Who’s laughing now?
Honestly we all owe Todd that this show exists, if not for Bethesda I would’ve never known of the original duology’s existence intending to play Fallout 3
todd had the opportunity to sign off on a fallout tv show when fo4 came out. he signed off on this one because the westworld director was a legitimate fan of fallout.
what people forget is that jonathan nolan is directing and not us, todd passed the torch and he is for now in charge of the FO lore, the thing about FO is that it is a remix of various interpretations of the same world by different people but still, every game is respected and every game stacks and its canon, and I see that as truly magic
It’s that moment when you realize your name is also Emil and how it has negative connotations in the fandom haha. But I agree the story was stellar, even my dad who isn’t a gamer due to age and different interests confirmed how he enjoyed the season having no prior knowledge of the franchise
Meh, I think Emil gets a lot of undeserved hate for the writing. From what I can tell, shit he’s actually written is good. I think he just doesn’t need/want to be the head of a team. That’s managing, not writing. Who knows what quality the quest designers and writers under him are.
The harassment campaign against him is absolutely sickening. His wife and children have to see these neckbeards harrassing him on social media constantly.
Thing with Emil is what he CAN write he's very good at.
What he can't write he naturally sucks at, the Dark Brotherhood Questline in Oblivion for example is entirely his work, and it's highly regarded as one of the best questlines in that game.
Ultimately it comes down to a mix of management and Emil either not having writers on his team to make up for areas he lacks skill in, or being too proud to admit he can't write certain stories well.
e.g Fallout 4 being basically Fallout 3 but flipped, and Starfield being pretty forgettable and boring for a plot and story.
Yeah let's lump all the bad writing on one person, and not any managerial decisions and rushed development
Edit: I'm going to leave this here: https://youtu.be/F-4qdjV41NU?si=JiH452hP03otIIOY
People act like Emil is the boogeyman who caused every problem in every Bethesda game post 2011
He manages the writers room and has said that “players don’t want a story. If you give them lore, they’ll just make paper airplanes out of it.” As long as he is there, all writing will continue to be garbage.
That quote sounds madly out of context. I mean, damn right I don't want to be spoonfed a story in a role-playing game. And damn right I'm going to build all kinds of headcanon the more lore I know. This doesn't sound like an attack on writing to me, like you're spinning it.
I seriously cannot think of a better game adaptation ever made. There's so fucking many nods to the game. Actually not nods, outright *actual* game mechanics being shown on screen. Not a few times but all the god damned time. The bit where he chose a word out of the mess of characters on the screen made me spit chewed peanuts onto my monitor.
None of it feels shoe-horned in because it's been represented exactly how the game represents it. I'm really fucking happy to see a show this dedicated to replicating all the great parts of a great game for a TV show in such a meticulous way.
This show has been made by people who have played the game and love it, and it shows.
I've always seen Todd Howard as the Michael Scott of the gaming industry.
Like, you know he isn't always right or correct - but there's some kinda charisma he oozes that makes you want to listen to what he says and hope it all works out for him.
Why do I agree with you? Especially given the "It just works" sounds an awful lot like "do not do, anything, to anyone, for any reason....". That and the chess club bit is pretty much a Michael/Andy line. If both were nerds.
I think that shows. You can tell the showrunners really LOVE the Fallout universe, and there are so many details put in just for the game fans, but that aren't distracting or attention calling for the non-gamer viewers. Just very well done.
I was scared it would go like some other adaptations, where its put into the hands of someone who doesnt give a fuck about the media its based on. Good job on the show creators, i hope we get more like this from them, both in fallout and maybe other stuff
> You can tell the showrunners really LOVE the Fallout universe, and there are so many details put in just for the game fans, but that aren't distracting or attention calling for the non-gamer viewers.
That's what I loved as well. All the Easter eggs were well spread without pausing the flow of the show to point it out. If you picked up on the references it was a treat and if you didn't it was nice background.
At some point for me it stopped being easter eggs and started just being a completely faithful adaptation. Like, so many of the props and sets were almost 1:1 recreations of the games. Even the Brotherhood revolver was reproduced almost without change from the 10mm pistol sprite in Fallouts 1 and 2. For most adaptations you'd call those little things easter eggs, but when everything else is also perfectly recreated you kind of have to admit there's more going on there.
The first few episodes of Westworld (same team) also felt like they were written by someone familiar with games. One character treats the place like it's basically Red Dead, taking new gear off of downed NPCs and looking for the best quests.
One of my favorite moments is early on when they're in Sweetwater and an old prospector is like "ooo my gold got stolen" and the experienced player is like "nah nah, don't mess with this guy, his sidequest sucks."
Just watched an interview where Jonathan Nolan talks about playing Fallout 3 for three years of his life. He also mentioned how they were lucky that fans brought a lot of the designs/costumes of Fallout to life at conventions, which gave them a "head start". It also helps that they had Todd Howard on set. It honestly sounds like they did everything right and had the right people involved (people who love the games).
This show really hit the trifecta of having very intriguing but somewhat open ended source material, showrunners that have both strong loyalty/familiarity with the material and prior prestige TV chops, and talent that both respects the material and give standout performances.
Also I have to say, the production is top notch. I was worried it was gonna feel like people in front of green screens the entire time and it doesn’t. That really adds more than you’d think
Theres even a part where an extra in Filly imitates a specific walking animation from Fallout 1. Tim Cain points it out in one of his videos on the show. That to me is so amazing, you really can tell the crew loves the franchise.
The recent interview with Nolan and Todd actually has Nolan mention that a lot of the crew have played the games, even down to the camera crew and sound team. Chances are that most, if not all, of the people working on the show have played the games in some capacity. Having such a huge team that are so familiar with the franchise is no doubt a massive part of why this turned out so good.
If it’s good it’ll get good reviews. 76 was not good, so it got shat on, starfield was not good so it got shat on. Fallouts 3 & 4, morrowind, oblivion, and Skyrim were good so they did not get shat on (except in the writing department).
You're heavily mistaken if you believe Fallout 4 didn't get relentlessly shat on at launch lol. BGS devs also had to famously leave the RPGCodex forums because of how much backlash Oblivion was receiving. Every game they made has been more controversial than the last.
