Author Topic: Fallout 4  (Read 27065 times)

Offline MysterD

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Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #81 on: Thursday, November 12, 2015, 09:11:09 PM »
Yeah, it's still early. I suspect some issues will get sorted. Wikis are still real thin, searching for answers to various questions doesn't always yield quality (or any) results. And it'll be nice to have more of that since so much of what you can do in the game is undocumented. Mods have a long way to go too, which stands to reason being so early. They're coming pretty heavy already, but are collectively 99% bullshit. Useless graphics reshaders, sound tweaks, XP tweaks, a million other things for people who care more about complaining than actually playing the fucking thing. And there's a plethora of "here's a savegame of a character I made that looks like a celebrity" stuff, to the point where browsing Nexus was like looking at a Sims 4 fansite. Also prominent are the "here's a savegame of a cute girl I made called sultry redhead or sexy brunette" downloads. I saw one that changed the doom-heavy death music cue to the "Mario death sound", which I assume is the jingle from the first game. That's funny, but ... yeah.

Anyway, it'll be nice to see the community and surrounding atmosphere mature to be sure, which should happen as official patches come, better mods are released, and people find something better to do than complain.

EDIT - Felt compelled to write up a little thing. Consider this my "official review", which is mostly a response to some of the negativity: https://t.co/dfULzlErjJ
« Last Edit: Thursday, November 12, 2015, 11:54:49 PM by Quemaqua »

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Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #82 on: Friday, November 13, 2015, 04:14:27 PM »
NewEgg Deal:
Fallout 4 PC (physical box) * + Season Pass = $70.

* entire FO4 game is not on the DVD disc; expect at least 20+ GB from Steam.



Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #83 on: Saturday, November 14, 2015, 12:22:56 AM »

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #84 on: Saturday, November 14, 2015, 07:19:46 AM »
Haha!  Oh, man, the comments there.  Yeah, real relevant.

Hey, W7RE, if you're there, how's it behaving on our box?  I've been avoiding Twitch streams on the game there, for fear of spoilers.

Offline W7RE

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #85 on: Sunday, November 15, 2015, 06:48:41 PM »
Haha!  Oh, man, the comments there.  Yeah, real relevant.

Hey, W7RE, if you're there, how's it behaving on our box?  I've been avoiding Twitch streams on the game there, for fear of spoilers.

Seems fine so far. Digital Foundry's analysis video showed Xbox One suffering less than the PS4 specifically in situations with lots of transparency effects (overlapping smoke sprikes and such), but actually dropping to 0 FPS for a second or two sometimes when loading new world geometry. This apparently doesn't happen with an external drive though. The framerate does drop a little once in a while, but I've had zero instances of 0 FPS, and mine is installed to my external.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #86 on: Sunday, November 15, 2015, 11:24:47 PM »
I don't know what to think about that so-called "0 fps" thing.  All big open-world games have some hitching--that momentary freeze where the streaming doesn't work out quite right.

It seems that an external drive is pretty much a required accessory for this console.  They just didn't go far enough with size or throughput in the internal storage.

I'm pretty much sold on the game.  I just have to decide to spend the money.  I haven't done that yet.  I'm sort of jealous of your captures.  :)

Offline W7RE

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #87 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 03:57:00 AM »
I don't know what to think about that so-called "0 fps" thing.  All big open-world games have some hitching--that momentary freeze where the streaming doesn't work out quite right.

Yeah, you can tell it's an issue while loading new assets. The DF video shows the screen freezing during those loads, which last maybe half a second, and says the gun sounds lag behind the animation too. I've experienced the sound delay, but I've not noticed the freezing. I could probably grab some more non-spoilery captures, but I've been spending so much time exploring the base building stuff that I've only gone to a couple locations so far. I'm not even doing that much base building, I'm just doing lots of messing around with how things work. I spent a few hours messing with just crops and assigning people to take care of them, just trying to figure out how to best control who takes care of what.

