It's good.

I liked it.

But none of that famous American sport that we all love.... Baseball! The game of America!

baseball-crank

(Idk, I'm making fun of American jingoism now.)

  • davel [he/him]
    hexbear
    12
    edit-2
    17 days ago

    I never played any of the games, but I saw this four year old video recently, Bethesda NEVER Understood Fallout, which explains the premise of the first game, and how every game thereafter failed to understand the premise. Dollars to donuts this show doesn’t, either.

    • Pluto [he/him, he/him]
      hexagon
      hexbear
      5
      edit-2
      17 days ago

      True, but Fallout 1 and 2 are pretty liberal and so far Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4 so idc

      Besides, it's Jonathan Nolan's baby, essentially.

      • ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]
        hexbear
        3
        17 days ago

        I didn't find Fallout 1 to be that liberal, is it? I mean sure it doesn't exactly bust out a material analysis of history, but I thought it was a pretty scathing critique of american culture and capitalism.

        • Pluto [he/him, he/him]
          hexagon
          hexbear
          6
          16 days ago

          So is Fallout 3 and 4.

          It's not that different.

          But there's no socialism. It barely exists.

          • ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]
            hexbear
            6
            edit-2
            16 days ago

            Socialism is kind of like, if it existed there'd be no plot in Fallout. That's almost textual in New Vegas and kind of implied in 1?

            We'll ignore 3 and 4 cause they're dead above the brainstem, just nostalgiajerking, but the Fallout games are essentially about the folly of the current western world. We never get to see Fallout's Russia or China, so it's possible they built cool socialist societies and got owned anyway. Very plausible even, hell perhaps getting rekt by the People's Republic of China in the Alaskan oil war is what caused the US to throw a nuke tantrum in the first place! With how much red-scare propaganda you see, perhaps the subtext is "the US rejected socialism wholesale as in our timeline and it went BAD"? Fallout 1 is primarily a critique of particularly midcentury America and its warlike habits, which are unending. It has some affection for the consumerism inherent, but mostly as kitsch, the game is pitch black in tone. The games have pretty much always treated anyone looking to return to the old ways with scorn.

            The new societies in the Fallout games I basically take to be westoid mindsets repeating their stupid mistakes cause they never read theory. Fallout 2 has an exclusive walled-garden society with slave labour again, and of course in New Vegas you get to explore liberal democracy, (cringe) nascent fascism, (cringe) techbro libertarianism (cringe) or no central gubmint at all. Conspicuously missing are any sort of anarchism or socialism (though the Followers of the Apocalypse were once planned as anarchists) because then the plot would not happen, you can't really effectively explore all this stuff if based commies just roll over everything. There's no socialism cause it would effectively fix postnuclear society, and Fallout is about exploring the failings of current western ones, I think.

  • Pluto [he/him, he/him]
    hexagon
    hexbear
    11
    17 days ago

    Your thoughts?

    No spoilers.

    Also, I'm dead-set on liking this series and giving it a chance so nothing... overly negative.

    Like, be... idk, soft on this series? I'm still forming my opinion but i quite liked the first episode.

    Thanks!

  • betelgeuse [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    7
    17 days ago

    It's fine. I appreciate the integration of game elements to the point of the main plot even having side-quests. It's also a very Jonathan Nolan show.

  • Red_Eclipse [she/her]
    hexbear
    7
    17 days ago

    I know absolutely nothing about the lore of Fallout other than.... 1950s aesthetic and nukes happen. I know there's some vault thing made by "Vault Tec" or something and I know what ghouls are. That's about it.

    I like it so far. I'm interested in watching the rest and seeing where it goes.

  • Dickey_Butts [none/use name]
    hexbear
    7
    edit-2
    17 days ago

    It gets better towards the end. The first few episodes are almost overwhelming with the amount of shiny BS thrown in for epic gamers. I wanted to dislike it, but it isn't bad. Could do without the gore. It isn't as funny as they think it is (the gore specifically I mean, its just disturbing - some parts of the show are very funny). Overall worth watching.

    The Brotherhood parts I liked quite a bit.

    • ashinadash [she/her, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      6
      17 days ago

      I guess it takes a special kind to find the gory death animations from Fallout 1 to be both hilarious and satisfying. That's also a pixel game so Idk...

      • Dickey_Butts [none/use name]
        hexbear
        3
        16 days ago

        It is definitely the fidelity of the gore that is the problem. It looks too real to be funny to me.

        • sappho [she/her]
          hexbear
          2
          16 days ago

          How feasible would it be for me to watch and avoid looking at the gore? Like is it random for shock value, or is it in scenes where I could reasonably guess that gore will appear and look away from the screen for a while?

          I ask because I have this fun kind of mirror synesthesia where if I see people being hurt, my brain will occasionally decide to simulate the pain for me on the same body part, and it gets stuck like that for 15-20 minutes before fading. It can make shows really uncomfortable to watch.

          • soli@infosec.pub
            hexbear
            2
            16 days ago

            I'd skip this one for sure if I were you. It is used for random shock value and it's so frequent that, even if you could predict it all, you'd be looking away from the screen so often you may as well turn it off and pretend it's an audio drama.

            • sappho [she/her]
              hexbear
              2
              16 days ago

              Damn, that's so unfortunate. Thank you, I really appreciate the information.

              • Dickey_Butts [none/use name]
                hexbear
                2
                16 days ago

                There were def parts where i had to look away / cover part of the screen with my hand. I would prob steer clear if that is the case.

  • kristina [she/her]
    hexbear
    5
    16 days ago

    its not bad, though its not good. slop for the piggies at least

  • FourteenEyes [he/him]
    hexbear
    4
    17 days ago

    I guess nobody else is really bothered by the giant plot hole where Lucy figures out Monty is a raider with the Geiger counter on her PipBoy even though literally everybody else in the entire vault was wearing a PipBoy for the whole wedding.