Fallout 4
PC
| PlayStation 4
| Xbox One
| Genre: | Role-Playing Game | ||
| Developer: | Bethesda Softworks | Official Site: | http://www.fallout4.com |
| Publisher: | Bethesda Softworks | Classification: | TBC |
| Release Date: | 10th November 2015 |
Fallout 4 Review
Review By Steve Farrelly @ 12:01am 10/11/15
This review is dedicated to the memory of Naren Hooson.
Where to begin? It’s a great question for this review, but it’s also a question you’ll be asking yourself once you emerge from Vault 111. Typically, and much like Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios’ latest open-world opus is an immediately intimidating affair, with an irradiated horizon that stretches as far as the Vault-protected eyes can see. And, unlike the more bottlenecked level design of New Vegas, Bethesda Game Studios has ensured you’re free to wander the Commonwealth in any direction you see fit right from the outset. Your only barrier is your inexperience in this new and terrifying world.
Kicking off with what’s new might be the best place to start though, and fittingly the game offers you this differentiator very early after you leave the Vault where you’ll find yourself walking through the decaying ruins of the suburban stretch you used to call home with your wife and infant son, Shaun.
Despite the place needing a cleaning service, you can turn it into a bastion of trade and happiness the Commonwealth can be proud of. It’s a different kind of intimidating too, because you can build so much. Oh so much. It’s also not initially clear how you do this. And you don’t want to waste resources, but a quick flick through the game’s Help tab soon gave me the chops to build a house, add beds, lights, a TV, storage and even a veranda view replete with comfy chairs. I hooked up some electricity and boom, happiness grew in my little town of Sanctuary (nice touch, Bethesda) and I was stoked upon returning from a jaunt out in the wasteland to find new residents living it up in my luxurious digs. It’s a component of the game you can very easily lose yourself in, and I can’t wait to see what the community at large does with such a powerful tool.
Settlement-building is an important part of the game, should you choose to play it that way, but at its core, Fallout 4 is very much what we’ve come to expect from one of the best open-world and player-dynamic studios in the biz. It’s not nearly as pretty or technically impressive as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and its story isn’t even in the same league, but that’s because in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it’s Geralt’s story, in Fallout 4 it’s entirely yours. There’s very little beyond “RPG” and “open-world” that actually links these two games, and what makes Fallout 4 elevate over its technical and visual shortcomings is its value in player-agency and emergent gameplay.
The latter point there is a hallmark of Bethesda’s design, so it was seen as a bit odd that the player-character would be fully voiced in this game, but it actually works. You still have plenty of dialogue and personality options, and if I could offer any advice out of the box, it would be to look at bolstering your Charisma early on. Both leads do a great job, and the voice-acting overall is probably the best the series has seen. It’s a bit kookier this time around, and you can see the writing team had a lot of fun with the game-world characters and the myriad side-quests and main quests on offer.
In times past, loot collection wound up being an overbearing job of syphoning through broken clipboards, coffee mugs, wrenches, scalpals and more to get to the good and useful stuff, but the new crafting system and materials collection side of that really makes all the wasteland junk you find valuable in some way. You can even tag certain items in recipes so they show up as wanted while you’re rummaging through rusted mailboxes, skips and filing cabinets. Essentially you use these common items to scrap and earn materials, which then go towards weapon and armour modifications, or for building content in your communities. That’s plural, for those not paying attention, as good deeds among various settlements will not only allow you to use their work benches and build trade communities, but to also help them build defenses and more. Honestly, the town construction side of the game could be an entire game on its own.
The game-world also has new inhabitants alongside familiar rotting faces and creepy crawlies. Radstags are two-headed deer, while bloatflies are now joined by giant mosquitoes called bloodbugs. Yao guais return, along with brahmin and molerats, only in Fallout 4 molerats and rad scorpions can now burrow while you’re facing them and then emerge somewhere else and surprise attack you. On one occasion I was facing two rad scorpions and decided to go old-school by climbing a large rock they could never have scaled back in either Fallout 3 or New Vegas, but in Fallout 4, those fuckers can climb.
Synths and various new factions also make the game feel fresh. Rightly, Bethesda has maintained the same presentation to keep the aesthetic and look and feel of the series intact, but the different location has allowed for them to explore new ideas and new societal pockets. Synths are particularly scary as they’re androids who come in a number of different types, but one is allegedly as close to human as you can get (no spoilers here). If Bethesda had managed to wrangle Arnie for a bit of guest voice-acting, I’d be inclined to send them a case of Quantum Nuka Cola.
On top of all the new enemy and friendly types throughout the game, Vault-Tec emerges as a much more sinister company this time around. There’s a huge backlog of lore to dig through on miscellaneous missions, side-quests and even in the main campaign. It perfectly offsets the quirky nature of a post-apocalyptic Boston, which still worships baseball (although their idea of what baseball was is hilarious) and carries with it that awesome accent (pak the caa at haaved yaad). Everyone has a bit of a chip on their shoulder and they’re tied so deeply to the land that you can see why Bethesda chose the location as the game’s stomping ground.
Geometry-wise, the game-world isn’t nearly as big as Skyrim, but like Fallout 3 it has far more interiors and ‘dungeons’. You can spend months wading through downtown and its myriad sewers, stations and buildings, or just walk across the vast wastes looking for points of interest not tied to any activity you’re currently engaged in. Mental hospitals, downed planes, sink holes, quarries, military shipments, capsized boats and so much more await you in the Commonwealth along with Deathclaws who -- correct me if I’m wrong -- are unbelievably more dangerous this time around; faster, more agile and tenacious up the wazoo. Finding a locked up one in a church was an experience I won’t soon forget.
The Pip-Boy smartphone app is also a pretty sweet inclusion, and does serve a purpose. I won’t hide the fact that for 10-minutes once the app was made available I actually inserted my phone into my Pip-Boy I got with the CE and used it that way (it was cumbersome in real-time, to say the least), but as a quick access second-screen to you while you play, it’s pretty neat. There are also a number of different difficulty modes, but playing on the hardest -- Survivalist, I found the challenge to be very solid and rewarding as a Fallout veteran. Your chances of coming across Legendary critters out in the wild are increased and it’s not so embarrassing to be owned so completely by a Legendary Black Bloatfly -- that’s half the fun isn’t it?
