our criticisms
I'm not actually addressing Saddam specifically with this post, it's just that I know people probably think I hate the game too, so...
I'd just like to point out that while I would probably have more criticisms than Saddam does, I have yet to play it (and the way things are looking right now I probably never will), and have only commented seriously on parts of the game that I've actually seen. Make no mistake, what I have seen does look terrible (except for the stuff with the exaggerated facial expressions mod, but Bethesda didn't make that so it doesn't count), for example, more than anything now the game seems to be about you blasting your way through interchangeable squads of cannon fodder, and basically becoming an unstoppable wasteland god along the way. I get that that's one of the selling points of Bethesda's open world games, I just find it becomes very boring very quickly, and I'm not particularly interested in playing through such a game in service of another Heart-wrenching Personal Story™ (or Huge Piece of Shit, whichever you prefer HPS to stand for) the basic plot of which Emil Pagliarulo presumably cobbled together by applying William S. Burroughs' cut-up technique to blurbs from novels featured on the Oprah book club.
This isn't even about what is and what is not Fallout, I fully accept that Bethesda gets to decide what that is now, for better or worse. As far as I'm concerned the direction of the series under their guidance is no longer a Fallout I am interested in, but they're the ones making that decision, and if they'd rather cater to TES fans than Fallout fans, that's cool. Obsidian probably won't make another Fallout title, so the old stuff is pretty much dead and buried as far as the series is concerned today. Maybe the next title will be shipped around to other studios who might conceivably make a good go of it, but I don't really have any hope for that, as doubtless they'll be forced into using the mechanics Bethesda has put forth in their latest offering. Even NV, as much as it was a breath of fresh air at the time, couldn't really escape the problems which F3 standardised, and if a team of Black Isle alumni bolstered by younger talent couldn't do it, I'm not sure what other devs can bring to the table under similar circumstances. Unless they are allowed the time and budget to build up their own vision of Fallout from scratch, I just don't see it, but if Bethesda does decide to diversify in that manner, maybe some good will come of it as a matter of course.
So yeah, no nostalgia goggles, no muh isometric perspective (although
those screenshots do look pretty damn good), just acceptance of and a little sadness at the fact that one of my favourite game series of all time is no longer made for me or people like me. It's not all Bethesda's fault, they got the rights because Interplay decided to be amazingly terrible at everything, putting all their money into spin-off titles no one wanted and ultimately going bankrupt ─ Bethesda is just doing what they usually do but with a different paint job, what else could one expect? I can only hope that when I finally get around to it
Wasteland 2 will prove to be something that truly brings the post-apocalyptic RPG experience I've been missing all these years into the world of modern gaming, and if not it will at least still be a fun nostalgia trip, not just for the gameplay or the visual style, but also for the music of Mark Morgan, original contributions from whom were sorely missed by me and probably at least a few others in the more recent Fallout titles.