Vault Dweller
Commissar, Red Star Studio
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 28,038
Apparently, a lot of people process information exclusively at face value, without trying to think about it for a second and figure out what ELSE a simple and seemingly harmless fact implies. I see this as an opportunity to make a buck, so from now on we'll be offering reasonably priced, very affordable services aimed at educating masses and helping you discover the mysteries of game development. So, if you are reading this thread please donate $99.42 cents to the Codex immediately. No, it's too late to close this tab, I saw you, so pay up, bitch! Tell you what, pay now and we'll throw you a horse armor set I made when I was a kid for free.
Anyway...
* * * * * Liam Neeson to Play Lead Role in Fallout 3 * * * * *
Neeson will play the role of the player’s father and will appear prominently throughout the game. ... This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game.
...
On the surface this little snippet only says that Liam provided his voice to the game, which is like TEH AWSOME!!!! because I want Liam to teach me the way of the Jedi in Fallout 3, but let's dig a bit deeper.
1. The player's father, appearing prominently throughout the game and providing the dramatic tone for the entire game.
The father thing implies that your character is young. It also casts you into a specific role, instead of allowing you to play the "it came from the wastes" unknown drifter character.
The "appears prominently" and "dramatic tone" things imply that the father is important/ a part of the story. I like family dramas in a post-apocalyptic game as much as the next guy, but what bothers me is that the "prominent appearance" strongly implies linearity. Think Half-Life 2. Granted, there was no father there, but there was a fatherly character, whom you had to see first and then rescue a few times. Prominently means that your father will make scheduled appearances, which implies that no matter what you do between the appearances, the sequence and the story will not be changed by your actions.
Now the drama thing. That can only mean that your dad will either get killed eventually or turn evil and will have to be put down like a rabid dog. Knowing Bethesda, the second thing is unlikely. I doubt they would want to expose the 12 year old kids to "Your dad is evil. Kill him now!" scenarios to prevent class-action lawsuits, so most likely we'll be dealing with a wise mentor dad who will die in the end Uriel Septim style.
Btw, the "lead role"? I thought the game was about my character dealing with some shit, not about watching Liam leading the story toward the inevitable and dramatic conclusion.
2. The dialogue is voiced by a super expensive celebrity, which means Oblivion style "5 words per sentence, one sentence per screen" dialogues. It also implies more linearity, as I doubt that your dad or other characters would have two or more different lines per quest. So, you'll have to jump through some linear hoops, coming back to listen to Liam and other voice actor's reassuring voices between quests.
While the game may still have multiple choices, deeper than Yes/No/Whatever, it's unlikely that the voiced-over responses will change to reflect your choice.
Liam: You must leave our little village, my child. Travel the new world, join a guild or two, then come back and listen to my awesome voice some more.
- Yes, father.
You must leave right away.
- I don't want to go
You must leave right away.
- Aren't you going to teach my the ways of the Jedi first?
You must leave right away.
3. What else does Liam's cast tell us about the game? It looks like Bethesda still refuses to acknowledge the Fallout fans as the target audience and keeps aiming at the mass market. "Hey, guys, come and play our game! It has Liam Neeson and it looks pretty!" Instead of reassuring fans that the game will have some Fallout-like qualities, Bethesda follows the Oblivion formula. If you recall, for the first year or so the only features Bethesda talked about were Patrick Stewart!!!, soil erosion, and virtual forests, which explains why Oblivion was such an amazing game.
So, what do we have so far? A linear post-apocalyptic adventure with your father, linear quests, Oblivion-like dialogues, DRAMA!, and mass-marketization of Fallout 3.
Stay tuned for our next episode or listen to our guest speakers:
Section8: "I have to say, this is the first clear evidence of the sort of shit that has been foreshadowing for ages now. Having a father that features "prominently throughout" the game is a pretty clear indication that Bethesda are doing away with Fallout's solitude, blank slate RPGing and focus on player authored narrative. It's also showing that they don't seem like straying from Oblivion's blockbuster formula, where big name actors take precedence over any kind of development talent or integrity.
Not that I really expected anything other, but even highly improbably dreams can take a kick in guts."
