The reaction suggests also perpetuates that age-old belief that gamers would rather have a game that looks good than a game that is fun to play. As previously mentioned, I was never bowled over by Fallout 3‘s awkward animations, nor the washed-out textures of its environment, but I piled countless hours into that game for a variety of other reasons outside of its technical proficiency. Sure, I’d have liked for the Fallout 4 trailer to have bowled it over with its gorgeous visuals (though it’s lighting does admittedly look rather splendid), and I’d rather that the Gamebryo engine be put out to pasture, but Fallout 3‘s mediocre graphics didn’t dampen my love of the game, so why would they prevent me from enjoying Fallout 4?
Upon watching the Fallout 4 trailer, you’d have to believe that Bethesda realizes this. They know that people want more Fallout, and that those people didn’t spend so much time in the world of Fallout 3 because of its textures, so they didn’t consider that they should lead us all along on a string by showing us a trailer that wouldn’t be representative of the finished product.
People will eventually place Fallout 4’s graphics under scrutiny when the game is eventually released. Maybe its animations will prove to be detrimental to the game itself, and maybe some may find themselves unable to overlook its visual flaws in favor of digging into the game that’s buried beneath them. We won’t know until that day comes, so for now all we have to go by is this three minute trailer, and maybe this says more about our lowered expectations when it comes to the triple-A gaming industry’s treatment of its consumer, but hey: at least it’s honest.
