The show looks faithful—maybe to a fault. Let's look at what the trailer reveals.
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Here’s a Fallout super fan’s analysis of the first trailer for the TV series
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Looking forward to this. I've put waaaayyy too many hours into the Fallout universe of games.
This series looks to be an excellent story, well made and very pretty (in a, you know, gruesome post-apocalyptic kinda way...)
(edit) Dogmeat better not be killed off. (/edit)
This series looks to be an excellent story, well made and very pretty (in a, you know, gruesome post-apocalyptic kinda way...)
(edit) Dogmeat better not be killed off. (/edit)
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TV doesn't have the VFX budget films have, TV doesn't have the VFX budget films have, it's okay, just let it go...
Looks like it could be fun, and I do like the people involved, but I'm not expecting to be blown away.
Now to go play New Vegas again
Looks like it could be fun, and I do like the people involved, but I'm not expecting to be blown away.
Now to go play New Vegas again
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As someone that's enjoyed the hell out of the Fallout series in general I think this is squarely aimed at me. So with that said I've gone from uninterested and sure it'll be terrible to cautiously optimistic.
They seem to have kept the weirdness of the world alive, the kitchy Americana of the pre apocalypse is present in the vault, and in the song. The gore and ominous nature of the wasteland is shown. The BoS looks good. As we can see they don't shy from the Mutant aspects with Walter Goggins being a Ghoul and the Overseer being a cyclops.
Arguably Jonathan turned in one of the best seasons of TV ever with Westworld Season 1. So that coupled with this trailer seeming to have the right feel I'm willing to give it a shot now.
I've been burned far too often with things like Witcher, WoT, and Halo to have had much hope; but if they've put this much care into it maybe the rest will work out?
They seem to have kept the weirdness of the world alive, the kitchy Americana of the pre apocalypse is present in the vault, and in the song. The gore and ominous nature of the wasteland is shown. The BoS looks good. As we can see they don't shy from the Mutant aspects with Walter Goggins being a Ghoul and the Overseer being a cyclops.
Arguably Jonathan turned in one of the best seasons of TV ever with Westworld Season 1. So that coupled with this trailer seeming to have the right feel I'm willing to give it a shot now.
I've been burned far too often with things like Witcher, WoT, and Halo to have had much hope; but if they've put this much care into it maybe the rest will work out?
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"From the studio that brought you The Boys...and Free Two Day Shipping*"
From the trailer was right on brand. Including the asterisk
From the trailer was right on brand. Including the asterisk
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I didn't know Nolan was attached, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I liked WestWorld (even the later seasons were at the very least interesting), but we'll see.
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I'm sure that this makes me horribly nitpicky; but that blast door is only faithful at a surface level:
In terms of aesthetics it's very close; they are painted yellow here and were left bare there but the stampings covering parts of the three bolt locking mechanism could have come from the same factory that supplied Vault 111 or one of the other FO:4 vaults.
The mechanics, though, are totally different: previously(in both 3, NV, and 4; and as best I can tell even in 1, though obviously that's less readily inspected) vault doors rolled on a static rack integrated into the floor when pulled out of position to be opened. In 3 the mechanism that unlocked and manipulated them docked toward the top right; in 4 it was moved to dead center; but in all cases the lower rack was static and the door was pushed along it.
Here the unlock/manipulator unit appears to be gone(note that the location where the docking port would have been in a FO:4 vault has been covered over; though the locking mechanism still looks like it should be twisted open); and the door is held captive between and upper and lower rack; and moved by the lower rack sliding, with the details of exactly how it does that out of frame.
It's honestly kind of a weird change: in some respects it's hugely faithful to the 4-era design, someone was clearly paying attention when they did the detailing; but mechanically it both functions in a way that vault doors never have and one that doesn't make a whole lot of sense: from the perspective of component ratings and maintenance having the fiddly moving parts under the multi-ton blast door; rather than a a simple static rack on the bottom and the mechanical complexity on top is just lunacy.
This is all more or less irrelevant to whether the show will turn out well; but there's something sort of jarring about that combination of meticulous replication of detail and disregard of function, without any apparent motive for the change.
