.

 

[Section8]

Aren't fans almost entirely to blame for this? Literally any change at all is immediately leapt upon and savaged. Every time I venture onto the official site I see posts saying it needs to keep the music, keep Perlman, keep the perspective, the setting, the armour, the weapons, the system, the feel. Is it any wonder that Bethesda want to play it safe? Are they in a no win situation with this IP?

It's entirely possible. I really don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to take on Fallout, aside from those who brought us Fallout in the first place.

Wait, I guess I can see how anyone in their right mind would want to take on Fallout, but I don't know how anyone who had any kind of experience with the fanbase would want to. And of course with the constant clamouring for preserving Fallout, I can understand the approach to a certain extent - but I think it's possible to "get" Fallout without merely imitating it, or a mere shadow thereof.

To draw an analogy - I can play a decent rendition of a couple of Led Zeppelin songs. If I recorded a few bars of Whole Lotta Love and released it to the world, proclaiming that I was teaming up with a guy who sounds like Robert Plant to write and record a whole album using the Led Zeppelin name:

Would people honestly be saying: "Hey, that small imitative fragment of audio doesn't actively contradict Led Zep's sound, therefore it's all good!"

Or would they be inclined to say "Big fucking deal, anyone can play the first few bars of Whole Lotta Love (excepting maybe Perry Farrell). Show us an example of you creating something original in the style of Led Zeppelin, and that's your first step toward convincing us."

--

And just for gags, let's compare the original Fallout's slow dolly out to this one.

Fallout: Main body of content illustrates a world quite different to our own, and sets the scene with a perverted newsreel, with ads for retro-futuristic products. At the climax, we see that this world we've just been introduced to has been utterly decimated. It's as moving as a game intro can be.

Teaser: Main body of content shows a pointless shot of valves, because valves are Fallout-y, and almost immediately shows its hand with destruction and decay. On the way we pass a Simpsons reference, a skateboard, and obligatory bits of Fallout memorabilia (a bottle of Nuka-Cola, a toy Nuka-Cola truck, a Nuka-Cola billboard, etc.) to see a guy in reworked power armour striking a dramatic "oh noes man with gun!" pose.

While I am a little surprised we didn't see the foot of a BOS paladin stomp down on a pile of skulls prior to the pose, are our standards really that low that "not fucking up the obvious" is considered a positive?

I'm happy that Bethesda are more observant than we were at Microforte, and less ignorant than Cuevas and crew, but until they prove that their intent is anything more than lip service, I'm going to call this what it is - a safe, no-frills, direct regurgitation of Fallout's most obvious trademarks, coupled with a few things that give reason for concern.

I think I would have been happy with controversy than this. I think Morrowind and Oblivion would have been better games if they just had the balls to make the games they wanted to make, instead of implementing halfway measures somewhere between what the fans want and what they think the mainstream wants.

So let me get this straight, they paid Ron Perlman to say the exact same 4 words over again?

Who knows? They could have just taken a snippet from the first games.

 

[Section8]

In what can only be termed "tragically predictable", Bethesda have completely underwhelmed the gaming world's most notorious fanbase with an ultimately uninspired rehash of Fallout's intro.

Yeah, the Fallout game you worked on was so much different from FO1 and so much better...

That's exactly the point I'm driving at here. No blues and no humvee make Section8 go crazy.

 

[Ausir]

Who knows? They could have just taken a snippet from the first games.

Pete Hines confirmed it's newly recorded and Perlman will narrate the intro, so it's not as if they paid him only for the 4 words, they paid him for the whole intro narration and then took the first 4 words for the intro.

 

[Szioul]

Has this been posted yet? It's coming to PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

"The developers behind Oblivion reinvent the role-playing classic"
I hope I'm not reading too much into it.

 

[DarkSign]

Im sure it means what you think it means.

 

[Baphomet]

Wait, I guess I can see how anyone in their right mind would want to take on Fallout, but I don't know how anyone who had any kind of experience with the fanbase would want to. And of course with the constant clamouring for preserving Fallout, I can understand the approach to a certain extent - but I think it's possible to "get" Fallout without merely imitating it, or a mere shadow thereof.