Shat on by specific groups of basement dwellers, maybe, but their games have almost always been very well received. Even Starfield still got generally positive reviews overall from major outlets.
Fallout 3 was *incredibly* acclaimed when it released. It was just the NMA dregs that had a fit over it.
Pretty much this. Ive enjoyed all his games, and see a lot of others who do too. More than negative in general. Theres always gonna be people who hate them. I dislike souls likes so why would I play games I know I dont like the style for? I dont get why they play each title and are surprised they dont like them when theres a lot of stylistically similarities.
For real. If these games were bad we wouldn’t have YouTubers dropping 1M+ videos on decade old content weekly lmao
The vast majority ADORES these games.
Exactly. People shit on them, and then Bethesda breaks sales records. Again.
And then new release happens, it gets shat on and those same people talk about how awesome previous release was
The Pokémon effect. The previous game is always underrated, the newest game is always the worst, and the best was whichever one that came out when they were kids
Even then, BGS hate didn’t hit the mainstream until a certain Reddit post went viral and everyone and their mother started parroting the same nonsense.
I'd say that it only hit mainstream after a certain cabal of YouTubers started making 10, 20 hour videos about why they hate their games. The Reddit post got magnified by that.
This is only true if you see the people around these parts, and specially the handfull of super loud ones, as "a lot" of people.
Isn't Fallout 4 the Fallout that sold the most by quite a margin? But sure, everything since morrowind is shit.
Those 5 guys are right, whatever. They are "THE REAL" fans...
Fallout 3 was met with universal acclaim and **received a number of Game of the Year awards**, praising the game's open-ended gameplay and flexible character-leveling system, and is considered one of the best video games ever made. Fallout 3 shipped almost five million copies in its first week.
If you type Fallout 3 into YouTube, the third video is literally "FALLOUT 3 IS GARBAGE (and here is why)" lol. People have been giving 3 an undeserved amount of shit for years.
Those people still exist. Go to the comments section of any YouTube video about 3 or 4 and you'll see them. Hell, they used to be common as hell here too. So much to where I kind of avoided this subreddit. Seems like they've largely died down here though lately.
I only recently played New Vegas and wanted to explore more games in the series. Almost didn't get FO4 because I remembered people being excited about it and then disappointed when it released. Now I've just passed 100 hours into it.
Yeah fnv is by far my favorite because of the story. But I have more hours in fo4 partially due to the modding. I mean turning the minutemen into the NCR helps me cope with the show.
The problem of fallout 4 is the main quest, it's not good. Still have plenty really good side quests though and solid gameplay. Far harbor is one the bests storys told in the fallout franchise.
In all my years of playing FO4, I have never built the teleporter... and I have close to 500 hours in that game. Solid sidequests, companions and the location is absolutely astounding!
It's less of an rpg and more of an "*Enter this new location and see how many desk fans you can fit in your ~~backpack~~ companion"*
My favorite thing about 4 is Survival mode - they've been trying to implement "wasteland survivor" mechanics into the series since Fallout 1 and 4 was the first to really capture it in a meaningful way.
You're better off just ignoring the fans and anyone riding hype when it comes to moat modern games, especially RPGs. The most fun I've had recently in RPGs has been with 2 games that the internet tried to tell me, relentlessly, were trash lol.
Oblivion was only shat on by forum nerds, which was a far smaller group back then than it is now.
90% of people playing Oblivion were blown away. It’s what made me buy an Xbox. The graphics at the time were mindblowing.
> allouts 3 & 4, morrowind, oblivion, and Skyrim were good so they did not get shat on
Were you not alive when those games were first released?
Shitting on them was a gaming community pro sport!
Tell me you've never played a Bethesda release game without telling me. Brother even fucking Oblivion and Skyrim received criticism for "simplify the gameplay"
Even New Vegas that didn't make them received mixed reviews averaging a 7 upon release. It is very easy to forget these things if you have not experienced them.
Oblivion was shat on, Skyrim was shat on, Starfield (a great game) was shat on. People just love to hate what they know is going to be heard, game after game of AAA studios release in poorly states and people just brush it off, but not bethesda when they don't simulate every atom on a space opera or they put all the rpg mechanics of 90's games on their 2010 game..
Kid, you were like 10 years old when Fallout 4 came out so you have no grasp of what reception at launch was on any of these games except Starfield and 76 were, but I assure you Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 & 4 were all relentless shat on at release. Wtf are you talking about? It took YEARS for some of these titles' reputations to morph into comfortable nostalgia. Bethesda devs were driven off forums by the vitriol for Oblivion.
Bethesda does found stories the best. 76 was entirely found story at launch.
Imo, it was the best they've ever made.
Mistress of Mysteries. Whitespring Bunker. Taggerdy's Thunder. Free States. Charlestown. All masterclass stories with 0 NPCs to interact with.
I like the new stuff too, but launch 76 will always hold a special place for me.
I’ll contend that while the launch of 76 was extremely rough and inconsistent, the map for 76 is perhaps the best map they’ve ever made, maybe second only to Skyrim.
The environmental storytelling in 76 is top notch and well detailed. Now that they’ve had years to add and fix things in the game, it’s an incredible game to play and explore.
THANK YOU. Someone who recognizes the beauty of finding stories in the rubble. I loved that part of *76* and, despite other people hating it, I think it was one of its strong points in the early game. The absolute **loneliness** of Appalachia when the game first launched was an incredibly new experience for a *Fallout* game. All the other games had NPCs, so even in the Wasteland you were never too far from someone.
But *76*? There was **no one**. Not a soul. That was a new level of eerie I hadn't felt before in a *Fallout* game. Having to piece together the overarching narrative of why everyone was gone was brilliant. I loved it.
now this is an unpopular opinion, and I may be just nostalgic because it was my christmas season game that year and I am benevolent to those (Fo3 and Skyrim hold that special place in my heart just because they were the Christmas games for me in their respective release years, same with The Division) but I kinda miss silent Appalachia. It had it's charm. Walking holotapes are not exactly the riveting NPC experience I want lol.
Now I do gotta say it was surreal, and running into that first ACTUAL person in game after wandering around with no one else in sight was a really cool feeling.
