Adapting any well-known property is always going to be a big feat, especially when it comes to video games. It’s one thing to adapt a comic or TV show, it’s another thing to adapt a series of games, which come with a greater degree of self-expression. You can please some fans, but you can’t please all of the fans, as we’ve seen with basically every game-to-TV/film adaptation within the last five years.
Making the Freddy Fazbear Pizza Band Come to Life for Five Nights at Freddy’s
Talking to T3, Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan said as such about the upcoming Fallout show. Like many, he came into the series with Fallout 3 all the way back in 2008, which he said consumed roughly a year of his life back in the day. At the time, he would’ve been working on quite a few projects, and he was frank in saying the RPG “almost derailed my entire career.” Fallout fans have been divided on the series for some time (see early reactions to Fallout 76), and Nolan similarly it was impossible for the show to please the whole community.
“It’s a fool’s errand,” he said. “You’ve got to make yourself happy.” with Fallout, he continued, was for everyone to “come into this trying to make the show that you want to make.” Considering previous interviews, it doesn’t sound like this show is going to wildly diverge from those games, but they are going to have their own spin on series staples that’ll likely rankle longtime lovers. Between this and his Batman work, he called it a “rare and unbelievable thing…to take something that you love and get a chance to play in that universe, to create your own version.”
No doubt he’d like for it to be a big multi-season hit like Westworld and Person of Interest, but he sounded honest in saying he was “very happy” with how this series has turned out. We’ll find out whether he should be happy when all eight episodes of Fallout will hit Prime Video on April 11.
The Fallout video game series created a complex post-apocalyptic world, combining a nostalgic past and a desolate future. It mixes a 1950s pop culture aesthetic with a Western-style desolation in a world destroyed by atomic bombs. Fans of the video games know the lore is deep and detailed. If done well, Fallout would make a fantastic television series. Prime Video undertook that challenge and will release the first 8-episode season of Fallout on April 11.
In the teaser trailer, many iconic elements of the games popped out immediately with the Vault Dwellers and the Brotherhood of Steel. The story will focus on a young woman named Lucy (Yellowjackets’ Ella Purnell) leaving the safety of the vault for the first time. Alongside her story is that of a young man in the Brotherhood named Maximus (Aaron Moten) who has never known the security of vault life. Popping out among so many Easter Eggs is another main character—a ghoul bounty hunter played by Walton Goggins.
The new ghoul in town
Ghouls are a special part of the Fallout series. Although they look a little like zombies because of their deteriorating skin and missing appendages, ghouls are almost the opposite of zombies. Whereas zombies are slowly rotting away, ghouls are preserved. Their exposure to nuclear radiation charred most of their skin and caused deterioration of some body parts. In some ghouls, their mental capabilities were also affected. However, many ghouls retain their minds and find themselves in well-preserved bodies that can heal while near radiation. Because of their altered bodies, ghouls can live much longer than humans.
(Prime Video)
In the Fallout series, Walton Goggins (Justified, The Righteous Gemstones) will play The Ghoul, a gun-toting ghoul who stands out amongst the ghouls. Goggins, known for his skill in both drama and comedy, seems like the perfect fit for the character. In the teaser trailer, The Ghoul looks like something out of a Western film as he takes out people easily with his pistol. The Ghoul’s skin is heavily altered and his nose is an open cavity, yet he still has Goggins’s charm. Another moment shows the Ghoul before the blast as a human trying to save a young girl while bombs explode nearby.
Life before the end of the world
(screencap/Prime Video)
His “before the blast” life is given more focus in the full trailer. Not only do we see his pre-Ghoul self running with a little girl during the nuclear attack as we did in the teaser trailer, but we see him doing an ad for Vault-Tec vaults, advertising them as a “veritable Camelot for the Nuclear Age.”
The trailer then alternates between showing us life pre and post-blast. We see The Ghoul holding Lucy at gunpoint. We see him walking through a deserted area with another star of the Fallout video game series, Dogmeat (the Fallout 4 German shepherd version)! And we see an expanded version of the shootout from the teaser trailer with The Ghoul delivering a hilariously charming line.
When Lucy (clearly having never encountered a ghoul before) shoots him with a drug-filled syringe hoping to take him down, he nonchalantly pulls it out of his chest and says, “Now that is a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs.”
We then see shots of him walking with Lucy and seemingly taking lots of drugs. His voiceover heard across a montage of scenes speaks what seems to be one of the main themes of the show: “You look out at this wasteland and it looks like chaos. But there’s always somebody behind the wheel.”
And in a poignant blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, there’s a shot of The Ghoul watching black and white footage of himself from over 200 years earlier on a TV screen acting in a Western as he points a finger gun at his younger self and blasts it in a melancholy gesture.
Lastly, we see more of his human self, also in a cowboy outfit, running with a little Black girl as the bombs hit, and later a shot of him kissing a Black woman in a vault as he’s shooting his commercial. Could this be his family? Was he an actor before he became one of the Wasteland’s most persistent bounty hunters?