In terms of aesthetics it's very close; they are painted yellow here and were left bare there but the stampings covering parts of the three bolt locking mechanism could have come from the same factory that supplied Vault 111 or one of the other FO:4 vaults.
The mechanics, though, are totally different: previously(in both 3, NV, and 4; and as best I can tell even in 1, though obviously that's less readily inspected) vault doors rolled on a static rack integrated into the floor when pulled out of position to be opened. In 3 the mechanism that unlocked and manipulated them docked toward the top right; in 4 it was moved to dead center; but in all cases the lower rack was static and the door was pushed along it.
Here the unlock/manipulator unit appears to be gone(note that the location where the docking port would have been in a FO:4 vault has been covered over; though the locking mechanism still looks like it should be twisted open); and the door is held captive between and upper and lower rack; and moved by the lower rack sliding, with the details of exactly how it does that out of frame.
It's honestly kind of a weird change: in some respects it's hugely faithful to the 4-era design, someone was clearly paying attention when they did the detailing; but mechanically it both functions in a way that vault doors never have and one that doesn't make a whole lot of sense: from the perspective of component ratings and maintenance having the fiddly moving parts under the multi-ton blast door; rather than a a simple static rack on the bottom and the mechanical complexity on top is just lunacy.
This is all more or less irrelevant to whether the show will turn out well; but there's something sort of jarring about that combination of meticulous replication of detail and disregard of function, without any apparent motive for the change.
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Those nuclear explosions look really weird without any shockwave effects. They seem to just be big gasoline fireballs.
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Just about all of the actual hardware looks goofy as hell, which is always a good start with Fallout.
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Shouldn't that be "faithful to a vault"?
I'll let myself out, assuming I can figure out how to open this door
I'll let myself out, assuming I can figure out how to open this door
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I've played FO 1,2,3,NV a couple of times each, and played FO3 again earlier this year, and playing NV again right now. Just recently got a new GPU, so time to play FO4 before the show starts. So yeah, I'm a fan...
Trailer looks really good. Fingers crossed, it delivers.
Trailer looks really good. Fingers crossed, it delivers.
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I can't find an entry for Free Two Day Shipping on IMDb. What is it? A romantic comedy, I imagine.
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It looks OK on the surface (hopefully it's not too depressing as someone else has said) but why is everything so clean? Why do everybody's clothes look brand new, like they just came from a store? Nothing is scratched up, the dirt looks superficial. Why does the outfit of the ghoul not even look dusty, let alone weathered and scratched up?
Even background objects look like they have just been power-washed - e.g. look at the airplane cockpit in the Megaton-looking shanty town. It's cleaner than some airplanes we have flying today, despite being 200 years old and surviving a nuclear apocalypse.
A lot of Fallout is a mix between 50's sci-fi and western aesthetic. The sci-fi things look OK, but they forgot the western part. There is no dust, no dirt, everyone just went to a stylist a few hours ago, and then got their clothes fresh and from a store.
Even background objects look like they have just been power-washed - e.g. look at the airplane cockpit in the Megaton-looking shanty town. It's cleaner than some airplanes we have flying today, despite being 200 years old and surviving a nuclear apocalypse.
A lot of Fallout is a mix between 50's sci-fi and western aesthetic. The sci-fi things look OK, but they forgot the western part. There is no dust, no dirt, everyone just went to a stylist a few hours ago, and then got their clothes fresh and from a store.
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Yes, you are horribly nitpicky. "Looks about right" combined with "looks neat" is good enough for me.
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I feel like Fallout's take on the concept (at least 1/2/NV) does it better than most. So many post-apoc stories seem hung up on "waaaah everything's ruined, the world is in shambles, if only a hero would save us!", meanwhile Fallout's worlds feel hopeful in the sense that rebuilding is taking place. New cities arise, populations swell, and outside of some more fatalistic factions like the Enclave, most people are starting to see a brighter future. There are certainly some depressing aspects of the setting (The Followers of the Apocalypse, despite the good things they do, are almost forever fated to get driven out or exploited by larger factions, for example), but compared to post-apoc stories like Wasteland or Mad Max or The Road, Fallout feels a lot more upbeat.