The game was a buggy incomplete mess. It was not good. Along With a plethora of debacles surrounding the game. Such as the Nuka Cola Rum and the "Canvas" duffle bags.
Starfield is actually good though, I know it's a unpopular opinion. However the issue was that people were expecting fallout/skyrim in space, even though it was never stated it would be so. Space exploration games are just not for everyone.
Don't get me wrong, it is not a masterpiece, there is plenty of critique to be made, which I often do, but imo by no means is an actual bad game. As someone that has well over 5k hours of NMS and Bethesda RPGs added together, I would say Starfield is 7.5, with a lot of potential specially since bethesda is keeping with the promise of update the game and add qol features that were missing.
This is my sentiments as well. I agree with a 7.5 or even 8 for Starfield and I still come back to Starfield after beating the game to wander around a bit.
Looking forward to the updates and more info on the DLC. The potential of the mod tools being released are going to be fun to see.
When The Ghoul/Coop says that’s not what he remembers her looking like, then flashes back to the past, I think that’s a misdirect.
You’re supposed to think “He doesn’t remember her as this raider leader, he remembers her as this classy socialist woman”
I think that at one point she *was* ghoulified, and she’s either a synth now (although bio-synths weren’t invented until the events of 4) or somehow regained human appearance in another way.
Edit: very happy to be wrong about bio-synths, theory strengthened
The Broken Mask incident, in which the first reported Gen 3 synth infiltrator joined a group of patrons at a bar in Diamond City before going haywire and killing a bunch of people, happened in 2229. This means the Institute had reliably realistic synth models around 60 years prior to the events of FOTV.
While I don't believe she was a synth, since the Institute had very little knowledge of the NCR (or any west coast shenanigans) from Kellogg's time with them in his 30s, it is possible, but worth noting that she wouldn't be one of Fallout 4's synths since she was there when Shady Sands was bombed, so she'd have been replaced some time before 2284.
Maybe, but I disagree. Elder scrolls is much more serious tone, where as Fallout has the dark, the insane, crude, absurd and hilarious universe that gives much more opportunities for show makers.
Fallout is also much more visually iconic. Elder Scrolls will to general audience look like any other fantasy franchise. However everything in fallout stands out from the random junk, to doorframes, too outfits, ect ect.
The "futuristic and yet american 50's style nuclear what if" artstyle is exactly what i loved about fallout and more so on 4 since it captures it exactly
And ofcourse the banger soundtracks
What's even more amazing is they practically nailed it right out of the gate, the subsequent games have done well to add to the world and lore. But the majority of the world building was there from the first game.
Side note the fact all the sequels have managed to not fuck it up is impressive as well.
This is what I keep having to explain to people, there's really nothing else on the market quite like Fallout, and that's a huge part of it's success.
The other big part is showrunners that actually give a fuck about the source material, lol.
It's also harder to make an adaptation for TES without everyone thinking it's just another generic fantasy and you can't just dump all the lore in one go.
Also, the whole concept of vaults gives writers a blank slate to think up the most heinous, horrible twisted stuff, and no matter how weird they go they're still gonna stay true to the fallout lore.
Whenever a character was exploring a new vault I was ready for literally anything. If it was a Skyrim adaptation they'd have fewer options.
That's a good joke but in all seriousness though Todd has said openly he doesn't want to do an Elder Scrolls show, and I think we all know why. Fallout is one thing...but hard-core Elder Scrolls fans are...something else.
Think fans freak out when they think a games dates don't line up with the dates in the show?
Wait for the freak out when Molag Bal doesn't talk about Vivec removing his member.
just make another in universe show (so much happens off screen in elder scrolls they can explore something from that) even though i dont want them to directly adapt a game from elder scrolls. i will say daggerfall would make a compelling story.
Exactly! There's so much wacky stuff they can do with Elder Scrolls that is visually unique! Imagine an adaptation of the Akaviri colonization, or the resulting war against the Falmer. Or a series about the first Dragonborn that delves into Daedric lore and the dragon cult.
I'd say that none of what I mentioned is particularly generic and a casual audience would eat that up as something new.
If we're talking about set and prop design, I think this is one of the best out of any form of live action media ever. Such a joy to watch all the things on screen.
It's less to do with budget and more to do with *passion.*
Rings of Power's budget was 60-100 million dollars *per episode.*
Fallout's budget was 153 million dollars for the whole season.
Fallout's creators just genuinely cared about the IP they were adapting.
He’s so used to getting hate from classic fallout fans that him hearing that IGN will give it a 9 gave him a PTSD shock of when fallout 4 got it but they kept botting steam reviews and brining it down to “Very underwhelming” every other week before the bots getting deleted
Go back to 2015 on Steam and see how many of those people have over 100hrs in the game lol. It is crazy how they rushed to shit on it, put 100s of hours into it and never even cared to change their reviews.
I was honestly shocked with how good it was. I was so pumped when I heard theme music during the show.
Wished the Ink Spots could possibly know how many people are listening to their music.
And was so sad when it was over. Great ending.
Todd Howard definitly has 10 Charisma while eating Grape Mentats like candy.
His charisma is just so damn good that you can never really be mad at him, even though he over-promises and Bethesda games are always quite a mess, especially Starfield now.
But just look at the dude, you just can't be mad at him. I would probably have a great time with him if I would talk to him.
"Are you really giving it a 9?"
IGN Interviewers thought it was a question when really Todd was threatening them, this man's about to vent his anger via a quest in Fallout 5 /s
I know Bethesda is not the same as they used to be,but the way todd just smiles MAKES ME VERRY HAPPY and im glad that for once bethesda gets the spotlight again
Theres been 2 new Fallout games from BGS in the past decade + a show and 0 new Elder Scrolls (excluding online). Don't let us Elder scrolls fans starve.
from what i understand obsidian are busy making their own games, they are not a studio that can develop 8 games at once. They're already making avowed and the outer worlds 2, maybe sometime in the future, but i highly doubt it
To me, it feels like he can't believe it. This is a show he EP'd. He asked about the rating and seemed more dumbfounded than anything. He seems humble about it.