Offline ender

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #88 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 09:39:17 AM »
Sounds like a mess on the PC. Kind of glad to be playing on the PS4, as I've had hardly any hiccups. I certainly have many more on Skyrim's release.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #89 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 09:58:41 AM »
The general consensus is exactly the opposite, actually, ender. PC is far and away the better way to play this game from a variety of standpoints, but especially performance. You just have a vocal minority that's pissed because their game isn't working right, and a lot of others quibbling about dumb stuff. The only bad thing about the PC version is the interface, which is largely solved by just using a controller. My game has been flawless so far. In like 44 hours of play, I have experienced exactly two bugs. One texture-related thing in an area which went away after I left and came back, and one crash. Other people are certainly having more problems at times, and are being real vocal about it, but that's to some degree par for the course, and only exacerbated by the fact that I'm sure Bethesda has sold a billion and a half copies. Most everyone I know who's playing it (which is upwards of 15 people) are having a fine time on PC.

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Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #90 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 10:55:48 AM »
The same seems to be true on the consoles.  Crybabies complain about every little thing, while most players are having a good time.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #91 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 12:06:01 PM »
Yeah, I get the impression that console is not ideal, but is perfectly playable barring some issues with hitching and slowdown. Jeff of Giant Bomb indicated one real bad area of slowdown that ruined an experience for him late-game on PS4, but he also seemed to think that was fairly isolated. Like it didn't usually bog down that bad.

Hopefully there will be some optimization all around.

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Offline ender

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #92 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 04:46:17 PM »
Ah okay, I guess I've just seen more about the PC on forums and such. That makes sense.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #93 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 04:54:36 PM »
VG 24/7 -> Game-breaking bug found in FO4 - game crashes at Monsignor every time the player goes there.

Quote
Multiple users on Fallout 4’s official forums have identified a bug in Fallout 4 that crashes the game.

The bug is connected to a settlement quest that asks players to go Monsignor Plaza. Upon doing so, the game crashes to desktop.

“I have to go to Monsignor but every time I go there it crashes straight to the desktop without any error message, there isn’t one in the Event Viewer either,” said one user.

According to the user’s investigation, it appears the bug only happens when you reach a certain point of the game’s story, saying that if you come across this quest earlier than he did, you may not have the crash.

The bug appears to also affect PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users.

It’s always preferred you wait to Bethesda to release a patch, but if you don’t mind poking around yourself, here’s what users have tried to far.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #94 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 05:06:29 PM »
The general consensus is exactly the opposite, actually, ender. PC is far and away the better way to play this game from a variety of standpoints, but especially performance.
That's also what I've been hearing & reading.

Quote
You just have a vocal minority that's pissed because their game isn't working right, and a lot of others quibbling about dumb stuff. The only bad thing about the PC version is the interface, which is largely solved by just using a controller.
Even if Bethesda just broke down weapons into more categories - i.e. melee; hand-guns; sub-machines guns; assault rifles; heavy guns; etc - that'd actually go a long way. I just don't really like going + scrolling down through wicked long lists of equipment. Even DAI had it broken down a bit more than in previous DA games - but, it still wasn't ideal b/c it still needed more categories.

I think the thing w/ Bethesda is this: they are considered a AAA studio; and with each RPG they seem to make the same mistakes time upon time again. They release the game w/ the game's graphics & graphical bells + whistles aren't cutting edge or remotely even close to it; the game has a ton of bugs + broken quests; and there always seems to be some kind of game-breaking bug (FO3 had the disappearing characters onto some Island which could happen to important NPC's; FO4 now has the Monsignor crash); and the UI seems to often be quite "meh."

I'm sure a bunch of official patches from Bethesda and mods on the PC will fix many of these typical Bethesda problems, in due time.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #95 on: Monday, November 16, 2015, 07:39:09 PM »
VG 24/7 -> FO4 sold over $100 million in digital sales.
1.87 million copies sold in digital.
1.2 million of those digital sales were on Steam.
The rest of the digital sales were on XB1 + PS4.

Offline Xessive

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #96 on: Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 06:04:23 AM »
VG 24/7 -> FO4 sold over $100 million in digital sales.
1.87 million copies sold in digital.
1.2 million of those digital sales were on Steam.
The rest of the digital sales were on XB1 + PS4.
PC beat the XB1 and PS4 combined! Wow!

Fie on those who doubted the relevance and significance of the PC!

Long live the PC! We welcome all who strive to live better lives and play greater (most of the time) games!

