They made a Fallout TV series

[probablyoliver]

Finished watching over the weekend. Loved it, captured everything I adore about the Fallout games, some great characters, the comedy landed more than it didn't and it had Kyle MacLachlan in it. What's not to love?

[Lint]

9 hours ago, ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster said:

Episode 4 continues the excellence. Best of all I'm just as engaged with what's happening in the vault as outside it!

That was something that amazed me.  The stuff going on inside Vault 33 was really interesting and I found myself waiting each episode to learn more

[Lint]

Nevermind

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

On 13/04/2024 at 03:48, Lint said:

I watched the first episode tonight and I loved it.

And Walton Goggins face when

  Reveal hidden contents

He saw the bombs were going off

was great.  So much emotion expressed without saying a word

The Fallout TV Series Is Fun, But It Really Wants You To Know That It’s Fallout

Spoilers.  This is an interesting article, because it argues you kind of have to know about the Fallout series to understand the Fallout show

As someone who never played the games, I never felt this at all. The world was so new to me that there was enough there to make me understand I was watching a Fallout show. I don't know what I don't know but it never felt like I was missing important info but I am sure there were a million Easter eggs for people who played the games.

Also, the show caused Fallout to have it's highest number of people playing on Steam this weekend, so it worked to get people to play the game too. 

[Your Mom]

I for sure felt like it rewarded you with a lot of fun stuff if you have played the games but I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that would have been especially confusing if you hadn't. Maybe the whole retro futuristic aesthetic but once you adjust to that I feel like you're good

[Adam]

I'm only 2.5 episodes in so far but I agree, as a seasoned Fallout player, the it is properly chucking "Fallout game stuff" at you.

It's a nice problem to have, I feel bad being irked at all by it because usually an adaptation doesn't take enough from its source and people get upset about that, but so far this show feels like it is going out of its way to say "Look, it's this thing from the games you recognise!"

If you've not played the game, it's undoubtedly a positive because it is good world-building and helps the atmosphere. If you've played the games, it's nice to see the easter eggs...but it has felt a bit overdone to me in the limited time I've watched.

All that said, I am enjoying it and hope it pulls me in more as I go through it. Two of the three main characters have really intrigued me so far.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

55 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

I for sure felt like it rewarded you with a lot of fun stuff if you have played the games but I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that would have been especially confusing if you hadn't. Maybe the whole retro futuristic aesthetic but once you adjust to that I feel like you're good

Okay, yeah, to be fair, I was confused when I learned the initial part of the show is set in 2077 and then the main portion is 200 years later. Spoiler thoughts on that.

Spoiler

I initially didn't like it because I felt it was a bit confusing but after some thought, the idea that the vault makers would intentionally choose the 1950s (an era of hyper consumerism, nationalism and a fear of nuclear war) is such a great choice by the game designers and I like it more than if nuclear war happened in the 1950s. 

 

[TheWho87]

Without going into a deep lore dive, the 50s aesthetic stems from the fact the microchip was never created, so everything has that 50s/60s nuclear world of the future look, so rather than styles evoling it just goes all in to recreate that world of the future.

[Lint]

14 hours ago, TheWho87 said:

Without going into a deep lore dive, the 50s aesthetic stems from the fact the microchip was never created, so everything has that 50s/60s nuclear world of the future look, so rather than styles evoling it just goes all in to recreate that world of the future.

The microchip was created, but not long before the bombs dropped.  The Pipboy isn't using vacuum tubes after all.

But yea, a basic premise of Fallout is "What if after WWII, the world didn't focus on micro technology but went all in on atomic technology".  Its why you'll see "gas" stations listing "Coolant" prices instead of gas.  Its why most of the cars look like the Ford Nucleon. 

[TheWho87]

4 hours ago, Lint said:

The microchip was created, but not long before the bombs dropped.  The Pipboy isn't using vacuum tubes after all.

But yea, a basic premise of Fallout is "What if after WWII, the world didn't focus on micro technology but went all in on atomic technology".  Its why you'll see "gas" stations listing "Coolant" prices instead of gas.  Its why most of the cars look like the Ford Nucleon. 

