This could be great or it could be horrific
I will probably watch it regardless
If they do show my home town of Morgantown in this show, I will totally run over to the sets and try to be an extra.
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Completely agree. Hope they lean in to the tone from Fallout 1 and 2 though more than 3 and 4.This could be great or it could be horrific
I will probably watch it regardless
Well, if I'm gonna be a nitpicky nerd, Fallout 2 had a very different tone from Fallout 1. It was much more, relatively speaking, lighthearted, with a lot more jokey/weird easter egg moments. Fallout 3 and 4's tone is fairly similar, IMO--some really dark stuff with some really goofy moments as well. For obvious reasons, New Vegas and Fallout 2 were most alike in tonal feel. (Honestly, I actually find the first Fallout, while it had some quirky humor in it, fairly bland and depressing. But the first game I played was 2, so I probably came in with different expectations.) Tone of the Fallout games has never been an issue for me. Unfinished and badly written questlines and an inability to feel like you're really having an impact on anything has always been my issue with 3 and 4 (even then I still replay through 4 constantly because I love the world build and building things in the world :) ).
Regardless, Todd Howard is an executive producer. Bethesda owns the rights to the franchise. So they will have the creative input and may also have veto rights if something doesn't feel like it fits their vision of Fallout. Take that for what it might be.
And this said, Bethesda hasn't tried to sweep 1 and 2 under the carpet. The later games are full of homages and references to the first two (which doesn't mollify the die hard oldskoolers, but the only thing that would mollify them is rewiring their brain so they can play Fallout 1 and 2 as though it were the first time for them again). In the board game (authorized by Bethesda) you can play through an adventure based on Fallout 1. I'd hope the showrunners themselves are versed enough in the lore to keep the best of all of the games, while also taking us some place new.
If any of you have never seen "Fallout: Nuka Break," I recommend looking it up. It was a fan/small production made live action series and I think a good show that Fallout can work in that medium (just bear in mind it WAS fanmade so the effects and makeup only go so far).
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Completely agree. Hope they lean in to the tone from Fallout 1 and 2 though more than 3 and 4.This could be great or it could be horrific
I will probably watch it regardless
Well, if I'm gonna be a nitpicky nerd, Fallout 2 had a very different tone from Fallout 1. It was much more, relatively speaking, lighthearted, with a lot more jokey/weird easter egg moments. Fallout 3 and 4's tone is fairly similar, IMO--some really dark stuff with some really goofy moments as well. For obvious reasons, New Vegas and Fallout 2 were most alike in tonal feel. (Honestly, I actually find the first Fallout, while it had some quirky humor in it, fairly bland and depressing. But the first game I played was 2, so I probably came in with different expectations.) Tone of the Fallout games has never been an issue for me. Unfinished and badly written questlines and an inability to feel like you're really having an impact on anything has always been my issue with 3 and 4 (even then I still replay through 4 constantly because I love the world build and building things in the world :) ).
Regardless, Todd Howard is an executive producer. Bethesda owns the rights to the franchise. So they will have the creative input and may also have veto rights if something doesn't feel like it fits their vision of Fallout. Take that for what it might be.
And this said, Bethesda hasn't tried to sweep 1 and 2 under the carpet. The later games are full of homages and references to the first two (which doesn't mollify the die hard oldskoolers, but the only thing that would mollify them is rewiring their brain so they can play Fallout 1 and 2 as though it were the first time for them again). In the board game (authorized by Bethesda) you can play through an adventure based on Fallout 1. I'd hope the showrunners themselves are versed enough in the lore to keep the best of all of the games, while also taking us some place new.
If any of you have never seen "Fallout: Nuka Break," I recommend looking it up. It was a fan/small production made live action series and I think a good show that Fallout can work in that medium (just bear in mind it WAS fanmade so the effects and makeup only go so far).
Full disclosure, I didn't play much of Fallout 3 and none of 4, but for me as a diehard oldskooler, the biggest issue was it wasn't turn based. that doesn't apply for a TV show. My complaint for FO3's tone is that it was too jokey in ways such as a gun which shot mini nukes. It turned it into a parody of itself to me.
That being said, I'm happy to give the show a chance and hope its one of the rate video game adaptations which doesn't suck.
