Bethesda Vs. Black Isle: Sex, Brats, And Addiction

[Ranne]

I'm sorry, your "on par" humor comparison only does a disservice to the inadequate sequel. When you discuss the qualities of a 2008 game that is Fallout 3, don't bring up its decade-old prequels. Look at other big games of that year, GTA IV and Mass Effect, and go from there.

Not that I blame you for not wanting to do just that. Comparing Fallout 3 to GTA IV is like comparing George W. Bush to Abraham Lincoln.

 

[Trithne]

"If the mechanic of the year suddenly appeared next to you both of you couldn't possibly repair this piece of junk"

That's really part of the whole 'emulating p&p' thing. Descriptions like that are normal in such an environment.

 

[Keegah]

I understood the point, and I loved the detail in those things. I'll never forget the message you get when you first leave the Vault 13 Mountain.
But I digress, Fallout never really seemed that funny to me. There's plenty of things to grill Fallout 3 about; Beth's sense of humor is an odd choice.
I guess it's just a matter or opinion when you get down to it.

 

[Herr Mike]

The pipboy cartoons are funny.

In FO2 the bad humor outweighed the good. Ha ha talking plant. Ha ha I lost to a Radscorpion in chess. Ha ha Tandi is a ghoul.

 

[Kyuu]

I did the same, but things like "If the mechanic of the year suddenly appeared next to you both of you couldn't possibly repair this piece of junk" (or something along those lines) doesn't seem that funny. In fact, it's pretty juvenile humor.

Uh? I never really thought that was intended to be terribly humorous or anything. It's simply a more colorful way of saying: "This car is damaged beyond repair." As opposed to how a Bethesda writer would have put it: "This car is super messed up."

It's just a description. That's a pretty poor example to pick out to try and make a point about Fallout's humor.

 

[TorontoReign]

I did the same, but things like "If the mechanic of the year suddenly appeared next to you both of you couldn't possibly repair this piece of junk" (or something along those lines) doesn't seem that funny. In fact, it's pretty juvenile humor.

Uh? I never really thought that was intended to be terribly humorous or anything. It's simply a more colorful way of saying: "This car is damaged beyond repair." As opposed to how a Bethesda writer would have put it: "This car is super messed up."

It's just a description. That's a pretty poor example to pick out to try and make a point about Fallout's humor.

I agree. You beat me to it. That one line of dialogue is better than Bethesda has to offer anyway.

 

[Keegah]

I was giving an example pal, as opposed to naming off ten different ones. Fine, how'sabout you give one?

 

[Yazman]

If you actually did un-install the game at that point then you have no right to criticise a game you never really played.

Well, I did take a closer second look (strictly for evaluating its modding potential) at most of the game's key locations - and, thus, at some of their content - with the help of the console's cell teleport command. Unsurprisingly, the game is all it appears to be from its very beginning. Nothing more, nothing le... Er, let's not embellish things. The humor stays bad, the gameplay mechanics stay defective, the writing continues to be as painfully dull and ludicrous as it was at the game's start, but the already crappy looking visuals only seem to get worse with every new dungeon.

Which leads me to my main point: when one bumps into something that looks and smells like a pile of crap, does one really have to taste it in order to be reasonably sure in its fecal authenticity? The thing resembles a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like one. I think it's save for me to say that it's not a goddamn flamingo.

Your fecal analogy is painfully inappropriate and almost gives me a headache just to read. We are talking about interactive media intended for viewing here and viewing a very small portion will never give you an idea of the whole picture.

You are basically saying, its ok to judge a book by its cover. Or more appropriately, that if you watch a trailer you've pretty much seen the whole movie.

 

[Atomic Cowboy]

Your fecal analogy is painfully inappropriate and almost gives me a headache just to read. We are talking about interactive media intended for viewing here and viewing a very small portion will never give you an idea of the whole picture.

You are basically saying, its ok to judge a book by its cover. Or more appropriately, that if you watch a trailer you've pretty much seen the whole movie.

I loved Die Hard 1 through 3, and I was looking forward to 4 until I saw the trailer. That one clip of him racing away from an exploding helicopter told me everything I needed to know about the movie. It was no longer a plausible, realistic action movie, it was now a blockbuster just like every other. Lots of people ignored the trailer, and went to see it, only to be dissapointed by the over the top action sequences.

Yes, I can judge a movie by it's trailer. If you can't, then what's the point of watching them in the first place? Why is it that I have to grind away at Fallout 3 for 18+ hours, before I'm allowed to sway 'it sucks'? I actually did exactly that, when a friend of mine challenged my negative opinion of the game. 18 hours later, the only thing I discovered is that it was even worse than I'd originally thought.

Why is it that all the fanboys are so threatened by a negative opinion? Is it because you don't actually have a good reason for liking it, and deep down you harbour the suspicion that it's actually a quite awful game?

I was giving an example pal, as opposed to naming off ten different ones. Fine, how'sabout you give one?

There's a description of some of the mattresses in the Den: "If you were to sleep by yourself in this bed, you wouldn't be alone." Or something to that effect.

 

[Keegah]

Which I still don't think is funny.
As I said, it's all just a matter of opinion. Fallout always seemed like it was trying too hard to me, even more so with Fallout 2, even more more so with Fallout 3.

 

[Per]

Fallout always seemed like it was trying too hard

A funny statement. You couldn't entertain the notion that it was never trying to be what you thought it failed to be, whatever that is?