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #97 on: Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 11:05:49 AM »
The news is very good for us all.  It once again dispels several toxic notions: (1) single-player games sell less; (2) gamers don't want big open-world games anymore; (3) real gaming systems are on the way out, giving way to phones.

I want to see independent figures too, including physical copies, to get a better picture of the overall sales.  But even as it stands, what I read is very encouraging.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #98 on: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 04:39:15 PM »
Kotaku -> FO4 PC - Dialogue Fix Overhaul Mod.

So, basically this mod replaces the short-truncated dialogue line/keywords (in which you don't know exactly what you'll say) with actually the actual dialogue line the player will literally say.


« Last Edit: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 07:23:21 PM by MysterD »

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #99 on: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 09:41:41 PM »
I wonder why they didn't do it that way in the first place.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #100 on: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 10:41:54 PM »
I wonder why they didn't do it that way in the first place.

Since the player is now voice-acted, you get line redundancy.

Do you really want to pick a line (which you read aloud or to yourself) and then actually hear that same exact line voice-acted? I know when I do, I skip just that particular line normally entirely. It's redundant. I'm the player character, I don't need to hear voice-acted the exact line I've already read when trying to make the decision.

Problem is - b/c there's now voice-acting for the player-character here, this truncated-line/keywords thing is now more common-place. This way, dev's think b/c you don't know what player is saying, you're likely going to listen to the voice-acting. Unfortunately, the BIGGER problem w/ this here is the keyword or truncated doesn't always match-up what you hoped for on the choice. Maybe a "Sarcastic" line-choice is sarcastic-nasty, and not sarcastic-funny - by the time you hear the line, you're like "That wasn't my intent! I want to make another choice! Reload last save!"

Personally, I like the way the mod looks to be doing this: the old-school way. Give me the exact line on the choice - I'll just hit "skip" so I don't hear the same line voice-acted that I've already read when deciding.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #101 on: Thursday, November 19, 2015, 05:05:22 PM »

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #102 on: Sunday, November 22, 2015, 03:47:43 PM »

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #103 on: Monday, November 23, 2015, 12:15:50 PM »
Heh. For some reason my other one wouldn't post, so I did a truncated version once I figured out why Steam was being dumb. It had nothing to do with length, but I figured a tl;dr version was more useful.

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Offline PyroMenace

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #105 on: Monday, November 23, 2015, 07:37:17 PM »
I feel like Skyrim had interface issues on the PC when it first came out. At least playing with a keyboard and mouse which I never did anyway.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #106 on: Monday, November 23, 2015, 08:00:37 PM »
I feel like Skyrim had interface issues on the PC when it first came out. At least playing with a keyboard and mouse which I never did anyway.

Sky UI was a worthwhile UI Mod for Skyrim PC.

What did everyone use for UI mods for PC versions FO3 + NV?

Offline MysterD

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« Last Edit: Wednesday, December 02, 2015, 04:01:09 PM by MysterD »

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #108 on: Thursday, December 03, 2015, 07:06:39 PM »
Disagree completely with both of those writeups, to the point where I wonder what game it was these people played.

I think people have a very rose-colored memory of Fallout 3. I'm not saying it wasn't in some ways a bit more varied and interesting, because in some ways it definitely was (and I guess NV was too; I still haven't played that one, but the let's plays that I've watched really haven't impressed me all that much), but I'm not sure as much as people seem to think. To some degree I think it's true just because yeah, it's probably getting a lot harder to come up with interesting scenarios for the game. We've had a whole bunch of Fallout games, and as a writer, I can absolutely see it getting a bit tougher to come up with stuff that feels really fresh. What I've seen indicates to me that they've done a pretty okay job, though.

Anyway, I think the "nope, this is an FPS" nature of the Fallout 4 is overblown, and the "OMG this is a super deep RPG!" nature of Fallout 3/NV is equally overblown. I played Fallout 3 as a charisma-heavy character, and you know what? I spent most of my time shooting shit. I'm playing a charisma-heavy character in Fallout 4, and you know what? I'm spending most of my time shooting shit. But I'm also still getting different outcomes from interactions with people versus what my buddy who streams the game has been getting, and he's playing a combat-heavy strongarm type. I can think of at least 3 different situations I've been in where you have to murder a huge group of people unless you can talk your way out of it somehow (and you can, if you have the skill), and one of the very first situations I got myself into involved essentially arbitrating a standoff between two other people, which can end in immediate bloodshed, get halfway in and end up with either side becoming the aggressor, or end peacefully in two different ways.

