Crispy Gamer and VideoGamer play Fallout 3

[SpeaK]

I have a more of a problem with how the radio's are going to affect the feeling of you exploring the wasteland, rather than how they're implemented or explained. (not that that's looking good either)

In previous Fallouts, you have the nice 50's music in the intro's, which fit very well, because after that music, the ambient music began and they show you how the world is really like. Contrast!

Having 50's music playing throughout the game 'just because' lessens this contrast and the feeling the originals had with the ambient music.

 

[FeelTheRads]

the first being for atmosphere - so you can listen to some nice 50's tunes while playing, giving off that great vibe the earlier Fallouts gave off with the intro music.

How about putting the music in the the main menu and not carrying it with you? And if you want to argue that civilization has come to a point where they can start radio stations, then please to tell me why everything looks like the bombs just fell. Inconsistency? No way.

Plus, the Fallout games had only one 50s song per game and you couldn't listen it while playing the game. Again, Bethesda just fucks it up and turns a special feature into something bland and repetitive.

Who is going to pay those DJs?

The Enclave it seems, some of them. The others are self-employed, and their only desire is to bring the gift of music to the wasteland.

 

[Blazerfrost]

It doesn't make sense for the smaller towns to use power to send out tunes, but it does make sense if it was a community like vault city. They would have plenty of power to set up a radio station.

Actually it wouldn't, since they already didn't have enough power as it is to survive (the whole reason behind the Gecko quest) and Gecko would be more concerned getting their reactor fixed and trading power for medication than get a radio station up and running. Both of these cases show how they are more interested in using power for survival (like someone pointed out). Maybe after you fixed the plant, but I think extra power would rather be applied to more constructive use. And a music radio station is too much of a civilized luxury, not fitting in a hostile Wasteland.

 

[4rekl]

Oblivion would have been a better game with a radio-like feature. You could have had a minstrel following you around playing tunes and giving you weather updates. Whenever you wanted to change songs you could have given your minstrel a shake.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Oblivion would have been a better game with a radio-like feature. You could have had a minstrel following you around playing tunes and giving you weather updates. Whenever you wanted to change songs you could have given your minstrel a shake.

Minstrels? How immersion breaking, there aren't minstrels in TES, now what they really should have done was given you a magical tuning fork that you worked like a radio and would switch channels when you hit it. That or a tiny monkey with cymbols that changed channels when you kicked it, that way they could brag that they had radio stations AND pets!

 

[analord]

Who is going to pay those DJs?

That's what I want to know.

 

[4rekl]

That's what I want to know.

Some just people do it for the love of it, or to push out a point of view.

How immersion breaking, there aren't minstrels in TES

True. The tuning fork would work better. Instead of a monkey though you could have a trained imp flying next to you, which would be a cooler pet.

 

[alec]

Oblivion would have been a better game with a radio-like feature. You could have had a minstrel following you around playing tunes and giving you weather updates. Whenever you wanted to change songs you could have given your minstrel a shake.

Give that man a balloon or something, 'cause this made my day, and the day has only just begun.

Brilliantly funny.

 

[13pm]

whirlingdervish's point is what I thought about too concerning the radio.

I really could've understood some in-faction trainsmissions. But playing music just for fun doesn't make too much sense.

I can justify the Enclave radio playing patriotic songs and broadcasting propaganda.
I also can get why some enthusiat could've used the old radios to broadcast something. But I can't get why someone wouldn't have wanted to make a use of the working radio station for their own purposes. But maybe it is ingame, who knows.

Also, there's one more point here: radio and TV trainsmitters should've been one of the primary targets when the war started. So most probably nothing was left of the old stations.

Then those enthusiats should've been built their own stations from scratch.

Though I don't doubt the radio stations can exist, especially 200+ years after the war, I strongly doubt the existence of multiple stations with DJs. That makes no sense.

 

[Voice Of Reason]

In previous Fallouts, you have the nice 50's music in the intro's, which fit very well, because after that music, the ambient music began and they show you how the world is really like. Contrast!

Guys, stop arguing about the radio thing. It's futile.

Here's my idea of featuring a radio in such a setting.
You stumble upon some hidden village that is quite intact but empty. among other things, you pick up an old radio (maybe solar powered?). while progressing in the game, you suddenly pick up a broadcast. somebody still seems to hope to find likeminded people that way (i'm thinking of someone like the scientist from waterworld). by collecting hints from the broadcasted texts, you guess the estimate position of the broadcaster. when you are getting near, the broadcaster is speaking about fearing an attack, then you hear sounds of a fight. when you arrive, you find him dead and robbed.

Immersion!

by the way beth does it, it just won't work. swapping ingame music with "radio-quality" 50's songs all the time will make you switch it off soon. why are there tons of radio stations? why is a fscking radio built into the pipboy?? NO immersion. sorry.

 

[ookami]

Also, there's one more point here: radio and TV trainsmitters should've been one of the primary targets when the war started. So most probably nothing was left of the old stations.

In addition to that, any equipment that survived would surely be the target of scavengers as soon as it was survivable enough for them to be active (*this is also my argument against explosive cars laying around all over the place). The BoS would quite likely want to take and preserve what they could as well. It also seems more likely that the Enclave would be making a grab for it. I find it very hard to buy that there's some enthusiast DJ out there that can stand up to scavengers, the BoS and the Enclave effectively enough to hold onto their broadcasting equipment for the frivolous purpose of playing some old tunes?

