One of the coolest parts of the series is the "world of tomorrow" look. Much of Fallout 3 did an awesome job at that with nifty Googie architecture, but arguably at times there was too much retro and not enough futurism (i.e. I think they should have been a little less "Leave it to Beaver" and a little more "Jetsons") From what I've seen of fallout 4, they seem to be going for a more early 60s aesthetic than they were before and they are being more futuristic. The mailboxes aren't wooden and have a sleek, metal look. The houses aren't complete Levittown rip-offs and look slightly modern. The cars are less bulky and have a slimmer, 60s look. I kinda like the change, it makes Boston seem a little more high-tec (which is fitting for the home of the Institute). I hope they say consistent with that style and don't stick generic looking sci-fi stuff in (looking at you, D.C. Enclave Power armor).

I can hardly wait to explore The Commonwealth!

I think Washington DC in Fallout 3, for me at least looked pretty spot on. A lot of it was just grey drab brown/grey rubble. To me that signifies what people have said about DC for a long time... that the centre of politics in America had no soul. No color. I think tonally the colors were perfect for that game.

They are obviously going for a more colorful take for FO4. I am expecting more of a tonal variation between the Commonwealth Wasteland and Boston proper/cities. Some look almost Vegas bright and yet the Wasteland also seems to have more color. I LOVE the huge broken up Freeways that we see in the sky.

When I hear Pre-War I think Leave It To Beaver.

*Deleted nevermind*

I didn't mind the drab colors of F3, it kinda reinforced how devastated it was (though I wish they explained why it was like this 200 years later, my head-canon always explained it away with vindictive Chinese targeting computers lobbing nukes at the U.S. capital every now and then after 2077 to salt the earth). Main problem I had design-wise with F3 was the houses and appliances being ripped straight out of the 50s. Fallout's aesthetic is the future as imagined by the past, not the past directly.

+1 for the Googie reference. I'm liking the look of almost everything I've seen so far. It seems to me that they have done a great job with the art design in this game.

One of my favorite buildings is the Price Tower in Bartlesville by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Every time I see it I think Fallout. Hope there's more stuff like that.

There are elements of that. I always preferred the retro-futuristic stuff though, made the universe more alive, less stagnant. Together, they seem a little dissonant to me. Though maybe that's whats they were going for, something purposefully anachronistic and all over the place. Kinda like Archer.

I think it's supposed to recreate that time when we all were obssessed in america with the World of Tomorrow, where we thought we were gonna have flying cars and sky cities in 1955

I personally feel that along with the retro-futurism feel in Fallout another big aspect that setting invokes is that of cultural stagnation. The pre war civilization while highly advanced did not progress culturally or ideologically. Art and music ceased to advance and innovate, America became quagmired in the ideals and culture of the 50's. The fact that it ended in a nuclear holocaust is a test image to how dangerous it can be to stop social progress and hold on to the same worn out principles and ideals. Fallout is a world where things got more advanced but the culture itself ceased to do so. I feel like that anachronism is what really makes the Fallout Unvierse truly unique and gives it such a great athsetic.

The time where they were obsessing or the future they were obsessing about? Its a tenuous distinction, but one that I thinks makes a more novel aesthetic. Its like 2015 in Back to the Future 2. Retrospectively a present viewer can see the 1980s biases in the way the designers made the world (which they themselves probably did not see, since they lived in that time), but it still looks futuristic and other-worldly, even to an 80s audience. It wasn't the 80s directly.

The inspirations they had included heavy influence from http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/647fad8ea385aead3bec88c71f2392ee_zpssv03e9el.jpg. It was the future of the 1950's, rather than the 1950's in the future.

Good ol' uncle Robby. The new Protectron design (with even more of a glass dome and blinking electronics) looks like it takes even more inspiration from that design. Shame that from what I see of the synths they look like pale terminators (I mean, its tech that's possibly 200 years newer, but I would hope they'd stick with the style). Wish they had a bit more retro-flair. Like this:https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/32/2c/92/322c929db2d886e30af2b930021d1221.jpg

or this: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/43/f3/b0/43f3b07aa29938a8d285f9c72e90cef9.jpg

Does anyone have a still of the Synth enemies? They were moving fairly fast in the demo but I swear I thought it looked like they were trying to go for a "Metropolis" look for them.
Check out the photos of the robot:http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/

Always loved the look of that bot, like a 1940s (or I guess 20s) girlfriend for c3po (especially Ralph Mcquarrie's early c3po Link: http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2014/01/04-Droids_b.png )
I guess I can see that a little bit. They are kinda blurry in the trailer. Screen grabs are on the wiki I think. Perhaps I should recant my previous statement til I see a better image.

Yeah the pics they have up over there are blurry as hell, but it does look like the faces are less skeletal than the Terminator endoskeletons and more human-esque. The bodies appear more robust than the Terminators also.

So here are the screen grabs of the synths: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/9/90/Synth_assaulter.png/revision/latest?cb=20150617122217 and http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/4/4a/Synth_strider_E3Demo.png/revision/latest?cb=20150617123802

I guess I was making my terminator comparison based on the second one: his jaw looks skeletal and that together with glowing eyes makes me think T-800. Though I guess they look that way in the vaguest sense. The first one looks cyberpunk a little. The second looks a bit more (possibly) retro in the body with the panels (which kinda reminds me of that retro android I posted earlier ( https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/32/2c/92/322c929db2d886e30af2b930021d1221.jpg )

I think there is some battle damage stuff going on there too. Look at the holes in the face lol!

Yeah, the first one looks like he has resorted to Jury Rigging some first aid for himself for a while. haha

I'm trying to get past the "mailboxes aren't wooden", comment....I simply do not recall any "wooden mailboxes" in any Fallout game.

I believe it has been stated that at some point prior to the Great War, a huge "nostalgia" fad came into being in the US and EVERYTHING started taking on that "Leave it to Beaver"-ish look by design. Kind of like every popular song of the last decade MUST have some sort of autotuned vocals to be "hip".

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/7/7c/Brown_Mailbox1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140128012124

I guess I meant more the post of the mailbox as opposed to the box itself. In F4 the posts are modernist, slanted, metal beams. (Like in the upper right in this image: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/1/12/Codsworth_E3_PostWar.png/revision/latest?cb=20150616000527 ) A retro-futuristic mailbox as opposed to one that is simply retro.

I love that movie. It fascinates me because it felt like a serious movie not a weird to be weird movie.

Also from back in the pre-Airplane days ~when Nielsen did dramatic roles.

http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/fallout.gamepedia.com/c/c6/Fallout4TrailerAn025.png

To reiterate what I said earlier about cars, notice how the red one in this image looks more like a 50s concept car like this : http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KrIc6vPgQvk/UngCkjTMw0I/AAAAAAAAQ04/CCf4zhPeF5M/s1600/1958_Ford_X-2000.jpg

Some of the corvegas in 3 seemed to look a bit too much like car people actually drove in the 50s. Always loved the 3-wheeled flea one though.