I'm not trying to say the game is perfect, or even that it meets exactly the same standard as past games in the franchise, but these kinds of statements are both inflammatory and devoid of substance. Looking at the most up-voted reviews on Steam only tells you that the vocal minority who are pissed off have decided it's worth it to waste their time going through every review they can find and up-voting the bad ones. What shoddy fucking journalism, truly. The user reviews are still listed as extremely positive, so clearly the vast majority of people love the game, there's just (as usual) a very vocal minority that wants to complain. People who liked the game don't have a vendetta fueling their need to up-vote every Steam review they can find that they agree with.

Again, the game isn't perfect, and there are some things that were done better and worse to varying degrees, but I don't find that my experience at all matches what those guys wrote about. Sure, you can focus on combat and play the whole game as a shooter, but you could do that before anyway, except that the shooting was fucking bad and you were forced to use VATS constantly, which really was far from ideal because it made you basically unstoppable really not even very far in the game. Fallout 4 on hard is much more difficult, thanks in part to the hugely improved shooting/VATS mechanics. And yes, there's no level cap, so you can eventually become a god, but so what? You have to put a fuckload of hours in to get even anywhere near that.

And I still stand by my earlier statements that people lamenting the death of the text-list dialogue options are completely misled. Not because you might not prefer that style, I totally get that ... and that's fine. Download the mod, be happy. But I really don't feel like past games presented you with a lot more options beyond the obligatory be nice or be a jerk. And even if they occasionally did, I don't think anybody in the world gave a fuck unless you stuck to an extreme. It was more the illusion of choice than choice that actually affected anything.

Anyway, just my two cents since I get really tired of the "everyone who liked Fallout before think it sucks now" line. That's simply not true. Don't presume to speak for me. I've been playing since the first game (hell, I even played Wasteland), and the franchise is doing just fine.

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Offline MysterD

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« Last Edit: Saturday, December 12, 2015, 06:05:55 AM by MysterD »

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #110 on: Sunday, December 20, 2015, 04:05:02 PM »
WARNING: Fallout 4 SPOILERS in below said link:
Gaming Rebellion -> FO4: A Failure of Narrative Interactivity.


Offline PyroMenace

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #111 on: Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 04:23:45 PM »
Man I'm really glad I avoided any reaction to this when it came out. I've put in 50 hours now and I'm honestly not let down at all. I can certainly acknowledged the complaints of the main character dialogue and narrative but like Que mentioned, when was the character narrative in ANY Bethesda game good? Fallout 3? Nope, it was actually pretty bad, especially the end, Skyrim? Again no, I came away from that one pretty underwhelmed despite it building up to something that had a lot of potential. I suppose it's more glaring in Fallout 4 because they gave the character a voice, I wouldn't have been for that but I'm really not caring that much in the end, it's not affecting the experience in any negative significance. What I am finding is a lot of cool plot lines and random interesting events when wandering the wasteland which is exactly what I was wanting. The crafting systems are all good, I love what they did with the power armor, the building system is a little janky but I'm finding it pretty cool and surprising with how deep it is, even if it isn't tied into the game mechanics in more meaningful ways. The combat if you prefer not to use VATS, which I don't, is the best it's ever felt. Overall, the disappointment is just not there for me, not even in the least. I'm more excited than ever about what mods can be done with this on PC, especially in regards to the building system.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #112 on: Tuesday, February 16, 2016, 04:26:03 PM »
FO4 Season Pass/DLC Info.

- Season Pass on March 1st will jump from $30 up to $50 b/c they say are planning to do even more DLC's than what's listed below + b/c supposedly some of the DLC's are getting quite big.
- First 3 DLC's for the Season Pass detailed:
Quote
Automatron
Price: $9.99 USD | £7.99 GBP | $16.95 AUD
Release: March 2016
The mysterious Mechanist has unleashed a horde of evil robots into the Commonwealth, including the devious Robobrain. Hunt them down and harvest their parts to build and mod your own custom robot companions. Choose from hundreds of mods; mixing limbs, armor, abilities, and weapons like the all-new lightning chain gun. Even customize their paint schemes and choose their voices!

