Fallout 4’s graphics look cheap and plasticy, but that’s OK

Yay Fallout 4 and all that, but something about that reveal trailer seems a bit … off.

In a lot of ways, it was a great reveal. The solemn mood, the shifts from a peaceful world to one devastated by nuclear armaggedon, and all the scenery look great. But the graphics just don’t look, well, fantastic. They’re OK. Specifically, the character models look like plastic.

I mean, look at the screenshot from the trailer above.

The dog, while adorable as all dogs are, doesn’t really have fur, something that even the Wii U managed with the newest Donkey Kong.

Instead, it just looks like a (note the singular) texture, as opposed to looking textured. And the human looks kind of like a life-sized action figure. His jumpsuit and hair just don’t look real. He looks like a human character from an early Pixar movie.

Elsewhere in the trailer (which you can watch below), characters move with a jankiness that we’ve come to expect from Bethesda games, but we’re kind of hoping they would look more natural in this new generation of consoles.

Now, does this really matter? Not really. Fallout 3, which came out in 2008, was never considered a graphical masterpiece. It also featured ugly, poorly-animated character models. However, it was still one of the best games of its generation, and it was because of its massive open-world and the freedom it gave players. If Fallout 4 does all of that, we can forgive some bad hair textures.

Still, it is a little sad that the Fallout 4 trailer doesn’t blow us away. I mean, look at the first trailer for Bethesda’s last game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

That game came out in 2011. Does Fallout 4 really look like a four-year difference in technology? It’s a reminder that, even with a new console generation, we’re in an age of diminishing returns when it comes to graphics. Gone are they days when a Zelda game would go from looking like this … .

… to this … .

… in a period of four years.

Again, it’s not that Fallout 4 looks bad. In fact, we have plenty of nice things to say about the graphics. The lighting looks great, and the areas, especially that neon-filled shanty town, look nice. And on the bright side, at least we’re not getting our expectations up only to be let down. Remember the Watch Dogs debacle, where the reveal trailer looked much better than the final game?

At least we’re not being lied to. Now that we know what the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are capable of, the graphics in this trailer seem more likely to represent what the final game will look like. And, hey, if we get to explore a giant, unique world while fighting monsters, picking locks, and befriending a wild dog, does it really matter if the characters run around like they’re desperately pinching their butt cheeks while looking for a bathroom?

Also, this is a game in development, so it can all look better than it does in the trailer when we’re playing it on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. In the meantime, we can still be excited about the adventure Fallout 4 will give us, which is more important anyway.