I always love reviewing these games because it’s spoiler-free territory because the game-world is what you make of it. The coming days, weeks and months will be filled with conversations between family, friends and strangers on just how they tackled a particular mission, or simply how they’ve shaped their version of Sanctuary over how you did it. Fallout 4 is a game that will spark conversation and a huge amount of love, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t follow in the footsteps of Skyrim as something of a cultural phenomenon. The game’s only real issue is in the dated visuals, but the engine serves a purpose beyond eye-candy, and hey, we’re mostly walking through irradiated trash anyway, right.
Fallout 4 is impossible not to recommend.
Where to begin? It’s a great question for this review, but it’s also a question you’ll be asking yourself once you emerge from Vault 111. Typically, and much like Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios’ latest open-world opus is an immediately intimidating affair, with an irradiated horizon that stretches as far as the Vault-protected eyes can see. And, unlike the more bottlenecked level design of New Vegas, Bethesda Game Studios has ensured you’re free to wander the Commonwealth in any direction you see fit right from the outset. Your only barrier is your inexperience in this new and terrifying world.
Kicking off with what’s new might be the best place to start though, and fittingly the game offers you this differentiator very early after you leave the Vault where you’ll find yourself walking through the decaying ruins of the suburban stretch you used to call home with your wife and infant son, Shaun.
Despite the place needing a cleaning service, you can turn it into a bastion of trade and happiness the Commonwealth can be proud of. It’s a different kind of intimidating too, because you can build so much. Oh so much. It’s also not initially clear how you do this. And you don’t want to waste resources, but a quick flick through the game’s Help tab soon gave me the chops to build a house, add beds, lights, a TV, storage and even a veranda view replete with comfy chairs. I hooked up some electricity and boom, happiness grew in my little town of Sanctuary (nice touch, Bethesda) and I was stoked upon returning from a jaunt out in the wasteland to find new residents living it up in my luxurious digs. It’s a component of the game you can very easily lose yourself in, and I can’t wait to see what the community at large does with such a powerful tool.
Settlement-building is an important part of the game, should you choose to play it that way, but at its core, Fallout 4 is very much what we’ve come to expect from one of the best open-world and player-dynamic studios in the biz. It’s not nearly as pretty or technically impressive as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and its story isn’t even in the same league, but that’s because in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it’s Geralt’s story, in Fallout 4 it’s entirely yours. There’s very little beyond “RPG” and “open-world” that actually links these two games, and what makes Fallout 4 elevate over its technical and visual shortcomings is its value in player-agency and emergent gameplay.
The latter point there is a hallmark of Bethesda’s design, so it was seen as a bit odd that the player-character would be fully voiced in this game, but it actually works. You still have plenty of dialogue and personality options, and if I could offer any advice out of the box, it would be to look at bolstering your Charisma early on. Both leads do a great job, and the voice-acting overall is probably the best the series has seen. It’s a bit kookier this time around, and you can see the writing team had a lot of fun with the game-world characters and the myriad side-quests and main quests on offer.
In times past, loot collection wound up being an overbearing job of syphoning through broken clipboards, coffee mugs, wrenches, scalpals and more to get to the good and useful stuff, but the new crafting system and materials collection side of that really makes all the wasteland junk you find valuable in some way. You can even tag certain items in recipes so they show up as wanted while you’re rummaging through rusted mailboxes, skips and filing cabinets. Essentially you use these common items to scrap and earn materials, which then go towards weapon and armour modifications, or for building content in your communities. That’s plural, for those not paying attention, as good deeds among various settlements will not only allow you to use their work benches and build trade communities, but to also help them build defenses and more. Honestly, the town construction side of the game could be an entire game on its own.
The game-world also has new inhabitants alongside familiar rotting faces and creepy crawlies. Radstags are two-headed deer, while bloatflies are now joined by giant mosquitoes called bloodbugs. Yao guais return, along with brahmin and molerats, only in Fallout 4 molerats and rad scorpions can now burrow while you’re facing them and then emerge somewhere else and surprise attack you. On one occasion I was facing two rad scorpions and decided to go old-school by climbing a large rock they could never have scaled back in either Fallout 3 or New Vegas, but in Fallout 4, those fuckers can climb.
Synths and various new factions also make the game feel fresh. Rightly, Bethesda has maintained the same presentation to keep the aesthetic and look and feel of the series intact, but the different location has allowed for them to explore new ideas and new societal pockets. Synths are particularly scary as they’re androids who come in a number of different types, but one is allegedly as close to human as you can get (no spoilers here). If Bethesda had managed to wrangle Arnie for a bit of guest voice-acting, I’d be inclined to send them a case of Quantum Nuka Cola.
On top of all the new enemy and friendly types throughout the game, Vault-Tec emerges as a much more sinister company this time around. There’s a huge backlog of lore to dig through on miscellaneous missions, side-quests and even in the main campaign. It perfectly offsets the quirky nature of a post-apocalyptic Boston, which still worships baseball (although their idea of what baseball was is hilarious) and carries with it that awesome accent (pak the caa at haaved yaad). Everyone has a bit of a chip on their shoulder and they’re tied so deeply to the land that you can see why Bethesda chose the location as the game’s stomping ground.
Geometry-wise, the game-world isn’t nearly as big as Skyrim, but like Fallout 3 it has far more interiors and ‘dungeons’. You can spend months wading through downtown and its myriad sewers, stations and buildings, or just walk across the vast wastes looking for points of interest not tied to any activity you’re currently engaged in. Mental hospitals, downed planes, sink holes, quarries, military shipments, capsized boats and so much more await you in the Commonwealth along with Deathclaws who -- correct me if I’m wrong -- are unbelievably more dangerous this time around; faster, more agile and tenacious up the wazoo. Finding a locked up one in a church was an experience I won’t soon forget.