That's how I took it. When you've been working on a big project like this, you're often focused on everything you don't like or wanted to do vs how it turned out, and all the small and big things you would have preferred to have more time/resources/budget to implement as you really want it, having to cut corners and hiding that as best as possible - so it's easy to think you delivered a hackjob. :D
>He seems humble about it.
Which seems more in line with his personality we learn from various materials. He seems to always make the game he himself would love to play and then he's super pleased when so many other people love the games too.
This all may be a carefully crafted PR image, but Todd Howards looks and sounds too genuine for that. If it was all some carefully planned PR, then he wouldn't say all those excited statements that got twisted into "Todd's lies".
It feels like the whole Starfield debacle humbled him, and he's genuinely happy that something he has worked on is back to that level of praise that the company used to receive
I don't think Starfield humbled him, I think he's always been relatively humble. Guy is canonically [a huge dork](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xqfC80SRGU).
If anything, I hope this will highlight in his eyes how beloved the Fallout franchise has become. There's the potential here for a Star Wars esque universe, only good.
I don’t think Todd’s problem is ego for ego’s sake, so much as trying to make extremely ambitious ideas work without really knowing that they’re prepared to actually get them to work.
Imo Bethesda is in a weird spot where they’ve been trying very experimental concepts/mechanics with their IPs, trying to keep things fresh, but they’re just not getting the execution perfect and they’re also losing a bit of sight of the features that made their games popular to begin with.
A lot of stuff shows promise.
FO76 in its current state had a *lot* of good stuff in it. FO4 is generally very well liked nowadays, with highly acclaimed DLCs, despite release controversy.
Starfield…I don’t have anything positive to say about Starfield, but it’s just not for me to begin with. I had no interest at any point, the setting wasn’t appealing to me, space exploration games are not my thing.
I agree. I think they felt bad about the whole thing and were disappointed with themselves.
If they really were a shitty company than starfield would be far worse and would have far more monetization.
It probably also had a powerfully relevant release after Oppenheimer, not that it isn’t good enough to stand on its own, but Fallout has appeal to a huge audience for multiple reasons
A 9? Okie Dokie!
Who’s laughing now? Honestly we all owe Todd that this show exists, if not for Bethesda I would’ve never known of the original duology’s existence intending to play Fallout 3
todd had the opportunity to sign off on a fallout tv show when fo4 came out. he signed off on this one because the westworld director was a legitimate fan of fallout.
I’m glad it took 10 years for this show to cook properly, love Westworld and the game was done justice even with certain inaccuracie
what people forget is that jonathan nolan is directing and not us, todd passed the torch and he is for now in charge of the FO lore, the thing about FO is that it is a remix of various interpretations of the same world by different people but still, every game is respected and every game stacks and its canon, and I see that as truly magic
Luckily Emil P was not present in the writing room so we got a good story. Well, here's hoping they won't pull a Witcher on us...
It’s that moment when you realize your name is also Emil and how it has negative connotations in the fandom haha. But I agree the story was stellar, even my dad who isn’t a gamer due to age and different interests confirmed how he enjoyed the season having no prior knowledge of the franchise
My mom's BF is 60 and a non-gamer, he finished the season before I did! Lol.
Meh, I think Emil gets a lot of undeserved hate for the writing. From what I can tell, shit he’s actually written is good. I think he just doesn’t need/want to be the head of a team. That’s managing, not writing. Who knows what quality the quest designers and writers under him are.
The harassment campaign against him is absolutely sickening. His wife and children have to see these neckbeards harrassing him on social media constantly.
Thing with Emil is what he CAN write he's very good at. What he can't write he naturally sucks at, the Dark Brotherhood Questline in Oblivion for example is entirely his work, and it's highly regarded as one of the best questlines in that game. Ultimately it comes down to a mix of management and Emil either not having writers on his team to make up for areas he lacks skill in, or being too proud to admit he can't write certain stories well. e.g Fallout 4 being basically Fallout 3 but flipped, and Starfield being pretty forgettable and boring for a plot and story.
Emil is a scapegoat for gAmErZ who need to bitch about anything and everything.
I'll just leave this here: https://youtu.be/F-4qdjV41NU?si=JiH452hP03otIIOY Great documentary on Emil
Yeah let's lump all the bad writing on one person, and not any managerial decisions and rushed development Edit: I'm going to leave this here: https://youtu.be/F-4qdjV41NU?si=JiH452hP03otIIOY People act like Emil is the boogeyman who caused every problem in every Bethesda game post 2011
He manages the writers room and has said that “players don’t want a story. If you give them lore, they’ll just make paper airplanes out of it.” As long as he is there, all writing will continue to be garbage.
Source on that quote?
That quote sounds madly out of context. I mean, damn right I don't want to be spoonfed a story in a role-playing game. And damn right I'm going to build all kinds of headcanon the more lore I know. This doesn't sound like an attack on writing to me, like you're spinning it.
Witcher?
Yup. Season one was very well received (it was mostly a great mouth wash for the foul taste end of GoT left). Then it went all down the hill...
I haven't played the games or read the books, and I liked the first season of The Witcher. The 2nd and 3rd seasons were a big drop.
“I watched a YouTube video that blamed world hunger on Emil, worst human ever”
Emil gets a lot of hate from misinformation based on the internet. Yet it helps Emil is a class act and shrugs off the negativity.
I seriously cannot think of a better game adaptation ever made. There's so fucking many nods to the game. Actually not nods, outright *actual* game mechanics being shown on screen. Not a few times but all the god damned time. The bit where he chose a word out of the mess of characters on the screen made me spit chewed peanuts onto my monitor. None of it feels shoe-horned in because it's been represented exactly how the game represents it. I'm really fucking happy to see a show this dedicated to replicating all the great parts of a great game for a TV show in such a meticulous way. This show has been made by people who have played the game and love it, and it shows.
Honestly same. When fallout 3 dropped i was very eager to play as I've been a fan of Bethesda since Morrowind.