The built-in radio on the PIPBoy is also counter-intuitive to the Vault Experiment. Radio = communication. Communication = greater risk of inter-communication between Vaults. Inter-communication between Vaults = risk that the Vault Experiment would be figured out by many and thus compromised.

It just stretches the logic of the established setting too much.

 

[Edmond Dantès]

Oblivion would have been a better game with a radio-like feature. You could have had a minstrel following you around playing tunes and giving you weather updates. Whenever you wanted to change songs you could have given your minstrel a shake.

And the minstrel would be able to eloquently sing and praise your exploits, especially while valiantly running away from a three-headed-knight.

If a radio and radio stations are such a bad idea, why not have a minstrel in Fallout 3? Of course, the minstrel must be edible.

"In the frozen wastelands of D.C. the Vault Dweller was forced to eat his minstrels. And there was much rejoice."

 

[Brother None]

What i want to know is who is listening to these radio stations besides you

The Enclave station is broadcast by the Eyebots, and there was a radio in Megaton that was receiving music too, in the bar where you meet Mr Burke.

Still yeah, a lack of listeners is yet another issue.

More so valve since having played portal, I know they have some very talented writers.

Valve's main team wasn't involved in the writing of Portal, as far as I know, it was made by the Nuclear Monkey Software/Narbacular Drop team that Valve hired.

Power is not that much of an issue in the fallout universe (sure I know it's not "abundant", but it's not super scarce either)

Really?

So, uh, how many of the communities in Fallout 1 & 2 had working power generators? The BoS and Enclave do, obviously, and the richer towns in Fallout 2 did (NCR and Vault City). Broken Hills had major issues even keeping its generator in the mines running, and its power generator was also not generating enough juice to provide requested-for energy to everyone.

We are talking Something to provide entertainment and news for the town and surrounding communities...

Why?

I repeat, this is the description of Capital Wasteland:
That’s why, for the people of the Capital Wasteland, the Brotherhood of Steel was the answer to their prayers. Scattered, hungry, and largely disorganized, they had lived with the constant threat of death or capture by the Super Mutants for as long as they could remember.

Does that sound like a society that has people to spare for entertainment purposes, let alone for broadcasting entertainment rather than just providing it to their own community?

So you can label it any word you want.. you're not going to hurt my feelings.. and talk all you want about working brain cells, you're still wrong.

Oh. Good thing you told us all we're wrong. We might be confused about it.

 

[Polynikes]

So you can label it any word you want.. you're not going to hurt my feelings.. and talk all you want about working brain cells, you're still wrong.

Excellent argument. Allow me to retort.

I'm rubber and you're glue! Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!

 

[whirlingdervish]

minstrels! ROFL!

Then we'd have a 4 page discussion about where they found the coconuts on the east coast to clap together as they follow the PC singing his praises..

 

[Scare]

Why isn't anyone coming up with the automated radio station retrofit excuse for Beth's haphazard game design?

 

[Beelzebud]

Valve's main team wasn't involved in the writing of Portal, as far as I know, it was made by the Nuclear Monkey Software/Narbacular Drop team that Valve hired.

Actually the Narbacular Drop team just did the portal game mechanics. The story, and how it ties to the Half Life games were all done by Valve's writer, Marc Laidlaw.

If you play Narbacular Drop you see it bears little resemblance to Portal beyond the linked-portal game mechanic.

 

[Brother None]

Actually the Narbacular Drop team just did the portal game mechanics. The story, and how it ties to the Half Life games were all done by Valve's writer, Marc Laidlaw.

If you play Narbacular Drop you see it bears little resemblance to Portal beyond the linked-portal game mechanic.

I have played Narbacular Drop.

I'll believe the tie-ins were done by a Valve writer, but I thought Kim Swift and the other devs were responsible for a lot the look and jokey nature. That the Narbacular Drop team only did the mechanics is patently untrue, in either case.

Don't really know, tho'. Any links to interviews on this topic?

 

[Beelzebud]

In any event it's moot because the Narbacular Drop team is now part of the Valve team.

 

[Garsty]

I find the text written in http://news.bigdownload.com/gallery/five-reasons-to-love-fallout-3/960780/ rather illogical.

...
These guys are obviously huge fans of the previous games, but they're also wonderfully talented developers. The biggest fault anyone who played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion could find was that the world, it's people and generally the lore itself was kind of bland and arguably trite in some ways.

None of that is fully Bethesda's fault, though. Creating your own IP can be both challenging and expensive in terms of time and money, which are two things a developer requires to create a great game. It's reasonable to think that this is part of the reason they bought the Fallout license.

So what it comes down to is that Bethesda are amazing game designers. They think up wonderfully creative ideas and do everything they can to implement them perfectly (or nearly so) in their games.
...

So it's not Bethesda's, and all of their wonderfully talented developers, fault that Oblivion was a bland game? And they're amazing game designers at the same time?

I can really see the wonderful talent of Bethesda's developers in their 'creative' ideas in Fallout3. We'll only have to wait and see how perfectly they have implemented it.