All that said, this does feel a bit too clean. Despite civilization being somewhat rebuilt, things shouldn't be as spotless as they appear in this trailer.
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I mean, I typically have low expectations for video game adaptations, but I'm actually hopeful for this one after that trailer. A cast that includes talent like Walton Goggins isn't some low-budget deal, and while they've taken some liberties obviously, they seem to be okay based on the trailer. I'll be looking forward to trying it out.
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The original games had a brighter, goofier aesthetic in some ways, something I'd be happy to see them lean into if the tone can match.
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Yeah, it feels odd to be reassured by a title card, but that made me feel better reading it."From the studio that brought you The Boys...and Free Two Day Shipping*"
From the trailer was right on brand. Including the asterisk
Trailer needed Ron Perlman saying the line.
And that ghoul looked way too much like Wade Wilson, just without a nose.
But I am cautiously optimistic. Where's my luck bobblehead?
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I'm in the cautiously optimistic camp. I love Fallout (was one of the first games I played a lot when I got my first Windows PC). This reminds me, though, that I still need to play Fallout 4.
ETA: And, yeah, per the comment above me: we need to hear Perlman saying "War, War Never Changes."
ETA: And, yeah, per the comment above me: we need to hear Perlman saying "War, War Never Changes."
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Quibble about the "nukes" image.
None of those are any kind of nuclear blast. Not even a tactical nuke. It they're all WAY too small and dim - especially if you're talking about the first nanaoseconds of the blast. They're all also ground-based bursts, not airbased bursts.
Perhaps that's part of the canon (radicals placing a lot of tactical nukes all over the country and setting them off on the same day), but that scenario is pretty much impossible, and it still isn't what a tactical nuke looks like going off.
Have NONE of the animators seen footage of the Trinity test? The Bikini test? The Tzar Bomba test? Those in the trailer look more like MOAB blasts than nukes. And they look more like the gas and TNT blasts from Hollywood special effects than they do MOAB blasts. This has to be R rated at the very least, so you'd think they wouldn't go small on the nuclear blast memorial scenes.
The Day After (a 40 year old film) had more realistic nuke blasts than those things depict. That's just inexcusable.
I'd go on about the rest of it, but suspension of disbelief is obviously mandatory. It's just if your going to depict nukes, depict them like they actually are, instead of those bullshit balls of fire and smoke.
None of those are any kind of nuclear blast. Not even a tactical nuke. It they're all WAY too small and dim - especially if you're talking about the first nanaoseconds of the blast. They're all also ground-based bursts, not airbased bursts.
Perhaps that's part of the canon (radicals placing a lot of tactical nukes all over the country and setting them off on the same day), but that scenario is pretty much impossible, and it still isn't what a tactical nuke looks like going off.
Have NONE of the animators seen footage of the Trinity test? The Bikini test? The Tzar Bomba test? Those in the trailer look more like MOAB blasts than nukes. And they look more like the gas and TNT blasts from Hollywood special effects than they do MOAB blasts. This has to be R rated at the very least, so you'd think they wouldn't go small on the nuclear blast memorial scenes.
The Day After (a 40 year old film) had more realistic nuke blasts than those things depict. That's just inexcusable.
I'd go on about the rest of it, but suspension of disbelief is obviously mandatory. It's just if your going to depict nukes, depict them like they actually are, instead of those bullshit balls of fire and smoke.
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The inclusion of Todd Howard is easily the biggest "yikes" aspect of the trailer. Get. Todd. Howard. Out. Of. There. PLEASE!? He'll just make it worse. I promise you.
Go talk to Obsidian if you want good Fallout, not Todd Howard.
Go talk to Obsidian if you want good Fallout, not Todd Howard.
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Are you nuts? Even if we do ignore fallout 3, 4, and new Vegas to just focus on fallout 1 and 2, the story is epic and the world is huge. Each town has memorable characters and political chicanery, and the main storylines in both games are compelling. Fallout 1 you
meet the master who created super mutants
kill the president of the United States
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Nope. The lore for the nukes in Fallout is the US (having already annexed canada) and China finally square off and nuke the everloving fuck out of everything. We know it turns the US into a wasteland where plants are rare at best. We can expect the same thing happened to China. I don't know if what happened to any other regions are actually covered - but it's reasonable to assume that every major city in the world got glassed by nukes.
