Watching You Dance Makes Me Wish For A Nuclear Winter

May 25, 2012 10:53 AM

Fun With Models Friday: Fallout New Vegas Characters Just Love To Dance.
posted by The Whelk (40 comments total)

While I fully support taking the piss out that grind of a game, no Deathclaws-getting-down made me sad.
posted by mhoye at 11:02 AM on May 25, 2012

Tunnel Snakes Rule!
posted by exogenous at 11:27 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

context?
posted by Outlawyr at 11:30 AM on May 25, 2012

Seeing all the characters in this video reminded me of how great this game really was. It is more truly in the spirit of Fallout 1 and 2 than Fallout 3 was, and is, in my view, the real successor to those games. And it only gets an 84 on Metacritic! Bah, I'll never understand why other people have such lousy, wrongheaded opinions.

"Big Iron on his hiiiiiip...."
posted by Palquito at 11:33 AM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

I love video game dance compilations like this. Actually, I've only seen them done for Bethesda games... probably because they release excellent modding tools. In my mind, they're the perfect ending to a game you've just finished.

They remind me of, for instance, the end to Ocarina of Time (party). You've lived in this world for however many hours, grown attached to the various characters, achieved your goal... so here's your reward: everyone is having a big party, and it's all thanks to you! That ending was so gratifying, a perfect release of tension.

I'd love to see a modern game, especially a game where the immersion in the world is the game, have its official ending be a big dance party.
posted by gilrain at 11:34 AM on May 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Palquito: "Big Iron on his hiiiiiip...."

Damn you and the earworm you rode in on!
posted by gilrain at 11:37 AM on May 25, 2012

play it again

joooooohnny guuuuuuuuitar
posted by The Whelk at 11:37 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Damn you and the earworm you rode in on!

joooooohnny guuuuuuuuitar

My work here is done.
posted by Palquito at 11:39 AM on May 25, 2012

Total double earworm
posted by The Whelk at 11:40 AM on May 25, 2012

TUNNEL SNAPES RULE
posted by The Whelk at 11:57 AM on May 25, 2012 [2 favorites]

My husband can always tell when I've been playing New Vegas, since my spurs will be jingle jangle jingling while I wash the dishes.

yippie yaaaaaaaay there'll be no wedding bells for todayyyyyyyy
posted by timetoevolve at 12:21 PM on May 25, 2012

I've just been playing through New Vegas for the first time, and have been surprised at how much my opinion of it has evolved through the course of the game. For the first 20 or 30 hours I was deeply conflicted about it, and it's only been in the second half that I've really come to like it as a thing that I have invested all this time into. The big thing that capped it was visiting Caesar's fort: looking back down at the river, and listening to Caesar tell his story. That was the first time the atmosphere of the game took on a feeling beyond smoke and mirrors and cheap emotional tricks, where its shallow pantomime finally felt vast and relevant.

The fort should have been front and centre way earlier in the game. It was way too easy to avoid going there until the main story forces you there near the end. I feel similarly about the Great Khans, their story could be the most interesting of any of the factions but, unless I guess you take Boone as a companion and hear enough about Bitter Springs through him, they're a big mystery until you're strong enough to mess with deathclaws and cazadors. The stuff early in the game, and the factional stuff around the Strip, are not nearly as compelling, and when you try to make it compelling (ie. taking it upon yourself to retaliate for the massacre at Nipton) you just generate a hellish Legion beatdown way before you're in a position to survive their assassination squads.
posted by waterunderground at 12:42 PM on May 25, 2012

[POSSIBLE SPOILER]

One of the pinnacles of my computer gaming career has been fighting the Legate at the end of FNV and watching him give up the battle, turn, and flee from my character.
posted by Edogy at 1:20 PM on May 25, 2012

FNV was the first game I've really delved into for about 5-6 years, I was so excited for it to come out. I played F3 a couple times and was a little underwhelmed by it.

