3576

I use mods that auto-unlock and auto-hack successfully as long as my skill is high enough. Getting that shit done is a waste of my gameplay time.

3577

I’m enjoying a lot of my time with this game (only about 20 hours in so far) but I can’t help but be let down by the focus on combat and the seeming lack of non-violent quest solutions. Dialogue in general is flat, disappointing, and the choices seem to make no difference in many cases.

Also, I really want to find a mod to restore crits to how they were in previous games.

3578

Little late with my reply (been traveling). Should have said Bethesda ‘style’ Fallout games, NV included. Not including the earlier top-down versions, and certainly nothing mobile.

3579

Totally agree. Bethesda is going in the wrong direction, for my tastes. Obviously the game is very successful so, sadly, it might be the right direction for their finances.

3580

I fully get where people are coming from, those who see a dearth of real role-playing in this Fallout title. They’re right, of course; this isn’t really a game about playing a role that you fully shape and guide. It’s a combat-oriented game with progression and an extensive loot system. Which works well for me, and others, and less well for some. For instance, I simply don’t really get the desire to play through a game like this without the combat. Sure, using conversation or skill checks to get around some things or adapt to the situation is cool sometimes, but mostly I play a game like this to blow stuff up and take what’s left over as my spoils of war. I have zero interest in going through the quest lines not shooting people. That’s just me, and I respect the other viewpoints, but Bethesda sure is catering to me more than you–for better or for ill.

Then again, when I played PnP RPGs, I was always into the combat oriented ones, and less intrigued by the game sessions of my friends who would get all mellow and have hours-long encounters consisting of a wizard musing philosophically with a dragon or something. I just wanted to kill it and take it’s stuff.

3581

Yeah, for me, one of the things that endeared me most to the original Fallout games was the ability to overcome different obstacles in a variety of manners rather than having to blow my way through it. I love that you could just talk your way past the final boss if you had invested your skills a certain way. And I suppose it doesn’t help that I don’t find the combat in these games terribly fun on its own.

3582

That’s not correct, its Metacritic score is 84, the same as the much lauded FONV. As for game of the year awards, if it weren’t for The Witcher, it probably would. It’s certainly going to be nominated by many game sites.

3583

Yeah, I agree with a lot of their points (and yours) as well. I do miss some aspects of previous Fallout games, especially dialogue and consequences. But I also like their new perks system better than the skills system from previous games, and the actual gun-play is just sooooo much more satisfying that on the whole I feel like Fallout 4 is actually a huge improvement and I have a tough time trying to get back into New Vegas right now. The moment-to-moment fighting in F4 is just so much better. And this is just my personal preference, but for me that’s slightly more important than any other factor just because in a game like New Vegas, that is still the majority of what I end up doing in the game. Yeah, 2% of the time I’m doing conversations and enjoying Choices and Consequences, but 98% of the time I’m exploring and fighting, and I thought that 98% is vastly improved even if the 2% is a downgrade.

Also, this.

3584

Makes sense. For me, it was the turn-based combat in the original Fallout and Fallout 2 that sold me, followed by the setting. I’ve made the transition to shooter combat (as I love FPS as a genre too). I never, um, really role-played much beyond “kill 'em all” or “kill some of them.”

3585

Developer = Bethesda.

3586

True , but many here are lauding FONV and Fallout 4 has the same rating. That’s hardly going to be incentive to change.

3587

The customer ratings aren’t remotely the same though.

Plus, metacritic. Bethesda could rerelease Fallout 3 without any changes and it would somehow be an 8.

3588

True on both counts, and at least from my perspective (and I assume yours) that speaks to the limitations of using things like Metacritic and user review scores as metrics in the first place rather than a commentary on the games. It seems like Fallout 4 is successful “enough,” and I also wonder what impact the decision to go with a season pass is making on how customers are receiving it. I don’t know about anyone else, but the notion of dropping $90 (okay, $80 with the sale) to make a game feel “complete” to me isn’t something that I thrill to.

3589

Didn’t Skyrim have a season pass too? In any case, I’ve never felt the game was incomplete without them. In fact, despite having over 500h played in that game I’ve never seen more than half of Dawnguard’s content and zero of the other one. Dragon something something? Dragonfall? I can’t even remember.

Anyway, my point is that Bethesda’s games don’t feel incomplete without the dlcs.

3590

Skyrim did not have a season pass offer. They did eventually bundle it all up in a Goty edition.

3591

Skyrim never had a season pass. They did eventually come out with a “Legendary version” (game + all DLC).

As for feeling complete, that entirely depends upon the gamer. In an open-world game, knowing there is more to it hidden behind a paywall makes it feel incomplete to me (the single most important person in the universe, lol). I’m a “completionist” type, and there are several like me out there.

3592

  1. FONV got screwed on review scores because it shipped buggy. It shipped buggy because Bethesda fucked up QA. Obsidian didn’t even get their bonus beacuse of that

  2. I was talking about Bethesda Game Studios. Fallout 4 is their lowest rated game both in user scores and critic scores. And not just on Metacritic, but places like Steam as well. And for good and very well documented reasons.

  3. It is possible Fallout 4 would win GOTYs if not for TW3. Currently it has won 24 GOTY awards, while Witcher 3 won 113. That a polish company that just released their very first ever open world game, in pretty much the most complicated genre, managed to outrun a company like Bethesda, with their 20+ year history in the genre and unlimited financial resources…speaks volumes.

3593

Perhaps it says more about CDPR than Bethesda. I’m on board with the praise for CDPR, but I think the vitriol aimed at Bethesda is unjustified. Bethesda made a game approximately as good as their previous games. It’s decent. They met most reasonable expectations.

CDPR did shock people. They didn’t just beat Bethesda. They beat everyone, and they’ve singlehandedly raised the bar for what a great, open-world RPG can achieve. Bethesda is who we thought they were. They make good games. CDPR has shown that they can make amazing games :)

3594

Vitriol is a strong word. I don’t consider criticising Bethesda for their failings to be vitriolic. I consider it necessary, if we ever want better games from them :)
I mean, it really wouldn’t take much. They have world building and exploration pretty good. They finally figured out how to do decent shooting. Now they just need to hire some talented writers/designers and they can compete and we will all benefit.

3595

Customer ratings are largely irrelevant when the Metacritic scores and sales are high as they are. Customer ratings are a self selected group, and it’s quite clear that a lot of “haters” are distorting the rankings.

Fallout 4 performed extremely well. Adjusting for days within the data month, this was the best Fallout launch in the history of the franchise having sold over 70 percent more units than Fallout: New Vegas and 9 percent more units than Fallout 3. In fact, Fallout 4’s launch is more comparable to Bethesda Softworks’ other successful launch of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.”