Is It OK to Think the Fallout 4 Trailer Was Meh?

Let me preface this by saying I love Bethesda games, I will be purchasing Fallout 4 and I’m sure I will love it. So why is it I can’t question the graphics seen in today’s reveal trailer without cries of “graphics whore” and be strung up in the town square for all to see? I mean let’s be honest they were pretty bad. The environments look great, that’s not up for debate and the argument can be made that Bethesda games have always been “world over characters” but this just feels like a step back or at least a step to the side. There are a thousand elements that go into a game, can I not question one of them without “hating” it?

“But Ryan it’s an open world game so sacrifices must be made.” I get that but this much? The map will need to be four times that of The Witcher, Dragon Age, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry, and Metal Gear Solid V to account for this much loss in detail. The character models resemble blobs devoid of joints or texture gliding around the beautiful landscape. And maybe that is an issue, that they have done such a great job on the scenery, the people in it just don’t hold up.

So, let’s move onto the evidence, the star of this trailer seemed to be the Dog, as he moves through the scenery the story of the trailer unfolds. Gaming has had some memorable dogs in the past and this one in the end will probably take his place among the elite, but not graphically.

The fur is completely flat and lifeless and doesn’t move at all as he walks around, his paws and head move with a mechanical lack of flow that seems unnatural and his paws just seem to never touch the ground or at least affect anything about it. In contrast to recent dogs we have seen in next gen games like Riley from COD Ghosts, the wolf in Metal Gear Solid V or the dogs in GTA V this is well behind. While certainly an upgrade it is not too much of a leap from the dog in Fallout 3.

But hey when this game releases we surly won’t be playing as the dog, the humans will take center stage, well they are not much better. They have the same flat lifeless textures and even more issues with joints and limbs. In the shot below the woman moves while her elbow and arm stay completely rigid, and no one holds a baby like that, tighten that grip!

Even the main human in the end is a flowing blank canvas who apparently has lost the need for a butt in this world. You could argue there was more texture in the Fallout 3 model below.

All of these gripes could be said to be issues Bethesda has always had, but after Skyrim seemed to make giant leaps in this regard I feel we have gone back a step. Of course it looks better it had no choice. But, with the generation leap, a lot of development time and so much hype I hoped we would be blown away with what Bethesda Studios could do on this new hardware. I do look forward to seeing more at E3 in a few weeks and if my feelings are amplified or eased. Regardless if this is a representation of what the final game will look like I will just have to be content being a mannequin in a giant, beautifully chaotic, realized world.