Dr Fallout
Centurion
Same actually, I disliked the experiment idea.
A Return to Form
- Thread starter Kilgore Trout
- Start date
Walpknut
This ghoul has seen it all
A song on the intro is not the same as forcing a Radio that only plays 50's music about radiation on every game. In Fallout 1 and 2 you usally didn't just have 50's music blasting while exploring the cities or traveling the map, you had ambient music with a very particular style.
Big No
Watch as I open and close this door
Is it so much the radio concept itself or just the fact it's dominated by 50s songs that mess with the game? I particularly like the radio station option because even though the ambient music is nice, I still wouldn't mind some radio stuff as well, just some tunes to listen to. Maybe not have it dominated by 50s songs though, maybe a collection 50s, 60s, and 70s music with some original stuff as well to make up for the "all music is from the same time period" issue.
Well, the songs so far have ranged from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. So you kinda got what you wanted? I guess?
Anyway, I think the music fits the series just fine--the whole idealistic 50's American Dream and commercialism covered in rust and decay. There's enough thematic material, art deco stylings, and references to these kinds of songs in the classic FO games that I really believe they would have loved to have a bunch of licensed songs like this.
Kilgore Trout
Gyro Captain
Please describe some of the references to "these kinds of songs" in the classic Fallouts; aside from the intro sequences, I can't think of a single reference to pre-war music anywhere. And there certainly wasn't any radio playing 300 year old songs.
I stand by my criticism of the radio - for me, it completely breaks immersion to have the option to switch on Bing Crosby in the middle of an irradiated ruin or a firefight. It's not a post-apocalyptic environment if you still have your iPhone.
Music should be ambient, and it should reflect the emergence of new societies - which again, is what Fallout is supposed to be about. Not the exploration of 1950s Americana, but an exploration of how new societies develop in a post apocalyptic landscape that had wiped the slate clean.
Earth
Vault Senior Citizen
I like Mr New Vegas's music because it was all part of Mr House's ideal of Las Vegas.
Kind of ironic that he forced the Kings out, considering they were Elvis impersonators. Then again, Mr New Vegas doesn't play any Elvis music so maybe House just straight out doesn't like Elvis Presley and wanted to write that certain aspect of Vegas culture out of his "perfect" society.
(I should point out: I know what copyright is).
I didn't care for the Fallout 3 radio because there wasn't much variety and it didn't make much sense. These songs would be insanely old fashioned for 2077 society, let alone 2277 society. '40s music is fine, but I think a lot of other music would've been appropriate as well. It seems rather lazy to not consider what music carried over into the Fallout parallel universe from our own.
Kind of ironic that he forced the Kings out, considering they were Elvis impersonators. Then again, Mr New Vegas doesn't play any Elvis music so maybe House just straight out doesn't like Elvis Presley and wanted to write that certain aspect of Vegas culture out of his "perfect" society.
(I should point out: I know what copyright is).
I didn't care for the Fallout 3 radio because there wasn't much variety and it didn't make much sense. These songs would be insanely old fashioned for 2077 society, let alone 2277 society. '40s music is fine, but I think a lot of other music would've been appropriate as well. It seems rather lazy to not consider what music carried over into the Fallout parallel universe from our own.
Kilgore Trout
Gyro Captain
I agree; the radio in New Vegas, while still annoying, does make sense given both the plot and the setting, unlike say Fallout 3 and 4, where it is just there.
T
TorontoReign
Guest
The radio in New Vegas actually fit the theme, so did the DJ, with the downside being the amount of songs and no Elvis (mods!). The radio in Fallout 4 is non-stop talking about fucking nukes. One or two songs would be fine but they recycled all the Fallout 3 shit and tossed in a couple of new ones and said fuck it. Such a waste. Are you telling me those old timey songs cost so much to use that they had to use the same ones? At least the Classical Music is done right but even then it seems like they went with the obvious retard choices for that as in they knew nothing about the genre of music and picked ones they heard on movies or TV.
Earth
Vault Senior Citizen
Did they at least play some variations of the Requiem Dies Irae? Like the Verdi or Mozart versions, considering the lyrics to Dies Irae actually mean "The Day of Wrath" "dissolve the world in ashes".
