Bethesda Vs. Black Isle: Sex, Brats, And Addiction

I'm sorry, your "on par" humor comparison only does a disservice to the inadequate sequel. When you discuss the qualities of a 2008 game that is Fallout 3, don't bring up its decade-old prequels. Look at other big games of that year, GTA IV and Mass Effect, and go from there.

Not that I blame you for not wanting to do just that. Comparing Fallout 3 to GTA IV is like comparing George W. Bush to Abraham Lincoln.

 

That's really part of the whole 'emulating p&p' thing. Descriptions like that are normal in such an environment.

 

I understood the point, and I loved the detail in those things. I'll never forget the message you get when you first leave the Vault 13 Mountain.
But I digress, Fallout never really seemed that funny to me. There's plenty of things to grill Fallout 3 about; Beth's sense of humor is an odd choice.
I guess it's just a matter or opinion when you get down to it.

 

The pipboy cartoons are funny.

In FO2 the bad humor outweighed the good. Ha ha talking plant. Ha ha I lost to a Radscorpion in chess. Ha ha Tandi is a ghoul.

 

Uh? I never really thought that was intended to be terribly humorous or anything. It's simply a more colorful way of saying: "This car is damaged beyond repair." As opposed to how a Bethesda writer would have put it: "This car is super messed up."

It's just a description. That's a pretty poor example to pick out to try and make a point about Fallout's humor.

 

I was giving an example pal, as opposed to naming off ten different ones. Fine, how'sabout you give one?

 

Your fecal analogy is painfully inappropriate and almost gives me a headache just to read. We are talking about interactive media intended for viewing here and viewing a very small portion will never give you an idea of the whole picture.

You are basically saying, its ok to judge a book by its cover. Or more appropriately, that if you watch a trailer you've pretty much seen the whole movie.

 

Which I still don't think is funny.
As I said, it's all just a matter of opinion. Fallout always seemed like it was trying too hard to me, even more so with Fallout 2, even more more so with Fallout 3.

 

If it failed to be something, it would have had to try first.
Look, there are a few moments. I chuckled at Butch's overall persona, particularly "Time is money, chit-chat is not". I liked Beth and that bodyguard of hers, don't remember the name. If you want to push it I was even amused by the talking Brahma.
Fallout's a very clever game. It has a good atmosphere (I'll never forget walking down the hall to The Master), it has good ambiance, it has a few genuinely interesting characters. But it never struck me as funny. Again, it's all a matter of opinion, but if I had to explain why... I'd say it's because Fallout's sense of humor relies on what I'll call statement jokes. That is, jokes that are essentially just statements meant to be taken at face-value.
There's no hidden meaning, you don't have to think about it, you just read it and say "Huh, I guess that's funny" and keep walking down the road.

 

I don't thing being funny was ever a goal in Fallout. The gaming press made a big deal about the "black humor" when attempting to describe the atmosphere, and it stuck.

The FO2 team decided that was a strength of the original and tried to amp up the funny. I don't think they succeeded, but evidently many people do. If you press for examples, you get "Monty Python reference!". I don't know. I'm going to play through it again and note all the humor that is so raved about.

 

Vault City having all those water chips, and Vault 13 having all those GECKS was funny.

Saying "Booze, Wooz" made me chuckle

 

Judging a book by its cover? Talk about inappropriate analogies.

If having a deep understanding of the game's engine, being thoroughly informed of its developers and their overall track record, watching dozens of various gameplay videos and reviews, as well as playing the game personally for about two hours and seeing all of its mechanics and most of its key locales is not enough to form an educated opinion about the game in question, then, frankly, I wouldn't even begin to imagine what is. Completing the game even when you're practically disgusted by it? My fecal analogy stands.


As of Fallout's humor, for the nth time, both games were made in the mid-nineties. Name me a mere handful of games (RPGs in particular) that offered better humor back in those days. Might and Magic V? Chrono Trigger? Daggerfall? Come on, people. If you're still having troubles adjusting for the time difference, just take a close look at GTA (1997) and GTA IV (2008) and see how Fallout's humor should have actually progressed in 2008.

That being said, "Beth's humor in Fallout 3 is on par with that found in Fallout 1 and 2" is still a bit of an overstatement, if you ask me.

 

You've successfully proven that none of the games are funny.

 

Also, the knock-knock and robot jokes in FO3 are supposed to be stupid.

What's wrong with that? I got a chuckle out of it. I don't remember it in the game though.

 

Oh, you liked that last one, didn't ya? Here's another one for you:

Now that's what I call funny: trite, nonsensical, and downright tasteless. Great stuff, great stuff...

As with the robot jokes, this is the best Fallout 3 humor I could dig up. If you - or anyone else, for this matter - got any better examples up your sleeves, I'm actually quite interested in hearing them all.