Fallout 3 trailer: June 5. Page updated with AWESOME.

[Ford Prefect]

That was an awesome trailer. The moment the screen blanked out, I was saying to myself: "Ron Perlman! say it! say it!"

And then it was said, and there was much rejoicing.

Yes indeed. I liked every other part (yes, it's Fallout. I can feel it being Fallout), but when the line hit my ears, I couldn't help but think that Betheda was doing their best to to make Fallout 3 the best it would possibly be.

[Academia Nut]

And the bitching has already begun. I showed this to a friend who is a big Fallout fan, and his response was that he could take a shit and it would look better than that. No hurrahs at the fact that Bethseda got the atmosphere right or properly used all of the various references to previous Fallout works, just irrational hatred. I mean, who else out there actually cares that the graphics aren't super shiny photorealistic affairs? Fuck, Fallout should be a bit cartoony and more than a little not-shiny.

[Vympel]

And the bitching has already begun. I showed this to a friend who is a big Fallout fan, and his response was that he could take a shit and it would look better than that.

What a whackjob. What exactly was the problem?

No hurrahs at the fact that Bethseda got the atmosphere right or properly used all of the various references to previous Fallout works, just irrational hatred. I mean, who else out there actually cares that the graphics aren't super shiny photorealistic affairs? Fuck, Fallout should be a bit cartoony and more than a little not-shiny.

WTF? Super shiny, photorealism? That was his complaint? Since when was that ever a feature of essential Fallout? I must've missed such photorealism when guys were getting half their torso blasted away with a .223 pistol.

[brianeyci]

I mean, who else out there actually cares that the graphics aren't super shiny photorealistic affairs?

What?

Maybe it's because I play retro games and I didn't have access to a good computer until three weeks ago, but those graphics look incredible.

Or is he one of those freaks who wants maximum anti-aliasing or else. Is he looking at the high definition version (if there is one?)

[Academia Nut]

He never said photo-realism per se, but yeah, he said he just hated the graphics and was totally unimpressed by the whole thing, which left me rather puzzled. Why the fuck he would harp on the graphics I have no idea, but that was his complaint. Which is strange since he often likes older games with poorer graphics. I think he's just grasping for straws because he's at heart an unrepentant No Mutants Allowed style Fallout fanboy and any attempt at a Fallout that is not just a rehash of 1&2 in all ways possible is offensive to his sensibilities.

Fuck, you'd think the fanboys would like this kind of teaser seeing as its probably going to be the opening moving and its thematically near identical to the first half of the original Fallout opening movie. Plus while there are admittedly better graphics out there, Fallout has never been about graphics but an engaging story and senseless violence. The complaint is like bitching that Quake has a crappy storyline. Yeesh.

[Stark]

I think it's awesome that Fallout idiots can whinge about a trailer - which is the intro, shows you nothing about how the game is played, and basically justs says 'hey check it out, Fallout 1 was awesome, ps we're in Washington'.

[Netko]

That looks awesome. If they get Fallout crossed with Stalker but finished, it'll be kickass.

I'm not brave enough to even LOOK at teh Beth forums.

I braved it and took a look at that cesspool. There seems to be a split about 50/50 between the reasonable fans going "Yay! Fallouty goodness!" and the screechers complaining about:

1. OMG! NO GAMEPLAY!
2. OMG! Anyone could have done it!
3. OMG! It still might not have my <golum>precioooouuussssssss</golum> isometric turnbased
4. Not shown anything new! Beth, give me the development bible, STAT!

Idiots.

[Adrian McNair]

That was absolutely fan-fricking-tastic. Those No Mutants Allowed arseholes are firmly divorced from reality if they honestly believe that teaser doesn't capture the atmosphere and essence of Fallout. As far as I'm concerned, that teaser has triumphed in its purpose of drawing me in and building my anticipation.

The NMA fanwhores whining aside, does anyone know if Ron Perlman is attached to do narration duties? If they could hire Liam Neeson, I don't see what major difficulties they could have in obtaining Ron's services either.

[Cao Cao]

However, your little kneejerk shows me you're looking to find any flaw you can to justify hating the game. The armor looks postapocalyptic. It doesn't look like shitty CG from ten years ago, and yet it shares a lot of similar design characteristics to the originals. That it doesn't look EXACTLY the same doesn't mean shit to me, to be honest.

Well I could point out that Power Armour is not supposed to be post-apocalyptic.
Besides, there are just some things you don't mess with. It would be like making a Star Wars sequel where lightsabers are coloured brown and made of feathers.

I have no criticisms for the rest of the video, however.

The NMA fanwhores whining aside, does anyone know if Ron Perlman is attached to do narration duties? If they could hire Liam Neeson, I don't see what major difficulties they could have in obtaining Ron's services either.

Who do you think says "War.. war never changes" at the end of the trailer?
It's been confirmed as a new recording too, so he's on board.

[Adrian McNair]

Who do you think says "War.. war never changes" at the end of the trailer?

I know that, I just thought Bethesda might have spliced in an audio clip from one of the previous games for the sake of posterity.

It's been confirmed as a new recording too, so he's on board.

Excellent.

