Will Fallout 3 revive the lost art of gibbing?

nokori3byo

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As I look at the small collection of recent tripple A games lined up on my bookshelf, I can't help but be struck by the fact that none of them feature gruesome dismemberments and decapitation as their recent ancetors did.

Think about it: where the original Half-Life offered a messy gibbing every other minute, HL2 only gives us antlion gibbing and zombie bisection. GTA 3 and its successors had decaptitating headshots, but there's nothing of the sort in GTA 4. Even the otherwise gorey Bioshock seems to shy from anything resembling gibbing. Indeed, the final nail in the coffin might be the MK vs. DC fighting game. Honestly, mutilation used to be the MK franchise's defining factor--its banishment from the series is surely a sign of the times.

These days, genuine gore seems to have been relegated to such marginal titles as the SOF, Postal, and Manhunt series, whose recent installments have all suffered from weak gameplay that left the gore factor as nearly the only notable quality.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of video game gore, which often strikes me as juvenile, and which I think would be tonally out of step with games like HL2.

But Fallout 3 seems to be playing the overkill card pretty hard, from the look of the gameplay demos. Could this hgh profile bucking of the trend mark a potential comeback for gibbing?
 
Blame politics/Jack Thompson/Soccer moms/etc
 
I was never a fan of "gibbing" except in games that are overtly comical in style (like TF2). For serious games I prefer more realistic violence. For instance, a zombie having it's body cut in half or head sliced off is far more violent and disturbing than exploding into 20 ridiculous pieces because of a crowbar.

However, when grenades go off or rockets hit ... that's when I want to see some dismemberment. And not of the HL1 variety either ... more the Saving Private Ryan type.
 
I think with the introduction of ragdoll deaths gibbing was kind of diminished, but ragdoll deaths (as you have just shown) have developed alot over the years so I don't think the art of gibbing is lost rather it is just in "hiatus" :)

But games have gotten far more realistic, I mean in games like HL, Quake the gibbing was more hilarious than disturbingly shocking (three skulls flying from a gibbed enemy for example :)) so I think gibbing will be viewed way differently than before.
 
Yeah, I'd guess it has to do with ragdoll physics simply being far easier to manage on modern hardware. Back when Quake/HL/Doom and other games were out, physics of any kind simply weren't part of the equation, since we had far more important things to use the performance budget on. I do miss gibbing though, and TF2 keeps me from gettin' the shakes, man.
 
TF2 has plenty of gibbing.

True dat. I neglected to consider TF2 because I'm not on XBL and have never played it, despite my ownership and love of The Orange Box.

I also agree with smwScott that gibbing is better suited to the likes of TF2 than to more realistic fare.
 
It's called tomatofying, because they turn into tomatoes, juicy tomatoes.
 
FEAR 2 will have gibbing (or tomatofying lol), dismemberment and decapitations.

project-origin-06.jpg
 
I can't stop laughing over the irony of this thread, and putting a supposed "RPG" - Fallout 3 - alongside FPS/TPS.

lol
 
This thread is ironic? What? And why not compare it to an fps? Its not like gibbing is exclusive to one genre. You're dumb. Dumby.
 
It's like raaaaaiiiaaaaaaiin on your wedding day.
 
I find it ironic that Fallout 3 is supposed to be a Fallout sequel, yet is compared to FPS.

And FYI, Fallout 1 and 2 did have gibbing, except it was interesting.
 
Judging from the videos, the gibbing in Fallout 3 seems like a doll dismembering. Quite unreal, in my opinion, but the final game could have it more refined.
 
Judging from the videos, the gibbing in Fallout 3 seems like a doll dismembering. Quite unreal, in my opinion, but the final game could have it more refined.

Uh, no. That's it.
 
But games have gotten far more realistic, I mean in games like HL, Quake the gibbing was more hilarious than disturbingly shocking (three skulls flying from a gibbed enemy for example :)) so I think gibbing will be viewed way differently than before.

In the new Sega game "MadWorld" for the Wii, players immerse themselves into the black-and-white realm of the brutal futuristic game show "Death Watch." The entire point of the game is to kill your enemies in the most hilarious ways possible, and the killing and gibbing really aren't as gruesome and disturbing as today's technology can make it. In fact, its art style has a completely black-and-white foreground and background, with only blood standing out as a crimson hue.

Here's an example of one of the ways you can kill in MadWorld: "Jack [the protagonist] can string together all sorts of grisly combination fatalities. We saw the gruff antihero slam a tire around one poor sap ... planting a signpost through his cranium, then picking him up and hurling him at a a wall of spikes." - Nintendo Power Magazine
 
i think some of you guys are getting it wrong.

gibbing shouldn't be there just for the sakes of it...it should be used in connection with the type of game.
just like sex themes...they must be in context with gameplay.

i think fallout 3 is exaggerating with the gibbing.

a good example is the trailer for the brothers in arms brutality of war...the violence is the core selling point of the game, that is wrong IMO.
 
a good example is the trailer for the brothers in arms brutality of war...the violence is the core selling point of the game, that is wrong IMO.

That game actually has a zoomed in slow motion camera effect when someone loses a limb. One of the stupidest ideas ever.
 
that's pretty cool. Not only is the gibbing done pretty well but there's gibs even when the monster loses it's arm but is still alive.
 
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