My only complaint was that FNV got a little boring after a while... After level 12 or so, I really didn't run into many new enemies that I couldn't absolute obliterate (even on hard settings). I wanted a wasteland that kept up with the levels. I really hate being at level 18 and with just the right setup, take on a deathclaw with no problems at all.

I'm normally not into Modding games all that much, but my 2nd and 3rd times playing, I decided to install a few mods, mainly A World of Pain that really brings the map to life...the best part about this mod, is that it plots half a dozen or so conflict areas on parts of the map where there just might be some conflicts.

Nothing in the un-modded version was quite like coming up on a full squad of NCR troops battling it out with twice as many bandits. You had to be REALLY careful what you got involved with, because your reputation could possibly make both camps run after you. I love that mod because it made the area seem much more in conflict...It added a tenseness to the game that didn't necessarily exist before.

There's a couple other really well done mods out there,
posted by furnace.heart at 1:33 PM on May 25, 2012

That was about a million times better than it had any business being.
posted by The Bellman at 2:33 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

While I enjoyed F3 I developed a completely unhealthy attachment to the characters. It pretty much sealed fanboy devotion when Dr. Venture showed up in a DLC.
posted by The Whelk at 2:52 PM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

Er to the character in FNV. Part of it was the surprisingly high profile cast of veteran voice actors ( or the holy st that is Wayne Newton factor) and the sheer amount of time yu can spend with the characters and tease out personalities.

Which is a long way of saying that my actual husband is now a bit jealous of Arcade Ganon because he is the dreamiest.
posted by The Whelk at 4:12 PM on May 25, 2012

By the end of the opening cutscene I had decided that, no matter what else I accomplish, I was going to kill Benny and wear his suit.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:16 PM on May 25, 2012

New Vegas is one of the few games I've played that felt like it was trying to be about something. It's got all these recurring themes of history, it's power to shape the present, and what we do with it. It also lets you launch nuclear rockets full of ghouls to the tune of "Ride of the Valkyries" and punch two headed cattle so hard they explode.

It's a nice mix is what I suppose I'm saying.

Also: Like the fella once said, ain't that a kick in the head?
posted by Grimgrin at 4:19 PM on May 25, 2012

he stuff early in the game, and the factional stuff around the Strip, are not nearly as compelling

Apart from the gang of Elvis impersonators oh, how I loved you ?
posted by ersatz at 4:24 PM on May 25, 2012

I just finished the last DLC and this is just perfect. Now I want to go back and play Legion (didn't realize that playing a woman would totally foreclose that strategy) but I'm not sure I have the stomach for it.

How did the modder get all those remarkably familiar dance styles into the game? That seems like the real accomplishment here.
posted by anotherpanacea at 4:24 PM on May 25, 2012

Grimgrin, all the DLC are connected into a unified theme about letting the past go there is a consistent narrative and characters tying them together and when that sunk in I was double impressed.

Hell, the Vera/Vera Lynn connection would have been enough for most games, but they went the extra mile.

Also it's one of the few games where you're going hey the literally fascist slaver cult is making a few good points, and wow I don't thnk anyone here is really acting in good faith.
posted by The Whelk at 4:56 PM on May 25, 2012

The Whelk: Definitely. I played through them and was consistently amazed at how good they were. They kept up the level of characterization, story, and voice acting while dramatically altering tone and game-play.

Joshua Graham sticks out in my mind as being particularly well done.
posted by Grimgrin at 5:33 PM on May 25, 2012

Wasteland Dancin FTW ... yeah someone cookup a megapost of hacked dancing. I just know there must be hundreds of Skyrim jams.
posted by vicx at 7:40 PM on May 25, 2012

I almost feel like New Vegas is the natural end of the Fallout series, the wasteland is pretty civilized, there are big, well organized factions gunning for it, people have money and working electricity, and the second Battle Of Hoover Dam is just sorting out who get what. It's post-post-apocalypse and the question is more about who gets to be the big dog in the region vs who just gets to survive. That's interesting, that's something you rarely see, the rebuilding part, where the most horrible thing ever has happened, and now it's over and we're trying to have a civilization and the beauty of New Vegas is that it poses the question, so what kind of civilization derives to exist?

