Guests who passed on the chance to test Bethesda Software’s new Fallout 3 video game at Thursday night’s launch party for the entertainment software company’s latest release nevertheless had the chance to experience the game’s post-apocalyptic theme. The marketing team at Bethesda Software turned to Best Events to channel the video game’s virtual setting in a studio space at Los Angeles Center Studios, where guests mingled in what looked like a recently bombed outdoor space and fallout shelter.
Event producers didn’t immediately barrage guests with the gloomy post-apocalyptic decor, instead adorning the entrance to the party with a 1950s-inspired look that is also part of the game’s visual aesthetic. A vignette enclosed in white picket fencing featured a family of mannequins atop fake grass, standing in front of a vintage silver trailer. Inside, the Ink Spots, a band from the 1950s, performed in a garden-like setting complete with patio furniture and strings of garden lights overhead.
Beyond this tranquil setting, guests found a re-creation of the vault, a bunker-like room featured in the game. Here, guests had the opportunity to play the actual game on televisions screens that had been placed in frames resembling the classic Radiation King television models, and became prepared for the transition into the outdoor area meant to mimic the post-nuclear wasteland that appears in the game.
Charred mannequins—quite the deviation from the happy family at the entrance to the event—lined the outdoor area. An end-of-night performance by the Foo Fighters helped dispel the heavy post-apocalyptic feel, particularly because lead singer Dave Grohl kept reminding guests of how lucky they were to be at an event where they had access to video games and an open bar.