The Pip-Boy smartphone app is also a pretty sweet inclusion, and does serve a purpose. I won’t hide the fact that for 10-minutes once the app was made available I actually inserted my phone into my Pip-Boy I got with the CE and used it that way (it was cumbersome in real-time, to say the least), but as a quick access second-screen to you while you play, it’s pretty neat. There are also a number of different difficulty modes, but playing on the hardest -- Survivalist, I found the challenge to be very solid and rewarding as a Fallout veteran. Your chances of coming across Legendary critters out in the wild are increased and it’s not so embarrassing to be owned so completely by a Legendary Black Bloatfly -- that’s half the fun isn’t it?
I always love reviewing these games because it’s spoiler-free territory because the game-world is what you make of it. The coming days, weeks and months will be filled with conversations between family, friends and strangers on just how they tackled a particular mission, or simply how they’ve shaped their version of Sanctuary over how you did it. Fallout 4 is a game that will spark conversation and a huge amount of love, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t follow in the footsteps of Skyrim as something of a cultural phenomenon. The game’s only real issue is in the dated visuals, but the engine serves a purpose beyond eye-candy, and hey, we’re mostly walking through irradiated trash anyway, right.
Fallout 4 is impossible not to recommend.
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What we liked
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What we didn't like
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More
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We gave it:
10.0
OUT OF 10
|
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Posted 12:33am 10/11/15
Posted 01:23am 10/11/15
Some slightly mixier reviews at Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-4
Nice, can't wait to play this, don't know how I'll find the time though!
Posted 06:40am 10/11/15
Yes. See the entire other thread on it. :P
Posted 07:26am 10/11/15
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1137446&p
Posted 09:59am 10/11/15
Posted 10:19am 10/11/15
Whilst I get the leeway I can't help but view it as an excuse. Just because it's not as heavily character driven as another game doesn't mean the story needs to be gimped, particularly for a RPG affair. It just takes more creativity and time. Something a AAA title with several years of development on an established engine should be striving for.
Posted 10:44am 10/11/15
I always thought fallout 3 didnt really feel like fallout. Maybe better graphics made me feel that way but...
Posted 10:48am 10/11/15
I powered it up before I left this morning (on PC) and the animations and lip syncing were, as expected, terrible. My wife was trying to vibrate through the mirror. And my frame rate was all over the shot. It will probably be a fun game, and I have been playing fallout since 1997, but jesus. This is a game with a gigantic budget and one of the most in your face marketing campaigns I've seen and they can't even fund better animations and visuals?
CD Projekt managed with Witcher 3, why can't Bethesda?
Posted 10:49am 10/11/15
I actually didn't bother reloading a save though, I just quit, honestly I'm not sure I'm as willing to put up with their bulls*** this time around considering how many great games are out at the moment that I could be playing instead.
Posted 11:00am 10/11/15
Also the baby in the crib at the start is laughably bad.
Also noticed when you get into a conversation and the camera zooms in to be locked close up, if you move the mouse too much you can break the camera and end up broken out of the conversation and able to move around while the game still thinks you're in the conversation. What the f*** does their QA department actually do? Do they play the game at all? When dodgy s*** like that shows up within minutes of starting the game, you have to wonder.
The bug that killed my game was something similar, first terminal I used in the vault, when I exited from using the terminal the camera zoomed back out to my character's pov, but the game thought I was still controlling the terminal so I couldn't move, couldn't interact with anything, couldn't continue. I could move the camera around and get a nice view of my disembodied arms floating in the air in front of me, but that's all.
Posted 11:29am 10/11/15
From what I've heard, New Vegas is the only one of the recent 3 which feels like original fallout to an extent, and that was outsourced to a different company.
Posted 11:37am 10/11/15
Posted 12:31pm 10/11/15
But yeah a 10 for a game with s*** graphics, animations and full of bugs as well as people preordering games is exactly why we keep getting these s*** games. You are all part of the problem and IMO know better by now so have no right to complain.
Posted 12:37pm 10/11/15
Can you just play Vegas?
Posted 12:56pm 10/11/15
Heh I know that, just like poking you :P It looks like an absolutely amazing game that's for sure, and I've got my PipBoy sitting on my desk waiting for me come Saturday. Can't wait!
Posted 01:17pm 10/11/15
Posted 02:39pm 10/11/15
Posted 02:51pm 10/11/15
Posted 03:16pm 10/11/15
i finished fallout 3 but never finished vegas... just got bored with the content.
i'm gonna grab a copy of fallout 4 when it's in the bargain bin.. i am not really enthused about a really long single player game atm.
Posted 03:30pm 10/11/15
Posted 03:46pm 10/11/15
game play is everything.
polygons mean nothing.
Posted 04:56pm 10/11/15
Four words in and I was all like "oh god this game is gonna suck" but it's actually pretty good despite the blasphemy
Posted 05:05pm 10/11/15
Posted 06:20pm 10/11/15
I'm struggling to stop myself from giving in and get it right now off steam, must force myself to finish MGSV and wait until I can get a cheap copy.
Posted 07:07pm 10/11/15
Posted 09:05pm 10/11/15
I haven't bought much lately, is this a normal thing or am I missing something?
Posted 09:10pm 10/11/15
buy here and use in steam
https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/
Posted 09:19pm 10/11/15
Sadly, its a pretty common thing
Posted 09:43pm 10/11/15
$66.91!! That's almost half the Steam price. Thanks for the link
Posted 09:43pm 10/11/15
Posted 10:00pm 10/11/15
when you open the freezer and you [e]to talk to your store mannequin wife.. it's almost like they're taking the piss with how far their apologists will go in the name of gameplay.
reminds me of the diablo 3 launch. which 3+ years and an expansion later finally has fun gameplay.
last edited by reload! at 22:00:46 10/Nov/15
Posted 10:06pm 10/11/15
GMG is US pricing.
Posted 10:17pm 10/11/15
i just double checked and you are right. it didn't come up with an AUD conversion rate in paypal because I had a USD balance remaining. Tricky.
Posted 12:40am 11/11/15
Seriously what the f*** is Bethesda smoking. Why is the game logic happening inside the render loop :S Its like they think they're still making games 20 years ago or something.
