I find myself strangely disturbed by Fallout 3 Gameplay video 4. For some reason, the chainsaw bayonet blood splatter in Gears of War is nasty but appropriate. This level of gore in Fallout seems plain Wrong.
I don’t know if it’s the slow-motion action or the exploding body parts that are more distateful. Perhaps it’s just that I always had the Fallout series pegged as “safe” and “funny” so this level of over-the-top violence is shocking. I also had Bethesda down as fairly innocuous, based on my experiences with Morrowind and Oblivion.
OTOH, I seem to recall that there was a good deal of comical cartoon splatter in the original Fallout RPGs. Is realistic graphic violence the necessary successor to cartoon violence?
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September 13th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Brilliantly violent video. I can only think that Bethesda are quite happy to push the envelope here. Those machine fist things look great.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:09 am
how were fallout 1 & 2 safe? do you remember the bloody mess perk? how about the obscene language? sex acts? drugs? i have always considered this franchise to be more adult than nearly any other franchise out there and i will not be surprised when the ‘right’ makes a media mess after the release, just like with the GTAs.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:29 am
I’m big fan of the Half Life 2 games and the like, however for me there is a definite line at which I stay at one side of - certain games seem to overly play on the level of violence over the actual gameplay and that puts me off.
Is Fallout 3 going to be one of those games?
November 4th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I’ve stopped playing it because of the gore. The slo-mo death scenes don’t add anything to the game play and they are a distraction. I played 1 and 2 and although there was clearly violence, it was just an outcome and not so … celebrated.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Well I’m I’ll have to disagree with you all. I think if you don’t snigger at the violence then you’re missing something. Fallout 3 is over the top in a few senses of the word - with huge weapons, drugs with comedy names and illicit sex just waiting for you at the Megaton bar. Yes, if you take the violence out of the context of the rest of the game then it’s a spoiler. But, consider it with the piece as a whole and it completely fits in. It’s over the top and silly, but I doubt it’s a hugely emotional, realistic portrayal of violence.