Chancellor Kremlin
Mildly Dipped
Hi, im new here.
But let me tell you where I stand. I am an old school/old guard fallout fan. Fallout 1 and 2, are quite possibly the best games ever made. Fallout 2 in my opinion is a priceless game. It represents the golden age of a bygone era, the pinnacle of achievement in the gaming world.
It excelled in being an rpg, and a hilariously serious one at that, like Half Life 2 excells in being a FPS.
Anyway, I haven't purchased or played Fallout 3 yet, but from what I hear it can be summed as follows: Its a good game, but a bad fallout sequel.
I hear annoying kids who cant be killed are a particular slap on the face of the true fallout community.
I miss the good old days where you could sledgehammer a kid in his groin if he pissed you off too much. Twisted mentality? PErhaps... but I will come to that in a minute.
Basically, for a future game, what should DEFINITELY be there is a good solid story line, a non-linear gaming experience (what made fallout one and two so replayable) and decent graphics.
But what about those extras that make the game what it is? Like in fallout 2, with its ambiguous morality. You could kill a kid, sure, but being labelled 'child killer', being hated by all and being chased by bounty hunters definitely put a large dent in your gameplay.
The lesson? If you want to be a bastard you are free to be one, but there will be consequences. One of the reasons I loved fallout is because it allowed you to be whatever you wanted. Most of the time I was generally a good guy, but an opportunistic one at that.
While I found playing good guys/girls the most rewarding, I found playing bad characters the most fun. The game had it all. You could be a gangster, you could be a pornstar, you could be a martial arts bruce lee master, you could join the brotherhood, you could even prostitute yourself if you wanted to! The possibilities were endless.
So what should a future game have of that sort of 'freedom'? Well, definitely all of the previous stuff, and definitely the dark humour and some of the cultural references that made the game so funny.
People these days are so worried about controversial themes in games that are likely to affect sales, such as drugs use, sex and nudity and even morality. Fallout had a way of asnwering to that with a simple mechanic: Kill kids, your game will almost become unplayable. Use drugs, you will become addicted and have a harder time playing your game. And sex was used to further your objectives. The mechanics are much as it is in the real world, you cannot do things that would screw you up in the real world without having similar consequences.
So perhaps a fallout 4 could integrate such 'adult themes' without too much problems. Or perhaps even expand on it. Allow your character to sleep with pretty much anybody, but have STD's play a part. Everybody remember the ubiquitous condoms in fallout 2? They could definitely play a part, as indeed they do in real life.
Or have the player face real and challenging situations, like a no win situation. I don't know, to save a village you have to let a small group of innocent villagers die, or something like that. Tests of character and so on. Situations that really immerse you into the story.
Or sidequests involving getting a job. ANything ranging from 'Expert Excrement Shover', dealing guns (a good possible way of getting factions against each other, weakening them or just arming yourself), being a gangster (well all loved the godfather undertones), a mechanic (allowing you to get parts for vehicles, mod them and so on), or even pimping/prostitution. YOu could rise the ranks and perhaps become the owner of the brothel.
Small side quests like that that don't directly add to the storyline, but help you in some way to further the game (through money, spare parts, influence, contacts (say the only way you can get to someone high in power is as a hooker - oh wait? Fallout 2 alredy did that with Myron. Wow those guys really DID think of everything!) etc etc etc... its quests and missions such as these that make the game replayable, you can take a break from playing the game and still play the game, but as a normal person and not as a vault-dweller trying to save the world. IT also makes the game replayable, not to mention, AWESOME!
SO yeah, I think thats about it. For a first post, I think its large as it is, so I will save other ideas for later. Ideally we should all pool our money, buy the fallout rights and make the game ourselves. OR perhaps we all play on the lotery and whoever wins does the same. Whichever is quicker.
But let me tell you where I stand. I am an old school/old guard fallout fan. Fallout 1 and 2, are quite possibly the best games ever made. Fallout 2 in my opinion is a priceless game. It represents the golden age of a bygone era, the pinnacle of achievement in the gaming world.
It excelled in being an rpg, and a hilariously serious one at that, like Half Life 2 excells in being a FPS.
Anyway, I haven't purchased or played Fallout 3 yet, but from what I hear it can be summed as follows: Its a good game, but a bad fallout sequel.
I hear annoying kids who cant be killed are a particular slap on the face of the true fallout community.
I miss the good old days where you could sledgehammer a kid in his groin if he pissed you off too much. Twisted mentality? PErhaps... but I will come to that in a minute.
Basically, for a future game, what should DEFINITELY be there is a good solid story line, a non-linear gaming experience (what made fallout one and two so replayable) and decent graphics.
But what about those extras that make the game what it is? Like in fallout 2, with its ambiguous morality. You could kill a kid, sure, but being labelled 'child killer', being hated by all and being chased by bounty hunters definitely put a large dent in your gameplay.
The lesson? If you want to be a bastard you are free to be one, but there will be consequences. One of the reasons I loved fallout is because it allowed you to be whatever you wanted. Most of the time I was generally a good guy, but an opportunistic one at that.
While I found playing good guys/girls the most rewarding, I found playing bad characters the most fun. The game had it all. You could be a gangster, you could be a pornstar, you could be a martial arts bruce lee master, you could join the brotherhood, you could even prostitute yourself if you wanted to! The possibilities were endless.
So what should a future game have of that sort of 'freedom'? Well, definitely all of the previous stuff, and definitely the dark humour and some of the cultural references that made the game so funny.
People these days are so worried about controversial themes in games that are likely to affect sales, such as drugs use, sex and nudity and even morality. Fallout had a way of asnwering to that with a simple mechanic: Kill kids, your game will almost become unplayable. Use drugs, you will become addicted and have a harder time playing your game. And sex was used to further your objectives. The mechanics are much as it is in the real world, you cannot do things that would screw you up in the real world without having similar consequences.
So perhaps a fallout 4 could integrate such 'adult themes' without too much problems. Or perhaps even expand on it. Allow your character to sleep with pretty much anybody, but have STD's play a part. Everybody remember the ubiquitous condoms in fallout 2? They could definitely play a part, as indeed they do in real life.
Or have the player face real and challenging situations, like a no win situation. I don't know, to save a village you have to let a small group of innocent villagers die, or something like that. Tests of character and so on. Situations that really immerse you into the story.
Or sidequests involving getting a job. ANything ranging from 'Expert Excrement Shover', dealing guns (a good possible way of getting factions against each other, weakening them or just arming yourself), being a gangster (well all loved the godfather undertones), a mechanic (allowing you to get parts for vehicles, mod them and so on), or even pimping/prostitution. YOu could rise the ranks and perhaps become the owner of the brothel.
Small side quests like that that don't directly add to the storyline, but help you in some way to further the game (through money, spare parts, influence, contacts (say the only way you can get to someone high in power is as a hooker - oh wait? Fallout 2 alredy did that with Myron. Wow those guys really DID think of everything!) etc etc etc... its quests and missions such as these that make the game replayable, you can take a break from playing the game and still play the game, but as a normal person and not as a vault-dweller trying to save the world. IT also makes the game replayable, not to mention, AWESOME!
SO yeah, I think thats about it. For a first post, I think its large as it is, so I will save other ideas for later. Ideally we should all pool our money, buy the fallout rights and make the game ourselves. OR perhaps we all play on the lotery and whoever wins does the same. Whichever is quicker.
(though it lack the freedom in doing quests.)