Posted 12:51am 11/11/15
Posted 01:14am 11/11/15
thanks a bunch console gaming
Posted 01:24am 11/11/15
Posted 02:30am 11/11/15
Made this video showing off the glitch, but also as a comparison of the game at 60fps vs the game at 144fps, it behaves significantly differently =\
Posted 03:18am 11/11/15
Posted 04:17am 11/11/15
Posted 07:39am 11/11/15
Posted 08:17am 11/11/15
Really? :S
Posted 08:27am 11/11/15
It may be time to review the review score and drop that s*** down to an 8 or less until /if the bugs are sorted.
Posted 08:36am 11/11/15
How can critics get it so wrong?
Posted 09:12am 11/11/15
Posted 09:15am 11/11/15
Posted 09:49am 11/11/15
Don't ever take critical reviews as the only source of material. You'll be destined to always find a problem that way. Just use them as baselines and sift through some user reviews to get a feel for the game.
Also Khel, holy s***. 10/10 right there with those bugs. Kind of glad my PipBoy is just sitting on my desk at home and I won't be touching it until Saturday.
Posted 10:02am 11/11/15
FTFY.
I mean, it is technically possible that the reviewer happened to be the single person in the world who didn't find a single bug in the XBOne version of the game. It had to be someone. Everyone else playing it on that platform is complaining about a plethora of bugs, fps drops / stuttering... hell, it's a Fallout game, the review could have said "it's as buggy as you'd expect, but it's still worth a 10/10. If bugs worry you, wait a month and play it on PC; we'll update the review with a link to the first community bugfix patch" and readers would have nodded and said "fair enough".
Posted 10:08am 11/11/15
Hilarious.
Posted 10:15am 11/11/15
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/63576-fallout-2/51865003
Posted 10:54am 11/11/15
Here
Posted 11:06am 11/11/15
My point: I could give a s*** if graphics are a little blocky and textures imperfect. Good gameplay makes good games, not good graphics.
Posted 11:29am 11/11/15
Posted 11:58am 11/11/15
I think you'll find most people don't care that much though and graphics wouldn't stop any fans from grabbing it, so you don't have to white knight quite so hard. What most care about more is the fact it's a buggy mess, even by Bethesda standards.
Posted 12:17pm 11/11/15
Posted 12:30pm 11/11/15
Oh that's what I do, the most effective way I've found is to compare the critics review to the user review on metacritic. If they match up, then I can happily rely on the critic review as the main source. If they do not match up, then I inspect the user reviews and find out what the general consensus is, for good or bad.
It seems that critics have pre-conceived ideas and are very susceptible to hype, not publisher hype, but audience hype. The more hyped the audience is, the more favorable reviews tend to be, as if they are catering to that hype.
I don't think this is done on purpose.
As for graphics in games. I'm a big Rouglelike fan, I played lots of ASCII rouglelikes. Gameplay is a huge thing for sure.
However, Gameplay with good graphics is better.
There is no reason a AAA title of this magnitude should be forgiven for having such poor quality animations, particularly when animations have repeatedly been an issue with previous games. It's like they are saying 'we don't give a f***, because you'll buy it anyway' ... And maybe they are right.
Posted 12:32pm 11/11/15
Posted 12:43pm 11/11/15
- Poor animations
- Poor graphics in general (although this seems to be more subjective)
- Poor performance
- Lackluster NPC's
- More FPS than RPG, almost an FPS with RPG elements.. (mostly in comparison with previous Fallout games, so you know not necessarily a bad thing if you like how it currently is)
- Starts of fairly interesting, then the main quest gets a bit uninspired and is poorly written
- Bugs, Bugs everywhere
- Side quests are pretty interesting
- Base building is fun but also kind of lacks depth, early days to be calling lack of depth though
- Weapon Customization is pretty good
- UI is terrible
- Hopefully modding will sort a lot of s*** out, particularly UI
So it doesn't really sound like a 10/10 game, a 7-8/10 perhaps.
also lol at this:
I get that for consoles, cause controllers are gumby. But PC? That's a huge sin. However, because PC's are awesome you can get under the hood and tinker with that s***.
Speaking on Tinkering:
Unlock Frame Rate, Change FOV, Skip Intro Video, Unlock Console, 21:9 Support and Remove Mouse Acceleration + Other Fixes
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=551069501&tscn=1447077828
Get rid of nasty mouse acceleration and smoothing. Why actually wants that s*** in a game anyway?
last edited by Tollaz0r! at 12:43:38 11/Nov/15
Posted 12:39pm 11/11/15
this. plenty of great titles out there prove that it's possible to have both.
Posted 12:44pm 11/11/15
Posted 12:45pm 11/11/15
The game logic should be running in its own thread and in its own game loop and locked to execute at a set rate, like 30 times a second or 60 times a second or whatever. Then the renderer is free to go spastic and run its loop as many times as it wants without affecting the actual game logic. For some reason though, in this case, the logic seems to be tied into the render loop and so if you're running at 60fps its executing 60 times a second and the game feels normal because it was designed at that rate. If you're running at 120fps though, game logic is executing twice as quickly so you're running faster, animations are playing quicker, etc. I'd imagine buffs wouldn't last as long either, timers would count down quicker, couldn't be all sorts of trickle on effects. Anything physically driven would go pretty wacky too.
Old DOS games would have this problem, where they run unplayably fast on current PCs because they render so fast and the game logic is in the render loop. Really shouldn't be a problem any game made in the last 15 years should have though.
Posted 12:49pm 11/11/15
Posted 12:49pm 11/11/15
Unless you are developing primarily on a console and have locked FPS to 30 (or maybe even 60) knowing that you are going to hit that. It probably makes things a bit less complicated.
It's not excuse for sloppy design though.
Posted 01:02pm 11/11/15
Review the product everyone else gets and all will be good.
Posted 01:23pm 11/11/15
Yeah, which I think is absolutely what they did, which is disappointing considering their PC origins. I'm not usually one to engage in console vs PC s***, but it really does feel too much like a console game, and it suffers for it. Like even when you get in a conversation, the conversation options are laid out in a cross obviously to reprsent face buttons (or possibly the dpad?) on a controller. Didn't seem like you can navigate or choose conversation options with the keyboard, and theres no numbers to press next to anything, you have to click on the icon next to the option you want. The icons are direction arrows too, which makes no sense on PC, but I'm thinking on a controller it must map to the dpad or its something you pick using the stick or something.
