What’s the best modern video game adaptation? Although the big screen has been blessed with the likes of A Minecraft Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mortal Kombatin recent years, the best of video game adaptations have come on the small screen. The likes of The Last of Us and The Witcher may have once taken this title, only for more recent installments to hit controversy, and other shows might have been acclaimed critical darlings without the widespread streaming success. Realistically, the very best video game adaptation, and the one future projects will look to as the gold standard, is Prime Video’s genius Fallout.
The first few months of 2025 were dominated by the second season of Fallout, as no other show, certainly on Prime Video, could come close to its popularity. Lucy (Ella Purnell) and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) are already icons of television and are two of the most recognizable characters in modern streaming. Season 2 was the second most-watched returning Prime Video series of all time, behind Alan Ritchson‘s beloved ass-kicker Reacher, which is an adaptation in its own right. Seasons 1 and 2 are now two of the four biggest seasons ever launched by Prime Video, according to reports.
Fallout has also been recognized by award bodies, with the first season nominated for an eye-watering 17 Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series, as well as nods for writing and Goggins’ lead performance. But it isn’t just audiences and critics giving Vault Boy a big thumbs-up to Fallout, with a very important person recently awarding his seal of approval to the show. In a new video interview with The 41st Precinct, Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer was asked for his opinion on the series, and he glowingly replied, “I think it’s an amazing adaptation. Like, honestly. I know that the bar is not always very high for TV or film adaptations of video games, but I think it’s one of the best that I’ve seen, certainly.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
‘Fallout’ Isn’t Perfect According to Josh Sawyer
As amazing as the adaptation is, Fallout could never be perfect in everyone’s eyes, especially not someone so closely connected to the source material. In the same interview, Sawyer lifted the lid on his criticisms of the series, although he admitted they are personal issues instead of technical problems with the show. “I guess I would say that there are sort of critiques or like personal things where I would say, ‘I don’t know if I would have taken the plot in that direction,’ or, ‘I don’t know if I would have done that with that character,’ but that’s like, any writer is going to look at something and be like, ‘I don’t know if I’d do that.’ I don’t think they’re like real criticisms,” Sawyer said.
Check out the first two seasons of Fallout on Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
