Fallout 4

[Murbella]

It annoys me that you can’t tell whether something is friendly or hostile until very short range. It kind of makes longer range weapons suck in most cases.

[Telefrog]

It annoys me that you can’t tell whether something is friendly or hostile until very short range. It kind of makes longer range weapons suck in most cases.

Shoot everything you see! Problem solved.

[Becoming]

Exploration is so conflicting for me.

It’s the main drive of the game, 85% of the time you are exploring. The key for me is the thrill of seeing a “hollow” indicator in the compass and getting closer and closer, until finally see what’s the new place I discovered. And there is a good variety of places, I give them props for it. There are parkings, supermarkets, museums, offices, farms, excavations, military installations, factories, warehouses, satellite uplink stations, crashed planes, swamps, churches, graveyards, wooden cabins, diner places, train stations, garage shops, hospitals, etc.

But after the first dozen of hours, the magic loses its shine, because it’s all the same. It’s all empty, desolate, and if there is something that moves, it’s something with a red name above their heads. So kill and loot, that’s it. The repetition settles in.

No quests, no stories, no dialogue no adventure.

I’m in the Northern part of the city. And 14 of 15 times I got to a new named place, it was enemies.

A small makeshift base between buildings? Maybe it’s a community trying to survive? Nope, raiders.
Some luxury offices? Two raiders.
A church with a named lonely guy dressed as priest? Enemy, red name, I couldn’t talk to him.
A fraternal house? Full of super mutants.
A Square in the college area? Full of feral ghouls.
A hospital? Raiders made it their base.
A electronic shop? Enemy robots.
A federal stockpile base? Moar raiders.
Apartments area? Rai…

Ideally, the game would change its pace alternating between combat heavy areas and more “narrative” areas.

That’s a good point. At least there seemed to be much more personality in their prior games. This one so far generally has all the charm of a parking garage filled with rabid dogs, dinner plates and screwdrivers.

[rhamorim]

The problem with this is that Witcher 3 is not only quantity, it is quality. The goals are not different, they both have a heavy focus on roaming around in a large world. Fallout 4 just does not appear to have the same level of content quality as witcher 3.

It depends heavily on what kind of content you want, not necessarily its quality.

Look, Witcher 3 is a masterpiece. It’s my game of the year and I don’t see that changing - not for Fallout 4 or Just Cause 3 or Xenoblade Chronicles X. But I wouldn’t be playing Fallout 4 if it didn’t have something that I can’t find in Witcher 3, and it does have plenty of that. Gunplay, for instance. Crafting. Modding. A post-apocalyptic setting. And so on and so forth.

It’s fine to compare games, sure, but dissing one game because a very different one is better is silly. Games should be judged by what they are (in the whole) and by what they aim to be. If people expect anything else, I’d argue the problem lies with expectations more than any other thing.

[rhamorim]

But after the first dozen of hours, the magic loses its shine, because it’s all the same. It’s all empty, desolate, and if there is something that moves, it’s something with a red name above their heads. So kill and loot, that’s it. The repetition settles in.

I don’t remember Fallout 3 being much different from that. Anyway, I think Bethesda, when designing Fallout 4, tried to incorporate the gunplay/loot elements from games like Destiny and Borderlands, and the crafting from recent survival games. I’m fine with that, and that’s pretty much what I expected. I don’t expect Witcher 3 levels of storytelling, or the world building from some Obsidian games. It’s Bethesda. What I expected is Skyrim with fewer dragons, more guns, and better loot/crafting. I’m too early to know if I got that, but I certainly intend to find out.

[Murbella]

It depends heavily on what kind of content you want, not necessarily its quality.

Look, Witcher 3 is a masterpiece. It’s my game of the year and I don’t see that changing - not for Fallout 4 or Just Cause 3 or Xenoblade Chronicles X. But I wouldn’t be playing Fallout 4 if it didn’t have something that I can’t find in Witcher 3, and it does have plenty of that. Gunplay, for instance. Crafting. Modding. A post-apocalyptic setting. And so on and so forth.

It’s fine to compare games, sure, but dissing one game because a very different one is better is silly. Games should be judged by what they are (in the whole) and by what they aim to be. If people expect anything else, I’d argue the problem lies with expectations more than any other thing.

You realize the only things you listed are basically that it is a future setting, right? Obviously there wouldnt be gunplay in a medieval focused game.

There is crafting in witcher 3.

Witcher 3 just does what bethesda is famous for, sandbox games, better, without sacrificing the story. It is just better in every way.