Being over 200 years old has sharpened this Ghoul’s survival skills and given him one hell of a backstory. We can’t wait to see more of this unique character.
D.R. Medlen (she/her) is a pop culture staff writer at The Mary Sue. After finishing her BA in History, she finally pursued her lifelong dream of being a full-time writer in 2019. She expertly fangirls over Marvel, Star Wars, and historical fantasy novels (the spicier the better). When she’s not writing or reading, she lives that hobbit-core life in California with her spouse, offspring, and animal familiars.
Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She’s been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she’s back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she’s writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.
Chris and Andy talk about the third episode of Shogun and how the show uses confrontation set pieces to drive the plot (1:00). Then, they answer a few more mailbag questions, talking about the lasting impact of Dune: Part Two (28:16), the most influential TV shows of their childhoods (41:24), and the trailers for 3 Body Problem and Fallout (48:18).
Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producer: Kaya McMullen
As one of the best Fallout games, Fallout 4 has been around since 2015 and players have been wanting Bethesda to follow up 4 with something, anything really. Fast forward to 2023 and Team FOLON has been cooking up a game-sized mod for Fallout fans to enjoy. Here’s 10 reasons why you should care about Fallout: London.
It’s Basically a Full-Sized Game
Image Source: Team FOLON
When it comes to the word ‘Mod’ for Bethesda games, most think of the kind of mod that changes a couple things, or at most, a particular chunk of the game like combat, RPG mechanics, or graphics. Where Fallout: London differs is in its scope. By all metrics (that we will get to), this mod is comparable to what the game industry would imagine a Fallout 5 would have from a size, scope, and feature standpoint.
This is especially impressive once you learn that the team behind Fallout London are comprised of anything between hobbyist modders to industry professionals.
Surprise, It Features London
Image Source: Team FOLON
In a complete departure for anything Fallout related, fans finally have a game that takes place across the pond in all its British glory. To give you an idea of the places you’ll explore in Fallout: London, here are a list of the game’s various locations and zones:
Islington
Camden
Hackney
Greenwich
Lewisham
Bromley
City of London
Wandsworth
Westminster
Eastminster
Lambeth
Tower Hamlets
Southwark
Croydon
Newham
As you can see, the places you can explore encompass a lot of the real-world areas of London, just condensed. Even so, you’ll soon learn just how big all of these areas make Fallout: London the game-sized mod that it is.
No Voiced Protagonist
Image Source: Team FOLON
One of Fallout 4’s biggest complaints was the fact that the main protagonist was voiced. It was not only a departure from previous RPGs in the series but was also not very well received. Giving the main character a voice makes it harder for players to insert themselves into the dialogue with NPCs. Thankfully, Fallout: London smartly chose to keep the main character silent.
This leaves more room for more voice work to be written and voiced for more NPCs as we shall soon see.
90,000 recorded dialogue lines is an impressively large amount of voice work for a new game. So, for a mod to have this is nothing short of a labor of love for the craft of making something new and ambitious. I was always impressed with mods that had a single custom-voiced character companion that would join you on your journey. Fallout: London has more than five fully voiced companions with their own quests and general dialogue.
Considering that Fallout: London is a mod and not an officially funded project by Bethesda, it remains to be seen if this mod’s voice work will maintain that universal quality across the board.
Entirely New Factions
Image Source: Team FOLON
Considering that Fallout: London takes place quite far and removed from the United States, it doesn’t come as a shock to learn that this mod features entirely new Factions. There are 7 factions in all and each one seems distinct, which should make the mod’s 25 faction quests that much more interesting.
Gentry: The old elite who want to restore the UK, but only rule London weakly and unfairly.
Tommies: The loyal militia who guard London for the Gentry, but may have the power to change things.
5th Column: The radical followers of Eve Varney who want to burn down London and rebuild it in her image.
Camelot: The secret rebels who fight for a democratic republic and a seat at the Round Table for all.
Isle of Dogs Syndicate: The wealthy criminals who control Millwall and trade with scavengers but hate the Gentry’s taxes.
Vagabonds: The vengeful gangsters who want to destroy the Isle of Dogs Syndicate and their leader Gaunt.
Angel: The mysterious agents who may have a hidden agenda and a connection to the pre-war government.
Over 190 New Quests
Image Source: Team FOLON
One aspect of this mod’s ridiculous ambition is the sheer amount of quests Fallout: London will offer players. Let’s break down the big number of quests into the kind of quests they are. There are:
53 Main Quests
35 Side Quests
25 Faction Quests
64 Micellanious Quests
and 16 Gang Quests
To put that into perspective, Fallout 4 had around 144 quests with around 12 main quests, 50 faction, 20 side quests, and many more miscellaneous quests. It is refreshing to see Fallout: London put so much effort and time into crafting dozens of main story quests. We’ll have to see how the mod’s main story compares to what Bethesda made.