So of course all the DLC are about people unable to let go of the old world and the musical motif is a romantic, nostalgic song called "Begin Again". All westerns end with the advent of barbed wire, and all badass loner gunsinger RPGs end when governments carve up the land and lay claim. No matter what path the player takes, the Mojave is going to become a more civilized, organized place, part of the larger states growing around it, and wasteland anarchy will become a distant memory. You can't stop the forces of history, and that's why I love New Vegas.
posted by The Whelk at 10:06 PM on May 25, 2012 [7 favorites]

I preferred Fallout 3 to Fallout New Vegas. It felt like it had more variety between settlements. One community lived on an aircraft carrier, another in a cave complex, another in a crater, another in the Pentagon, another in a lonely apartment block... you get the idea. Each community had it's own flavor. FNV went with factions instead, which were neat gameplay-wise perspective but less neat from an immersion perspective.

Added to which, FNV got on my bad side early on by breaking with the tradition of a Vault Dweller. You start with a vault jumpsuit and PIP-Boy, but they're not yours - they're given to you by the doc that patches you up. Basically you're some random non-Vault dude without a backstory.

I appreciated that FNV wasn't quite as dark as FO3 - fewer torsos dangling from hooks, fewer child-size skeletons clutching teddybears - that stuff gets depressing after a while.

I feel like FO3 gets less credit because it wasn't developed by the same people who did the original Fallouts 1 and 2. However this team basically did all the heavy lifting that made FNV possible, and brought back a game that had been dead for 10 years. FNV would struggle to suck because it inherits so much from FO3 and can address some of it's shortcomings.
posted by Ritchie at 3:40 AM on May 26, 2012

I did pefer the urban exploration aspect of 3, and I thought the music was better, but yeah it is much grimmer. Cannibals! Cannibals everywhere.
posted by The Whelk at 8:13 AM on May 26, 2012

Also, Fallout 3 was responsible for the most hilarious thing I've ever experienced in a game:

It was one of the Wilderness Survival Guide quests, where you have to go to an old robot factory and retrieve a computer chip. The factory is infested with radroaches, molerats, and ominously inert robots, but I sneak past everything and find my way to the the mainframe room. I grab the chip and at the same time activate the factory's Pest Control routines. All the robots come to life and start exterminating rats and roaches, and the radio starts playing this song

I’m as corny as Kansas in August,
CLANK, CLANK, *ZZZAP*
I’m as normal as blueberry pie.
*WHIRRRR*, CLANK, *ZZZZT*
No more a smart little girl with no heart,
RUSTLE, RUSTLE, *ZAP*, *SQUEAK*
I have found me a wonderful guy!

I was paralyzed with laughter for at least 10 minutes.
posted by Ritchie at 9:21 AM on May 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I almost feel like New Vegas is the natural end of the Fallout series

If the next one isn't set in Detroit and surroundings, I'll be measurably surprised.
posted by waterunderground at 2:39 PM on May 26, 2012

I want Detroit for the all Motown soundtrack.
posted by The Whelk at 2:44 PM on May 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

FNV got on my bad side early on by breaking with the tradition of a Vault Dweller.

There was a tradition? Sure in FO1 you were, but in FO2, the PC was a tribal villager (albeit directly descended from the Vault Dweller from FO1).

Then came the spinoff games. Fallout Tactics has a Brotherhood of Steel Initiate as the PC, and the consoles-only Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel had diverse group of starting PCs, none of whom grew up in a vault (though the original FO1 Vault Dweller is unlockable later in that game).

Interplay's attempt at Fallout 3 was going to have the PC start as a background-less prisoner. Bethesda's FO3 has a PC who grew up in a Vault but was originally born out in the Wasteland.

