Fallout 3 and 4 spiritual followups to Future Shock/Skynet

[GalcianBTH]

For the longest time I have wondered why the Fallout 3+ games gave me such a distinct feeling that I was playing a Terminator themed. game. The mood, the colors, the ambiance. Never mind the direct thematic similarities in Synth and Terminators and the overarching theme in Fallout 4 of the roll of thinking computers. Suddenly as I went threw my old games I remembered way back before TESIII Bethesda made a little 3D shooter named Future Shock, and soon after SkyNet. Even now if you play the game they nail James Cameron's vision of what the Terminator series was supposed to look and feel like, something not really accomplished afterwards under the license. It occurred to me that that they must have as a team creatively absorbed much of the vision they would later use in the fallout series during the development period of those games that shows itself now in the Fallout Series.

 

I know some will see other post Apocalyptic influences but as a lifetime fan of the Terminator series there are certain thematic traits beyond just nukes and machines that I feel Fallout clearly takes from the series.

 

Sorry if this is part of topic, was not sure were to post it.

 

 

 

 

[Vagrant0]

Except that things like the Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth were eluded to back in FO2 almost in the same way they were depicted in those games. The only real thing Bethesda did with them was build upon the ideas and adapt it to a first person type game.

[JimboUK]

I got more of an I, Robot vibe from them.

[Mirocu]

I did also get that idea reading about Synths. You also have the nuclear thing in both franchises. The distinct difference though is that Fallout is only (really) experienced in the aftermath while Terminator is much more focused on preventing it from even happening.

 

 

But yeah, I´d say there are similarities and they have crossed my mind before :)

[tartarsauce2]

synths are simultaneously based on I, robot and the music video for "technologic" or rather the robot in it, early robotics used that sort of setup when trying to get them to show emotion
even FO tactics which is arguably the most terminator based in one sense, up-ends the relation in so many other ways, also of note is the recent "tay tweets" incident where a certain type of internet denizen managed to essentially teach an AI learning construct experiment/PR stunt by microsoft various, really, really, funny(politically incorrect) things - but then we run into the part where microsoft wiped it
while we're not quite at the level where self awareness is available, it's getting closer to that point where we have to actually question what it means to be human
the big thing on the synths is that there's uncertainty, whereas with the normal robots they're completely aware they're robots, and this makes people feel safer, while at the same time they're actually more dangerous than synths because where they act human, the robots are fully aware of their situation and yet *still* insist on being homicidal maniacs from what I can tell, thanks protectron!

you COULD say that the BoS views it as terminator, whereas the railroad views it as I, robot and the institute just is like... "we're modders"
Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it,
Charge it, point it, zoom it, press it,
Snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
Load it, check it, quick - rewrite it,
Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
Drag and drop it, zip - unzip it,
Lock it, fill it, call it, find it,
View it, code it, jam - unlock it,
Surf it, scroll it, pause it, click it,
Cross it, crack it, switch - update it,
Name it, rate it, tune it, print it,
Scan it, send it, fax - rename it,
Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it,
Turn it, leave it, start - format it.

Edited April 26, 2016 by tartarsauce2