The Size of Fallout: London’s Map is Bigger Than Fallout 4’s
Image Source: Team FOLON
In Fallout: London’s release video the developers make it known that Fallout: London features over 3,300 cells. Now, cells are used to divide the game world in chunks that the engine can manage while loading and unloading as needed. So, with that in mind, Fallout: London has several hundred more cells than Fallout 4’s base game. Fallout: London also gives you 7 new locations to utilize Fallout 4’s settlement system!
The developers went on to explain that the total size and scope of Fallout: London rivals that of Fallout 4 and Far Harbour combined. Which, for a mod, is just incredible.
Fallout: London Features Thousands of New Assets
Image Source: Team FOLON
If you thought that Fallout: London would reuse a bunch of assets from Fallout 4 then you may be mistaken. The developers of Fallout: London have seemingly poured an incredible amount of manpower into making custom assets for this enormous mod. That includes but isn’t limited to:
112 new weapons
514 clothes
29 races
64 types of foliage
425 different kinds of architecture
203 consumables
2056 static assets big or small
Whether or not these assets are completely unique or are simply modifications of original Fallout 4 assets, you have to admit the sheer number alone is impressive. But if you are still skeptical, then all you need to do is watch the Official Release Announcement trailer.
A Brand-New OST
Image Source: Team FOLON
The mod team at Team Folon has come together to craft an honest-to-God soundtrack of over 70 tracks. The music of Fallout: London seems to be a varied and skillful blend of musical genres and styles, that are inspired by the rich and diverse culture of Britain. The OST captures the mood and atmosphere of post-apocalyptic London.
The soundtrack’s music ranges from the ambient mystery and allure of the diverse factions and environment to the bombastic and thrilling sounds of a U.K-centric kind of combat. Even better is the over 40 new radio songs based on the period and location alongside 3 new radio stations.
Fallout London Releases April 23rd, 2024
Image Source: Team FOLON
In the release video, Team Folon announced that the mod is currently feature complete and functional but that they needed one more quarter for their team to polish and bug fix what’s already there. This launch nicely coincides with the Fallout TV show as that releases on April 12th. I know I will certainly be one of the people who gets invested in the Fallout show and follows that experience up with a brand-new game-sized mod.
Ultimately, a mod of this size represents a huge amount of work, passion, and talent that could result in one of the biggest and greatest mods ever made. While most were hoping for an Oblivion or Fallout 3 remaster, it’s wild that most will have Fallout: London to look forward to instead. We only have until April to find out if it can live up to the hype Team Folon has built for everyone.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
Join Ben and Matt James as they chat about whether the Game Awards should be about awards, the most exciting announcements from the show (0:00), and their anticipation for the Fallout TV adaptation (16:00). Then they take a spoiler-free journey through the immersive world of the Naʼvi as they delve into Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (20:45). Finally, they discuss the evolution of movie-based games and name their all-time top five movie tie-ins (47:00).
Host: Ben Lindbergh Guest: Matt James Producer: Devon Renaldo Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal
It was a big week for the scantily clad at Kotaku this week, with both GTA 6 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth giving players plenty of skin. We’re also feeling veryexcited about the new Fallout show, but decidedly less enthusiastic about the minimal focus on the actual awards at this week’s Game Awards.
Grand Theft Auto 6 Comments: A Dramatic Reading
These are the week’s most interesting perspectives on the wild, wonderful, and sometimes weird world of video game news.
Grand Theft Auto 6 looks gorgeous. Unless its debut trailer this week was faked, it might end up being one of the best-looking games of this console generation when it comes out in 2025. By that time, my Xbox Series S will be five years old. I shudder to think of that sleek little white box trying to play Rockstar Games’ latest open-world blockbuster. – Ethan Gach Read More
I’ve played about six hours of Ubisoft’s new Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandoraand my big takeaway is that Avatar sickos will love this game, Far Cry Primal fans will get a kick out of Ubisoft returning to this formula, and everyone else, well… uh…dang, the game sure is pretty, huh? – Zack Zwiezen Read More
An intimate moment in GTA 6.Screenshot: Rockstar / Kotaku
Good news, everyone! Unless you’ve been living in a monastery, you’re likely aware that 2023 is the year that video games got horny again. And no, I don’t mean tastefully Hades frisky, I mean Leisure Suit Larry and Night Traplevels of unhinged lust, the likes of which “mainstream” gaming (whatever that means) hasn’t seen since the 1990s. – Jen Glennon Read More
Historically, TV and film adaptations of video games don’t have the greatest track record. The last few years, however, have started turning that around. Pikachu, Sonic, and Mario have all starred in successful movies, and earlier this year The Last of Us got a proper prestige adaptation that certainly left a mark on fans. – Claire Jackson Read More
And so that’s that. The Game Awards 2023 are over. 32 awards were handed out over three and a half hours. You might think, with that much time to spare, the show took its time and truly celebrated all the creators and games nominated for what the show calls “Gaming’s Biggest Night.” Nope. Instead, more so than before, the show sped through them at a rapid pace, making me wonder why it still pretends to be an award show at all. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best games Square Enix ever produced, and it’s not available anywhere on modern consoles or PC. A remaster is an obvious way to fix that problem, and it seemed like all signs were pointing to one getting announced any day now. So it’s an especially cruel twist of fate that the original game’s director, Yasumi Matsuno, keeps toying with fans’ emotions about whether a remaster is actually happening or not. – Ethan Gach Read More