The favourites menu feels gumby as s*** too, obviously one of those controller style radial menus where you bring it up and then hold the stick in the direction of the item you want and then let go. On a PC though its just gumby, you need to bring it up and then use your movement keys to pick the item you want (or sometimes sweeping the mouse in a direction seemed to work too). I just want to bind things to number keys, but nope, sorry, can't do that.
Hopefully a mod that is the equivalent of SkyUI comes out for it sooner rather than later, but honestly, shouldn't have to rely on mods to do what should be Bethesda's job.
I probably sound saltier than I am, I mean, I still love Fallout and I'm still going to play it, but maybe thats why this stuff pisses me off and disappoints me so much, because I want it to be so much better than this =\
Posted 01:28pm 11/11/15
Yes. Go into the games settings menu in Fallout 4 and enable to pip boy app. Restart the game, then make sure that if you have windows firewall enabled that you alt tab and allow the new firewall rule which should popup. Then on the pip boy app search for a PC connection. Should come up with your computers IP, it runs off the network.
I'm no scientist but....
last edited by Crash at 13:28:18 11/Nov/15
Posted 01:43pm 11/11/15
Posted 02:03pm 11/11/15
Except, unless you're some left handed freak, the cursor keys are nowhere near the part of the keyboard you're using to play. Even if you don't want to do the logical thing and put numbers next to the different options, at least present them in a list like skyrim did that you can navigate with the keyboard or easily select from with the mouse. Its just super awkward the way they're currently presented, hard to see at a glance what your options are and limited to only 4 responses/options at a time.
Yeah it might seem like a small nitpicky thing, but its a core part of the game, and its something you would think they would spend the time on to get right. Its not like they're doing anything innovative here, I'd even take Skyrim's UI over the Fallout 4 one. They've actually managed to go backwards.
Posted 02:25pm 11/11/15
I was just pointing out that there is a mapping for it - the arrows represent the arrows on the keyboard. Why are they like that? My guess would be because unlike their past games you arent entirely locked face to face in the conversation any more and can move about the environment while you're talking. This would basically remove the ability to use any of the buttons assigned in the standard controls of the game.
For me though I'm not playing it that way, im staying locked in the conversation frame and using the arrow buttons, so i havent had any problems with the default layout.
Posted 02:54pm 11/11/15
The first and last one actually have really good presentation... I mean they're not 3d, but the argument isn't that 3d is a measure of graphics quality.
That being said, my absolute favourite game which I could play forever is Mount & Blade Warband, which isn't visually impressive. Howeeverrr, it was the best the devs could do (I think as a husband and wife team for the first version, just Mount & Blade, which was mostly the same), and they're pushing to dramatically improve on the shortcomings with a sequel. One of my next favourite games is Minecraft (which admittedly I don't so much approve of the new dev team's shortcomings on compared to when it was just Notch).
Bethesda did used to try to sell us new and improved products rather than exploiting fan dedication, ftr. Oblivion was the game for a long time to get a new rig for. Skyrim was still an impressive leap in quality.
This just reeks of exploitative laziness from Bethesda, especially since it's a full priced game at over a hundred dollars AU (I got mount & blade for a few bucks, I think at full price it's still not expensive). There are core engine bugs there which were causing problems for people in Skyrim 4 years ago. There are core UI design issues which they've just gotten worse at, like unchangable inconsistent keybindings being required to navigate menus, which they still haven't fixed in a new release, let alone patched into Skyrim like I hoped. There are animations there which are simply jarrish in how unnatural they are.
Sure the old star wars movies might have some greenscreen artifacts around the imperial officers on the bridge, but if you bring out a new one with that problem in 2015, I'm going to criticize your ability and dedication to making movies, and trying to sell it to me at full price.
Posted 03:01pm 11/11/15
The guy who did SkyUI couldn't fund himself finishing it anyway, and then got extra pissy when fans revolted against the idea of him being able to sell a premium version on Steam and actually get to go back to working on that instead of the job he hated. I think people gave him death threats etc for not working for them for free, and I doubt he's coming back. No other modders seem to have really stepped up to the extent he has, and that was a (relatively) simple UI redesign, so IDK if there's really any guarantee, particularly of speed. Hopefully though. But there seems to be a bit of a romanticized notion about how much actually gets done in the free mod environment, most of them are just cool ideas which are abandoned from what I've seen.
Posted 03:26pm 11/11/15
So I'll have to wait for Fallout 4: Not Bethesda. For a proper fallout 4 game.
Haw haw hawwwwww
Posted 03:39pm 11/11/15
You would, at the very least, also allow WASD (or whatever is bound to for/back/strafe l/r).
The evidence of bugs, inappropriate UI, poor engine design (logic tied to FPS), lack of accessible in-game advanced settings really screams of Publisher pressure to cut the PC specific development budget, in favour of console development, within a framework of a tight, uncompromising release schedule.
It explains the extremely late date embargo of reviews. Which should have been a large warning sign to those that pre-ordered. I'm hard pressed to think of any titles that has such a tight review embargo that resulted in anything but a buggy mess.
Posted 04:20pm 11/11/15
Always going to be the case with Bethesda Fallout. They have terrible writers compared to Obsidian. New Vegas was on a different playing field entirely with its amazing writing and DLC campaigns.
Posted 04:26pm 11/11/15
the conversation responses should be assigned to the number keys. that's how it's done in most RPG's.
i really hope bethesda switches to a new engine for ES6.
last edited by ravn0s at 16:26:40 11/Nov/15
Posted 04:34pm 11/11/15
Thats a shame, SkyUI was great, the only thing I regret is not installing it sooner, I played about a hundred hours of Skyrim before installing it. Thats a mod I would have happily paid a few dollars for in the paid mods thing, cos it was a real quality product, not something just kit-bashed together. Once I installed SkyUI it actually changed the way I played the game, by making it easier to see and sort through all my potions and spells and stuff I found myself using them a lot more often when previously I never bothered because it was just too much effort. And with the being able to set up different gear sets, actually let me change up my playstyle a lot more.
