Saturday!
Fallout 4 has been announced and, holy cow, it looks great. (You can watch the 1st trailer at that link and be sure to turn it up because, seriously, it sounds great too.)
But if you’ve played the first one, and the second one, and the (official) 3rd one and the follow-up to the (official) 3rd one, you may notice something that happens at the end of the trailer. The Protagonist (you) says “Let’s go, pal” to his trusty companion (presumably named “Dogmeat”).
Now, in previous games, you’ll recall that there was quite a bit of voiceacting on the part of the people with whom you interacted, but your responses were shown to you on the screen and you picked the one you wished to give. Whether you gave the enthusiastic agreement, the tentative agreement, the hedge, the violent disagreement, you never heard anything but the response of the person to whom you were speaking.
What this did was that it resulted in you “hearing” your own desired voice whenever you picked your response. Did your character sound like Dirty Harry? Did she sound like Kathleen Turner? Kevin Spacey? Kate Winslet? Gilbert Gottfried? It was awesome because you could play your character exactly how you wished to play him or her. It was the ultimate customization option.
The quickest comparison I could give is the difference between GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City. In GTA 3, you played as the silent protagonist Claude. He never said anything in the game which allowed some of the crazier players to pretend that Claude was only silent in the cutscenes and, once out in the world, he became a Chatty Cathy. “Give me your car!”, for example, would be one of the nice things that Claude would say. Vice City, however, had Tommy Vercetti. Tommy, by comparison, would never *EVER* shut up. He not only talked in cutscenes, he talked while running around. Not merely giving the player a short monologue aside but stuff like “I *NEED* this!” as he jacked a car at the stoplight. Worse, he’d say it in such a way that would interrupt your “Give me your car!” (or whatever it was you chose to yell).
It was no longer your voice. It was Tommy’s voice.
You were no longer telling your story. You were telling Tommy’s story.
Well, in Fallout 4, it appears that we will no longer be telling our story but telling the story of our Protagonist.
I hope it turns out to be a good story.
So… what are you playing?
(Picture is “Untitled” by our very own Will Truman. Used with permission.)
Apropos of nothing, I saw Fury Road again last night.
On second viewing, it’s maybe even more shiny and chrome, since you can catch your breath and look for detail (though the one bit of un-needed CGI still rankles – why there?! I mean, YEAH, that particular exact shot couldn’t’ve been gotten without it, but you don’t NEED that exact one.) Seriously, that is a good movie, with lots of powerful, primal imagery (also, I noticed what seem like a couple homages to the original Star Wars).Report
I also saw it a second time and was surprised by how firmly it held me engaged. There was a lot of subtext, especially with the ladies, that I had entirely missed on the first run through. It is truly an impressive film.Report
I’m sure you have seen this nonsense, but I have been reading these all day and dying:
http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-710-5521-Silver-Color-Mist/dp/B005KTVG86
Sample reviews:
“what a deal, what a lovely deal!”
“I honestly wanted this to take me all the way to Valhalla. It only took me to Barstow. Product is mediocre at best.”Report
I hadn’t but I am now and grinning my fool face off. +5 points to Glyphendor!Report
“I don’t always get witnessed into Valhalla, but when I do, I’m using Wilton Silver Color spray. Stay shiny, my friends.”Report
Buyer Beware!
Bought this to color a meatloaf for a dinner party. Ended up in some place called “Valhalla”.
works okay…
We’ve had a lot of problems with the mailman not picking up outgoing mail. So my roommate bought this and sprayed it on his mouth right before jumping off the roof on to the mailman in an effort to slaughter his indignations. He did end up hitting his target but he didn’t go on to Valhalla. He just ended up in the hospital.Report
Interesting. The shot I have been complaining about is supposedly largely practical effects, according to the below article.
I wonder what, specifically, is triggering the “aggressively-unreal” look for me there; if it’s something about too-smooth camera movement or something? If the element could be isolated, it’s possible it could be mitigated, even in more CGI-suffused shots.
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/a-graphic-tale-the-visual-effects-of-mad-max-fury-road/Report
Alternatively, the dog is the player character and the Vault Dweller is a NPC Companion.
But really, didn’t the trailer for 3 (which was even on TV) do the same thing? You’re not paying Hellboy on a Bike *not* to talk, after all.Report
Okay, I watched it again. The E3 trailer for Fallout 3 did end with Vault Dweller and Dogmeat walking off into the distance but Vault Dweller didn’t say anything.
But in rewatching the one for Fallout 4, I notice how, yeah, it does start with a nice “vintage” song but that’s quickly replaced with grand and swelling orchestral music.
Which is *ANOTHER* thing that makes me worry.Report
@jaybird
Fallout 3, and to a lesser extent New Vegas, used the orchestral stuff for non-radio music. Admittedly you wouldn’t notice that if you were in the habit of leaving your radio on.Report
I think that I never, ever, turned it off.
Thanks, 3Dog.Report
Did you use one of the mods that added a bunch of new music?
