John Carpenter is a legend in horror cinema and is one of the most influential people in the medium overall. While his genius in the landscape of films is a guarantee, his tastes in video games may raise some eyebrows as they include what is possibly the worst video game launch in modern history.
According to an exclusive interview, John Carpenter apparently enjoys playing Fallout 76, the famed MMO from Bethesda that captured a very particular kind of extreme failure during its launch. It was buggy, broken, horribly optimized, and probably Bethesda’s worst game to date – but that did not stop Carpenter from playing and apparently enjoying it.
“I've been playing this game for quite a while. It's called Fallout 76. The Fallout games are fun, it's like a post-apocalyptic world. This game had a rough launch, with problems and bugs, but I really like it,” says John Carpenter.
As diehard Fallout 76 fans are now feeling vindicated, when you consider John Carpenter’s body of work, it’s easy to see why he has a soft spot for Bethesda’s problem child of a game. The filmmaker is renowned for his work on Escape from New York and Escape from L.A., two cult classics set in apocalyptic scenarios; or maybe he just really enjoys power armors and Deathclaws.
While John Carpenter liking Fallout 76 is forgivable by today’s standards as a lot has been done to patch up the game into a somewhat acceptable state, his stance on Red Dead Redemption may upset some hardcore Rockstar Games fans. In the same interview, when asked if he ever played Red Dead Redemption, he answers: “I did, but I couldn't get on the damn horse.”
When prodded further, he explains, saying, “I'm pretty good after all the years I've played. But with that one I was terrible. The controls weren't intuitive, at least for me. But I guess everybody else had a good time. It was a popular game.”
There you have it. Fallout 76 > Red Dead Redemption – in John Carpenter’s humble opinion, anyways. It’s always interesting to hear the perspective of geniuses in their fields when it comes to video games, as you’re always going to get interesting answers. In any case, the real question we should be asking is if he has played Among Us, as the very concept of the cultural hit title is lifted from his own masterpiece, The Thing.
