Fallout 3 Editorial

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Written by BuckGB on January 8th, 2008

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A Fallout licence gives you. what? A post-apocalyptic world. Make your own up and save yourself the hassle of dealing with friends who hate you and strangers who look just at you strangely.

So why do it?

Well, three reasons come to mind.

Firstly, I could just be wrong and Fallout is a much bigger deal than I thought and that little Pip-Boy is a key to a world of infinite money. I don't think so.

Secondly, Bethesda may be as dirty fanboys as the NMA guys. It may just be as simple as plain lust for Fallout, the plain desire to write a sequel to a game they think is brilliant. This sort of things strikes even the brightest creative minds - look over at Comics, where there's a strata of some of the medium's brightest minds whose most heartfelt desire is to have a shot at Superman. They're insane, and if they had any sense they'd be doing their own thing. but that they don't have that sense means that it's done as an act of devotion. This is actually a good reason to give a damn about Fallout 3. People working on something that's genuinely invested in, on average, leads to better work.

Thirdly. well, one of the major worries about Fallout 3 from even less fanatical fans is that they don't believe Bethesda are capable of wrestling with the actions-and-consequences aspects that have traditionally been involved in a Fallout Game - they're fine with multiple mechanisms (Assuming they get the experience system right), but the payoffs are limited. Just as key is their limitations as creators of fiction - while they're good at verisimilitude and a sense of place, the fiction - dialogue, plot, whatever - of the Elder Scrolls have been merely acceptable at best throughout. This has lead some people to think that Bethesda, by definition, can't do it. Thing is, by buying Fallout 3, they cover their weaknesses. They don't need to create a world from whole-cloth - they have an inspiring world. They don't need to work out how people act and talk - they have a game which shows the interactions between individuals and whatever. Buying Fallout actually acts as a crutch for Bethesda's traditional faults.

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