Posted 05:09pm 11/11/15
Posted 05:42pm 11/11/15
I think it's strange you have to make so many concessions when trying to argue for it's worth. Comparing it to games from 20 years ago, but not comparing it to similar games released now, is both pretty alarming and rather illogical. A great game doesn't have to have great graphics, but it's sure as hell a lot better if it does. It's also a lot better if it's actually good and works out the door from the studio, you shouldn't have to wait 3-6 months for the community to fix everything with mods - especially when you're paying $60-$100 a pop to the studio! It's a joke.
I love Fallout, so that's great and it'll be enjoyable to play, but also because I love Fallout it's hugely disappointing that we didn't get the utterly amazing Fallout 4 we could have gotten (by current standards), if they'd put some f*****g effort in. From what I've seen it doesn't even have the depth and character of the old Fallout's.
There's no way it's a 10. Metacritic critic average is 87 (out of 100) and the user average is 5.5 (out of 10).
Yet we're all lapping it up, pre-ordering and buying, and then lamenting why game studios are putting out s***.
Posted 07:26pm 11/11/15
I didn't pre-order s***. Pre-ordering is a mugs game.
Posted 08:51pm 11/11/15
I have been playing and it feels like the same old Fallout (with some enhancements - hello Sprint) like a comfortable recliner and slippers. Very happy, it's what I was expecting.
Posted 09:57pm 11/11/15
This appears to have not stepped up the game at all, or fixed any of the core bugs, or addressed any of the design problems such as completely f***ed up UI keys on PC (instead somehow getting worse at it).
Posted 12:03am 12/11/15
Indeed, it is another aspect, another aspect that should be held up to the same scrutiny the other aspects are and held accountable to the same expectations that its peers are. I mean, can you imagine if EA or Ubisoft released a game in this state? They would be utterly and mercilessly crucified for it and made out to be the devil. Bethesda on the other hand gets treated like the downie that managed to fingerpaint a picture of a house and everyone is like "Well done, you're so special!"
Posted 07:19am 12/11/15
That is all.
Posted 09:50am 12/11/15
my guess is that it more aligns for console game controller rather than keyboard and mouse use
might give the controller a whirl later
Posted 10:45am 12/11/15
Posted 11:24am 12/11/15
Have you played the game??? I wrote why it cant be mapped to WASD
You can move while in the conversation, you can't use WASD.
A lot of reviewers have had this game since last month, which is a bigger lead time that we get for most games. They werent trying to hide anything.
Posted 12:16pm 12/11/15
You can use the number keys when chatting in a conversation. 1 is the top option, 2 is left, 3 is right and 4 is bottom.
Posted 01:58pm 12/11/15
http://i.imgur.com/hD4Djto.gifv
Posted 03:22pm 12/11/15
I have enjoyed playing it so far. Lv11 now. I have run into a bug in the rock quarry with the textures being over the top of the surfaces. Also similar thing in this industrial place where these stairways are. One bug that happens to me a sometimes is my gun/hands disappearing. I can still attack and stuff but I can't see my gun. Makes it hard to aim down sights.
http://i.imgur.com/oRUKDMI.jpg
Here are my thoughts so far.
- The UI could be better.
- The AI is smarter than previous games.
- I like base building.
- When it comes to graphics, I think that the style of things plays a part. The models for game assets are acceptable, textures are too when it comes to the main things. Modding will fix this later on hopefully. Or a high res texture pack.
- I like the upgrading of armour and weapons. The 10mm pistol is pretty cool looking. Would like there to be more pre-war weapons though.
- When it comes to conversation thing. I think that the way in FO3 and NV was better but less cinematic, which is that they are going for in this game.
- Ghouls don't look as cool as they were in previous games. Hopefully a mod will fix that. yellow/cream skin looks crap if you ask me.
That is all i can think of for now. Also here is a link for fixes and tweaks.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1543988-a-data-va
Posted 05:46pm 12/11/15
I don't mind the graphics I think it fits in with the Fallout art style similar to how Blizzard is with their games.
It's taken me a while to work the looting part, I enjoy not having to open containers to see what's inside, but I don't like knowing what they do until I pick them up and look at my inventory.
Posted 08:31pm 12/11/15
Posted 10:06pm 12/11/15
i7-4790k, 4GB Radeon 290x, 16GB DDR3 ram and an SSD.
Posted 12:40am 13/11/15
Oh man, I'm doomed then :( Witcher 3 was bad enough for me, I couldn't help but pick every flower and herb I ran past even when I had s***loads and really had no use for more
Posted 03:05am 13/11/15
The game performs well for me. Mostly on Ultra.
i7 4770k and GTX 970 and 8gb ram.
Posted 09:12am 13/11/15
hahaha, I thought exactly the same thing. Just spat coffee everywhere.
Toll, I understand your a little cranky at the fact that the game has issues, but as i'm assuming you still haven't bought it, maybe get off the judging a book by its cover bandwagon, you kinda look like a d***.
The game is a buggy f***** mess that yeah, doesn't look awesome held up against games such as Witcher 3, and I agree they should cop some s*** for that, but f*** its fun.
it also feels much more full of character and life than either of the previous fallout games.
Edit* - I caved and grabbed a copy for myself and my bro, I couldn't resist teh wasteland.
Posted 09:38am 13/11/15
Far better quality RPG's have been released in the last 12 months.
Posted 10:47am 13/11/15
Posted 11:34am 13/11/15
At least he wasn't a mindless fanboi who bought/preordered the game without thinking. I support toll and his extreme assessment of whether it's worth his money to buy this game. A bit too extreme haha.
Posted 11:54am 13/11/15
I'm playing on family sharing thanks to a friend before deciding to put up $'s towards it. (they do night shift, which is nice for me, but no weekend play.)
So far the game is good, the UI is f*****g terrible. I keep having lots of WTF moments when trying to deal with UI stuff. The game runs OK on my rig, stutters a bit. I had to fiddle with ini stuff to sort some basic things out. Like horizontal/vertical mouse, acceleration, FOV, you know the stuff that should be easily accessible by a menu like any decent PC game.
The animation is noticeably poor and the NPC's haven't felt inspiring at all, not yet anyway which is a bit of problem when it comes to RPG games. If it was just a shooter then meh. But it's not.
Oh I've had a couple of bugs, no show stoppers though.
