For the past month or so, Fallout 76 players have been scratching their heads over “romancandlecelebration,” an icon-free emote in the Atomic Shop that one might think would shoot some sort of celebratory fireworks into the sky but does not. Today’s Steel Reign update ended any lingering confusion by removing the emote altogether. Also, decapitated heads no longer respawn. Phew.
Now that the perfect time for an emote that shoots fireworks out of a red, white, and blue Roman candle has passed, Bethesda Game Studios has patched out what was an apparently unfinished emote that shouldn’t have been in the game in the first place. Players discovered the emote about a month ago according to the Fallout 76 Reddit group, at which time Bethesda developer Valseek confirmed it was added by mistake and intended to be removed at a later date. Still, that didn’t stop players from hoping that maybe the emote would fully unlock in time for Fourth of July celebrations in the States.
Sadly, no. Instead of spectacular fireworks launching into the sky, players using the emote look like hilarious Harry Potter rejects, waving their wands in the air to no effect. PlayStation 4 player Arty demonstrates.
Were it not for Fallout 76’s natural tendency for being a bit janky, I could almost be convinced this was some sort of political statement. Here we are, going through the motions of patriotism, but it’s ultimately a hollow, empty gesture. What a powerful image. But nah, it was just a fluke. Just like the decapitated NPC heads thing, also fixed in the new update.
“General: Decapitated NPC’s will no longer respawn their heads when players check their inventories.”
Thank goodness. We decapitate for a reason, people.