Wasteland Workshop
Price: $4.99 USD | £3.99 GBP | $7.95 AUD
Release: April 2016
With the Wasteland Workshop, design and set cages to capture live creatures – from raiders to Deathclaws! Tame them or have them face off in battle, even against your fellow settlers. The Wasteland Workshop also includes a suite of new design options for your settlements like nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more!

Far Harbor
Price: $24.99 USD | £19.99 GBP | $39.95 AUD
Release: May 2016
A new case from Valentine’s Detective Agency leads you on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths. Travel off the coast of Maine to the mysterious island of Far Harbor, where higher levels of radiation have created a more feral world. Navigate through the growing conflict between the synths, the Children of Atom, and the local townspeople. Will you work towards bringing peace to Far Harbor, and at what cost? Far Harbor features the largest landmass for an add-on that we’ve ever created, filled with new faction quests, settlements, lethal creatures and dungeons. Become more powerful with new, higher-level armor and weapons. The choices are all yours.

Offline Xessive

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #113 on: Thursday, February 18, 2016, 06:55:13 AM »
Necessary clarification: anyone who already purchased the Season Pass will not have to pay extra. Bethesda will honor all Season Pass purchases before before March 1st.

This was also confirmed by Game Informer:
Quote
If you already own the pass or purchase it before the price goes up, you’ll still get everything for the same price.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #114 on: Thursday, February 18, 2016, 08:55:49 AM »
Which is a win-win for them.  There will be a rush to buy season's passes before March from people who were procrastinating or on the fence about it.  Then they get to establish one of the worst precedents in gaming--jacking up prices on game content after release, something formerly reserved for scalpers and collectors.  (I realize the DLC is not released yet.  But the season's pass is an item for sale in and of itself--one I don't believe in personally, but many others do.)

Offline MysterD

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #115 on: Thursday, February 18, 2016, 05:08:51 PM »
I have some interesting reactions so far with this game. Not sure really what to make of it completely, as I'm only 3-4 hours into it. Might be too soon to really give an idea, as BethSoft games are usually freaking huge. Often, sum of their parts can really make the game.

Intro video + set-up for the game is fantastic, even though there's one thing that feels like Bethesda dropped the ball on, story-wise + character-wise.
(click to show/hide)

Storytelling, plot, and dialogue is STILL Bethesda's weakness.

While a lot of the RPG stuff seems scaled back, yet the combat feels incredible - seems like Bethesda really been talking + hanging out with Id Software. Action feels more like a shooter + action game, practically embarrassing both Fallout 3 + New Vegas.

VATS is no longer a pseudo turn-based affair like it was on Fallout 3 + NV. VATS instead now just slows down combat.
Karma system's gone period.

So far, options in dialogue seems to often be...very Hero-like. Options often feel like you can be morally Good, another Good choice (with maybe another outcome/varation), Sarcastic jerk that'll still do something Good - i.e feels very Mass Effect. You really don't feel like there will be many, if any, options to be a Evil bad-ass, which was VERY common-place in ALL other major FO games (FO1, FO2, FO3, FO:NV).

Everything is in the Perk System for new skills, sinking points into skills, and that stuff.
No more categories for sinking up to 100 points in say - no more Guns, Melee, Speechcraft, etc. A lot of that stuff got axed or moved over into Perk System.
Graphics are technically solid & decent, but it isn't anything spectacular.
This game should support more in-game/in-engine than TXAA + FXAA. TXAA does too much blurring, while FXAA is too weak for only-supported AA in-game/in-engine (when compared to MSAA, MFAA, and SMAA).

I'll talk more in depth later.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #116 on: Saturday, March 12, 2016, 07:32:38 AM »
I've been heavily into this for over 3 days of game time, according to the latest saves.  (As with past Beth games, I think this includes all the time the game is running, even while paused.  So I believe all the bathroom breaks,  dinner breaks, breaks to look up stuff like "how the hell do I get out of this power armor?" and time I've forgotten the game was running are in there too.)  It feels very much like a FO game, with the addition of all the crafting and gear modding.  

