This article may contain spoilers for Fallout 4.
You spent years waiting for developers to hurry up and release a big game. You buy it, take it home, and play through it in a couple of days. It’s awesome.
But now what?
Read+Watch+Listen is about other material you might want to check out if you’re just not ready to move on. We’ll suggest media that share something in common with a particular game and tell you why it might be of interest. This time, we’re sharing the (Common)wealth in Fallout 4, which is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Almost Human
If you couldn’t get enough of: Synthetic detectives.
This underrated and prematurely canceled TV series stars Karl Urban (Dredd) as a hardbitten, no-nonsense cop in 2048 Los Angeles and Michael Ealy (The Following) as Dorian, his earnest partner who also happens to be an outdated model of android.
It’s buddy-copping at its finest, and while Dorian isn’t the Humphrey Bogart knock-off that Fallout 4’s Nick Valentine is, he’s still an outcast trying to figure out how to do good in a world that fears and distrusts artificial folk.
I’m also bummed Almost Human didn’t get a second season on Fox because a robot war seemed inevitable, and I was pretty excited about that.
And speaking of robot wars. …
Turbo Kid
If you couldn’t get enough of: Scavenging, raiders, and, yes, robot wars.
We included the soundtracks for this love letter to ’80s kidventure films in our holiday gift guide this year, and it so happens that someone made a movie to go along with all those sweet tunes.
Turbo Kid follows the eponymous Kid as he scrounges his way around a post-apocalyptic wasteland. While doing so, he stumbles across an arm cannon straight out of a Mega Man game and uses it to inflict cartoonishly graphic injury upon villainous raiders. Michael Ironside (the original voice of Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell and star of just a bunch of super-weird movies) plays the bad guys’ leader and somehow manages to keep a straight face while people explode into buckets of blood all around him. Acting!
The Kid’s Wall-E-esque collection of random crap should appeal to Fallout 4 players who just can’t own enough desk lamps or hot plates, and the film’s offbeat tone, ultraviolence, and companion characters also compliment your adventures in the Commonwealth.
Plus, it’s just a really good movie.
Pip-Boys on Instructables
If you were tired of: Not having your own Pip-Boy.
Using awesome tech in a video game is fun, sure, but sometimes you just want to own that cool, useful thing. That’s probably why Fallout 4 developer Bethesda felt so confident that it could offer a $120 special edition that includes a full-sized replica of the in-game wearable computer.
But supernerds have always prided themselves on creativity, which is why do-it-yourself site Instructables has no shortage of plans and directions for fans to make their own versions at home. If you’re looking for a cool weekend (or month-long) project, check out this wooden version that will hold your smartphone, just like the official one. And if you have access to a 3-D printer, this Instructable has both the files and assembly directions to get you going. One user meets you halfway, offering their work files from free 3-D rendering program SketchUp and then leaving you to build your device out of whatever material you like, and another is sharing their progress as they go while they make a fully functional and programmable unit.
You aren’t limited to these options, but if you decide to do something else, these projects could give you some inspiration. They also just make good reading if you’re interested in design.
The Shadow
If you couldn’t get enough of: Old-timey radio superheroes.
Above: I don’t mean you, Alec Baldwin. Walk away.
I’m not talking about the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin, luckily. I mean the really cool character and radio plays that that movie distilled into 108 minutes of mediocrity.
The Shadow starred in a series of pulp novels by Walter B. Gibson in the 1930s, but most people recognize the character from the really creepy radio plays that aired until 1954. He is a master of hypnotism, able to “cloud men’s minds” and remain unseen and unheard. Without The Shadow, it’s very likely we’d have no Batman, and then whose movie trailers and villains would we have to complain about?
Nobody’s. That’s whose.
One of Fallout 4’s weirdest side quests has players adopting the costume, trademark machine gun, and ridiculous voice of the Silver Shroud, the hero of a radio play that you can listen to during your travels through the Commonwealth. And if you love listening to those bits of pulpy weirdness, you should check out some of the original radio plays that inspired them. Old Radio World has 56 episodes of The Shadow that you can download and listen to right now, and if you need a little more star power, check out Archive.org‘s collection of stories starring film and radio legend Orson Welles, who voiced the character from 1937 to 1938.
I haven’t read, watched, and listened to everything, obviously. Do you have another piece of media that goes with Fallout 4? Feel free to share in the comments. And be sure to check out the other entries in this series here.