Cyberpunk 2077 is in a pretty good spot these days. After a dumpster fire of a launch, the next-gen update, 2.0 patch, and Phantom Liberty expansion have gotten CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG to a respectable state. The 2.1 patch that launched this week adds a nice little bow to the game as its “last big update.” It has long-requested features like a working subway you can take across Night City, and it also lets V, its mercenary protagonist, spend a little time with their lover in their apartment. The results are an adorable stay-at-home date with your paramour, but for as sweet as it is, these hangouts underline something that felt left out of the Cyberpunk 2077 redemption arc: the romance. – Kenneth Shepard Read More
The first trailer for Rockstar’s next Grand Theft Auto game, likely to be named GTA VI, comes out December 5. What can we expect the trailer to reveal? Well, based on Rockstar’s past GTA trailers, which are fantastic, there’s a pattern that can help us predict what we might see during GTA VI’s official debut. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Earlier this week, we asked you all to give us your choice for the best video game sequel. Any sequel would count and everyone was free to suggest any game they wanted, no matter how old, obscure, or divisive. And we tallied up all the answers, crunched the numbers, and figured out your top ten sequels. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Sultry singlets everywhere, oh my!Screenshot: Sega
The secret is out: the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has great minigames. Whether you enjoy playing retro arcade brawlers like Virtua Fighter, dumping dozens of hours into becoming a real-estate tycoon, or chatting up bodacious babes at the hostess club, Sega’s goofy action series has plenty of pleasant timesinks to wile away the hours. Though it’s still several weeks away, it’s already clear that the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is no exception to that rule. – Jen Glennon Read More
Amouranth bought an orchard for a cool $17 mill, Bethesda’s attempting to win the hearts and minds of disaffected Starfield players on Steam, and Dan Houser is back! In podcast form!
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
Here’s your cheat sheet for the week’s most important stories in gaming.
In a newly released preview of Amazon Prime’s upcoming Fallout TV show, we learned a lot of new details about the world, characters, and story of the highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Bethesda’s popular post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. For example, the show is considered canon with the games. And Walter Goggins still looks good, even as an undead ghoul. Read More
An intense debate ignited November 13, when The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley announced the nominees for this year’s trophy ceremony. While some folks were surprised Pikachu face byStarfield’s absence, most people were shook by one particular title offered up for the “Best Independent Game” category. Now, after a couple weeks of silence, Keighley has tossed his two cents into the discourse. Read More
Reader, if you don’t mind a quick look into my personal neurosis, let me tell you that when I’m really looking forward to something, I get a great deal of anxiety about possibly dying before I get to experience it. I’ve felt this about video games, movies, albums, concerts, and pretty much anything else worth being excited about. Right now, the third live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie is near the top of my list of Things I Must Survive Long Enough To Experience. This isn’t because I think the movie will be great, or even good, it’s because Shadow the Hedgehog, the best character in the franchise, is set to appear as a main character. All those feelings of excitement and existential dread have been roused today, as Paramount has released a picture of the angsty, broody, gun-toting king on set…well, his feet, at least. Read More
The meta-narrative around Starfield just took a very weird turn. Steam reviews for the sprawling sci-fi RPG recently fell to “mixed” on Valve’s storefront, and now Bethesda employees are arguing with players in the comments about why the game isn’t as boring and soulless as some of them claim. Read More
The hardest thing about Destiny 2 is getting any of your friends to play it. Fans of Bungie’s ambitious and imaginative sci-fi shooter have long hoped for a simple on-ramp that would make it easier to get lapsed players and newcomers back into its universe. Destiny 2’s new “Starter Pack” might sound like exactly that. Instead, it’s a pricey bundle of random items that fans can’t stop dunking on. Read More
When Overwatch 2 shifted the hero shooter’s economy away from loot boxes and into a seasonal battle pass, the customizable Mythic Skins unlocked at the end of that pass were framed as the light at the end of the grindy tunnel. Unlike any other Overwatch skin, these would be somewhat customizable, offering a few style and color options for players to make them their own. In the game’s first year, seven of its iconic heroes have gotten one of these Mythic skins, which mostly been well-received. But after Blizzard revealed season eight’s skin for tank character Orisa, players are noticing a downward trend in Mythic Skin quality. Read More
Photo: Absurd Ventures / Kotaku / Patrick McMullan (Getty Images)
Dan Houser, who co-founded Rockstar Games and was the lead writer on multiple Grand Theft Autoand Red Dead Redemption games, has finally revealed what his new studio is working on. If you were expecting a video game…well, you’ll have to keep waiting. Read More
Dragon’s Dogma 2 looks awesome, right? The much anticipated action role-playing game about dragons and pawns came out swinging with a hefty new gameplay showcase on November 28, showing off the impressive character creator and some spectacular combat and officially revealing a March 24, 2024 release date. One thing that isn’t so awesome, however, is the game’s relatively high price tag of $70, which marks the first game from Capcom at this price. Read More
The November 10 launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III reignited the seemingly endless debate about multiplayer matchmaking, with players demanding Activision and Infinity Ward provide details, or even abolish it entirely. This conversation has perpetuated across multiple Call of Duty releases, but the team behind the popular first-person shooter has yet to properly acknowledge it—until now. On November 30, an official statement was shared by popular CoD website CharlieIntel on X (formerly Twitter). Read More
Once a distant star on the horizon, Starfield arrived on Xbox and PC on September 6, with a five-day early access period for those who shelled out for the deluxe edition. It’s now been in the hands of gamers worldwide for a little over a month, with folks pouring over its vast world and searching every nook and cranny for loot, side quests, and more.
