All things Fallout

[ratsoalbion]

Well hopefully that'll arrive on ps4 soon

Only if Bethesda are willing to adopt something that started as an unofficial mod into an official patch (which isn't impossible I suppose).

[macstat]

I have about 70 hours of playing time but i cant say i enjoyed every second of it. There were a lot of moments and design choices that made me cringe

What i like:
Graphics :i dont consider F4 to be too colorful, besides i can always install one of numerous mods to change game lightning
Exploration : there's a lot to see, variety is quite nice.
scavenging : at last i feel like a real scavenger where everything has a potential to be useful
New leveling and perk system: its really great. Simpler than STAT+Skill+Perk from earlier games, but with better designed perks that let you really customize your character. Also leveling is fast enough that you dont feel that you waste points when you experiment.
settlements: while i myself dont really care about building i see that this whole settlement system is pretty well done (with exception of building ui and twitchy controls).

What i dont like :
Companion AI : Damnit! Every time i try to snipe someone, you must waltz right in front of me. And what's up with that switching between talking and giving commands ? At numerous ocasion my companion didnt know if they want to talk to me or not.
Questing : Repeating nature of some quests and respawning mobs in cleared locations. My OCD is at conflict with my boredom.
Dialogs: Its not even about dialog wheel (because mods can fix it). Its just lack of real choice. Usually Its Yes No Maybe Sarcastic, question for more information and/or persuade option. I really miss those days when i got a lot of optional dialogue from skills like science, or from inteligence level (anyone played Fallout 2 with int =1?). Also "sarcastic" option is usually written like a schoolyard banter and i stopped using it after couple times. Overall i would say that games dialogue are pretty weak.
General lack of choice: why do i have to join minutemen ? Why cant i help bandits that are attacking them, and later rather than settlements icould build bandit camps ?
UI : UI was always weak point in bethesda games, but my main beef is with map. Its usability is really low in this one, especially when i try to pinpoint a quest on map in very location dense area.

[Flabyo]

It really does run out of steam, in terms of the plot anyway, at the end of it's second act. Too many missions that are 'this doesn't make sense for every faction to have this main quest line mission, but we don't want to make massive long missions chains for them all, so we'll come up with a contrived way to make it work' going on. There's only so many times it can pull 'if you leave no witnesses it won't blow your cover' out the ass before I feel it's stretching credibility a bit...

I still like the game a lot, but I feel it's not sitting with me as well as New Vegas did. Or even Skyrim.

That mod for the PC version that replaces the vague dialog options with the line you'll actually say kinda shows a large part of the problem the side quests (especially the randomly generated ones for the Minutemen) have:


Yes, Yes?, Sarcastic Yes, Impatient Yes.

Not every quest is like this of course, but so many of the character interactions are like this. There are almost no opportunities in the game to solve problems using any method other than 'shoot everyone'. To the point that where I had two quests in a row yesterday where I was able to diffuse the situation using Charisma options it felt amazing, till I remember that whole swathes of New Vegas can be played that way. (and the fact that all I have to do to win even 'red' persuade attempts here is to put on a dress and a nice hat... yay?)

[Todinho]

Man I knew it was bad but I didnt know it was this bad...I mean what's the point of this being an RPG at this point Fallout 1&2 have dialogue options that are entire paragraphs long,skill sensitive checks including an entire unique dialogue tree for incredible dumb characters and it let's you be a complete asshole,new vegas was a bit more limited on the text on screen but it kept most of the options and even improved on some aspects.This reminds me of Dragon Age 2 of how much a step backwards that was in relation to Origins but this is way worse just make it a full FPS with loot like Borderlands it would've been more honest.

[Flabyo]

I think it's my least favourite of the post Morrowind games from Bethesda. (Morrowind being the last one before they locked into their current formula).

[macstat]

I think it's my least favourite of the post Morrowind games from Bethesda. (Morrowind being the last one before they locked into their current formula).

Could you elaborate on that ? Maybe its just my memory is failing, or i just didnt get it but im not sure what was the big switch between Morrowind and Oblivion.

[Flabyo]

Just how it feels to me really. Probably something to do with how much slower paced Morrowind is. It also never felt *quite* as open as the ones from Oblivion onwards do, it felt more like a series of connected small areas than a large open space. It also didn't have fast travel etc...

They're not radically different, but there's less that changed from game to game since Oblivion than changed from Morrowind TO Oblivion.


I finished Fallout 4's main quest yesterday. It completely runs out of steam in a really unsatisfactory way. I might do a long spoiler filled post at the weekend once I've had more time to sit on what I think.