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Kind of an unusual complaint especially when past complaints have been about why everything is so dirty even after all those years?
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That's an... odd trailer.
The good:
There's a lot of modern high quality CGI-heavy stuff there.
They've nailed the chunky 1960s military-industrial vehicle designs
The bad:
Some bits feel somewhat more amateurish - the dog with the arm and the bit where the five people in power armour are striding forward.
The ghoul guy just isn't ghoulish enough
As mentioned by someone else, it feels overly clean; after several generations of being underground and having to rigidly stick to reuse/repair/recycle, things like clothes and coffee mugs should be worn/faded/chipped. Not to mention that the non-vault dwellers are generally dressed in whatever tatty and slightly radioactive wear they've been able to recover from the pre-apocalypse days
Similarly, the vaults seem to have had an inordinate amount of hair, skin and general beauty products stashed away!
The ugly:
The "cyclops" guy - is that a canon character? I've mostly played 3/NV[*], plus a bit of 2 (I tried to play 4, but bounced off the wannabe Minecraft mechanisms), and I dont recall seeing anything which would involve that sort of mutation?
[*] Mostly NV, if I'm honest; it was a good distraction during lockdown. However, it was too buggy on the ps3, so I moved to the x360. And the x360 couldn't handle having all the DLC installed, so I moved to the PC. And that hit a quest blocking bug at Hoover dam, so I started again with various mods turned on, but they broke the strip. So I started again despite being somewhat overly familiar with most of the quests...
The good:
There's a lot of modern high quality CGI-heavy stuff there.
They've nailed the chunky 1960s military-industrial vehicle designs
The bad:
Some bits feel somewhat more amateurish - the dog with the arm and the bit where the five people in power armour are striding forward.
The ghoul guy just isn't ghoulish enough
As mentioned by someone else, it feels overly clean; after several generations of being underground and having to rigidly stick to reuse/repair/recycle, things like clothes and coffee mugs should be worn/faded/chipped. Not to mention that the non-vault dwellers are generally dressed in whatever tatty and slightly radioactive wear they've been able to recover from the pre-apocalypse days
Similarly, the vaults seem to have had an inordinate amount of hair, skin and general beauty products stashed away!
The ugly:
The "cyclops" guy - is that a canon character? I've mostly played 3/NV[*], plus a bit of 2 (I tried to play 4, but bounced off the wannabe Minecraft mechanisms), and I dont recall seeing anything which would involve that sort of mutation?
[*] Mostly NV, if I'm honest; it was a good distraction during lockdown. However, it was too buggy on the ps3, so I moved to the x360. And the x360 couldn't handle having all the DLC installed, so I moved to the PC. And that hit a quest blocking bug at Hoover dam, so I started again with various mods turned on, but they broke the strip. So I started again despite being somewhat overly familiar with most of the quests...
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There's a person walking through that. This is a hugely important apparent motive unless you think they can just do whatever they want in terms of actor safety.
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whereas one of my minor beefs with the game is that, holy crap, it's been centuries, shouldn't you have tossed the rusted out box springs out of your house and replaced it with something else?
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Eh, even if that were true, "story" and "setting" are two different things. The latter is a foundation for the former, and in many cases informs aspects of it. And a rich world has thousands of stories to tell, which themselves will in turn help expand it -- just look at how Star Wars evolved over the decades.
You could say Mad Max is just about a guy travelling around in a world that is far, far less detailed than even just Fallout 1 alone, yet they made almost as many movies about that as there are FO games.
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It's about continuity and environmental story telling. It makes sense to keep some things clean - e.g. fix up and clean actual buildings in cities that people live in. But I don't expect somebody to climb on top of a section of an airplane in a shanty town, clean it, and then repaint it. Nor do I expect various soldiers and characters living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia to be cleaner with newer equipment than modern soldiers on deployment, in a fully functional society.
If these characters are in a civilized area where people have the time and resources to clean things, then that's one thing - if they are on a wild frontier then that's another.
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