[Hotfoot]

Well I could point out that Power Armour is not supposed to be post-apocalyptic.

And I could point out that as you USE and REPAIR and MODIFY something in a post apocalyptic setting, it starts to LOOK like it is postapocalyptic.

Besides, there are just some things you don't mess with. It would be like making a Star Wars sequel where lightsabers are coloured brown and made of feathers.

Hey dipshit, people have changed the colors of lightsabers. It used to be Green, Blue, and Red. Now there's Yellow, Purple, Orange, and a whole mess of other colors. Nobody's bitched about that, they bitched about the shitty story Lucas threw together, so quit your bitching. The modifications to the suit are enough to make it different, the general design values are still intact. Jesus. The helmet is the same general shape, it still has retarded pauldrons, get over yourself.

Christ, "made of feathers"? Either you're blind, retarded, or insane. The thing looks awesome, and very much like the powered armor in your very own sig. Excuse me if I think that some considerations should be made to make something new NOT look like it came out of a ten year old piece of shit render.

Damn dude, this is like bitching that the Mechs in Mech3/4 don't look like the "Classic" mechs of Mech2, or better yet, MPBT: Solaris.

[Vympel]

The power armor in Cao Cao's sig is I believe from the tech demo of Van Buren that somehow made it onto the interent. Which I believe is way too bloody shiny and pristine to be credible.

[Hotfoot]

Fair enough. Of this I was unaware, but still, you can see the design similarities.

After a quick search, I found a picture of some of the original powered armor:

and for reference, the new one.


This, more than anything, makes me go "What the fuck" at Cao Cao's reaction. I mean, seriously. What the fuck? They're virtually fucking identical.

Brown lightsabers made of feathers my ass. Anyone want to explain to me how this new armor is so massively different from the old one? Is it because there isn't a flashlight square in the middle of the helmet?

Man, talk about rampant fanboyism.

[Vympel]

I agree- the moment I saw it I knew exactly what it was, and for that matter, it's a far superior design to the Enclave Power Armor in Fallout 2, whoose helmet resembled an oversized bug, and which also had an extremely silly looking lower section- especially the legs/boots.

Of course, I imagine Bethesda would be mad not to put the Enclave Power Armor in Fallout 3 as the "ultimate" armor, but hopefully they improve the look of it somewhat.

I hope Bethesda when implementing the power armor adds a fancy HUD or some such to the helmet. Your vision being unchanged when donning that gear would be pretty silly.

[Vympel]

Also, here's a possible reason as to why they just didnt' copy the T-51b armor from the original Fallout without modification (apart from the obvious one that it's silly for all armor to look the same outside of the BoS, or T-51b to be the only kind available ...)

We tried to model the power armor as T-Ray did in the opening movie and game, but he could get away with clipping that would look really bad at close distances or certain angles. Simply put, building the Fallout power armor as it originally looked would have resulted in a suit with a tiny range of motion or a hilarious amount of clipping. We changed as much as we needed to allow for more flexibility in movement, but tried to stay very close to the original design whenever possible.

From the Fallout Wiki.

[Cao Cao]

If you're referring to the armor in my sig when you call it "too shiny", it isn't. That's just a result of me going a little overboard with effects in PSP.
This is how it looks like normally:



This shows the difference between classic and "new" Power Armour. The old ones are sleek and smooth. The new ones are boxy.
Maybe the new one is more fitting for a post-apocalyptic setting, but the old design is pure retro-50s while the new one looks like something out of the 80s.
That picture shows by the way how the original PA could translate to 3D with only minimal concessions to design.

Also, the idea that Bethesda's PA is not BoS armour is false, if you look closely you can see a BoS logo on the chest.

[Hotfoot]

No, shithead, the old one is shown in the picture I posted above, and is hardly "sleek and smooth". Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with you? It was a fucking sprite-based game using shitty resolution! They couldn't get the detail they had in the concept art in there!

What next? People in Faerun don't have faces?

"Wah, wah, I want everything to look like the sprites, not the artwork!" That's really what you're saying.


What part of this guy's helmet looks sleek and smooth, motherfucker?

[Cao Cao]

Hey moron. Am I talking about the helmet? No. I'm talking about the overall suit which if you think resembles the old style at all you must be blind.

[Hotfoot]

Oh, so I must be blind to see the Fallout 1 suits looking beat up and used. I must be blind to see that the general design is almost identical. I must be blind to point out that building your models from sprites is retarded. I must be completely fucking blind to not see that MINOR CHANGES = HUGE CHANGES.

Moreover, you WERE talking about the helmet, you stupid sack of shit, or did you forget the little "Darth Vader" comment you made earlier?

You took the original design and polished it up, then you built up in your head the conceit that it was the only way anyone could interpret the design, even while acknowledging that you made concessions in the design.

This isn't about Bethesda not doing the armor well, it's about Bethesda not doing what YOU did. Get over yourself already.

[InnocentBystander]

This shows the difference between classic and "new" Power Armour.

Fuck guys, he is right! Bethesda should be using directX 6 or 7 era graphics. Who needs good looking textures, modern shaders and those 'other', less savory, graphical enhancements like bump mapping!

