tekhedd
Hoarding ammo IS gameplay
1) The real criticism of Beth is that they aren't even remotely respectful to the pre-existing games. (and their writing is bland to the point where it feels like any entertaining story moments were left in by accident deep in a side-quest vault where nobody bothered to proofread but that's not a lore criticism)
Yes this gets conflated with "this lore is better than that lore", but the whole thread counts as "getting sidetracked".
(That said, "Bethesda's Writing Often Sucks" I think is a legit complaint. You can tell a completely inconsistent story and still make it fun.)
2) Agreed, Fallout 1 is silly. It's alternatively ironic, darkly funny, or sometimes has a simple "real people in the wasteland" that is both gritty in the moment and ironic when set against the backdrop of 50s sci-fi "space age" optimism.
The thing is, it *is* funny. Humor requires timing and understanding how to set up a joke. It's like the difference between good comedy and Adam Sandler, ie "actual humor" vs "reference to thing you liked as a kid!"
All of Bethesda's "enormous sandboxes" are a bit humor deficient. I've wasted plenty of time in them, but not much of that was smiling.
I'm not sure if I'd put F2 in the same league as F1 writing-wise but it had moments.
[edit] Er, so my point is I'm OK with the newer games doing silly things, I just wish they were better at it, because I actually like the environmental design and a lot of the things they've done, and occasionally some of the writing etc. It's a question of "corporate safe big money entertainment with zero risk" doesn't do comedy well. And at the core, Fallout at its best is some sort of gameplay (dungeon crawl? rpg puzzles? a lame city builder sim?) steeped in black comedy. Comedy is always dangerous.![Smile :) :)](/../../xencustomimages/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
[edit2] Hmm. Bethesda is the "Adam Sandler" of Fallout? "Look at this, it's a reference to that 50s thing!" "Listen, it's a song from before the war!"
Yes this gets conflated with "this lore is better than that lore", but the whole thread counts as "getting sidetracked".
(That said, "Bethesda's Writing Often Sucks" I think is a legit complaint. You can tell a completely inconsistent story and still make it fun.)
2) Agreed, Fallout 1 is silly. It's alternatively ironic, darkly funny, or sometimes has a simple "real people in the wasteland" that is both gritty in the moment and ironic when set against the backdrop of 50s sci-fi "space age" optimism.
The thing is, it *is* funny. Humor requires timing and understanding how to set up a joke. It's like the difference between good comedy and Adam Sandler, ie "actual humor" vs "reference to thing you liked as a kid!"
All of Bethesda's "enormous sandboxes" are a bit humor deficient. I've wasted plenty of time in them, but not much of that was smiling.
I'm not sure if I'd put F2 in the same league as F1 writing-wise but it had moments.
[edit] Er, so my point is I'm OK with the newer games doing silly things, I just wish they were better at it, because I actually like the environmental design and a lot of the things they've done, and occasionally some of the writing etc. It's a question of "corporate safe big money entertainment with zero risk" doesn't do comedy well. And at the core, Fallout at its best is some sort of gameplay (dungeon crawl? rpg puzzles? a lame city builder sim?) steeped in black comedy. Comedy is always dangerous.
![Smile :) :)](/../../xencustomimages/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
[edit2] Hmm. Bethesda is the "Adam Sandler" of Fallout? "Look at this, it's a reference to that 50s thing!" "Listen, it's a song from before the war!"
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