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Huh. I can understand the game isn't for anyone. I'm surprised that was your particular issue. The FatMan launcher never felt like a joke to me. (The junk jet that turned teddy bears into weapons, yes, the FatMan, no). *shrug* Totally makes sense to me that the world I first learned of in Fallout 2 the U.S. would have expended weapon development into making a nuclear SAM launcher, especially since the power armor established back in the original game would protect the wielders from the rads. Why wouldn't a hopped up nuclear-powered supermilitary government develop such a thing, especially when said governement is also using a militarily engineered virus to turn soldiers into radiation-powered giant green fighting monsters? Is the latter, the entire basis of the plot of the first game, somehow less silly?
In Fallout 4, you can clear a Fort that dives into the hows and whys of the FatMan development where it even starts to make more sense.
Now, later, in one of the Fallout 4 DLCs, there's a "Nuka Launcher" which uses weaponized Nuka-Cola-based Nukes. And that FEELS silly. But the thing is, when you get it, you've dived so deep into a tale about how absolutely cynical and soulless the Old World's Military Industrial Complex was that it turns out even a man who seemed to be all about making soda was in truth a genius chemist who was developing nuclear grade weaponry and selling the byproducts as a soft drink is as chilling even if also satirical.
It's from July, but I just found the teaser trailer. Not that it is terribly informative, but the reality of it hits harder.
That's an odd one. The FatMan is basically a portable battlefield nuke launcher, which the US and Russia were experimenting with in the 1950s before deciding it was a bit too hazardous to use safely (hence why it is the way it is in the game). In the Fallout timeline they just kept up with it.
My guess 5 episodes of the world before the nukes and then 2-3 of waking up in an actual fall out world if they don't end it with them going into the sleep chambers.
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My guess 5 episodes of the world before the nukes and then 2-3 of waking up in an actual fall out world if they don't end it with them going into the sleep chambers.
I hope no more than 10 minutes of the world before the nukes, and only after the first episode hooks us with the world of fallout. Maybe 5-10 minutes of flashbacks of pre-nukes per episode, but I'd snooze out after a full episode of pre-nuke fallout.
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My guess 5 episodes of the world before the nukes and then 2-3 of waking up in an actual fall out world if they don't end it with them going into the sleep chambers.I hope no more than 10 minutes of the world before the nukes, and only after the first episode hooks us with the world of fallout. Maybe 5-10 minutes of flashbacks of pre-nukes per episode, but I'd snooze out after a full episode of pre-nuke fallout.
Yeah, you can't have a post-apocalyptic show that spends several episodes outside of a post-apocalyptic setting. What you mention is exactly the amount of pre-war material I would expect.
I'm not saying that is what I want just that is what I expect. It's the netflix way.
I'm not saying that is what I want just that is what I expect. It's the netflix way.
Netflix aren't making it.
Giving Nolan's love of multiple timelines, I think they'll have most of the series taking place in the "present" with flashbacks to either before the war (assuming they're doing the FO4 approach) or to life in the Vault. I don't see them doing a huge amount of backstory.
I agree that is most likely--lots of flashbacks to the Old World but the story mainly set after. Yes, if it was a Netflix series, it would be four episodes of someone fiddling with their Pip Boy, but it's Amazon. Who'd I'd only feel better about if they hadn't cancelled the Tick.
My question is how much after? Like around the era of Fallout 76 (a generation after the bombs dropped)? The original Fallout, which would be around 80-90 years later? Or another generation or two later to be in the fallout 3-New-Vegas-4 era? (4 was 10 years after 3, which took place in 2277).
Cool.
I am wondering if they're just going to do their own timeline thing. The timeline in the video game series doesn't make sense (probably the biggest problem being the FALLOUT - FALLOUT 2 timejump, which was way too long) so if they announced the TV show continuity is going to be using different dates, I wouldn't have a problem with that at all.
With Bethesda consulting and holding the IP rights, I expect they will want to tie it into their existing (and possibly future) franchise as much as possible.
With Bethesda consulting and holding the IP rights, I expect they will want to tie it into their existing (and possibly future) franchise as much as possible.