[RazorOutlaw]

Allowed style Fallout fanboy and any attempt at a Fallout that is not just a rehash of 1&2 in all ways possible is offensive to his sensibilities.

That seems to be all they want. The same kind of people buy the next iteration of Madden too. They don't want things to change, they want the same incarnation over and over. I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted Oblivion to be the same game as Morrowind. It was similar enough that I wasn't alienated but different enough so I didn't feel like I was playing the same game.

Another case-in-point Warlords: Battlecry. We'll just pile on new races to the same gameplay. lol?

Plus while there are admittedly better graphics out there, Fallout has never been about graphics but an engaging story and senseless violence. The complaint is like bitching that Quake has a crappy storyline. Yeesh.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG HERE. Better graphics? Just what the fuck is so poor about the graphics in that trailer?

[Cao Cao]

Oh, so I must be blind to see the Fallout 1 suits looking beat up and used. I must be blind to see that the general design is almost identical. I must be blind to point out that building your models from sprites is retarded. I must be completely fucking blind to not see that MINOR CHANGES = HUGE CHANGES.

What the fuck are you on about? Are you even familiar with the original Fallout? Go watch Fallout 1's intro and tell me the suit is identical.

Moreover, you WERE talking about the helmet, you stupid sack of shit, or did you forget the little "Darth Vader" comment you made earlier?

Yes, referring to the boxy samurai-esque armour that Bethesda's PA and Darth Vader have to a certain extent. Not the bloody helmet. Why would I criticise the helmet that's virtually identical to the one in my sig? Think McFly, think.

You took the original design and polished it up, then you built up in your head the conceit that it was the only way anyone could interpret the design, even while acknowledging that you made concessions in the design.

This isn't about Bethesda not doing the armor well, it's about Bethesda not doing what YOU did. Get over yourself already.

I did nothing of the sort. That screenshot along with the one in my sig is from Van Buren.
You know who designed that? Black Isle are the ones who designed that, jackass. The creators of Fallout. They sure as hell knew their own design.

[Hotfoot]

What the fuck are you on about? Are you even familiar with the original Fallout? Go watch Fallout 1's intro and tell me the suit is identical.

Look at the box art motherfucker. Look at the motherfucking box art. I don't care what they could or couldn't do with renders and sprites ten years ago, shithead.

Yes, referring to the boxy samurai-esque armour that Bethesda's PA and Darth Vader have to a certain extent. Not the bloody helmet. Why would I criticise the helmet that's virtually identical to the one in my sig? Think McFly, think.

Vader's armor is boxy? What the fuck?


This looks boxy to you? I repeat, what the fuck is wrong with you?

I did nothing of the sort. That screenshot along with the one in my sig is from Van Buren.
You know who designed that? Black Isle are the ones who designed that, jackass. The creators of Fallout. They sure as hell knew their own design.

Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's take stuff from an unfinished game that was abandoned years ago using a shitty (EVEN FOR THE TIMES) model and texture. Never mind that other games that went from sprites to 3d had growing pains (Neverwinter Nights 1, anyone?). The suit looks like a slightly modified version of the original game's cover art, and you're telling me that's a BAD thing.

Not only that, but Darth Vader is boxy and looks like the new armor. Do I really have to put them in sequence to prove THAT bullshit wrong, or do you finally get that?

[Cao Cao]

Look at the box art motherfucker. Look at the motherfucking box art. I don't care what they could or couldn't do with renders and sprites ten years ago, shithead.

What are you? Deficient? Even the box art shows that the shoulders are nothing like the new version.
And yeah, you don't care about sprites. And now renders too. Hey, why should we care about anything in the original Fallout! Fuck it!

Vader's armor is boxy? What the fuck?

This looks boxy to you? I repeat, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Perhaps you missed the big ol' box on Vader's chest? Which gives an impression of boxiness?

Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. Let's take stuff from an unfinished game that was abandoned years ago using a shitty (EVEN FOR THE TIMES) model and texture. Never mind that other games that went from sprites to 3d had growing pains (Neverwinter Nights 1, anyone?). The suit looks like a slightly modified version of the original game's cover art, and you're telling me that's a BAD thing.

You moron. My point is that Van Buren's PA followed the original design and not your wanktastic Bethesda armour. It's too fucking bad if you don't like it. That's the original. That's how it always was. Bethesda's armour does not resemble the original in any shape or form apart from the helmet so kindly shut the hell up until you know what you're talking about.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I don't know about you guys, but I find this argument totally hilarious. I'm not sure how the trailer could be better; they have "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by the Ink Spots, which IIRC was supposed to be the theme for Fallout 1 but Black Isle couldn't get the right; all of the imagery and scenery is just fine; the powered armor looks exactly like it should. The helmet is a nearly exact copy of the BOS suits as seen in the rendered scenes from Fallout, and the body looks right as well, it's boxy and unattractive to the right extent, and you can even see the weld marks and rivets. Pure post-apocalyptic sex.

I especially like how Cao Cao is parading screen-shots from the internal alpha of Van Buren as if they were the second coming. Honestly, they kind of look like shit, even by the standards of the time they were made.