John Carpenter really, really loves Fallout 76

John Carpenter and Fallout 76 key art
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“I’ve played Fallout 76 on and off for the last five years, and I’m here to say it’s a great game!” says veteran director John Carpenter.


Fallout 76 might not have received the greatest of critical receptions on its release in 2018, but the online multiplayer RPG has a long-term fan in the shape of horror-film director John Carpenter.

Carpenter’s love of Bethesda’s Fallout 76 has been documented before. Back in 2022, he told the AV Club that he was “hooked” on Fallout 76. “I know it had bugs coming out, and a lot of it was put down, but I thought it was great,” he said. “It’s really fun to play.”

Credit: Bethesda

It seems the 75-year-old director remains a fan of Bethesda’s online RPG. Just this week, he was once again enthusing about Fallout 76 on X (aka Twitter), ahead of the addition of Atlantic City to the game. “I’ve played Fallout 76 on and off for the last five years, and I’m here to say it’s a great game!” he said. “Can’t wait for Atlantic City!”

The official Fallout X account soon responded to Carpenter’s tweet with a cartoon of Snake Plissken from Carpenter’s 1981 film Escape From New York, saying: “We can’t wait to escape TO Atlantic City with you!”

Carpenter is a big fan of video games. In the AV Club interview he mentions Horizon: Forbidden West and Borderlands as other titles he’s enjoyed. He also said Halo: Infinite was the best in the series on X last year.

And of course, a few of Carpenter’s films have been turned into games as well. Halloween was made into a game for the Atari 2600 in 1983, and The Thing was turned into a third-person shooter for the PS2, Xbox and PC in 2002. Plus, you could argue that The Division from Ubisoft was heavily inspired by Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

But there’s definitely room for more: imagine a scrolling beat-’em-up based on Big Trouble in Little China, or a detective game based on They Live, where you have to unmask the alien imposters. Now we know that John Carpenter is a keen gamer, perhaps a few developers should get on the phone to him…

Read more: The Thing | The story behind Drew Struzan’s iconic poster

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