Cut FO2 perk image much much funnier than it really has any right to be - by june gloom
june gloom on 28/2/2010 at 02:38
Inline Image:
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/02/340x_view_320200_1_1267208272.jpg(
http://kotaku.com/5481821/fallout-2s-rejected-childkiller-icon-is-uh-whoa-) Fallout 2's Rejected 'Childkiller' Icon is, Uh, Whoa ...
[INDENT]The artist who drew the perk images for Fallout 2 recently revealed his deleted concept for the game's "Childkiller" status. "Even the designer who requested it realized it was a bad idea," he writes.
Yeah ... we can see why that was cut from the game and replaced instead with the "Hated" reputation icon. Just in case it's not clear to you that Vault Boy's kicking mom in the womb, that gown helpfully indicates baby's on board. I don't think you'll go to hell for laughing at this - but you will if you imagine it accompanied by a Looney Tunes kettle drum sound, like I did.
"Childkiller" was not a frivolous or even a desirable thing in Fallout 2. You got the status if you killed a kid, even accidentally, and for some characters it wasn't obvious the game considered them children. Even without offensive art this capability was too controversial for consoles, so in Fallout 3 you couldn't even attack a child character.
Hellforge and the Fallout Wiki both spotted this and linked to the DeviantART page of Brian Menze, where the Fallout 2 artist had published and described his work, but didn't exactly defend it:
[INDENT]This image was unused and the only Vault Boy image to ever be cut from Fallout 2. (I'm sure you can figure out why) I remember when I got the request to do a perk illustration for "child Killer" that there would be no way to keep in from being offensive. I mean really! How do you make an illustration of "child killer" and keep it from being offensive? Anyway for some reason, I thought this was the least offensive way to do it. I have no idea what i was thinking. Even the designer who requested it realized it was a bad idea, so we nixed it. Looking back on it now, I can't believe I drew this.[/INDENT]
Menze has since removed the art and its description, but there's no putting the toothpaste back into this tube.[/INDENT]
lol
Figures Kotaku would pick up on this. Other than Hellforge no other gaming news site has even noticed this.
gunsmoke on 1/3/2010 at 10:17
LOL. Great find (I don't read the gaming blog sites much), and a helluva thing to wake up to @ 4:30 am!
P.S. I heard the South Park "Kick the BA-BY" line when I looked at it.
june gloom on 1/3/2010 at 13:02
After reading the Kotaku article and seeing it mention the Looney Tunes kettle drum sound I can't stop hearing it every time I look at the picture.
ZylonBane on 1/3/2010 at 18:07
Even if that had made it into the game, it wouldn't have been correct, since the illustration shows Vault Boy attacking a pregnant woman, not a child. Maybe if there'd been a "Freelance Abortionist" reputation...
Children in Fallout do make the most hilarious scream when you melt them with a plasma rifle though. Especially the little bastards who constantly try to pickpocket you.
Bluegrime on 1/3/2010 at 18:30
My only objection to killing children in Fallout is that they don't have their own "fire dance". I was mightily confused the first time I saw one of those asexual moppets puff up like a sponge dinosaur just because it got a little napalm in its hair.
PeeperStorm on 2/3/2010 at 01:36
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Even without offensive art this capability was too controversial for consoles, so in Fallout 3 you couldn't even attack a child character.
Consoles have nothing to do with it. They want to be able to sell the game in countries that prohibit violence against children in video games. Same reason that there were seperate versions of F2 for foreign markets that removed all of the children from the game.
june gloom on 2/3/2010 at 01:43
Hey I never said Kotaku were accurate.
ZylonBane on 3/3/2010 at 18:05
Quote Posted by PeeperStorm
Same reason that there were seperate versions of F2 for foreign markets that removed all of the children from the game.
Even worse, they didn't actually remove them, they just made their sprites invisible. So they can still emit floating text, block entrances, and steal from you.
june gloom on 3/3/2010 at 19:03
And the invisible children actually broke a couple quests- if I remember right they're invisible in Euro Fallout 1 as well.
I guess you really shouldn't expect anything else considering you could hit a kid in the crotch with a sledgehammer...
PeeperStorm on 4/3/2010 at 04:24
Which reminds me, I found a really useful technique for dealing with those pickpocket kids in the US version. Unequip your weapons, then enter combat and punch them once (and only once) per round until they run away, then end combat. Repeat the process for all of them. From then on, they will always run away from you when you get near them, and you never get your pockets picked again. :thumb:
A game that rewards you for slapping kids around. No wonder I loved F2.