Now, this does not mean fallout 4 is not also good, but it is 100% not a situation of each game having their own strengths or them being designed to do different things. What you talk about is what we saw before where you had story based rpgs and sandbox rpgs.

[ChiTownBluesFan]

It depends heavily on what kind of content you want, not necessarily its quality.

Look, Witcher 3 is a masterpiece. It’s my game of the year and I don’t see that changing - not for Fallout 4 or Just Cause 3 or Xenoblade Chronicles X. But I wouldn’t be playing Fallout 4 if it didn’t have something that I can’t find in Witcher 3, and it does have plenty of that. Gunplay, for instance. Crafting. Modding. A post-apocalyptic setting. And so on and so forth.

It’s fine to compare games, sure, but dissing one game because a very different one is better is silly. Games should be judged by what they are (in the whole) and by what they aim to be. If people expect anything else, I’d argue the problem lies with expectations more than any other thing.

Thank you.

I played Witcher 3. Well, I tried to. Spent about 40 hours, got maybe a third of the way (estimated) through the game, and just couldn’t do it anymore. Oh, I get why people like it - It’s pretty, the quests are done better, characters, etc. But you’re forced into one ‘style’ of combat, which is melee (with magic, er, ‘signs’ mixed in), and I SUCK at that kind of combat. Always have (outside of turn-based games). It makes the game not enjoyable for me although I can see why so many love it.

I will take Fallout 4 over Witcher 3 any day of the week and twice on the weekend, because I can play a stealthy/ranged player. So comparing the two games doesn’t work for me, and actually annoys me. I don’t CARE if you like Witcher 3 better. Stop playing F4, go play W3, and quit bitching about it.

F4 isn’t going to do much to bring new people in to the Bethesda formula of games like Skyrim did (or at least it doesn’t seem like it’s going to). But if you enjoy this style of game, it’s more of the (almost) same. We all know it won’t be a great experience until 6 months from now when the modders have done their work.

[merryprankster]

But after the first dozen of hours, the magic loses its shine, because it’s all the same. It’s all empty, desolate, and if there is something that moves, it’s something with a red name above their heads. So kill and loot, that’s it. The repetition settles in.

No quests, no stories, no dialogue no adventure.

I’m in the Northern part of the city. And 14 of 15 times I got to a new named place, it was enemies.

A small makeshift base between buildings? Maybe it’s a community trying to survive? Nope, raiders.
Some luxury offices? Two raiders.
A church with a named lonely guy dressed as priest? Enemy, red name, I couldn’t talk to him.
A fraternal house? Full of super mutants.
A Square in the college area? Full of feral ghouls.
A hospital? Raiders made it their base.
A electronic shop? Enemy robots.
A federal stockpile base? Moar raiders.
Apartments area? Rai…

Ideally, the game would change its pace alternating between combat heavy areas and more “narrative” areas.

Yeah, that has kinda been my experience with Bethesda games and why I stopped playing them. I remember being wowed by the huge open world of Morrowind and Oblivion, but every subsequent release I have played less and less. The world itself isn’t enough to keep me entertained anymore, I want interesting things to do in that world. I actually find that this can be a common problem in a lot of open world games.

[rhamorim]

You realize the only things you listed are basically that it is a future setting, right? Obviously there wouldnt be gunplay in a medieval focused game.

Of course I realize that. I’m wondering if you do, though. Do you really think I’ll play Fallout 4 if I want to play a game with good swordplay? No, I’ll play Witcher 3 or Dark Souls or Jedi Academy.

There is crafting in witcher 3.

Yes, but it’s different. You know, which is kind of my whole point?

Witcher 3 just does what bethesda is famous for, sandbox games, better, without sacrificing the story. It is just better in every way.

It isn’t better in gunplay, for instance. What about that is so hard to understand?

Now, this does not mean fallout 4 is not also good, but it is 100% not a situation of each game having their own strengths or them being designed to do different things.

THANK YOU! Well, except for that “not” there that I didn’t notice. Take it out and I agree, because that’s exactly what I mean. Each game has their strenghts, they were designed with different goals. They’re different games that have different things. As much as I love Witcher 3, it doesn’t have every single thing I want in a game, or why would I play anything else?

[lordkosc]

Anyone know if console commands void achievements?

I gotta mod my carry limit, this game is like Hoarders to me.

[Telefrog]

Man, I am really not liking the new conversation system at all. The options are so weak. The nice thing about previous Bethesda games and FNV was that there was almost always some conversational choices that were there just for flavor. “Who are you?” “Why do you stay here?” The type of stuff you might ask someone when you’re just trying to get to know them. So far, the conversations in Fallout 4 feel completely artificial. (I know. It’s a game.) You walk up to people and they immediately launch right into quest stuff with no nuance at all.