This Stylish Noir-Punk Side-Scroller Is Like Celeste With Guns
As expected, a game as massive as Starfield has a ton of stuff going on (there’s 1,000 planets, remember) so a month later, folks are still discovering all sorts of unique quirks, charms, and more than its fair share of weak points to point out, celebrate, and critique.
Whether or not Starfield will be as memorable as Skyrim or Fallout remains to be seen, but within its first month, here are some of the highlights.
Starfield earns praise, with some caveats
Following its announcement in 2018, the hype for Starfield was real. Promising a scale way beyond what Bethesda delivered with Skyrim and Fallout 4, Starfield would mark the first original franchise for the studio since the ‘90s and take the Bethesda RPG format to a place it’s never really been before: space.
Since the highly anticipated game launched, the reactions have been largely positive, but there are some fair criticisms of its structure and the meat of more than a few of its premiere questlines. In Kotaku’s review of Starfield, I praised its scale, scope, and capacity for gorgeous vistas, but criticized a pervasive shallowness in the game’s settings, narratives, and woefully repetitive environments.
Player reviews via Steam certainly have their knives out for this Bethesda entry though, often describing the game as “disappointingly average” and “wide as an ocean – shallow as a puddle.”
Starfield’s scale and scope finally in player hands
It was understood early on that Starfield would be enormous. Bethesda touted the impressiveness of the game’s scale and talked at length about how the survival mechanics wouldn’t bog down the fun of Starfield’s core experience. as they do in other space games like No Man’s Sky
Starfield’s reception amongst those not in the industry and casual players has also been mixed. While many of us have found a calm, contemplative beauty in the game’s endless planet simulation, others have tested just how traversable Starfield’s galaxy really is, and discovered that fast travel is technically not mandatory; you can fly across a solar system if you’ve got literal hours of real-world time on your hands to burn. And you can speed up space travel with a mod if you’re so inclined.
The scale of each individual planetary zone you can land on, however, has brought up criticism from players concerning the jarring lack of vehicles. Bethesda explained that while it did consider vehicles, it instead wanted to prioritize the on-foot exploration experience. Besides, if you did have a space rover, you’d be in for a bumpy ride with all of the dead animals everywhere.
And don’t forget, Starfield has some neat watering holes if you’re looking for a break from all the space-faring adventures and just want to sit in a weird space bar with a weird space bartender.
Wacky physics, fun mods, and other shenanigans
Starfield’s engine has a wildly impressive physics simulation. Granted, Bethesda games have always had pretty cool physics, but Starfield’s seems to be a bit more realistic and lively. This has allowed players to engage in some credit theft, but also has inspired some pseudo Rube Goldberg shenanigans. You can also just pack your ship full of junk and potatoes.
Like almost every Bethesda game before it, modders have taken to improving the rougher edges of Starfield’s experience. We’re still collecting a list of must-install mods for the PC version, but at a minimum you should consider installing StarUI as it profoundly improves the experience of a game that’s already encouraging bad habits for the digital hoarders among us.
In more interesting news, one Starfield modder has taken to putting their DLSS (Nvidia’s AI-powered super-sampling tech that was excluded from Starfield’s launch due to an exclusive deal with AMD) mod behind a paywall. Now, the debate over paid mods is worth having and is not within the scope of this piece, but when you slap DRM and threaten to sneak malware onto pirated copies of a mod…that’s kinda, well shitty.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, Starfield has its share of bugs. I’ve seen a number of quest-breaking errors in my time with the game, while others are finding entire cities transported along with their ships. If my own nearly 200-hour playthrough of the game is anything to go by, save often, don’t rely on auto- and quick-saves. Starfield likes to break more often than it should.
Starfield is just getting started: DLC and more
Even after spending nearly 200 hours in Starfield, I’m still coming across new things. My opinion of it holds strong, but it’s nice to see such a large game continue to offer new experiences the more you play it.
As Video Games Chroniclepointed out, director Todd Howard stated in a recent interview that experience with previous games like Skyrim and Fallout has taught the studio to design with long-term investment in mind:
“This is a game that’s intentionally made to be played for a long time. One of the things we’ve learned from our previous games, like Skyrim, like Fallout, is that people want to play them for a very long time. […] How do we build it such that it is allowing that in a way that feels natural, and if people have played the game and finished the main quest, you can see that.”