[DomsBeard]

Well at least I'm still enjoying it

Mind you it might be my play style helping. I never fast travel, only go to settlements for supplies and turn in quests. I've not had many quests I've wanted to resolve without violence. I may run into a problem if I'm forced to join a faction, that was one of my issues with Skyrim I didn't want to join the Nords or The Empire but would I to help?

Spoiler: show

find my son?

. I'm always motivated by that in games.

[DomsBeard]

Weird thing keeps happening, I never fast travel and I cannot find my way back into Goodneighbor. I've been there before it's weird. Mind you the maps are terrible

[macstat]

I finished Fallut 4 yesterday and to be honest it won me a little bit in the end. Im not saying i take back everything i said about it earlier, but it seems most of your meaningful choice shows up in last part of the game.

Spoiler: show

I actually enjoyed my time with the Institute. I joined them and had to mop up my old allies which was a dick move . I kinda wish there was an option to try to change Institute from within... maybe there was and i just wasn't assertive enough ?

Oh, but ending was soooo bad .... so anticlimactic....

Spoiler: show

i just said farewell to Shaun on his death bed and THE END. Erm ... really bethesda ?

Overal i spent 97 hours

[Flabyo]

If it helps, all the endings are bad

[Flabyo]

Good video from 'Game Maker's Toolkit' (which you should definitely be subscribed to) on quest design in Fallout New Vegas.

I really want to see Obsidian do something with the Fallout 4 engine, they're so much better at quest design than Bethesda.

[Combine Hunter]

Me too. I vastly prefer the art direction of Fallout 4 compared to FO3 and FO:NV. So I'd love to see Obsidian just take those assets and do their thing, just like with NV.

[macstat]

I found it on reddit today. Pretty accurate. http://i.imgur.com/9o2r4vU.png to big to embed image in post.

[James]

Alas! I played 6 or 7 hours of Fallout 4 and decided not to continue. None of the additions or changes in Fallout 4 (versus 3/NV) that I encountered in the early stages improved my experience, and (in fact) the base building and lack of equipment degradation seemed detrimental to my experience.

Obviously my opinions on the matter have to be taken with a pinch of salt (or a modicum of perspective) being as I only played half a dozen hours, but I simply ground to a halt. I was on the way back from killing several bases worth of bandits, with a missing dog and an over-encumbered pack full of crap that I didn't want to ditch, but had no real use for... I realised that I'd done this before, and I had no interest in doing it again.

Shame! I might go back and play the original games, or replay New Vegas, for the dark humour and complex quest design that those games seem to share, but I don't have the will to play any more of Fallout 4.

[ConnorRoddie]

This is my first forum post, sorry if it is a little long but I have a lot to say on this game.

Fallout: New Vegas is an important game for me as it was the game that really got me in to gaming on PC as opposed to consoles and encouraged me to save up and buy and build my own gaming system. I had played the odd PC exclusive game in the past like Age of Empires II and Rollercoaster Tycoon etc. but until that point had primarily played games on consoles; owning first a PS2 then an Xbox 360. I had played and adored Fallout 3 completing it numerous times and purchasing all of the DLC for my 360 so I was excited for New Vegas and decided to buy it for my Dad's PC at the time because of the modding scene that I'd heard about online.

My initial experience of playing the game wasn't the immediate sense of wonder and freedom I had felt when emerging from the vault in Fallout 3 or even leaving the sewer in Oblivion. Fallout: New Vegas had more of a linear beginning; and I found the change from sitting on a couch with a controller to at a desk with a mouse and keyboard to be a jarring one. Consequently I didn’t initially enjoy the game as much as I was expecting. However, once I had got past the change of style I came to love this title and really appreciate its improvements over Fallout 3 which aren’t initially apparent. The clearest improvement the game has over its predecessor is the overall quality of writing and quest structure the game offers thanks to the stellar Obsidian studio genre who are experts in the RPG genre. Where Fallout 3 had only a few quests and fewer meaningful decisions and choices to make during these quests Fallout: New Vegas really allowed the player to complete quests in a multitude of ways and was not afraid to disallow players from experiencing certain content if they lacked the required skills; an aspect of RPGs rarely seen but that I always appreciate. I really enjoyed the faction power struggle style for the main quest where no faction was completely good or bad. Initially it seems to be a simple fight between the good guys (NCR) and the bad guys (Caesar’s Legion) However as you progress further into the plot you learn that the NCR aren’t all good and the Legion aren’t all bad. Throw in the option of siding with Mr. House or going independent makes decisions in the latter third of the game genuinely difficult to make when the fate of the Mojave is in your hands. This is in stark contrast this to the simplistic “good vs evil” questline in Fallout 3 where you are forced to help the Brotherhood of Steel in their fight against the Enclave and decisions you can make tend to make little to no overall difference in the world.