I've been doing some reading and I stand corrected, and in fact they seem to be created around the same time as they were in our universe, they just were not focused on, the key difference being where our timeline focused on the microchip, the Fallout universe went all in on developing nuclear fusion.

[TheWho87]

IGN has an interview with Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan regarding the fallout of the Fallout series. (EXPECT SPOILERS)

 

[jrhodes]

I know I'm on an island here, but I watched the first two episodes and found it really plodding and dull.

[Cymbols]

Amazon has today confirmed a second season which is good because... (spoilers for the end of S1)

Spoiler

New Vegas! Fuck yes. Absolutely fuck yes. 

Watched the first episode on its own and I wasn't super impressed - feels like it was designed to be watched in one go. Also thought the first ep went out of its way to be as violent and dramatic as possible just because it could.

But once it got into the swing of things, I thought it was overall a pretty good show. Solid 7.5 out of 10.

[Ruki]

Just finished it with my wife, we both loved it! I can't wait for season 2!

Spoiler

New Vegas baby, let's go!

 

[Adam]

Finished it just now, I loved it. It got better as it went along and by the end I was so on board with basically all of it.

Spoiler

The finale paid off lots of the build, explained the plot threads but left open enough to keep it intriguing. I've totally turned around on Lucy now and think her development through the series mirrored very well how you feel as the protagonist going through the games.

Cooper/Ghoul is such a badass, that scene with the BOS in the dark during the finale was amazing, and really well shot. The pre-war scenes with him are an absolute triumph, they really help the world and story move along and the way they revealed the truth of Vault 31 and tied it in to his background was excellent.

I felt the pace of the first 2-3 episodes was a bit off, a lot got thrown at the viewer and the tone was a bit inconsistent. Once it settled in to itself though and focused more on character and plot progression than stylised violence and easter eggs, it became a phenomenal show to watch. From Episode 4 onwards, every episode I watched became my new favourite of the series.

The games mean an awful lot to me, playing them basically got me through the pandemic when I may as well have lived in a vault myself because I wasn't allowed to go outside. So when they played the Fallout 4 theme in the vault classroom as Lucy saw the history of Shady Sands, I got genuinely emotional. And when the finale ended with the shot of New Vegas...oh boy. That was awesome.

I can't wait for season 2.

[GoGo Yubari]

Just about done with the second episode. As good as Walton Goggins is, Ella Purnell is stealing the show. "Why would Muldaver want [Michael Emerson's character]? She only steals dads!" killed me.

[Skummy]

On 16/04/2024 at 14:49, Mx. Canadian Destroyer said:

As someone who never played the games, I never felt this at all. The world was so new to me that there was enough there to make me understand I was watching a Fallout show. I don't know what I don't know but it never felt like I was missing important info but I am sure there were a million Easter eggs for people who played the games.

Also, the show caused Fallout to have it's highest number of people playing on Steam this weekend, so it worked to get people to play the game too. 

I honestly hated that article, and I think it does a really bad job of understanding how people interact with media, particularly licensed media, and all on behalf of an imagined audience. Yes, there's a lot of "remember this from the game?", but none of it is essential to the plot or to understanding what's going on.

Nobody is asking questions like "why are the Ghoul's bullets extra-powerful?" because the show has already had flashes of absurd ultra-violence by that point, and is already a super-exagerrated version of the world. Why wouldn't they be super-powerful? And nobody is complaining that they don't explain what the Vaults are, because it's fucking obvious. People love to think that understanding lore is essential to following a story, but this isn't complicated stuff, viewers can follow the story as told, pick up on the glaringly obvious context clues, and figure it out for themselves. It's insulting to argue that we can't. 

[Gazz]

16 minutes ago, Skummy said:

why are the Ghoul's bullets extra-powerful?

He's spent 200 years min/maxing his crit build. Duh.

[Benji]

"Thou shalt always get sidetracked by pointless bullshit" is honestly the greatest nod and a wink to the games they could make. I genuinely hope it's the Platinum trophy name for the next game.