Is it just me or the PA is all the rage these days...

F

Fallout1FTW

Still Mildly Glowing
I noticed that lately a lot of games are into the post-apocalyptic. It's not that I don't like PA but I feel that it will bore people to tears in the future just like "generic" fantasy does these days. So here are some examples of latest PA offerings for players. What do you think, is this some passable trend or will it become a staple?

Wizards of the Cost
They're steadily releasing only PA material for DnD 4.

Forgotten Realms - timeline advanced 100 years in future after a cataclysm reshaped the continent
Gamma World - a futuristic PA setting
Dark Sun - a fantasy PA setting

id Software
Rage - PA world after a meteor struck the Earth

Bioware
Mass Effect 3 - The world goes to shit after robots invade

Blizzard
WoW Cataclysm - self explanationary
 
I am not sure if Mass Effect 3 can be really seen as post apocalyptic. The attack on the earth is more or less just one of thousands of planets in the galaxy. Alright, earth is your home. But still :P
 
If PA is period that occurs after the apocalypse, how would you define cataclysm then - as being a separate event from the apocalypse?
 
Dark Sun is hardly a new setting either, it is classic D&D and one of the stronger ones behind Forgotten Realms. More of a dying world type deal and not completely PA although you do get the feeling.

So no, I don't think anything is being overdone.
 
post apocalyptic settings have become sort of a trend lately, in both games and cinema. but your examples are pretty bad ones.
 
aenemic said:
post apocalyptic settings have become sort of a trend lately, in both games and cinema. but your examples are pretty bad ones.
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Not more of a trend than before...
A lot of modern movies are just remakes of older ones or inspired by books. And for most games there were others before.
Mad Max, Burntime, I am Legend, Waterworld, Fallout, Madrax, Postman and whatnot were done quite some time ago, and that are only the ones i remember within 2 minutes.
So i don't think there's a real trend - unlike for big Fantasy movies (which also only holds true for movies) or vampire-series (again only for TV).
 
There are so many ways to do post-apocalyptic, but in the end, it's all about the particular implementation of a given setting. The implementation is everything.

Just look at

Terminator 1&2 vs. Terminator 3&4
Alien/Aliens vs. Alien 3&4
Star Wars: Ep.5 vs. Star Wars: Ep. 2
Fallout 1 vs. Fallout 3 ;)
 
dont diss Alien 3 ... itwas good ok D: ! The studio 20fox fucked it up big time. When they filmed half trough the movie they changed the director, had like 12 different scripts present. Fincher which came only later as director to the project is a god ! He rescued what there was left and STILL had to constantly fight with the studio and they stabed him in the back a few times.
 
I hope you're not implying Alien 3 failed in its implementation ! I think it's the best movie in the way it captures an atmosphere of its own, without showing too much action. Sort of like an Alien 1, but with better production and a kickass ambiance. And the end pursuit in the corridors is one of the best sequences I've been given to see in a movie, ever. Also, our dear miss without hair is just badass as hell.

Oh, I just saw Monsters to corroborate the post-apocalyptic tendency.
It's quite shitty, but the post-apo atmosphere is done well.
 
Crni Vuk said:
dont diss Alien 3 ... itwas good ok D: ! The studio 20fox fucked it up big time. When they filmed half trough the movie they changed the director, had like 12 different scripts present. Fincher which came only later as director to the project is a god ! He rescued what there was left and STILL had to constantly fight with the studio and they stabed him in the back a few times.
Click to expand...

I loved Alien 3 since i saw it when I was a kid. I just watched it recently along with the 4th. The 4th one is also good, even though they turned it into an almost goofy at times dark comedy. oh nostaglia :D
 
thegaresexperience said:
The 4th one is also good
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Wow. Just wow. Alien: Resurrection is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I try to pretend it never happened, but it's just so bad.

Alien 3 was pretty "meh," as people would say. It started off "on the wrong foot" (as other people would say) for me, as Newt just drowned. Drowned? That's it? Okay, then the whole deal in Aliens was all for nothing. Great.

Best movie in the series is Alien, without a doubt, with Aliens a somewhat close second. After Aliens, the movies just kept getting worse and worse.

Anyway, to be on topic, PA stuff: "All the rage?" Hardly. The trend of post-apocalyptic related things comes and goes. There is always some sort of resurgence of interest with every generation. It hasn't been done ad nauseam... yet.
 
Yeah, first of all Alien 3 started off horribly and disrespectfully destroying everything Ripley worked for in previous films, and ending on the same note.

Everyone who escaped Aliens was now dead, except her - that's how it starts.

And then it ends with her discovering she has an alien inside her, and jumping into lava. Way to steal the ending from Terminator 2, very imaginative.
 
Yeah, while my examples aren't strictly PA they're sure catering to such audience. They evoke the same "the world has gone FUBAR"
feeling for me.

Oh and bring on Duke Nukem Forever 8-)
 
There may be a big amount of PA done, but the amount of PA done right is tiny. Fallout 1 comes to mind, of course.
 
Everything goes in waves, it's like with movies.

But the PA wave broke a good while ago. Probably around Borderlands we were hitting a summit.
 
SuAside said:
But the PA wave broke a good while ago. Probably around Borderlands we were hitting a summit.
Click to expand...

Flood of post-apocalyptic games (some of which were actually good) and films (dunno if any of them were good, none of the ones I saw), so yeah, you're a bit behind the curve here, FTW.
 
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