I get the impression that Nolan will want the freedom to do his own things as much as possible without such constraints, but also being true to the games which inspired him. I think he and Bethesda worked out some kind of acceptable middle ground, but there will be changes from the Bethesda version.
The TV show will form a second, distinct canon and continuity in the Fallout universe (maybe third if you subscribe to the fanon idea that FO1/2/Tactics/Van Buren are set in a different universe to FO3/New Vegas/4/76; or even four, since no-one at all wants to touch Brotherhood of Steel with a bargepole).
I hope it'll be good, but TV shows and movies based on games so rarely are.
Fumarole, I think the one benefit this has is the Fallout is a heavily storied franchise with a very unique world build (retro future but also post apocalyptic). There's a lot of meat/potential there for story and character building. Also, the fanmade Nuka-Break already proved a series set in the Fallout world could work.
And as pointed out, the showrunners are the minds behind Westworld, which is a good pedigree.
Nuka Break is great for what it is (I watched it as it was created, what seems like forever ago): a fan-made love letter to the series. Projects like these I give a great deal of leeway since they're not dealing with any real budget to speak of, and are often done simply for the love of the project.
My concern is that Bethesda will be heavily involved, providing notes at best, and directing the story at worst. Their writing is sub-par (does anyone really care about the main quests in 3 or 4?), and they took things from the first two games (FEV, super mutants, the Brotherhood) and stuck them into games set on the east coast without apparently understanding them or their history.
I enjoyed Westworld, though season three went off the rails part way through. I really hope my concerns are proven wrong, but I am not holding my breath.
The Brotherhood in Fallout 76 makes no sense. But reading the lore/paying attention to the dialogue, the presence of FEV, the super mutants, and the Brotherhood on the Capital Wasteland and in the Commonwealth are all lore-friendly -- Westtek was working on FEV with the military, while Vault-Tec was experimenting with a strain in Vault 86; both had contracts with the U.S. government so this works just fine without any contradictions. The Super Mutants on the West Coast and the ones on the East Coast are products of the different strains, with the differences between them explicable by both the differences between the virus and the influence the Master had on the West Coast mutants (you have in general much smarter super mutants, including Nightkin, because of the Master, on the West Coast; meanwhile only East Coast mutants produce behemoths). I'm not sure where CIT/the Institute got their strain, whether they also had their own strain from government contracts, or they captured Vault 86 mutants at some point and began experimenting from there (as the Institute had operatives in the Commonwealth, like Zimmer, this is also reasonable). Meanwhile, the Brotherhood sent a chapter east to seek out Enclave Remnants, which was a perfectly sensible thing for them to do after the events of Fallout 2. The changes to the Brotherhood that point on are explicitly the changes made by Elder Lyons, which are explained in detail if you read the terminals and listen to the Scribes in Fallout 3, and likewise the further evolution of the Eastern Brotherhood is also explained in considerable detail in Fallout 4. To be honest, having paid a lot of attention to the lore in the original games as well as 3 and 4 I'm always impressed at how lore friendly the later games (up to 4) are. Usually the seeming contradictions are actually explained very well in the in-game lore; most of the "contradictions" I've seen be pointed out in Fallout fan threads are by those who actually don't pay attention and just want to find fault with Bethesda. I find plenty of fault with Bethesda (see my other posts on Fallout/Bethesda threads), but the lore in 3 and 4 aren't part of that. NOW, again Fallout 76 is problematic (it makes NO sense for there to be BOS in West Virginia only 25 years after the Brotherhood's founding), but then I have a feeling given its reception a lot of that will be overlooked in the future.
Given the rep of the directors, I doubt they would allow themselves to be run over roughshod by Bethesda, and they are not writing the series, but as I mentioned above I expect they will have some controls on what aspect of the setting they use, and so it does remain to be seen what results.
All I'm mainly saying is I wouldn't write it off simply because it's a video game adaptation.
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it makes NO sense for there to be BOS in West Virginia only 25 years after the Brotherhood's founding
If you think that's bad - within the FO76 lore, there was a sizable BOS presence in West Virginia at the time the scorched plague broke out - just 5 years after the bombs fell.
Anyway, hopefully FO76 is not indicative of anything to come with the TV series.