The many mechanical additions in Fallout: New Vegas were welcome like iron sights and the brilliant survival mode which is thankfully being added in to Fallout 4 with an upcoming patch. The huge number of weapons available and the extensive crafting system of making your own ammo was great. As I said initially this game was my first proper foray into PC gaming thanks to the promise of mods; a promise that was delivered in spades. Fallout: New Vegas reserves a permanent place in my “installed games” section on Steam thanks to the plethora of interesting and diverse mods available that can really change the way the game plays and give me a reason to roll a new character. A particular favourite of mine is Project Nevada which added a whole host of mechanics including sprint, visors for helmets, a dedicated grenade hotkey etc. (many of which have been implemented by Bethesda themselves in Fallout 4).

Overall I loved this game, it remains one of my favourite RPGs of all time while also opening my eyes to advantages of PC gaming. I was encouraged to save up to purchase a PC for myself; building one just in time for Skyrim the following year. While I enjoyed the recent Fallout 4 and loved Fallout 3 at the time neither of these games offer the same superb narrative and role-playing experience of New Vegas and I hope that the people at Obsidian are given Bethesda’s sandbox once again to show them how it’s done!

[James]

Thanks for the post!

Don't worry about the length, we're more than happy to include longer posts and it gives you the opportunity to really tuck into your detailed thoughts on the game.

We're not recording until October, so this post will go on ice in the meantime, but it's lovely to have our first piece of community input already. This may be a Cane And Rinse record!

[TheEmailer]

Newbie dives in after four years

I finally dived into New Vegas in 2015, nearly five years after release. To sum up, I enjoyed the game for 40 hours, but a frustrating and trudging start, mediocre shooting and far too frequent bugs mean I'm happy I only paid a tenner.

Simply put, the series' pedigree or the 'scope' of the game don't forgive frequent game breaking bugs still present 4 years after release. Sure mods can and did fix this, but the base game should work. My PC is pretty decent by today's standards, but without the 4GB RAM and stability mods, it ran very poorly.

On the positive, some of the writing and quests are superbly engaging. There's a real sense of character in the world and the range of moralities are interesting. There's value in the sheer scope of content and how player choice makes more than superficial differences. Fifteen hours in, with mods on maps, guns, graphics, hacking etc, I was having a blast.

It's not an easy game to get into. The systems aren't intuitive, the shooting somehow feels poor compared to peers. The initial character build makes you choose abilities before knowing how they affect gameplay. Ie I choose energy weapon stats over guns, but at the start there weren't any available, so I was underpowered. In the early game I found myself wandering through the drab, empty and brown wilderness desperately trying to avoid overpowered enemies. And don't get me started on melee, it feels so awkward and fiddly. But at level ten, with places to fast travel to, suddenly the game blossomed.
Right now some people will be calling me a newbie. Fine. Since my teenage years, my gaming time and hence skill, has declined. But I do think there's a difference between 'hardcore' and just unintuitive and buggy. This was the game that broke my back and made me accept sometimes easy difficulty is for me. I enjoyed it more once I switched.
To my mind, this series now has persistent flaws going back a decade, but I see why people adore the formulae despite them. I'm glad they do, but not sure I'm one of them.

ps hacking and lockpicking minigames are never fun, WHY?

[TheEmailer]

My post is long too, hence I've got a summary line at the top if you want to cut it. Won't be offended

[Suits]

This, for me, is the best Fallout of the series so far.

Obsidian did a Stella job in taking a prized franchise and adding their unique twist of flavour to create something familiar but unique.

The size of the world was perfect, the flow of the game was great and the alternate story paths really gave things a point of view that made alternate play throughs rewarding and unique. The way they would often culminate in a battles being played out in the same location but from the oppositions point of view was fantastic.

Some of the story missions in this (The Hoover Dam Bomber & Vault 22) are some of the best of the whole series and very memorable.

I also hold this close as it was the first Fallout with Survival mode (that I'm aware of) and really gave the game some additional immersion for me.

Proper DLC also, although to be fair, most of the DLC in the whole series is of a high calibre.

The actor Matthew Perry is a big Fallout fan and actually voiced the character Benny.

This is the crowning jewel in the modern Fallout series for me and one of my most fondly remembered games, in one of my most precious franchises. I just wish Fallout 4 had picked up where New Vegas left off, however it seems to have just continued on directly from Fallout 3 just with a quick loot system added. Hopefully, the new survival mode being added soon will bring it up to what a Fallout game should be - more like New Vegas in my opinion.