James is a games writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles of all genres. While he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, and League of Legends, he’s also devoted thousands of hours to single-player experiences, from in-depth RPGs to epic strategies on PC. When he’s not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC.
Although everyone is of course entitled to their favorites, for me, Fallout 3 remains the best entry in the iconic post-apocalyptic series. It really showed how grim the scenario would be if it came true, and Washington DC suffered far more direct damage from nuclear and ballistic weapons than any other location we’ve played in so far.
That said, it was released in 2008, and if you replay it today in its original form, it can be a bit jarring considering the visuals we’re used to. While there are plenty of rumors about an official remaster of the game in the works, they remain just that, rumors, and we have to look elsewhere for solutions for now. Luckily, there are some very smart people out there, and one in particular gave us a great idea of what an official re-release might look like.
On YouTube, the user Julien Uccetta uploaded footage from a project they worked on, in which they ported and remastered Fallout 3 in Unreal Engine 5.7. It’s built entirely using a custom plugin system they developed themselves, which allows developers to import Bethesda games directly into the engine (with the exception of Skyrim: THE And Fallout 4).
While it’s still in its early stages and there are undoubtedly some bugs, this is undoubtedly the most interesting and realistic look at what a full remaster of the game could and arguably should look like. Fans who reached out to the comments section were delighted with what they saw, especially the unusual sympathy for the original work of the new visuals in a notoriously punchy engine.
“This is exactly the remaster I want! Original assets with just a new engine supporting real shadows, lights and effects!” a comment read.
While another added: “An immensely small thing, but I appreciate that one of the first things you showed was the grab. The grab and physics not only intact, but visually EXACTLY what I mentally expected and remembered. FO3what physics looked like. It’s a small thing, but it says a lot about how fidelity you want the plugin and its systems to be when porting. “
“This is incredibly awesome. I’m happy to see people are opening up Gamebryo’s data-driven architecture and seeing where it can take them. That in itself is very, very impressive. When you opened the toolbox my jaw dropped lol,” said a third.
Rumors surrounding the official remake of Fallout 3 continue to swirl, but big projects like this are a ton of comfort in the meantime. If even one of these fully comes to fruition, we may not need Bethesda to do anything before we can play what should feel like an entirely new game.
Systems
- Released
- October 28, 2008
- ESRB
- M for Mature: blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language, drug use
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Editor(s)
- Bethesda Software
- Engine
- Gamebryo
- Franchise
- To fall
