| Title | Fallout 76 is going to be a Fallout game when it grows up |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | News |
| When | June 10, 2019 |
Fallout 76 is getting there. After its rough launch, Bethesda's developers have kept their noses to the grindstone and continued to work on improving the game. Here, then, is the biggest news for Fallout 76 that came out of Bethesda's E3 2019 briefing..
I can’t believe the rapturous applause Bethesda got for announcing they were putting NPCs in their Fallout game. Todd’s little joke about the reception the game received was bad enough, but then to triumphantly announce your empty, crummy little game is getting some of the basic elements of a narrative-driven game later this year? Yeesh.
As for the joke - other people get to make those kinds of jokes Todd, not you. You’re the one who shipped the catastrophically broken, empty, bad product for $60. It’s not funny. In a better world, it would be a (successful) class-action lawsuit.
That recent IGN interview he did, where he basically admitted he knew the game would be broken and poorly-received at launch, but that it was okay because all that matters is where your game ends up eventually, was the last straw for me. Publishers get away with this stuff too often nowadays - shipping something broken and terrible, then asking your captive audience to “go on a journey with us” as you fix it over the next months and years. Anthem did this too.
To be fair though, the Fallout 76 thread at Qt3 had plenty of people who played it and enjoyed it. They were mostly lost in the voices of complaint and mockery, but they were there. The game was clearly good enough to be enjoyable if you were expecting something like Fallout 4 without the NPCs.
I don’t know, after reading that thread regularly, I didn’t come away with the impression that it was a completely broken, horrible product that should never have been released.
It’s all in your perspective. I never thought Anthem was a completely broken horrible product that shouldn’t have been released, but apparently I’m wrong.
Some people definitely find enjoyment in games that are otherwise nearly-universally panned critically, but the brokenness part is pretty much beyond dispute - the game was an absolute technical mess when it came out, and still continues to have some issues (though the critical, game-breaking ones are mostly resolved now).
It should be illegal to release a video game in a state THAT bad, and it’s definitely not something you should be able to joke about to laughs and cheers at E3, 8 months later.
Anthem was nowhere near as bad as FO76 in any respect, but Bioware definitely pulled the same “we know the game is in a bad place, please take this journey with us as we get it to where it should have been at launch” maneuver.
Have an ember
Sorry about the Great Canvas Shortage of 2018. Here’s $5 worth of in-game currency that’ll buy you less than half a power armor paint job from our ridiculous premium store.
Anthem only wish it had tchotchkes as dope as FO76’s
Real Corinthian Plastic on the Fallout Rum bottle, yo
It is free this week to try Fallout 76. I think I’ll give it a shot.
My favourite thing about Rum Bottle-gate, was when they tried to defend the plastic bottle cases by saying it was actually more expensive than just making the glass bottles… that everyone wanted.
…
And the blows just don’t stop coming for ZeniMax/Bethesda.
The backstory of Fallout 76 would have made a great Fallout game. You awaken from the vault to find a number of hostile/semi-hostile factions, that you need to bring together to fight off raiders, mutants, beasts, and the Scorch. You could even make it sort of a strategy game - you might have competing missions where one faction will not be happy with your actions. And based upon your actions, the Scorch could advance across the map in certain areas, or get pushed back in others. You might have to prioritize which outposts, towns, facilities have to be held vs, which could be given up. Some actions you might participate in, others you just might hear of. In the end, what happens at the end is dependent upon how many factions you bring along and how strong they each are. Think of the factions in X-Com 2 or Phoenix Point for example.
Damn, I wish I could play this game :)
Anyone still playing this? Just got to level 10 and completed the mission where you get a shelter. And if you enter your shelter your pacifist condition is turned off. So that people who enter can kill you? How is that a shelter?
That sounds like a workshop. Workshops can provide large amounts of resources if you control them, but you are forced to be PvP flagged inside them. Everywhere else, toggle your pacifist flag and you’re (mostly) immune to PvP. Nukes and some exploits can still hurt you, though.
I have 500+ hours in FO76, though I stopped playing about 6 months ago. I was never attacked by anyone, even when sitting in workshops.
After the first few weeks, really, player on player attacks simmered down to being pretty rare and usually not terribly disruptive. It isn’t fun enough or disruptive enough to the victim to really encourage ganking much.
No. It’s the shelter you can build at your camp. Got it from the ‘what does this key open’ quest.