EDIT: Just looked it up. Apparently not. GG Bethesda. All of the fucking '40s songs had some dumb apocalypse connotation but you couldn't be arsed with the classical music huh? They realise that classical music also had themes right? They weren't just meaningless noises 18th Century people threw on because whatever. Oh, but I guess they played Mars from Gustav Holst's Planets, so clearly all of the effort was being put in there.
Even more EDIT:
NMA: No Mozart Allowed...
...at Bethesda anyway.
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T
TorontoReign
Guest
I almost facepalmed when I heard Requiem play. It seems like they went to a top 10 list or something and picked from it. And yeah they totally missed the point of course. At least it will get some young shits to enjoy some decent music I suppose.
Walpknut
This ghoul has seen it all
Anyone has noticed how Travis' reports on qiest completion are always super vague and make allusions to both solutions? At least Three Dog could tell what actually happened in most quests (except the Blood Ties one) without just implying that SOMETHING might have happened and Mr New Vegas and the NCR emergency radio during the Battle of Hoover Dam actually did have unique pieces on the different solutions for the quests he reported on.
Earth
Vault Senior Citizen
Heh, at least for us two, I guess Bethesda fans can call us not only gaming elitists but music ones too
I know it's Bethesda so there really isn't any point in complaining when it comes to their laziness, but details like the classical music are just infuriating to me. Grieg's Morning Mood? Seriously? How generic can you get? Looking at the list it's as you said, they just picked from some dumb top ten. It's all just the same shit we've heard before. Variety is the spice of life. Throw some Britten opera in there. If I'm gonna shoot mutants to classical music (and god that sounds dumb to begin with) at least let me do it to something fucking intense like the Rape of Lucretia. Sigh (mods'll fix it...<spits in disgust at that pathetic excuse for everything>).
Anyway, to return to topic. Radio's can work but really they should be using them for utilitarian reasons (unless you're living in a fairly civilised location like NCR territory or New Vegas). Galaxy News Radio in DC made zero sense in almost every way. It's pretty immersion breaking (kind of funny considering everyone keeps going on the immersive atmosphere). They weren't playing random radio signals in 28 Days Later for lolz. It had a point and an agenda behind it. Radio in Fallout should work the same, people calling out across the wastes if there's anybody out there Day of the Dead style.
Walpknut
This ghoul has seen it all
Ironically, despite the Minutemen being mediocrily excecuted, their use of a Radio was actually pretty logical and sensible, they would play music while giving warnnings about settlements being attacked, bad weather and to seek shelter at night, they didn't even have an annoying loud radio personality or a cringeworthy attempt at sounding "smooth" like with Travis. If only they didn't just dispense Radiant quests....
T
TorontoReign
Guest
Heh, at least for us two, I guess Bethesda fans can call us not only gaming elitists but music ones too
I know it's Bethesda so there really isn't any point in complaining when it comes to their laziness, but details like the classical music are just infuriating to me. Grieg's Morning Mood? Seriously? How generic can you get? Looking at the list it's as you said, they just picked from some dumb top ten. It's all just the same shit we've heard before. Variety is the spice of life. Throw some Britten opera in there. If I'm gonna shoot mutants to classical music (and god that sounds dumb to begin with) at least let me do it to something fucking intense like the Rape of Lucretia. Sigh (mods'll fix it...<spits in disgust at that pathetic excuse for everything>).
Anyway, to return to topic. Radio's can work but really they should be using them for utilitarian reasons (unless you're living in a fairly civilised location like NCR territory or New Vegas). Galaxy News Radio in DC made zero sense in almost every way. It's pretty immersion breaking (kind of funny considering everyone keeps going on the immersive atmosphere). They weren't playing random radio signals in 28 Days Later for lolz. It had a point and an agenda behind it. Radio in Fallout should work the same, people calling out across the wastes if there's anybody out there Day of the Dead style.
Props for mentioning two of my favorite zombie (infected) movies. Yes, as usual Bethesda has shown they cater to the lowest common denominator. They attempt to appear refined but they are so clueless it hurts.
Photoshop Todd and Pete Hines onto these two retards and you have the gist of it.
As you pointed out it would make sense if they used the radio for things, but as it is they are used just for music and announcements about the Sole Survivor. I don't think it is laziness though. I think they attempt to do things as cheap as possible. Surely, this is why they are still a team of 100 or so people when most other AAA studios are twice that at least.