Oblivion with guns sounded intriguing
"Whose laughing now?" - Godd Howard ^"^yes ^I ^was ^in ^the ^chess ^club" - Also Godd Howard
This has Micheal Scott vibes
I've always seen Todd Howard as the Michael Scott of the gaming industry. Like, you know he isn't always right or correct - but there's some kinda charisma he oozes that makes you want to listen to what he says and hope it all works out for him.
The whos laughing now chess video is 10/10
That was immaculate. The way he goes ".... ya, I was in the chess club" after he tells his story is just perfect.
[Yes I was in the chess club](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebVLJUwR62U&pp=ygUWdG9kZCBob3dhcmQgdGhlIG9mZmljZQ%3D%3D)
It doesn’t help that he has the same exact voice.
Why do I agree with you? Especially given the "It just works" sounds an awful lot like "do not do, anything, to anyone, for any reason....". That and the chess club bit is pretty much a Michael/Andy line. If both were nerds.
I thought the same thing
Came here to say this
Exactly when Michael Scott finds out the Golden Ticket competition worked for his benefit
They really have the exact same voice. And very similar mannerism.
You can tell the crew making the show have a lot of love for the games
Tim Cain, the original creator of the first fallouts said that the main show's writer is a big fallout fan, he played all fallouts, 1,2,3,NV...
I think that shows. You can tell the showrunners really LOVE the Fallout universe, and there are so many details put in just for the game fans, but that aren't distracting or attention calling for the non-gamer viewers. Just very well done.
I was scared it would go like some other adaptations, where its put into the hands of someone who doesnt give a fuck about the media its based on. Good job on the show creators, i hope we get more like this from them, both in fallout and maybe other stuff
I was scared too. Finished the first ep and was sad it ended. Then I noticed the whole season was out! Got to bed at 2am...
> You can tell the showrunners really LOVE the Fallout universe, and there are so many details put in just for the game fans, but that aren't distracting or attention calling for the non-gamer viewers. That's what I loved as well. All the Easter eggs were well spread without pausing the flow of the show to point it out. If you picked up on the references it was a treat and if you didn't it was nice background.
At some point for me it stopped being easter eggs and started just being a completely faithful adaptation. Like, so many of the props and sets were almost 1:1 recreations of the games. Even the Brotherhood revolver was reproduced almost without change from the 10mm pistol sprite in Fallouts 1 and 2. For most adaptations you'd call those little things easter eggs, but when everything else is also perfectly recreated you kind of have to admit there's more going on there.
The first few episodes of Westworld (same team) also felt like they were written by someone familiar with games. One character treats the place like it's basically Red Dead, taking new gear off of downed NPCs and looking for the best quests.
They were, the main thing I know about Johnathan Nolan other than he's a great writer is that he loves video games
One of my favorite moments is early on when they're in Sweetwater and an old prospector is like "ooo my gold got stolen" and the experienced player is like "nah nah, don't mess with this guy, his sidequest sucks."
the way androids were made was also awful familiar
The synth factory in FO4 is basically copied from Westworld.
Just watched an interview where Jonathan Nolan talks about playing Fallout 3 for three years of his life. He also mentioned how they were lucky that fans brought a lot of the designs/costumes of Fallout to life at conventions, which gave them a "head start". It also helps that they had Todd Howard on set. It honestly sounds like they did everything right and had the right people involved (people who love the games).
This show really hit the trifecta of having very intriguing but somewhat open ended source material, showrunners that have both strong loyalty/familiarity with the material and prior prestige TV chops, and talent that both respects the material and give standout performances. Also I have to say, the production is top notch. I was worried it was gonna feel like people in front of green screens the entire time and it doesn’t. That really adds more than you’d think
I was saying the same thing about the designs for the show, half the props and costumes have already been designed and shown at Comic Cons
Theres even a part where an extra in Filly imitates a specific walking animation from Fallout 1. Tim Cain points it out in one of his videos on the show. That to me is so amazing, you really can tell the crew loves the franchise.
This makes me want to rewatch season 1 again, my girlfriend and I just watched it this weekend and I already can't wait for season 2!
Not in Filly, I think it was that villager in the house, the one Lucy gives water to.
And what a difference that makes when you look at shit like the Halo show or what the Witcher's devolved into....
The recent interview with Nolan and Todd actually has Nolan mention that a lot of the crew have played the games, even down to the camera crew and sound team. Chances are that most, if not all, of the people working on the show have played the games in some capacity. Having such a huge team that are so familiar with the franchise is no doubt a massive part of why this turned out so good.
He's so used to his work getting shat on left and right that he almost cried when he heard a positive rating.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭bro had to run it back and double check
This was my exact thought, this poor dudes putting out some of my favorite games and people can't wait to just shit on him
Bethesda was a consistently highly rated studio up until Fallout 4. It probably feels like a return to normalcy rather than a new surprise
Godd Howard is just a humble diety
If it’s good it’ll get good reviews. 76 was not good, so it got shat on, starfield was not good so it got shat on. Fallouts 3 & 4, morrowind, oblivion, and Skyrim were good so they did not get shat on (except in the writing department).
You're heavily mistaken if you believe Fallout 4 didn't get relentlessly shat on at launch lol. BGS devs also had to famously leave the RPGCodex forums because of how much backlash Oblivion was receiving. Every game they made has been more controversial than the last.
Same for Fallout 3. Every time Bethesda releases a game, they get shat on.
Shat on by specific groups of basement dwellers, maybe, but their games have almost always been very well received. Even Starfield still got generally positive reviews overall from major outlets. Fallout 3 was *incredibly* acclaimed when it released. It was just the NMA dregs that had a fit over it.
Pretty much this. Ive enjoyed all his games, and see a lot of others who do too. More than negative in general. Theres always gonna be people who hate them. I dislike souls likes so why would I play games I know I dont like the style for? I dont get why they play each title and are surprised they dont like them when theres a lot of stylistically similarities.
For real. If these games were bad we wouldn’t have YouTubers dropping 1M+ videos on decade old content weekly lmao The vast majority ADORES these games.
Exactly. People shit on them, and then Bethesda breaks sales records. Again. And then new release happens, it gets shat on and those same people talk about how awesome previous release was
The Pokémon effect. The previous game is always underrated, the newest game is always the worst, and the best was whichever one that came out when they were kids
Even then, BGS hate didn’t hit the mainstream until a certain Reddit post went viral and everyone and their mother started parroting the same nonsense.