Internet forums are easy to ignore, large piles of cash are not. From a business perspective Fallout is an established franchise, which means that the required levels of creativity and advertising are minimalized. Feeding your family and appeasing investors matters much more to game designers than a bunch of strangers on the Internet. </reality_check>

 

[HanoverF]

Did anyone not predict they were gonna use 'I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire' laziest choice ever

 

[burrie]

BRILLIANCE!

:!:

 

[Spazmo]

Mmm... nope, still not anything worth discussing. Nice try, Bethesda. Section8 is basically right in that this is a complete blank. It shows they can make purdy graphics and also license the right music and get the right voice actors--but nothing else. On the flipside, however, it says nothing about what they may have gotten wrong. You can't deny that it's pretty Fallouty, whether or not they're just aping FO1. Basically, it's nice, but there's no real substance, making this teaser something of a non-issue. I declare this discussion closed. I will inform you when something important enough to be discussed happens.

 

[Ion Flux]

While I am a little surprised we didn't see the foot of a BOS paladin stomp down on a pile of skulls prior to the pose, are our standards really that low that "not fucking up the obvious" is considered a positive?

Not low standards, low expectations.

I was really expecting Bethesda to get *everything* wrong. Now at least we can expect that they are possibly on the right track with some of the tone and setting (maybe).

However we still know nothing about the gameplay, so they still have the opportunity to do most of the important stuff wrong.

 

[Ander Vinz]

I tried to stay away from commenting this teaser but I just can't hold anymore.

Bethesda Softworks are fucking businessmen. They invested a lot of money in Fallout 3 and they'd obtain even more. And we shall get another shitty blockbuster.
I just hate the whole situation when talented people like Boyarsky, Cain and others gives up the work they love and skilled in while second-rate nerd whores who cannot provide anything worthwhile milk their ideas and dictate own conditions to the market.

Oh, and I don't want anything fallouty from anyone but it's creators. At this point Section8's music analogy works very well. If they aren't capable of creating anything better than "knight on a horseback running around killing things" why ruin good things? Because of money.

 

[cuthbert]

i just wanted to say that this game could be good... just pretend its called "escape from dc" and name your character Snake Plissken i'd go for that.

 

[somnus_lethe]

Am I missing something?

Seems to be a lot of consternation over a guy in power armor (or at least their version of power armor) that I don't quite understand.

Box picture of Fallout 1: Guy in power armor
Box picture of Fallout 2: Guy in power armor

How exactly is this out of place again?

 

[Fez]

People are just speculating whether this means they will be especially prominent in the game.

 

[elander_]

My main concern doesn't come from this demo. I wish they had decent writers experienced with crpgs working for them. Knowing who their writers are from their "meet the devs" threads and their qualifications they couldn't get anyone more noobe than those guys.

Fallout 3 the cgi movie is looking cool and completely irrelevant to show anything about the ability for Bethesa to make a Fallout game. But at least they satisfied some wishes from the fans which is a small sign of goodwill.

 

[somnus_lethe]

People are just speculating whether this means they will be especially prominent in the game.

I guess I see that, but I took it as more of a recognition that regardless of significance to the plot, Power Armor is iconic to the series.

 

[sqeecoo]

Is it just me or has the codex recieved a flood of newcomers lately? That's nice, even if they are idiots.

 

[Avin]

Is it just me or has the codex recieved a flood of newcomers lately? That's nice, even if they are idiots.

the codex is love. there's love everywhere here. check my avatar.

 

[Ausir]

Re: Am I missing something?

Seems to be a lot of consternation over a guy in power armor (or at least their version of power armor) that I don't quite understand.

Box picture of Fallout 1: Guy in power armor
Box picture of Fallout 2: Guy in power armor

How exactly is this out of place again?

It's not about the power armor, it's about the Brotherhood of Steel logo, which seems out of place on the East Coast.

 

[Woetohice]

__

 

[Fez]

I wonder if we'll have to make micro payments to get the PA and plasma gun this time?

 

[Ion Flux]

I'm genuinely not a violent person, but every time I see that picture of Todd, I want to punch him in the face.

 

[Elhoim]

Damn I waited 10 minutes to download this shit?

It's a remix (or "mash-up" as the kids like to call it these days) of the original Fallout intro.

Start zoomed in real close, cue in the classic Inkspots music, show glimpses of advertising and flavor to set the mood further, then zoom slowly out to show the desolate landscape.

<Todd> : Except we'll end it with guy in powar armor bigass gun because that's just badass!

FIXED PICTURE