Some games hold up no matter their age and appearance. Fallout 3 is not one of those games. Its constantly brown and green colour palette is no treat for the eyes, and even a developer who worked on the game has no problem admitting Bethesda didn't hit the mark when it came to Fallout 3's visuals.
Speaking on The Examined Game, ex-Bethesda artist and Fallout 76 lead Nate Purkeypile explained that he's a huge fan of the recently announced Fallout 3 remaster. "I'm personally looking forward to [the Fallout 3 remaster], because we were, like, super tech-constrained making Fallout 3." Purkeypile went onto say that due to lighting issues, smaller textures, and constant worries of memory budgets, the game came out differently from what had been the original vision. "It's not like it's exactly how we intended," he said.
Since 2008, game creation has changed massively. We're in a completely different era now than we were back then, and while some may pine for the heady days of the late 2000s, developers are gladder for a time without so much constant crunch, and a lack of tech that can help bring their vision to life. Purkeypile says he understands people growing sick of movie remakes, but argues games are a completely different space due to how they've changed so much so fast as a medium.
Currently, Bethesda has a remaster of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas in the works, but if there's a game that should be next on that list, Purkeypile believes it should be The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. "I would definitely push for more colour to it," he said.
With the extreme amount of mods out there for Skyrim, there can be plenty of colour if you wish to see it. Here's hoping we can get an entirely new experience in The Elder Scrolls universe before Bethesda goes back to another re-release of Skyrim.