How the future of Starfield evolves beyond just repeat playthroughs remains to be seen. It’s hard to imagine the game will see the same kind of update support that No Man’s Sky has, but Howard has repeatedly stressed that this is a game that was designed to be played for a long time.
Hype and anticipation met reality when Starfield shipped universally on September 6. It’s more than capable of delivering a fun, can’t-put-it-down experience, though it has more than its fair share of problems and weaker points. The first month has seen a number of differing opinions flourish over Starfield and Bethesda-style games in general. But with promised new features, story expansions, and a growing mod community, Starfield’s story is far from over.
In the months (nay, years) leading up to Starfield’s September 6 release, the hype for the Bethesda RPG grew and grew until it was a heretofore unseen beast, a giant Kaiju of expectation that threatened to take down Sony, upend 2023’s GOTY race, and suck up all of gamers’ precious free time.
Head of Xbox Creator Experience Sarah Bond joined in on the fun, calling Starfield “one of the most important RPGs ever made.” Bethesda head Pete Hines said it took him well over 100 hours to properly start Starfield. All of the hype whipped Xbox fans into a frenzy, and indirectly fueled the flickering flames of the console wars. Starfield’s scope, its potential, even made the then-unreleased game a talking point in the FTC trial regarding Microsoft’s purchase of Activision-Blizzard.
Then, after a few days in what Bethesda dubbed “early access,” available to deep-pocketed players who shelled out big bucks for one of several premium editions, Starfield launched. It is surprisingly not buggy, and jam-packed with side-quests that offer a steady drip of serotonin. But it’s woefully inaccessible, its UI is daunting, and it is, ultimately, just a new Bethesda game. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s a stark reminder that hype trains are just marketing tools in a different font. Starfield is a good game, but it is not a groundbreaking one.
Before I got a chance to dive into Starfield, I wondered aloud (and on social media) if the game would occupy a similar space in my life that Skyrim has held on more than one occasion. Skyrim never floored me and never lingered after I powered off my console, unlike Marvel’s Spider-Man’s version of Manhattan, or story beats in Mass Effect 2. But every time I dropped back into Skyrim, I fell into the same satisfying loop, emerging from a lengthy play session a little dazed, uncertain of the time, blinking to reaccustom my eyes to the real world outside of its pixels.
Every time I jumped into Skyrim I’d go off searching for some tucked-away relic or NPC in need of help and end up climbing to the top of a peak I saw in the distance, or scurrying through caves like a little gamer Gollum, furiously lining my pockets with shiny objects. I’d “just one more side-quest” myself into the wee hours of the morning, surreptitiously pulling tokes from a pre-roll resting on the table in front of me. No matter what I did, whether it was becoming a vampire or participating in a drinking competition, I was never blown away or taken aback by what Skyrim unfurled before me—I was, however, hooked.
I’m about 20 hours into Starfield and can safely say it is exactly like Skyrim in space. The steady serotonin drip of overhearing a conversation, marking the quest associated with that conversation on my map, completing it, then going back to the list and selecting the next thing is unparalleled. It is the kind of game that completionists salivate over, the kind that I find myself longing to return to and get lost in during my workday, on the train home, while finishing off a workout.
After progressing the main campaign a bit, I violently veered into side-quest territory, spending nearly four hours straight on the Blade Runner-esque planet Neon. I joined a gang, I helped Starfield’s version of Björk recover her music, I tried to console a grief-stricken widow in the shadow of a fish corpse. I paid for VIP lounge access at a bar, helped squash a squabble over a robot that had been vandalized, and rented a room in a hotel just to say I did. Starfield has hooked me in a way that only Bethesda games can, because it is so thoroughly a Bethesda game with a shinier coat of paint.
Image: Bethesda
Expectation versus reality
There is nothing wrong with Starfield feeling familiar—Bethesda’s formula works, and has for over two decades, so I’m not crucifying Todd Howard for refusing to reinvent the wheel. I am, however, noting that there’s a clear disconnect between calling a game “one of the most important RPGs ever made” and that game then reusing long-existing RPG gameplay mechanics and storytelling techniques throughout.
As Kotaku’s Zack Zweizen points out, Starfield is “still a Bethesda RPG. You can almost feel the ancient bones of Morrowind and Fallout 3 poking through bits of the scenery and menus as you play.” Companions still linger behind NPCs chatting you up, players are still almost always overencumbered, enemies still fall over like action figures when you send a gust of gravity their way that feels almost exactly like Skyrim’s Dragon Shouts.
There’s nothing groundbreaking about Starfield, save for maybe its scope, which is possible largely because of the technological advances that have taken place within the last several years, and are now readily available in consumer-facing products like the Xbox Series X/S and modern PCs.