So out of six released games and one unfinished one, only two start you out living in a vault.
posted by radwolf76 at 3:25 AM on May 27, 2012 [1 favorite]

In FO2 you earned your pipboy and jumpsuit through running the temple of trials and by being the direct ancestor of the vault dweller. In FO3 you got them for being shot in the head.

There were no spinoffs. They never happened and the Fallout legacy was never sullied by their existence.

I have to keep telling myself that.
posted by YAMWAK at 3:58 AM on May 27, 2012

In FO2 you earned your pipboy and jumpsuit through running the temple of trials and by being the direct ancestor of the vault dweller. In FO3:NV you got them for being shot in the head.

For what it's worth, if you got the Classic Pack pre-order bonus (or the Courier's Stash DLC that rolled up all the pre-order bonuses), the Vault 21 jumpsuit Doc Mitchell gives you isn't your first, because you already have an Armored Vault 13 jumpsuit, in the style worn by the Vault Dweller and his descendent the Chosen One. Nothing stopping you from RPing your character as the next step in that bloodline if you want.
posted by radwolf76 at 5:52 PM on May 27, 2012

This thread has motivated me to fire up an old FNV savegame and start playing through the DLCs. So far I've finished Old World Blues, Honest Hearts, and Dead Money in that order. I know you're supposed to do Dead Money first, but I'm not too keen on horror-heavy games. I would have played it last, but apparently you are required by law to play Lonesome Road last.

Anyway, I've been pleasantly blown away. For all that I liked Fallout 3 slightly more than Fallout: New Vegas, the FNV add-ons have been without exception awesome, and have whetted my appetite for more. Guess I'll have to play Borderlands 2 when it's released, just to scratch that post-apocalyptic-quirky-shooter itch.

So I hope FNV isn't the end of the Fallout series. Bethesda have said they want to turn Fallout into a series on par with Elder Scrolls, however the next Fallout game doesn't even have a tentative release date. Maybe Bethesda can develop East Coast Fallout and Obsidian can do West Coast or something.

I'm kind of curious to see what direction they'll take it. Personally I think it would be interesting to play as a super-mutant like Marcus or Fawkes.
posted by Ritchie at 6:04 AM on June 6, 2012

the next Fallout game doesn't even have a tentative release date.

Oh shit, I just realized that this teaser for Fallout: San Francisco (due Q3 2012) is fake. It looked totally credible to me when I googled for Fallout 4 recently. But, duh, it's by a fan who does machinima, not the official channel, BethesdaSoftworks.

This makes me sad.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:04 AM on June 6, 2012

I'd be more concerned that they suddently lost thier lead artist who was responsible for how the modern Fallout series looked and felt.
posted by The Whelk at 7:56 AM on June 6, 2012

Okay, now I've got two things to be sad about. Damn you, Whelk!

On the plus side(?) they settled the MMO case with Interplay and now own all of the IP related to Fallout. That means that they're going to have to do something with it, right?
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:13 AM on June 6, 2012

I think Bethesda are concentrating their efforts on this game for 2012. Sort of a mashup of Bioshock, Thief, and Assassin's Creed? My guess is that they've figured out that the Fallout fanbase is willing to wait.
posted by Ritchie at 3:35 PM on June 6, 2012

NO, WE AREN'T.

Incidentally, FO:Tactics was a very good game but it wasn't an rpg. If you revisit it without expecting an rpg, you might be pleasantly surprised. It's also non-canon.
posted by ersatz at 3:52 AM on June 7, 2012

If they keep making great games in different genres, I'll keep playing them. Dishonored looks great.

I've always had the sense that there was some thread of personnel or auteurs and their disciples that joined my favorite RPGS: from Planescape to Arcanum to Bladur's Gate et al to Elder Scrolls and Fallout. (That is, Black Isle Studios to Troika to Bioware to Bethesda.)

Is there any truth to that?
posted by anotherpanacea at 4:29 AM on June 7, 2012