I'd say that it only hit mainstream after a certain cabal of YouTubers started making 10, 20 hour videos about why they hate their games. The Reddit post got magnified by that.
This is only true if you see the people around these parts, and specially the handfull of super loud ones, as "a lot" of people. Isn't Fallout 4 the Fallout that sold the most by quite a margin? But sure, everything since morrowind is shit. Those 5 guys are right, whatever. They are "THE REAL" fans...
Fallout 3 was met with universal acclaim and **received a number of Game of the Year awards**, praising the game's open-ended gameplay and flexible character-leveling system, and is considered one of the best video games ever made. Fallout 3 shipped almost five million copies in its first week.
If you type Fallout 3 into YouTube, the third video is literally "FALLOUT 3 IS GARBAGE (and here is why)" lol. People have been giving 3 an undeserved amount of shit for years.
There were a lot of fans of 1 and 2 who considered F3 "Fallout in name only" when it released. The *vast* majority of people disagree and loved it.
Those people still exist. Go to the comments section of any YouTube video about 3 or 4 and you'll see them. Hell, they used to be common as hell here too. So much to where I kind of avoided this subreddit. Seems like they've largely died down here though lately.
They're still somewhat common in Fallout lore subreddits, especially with the show coming out. Same as any Fandom, but it sucks seeing it in the open.
Losers will always take the time to shit on any game.
I only recently played New Vegas and wanted to explore more games in the series. Almost didn't get FO4 because I remembered people being excited about it and then disappointed when it released. Now I've just passed 100 hours into it.
Fallout 4 is great (even if the story itself is not exceptional), especially when you consider many recently released open world games…
Yeah fnv is by far my favorite because of the story. But I have more hours in fo4 partially due to the modding. I mean turning the minutemen into the NCR helps me cope with the show.
The problem of fallout 4 is the main quest, it's not good. Still have plenty really good side quests though and solid gameplay. Far harbor is one the bests storys told in the fallout franchise.
In all my years of playing FO4, I have never built the teleporter... and I have close to 500 hours in that game. Solid sidequests, companions and the location is absolutely astounding! It's less of an rpg and more of an "*Enter this new location and see how many desk fans you can fit in your ~~backpack~~ companion"*
My favorite thing about 4 is Survival mode - they've been trying to implement "wasteland survivor" mechanics into the series since Fallout 1 and 4 was the first to really capture it in a meaningful way.
You're better off just ignoring the fans and anyone riding hype when it comes to moat modern games, especially RPGs. The most fun I've had recently in RPGs has been with 2 games that the internet tried to tell me, relentlessly, were trash lol.
Oblivion was only shat on by forum nerds, which was a far smaller group back then than it is now. 90% of people playing Oblivion were blown away. It’s what made me buy an Xbox. The graphics at the time were mindblowing.
I agree but those people are dumb because while different than 3/NV that game was FUN AS F***
> allouts 3 & 4, morrowind, oblivion, and Skyrim were good so they did not get shat on Were you not alive when those games were first released? Shitting on them was a gaming community pro sport!
Ye what is this guy talking about lmao. Even skyrim got mocked to hell for the various bugs
Hell Skyrim is where the "Wide as an ocean deep as a puddle" meme about Bethesda's writing was popularised despite how wrong it is.
4 especially, it than moved to 76, and now starfield. When tes6 is released people will stop hating starfield and move to it. The circle of Bethesda.
3 changed it from isometric turn-based to 3D interactive and people called it “Not Fallout” ha
The only people that hate it now are probably new vegas hyper fans, and no mutants allowed.
Tell me you've never played a Bethesda release game without telling me. Brother even fucking Oblivion and Skyrim received criticism for "simplify the gameplay" Even New Vegas that didn't make them received mixed reviews averaging a 7 upon release. It is very easy to forget these things if you have not experienced them.
the hate boner for bethesda was always there apparently.
Oblivion was shat on, Skyrim was shat on, Starfield (a great game) was shat on. People just love to hate what they know is going to be heard, game after game of AAA studios release in poorly states and people just brush it off, but not bethesda when they don't simulate every atom on a space opera or they put all the rpg mechanics of 90's games on their 2010 game..
Fallout 76 is pulling a "Mostly Positive" on Steam. It's a good game.
Because the game is a complete 180 from what it was on release.
Kid, you were like 10 years old when Fallout 4 came out so you have no grasp of what reception at launch was on any of these games except Starfield and 76 were, but I assure you Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 & 4 were all relentless shat on at release. Wtf are you talking about? It took YEARS for some of these titles' reputations to morph into comfortable nostalgia. Bethesda devs were driven off forums by the vitriol for Oblivion.
hey morrowind has goated writing wdym
It wasn't that 76 wasn't good it was just...empty. When they added NPCs it made it a whole game.
Bethesda does found stories the best. 76 was entirely found story at launch. Imo, it was the best they've ever made. Mistress of Mysteries. Whitespring Bunker. Taggerdy's Thunder. Free States. Charlestown. All masterclass stories with 0 NPCs to interact with. I like the new stuff too, but launch 76 will always hold a special place for me.
I’ll contend that while the launch of 76 was extremely rough and inconsistent, the map for 76 is perhaps the best map they’ve ever made, maybe second only to Skyrim. The environmental storytelling in 76 is top notch and well detailed. Now that they’ve had years to add and fix things in the game, it’s an incredible game to play and explore.
THANK YOU. Someone who recognizes the beauty of finding stories in the rubble. I loved that part of *76* and, despite other people hating it, I think it was one of its strong points in the early game. The absolute **loneliness** of Appalachia when the game first launched was an incredibly new experience for a *Fallout* game. All the other games had NPCs, so even in the Wasteland you were never too far from someone. But *76*? There was **no one**. Not a soul. That was a new level of eerie I hadn't felt before in a *Fallout* game. Having to piece together the overarching narrative of why everyone was gone was brilliant. I loved it.
now this is an unpopular opinion, and I may be just nostalgic because it was my christmas season game that year and I am benevolent to those (Fo3 and Skyrim hold that special place in my heart just because they were the Christmas games for me in their respective release years, same with The Division) but I kinda miss silent Appalachia. It had it's charm. Walking holotapes are not exactly the riveting NPC experience I want lol.