But as for Starfield bringing new ideas to the genre, or adding anything new to its well-worn formula…it doesn’t. Bethesda has been quietly moving its own role-playing goalposts closer to the more shallow end ever since The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, narrowing the scope of what the player can actually influence, placing you in a world that feels perfectly carved out for you to slot into, its problems cleanly laid out for you to solve. Cian Maher’s quote from an Oblivion piece for TheGamercomes to mind: “I also don’t reckon Skyrim ever managed to carve out a portion of its world and imbue [it] with the necessary narrative significance for a conclusion to not seem like deus ex machina.”
Aside from extensive ship-building mechanics, there aren’t any shiny new gameplay additions in Starfield. Building an outpost is just Fallout base-building, leveling your lockpicking or melee abilities follows similar logic to Skyrim, and there are many eerie similarities to Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds. The most noted difference comes not in an updated role-playing system or deeper NPC interactions, but in gunplay—Starfield improves upon Bethesda’s infamous combat clunkiness, and it’s welcome.
But Starfield feels the same way Fallout 4 did, which felt the same way Skyrim did, and that does not make it “one of the most important RPGs” ever made. It just makes it a good Bethesda game, a game made by a studio that Microsoft spent $7.5 billion to acquire. We’d do well to remember that, both as consumers and critics, going forward.
Starfield is a big game with hundreds of planets to explore and many sandwiches to collect. But while all the NPCs you’ll meet in Starfield have voices, the game’s main character doesn’t. Bethesda already confirmed this was the case last year, but has now shared more details about why it made this choice, revealing that originally Starfield had a talking protag and that ultimately cutting the main character’s voice helped the game grow in size.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
Starfield was officially revealed back at E3 2018. Half a decade later, the game is finally close to coming out. (Depending on where you live, it might be out in August, technically.) Hype is off the charts for this open-world RPG set in a vast galaxy as it is Bethesda’s first big single-player game since 2015’s Fallout 4 and the first new IP from the studio in over two decades. And as I already mentioned, it’s a very big game. Bethesda’s own Pete Hines says it might take you over 50 hours to get through the main quest. According to Bethesda, the reason it was able to make such a big game is because it ultimately decided against having a voiced protagonist, a change from Fallout 4’s talkative main hero.
In an August 28 interview with Polygon, Starfield lead designer Emil Pagliarulo explained that early in the space RPG’s development, the studio actually had planned on your main character having a voice. Pagliarulo said that Bethesda even hired an actor and had them start recording dialogue before the team realized it wasn’t working, adding that the voice sounded “too specific.”
“So then what are the options? Do we have—like some RPGs do—four voices? Do we have one voice, but hire someone else who’s more convenient?” asked Pagliarulo. “But [in Starfield] you can make every different type of person. We realized that the only way to really do it and let the player be the person they want to be was to have an unvoiced protagonist.”
Interestingly, when asked if fan reaction to Fallout 4’s informed Bethesda’s decision to go the opposite direction in Starfield, Pagliarulo admitted that it partially did, suggesting that negative reactions to Fallout 4’s talking main hero didn’t “directly” lead to Starfield’s silent main character, but that it “certainly played into it.”
Starfield got bigger once it cut the main character’s voice
According to Pagliarulo, there was a time in AAA game development when every main character had to be voiced.
But he says that Bethesda has realized, over the last few years, that maybe that isn’t accurate. He suggested that fans might enjoy the game more if the protagonist doesn’t have a voice actor. The designer further added that there’s a “big argument” in RPGs about having voiced lines that mimic the text or if the text should just summarize the line.
“So then we just arrived at, ‘What if we just go text?’ and it was just really freeing,” said Pagliarulo, explaining that this choice helped the game actually grow even bigger.
“We have over 200,000 lines of spoken dialogue in Starfield with no voiced protagonists. And it was not having a voiced protagonist that allowed us to create such a big world.”
Amazon recently revealed that its Fallout TV show will begin streaming in 2024 by tweeting a 1950s-looking postcard from Los Angeles, California with Vault Boy giving the thumbs up. Upon closer inspection, fans have noticed a lot of weird anomalies that have some thinking it might actually be AI-generated.
Oshi No Ko Is An Early Anime Of The Year Contender
At first I paid the image no mind. It was tweeted out on August 23 while a teaser for the show debuted for attendees at Gamescom 2023. Then I saw this tweet by a developer who goes by “Kenney” and makes free game assets. “Amazon ($514 billion dollar in revenue) is incapable of hiring an actual artist,” they wrote. The tweet’s replies were filled with observations of strange wrinkles in the art that make it seem an awful lot like AI may have had a hand in making it, or at least someone who’s very sloppy with Photoshop.
First, there’s the palm tree in front of the yellow building that’s clearly disjointed.
Image: Bethesda / Amazon / Kotaku
Then there’s the woman’s legs on the left. She has three of them and one disappears into some white flowers.
Image: Bethesda / Amazon / Kotaku
The red taxi near the front is all backwards. The headlights and hood are in the rear, while the driving wheel is in the front.
Image: Bethesda / Amazon
The central boulevard with the pedestrians is also confusing. The sidewalk is as wide as the street, and then there are cars on the other side of it that are going in the same direction.