It feels completely fake and gamey.

[Becoming]

Let’s just ignore The Witcher 3 for a minute. The fact that I don’t feel like this is living up to Fallout 3, let alone Skyrim is the real problem. This far along in either of those I was hooked and completely along for the ride.

Hell right now I feel like ESO is a better open world than the ES team at Bethesda has ever made and that’s a big problem. If I understand correctly, it’s a completely separate dev team than the ones that have been making these games for close to two decades now. Add in the additional challenges of an mmo and it’s crazy talk that it now seems to be the best of both worlds.

I’ll keep at it for now, but it doesn’t bode well that I seem to constantly be having those “who the hell thought this was a good idea?” moments.

[Scotch_Lufkin]

Yeah, that has kinda been my experience with Bethesda games and why I stopped playing them. I remember being wowed by the huge open world of Morrowind and Oblivion, but every subsequent release I have played less and less. The world itself isn’t enough to keep me entertained anymore, I want interesting things to do in that world. I actually find that this can be a common problem in a lot of open world games.

I actually feel like this is a step backwards from Skryim, which had a lot more interesting locations to explore because they were settlements, or people who needed help with something, or a strange statue that gave you a challenging quest with a powerful reward. But yeah, Fallout 4 is missing the mark on the open world stuff, simply because there isn’t a lot of world. Who are these raiders all fighting and raiding? Each other? There are 1,000x more raiders in the world than people who want to barter with me, it’s maddening.

[merryprankster]

Yeah, Skyrim definitely had a cool epic feel to the world. Shame that seems to be missing in F4. Still, even Skyrim tended to meander about too much for my tastes. It just lacked any sense of drama for me, as I seem to prefer strong central characters and a plot full of intrigue in my games, rather than an aimless sandbox.

[Timex]

The crafting system in FO4 is pretty damn awesome.

[Gordon_Bleu]

Some tips if you’re going to play this on Steam Link:

My PC monitor is 1920x1200, my HDTV is 1920x1080. To get FO4 into 1080 mode, I had to switch FO4 to “windowed” and “borderless”. That gave me the option to select 1920x1080.

If you’re going to kick back on the couch and play FO4 with a controller, you still need a keyboard by your side (I like the MS All-in-one media keyboard, it’s about $25US on Amazon and has a large trackpad). For example, to get past the game launcher, or typing your name into the character creation screen (there’s no on-screen keyboard on the PC version, or if there is, I couldn’t figure out how to bring it up).

The wireless adapter for 360 controller works wonderfully with Steam Link. Totally plug-and-play.

Steam Link does not support 5.1 surround. Valve is “working on it”. I wish I had known this before purchasing one, I would have waited.

Go Ethernet, not Wifi, if you can. This is true of any game you play on Steam Link.

[sether01]

In many ways this feels like a huge, well done, fan made conversion for fallout 3.

It just lack any sort of polish to many crucial elements.

They had to know some of the perks were poorly designed too.

Also, the PC UI is EVEN WORSE THAN BEFORE!!! Seriously, push R to scrap and enter to accept? On an action you’re going to be doing thousands of times? How about inconsistent keys to accept/cancel screens? How about a dialog selection system CLEARLY designed for a gamepad and not customized for a PC at all.

Also also, i’ve rubberband teleported a few times. Not the end of the world, but a weird bug.

The UI is pretty awful, but you can use E instead of enter, so that’s something at least.

[Doctor_Hillbilly]

I foolishly forgot my “no numpad binding prediction” when I opened F4 for the first time yesterday. “Hahaha, foolish forgetful left-hander”, a disembodied voice said, “Bethesda will not improve the UI, no matter how many years pass. Play awkwardly or get a refund.”

Honestly, it probably plays better on a gamepad than the keyboard I can’t use - being clearly designed that way - but I can’t move and aim as well with a gamepad as I do normally, so I’m playing my incredibly uglyy character as a slightly clumsy, easily disoriented vault dweller with poor eyesight.

Overall, a few hours in, it’s fine, but the fine feels a little shopworn. Partly it’s the shadow of Witcher 3 and partly it’s just the lack of improvement to the things that have always needed improvement. It feels like Bethesda has me on farm status.

[lordkosc]

Ok so once you get the power armor, you don’t actually have to fight anyone, I stood on the roof for 2-3 minutes listening to a holotape and by the time I jumped down , everyone/thing was dead.

Whats? :D

[Miramon]

Where do you get concrete from?