Why Fallout Beer trumps Nuka Cola

[Shawn Knight]

Bethesda Softworks is going all-out with its marketing campaign for Fallout 4. The publisher revealed a couple of weeks ago that it would be selling real-life Fallout Beer exclusively in the UK starting November 5. In my coverage of the beverage, I jokingly noted that perhaps those in the US should keep their fingers crossed for Nuka Cola.

Apparently, a lot of people must have done just that as you’ll soon be able to purchase the fictional soft drink.

Bethesda recently revealed on Twitter that it has partnered with Jones Soda Co. to produce Nuka Cola Quantum. Just like the in-game soda, the real-life counterpart will be fluorescent blue in color and sold in glass bottles.

As IGN notes, Nuka Cola Quantum is likely just a rebranded version of Jones Soda’s berry lemonade flavor. This reason alone makes Fallout Beer the more unique of the two as it’s said to be an original craft beer recipe from UK brewer Carlsberg. Diehard fans likely won’t mind, however, as both beverages will serve as awesome collectables alongside the wearable Pip-Boy.

The beverage goes on sale exclusively at Target starting November 10, the same day Fallout 4 arrives on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the PC. The highly anticipated game has already gone gold based on pre-orders alone and stands to be one of the hottest games of the holiday season.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/62626-why-fallout-beer-trumps-nuka-cola.html

 

[davislane1]

People should be wary of elaborate marketing campaigns. A good product sells itself.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I can't believe some of the extortionately priced junk they sell with games that people gleefully buy into. They're so gullible. Horses for courses I guess.

 

[ArdvarkMaster]

Was interested in Nuka-Cola Quantum. Then I saw the bottle and though "Designed by someone who NEVER played the game".

Pass

 

[RustyTech]

This game better be flawless and without bugs! Otherwise it would have been better to just invest all that marketing funds into the devs.

 

[Adhmuz]

I don't understand why they didn't use the right label, it would have been such a better choice. Understandably they didn't make original Nuka-Cola, that looks to similar to Coke, however that I would actually of been interested in. This Quantum crap is just a terrible attempt at grabbing money from the fans.

"Nuka Cola Quantum is likely just a rebranded version of Jones Soda’s berry lemonade flavor."

Actually it looks more like, and I would hope it is, Blue Bubblegum flavored, lemonade is far too common a drink and this Blue Bubblegum has a stronger color than the Lemonade.

 

[VitalyT]

With just a pinch of a radionuclide and a twist, it should produce a lasting fallout, stronger than your Saturday stand

 

[yRaz]

People should be wary of elaborate marketing campaigns. A good product sells itself.

Name a bad game that Bethesda has made to justify that assumption. This isn't EA, Activision or Ubisoft, it's Bethesda

 

[davislane1]

Name a bad game that Bethesda has made to justify that assumption. This isn't EA, Activision or Ubisoft, it's Bethesda

Skyrim.

 

[yRaz]

Skyrim.

While you're entitled to your own opinion, sales numbers and critical acclaim would disagree with you. As would I.

 

[davislane1]

While you're entitled to your own opinion, sales numbers and critical acclaim would disagree with you. As would I.

Two incredibly low barriers to hurdle. If sales and critical acclaim are what matter, Call of Duty is the end-all be-all of gaming. Cutting edge. Year after Year.

Point is, you use heavy marketing to sell a product that won't generate sufficient ROI on a lesser plan. Skyrim brought larger 3d models and a bigger map to the table in 2011. Beyond that, nothing in that game was remotely new or impressively executed. IGN et. al. simply hyped it, emphasizing its pretty veneer instead of the generic core game.

I see this marketing campaign for F4 as more of the same. At E3 there were only a handful of interesting features demonstrated in the game. Still, it was the dog that made everyone go bonkers. Not cutting-edge AI, not a brand new method of storytelling, not a new system for character development, or a reinvention of the RPG, but a literal canine version of Karel the Robot.

...and now, they're selling beer and pop.

The game is being marketed as a masterpiece. It will be ordinary and buggy.

 

[yRaz]

Two incredibly low barriers to hurdle. If sales and critical acclaim are what matter, Call of Duty is the end-all be-all of gaming. Cutting edge. Year after Year.

