Fallout 4 Trailer thoughts · 6:43pm Jun 4th, 2015
Hey guys, so, I know I haven't touched anything Fallout Related in a while (in part due to overplay/overwriting it for a while. Seriously, it got to the point that I could identify almost every spot on the Capital Wasteland by looking at the ground texture ) but I have been eagerly waiting for the next one like everyone else. So, when I heard there was going to be an announcement trailer I was VERY excited. I'm going to go over each point about it and try to be as objective as possible about it but I may start fangasming at some point, if so, please forgive me, hah.
For those of you who somehow haven't seen it yet, here's the trailer
Starting with the 'please stand by' screen was a nice touch, after all, we've been standing by for a while now haven't we?
After that starts the first song of the game by the much beloved 'The Ink Spots' singing 'it's all over but the crying and you can tell almost instantly that whoever over at Bethesda made the trailer is doing their best to sink their fangs into you and for me it succeeded with just a song. That being said, it turns out we're looking at an old T.V. which is somehow still functioning (God bless fallout tech) in the middle of an abandoned house, clearly post 200+ years of decay and our announcer lovely radio announcer (who was unfortunately not Three Dog but that would break the 4th wall a bit too much for this) starts to fill us in on some exposition that most fans should already be aware of. Of course, it adds to the ambiance and the overall feeling of the trailer so hey, I won't hold THAT against it.
As the view changes from past to 'present' several times we see a dog come on screen, though I don't think it's one of Dogmeat's puppies, looks more German Shepardish than he ever was. Looks like we'll have another choice in the 'best dog ever' other than Rex and good old Dogmeat with this game. The next few bits are the dog moving through the house and while it's well done, it seems kind of pointless other than once again, the sake of ambiance. After that, the radio broadcaster's tone grows more dire and he's talking about the bombs falling on cities as the dog runs out of the house and we get our first real view of the Bostonian Wasteland (at least, I believe it's been confirmed to be set Boston this time around) and I've gotta say, at first, I thought they were reusing a suburb from FO 3, but no, it goes on to show that the place looks a LOT more woodsy than D.C. was.
"War, War Never Changes"
Of course it doesn't, mostly, sometimes, okay, it changes a LOT as time goes on, but it's good to see that the line made its way into the trailer. Joking aside, next we get a look at where I'm guessing we'll be starting the game off. Vault 111 which according to the Fallout Wiki is "Unlike other vaults, the entrance to Vault 111 not only has an atypical pneumatic hull, but also acts as a hatch which gives way to an interior elevator. The inner door is seen to open first, followed by the hatch opening. While painted in the prelude, the vault door is seen to be characteristically rusted and dull after the Great War." Make of that what you will.
After the big shot of the door we see the arm of our protagonist (I won't call him 'Hero' because that's up to the player) stepping out into the sunlight for the first time, followed by some interesting looking landmarks, my favorite of which was the marooned ship. Hopefully with this one we won't have any issues with snarky guardsmen (I bet there are going to be snarky guardsmen). Then, we move to what looks like a town with some nightlife going on and a very familiar (to my eyes) mysterious stranger walking down the street towards the camera. Now, someone else on Youtube pointed this out but do his hands look 'just' a bit slimmer than they should to you guys? To me it makes me think metal fingers but that could just be the distance from the camera. (Until proven otherwise my new head-canon is that the Mysterious Stranger has been an escaped android all this time).
A Brahmin train passes and we get to see that good old trade caravans will be back. Hopefully they won't die en-route and render quests unplayable because they got eaten by fire ants eh? Supermutants are next and I could be mistaken but is that a Gorebag hanging from a metal pole in the background? Yeah, yeah I think it is, cool, so we'll be killing our favorite muties again, that's always nice to see.
Then, we come to the shot that I adore. It doesn't look like much except for just a picture of a city with a Protectron, and really, that's what it is but you know what I love from it? I love the color, and this is coming from someone who has trouble seeing and differentiating between most colors which has lead to me miss-coloring supermutants orange when they're supposedly green, or yellow. Still, the first thing that my eyes jumped to in this was the crane. It was SUCH a deep red. Next my eyes were drawn to the city itself which looks down right metropolitan from a Fallout Universe, Heck, Vegas didn't have that kind of skyline and Mr. House shot down all the nukes there.
Once that's done, we see a mirelurk like robot (unless mirelurk suddenly have four legs which they very well could) moving along a desert and we move back to the dog walking along the ground beneath a highway overpass. The ground looks surprisingly green too, so it looks like Boston got spared some/most of the radiation somehow, I wonder how that works I mean radiation spread over the globe so-DEATHCLAW! and a NASTY looking one at that. Hell, look at that spine, wonder if it's just a mutation from the land around it or if it's to help regulate body temperature. Still, that deathclaw looks impressive. I bet it can jump pretty far too, hah.
Vertibird outside of satellite disks, interesting. Can't quite make out who it is that's getting out but they didn't look to be wearing any power armor. Then, then we get some guys who can't be ghouls. They're not rotted enough looking for it. Possibly some crazy science experiments gone wrong, or maybe they're clones of some kind... Shut up Garry, you're both. Cut to a baseball stadium that's been boarded up and heavily defended and a lone gunman with a hunting rifle walking along.