Image: Bethesda / Amazon / Kotaku
Plus, as you go further into the background, the cars get messier and messier, and appear to just be alternating patterns of blue and red like they were stacked on top of one another and then stretched into the horizon.
Image: Bethesda / Amazon
It’s not hard to find other suspicious deficiencies, too.
“I’ve been staring at this picture for quite a while and still people find new weird stuff,” Kenney tweeted. “Also there’s still people saying it’s not AI…” Even if it’s not AI it’s still not great. To Kenney’s original point, it reeks of a company cheaping out instead of paying talented people to do what they’re good at.
“It’s a shame that Amazon took the cheapest route by generating the artwork without even taking the time to do any sort of quality control,” Kenney commented to Kotaku. “I’m sure a lot of artists would’ve absolutely loved the opportunity to do the art for this. There’s a long history of film and TV adaptations that didn’t pay enough respect to their source material, but I think generating art using AI is the most disrespectful thing that could be done. It’s the lowest of effort, it’s literally not doing any effort.”
Amazon and Bethesda did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Fallout TV show is being led by Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan, and wrapped up filming earlier this year. While the promotional art references Los Angeles and Vault 33, little else is known about the series, which was previously confirmed to be separate from the main storyline of the hit post-apocalyptic open-world RPG series. After watching the recent closed-doors teaser, IGN wrote, “While we only had a very small look at the show, it’s clear that the production values are high, with the visual effects looking impressive.”
Even more bizarre, then, that the first official art delivers the opposite impression. The timing also couldn’t be worse. Hollywood writers and actors are both on strike right now over streaming royalties and concerns about the use of AI in filmmaking, including by Amazon. The Writers Guild of America blasted the company along with the other streaming giants in a recent report, accusing them of anti-competitive mergers and vertical integrations. These historic strikes passed the 100-day mark earlier this month.
ADDISON, Ill., November 18, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– Toynk Toys has officially announced their newest product line by EMCE TOYS, featuring figures from the hit video game franchise, Fallout.
– The new line will contain a total of 52 collectible figures, ranging from characters, artifacts, to weapons found in the Fallout gaming franchise.
– Offers gamers a second chance to own their own Fallout figures similar to those of Bethesda’s now sold out Fallout 76 Armor Edition.
The Fallout Nanoforce™ Series 1 Army Builder Collection includes 52 highly detailed, army men styled figures from the Fallout Universe, designed for die-hard Fallout fans who want to decorate their vault with the newest collectibles found in the Wasteland. The Series 1 Collection will be packaged in collectible boxed and bagged sets, and will be released in phases, starting from late 2018, to early 2019. Bag 1 can be ordered now at pre-ordered now at Toynk.com. All products are officially licensed by Bethesda and will be exclusively distributed by Toynk Toys.
Each figure is digitally sculpted for maximum detail and authenticity.
Products will be packaged in 4 collectible boxed sets with 3 “drugstore peg” bagged sets.
Box sets can be Play or Display. This allows your figures to be safely returned back to their package after opening.
Boxed Sets will feature 12 two-inch figures and 1 four-inch bonus figure.
Bagged Sets 1 & 3 will include 12 two-inch figures.
Bagged Set 2 will include a total of 24 two-inch figures, making it the deluxe edition.
A select number of boxed figures will remain a mystery, offering a surprise to any Fallout fan looking for an entertaining surprise.
Miss out on Bethesda’s Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition?
Here’s your chance to get your own set of Fallout & Fallout 76 figures! Fallout Nanoforce™ Series 1 Line can be found and pre-ordered at Toynk.com.
ABOUT EMCE TOYS: In 2006, EMCE TOYS was started to relaunch the classic “Mego-style” clothed, posable action figures of the 1970s. Since then, EMCE has manufactured dozens of different product categories, from toys to office products and housewares for brands as diverse as Star Trek, Rob Zombie, Harry Potter, and Impractical Jokers. EMCE’s parent FOURTH CASTLE also produces, designs, sources and manufactures all kinds of products as white label service for several other pop-culture consumer products companies.
ABOUT TOYNK: Back in 2001, tired of the boring corporate grind, three friends: Steve, Ron & Mike, hatch a brilliant plan to develop a company centered on fun products. What couldn’t be more enjoyable than a business selling costumes, toys and collectibles? The Toynk Toys team has since grown and varies from 40 to 200+ diverse, fun-loving people, depending on the season.
Today, our Addison, Illinois location boasts a 125,000 square foot facility; home to our offices, retail store, and warehouse. Visit us at one of the 200 toy shows/Comic-Cons we attend worldwide yearly. Toynk Toys aims to deliver an ever-expanding array of cool costumes, geeky toys, and hot collectibles. Our team comes together each day, working hard to improve our customers’ experience. It’s not really considered work when we know that our products bring adventure, joy, and happiness to life. It’s no wonder that we love what we do, and we love doing it for you!
Media Contact: Sarah Peterson Phone: 951-317-1857 Email: Sarah@Toynk.com