All in all, the game seems fun, but it certainly has notable flaws that should prevent it from scoring a 10/10. The game has sold itself on graphics, they talked up their engine and how they've added all this lighting and stuff. After speaking it up, you can't not take graphical/visual aspects into account, ie animations. So far, it's an 8/10 game. Still quite good, but could have been better with polish.
I agree I'm a bit more rabid with critic on Fallout games. Even more so when it's a supposed AAA title with a massive budget and experienced company behind it, one that should presumably improve on it's failing and continue with what it knows is good.
Fallout 1&2 are in my top 10 list of best games of all time, Fallout 2 may even be in the top 3. It was a bit buggy, but it more than made up for it with it's solid RPGness.
I disliked them going 3D with Fallout 3, but things change. I didn't like Fallout 3 as a fallout game anyway. Fallout New Vegas was leagues better in that regard.
The jury is still out in my mind if this is a Fallout game, or just a clone like Fallout 3 was.
I'll probably buy it when it goes on special if I haven't got bored of the spattering of play I can do through family sharing.
last edited by Tollaz0r! at 11:54:51 13/Nov/15
Posted 01:58pm 13/11/15
Posted 02:08pm 13/11/15
Posted 05:33pm 13/11/15
Part of me feels like Bethesda are so aware that modders always fix their broken ass s*** that they genuinely ship them in this state knowing it matters f*** all for the most part.
I'm probably way off but if it was true, wow, what a sorry state of affairs.
Just stumbled across this on my twitter too. pretty damn cool - http://imgur.com/a/c2d6t
Posted 09:52pm 13/11/15
Does the nude mod do males? Didn't see one, not great for the sexism in gaming vibe.
Posted 10:02pm 13/11/15
I'm praying some time actually passes before modders get around to creating monster dongs for FO4
Posted 07:47am 14/11/15
I don't like the whole build your own base, the tools are alright but they need to tweak it. At the moment it just feels like a side quest where you spend the majority of the time scavenging for parts, but maybe that is the goal. Also holy s*** they need to offer snapping to house blocks, my ocd is killing me every time I try to build a house on the already existing blocks.
Posted 12:34pm 14/11/15
Spooky.
Posted 03:03pm 14/11/15
Posted 03:42pm 14/11/15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBQr1xmMMxQ
I always forget what i have equipped.
Posted 04:31pm 14/11/15
It's that long term radiation exposure to the head. It's gets to some people....
Posted 05:35am 15/11/15
Game just keeps getting better for me IMO.
Posted 09:12am 15/11/15
It should actually be limited to 60FPS, turn triple buffering on and vsync on. Or adaptive vSync if you have a 120hz monitor.
100 FPS is still faster than the game was designed for (lol logic loop tied to rendering). So it may have unintended affects.
Also if you have NVIDIA card, stop and disable Nvidia Streamer service. Unless you use that of course. It can eat a few FPS for no reason.
The game still feels soulless as Joaby partly pointed out in the other thread. It's like it's just a bunch of set-pieces strung together, just waiting for you. Bethsada needs someone to inject Soul into the game, that'll extend to the animations I'm sure.
Posted 11:54am 15/11/15
I ended up using the nvidia inspector to limit it. I didn't want to use refresh rate + vsync to limit it because I wanted to keep gsync on. When you set the fps cap through nvidia inspector though it's an actual software level fps cap, independent of refresh rate. So now I can keep my refresh rate unlocked and have gsync on and it adapts the refresh to match the output of the game like it always does, its just the game never outputs more than 90fps. Played it for a few hours last night with no problems and it still looks nice and smooth without jitters or tearing, so I think it's a workable solution for now.
Posted 04:36pm 15/11/15
Just found my first lev50 Legendary Behemouth...and I am giving him a very, very wide berth at the mo...
:)
Posted 10:15pm 16/11/15
Bethsada forgot to put the RP into their game.
Seriously, where is the role playing aspect?
It's mostly just a shooter with some NPC's (with meh dialog) standing around waiting for you to walk up to them and answer 'yes' or 'no'. You can't even kill the NPC's if you want.
The weapon crafting is nice.
Power armour with a minigun vs a deathclaw so early in the game? I left the power armour at my base, I felt dirty for using it so early. (LOL that's the roleplaying!)
At the moment, I've still got enough motivation to walk around the wastes to look at some of the nice set-pieces. However, I'm worried there is little else to draw me in.
If I want to play a FPS, I'll play a proper one.
As an RPG, Fallout 4 sucks big time. As a Shooter with some RPG elements, it's OK I guess. The gunplay feels fairly nice.
I'm still WTFing over the keyboard layout. .. seriously.
As a lol meme going around:
Bethesda. Bethesda never changes.
last edited by Tollaz0r! at 22:15:06 16/Nov/15
Posted 10:20pm 16/11/15
Posted 10:42pm 16/11/15
In previous titles it was tough to choose between attributes.
Now it doesn't really matter. Just hit int all the way up and lvl quickly, add points to other attributes as required.
The conversation wheel is terribly limited for role playing choices. The world doesn't seem to care what you do. In most of the previous fallout titles conversations were interesting and your attributes/skills often opened up new dialogue options that reflect your characters role.
So I'm just a chick looking for her kid. That shoots things. Her large super human intellect hasn't once had an impact on the game. No one cares she has the charisma of a putrid molerat, she has little agility but can shoot with perfect aimed accuracy and had no trouble picking novice locks.
All anyone seems to care about is 'c an you help with my quest? Please answer yes or no. Oh sometimes you can try answer with sarcasm or whatever, but it doesn't seem to change much. Now go shoot that over there, good girl.
Posted 10:53pm 16/11/15
Posted 12:10am 17/11/15
I miss half of those because i am just spamming "e" to pick up a bunch of crap for the crafting and in case i need it, e.g. picking up random crap, pick up a toaster next to a skeleton, pick up other stuff.. oh that toaster was in a bathtub.. yeah that might have been amusing if i was paying attention and not just playing post apocalyptic hoarder.