The latter interests me the most.  Base building strikes me as a chore, since the building system is atrocious, and I don't care to spend forever trying to make pieces stick together into a bigger whole.  Usually I just end up throwing some turrets around the perimeter, a prefab shack or two stuffed with mattresses, dropping down a generator and beacon plus some water pumps, maybe a small farming space, and call it a settlement.  Then I link them together to share resources.  Making weapons and armor progressively more effective, though, is quite the addictive time sink for me.

In what seems like a clear nod to Borderlands, the game spawns legendary (badass) enemies every so often, which sometimes drop weapons or armor with unique extra properties.  The crafting system allows me to mod these weapons with parts from others of the same kind, which acts very much like leveling up the gear.  So for example, I like this "Righteous Authority" laser which adds double damage for criticals and a 15% faster filling of the critical meter.  Every time I get a laser with better parts, I can swap them out for crap parts, then use the better parts on the RA.  Or as I ramp up related perks like Science or Gun Nut, I can craft better parts for it from the junk I collect all over.  If I have a great generic weapon already put together, and I find a special named weapon of the same kind later on, I can move all the  better parts from the generic weapon over to it, and then use the special instead.  Pretty cool.  Most of my weapons and some of my armor now have proper names (and added perks).  It's an enjoyable process.

I don't concentrate as much effort on regular armor, though, because of the awesome addition of the power-armor crafting.  An early story mission nets everyone a T45 set (6 armor pieces and a frame).  I got lucky not much later by accidentally shooting a Brotherhood of Steel knight and stripping him of most of his health while in a firefight with super mutants.  He then got wasted by the SMs, and I ended up collecting all 6 pieces of his T60 set.  I've been working on that one ever since.  It's up to Model D now, with added explosive and radiation shielding.  I'm basically unkillable in this thing.  The regular armor serves me well for random encounters in places where I wasn't expecting to need the heavy protection, so I do tend to keep it up as well.  [I should add that the greatest single gear perk I have so far is on an armor piece:  If my heath drops below 20%, I go into bullet-time slo-mo until I decide to heal.  Some great fun has been had this way.]

Anyway, I still have a very long way to go with both the story and the side content.  So I'm not going to get into too much of how I feel about that now.  The companions have been great so far, each very unique, and with their own story to pursue in-game.  Probably not a spoiler, but just in case:  
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 Will post more later.

Hey, Que.  Is your review very spoilery?  Knowing I was going to be playing this eventually, I haven't dared to go look before.  Now, maybe, is the time?

« Last Edit: Saturday, March 12, 2016, 07:54:28 AM by Cobra951 »

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #117 on: Saturday, March 12, 2016, 03:49:15 PM »
I never put spoilers in reviews, ever, unless by accident or oversight. So yeah, expect anything I write about a game that isn't several years after the fact to be spoiler-free.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #118 on: Sunday, March 13, 2016, 09:35:53 AM »
Thanks for that writeup.  I agree with you in just about everything.  But my biggest complaint about the game so far (even bigger than the occasional crash) is that the colorful wasteland you mention is very seldom that.  As with most games that make the mistake of implementing weather systems as simple random events (weather is not random, and can't possibly be simulated by a simple roll of the dice), what I get to see most of the time is mush.  The colors only come out during bright sunny days, and those are like a holy grail, one to be hunted by strategic sleeping, waiting, and fast-traveling.  They are all-too rare, with the usual display being encumbered by one of various colorless or fogged states.  This has a significant impact on my enjoyment of wandering and exploration.  You PC folks should get weather mods, and probably already have time-of-day and weather console commands.  All I can do is live with it, and hope for improvements.

The one exception to the lack of degrading is power armor.  That takes damage in combat, and the pieces can even break and get unequipped from the power frame.  They must be maintained at one of those yellow stations.  I love tinkering with gear, as I explained in my last post.  I'm learning a bit more about base building, but I'm still not too keen about trying to put together a building from pieces. Man, they really dropped the ball here.  It could have been so much better.