Dark Underlord: "In both the Fallouts, you were a lone individual. Your background and who you were was left up to you. I liked that aspect of just being a nameless, unknown adventurer. Here, it looks like we have a whole family that we're supposed to care about."
Ladonna: "Mother sold seperately."
Anyway...
* * * * * Liam Neeson to Play Lead Role in Fallout 3 * * * * *
Neeson will play the role of the player’s father and will appear prominently throughout the game. ... This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game.
...
On the surface this little snippet only says that Liam provided his voice to the game, which is like TEH AWSOME!!!! because I want Liam to teach me the way of the Jedi in Fallout 3, but let's dig a bit deeper.
1. The player's father, appearing prominently throughout the game and providing the dramatic tone for the entire game.
The father thing implies that your character is young. It also casts you into a specific role, instead of allowing you to play the "it came from the wastes" unknown drifter character.
The "appears prominently" and "dramatic tone" things imply that the father is important/ a part of the story. I like family dramas in a post-apocalyptic game as much as the next guy, but what bothers me is that the "prominent appearance" strongly implies linearity. Think Half-Life 2. Granted, there was no father there, but there was a fatherly character, whom you had to see first and then rescue a few times. Prominently means that your father will make scheduled appearances, which implies that no matter what you do between the appearances, the sequence and the story will not be changed by your actions.
Now the drama thing. That can only mean that your dad will either get killed eventually or turn evil and will have to be put down like a rabid dog. Knowing Bethesda, the second thing is unlikely. I doubt they would want to expose the 12 year old kids to "Your dad is evil. Kill him now!" scenarios to prevent class-action lawsuits, so most likely we'll be dealing with a wise mentor dad who will die in the end Uriel Septim style.
Btw, the "lead role"? I thought the game was about my character dealing with some shit, not about watching Liam leading the story toward the inevitable and dramatic conclusion.
2. The dialogue is voiced by a super expensive celebrity, which means Oblivion style "5 words per sentence, one sentence per screen" dialogues. It also implies more linearity, as I doubt that your dad or other characters would have two or more different lines per quest. So, you'll have to jump through some linear hoops, coming back to listen to Liam and other voice actor's reassuring voices between quests.
While the game may still have multiple choices, deeper than Yes/No/Whatever, it's unlikely that the voiced-over responses will change to reflect your choice.
Liam: You must leave our little village, my child. Travel the new world, join a guild or two, then come back and listen to my awesome voice some more.
- Yes, father.
You must leave right away.
- I don't want to go
You must leave right away.
- Aren't you going to teach my the ways of the Jedi first?
You must leave right away.
3. What else does Liam's cast tell us about the game? It looks like Bethesda still refuses to acknowledge the Fallout fans as the target audience and keeps aiming at the mass market. "Hey, guys, come and play our game! It has Liam Neeson and it looks pretty!" Instead of reassuring fans that the game will have some Fallout-like qualities, Bethesda follows the Oblivion formula. If you recall, for the first year or so the only features Bethesda talked about were Patrick Stewart!!!, soil erosion, and virtual forests, which explains why Oblivion was such an amazing game.
So, what do we have so far? A linear post-apocalyptic adventure with your father, linear quests, Oblivion-like dialogues, DRAMA!, and mass-marketization of Fallout 3.
Stay tuned for our next episode or listen to our guest speakers:
Section8: "I have to say, this is the first clear evidence of the sort of shit that has been foreshadowing for ages now. Having a father that features "prominently throughout" the game is a pretty clear indication that Bethesda are doing away with Fallout's solitude, blank slate RPGing and focus on player authored narrative. It's also showing that they don't seem like straying from Oblivion's blockbuster formula, where big name actors take precedence over any kind of development talent or integrity.
Not that I really expected anything other, but even highly improbably dreams can take a kick in guts."
Dark Underlord: "In both the Fallouts, you were a lone individual. Your background and who you were was left up to you. I liked that aspect of just being a nameless, unknown adventurer. Here, it looks like we have a whole family that we're supposed to care about."
Ladonna: "Mother sold seperately."