Point is, you use heavy marketing to sell a product that won't generate sufficient ROI on a lesser plan. Skyrim brought larger 3d models and a bigger map to the table in 2011. Beyond that, nothing in that game was remotely new or impressively executed. IGN et. al. simply hyped it, emphasizing its pretty veneer instead of the generic core game.

I see this marketing campaign for F4 as more of the same. At E3 there were only a handful of interesting features demonstrated in the game. Still, it was the dog that made everyone go bonkers. Not cutting-edge AI, not a brand new method of storytelling, not a new system for character development, or a reinvention of the RPG, but a literal canine version of Karel the Robot.

...and now, they're selling beer and pop.

The game is being marketed as a masterpiece. It will be ordinary and buggy.

well if you're hell bent on hating F4 before it's out be my guest. If you think nothing was new in Skyrim then you didn't play it enough or you just aren't familiar with Bethesda games.

One thing that gets me mad about when people say that Bethesda games aren't impressive is that people don't appreciate the depth in which they go to make a world you interact with. You can pick up and interact with just about everyobject. People can't appreciate what the Bethesda game engine can do or what it is doing because "Muh Graphics". People skip through the story, don't take the time to learn the game mechanics or what the game has to offer and then say it's a bad game.

Either way, F4 is going to be a smash hit whether you like it or not. I wouldn't base my opinion of a game on a beer. And people have been asking for Nuka-Cola for years, Bethesda is only giving fans what they ask for which should give you an idea of what to expect from F4.

I look forward to playing it while it's out, you can sit on message boards and talk bad about it while the rest of us are having fun playing it.

 

[davislane1]

well if you're hell bent on hating F4 before it's out be my guest. If you think nothing was new in Skyrim then you didn't play it enough or you just aren't familiar with Bethesda games.

One thing that gets me mad about when people say that Bethesda games aren't impressive is that people don't appreciate the depth in which they go to make a world you interact with. You can pick up and interact with just about everyobject. People can't appreciate what the Bethesda game engine can do or what it is doing because "Muh Graphics". People skip through the story, don't take the time to learn the game mechanics or what the game has to offer and then say it's a bad game.

Either way, F4 is going to be a smash hit whether you like it or not. I wouldn't base my opinion of a game on a beer. And people have been asking for Nuka-Cola for years, Bethesda is only giving fans what they ask for which should give you an idea of what to expect from F4.

I'm not hating on F4. I'm saying the hype train is at full steam. That's a fact (and a reliable indicator).

As for not appreciating Bethesda games... I've played Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion + expansions, Skyrim + expansions, Fallout 3 + expansions, and Fallout: New Vegas + expansions. I am fully aware of what they do and what other games have done over the same period, which is precisely how I know Skyrim did nothing new.

My entire point is that the depth of experience provided by each major Bethesda release since Morrowind has been evolutionarily shallow, if not backwards in some respects. The core game (Skyrim and F3/NV) is the same as it was in Morrowind, with minor tweaks made to the combat system and the progressive simplification of character development.

Perfect example: In TES: Arena, you actually have to ask around for directions. In TES: Skyrim, you cast a spell that literally air brushes the path to your destination. One game immerses you in its world as a requisite for completion; the other explicitly states 'Press R1 for GFX'.

Now, what has Fallout 4 demonstrated that is remotely new to Bethesda or the RPG genre? Nothing. They refined the shooting mechanics, added a popular mod from the previous game(s), and improved their weapon crafting/power armor system. That's it: improvements to secondary features. The core game, as demo'd at E3, is exactly the same as F3.

People ridicule smartZealots for standing in long lines for marginally better phones. Yet, when a game developer pumps out a marginally improved example of software and promotes the thing by selling bespoke booze and neon pop, it's Bethesda!

I look forward to playing it while it's out, you can sit on message boards and talk bad about it while the rest of us are having fun playing it.

Look, I fully intend to purchase the game and play it through, just like I did with Destiny. But hype is hype. And hype, as everyone who's ever been burned by a five-star review knows, is a crimson flag.

 

[yRaz]

As for not appreciating Bethesda games... I've played Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion + expansions, Skyrim + expansions, Fallout 3 + expansions, and Fallout: New Vegas + expansions. I am fully aware of what they do and what other games have done over the same period, which is precisely how I know Skyrim did nothing new.