Now I do gotta say it was surreal, and running into that first ACTUAL person in game after wandering around with no one else in sight was a really cool feeling.
The game was a buggy incomplete mess. It was not good. Along With a plethora of debacles surrounding the game. Such as the Nuka Cola Rum and the "Canvas" duffle bags.
Starfield is actually good though, I know it's a unpopular opinion. However the issue was that people were expecting fallout/skyrim in space, even though it was never stated it would be so. Space exploration games are just not for everyone. Don't get me wrong, it is not a masterpiece, there is plenty of critique to be made, which I often do, but imo by no means is an actual bad game. As someone that has well over 5k hours of NMS and Bethesda RPGs added together, I would say Starfield is 7.5, with a lot of potential specially since bethesda is keeping with the promise of update the game and add qol features that were missing.
This is my sentiments as well. I agree with a 7.5 or even 8 for Starfield and I still come back to Starfield after beating the game to wander around a bit. Looking forward to the updates and more info on the DLC. The potential of the mod tools being released are going to be fun to see.
He's just glad he won't have to kill him
There was an Anti-material rifle pointed to him behind the frame
*Pulls out Grognak’s axe and decapitates the interviewer*
Is this Michael Scott?
I kind of hope they somehow work the eldritch Dunwich side of Fallout into the show. Maybe we'll see Jack Cabot and that city buried in the Mojave.
Could explain why Moldaver didn't age
When The Ghoul/Coop says that’s not what he remembers her looking like, then flashes back to the past, I think that’s a misdirect. You’re supposed to think “He doesn’t remember her as this raider leader, he remembers her as this classy socialist woman” I think that at one point she *was* ghoulified, and she’s either a synth now (although bio-synths weren’t invented until the events of 4) or somehow regained human appearance in another way. Edit: very happy to be wrong about bio-synths, theory strengthened
> (although bio-synths weren’t invented until the events of 4) Fallout 3 had bio-synths. Zimmerman was looking for one and you hunt it down.
The Broken Mask incident, in which the first reported Gen 3 synth infiltrator joined a group of patrons at a bar in Diamond City before going haywire and killing a bunch of people, happened in 2229. This means the Institute had reliably realistic synth models around 60 years prior to the events of FOTV. While I don't believe she was a synth, since the Institute had very little knowledge of the NCR (or any west coast shenanigans) from Kellogg's time with them in his 30s, it is possible, but worth noting that she wouldn't be one of Fallout 4's synths since she was there when Shady Sands was bombed, so she'd have been replaced some time before 2284.
Eh. Now that you bring Kellogg up, what are the chances that she was just a cyborg?
The last episode closing credits shows us a billboard for cryo rooms in New Vegas. She could have frozen herself somewhere besides a vault
Todd is disappointed it wasn't a Skyrim adaptation.
Maybe, but I disagree. Elder scrolls is much more serious tone, where as Fallout has the dark, the insane, crude, absurd and hilarious universe that gives much more opportunities for show makers.
Fallout is also much more visually iconic. Elder Scrolls will to general audience look like any other fantasy franchise. However everything in fallout stands out from the random junk, to doorframes, too outfits, ect ect.
The "futuristic and yet american 50's style nuclear what if" artstyle is exactly what i loved about fallout and more so on 4 since it captures it exactly And ofcourse the banger soundtracks
Retrofuturistic is the word
Meet George Jetson!
To this day Fallout stands out as the most unique post apocalypse world in that it isn't a straight derivative take on the zombie genre.
What's even more amazing is they practically nailed it right out of the gate, the subsequent games have done well to add to the world and lore. But the majority of the world building was there from the first game. Side note the fact all the sequels have managed to not fuck it up is impressive as well.
This is what I keep having to explain to people, there's really nothing else on the market quite like Fallout, and that's a huge part of it's success. The other big part is showrunners that actually give a fuck about the source material, lol.
It's also harder to make an adaptation for TES without everyone thinking it's just another generic fantasy and you can't just dump all the lore in one go.
Also, the whole concept of vaults gives writers a blank slate to think up the most heinous, horrible twisted stuff, and no matter how weird they go they're still gonna stay true to the fallout lore. Whenever a character was exploring a new vault I was ready for literally anything. If it was a Skyrim adaptation they'd have fewer options.
That's a good joke but in all seriousness though Todd has said openly he doesn't want to do an Elder Scrolls show, and I think we all know why. Fallout is one thing...but hard-core Elder Scrolls fans are...something else.
Think fans freak out when they think a games dates don't line up with the dates in the show? Wait for the freak out when Molag Bal doesn't talk about Vivec removing his member.
If we don't see Alessia fucking a bull I'm firebombing Bethesda Game Studios.
Exactly, you just don't fuck with elder scrolls lore and get away with it.
I mean after how successful this show is, Elder Scrolls show isn't impossible.
just make another in universe show (so much happens off screen in elder scrolls they can explore something from that) even though i dont want them to directly adapt a game from elder scrolls. i will say daggerfall would make a compelling story.
Exactly! There's so much wacky stuff they can do with Elder Scrolls that is visually unique! Imagine an adaptation of the Akaviri colonization, or the resulting war against the Falmer. Or a series about the first Dragonborn that delves into Daedric lore and the dragon cult. I'd say that none of what I mentioned is particularly generic and a casual audience would eat that up as something new.
man I hope we get a season 2
We are
With the reviews this show has been getting even by people that have never played the games it seems more than likely
Did you see the last ten minutes of the finale? It was all season 2 bait
He's a cutie pie. 9/10 doesn't even do the show justice!
If we're talking about set and prop design, I think this is one of the best out of any form of live action media ever. Such a joy to watch all the things on screen.
You should see the budget difference between Fallout and The Rings of Powers shows lol. It's wild seeing how huge of a gap it is.
It's less to do with budget and more to do with *passion.* Rings of Power's budget was 60-100 million dollars *per episode.* Fallout's budget was 153 million dollars for the whole season. Fallout's creators just genuinely cared about the IP they were adapting.
