I’m sure by now most people who care have heard that Fallout 4 has been announced. There’s a trailer at http://fallout4.com, as well as preorder links. I wanted to talk about some of my impressions of the trailer, since that’s all we have as far as info at the moment.
I love the new song. “It’s All Over But The Crying” by the Ink Spots. Very appropriate. And welcome back, Ron Perlman! The flashback moments are interesting, and I hope we get to see more along those lines. Dogmeat is different; he’s not an Australian shepherd, but a German shepherd, and he doesn’t have heterochromia as far as I can tell. He’s clearly sniffing the ground, presumably looking for the PC, and when he noses the remains of the mobile, it’s so sad. The little touches of the Blast Radius game and the Nuka-Cola truck were nice, by the way. The flashback that shows the Vertibird is nice, and by the way, I really like that there’s more color so far. Much as I love Fallout 3, I had to get Fellout to get rid of the excess green. When the people run to the fallout shelter, there’s some soldiers in Brotherhood Power Armor, which makes me wonder when the split happened and how the Enclave got their armor, and why they look so different. I also noticed that there’s more variation in body types; I noticed a heavier-set woman and a very thin woman in the crowd there.
War never changes.
So we’ll be dealing with Vault 111 as well as the Institute, first mentioned in Fallout 3. I wonder why it looks like the Vault Dweller is coming /up/ out of the vault? Later on it does look like there’s a door that opens down, which is unusual. Then there’s the Bunker Hill monument; Old Ironsides retrofitted with rockets (?); the Memory Den, which I’ve seen speculation is related to the Replicants (also mentioned in Fallout 3 in the quest “The Replicated Man”), which looks a little like a scene from Blade Runner to me; the brief shot of the farmhouse built on the skeleton of a high-tension power line tower; and a shot that some people have said is mutants, and some have said is one mutant and one person in power armor, which isn’t too far-fetched given that Fawkes was one of the available companions in FO3. An unusually-designed and -colored Protectron — is this the new design? Looks like the background is a shipping harbor, which makes sense, but it also looks like there might be some brick buildings back there too.
A Mirelurk on the beach, and the background reminds me of a carnival but is more likely some sort of settlement. Dogmeat running under an overpass, with the Red Rocket gas station logo on the billboard. Yay, a Deathclaw. A Vertibird in front of satellite dishes. Ghouls who hate shopping carts and grocery stores as usual, but damn they move fast! They look different, too. Presumably Fenway Park, with the door that opens vertically and the baseball statue in front. An Eyebot in front of “Swatter’s Custom Baseball Bat Store” going by a really nice-looking settlement (given the setting), with “Diamond City Surplus”, “Power Noodles”, and “Chem-I-Care”, which are presumably stores. I notice the Swatter’s logo bat has nails pounded into it, and it looks like the guy out front is wearing a baseball uniform. The settlement appears to have plenty of power, since there’s neon-type signs and power lines going to several of the buildings. Looking at the background, this has to be either right outside or, more likely, inside Fenway, because I can see the banks of lights that are typical of baseball fields. It makes sense, because a semi-enclosed area would be more likely to have a high survival rate, and the businesses seem to be baseball-themed. Nice touch with the chem store being there.
An airship (!!!) over the statue of Paul Revere, and it looks like the buildings in this area are intact, which would be lovely… one of my favorite things to do is explore, and intact buildings means (at least in theory) more places to explore! Another Vertibird accompanying the airship, then a shot out the side of a Vertibird, again with the Red Rocket gas station logo and another person in Brotherhood Power Armor. I see ads for “Fallon’s” and “GNN”, so maybe we’ll get some more Three Dog. I’d like that, although I know not everyone liked him. Lots of seemingly intact buildings there, too… of course, Boston wouldn’t have gotten hit as hard or directly as DC, so it makes sense that the buildings are in better shape. Another building shot, and I think the shiny domed building is the legislature? (I know nothing about Boston, I picked up the earlier stuff from other people.)
Another shot of that weird vault door that opens up instead of in, and another flashback. On the other hand, it looks like there’s some larger luggage there, so maybe that’s how they got the bigger stuff down into the vault. There’s some sort of symbol on the door, something with spread wings, maybe an eagle? It’s hard to tell. No, the later shot shows for a split second that it just says “Vault 111”, right before the mushroom cloud. Hope all those people standing there have some RadAway. On the left there’s a woman with a baby, which could be the PC and his/her mother.
Dogmeat going by a different type of Nuka-Cola machine, into the garage. This Power Armor is interesting, as the leg is clearly being worked on, and the hands are gauntlets rather than gloves. I like the acknowledgement that Power Armor is HEAVY, as it’s hanging from the type of thing that is generally used to pull an engine out of a car. On the left, I also see a minigun, or at least its barrels, some ammo containers, a Vault-Boy Bobblehead, a laser rifle, and some assorted parts that could be mods for it. On the right, a Nuka-Cola poster and a comic book or magazine rack. I see a Guns ‘n’ Ammo, and possibly a Patriot’s Cookbook and a La Fantoma.
Outside, the Lone Wanderer walks up, and leaning on the chair is another type of (presumably) laser rifle, but it doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before. LW has a Pip-Boy, and the graphics here are really nice, although the arm bulges weirdly. I suppose that’s his elbow, but it doesn’t look right to me when he straightens his arm. The Pip-Boy looks like a slightly different model, with knobs on the right-hand side of the screen (if he holds his arm up in front of him) rather than the left. That vault suit is super-tight, though, and it doesn’t look right to me. We also get a glimpse of the /back/ of the Pip-Boy, which is a bit unusual. Interesting gun the LW is carrying. And… I’m really hoping the voiced line is just for show and doesn’t mean that the PC is going to be voiced. That would take a lot away from the game and make it less personal, which is something I’ve always loved about the series.
Several people have mentioned that the trailer looks like it’s engine-rendered. If that’s true, that means the in-game graphics will be comparable to the graphics in the trailer. I really hope so, even if it does mean I have to speed up construction on my gaming rig. There’s no release date yet, but based on past history, it’s likely to be in the fourth quarter of the year, anywhere from October to December. We’ll know more after E3, when Bethesda does their announcement on June 14. I’ll be watching, and probably will give my impressions on that as well.
So, that’s my quick analysis and a few impressions, now that I’ve started to breathe again after the announcement. What are your thoughts? Anything you particularly like or dislike about the trailer? Hopes for the game? There’s a lot we don’t know, but speculation is half the fun of waiting!
As the official site says… Welcome Home.
Localized Geekery 