Amazon's Fallout countdown delivers possibly the only thing more pointless than a New Vegas or Fallout 3 remaster

While Amazon have been gradually dropping episodes of their Fallout show’s second series,a timer has been ticking away. It’s been on the show’s website, which is a little interactive map. Surely this timer, set to expire once the final episode of the series went live, could herald the reveal of Fallout New Vegas or Fallout 3 remasters Bethesda may have in the works, some fans speculated.

Well, it hasn’t. Instead, the final spot on the interactive map is now occupied by a small 3D version of Mr House’s Lucky 38 penthouse in its pre-war state, which you can wander around streetview-style. Well, I say wander around, you can walk down some stairs and up to House’s monitor, where some behind-the-scenes tidbits about the show can be accessed, then walk back up to the lift.

No sneaking a look at the place pre-war House knocked out the Zs, no soaking in the view from the cocktail lounge, and no running around the casino floor to check if there’s any loose change tucked in the tills. It’s perfectly fine as an addition to a little map, but I’m not sure it warranted the countdown, assuming there aren’t any big secrets packed into the quick shuffle down those stairs. At least the site’s version of the Brotherhood of Steel airship the show’s ripped from Fallout 4 has spots from which you can take in the view without having to peer around a big telly or some pillars.

So, no remaster reveals or Todd Howard unleashing one of those shadow-drops he loves now. Though, taking that brief walk through this model of the show’s penthouse has at least made me think about my feelings on those remaster rumours again. As I wrote when I reviewed it last year, Oblivion Remastered’s generally minimalistic revamp of The Elder Scrolls 4 beyond the visuals ended up leaving me feeling pretty cold.

Here’s a game that’s still fairly accessible today in its original form, especially on PC, being recycled in a fashion that deliberately attempts not to do much different. You can feel the cash and effort put in radiating out of your screen, all to deliver a facelifted retread that struggled to keep me engaged once the initial nostalgia hit had worn off. To be fair, Nic (RPS in peace) looks to have gotten more out of the experience than I did.

I can’t help but feel any Fallout 3 or New Vegas remasters – two even more modern games that you can slip back into without feeling like you’ve jumped in a time machine – would leave me shrugging even harder. That’s assuming they also opted for minimal tweaks aside from a graphical overhaul, rather than going the full remake route and attempting to deliver what the original visions of the two wastelands may have looked like unencumbered by the tech constraints and release deadlines of the time.

For now, I guess I’ll just keep on staring at the view from regular New Vegas’ Lucky 38, and wondering whether I’ve ended up morphing into a bitter chip-delivering old man yelling at radioactive clouds.