Earth
Vault Senior Citizen
I would appreciate Bethesda more if they were at least passionate about the games they're making. But shit like this just proves that they're not. I watch videos and read interviews by the Obsidian guys and you can tell there's a real love for what they're doing. Then you see Bethesda and all you ever hear from are Todd and that creep Pete Hines. They just come across as snake-oil salesmen. Selling a product. Nothing more. It all feels so soulless.
I know it's just a big circlejerk to keep bitching about Bethesda, but it's infuriating seeing people defend them. Fans are passionate about Bethesda's games, and I can understand that, but to me Bethesda are just taking constant shits on their fans while laughing their way to the bank.
To return to your point. I think the radio broadcasts in Bethesda work towards building the power fantasy, having a character constantly fawn over everything you do in the game. Like everything else in Bethesda's games, it's designed to make the gamer feel good about themselves, rather than leave you with anything really fulfilling.
I noticed people have done screenshots of Fallout 4 from an isometric angle. Great, now we just need to fix the combat, the levelling system, the dialogue system, the world map and the story and we've got ourselves a Fallout game.
I know it's just a big circlejerk to keep bitching about Bethesda, but it's infuriating seeing people defend them. Fans are passionate about Bethesda's games, and I can understand that, but to me Bethesda are just taking constant shits on their fans while laughing their way to the bank.
To return to your point. I think the radio broadcasts in Bethesda work towards building the power fantasy, having a character constantly fawn over everything you do in the game. Like everything else in Bethesda's games, it's designed to make the gamer feel good about themselves, rather than leave you with anything really fulfilling.
I noticed people have done screenshots of Fallout 4 from an isometric angle. Great, now we just need to fix the combat, the levelling system, the dialogue system, the world map and the story and we've got ourselves a Fallout game.
Languorous_Maiar
A Smooth-Skin
Just think... Fallout era (2077) looks like people in 50s thought, it would look like. (bulky robots, big computers, retrofuturism in overall)
But it doesn't mean, that it should be stagnation in USA culture for over 100 years...
Songs from 50s being played in 2077 (and post-apocalypse) is so fucking stupid, that I can't get over it.
DirtyOldShoe
Some kind of lucky
Radio in FO3, FO4 and NV are actually an NPC standing in an empty room talking endlessly into your ear. When I say talking I mean singing too because the music is a quest set to randomly repeat its dialogue at specified branches. This is a little on the creepy side and seems like a relatively over complicated system. Having to actually build a quest, set priorities, link it to radio markers. I am disappointed in Bethesda for using the same awkward techniques for building stations. This system makes it more difficult for modders, so even though mods can fix this, they shouldn't have to. The engine reads .fuz files, there are converts that can do this in a snap. I would have liked if Bethesda at least tried something different, try to make it so players can just convert wav or mp3 to fuz and drop it in a music folder. I hate FO3 and FO4 so I can't say with reason that they made a mistake with how they implemented radio in those titles. I hate the entirety of their FO creations and try to not let the rage consume me. For FONV, It has a pretty good soundtrack on both stations in my opinion. Having all the quest titles as songs on the radio helps too. I think what Bethesda was trying to do was capture the Anempathetic music from the openings of 1 and 2 with the Ink Spots and Louis Armstrong playing with a backdrop of devastation to varying degrees. This tactic did work on me for the trailer of FO3, before I knew what Emil Pagliarulo did to a friend I grew up with. As with most of their recent creations, they have an good framework from a technical perspective, but lack focus, testing, writing and implementation. Radio in FO3 and 4 could be good, but the core, the story, would have needed to be written by literally anyone other than Emil Pagliarulo.
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Earth
Vault Senior Citizen
I love the quest titles. Adds character to them and I think New Vegas is one of the few games where I actually remember the names of quests. Heartache by the Number, Wang Dang Atomic Tango, Beyond the Beef, I Forgot to Remember to Forget....You can say the word "Baby" in a classic swing style to just about all of them. "Birds of a Feather baby"
EDIT: I want to quickly sing a little praise for the song "Begin Again". Strangely haunting and I kind of consider it New Vegas' unofficial theme tune, especially after I realised it was an original piece.
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Dr Fallout
Centurion
Yeah, the quest titles were pretty well written.