Jitters Caffeine said:
Recently, I got into a bit of a friendly debate with a friend of mine over which world/lore/game whathaveyou was better, the Fallout series or The Elder Scrolls series.
I cited that even though the engine for Fallout 3 and New Vegas were just the Oblivion engine painted brown, the stories and the worlds of the Wasteland just felt better to me. The stories felt personal. Like I was more than just some guy wandering through the woods killing wildlife and trapsing through cities stealing everyone's pants. I know the maps for Fallout 3 and New Vegas were smaller, but that just meant less dead space between discoveries of brand new things to dig through and discover, even if the landscape was decidedly monochromatic.
His reasons were basically that he preferred the fantastical medieval setting and Lore of The Elder Scrolls series. There are Crazy Gods of Madness like Shaogorath and a race of immortals that fear only boredom and pain. He loves being able to get lost for hours in the forests before finally coming across a cave, because you never know what will be inside. He loved that the player was anonymous and being moved by an overarching "destiny" that you have no control over, just made the settign that much more fantastical.
Now my question is this, Which do you prefer? What are your reasons? Got any fun stories from your time with these games?
Be sure to know, neither of us hate the other series, we just prefer our respective series more.
I think you both had excellent points, and that the reasons you felt one way were the same reason your friend felt the other. In other words, it is the very fact that there are crazy gods, immortals, multiple races, overlapping cultures (that are more than just differences of killing vs. not killing everything on sight), and the impersonal hand of Destiny weaving through them all to tap you without making it known to the wider world that you are important in TES games that
removes the possibility of the intimate, personal, "soon everyone will know your name" (because there are significantly less people around to know it, for starters) "self-made" heroism of the Fallout games.
It's your basic "chosen one" vs. "every-man makes himself epic" approach - I mean, even when in Fallout someone
says you are chosen, you're really not - there aren't any gods/masters of destiny actively present to back that claim up - as there obviously are in TES games. I mean, the validation is right in there, you touch a shrine, you get a perk - gods exist, pretty easy to stand on that claim. Hell, you have tea and cakes with them sometimes, they lift you up into the sky just to talk at you. Not happening in Fallout.
It makes the feel of both games very different - in Fallout you are more alone (in terms of support from beyond and the support of a normal society structure etc. etc.) and therefore companionship is more precious; whereas in TES games you've got your pick of support, associations, companions, society validates you, law enforcement exists, etc. etc.
They are like chocolate and ice cream - both sweets, but offering totally different appeals. Depends on my mood at a given moment which I will prefer.
Overall, I guess I'd say Fallout is more familiar and comfortable in terms of playing, and therefore more easy to get into quickly and stay into over time, but I have to add then that TES is more spectacular and sometimes the unfamiliar is more fun, for awhile.
Edit: Also - am I the only one who really thinks the Wasteland NEEDS to be brown and devoid of interesting visual elements other than rock formations to count as a wasteland?