Then we have an eyebot floating along in front of a small plaza, which I'm guessing is going to be our hub world. And then... and then... OMG THEY HAVE A FUCKING AIRSHIP! OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH I WONDER IF IT'S THE BROTHERHOOD OR MAYBE THE INSTITUTE OR- *BOOM*
Sorry, my rabid inner fan got out of control. Right, moving on we see a Brotherhood soldier looking down at a plaza as he's lifted up and away by a Vertibird and then a few beautiful shots of the city itself which look gorgeous. A few flashback scenes happen and we're back with the dog who seems to have been scouting. It runs past a suit of damaged, half-repaired power armor that the camera rests on for a few moments but what catches my eye is on the back left. It looks like there's a laser rifle hanging up on the wall with several mods for it, hopefully this means that modding weapons is back! All I can hope for in that section is that there's more of a 'pro and con' to upgrading a weapon a certain way rather than Vegas' 'okay, add this and it's automatically better' system. That would help keep me playing another 200 hours along with the first 1000 or so that I'll plug into the game.
And then... we have the moment that I'm sure is making people either REALLY excited or REALLY worried.
"Let's go pal."
I'm going to come out and say it, I love the fact that we're getting a voiced character. At least, I assume it's a voiced character and that this wasn't just something to throw us off. That being said, there had BETTER be a female voice to go along with that male one which is just as good. As most of you should know by now thanks to the amount I write, I like to split my RPGs and do a few playthroughs as a male, then a few playthroughs as a female before finding that perfect 'Sarah', or intentionally flawed (though some of that was my general inexperience at the time) 'Ethan' to write out as a character. So, hopefully there will be a good pair of actors playing the same parts. Now, for the cons of this, I have only one. After all the times I've played them, I like to skip through the dialogue in the Fallout games, not often mind you, but sometimes I really don't need to hear about how much Tunnel Snakes Rule! (they have their own song about it already) or about Fighting the Good Fight. My hope is that like Mass Effect, they'll include a way to go 'mhm, next, mhm, next, mhm, next'.
Alright, closing comments. FUCK YES WE'RE GETTING ANOTHER FALLOUT GAME AT FUCKING LAST OMG YOU GUYS IT'S HAPPENING IT'S HAPPENING IT'S HAPPENING IT'S- *BANG*
Sorry, happened again, hit him harder this time. Right, anyways, I'm pumped as hell to see where this game goes and I look forwards to more announcements about it in general. Also, before anyone asks, I'll probably be writing SOME kind of fanfiction for it, if that's here on this site and include ponies or on Deviantart and NOT include ponies, I don't know yet but I'll keep you posted. Furthermore on that point, I won't write anything until I've engrossed myself in the game and done all that I can, mods not included. Oh, and please don't start a debate about graphics here, I'm not one who cares, I'm just glad it's finally happening. So long guys, happy shooting/adventuring/hacking/slashing/computerhacking/repairing/lasing/plasmaing/and power armouring through the wastes!
Another cool little throwback is the Bobblehead beside the Laser Rifle in the garage. Looks like they'll be making a return to the series. There's nothing like +1 to all my S.P.E.C.I.A.L, and another +10 to my regular stats.
Please... please Bethesda, give us a car or vehicle. Fallout 2 had one, why not 4?
Man, all that looked good and awesome as hell. I agree with you on how all that stuff was just mind blowing. One thing I will say, when the dog came out of the house at the end and went by the unfinished power armor, plus seeing all the weapons on the wall, the going up to our character, I'm getting the vibe that we might be able to get a place where we can customize, upgrade and relax at. Because the power armor looked jury rigged together, the weapons were neat, and the place didn't looked ransacked for someone to have abandoned it. Not to mention the dog was being pretty friendly to the vault person for him to have just stumbled onto the place. Either way, the trailer was good and I have high hopes for it. I just hope the release date isn't to far away.
I haven't really played the Fallout games and I'm only loosely familiar with the lore, but this trailer (as well as some testimony from a friend of mine who has played the game) has made me rather interested in trying them out. It's the airships and the New England vibe that really gets me (my dad's from New England).
Now, if I had to wager a guess on the matter of the increased greenery that was observed, I'd say that it's just the result of enough time passing that the radiation is starting to fade and plants are starting to grow back. Not really too hard to believe, as Chernobyl has become a thriving forest in the 50 or so years since its famous meltdown IRL. Said returning greenery and the apparent presence of something that can be called an actual functioning city (as opposed to a ruined city or a village/commune composed entirely of cobbled-together shacks) really tells me that the inhabitants of the Fallout world are growing out of the whole "Mad Max" phase and starting to re-invent a proper society. As someone who enjoys hopeful futures, it warms my heart to see that nuclear annihilation didn't mark the end for human civilization, but rather cleared the way for a new beginning.
Wow! That was fast. Thanks man!
I agree with you on the colors. Now don't get me wrong, I love FO3 and F:NV. But FO3 and F:NV both had what basically amounted to a color scheme: green 'n grey for FO3 and orange and brown for F:NV. With Fallout 4 (at least by the trailer), it's like a Sonic Rainboom hit the Boston area post-nukes and made it into a wasteland-wonderland. Basically, it's beautiful, new, and more lively.
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SPEACHLESS
speaking of fallout, you referenced/mentioned Fallout Equestria.. Send Twilight and Sarah to the Equestrian Wasteland, post story. Lets see how Twilight will react that Dash was considered a traitor and also that Equestria has a wasteland version.
While all this is causing me to
gasim in my pants, the trailer and hearing you may write another FallOut story. I must ask, do you plan to finish either of your other FallOut stories before/if you write one for Four?