I haven't actually played Fallout 76 so I didn't know the exact timeline. I just knew the players were supposed to find signs of the BOS having been there. My apologies for getting any years/durations kerfuffled.
Amazon is looking more and more interesting for next year. This, Expanse, Lord of the Rings plus I hear now they have picked up Conan for a series as well.
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Amazon is looking more and more interesting for next year. This, Expanse, Lord of the Rings plus I hear now they have picked up Conan for a series as well.
Not to mention Utopia, Good Omens season 2, Wheel of Time, and Paper Girls looks pretty interesting as well (not all in the next year, but then, LoTR is likely not going to be next year with Covid-19 delays).
Unfortunately, while the Conan tv series was announced in 2018 there's been no news on it since, and that generally means something happened to stop it from going forward. Unless you saw something recently I missed, but in a quick Google search, I don't see anything more recent than 2018.
No, Amazon dropped the CONAN TV project. It's showrunner, Ryan Condal, is now helming the GAME OF THRONES spinoff HOUSE OF THE DRAGON for HBO.
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Teaser trailer is out and looks pretty good. Lots of good supporting cast as well like Chris Parnell and Michael Emerson. There's multiple nods to having the right mix of humor and brutal post apocalyptic world. No pip boy that I noticed, but they do have a dog. The trailer makes me think they've done a good job - hopefully I'm right.
She does have a Pip-Boy, it's just not as bulky as the ones in the games.
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Oh my god, the trailer just has me so excited. It looks SO REAL. Like the vault design and everything. The power armor. (I also love that it has COLOR. Never got the vomit color scheme of Fallout 3.)
And more importantly, the characters, what little we can see, have some stakes and depth.
It could still suck but it's hard not to get psyched.
(Also: "From the studio behind The Boys...
And free two-day shipping.")
They definitely get the tone. :)
One more ETA: does the blonde vault dweller in that one scene have a fork in her forehead?
She does have a Pip-Boy, it's just not as bulky as the ones in the games.I meant the pip-boy "character" not the device.
ACKSHU-ALLLY.... *snorts obnoxiously*
I expect you mean Vault Boy. And there's a shot from afar that includes a Vault-Tec ad, so he's probably depicted somewhere.
We only ever saw the Pip Boy mascot in Fallout 2 (ETA: I am wrong apparently he also appears as a plushie in Fallout 76) and I doubt he'd be recognizable enough to include (but who knows?).
I meant the pip-boy "character" not the device.
The release date announcement trailer is an animation of Vault Boy.
Apparently Vault Boy (and possibly Vault Girl) not only appears in the TV show but even get an origin story.
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To be fair, the last Fallout I played was Fallout 2, and Vault Boy (my memory insists he was called Pip Boy, but it's been a minute) was all over the UI for character building and manual (think there was an actual manual back then, but could have been a PDF - that I don't recall).
Glad to hear they're appearing in the show. I know that watching Loki, Miss Minutes made me think that would be a good way to include in the Fallout show.
To be fair, the last Fallout I played was Fallout 2, and Vault Boy (my memory insists he was called Pip Boy, but it's been a minute) was all over the UI for character building and manual (think there was an actual manual back then, but could have been a PDF - that I don't recall).
Yes, there was a manual! It seems the confusion stems from Fallout Tactics getting it wrong and Chris Avellone's misunderstanding when he was documenting stuff in the Fallout Bible. So there's some understandable confusion.
From the Wiki I linked to earlier:
Vault Boy should not be confused with Pip-Boy, which is the name of the personal information processor used as a game interface in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Fallout Tactics.
Made by RobCo, the Pip-Boy device has its own mascot shown on the plate of the Pip-Boy 2000 series in Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout 76 (with pointy ears, red and yellow jumpsuit, red hair). [...]
According to Fallout developers Leonard Boyarsky[Non-game 3] (creator of the character) and Tim Cain, he was always referred to as Vault Boy or Fallout Boy, not Pip-Boy. The misconception stems from the fact that the developers of Fallout Tactics (Micro Forté) confused the two and called the Vault Boy "Pip-Boy" (which even ended up being used also by Chris Avellone when he wrote the Fallout Bible).
The makers of Fallout 3 returned to the real name "Vault Boy" in the game itself, although confusingly enough he is still called "Pip-Boy" in the trademark legal documents.
