Xython said:
It only looked cartoonish because of the technology of the time. They couldn't exactly go nuts with the graphics with sprites, after all.
Bullshit. The fact FO and FO2 looked cartoonish had nothing to do with "the technology of the time". It had to do with the setting, which was pretty damn consistent (though less so in FO2). The cartoonish flavour of FO and FO2 is not a result of the limited possibilities of that time, it's the product of a well-defined and structured setting. That's what most recent posters fail to grasp. The Fallout universe is a system. It's a world of retro-futurism, based on EC comics, 50's architecture, technology and so on. It was Boyarski's brainchild. If it had been more complex to mould, the original FO team would still have been able to do it, I have no doubt about that whatsoever. That's because the gamer's ethics were different back then. They didn't go for the easy win, the *kaching* $$$$, no, they wanted to structure an idea, a setting, a story, something they believed in. The FO and FO2 talking heads are still superior to lots of things you see in games nowadays. They had a vision. And that's one of the things I like so much about FO and FO2. You see creativity taking shape. You see a brilliant idea materializing. Don't you ever think they took the easy way out. The original FO team was probably one of those rare moments in game history when a group of people came together and everything just made sense. The chemistry was there.
If certain things look cartoonish to you, then you can bet your arse they were meant to look cartoonish. Take the Supermutants, for instance. They didn't want to confront the player with creatures that were biologically feasible, no, they wanted to confront you with creatures that would have made sense in 50's comics or 50's movies. Realism doesn't matter in the Fallout universe. That's one of the things that makes it so special and, apparently, so hard for outsiders to understand.
The original FO team went nuts with the technology of the time. The talking heads are amongst the most beautiful things I have ever seen in a computergame. They're art, if you ask me. They are the proof that, back in the good ol' days, developers weren't afraid to explore the boundaries of what was technologically possible at that time. Nowadays, it's all the same. A little more polygons maybe, a better set of skins maybe, but the effort or even the lust to aim for what is still technologically feasible is gone. No more exploring the boundaries. No more exploring new possibilities. It's all about emptying people's pockets now, not about constructing a solid statue that will stand for years to come.
Xython said:
It looks fine. They even got the random propaganda and 1950s-era technology right.
No, they have not. They have failed. Miserably. The 'new' Vault of the Future posters look like shite when you compare them to the original ones. The style is completely wrong. I don't know if they've contracted crappy artists or what, but they've got it all wrong. Look at how they implemented Vault Boy. That looks like copy and paste to me. The clear line style of Vault Boy does not match with the 'withered by the seasons' style of the billboards. Even the colour scheme doesn't match. Even I could do better with my Paint Shop Pro 8. Which only costed me 40 euros.
Take a look at the PipBoy 3000. How does that contraption look? Does it look like something that withstanded 200 years of fallout and (ab)use? Does it look like something the 50's could have come up with? No. Not only does it incorparate a Vault-Tec Vaultboy into a Robco product, it also manages to fuck up the setting by looking so modern (it would not have been out of tune on the wrist of the Predator) it makes my lonely heart ache.
I don't even feel like discussing the handheld nuclear catapult or the Supersledge that looks like someting the Goths would have forged in their main camp.
The more I look at those screenshots, the more pissed off and angry I get.
I am not buying that piece of capitalist crap.
I hope the Bethesda headquarters go up in flames, including the staff.