Vats doesnt seem that good now, maybe i need more agility and points in vats specific things, but i can empty a clip in the time it takes vats to initialise and vats stops me dead in my tracks yet the enemy keeps moving and vats misses more than i do.. the only thing its really good for is cheesing the reload. (oh and crippling the weapon arm on weaker enemies assuming 90+% to hit)
Posted 02:56am 17/11/15
Posted 08:46am 17/11/15
Posted 10:23am 17/11/15
Posted 11:35am 17/11/15
Posted 05:37pm 17/11/15
I'll be excited as f*** if I find out Obsidian are making another FO game. Couldn't really give a toss about FO4 to be honest. Bethesda simply don't know how to write anything compelling.
Posted 07:35pm 17/11/15
Nor do they know how to RPG. Morrowwind was OK I think, or was that mods? I can't remember.
They make an OK action game tho.
Hopefully Obsidian ditch the horrible 'character' system Bethesda have botched together and reinstate Attributes as being character defining .. attributes. With each attribute being a tough call as to where to point your limited points.
Then flesh out the skills system like previous fallouts.
Why the f*** did Bethesda go backwards? In more ways than one.
Sadly, it still made them a spastic amount of money.
Posted 08:15pm 17/11/15
Posted 02:28am 18/11/15
Fallout deserves good writing though. I need to care about the factions and characters otherwise I'm not having fun.
So what's the deal? There are no speech skill checks in FO4? They were one of my favourite parts of NV.
Posted 04:14am 18/11/15
Every so often a coloured option will come up and that's your persuade /speech check. If the writing is red you have a low chance to persuade, yellow is slightly better, green is a pretty much a guaranteed persuasion.
Posted 10:49am 18/11/15
Posted 12:48pm 18/11/15
Posted 04:05pm 18/11/15
Coming out of the freezer at the start was one of the more disappointing things I've experienced so far. Voice actors does a great job of selling the idea that your character is cold and then you switch to 3rd person and your character is looking all Jan from accounting, not giving a f***.
The big selling point from Bethesda this time is the voice acting, congrats on catching up to Mass Effect, a game nearly 10 years old now. Bethesda have always been able to make great open worlds yet seem incapable of taking the next step and making those worlds immersive.
I'm not saying the game is crap, I haven't played enough yet and I actually loved FO3 as it was my first Bethesda game and my first time experiencing their open world, I am just saying that with 8 years you'd think they would have done more than add voice acting and updated some textures.
Posted 04:24pm 18/11/15
Posted 12:14am 20/11/15
Posted 07:12pm 26/11/15
Interesting article on The Guardian, Has video game reviewing become an impossible task?
Delves into a lot of the detail on reviewing that Joaby was talking about.
Posted 06:53pm 26/11/15
Thing is, I see movies reviewed and if they get 3 stars I think "oh yeah, cool, above average then, not a classic or anything but should be a fun watch". See a game get 60% though and my first thought is "Wow, it must be trash".
Posted 07:24pm 26/11/15
Can see where Khel is coming from though, but then I don't tend to look at metacritic. And tbh, if a game is flawed or a weak attempt by the makers, then I think it somewhat deserves to have a non-perfect metacritic score which shows it anyway.
Posted 08:10pm 26/11/15
Publishers also need to be told if their games are boring, generic copy paste, uninspired or just plain f*****g s***.
We as consumers/gamers whatever, want to know the good and bad points of what we are going to invest money then time in.
Game reviewers need to be able to do their job, gamers need to find reviewers they can relate to and publishers need to release their game then stay the f*** out of the review process.
Posted 11:39pm 26/11/15
Also check out my small mod. http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2301/?
Posted 12:57pm 27/11/15
I've always taken them with a grain of salt, and really only listen to the ones that slam a broken game that shouldn't have been dropped in the first place, as I'm not interested in wasting the coin.
The games that aren't broke though, and just aren't that great I'm happy to put some money down and try out myself.
one example I can think of is Obsidian's Alpha Protocol. that game failed badly in the whole reception/review area, but I found it to be a really good game. It had a lot of problems yeah, but it wasn't what one would call a broken game, just a little overly ambitious I guess, especially at the time.
Posted 10:46pm 07/12/15
Posted 03:28am 08/12/15
Screenshot I took during a rad storm. http://i.imgur.com/G8Np8zf.jpg
Also, I just wanted to post this too.
Posted 05:15pm 20/12/15
Anyone else com across the Bioshock Eatser Egg yet? :)
I'll go and play a complete BOS steel character later but seeing as I tended to do that in previous games i don't know that it will be as much fun as clobbering mutants with my tweaked out swords and baseball bats. :)
Posted 06:34pm 20/12/15
Posted 01:20am 21/12/15
I think there is a lot of overlapping until you choose...there is also jus a lot of randoms that you meet wherever and they generate quest themselves, relating to nothing but there own problems.
I am running two saves at the moment and they are giving me different s*** to do all the time. I am going to start a third as a female as I have never played a female character in any game before, and she is going to be my super butch BOS b**** heavy gunner/explosives mofo. :) s*** is about to get real!
Posted 10:06am 21/12/15
tbh not really interested until creation kit (or whatever they call it this time) is out
Posted 09:11pm 21/12/15
This was the first Fallout i've played and i clocked a good 70 odd hours on it and was quite enjoying it for awhile there. But i haven't played it in weeks either. Exploring was cool and all but the story & quests just weren't interesting enough to keep me going. Damn you Witcher 3 i think you may have spoiled every other RPG for me the way you handled story & questing.
Posted 07:50pm 21/12/15
The ending was pretty anticlimactic as well, the big robot in 3 was awesome.. Spoiler:
the one at the end of the institute storyline was lame stand on a platform shooting brotherhood for a few minutes while it is hacked, then it shoots at the blimp
Posted 09:15pm 21/12/15
Posted 08:32am 22/12/15
Posted 09:31am 22/12/15
I still enjoy it but I wish my FPS did not go to s*** when in the city area. 30-45 in the downtown city area is not fun.
Still not played the Witcher 3 either.
Posted 08:16pm 22/12/15
Posted 12:29am 23/12/15
Posted 12:41am 23/12/15
PC if you have a system to run it however PS4 doesn't detract from the experience.
Posted 01:04am 23/12/15
lmao and somehow even more pointless than the sims
Posted 02:53am 30/1/16