Sarkus
2861
Well, the most powerfull weapon in the earlier games is the Red Rider BB gun, so it’s not like the series hasn’t gone down the irrational but funny path before.
That said, I do think some aspects of what Bethesda is doing look like they are going too far in their efforts. Hopefully they don’t cross the line from funny to stupid too much.
Yeah, because the previous Fallouts didn’t have any humorous, tongue-in-cheek items, like the Red Ryder BB gun (and the absurdly deadly LE version of same), or the Holy Hand Grenade, or the Alien Blaster that you find inside a crashed UFO. And the previous Fallouts have such a strong dedication to verisimilitude, they would never present anything scientifically infeasible (like exploding nuclear cars) just for effect, or for a laugh.
I mean, come on. Did we play the same Fallout games?
I think your version of ‘casual gamer friends’ and my version are a little different. I don’t think my casual gamer friends even know what pre-ordering a game means.
I agree with you that I think this game has perked some ears. It’ll be interesting to see how much it sells this holiday, considering the absurdly strong lineup for both consoles. I’d guess quite well.
I suppose there’s been quite a bit of evolution in the world of gaming since the last Fallout. And maybe the expectations are much higher for detail and immersion.
For me, the Rock-It issue is less one of tone and more of technical detail. I’d like to see different items have different effects when chuted. A teddy bear turns to fluffsplosion and blinds or stuns people, while a sock full of rocks causes their insides to outside themselves. Different items have different impact values - doesn’t have to be complex.
While I’d like to see Fallout 3 continue the tone of the Fallouts (including the humor), I’d also say that the game style it is so drastically different that it can’t really be compared for technical merits.
Most of them didn’t know what preordering was before this generation, either, but all it takes is walking into a store on release day to find all the copies of a game reserved ahead of time. Although I’ve tried to convince them that if they just go to Best Buy they don’t have to deal with that crap.
Pogo
2866
The answer to your question is indirectly contained in thurauh1’s first line.
If there’s one thing this thread taught me, it’s that I did not in fact play the same Fallout games as the NMA crowd. The ones I played were entertaining enough to look past the weaker elements; the ones they played were flawless, perfect gems, the very pinnacle of human achievement which, paradoxically, can only be truly understood by the super-geniuses at NMA who really, you know, get it.
Apparently they missed the parts where Dan, the only person to have spent more than 30 minutes with the damned thing, explained, over and over, that it isn’t just an action game.
It would have to have been called Fallout - The Brotherhood of Steel. It’s practically a tradition at this point.
In a related story, the original Fallout is in the Coming Soon list over at Gametap.
I never played it myself, so this will be a nice warm-up towards it.
I don’t get what the issue with having supermutants on the East Coast is. The government created them using the FEV… why couldn’t they have had FEV research facilities on the East Coast as well?
I always thought the issue was in the portrayal of them as mindless monsters when they weren’t, or something. You’re saying there is ANOTHER issue? When will it end…
Is it really too hard to type “Fallout FEV wiki” in Google and read some text ?
Sarkus
2875
I don’t see the issue either, but it also depends on how the game explains their presence. At the end of Fallout 1, most of the surviving super mutant army heads east, so I don’t think it’s impossible that they might have made it to the east coast by the time of Fallout 3. However, I guess some people don’t like that idea, presumably based on some thought that since super mutants can’t reproduce, they wouldn’t have lasted that long.
Also, Draikin, you can’t discount statements made by Bethesda that they don’t feel entirely constrained by Fallout 2 as true canon, arguing that they are basing their interpretation on Fallout 1. So, what happened in FO2 can’t be viewed as set in stone as far as FO3 is concerned.
Again, we’ll have to see how the game explains itself. Until then, it’s all baseless speculation.
fox1
2876
I did this. Some time later, after I’d regained consciousness, I still didn’t see how there’s anything out there that clearly* invalidates Dan’s question.
I dunno, I’d ask you to spell it out for me, but my curiosity is warring with my sense of self-preservation, and it’s anyone’s guess how that will come out.
*This excludes a small amount of fanboi “I know the setting better than Avellone” bullshit.
Squee
2877
The government didn’t create the supermutants as they’re seen in Fallout as I remember. They came about by the FEV’s exposure to radiation and mutation, and the fact that nearly everyone who got dipped was radiated to some degree. It’s why The Master was trying to find vaults so he could get “Pure” humans to dip since they generally had the best results, as seen by the fact that most of the super mutants were dumb, but the few pure humans (Himself included, since he came from Vault City) ended up more intelligent.
That’s my understanding of it anyway. The super mutants being on the east coast doesn’t really bother me though, since like you said it’s entirely possible there’s more FEV over there. And if I can’t suspend disbelief that much then I’ll go crazy.
You mean this?
Show me where it says there absolutely could not have been a redundant lab on the East Coast, or where it says that someone in the DoD absolutely, positively was not running their own side-show using FEV technology. Or maybe West Tek continued their research after the government took control of the project. There are a plethora of potential explanations. How about you wait until you actually hear Bethesda’s before you throw a tantrum?
I can’t say I care about individual story discrepancies, particularly when the games themselves have multiple disparate endings. As long as the overall concepts carry over. I’d rather it work better for the individual game than try to link into a puzzle of made-up facts.
That was less about whether it is or isn’t just an action game than it was about how it was being demoed. Dan’s preview was very helpful to get a better understanding of the RPG elements.
Squee
2880
Actually yeah. I just poked around on that wiki and looked up the holodiscs where I was remembering most of my info, and it implies they never actually tested FEV on humans, though on animals they were getting the super strength and super intelligence that The Master was mostly getting from vaultdwellers.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/FEV_Experiment_Tape
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/FEV_Research
Might be something about it in all the Fallout bibles, but damned if I’m going to skim through all those.