My entire point is that the depth of experience provided by each major Bethesda release since Morrowind has been evolutionarily shallow, if not backwards in some respects. The core game (Skyrim and F3/NV) is the same as it was in Morrowind, with minor tweaks made to the combat system and the progressive simplification of character development.

Perfect example: In TES: Arena, you actually have to ask around for directions. In TES: Skyrim, you cast a spell that literally air brushes the path to your destination. One game immerses you in its world as a requisite for completion; the other explicitly states 'Press R1 for GFX'.

Now, what has Fallout 4 demonstrated that is remotely new to Bethesda or the RPG genre? Nothing. They refined the shooting mechanics, added a popular mod from the previous game(s), and improved their weapon crafting/power armor system. That's it: improvements to secondary features. The core game, as demo'd at E3, is exactly the same as F3.

Well it seems your main complaint is that It doesn't seem to offer anything new to improve gameplay, which is completely false. I really don't feel like naming everything, but the big ticket items, setting up settlements to provide numerous functions, customizing your own powerarmor and an incredibly complex crafting system. Bethesda has been releasing new information about the game almost everyday for the last few weeks, there is an amazing number of new features in the game that have never been included in any Bethesda games before. Go to youtube, type in "fallout 4" and click away

 

[Captain828]

I agree with yRaz regarding all the new stuff announced in F4: they are definitely not resting on their laurels this time.
Definitely not a complete revolution from top to bottom, but plenty of exciting things have been announced (and shown in action!).

I also agree with davislane1 regarding Skyrim: very little new stuff was added to the core gameplay over Oblivion or Morrowind (or F3 for that matter).
Companions? they were pretty retarded and barely said anything interesting. NV companions were superb in comparison (mind you that game is made by Obsidian).
Radiant AI? HA! Just some random generic fetch/kill quests.
Did it suck? Hell no. Plenty of fun quests to do and a huge world to explore.

From all the info they've released so far, F4 is looking to be a big improvement over Skyrim gameplay-wise... will have to see how it fares over Obsidian's excellent NV story and characters.
And the DLC... omg the DLC for that game was sooo good.

 

[davislane1]

Well it seems your main complaint is that It doesn't seem to offer anything new to improve gameplay, which is completely false.

This is not at all what I said. Quote:

My entire point is that the depth of experience provided by each major Bethesda release since Morrowind has been evolutionarily shallow, if not backwards in some respects. The core game (Skyrim and F3/NV) is the same as it was in Morrowind, with minor tweaks made to the combat system and the progressive simplification of character development.

F4 major new features:

1. Simple schematic-based crafting systems changed to simple modular crafting systems. While I admit these may be complex to balance and tedious to code, as a secondary gameplay feature they are basic, not complex. It's a necessary improvement to a pre-existing feature (crafting). Modular crafting is also "new" only to Bethesda products. The system and (more complex variants) have exited for over a decade across several genres.

2. Customizable settlements are an extension of the game's pre-existing structure: economic hubs. The concept looks fun, but it doesn't substantially change the core game. It's a secondary feature that adds interactivity to a pre-existing asset.

3. Refined VATS and FPS/TPS mechanics. This is self-explanatory.

4. Dialogue is now executed seamlessly and locks you into a particular style. This is an improvement that smooths the gameplay and marginally enhances the role-playing experience (early conversational decisions impact the rest of the exchange).

There are two characteristics that stand out here. First, the most substantial changes are to secondary gameplay (settlements and crafting). Second, improvements to the core game (RPG-Shooter) are marginal.

F4 is modded F3. That's not even a joke: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/7070/?

This game is being marketed as Bethesda's next-gen home run grand slam, but the only thing next-gen about it is the hardware required to keep the FPS up. Will it be fun? Probably. But the core game was already dated in 2011. As stated previously, it's 2015 and feature the the crowd went wild for was an AI that plays fetch.

An RPG that does something new with core gameplay is one that intelligently responds to the player's presence and actions. Fallout 4 does no such thing. If it did, they would have touted it as the game's biggest and most ambitious feature, because that would sell itself. But all they have is modded F3 running on a bigger, prettier world map. Ergo, forays into the beverage industry.

 

[wrobertnelson]

Gone Gold for software is not like a record. I am pretty sure it just means that released the program to manufacturer to be published. Surprised that a tech blog does not know the difference.