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That's interesting as a cool bit of gaming lore and history. However, as a player of the game and reader of the manual, the name that stuck for the character was Pip-Boy. Even if he was named in the game as Vault Boy, that's not the name which I kept in my brain, and the nuanced difference between them I'm guessing is lost on many others as well.
Either way, I hope that the mascot character is in the show.
I played the game and read the manual too. Somehow I was able to distinguish between the red haired guy depicted on the device called a Pip-Boy and the yellow haired guy in the Vault-Tec videos. *Shrug*
I was honestly trying to approach this with a bit of humor about a common misunderstanding, but one I thought you might want to know to avoid future misunderstandings. Most people these days do call him Vault Boy. Not trying to pick a fight, just offer a clarification to be helpful. I must have gone too far.
Yes, anyway, I am pretty sure the yellow haired boy in the Vault Suit, if indeed that is the person you are talking about, will appear in the show.
So far (three episodes in), pretty good. Lots of call-outs to the game but the main story works reasonably well, and the three-POV structure allows them to flesh out the world better than in the games.
It's also amusing seeing how they try to actually have moments in the show that follow the game, like Lucy blatantly failing a Speech check on the Ghoul.
Michael Emerson also outstanding in a small role.
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Michael Emerson also outstanding in a small role.
I've only watched episode 1 so far, so haven't gotten to his role yet, but Michael Emerson is pretty much outstanding in ANY role. Seeing him in the first trailer was honestly the thing I was most excited about.
So I've already binged the whole dang thing. (What? I had work to do today to keep me glued to the couch anyway.)
I'll have to watch again more slowly later.
Not going to spoil anything yet but...
- Overall I thought it was very good. Very good acting, good dialogue, good weaving of past and present, and holy f#%$ the production values.
- My main complaint is it's a little TOO gorey and depressing at times (some of the gore is actually really way too much for me, and yes, I have played the games at length). While they balance Fallout's dark humor with its very dire messages about corporatism and the military-industrial complex very well, sometimes it dives a little more into misery porn than it should. The characters needed a few more wins along the way rather than what started to feel in the middle like endless setbacks. (You need setbacks, but if that's all you have, you start getting numb to them.)
- I found it very very lore-friendly/close to the original lore. If you find something doesn't seem right, bear in mind it takes place well after Fallout New Vegas and 4 so stuff has happened between then and now.
- They drop one major plot/lore revelation I and many others often suspected based on past hints in the game, but the show hard core confirms it.
- The very end hints to another season and in a way I find very exciting!
- Yes, they say the thing. :)
The Aesthetics were amazing. First few episodes were amazing, but seemed to slow down for no reason in the middle/end.
The Aesthetics were amazing. First few episodes were amazing, but seemed to slow down for no reason in the middle/end.
I think that's in part because they dug a little too hard in the characters, especially Lucy, constantly hitting setbacks without a victory to provide a counterpoint. I think the actual progression of the narrative is about the right speed, but there's a point in the middle where the bastards just keep winning where I think it fatigues the viewer. Oddly looking to the game design would help: even if you want the players to feel in over their heads, you need to let them have a few small wins so they want to keep going.
It was officially renewed for season 2 on Monday or Tuesday, a few days before it released.
Yay!
Now I'm just hoping against hope to see some cameos from the games relevant to how the series ended... I know they want to focus on the show's characters, and they should, but it would be cool to see some more familiar faces...
A lot of exploding heads and things stuck in heads. Reminds me of Fist of the North Star.
A lot of exploding heads and things stuck in heads. Reminds me of Fist of the North Star.
Lots of extremity trauma as well, especially to feet.
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Life lesson, do not taunt the one holding the stimpack
Yay!
Now I'm just hoping against hope to see some cameos from the games relevant to how the series ended... I know they want to focus on the show's characters, and they should, but it would be cool to see some more familiar faces...
I don't think they have officially greenlit it, they just leaked that the show had been talking to California's government about a big tax break if they moved Season 2 there.
However, it's been Amazon's #1 show for a week and it picked up serious buzz and positive reviews. I suspect Season 2 will be greenlit, especially as the tax break basically means they get two episodes for free.
As for your last point: