I remember playing Fallout NV for the first time (my first Fallout game) picking up a plasma pistol and being really turned off by the way it looked, something that kept happening every time I found one of the high tech weapons. I remember wishing it was more like other games and downloading a bunch of tacticool weapons. Some of you might know this already as you might have seen me complain at how wacky and unrealistic some of the weapons can get.

Then on my last playthrough, I realized I was now looking at them in a different way. Sure, there are still things that don't necessarily sit well with me - the fact that the ammo is exposed or the amount of fragile parts, just to name a couple of examples - but I actually found myself enjoying the uniqueness of these pieces. It gives the franchise some personality, sets it apart from "generic military simulator number 187". Now, sure, there are many good looking weapon mods, but those can be found in just about any other game. Depending on where you live, you might have even been able to shoot them in real life. But where else can you get a pulse pistol, a recharger rifle or a plasma caster?

Incidentally, I realized that Bethesda, for all the criticism they get, is actually much more faithful to the 50's retro futuristic aesthetic than even the original creators were.

Anyway, I just find myself enjoying this more and more. Anyone else feel like that?

I love the Fallout aesthetic as well. For a long time I was the same way, wanting something more tacticool in the game. As I've played more over the years, I prefer the look and them of vanilla FNV.

This is specifically something dragbody has been addressing in his newer overhauls. Bringing the models up to current gen level while also keeping them fit with the vanilla themes.

the reason bethesda is more faithful than interplay/black isle to the 50s aesthetic , is because they're the ones that made it more of a ' strict ' 50s design , older fallout games had that retro futuristic look but to my knowledge , they never had a cutoff date until the fallout bible became a thing and said it was shortly after ww2 (and bethesda based a lot of things on it despite it being declared as semi canon ) . Also i don't think ' fallout tropes/aethetics ' were seen the same way in fo1 and fo2 , for example key items or factions were changed between the game like bottlecaps , brotherhood of steel , there was no vault start ... etc , so i think that bethesda might have felt the need to include everything that looked like fallout when making fallout 3 .
But aside from that , yeah i think one thing bethesda has always done well with their fallout games is the design for everything from weapons , armors , buildings and general world design , i just think they should take risks and try to make more of their touch in some areas instead of retreading old ground

@frankhorigan2 I don't know if it was stablished as cannon but the classics definitely have a retro feeling about them. It's a lot more subtle no doubt, probably because they were far more focused on the new societies that were coming out from the ashes. Bethesda is definitely more interested in the Old World than they were, but I would say that's a good thing, because it helps setting the franchise apart.

What I was referring to though, was specifically to weapons. Because it's common, specially among the fans of the classics, to criticize Bethesda for their designs, but it dawned on me that those are more accurate to the franchise's theme. An AER laser rifle is closer to how people in the fifties would have imagined a laser rifle than the Wattz version, which is largely just the sniper rifle but with a few wires.

And the thing is, Bethesda's staff is actually hugely creative. I mean, think about the amount of different freaks they have added to the series. It's just a shame they can't seem to let the new guys shine and let go of the same formula of Supermutants and the BoS. Obviously there's plenty to criticize them for, but I don't think they're doing nearly as bad of a job as some people think. In terms of aesthetics, I think they've done pretty well.

gavin gold wrote:

@frankhorigan2 I don't know if it was stablished as cannon but the classics definitely have a retro feeling about them. It's a lot more subtle no doubt, probably because they were far more focused on the new societies that were coming out from the ashes. Bethesda is definitely more interested in the Old World than they were, but I would say that's a good thing, because it helps setting the franchise apart.

What I was referring to though, was specifically to weapons. Because it's common, specially among the fans of the classics, to criticize Bethesda for their designs, but it dawned on me that those are more accurate to the franchise's theme. An AER laser rifle is closer to how people in the fifties would have imagined a laser rifle than the Wattz version, which is largely just the sniper rifle but with a few wires.

And the thing is, Bethesda's staff is actually hugely creative. I mean, think about the amount of different freaks they have added to the series. It's just a shame they can't seem to let the new guys shine and let go of the same formula of Supermutants and the BoS. Obviously there's plenty to criticize them for, but I don't think they're doing nearly as bad of a job as some people think. In terms of aesthetics, I think they've done pretty well.

Yeah i wholeheartedly agree , bethesda's design is always great , i noticed it first with skyrim which had really great looking armors and weapons (even if the proportions are a bit off sometimes ) and what's most impressive is that many of these armors looked great and fantastical without looking stupid and generic like most other fantasy rpgs , and i honestly loved the weapon designs in fallout 4 as well as they are unique , they look great and fit the world pretty well . and like you said they do get a lot of critism for their design (or it gets glossed over completely ) because of some of their other flaws , when they're some of the most creative devs out there despite being a relatively small team for an AAA studio