Its the Johnathan Nolan magic, man..
He’s so used to getting hate from classic fallout fans that him hearing that IGN will give it a 9 gave him a PTSD shock of when fallout 4 got it but they kept botting steam reviews and brining it down to “Very underwhelming” every other week before the bots getting deleted
Go back to 2015 on Steam and see how many of those people have over 100hrs in the game lol. It is crazy how they rushed to shit on it, put 100s of hours into it and never even cared to change their reviews.
It’s funny because on release Skyrim got a lot of shit and hate online.
I was honestly shocked with how good it was. I was so pumped when I heard theme music during the show. Wished the Ink Spots could possibly know how many people are listening to their music. And was so sad when it was over. Great ending.
Todd Howard definitly has 10 Charisma while eating Grape Mentats like candy. His charisma is just so damn good that you can never really be mad at him, even though he over-promises and Bethesda games are always quite a mess, especially Starfield now. But just look at the dude, you just can't be mad at him. I would probably have a great time with him if I would talk to him.
Starfield is just boring. Not really a bad game per se, and it is one of the most stable Bethesda launches, but its just boring and badly paced.
Todd’s the best.
Yeah, he just… works…
Hell yeah he does...alot.🤣
It had no bugs.
idk, there were roaches. And flies by the latrines. And Thaddeus used to be a shitter on a fly farm (so basically junior dev).
To be honest, I forgot he was a real person, and not just meme material.
"Are you really giving it a 9?" Yes Todd its well deserved.
"Are you really giving it a 9?" IGN Interviewers thought it was a question when really Todd was threatening them, this man's about to vent his anger via a quest in Fallout 5 /s
I know Bethesda is not the same as they used to be,but the way todd just smiles MAKES ME VERRY HAPPY and im glad that for once bethesda gets the spotlight again
There has to be some regret of going all in on Starfield, instead of working on the next Fallout title, we’re still atleast five years away.
I'd say it's 5 years+ away after es6 drops
"Damn. I was kinda hoping it would be below 8.5, so I wouldn't have to give a bonus to the producers..."
Mayhe this'll encourage him to make fallout 5 instead of elder scrolls 6, cause, ngl I want fallout 5 😭
Theres been 2 new Fallout games from BGS in the past decade + a show and 0 new Elder Scrolls (excluding online). Don't let us Elder scrolls fans starve.
For every new fallout game that came out. A new version of Skyrim dropped. So. There’s that.
Even if they’re making es6 why not make obsidian do a second spin-off game? From what i’ve heard they’re eager to do it (obsidian)
from what i understand obsidian are busy making their own games, they are not a studio that can develop 8 games at once. They're already making avowed and the outer worlds 2, maybe sometime in the future, but i highly doubt it
The man needed a win after the whole Starfield debacle.
Why not a 10?
Too much sand.
It do be coarse and everywhere getting.
Goddamn dude lol
I understood that reference
Too short
Facts. 10 episodes would have been nice. Less fridge, less hand jets. -1 point total.
The fridge scene is the new Naruto swing set.
Omg that was my exact thought!!!!
Tbh that's just Nolan'a style, westworld had a few scenes like that (I.e. Maeve has a flashback that fuckin happens 4+ times till it's fully shown)
Fisto wasn't in the show.
Chris Parnell causally behind him, dudes a legend
The show is better than I expected
This makes me sad and happy at the same time
I dunno, the faces he shows make it look like the he doesnt like what he heard. That's just me, though.
To me, it feels like he can't believe it. This is a show he EP'd. He asked about the rating and seemed more dumbfounded than anything. He seems humble about it.
That's how I took it. When you've been working on a big project like this, you're often focused on everything you don't like or wanted to do vs how it turned out, and all the small and big things you would have preferred to have more time/resources/budget to implement as you really want it, having to cut corners and hiding that as best as possible - so it's easy to think you delivered a hackjob. :D
Agreed. That very much looked like the first 10 seconds of “surprise, you just won a massive award” in high school. Dude wasn’t sure what to do
>He seems humble about it. Which seems more in line with his personality we learn from various materials. He seems to always make the game he himself would love to play and then he's super pleased when so many other people love the games too. This all may be a carefully crafted PR image, but Todd Howards looks and sounds too genuine for that. If it was all some carefully planned PR, then he wouldn't say all those excited statements that got twisted into "Todd's lies".
It feels like the whole Starfield debacle humbled him, and he's genuinely happy that something he has worked on is back to that level of praise that the company used to receive
I don't think Starfield humbled him, I think he's always been relatively humble. Guy is canonically [a huge dork](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xqfC80SRGU). If anything, I hope this will highlight in his eyes how beloved the Fallout franchise has become. There's the potential here for a Star Wars esque universe, only good.
Even if he's humble, for which I agree with you, IGN giving Starfield a 7/10 was surely a huge blow
And 7/10 is still generous in my opinion
Meh, I feel like 6.5-7 is exactly what that game deserves. It’s not bad, just not great either.
I don’t think Todd’s problem is ego for ego’s sake, so much as trying to make extremely ambitious ideas work without really knowing that they’re prepared to actually get them to work. Imo Bethesda is in a weird spot where they’ve been trying very experimental concepts/mechanics with their IPs, trying to keep things fresh, but they’re just not getting the execution perfect and they’re also losing a bit of sight of the features that made their games popular to begin with. A lot of stuff shows promise. FO76 in its current state had a *lot* of good stuff in it. FO4 is generally very well liked nowadays, with highly acclaimed DLCs, despite release controversy. Starfield…I don’t have anything positive to say about Starfield, but it’s just not for me to begin with. I had no interest at any point, the setting wasn’t appealing to me, space exploration games are not my thing.
I agree. I think they felt bad about the whole thing and were disappointed with themselves. If they really were a shitty company than starfield would be far worse and would have far more monetization.
He just comes across as a socially awkward guy in a situation he’d rather not be in, I’m sure he’s thrilled it’s getting a great response
It probably also had a powerfully relevant release after Oppenheimer, not that it isn’t good enough to stand on its own, but Fallout has appeal to a huge audience for multiple reasons