 

[Keegah]

If it failed to be something, it would have had to try first.
Look, there are a few moments. I chuckled at Butch's overall persona, particularly "Time is money, chit-chat is not". I liked Beth and that bodyguard of hers, don't remember the name. If you want to push it I was even amused by the talking Brahma.
Fallout's a very clever game. It has a good atmosphere (I'll never forget walking down the hall to The Master), it has good ambiance, it has a few genuinely interesting characters. But it never struck me as funny. Again, it's all a matter of opinion, but if I had to explain why... I'd say it's because Fallout's sense of humor relies on what I'll call statement jokes. That is, jokes that are essentially just statements meant to be taken at face-value.
There's no hidden meaning, you don't have to think about it, you just read it and say "Huh, I guess that's funny" and keep walking down the road.

 

[Herr Mike]

I don't thing being funny was ever a goal in Fallout. The gaming press made a big deal about the "black humor" when attempting to describe the atmosphere, and it stuck.

The FO2 team decided that was a strength of the original and tried to amp up the funny. I don't think they succeeded, but evidently many people do. If you press for examples, you get "Monty Python reference!". I don't know. I'm going to play through it again and note all the humor that is so raved about.

 

[Herr Mike]

Vault City having all those water chips, and Vault 13 having all those GECKS was funny.

Saying "Booze, Wooz" made me chuckle

 

[PlanHex]

I recall a conversation somewhere in the first one that made me chuckle. Went something like:
VD: "Tell me about [whatever]"
Some Guy: "Don't you know about [whatever]? Did you grow up in a cave or something?"

I also noticed they made that joke in FO3. Pretty often actually.

 

[Ranne]

Which leads me to my main point: when one bumps into something that looks and smells like a pile of crap, does one really have to taste it in order to be reasonably sure in its fecal authenticity? The thing resembles a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like one. I think it's save for me to say that it's not a goddamn flamingo.

Your fecal analogy is painfully inappropriate and almost gives me a headache just to read.
...
You are basically saying, its ok to judge a book by its cover. Or more appropriately, that if you watch a trailer you've pretty much seen the whole movie.

Judging a book by its cover? Talk about inappropriate analogies.

If having a deep understanding of the game's engine, being thoroughly informed of its developers and their overall track record, watching dozens of various gameplay videos and reviews, as well as playing the game personally for about two hours and seeing all of its mechanics and most of its key locales is not enough to form an educated opinion about the game in question, then, frankly, I wouldn't even begin to imagine what is. Completing the game even when you're practically disgusted by it? My fecal analogy stands.


As of Fallout's humor, for the nth time, both games were made in the mid-nineties. Name me a mere handful of games (RPGs in particular) that offered better humor back in those days. Might and Magic V? Chrono Trigger? Daggerfall? Come on, people. If you're still having troubles adjusting for the time difference, just take a close look at GTA (1997) and GTA IV (2008) and see how Fallout's humor should have actually progressed in 2008.

That being said, "Beth's humor in Fallout 3 is on par with that found in Fallout 1 and 2" is still a bit of an overstatement, if you ask me.

Harold: They shoot ghouls on sight. Makes conversation a bit tricky.
Vault Dweller: How did you survive?
Harold: Didn't. Got killed...
[laughs then coughs]
Harold: God, I love that joke.
Vault Dweller: Yeah, I can tell.

Sinthia (hooker): Hey darling, how are you doing?
Vault Dweller: Just fine, but I could be better.
Sinthia: Maybe I can help you with that.
Vault Dweller: I woudn't let my dog touch you.

Chosen one: What's that pot on your head, kid?
Kid: It's not a pot, stupid. It's a helmet.
Chosen one: Call me stupid again, you little shit, and we'll see how well that helmet of yours protects you from a gaping head wound.

-I have a joke for you. Ready? Knock Knock.
-Who's there?
-Humans.
-Humans who?
-Kill the humans! Kill them all! Aggghhh!!!
-Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh... oh... ha ha ha ha ha ha... That's a good one!

-Two atoms are in a bar. One says, "I think I lost an electron". The other says, "Are you sure?" to which the other replies, "I'm positive."

-I ain't mean. Not by a long shot. You wanna see mean? You should have met my daddy. That son of a bitch'd cut your legs off just to laugh at you tryin' to crawl away. I saw him do it once too. Just kept laughing at this poor bastard. After an hour or so, Daddy got bored and crushed his skull with a rock. Come to think of it, THAT was pretty funny.

 

[Herr Mike]

You've successfully proven that none of the games are funny.

 

[Herr Mike]

Also, the knock-knock and robot jokes in FO3 are supposed to be stupid.

-I ain't mean. Not by a long shot. You wanna see mean? You should have met my daddy. That son of a bitch'd cut your legs off just to laugh at you tryin' to crawl away. I saw him do it once too. Just kept laughing at this poor bastard. After an hour or so, Daddy got bored and crushed his skull with a rock. Come to think of it, THAT was pretty funny.

What's wrong with that? I got a chuckle out of it. I don't remember it in the game though.

 

[Per]

If someone claims that something is characterized by dark, laconic humour, challenging them to quote something to make you laugh is not a good way of proving them wrong. It's mostly a good way to show you didn't understand. Summing up the differences between Fo1 and Fo2 as "Monty Python references" is another.

Also, don't double post.

 

[Ranne]

What's wrong with that? I got a chuckle out of it.

Oh, you liked that last one, didn't ya? Here's another one for you:

I once visited a crematorium that gave discounts for burn victims.

Now that's what I call funny: trite, nonsensical, and downright tasteless. Great stuff, great stuff...

As with the robot jokes, this is the best Fallout 3 humor I could dig up. If you - or anyone else, for this matter - got any better examples up your sleeves, I'm actually quite interested in hearing them all.