Totally agree about the crap interface.  It wasn't just the mouse+KB crowd that got the shaft here.  As MysterD said, there are woefully few categories (and I'll add sorting parameters) and you end up scrolling through endless lists, searching for something.  I have to do something about my miscellaneous category.  Do quest-related holotapes and notes sound miscellaneous to you?  That's asinine.  With my short-term memory issues, I often forget the name of something I just picked up, and I'm confronted with this interminable scroll of stuff to wade through in search of it.  I think what I'll do is create another container at my home base in Sanctuary, and shove as much of the unimportant or obsolete miscellaneous crap in it as the game will let me.  I already have separate containers for choice stuff and the piles of random stuff I haven't decided what to do with yet.  They could have at least used a phone-book method of naming things, you know (e.g., "pistol, laser, tactical agitated")?

Anyway, I'll be getting back to the game now.  I've been doing a lot of settling and supply-line linking.  I'm afraid to talk to Preston, though, since that would mean more fires to put out.

Offline Cobra951

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Re: Fallout 4
« Reply #119 on: Friday, April 01, 2016, 07:30:41 AM »
Sitting at over 10 days of game-on time now.  As with the past Beth games, once I get hooked, I'm gone.  I was cycling through several good games, but not anymore.  My system may as well be hardcoded with Fallout 4 right now.

I finished the story with the BoS, but I left myself saves to follow the Minutemen and the Institute to the end.  I felt awful after playing good soldier for the BoS.  
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 So I loaded up the save to follow a different path, with the Minutemen, and that ended up disappointing me as well.  
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My greatest disappointment is that so much is rigidly forced in the storyline.  
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 I have yet to follow the Institute
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(which I want to do) or the Railroad (which interests me the least), so perhaps there's something I'm missing, and there's a way to a better future for this world.

Edit:  On to the gameplay feelings.  Overall, terrific.  It's definitely Bethesda, and we all know what quirks and problems that brings.  Accepting or overlooking those, the improvements from the previous installment are most welcome.  Gunplay feels a lot more like it should, and VATS is not strictly necessary anymore.  Being able to mod gear is terrific, as is the addition of true power armor.  I probably spent as much time tinkering as I did doing anything else.  The perk system is quite good, and the lack of a hard level cap makes playing for a very long time more rewarding.  I read somewhere that to get all the SPECIAL ranks and all the perks takes something like 270 levels.  I'm at story end game, and I'm at Level 74 on the BoS branch, and 73 on the Minutemen branch.

The weapons are extremely varied as a result of their moddability, and the addition of legendary prefixes and unique named items.  Expanding positively on the obvious influence from Borderlands, it's possible to exchange parts between guns of the same basic design, as well as craft them with the proper resources and perks.  It takes 4 ranks in 3 different perks, plus at least one rank in a 4th to be able to craft everything possible for gear.

I got so hooked on power armor that I really didn't invest nearly as much time on the normal wearables.  Those can be modded extensively as well, and your outfit can consist of up to 8 items (underarmor, 6-piece armor, glasses) and each one of those can have perk boosters or legendary bonuses.  Next playthrough, I'll try to resist the allure of those shiny hulking mechanized suits, and develop some killer regular armor instead.

Power armor is the shit, though.  It's my single favorite enhancement over FO3.  You really feel like you're in a mech suit, and once you have a jetpack, you'll never go back.  That's only one of many mods for each piece of the PA set, which themselves come in 4 different flavors suitable for different character levels.  Each can be strengthened in 5 increments above base level as well.  Overall, quite engrossing for a tinkerer.

Bugs and issues abound, as in all the big Beth games.  Not many crashes after the update to 1.4, but I still got infinitely stuck in a dialog or totally frozen on occasion, or something didn't trigger properly, etc.  Their saving grace is the many save files possible, and being able to save at any time.  I hear that the revamped survival difficulty will do away with quick saving, and restrict saving to sleeping in a bed.  For such rickety game tech, that is a huge mistake.

Edit 2:  Oh, and gotta have Automatron.  You haven't really played FO4 until you can make your own robot companions, or mod Codsworth into a British battle beast of a valet.
« Last Edit: Friday, April 01, 2016, 08:04:03 AM by Cobra951 »