Because by about the third hour of the same songs, I was about ready to shoot Three Dog. Luckily, by later playthroughs, I had found some mods.Report
I never got into Fallout after #2. The real time did me in. Had no interest.Report
I might suggest that you try just one more time and experiment with the Pip-Boy.
You can set it so that it automatically pauses when you get in combat and see your enemy and what it is that you can hit and it gives you the same percentages that you know and love.
And if they’re behind a bush, then you can unpause for a second, move a bit, then try again.
And if you’re out of action points, you can yell “WOOP WOOP WOOP” and run around until your points regenerate.
If you hadn’t experimented with that, know this: IT CHANGES THE GAME.
Of course, if you had experimented with it, that’s a bummer.Report
I.. uh.. hadn’t to be honest.Report
For what it’s worth, I tried playing the game for a couple of hours using only the gun sights and, yeah, the only thing that kept me going was my love for the universe.
When I discovered VATS, I whooped and then *IMMEDIATELY* restarted the game.
Know VATS. Use VATS. Live VATS.Report
Related to the Featured Image, we had to go a medical clinic yesterday (everything’s fine). Even though we weren’t going for Lain, she was pretty edgy. The thing that calmed her down? That game that she’s playing on the image. She loves that game.Report
What game is that? It might help me on my upcoming plane ride.Report
Flow Free. Also recommended: Meon. Both games are good in that they’re untimed puzzles and you won’t have a character die or something if your wife asks you a question and you look over at her.
Or if you want something more video-gamey, Temple Run is a classic.Report
Has anyone played the Kerbal Space Program game? I haven’t bought a game in years but that one sounds fun and educational. What could be better than that.Report
One of the things that I’ve seen in relation to Kerbal is that one of the guys who played it built an Orbit Analysis server to help with some of the missions he was doing. Like a separate box that he hooked up to his computer whose job it was to do math.
Which tells me that, as educational games go, this is not entry-level educational.Report
The learning curve is pretty intense, but it’s not quite so bad as @jaybird ‘s comment might make you think. Unlike with real rocket science, trial and error works, plus you can get mods like Mechjeb that give you a general idea of things like “will I have enough fuel to get home” without having to do any of the math yourself. Also, jesus christ, steam says I’ve put 432 hours into the game. Yay unemployment!Report
Kerbal is a lot of fun, but can be pretty challenging. I met a guy at Denver Comicon who runs a Kerbal Space Academy, so if you’re struggling (like I do) there are resources out there to help.Report
I downloaded and installed the latest version of XCOM: Long War this past weekend. I haven’t put much time into it yet, but already I can see that thr devs have made significant changes since the last time I played. Seems like they’ve toned down the difficulty a bit so it’s nice and challenging instead of just gut-punch after gut-punch. I’ll let you know what happens after the first month is over.Report
I was a bit underwhelmed with the Fallout 4 trailer. Based on just that, it feels like FO4 is going to be more of the same. With The Elder Scrolls, the change in setting between Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim were quite significant. Fallout just has the same drab, brown landscape with sparse vegetation (albeit without the green tint of FO3 this time). Perhaps there will be something new in the gameplay with the scripted protagonist, but I expect it’ll mostly stick to the (wildly popular and successful) formula.
I’ve been playing Witcher 3. It’s a good game and runs well for me, despite having to disable Geralt’s silky, flowing locks. The story has always been the big driver for me in the series. I’m a bit disappointed to find that the choices from previous games don’t have as much of an impact as I would like. And the number of options even in the first zone induced a bit of decision paralysis. If I don’t do these side quests now before advancing the main plot, will I be able to do them later? Can I sell these looting swords I’m lugging around or do I need to spend my limited funds having the smith break them down into crafting materials? I’ve put in a couple dozen hours already and still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I fear I may burn out on the game before I run out of content or even get through the main storyline.Report
The “more of the same” (or “MOTS”) criticism is a criticism that makes sense to me only if the same that it was more of did not leave you saying “wow… what a freaking great game… now I have to play it again…”.
I mean, seriously, I played Fallout 3 through the good playthrough, through the evil playthrough, through the neutral playthrough, and then again through the good playthrough because I didn’t like leaving the universe in the state in which I left it in the neutral playthrough.
And then I played through New Vegas again and again and again for the exact same reason.
More of the same?
You promise?
Because my worry is that they’re trying to mix things up.Report
This.
I’ve mentioned how I want ‘more of the same’ for Fallout for quite some time. Seriously, if they would keep giving out 10 hour DLCs, I’d keep handing them $10 a pop.
Because my worry is that they’re trying to mix things up.
In both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, there were a lot of design limitations based the engine.
In 3, that’s why they had to split up the inside of DC and make it where you had to take the subway to get in, and in NV, that’s why there are those stupid doors inside the Vegas strip. Both these can be fixed via mods if you have a powerful enough computer.
Likewise, it’s why there are interior and exterior areas. (Although that’s also because the insides are like 50% larger than the outsides would allow.)
It would be nice if that limitation got removed, and we got a real open world, at least exterior.Report
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the games and spent countless hours playing them and I’ll almost definitely buy FO4. The trailer just didn’t encourage me to jump aboard the hype train yet.Report