*WARNING* Fallout 4 - dont buy it unless...

[Evas]

I've gotten a few hours in on Fallout 4 now, and I figure an update wouldn't be a bad thing.

Gameplay: Basically just like F3, F:NV and Skyrim. If you like those, you are getting more of what you like. The change of the VATS system to be super slo-mo instead of a total pause was a nice upgrade, IMO.

Graphics: Seem to be an upgrade over Skyrim. Only an incremental improvement, but that's OK with me. Over all they seem pretty good.

Hardware Requirements: The hardware requirements seem to be higher than Skyrim. I have a mediocre graphics card (GeForce GTX 645) and wound up lowering my resolution a bit (from 1650 to 1280), but with increased AA and other effects. It seems to run very well now and looks good. I would hope they could optimize things more over the coming months though. It was a little disappointing to have to lower the resolution.

Bugs: I have run in to a couple with characters moving in weird way (characters standing on the head of another character, etc.) but nothing with quests. I'm sure they exist, but they haven't bothered me yet.

Interface: It was definitely designed for consoles. It sucks a little right now to be honest, especially the building menu in the settlements. It isn't game breaking, but it detracts. This should be one of the first things mods fix though.

Dialog System: So far, so meh. It hasn't hurt things that much, but I haven't gotten deep in to the plot. I don't like the "choose one of 4 options" thing though. We'll see if it is a significant detriment as the game progresses.

On the Power Armor: They definitely changed how it works. But in a very significant way they made the Power Armor much weaker than in previous games. Sure, you get access to it extremely early in the game. But Power Armor now needs a fuel source, meaning it is a resource you need to use in a controlled manner (at least initially). In previous games the Power Armor was just another set of clothing, but with very good stats that could run indefinitely. In F4 it is really separate system for which you will need to maintain power resources and will need to do a lot of upgrading.

In the Deathclaw scene you mentioned, you get to try a suit and you get enough power to try the suit for maybe 20 minutes of use. The whole scenario was really a tutorial for how the new armor system works, not an over powered too-early item drop.

[Bill]

Good to know, thanks Kevin. I'm back in!!!
OK, well, I was never out. There was very little chance of me NOT buying this eventually. Bethesda could probably make a sandbox world about watching mundane things like paint drying and grass growing and I would be in.

[Matt]

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/porn ... 36322.html

It is what it is I guess.

[John]

Kevin, you've officially got me juiced to play this. And I even just built myself a spiffy new PC! Arrrrghhh!! Must ... set ... aside ... gaming time!

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/porn ... 36322.html

It is what it is I guess.

Well, what do you expect? There's nothing sexy about nuclear annihilation.

[Simon]

I will shut up in a moment, because if you like the game and still playing, reading bad things about it wont help you enjoy it.

Just one more thing: there is thousands and thousands of people unable to play because of bugs and glitches, and even some people because of design choices (like "missing limb pop up window" in the middle of the fight leading to your death; it happened at least once to me). Sure all these things, along with crap UI and other smaller things, can and probably will be fixed in the future. But...

Bethesda could probably make a sandbox world about watching mundane things like paint drying and grass growing and I would be in.

Please... is this the standard we accept these days? Lets just push unfinished product out the door as fast as possible and wait for modders to fix it for us for free?
Thats why i think pre-ordering games is a really bad thing for the whole industry, developers/publishers dont seem to care anymore after they received enough money, and the game is not even out there yet. I pre-ordered one game before (Total War: Rome 2) and i promised myself not to ever again. I almost broke my promise with Fallout 4, but man im glad i didnt.

Im pretty sure if the game wasnt named Fallout and made by Bethesda, hype wouldnt be as high, and pornub traffic wouldnt be hurt.
But since the "Project Fallout 4" was (probably) a financial success, in the future we're gonna see similar shit with Fallout 5 or Elder scrolls 5 or 6 (i lost count). The same bugs, bad graphics, glitches and empty open world for 60 Euros. Because we accept it and support it.

I wanted to add few words, but when i started i couldnt stop writing lol. Ok ill shut up now

[Evas]

I will shut up in a moment, because if you like the game and still playing, reading bad things about it wont help you enjoy it.

Hey no worries at all. You aren't bothering me.

Just one more thing: there is thousands and thousands of people unable to play because of bugs and glitches, and even some people because of design choices (like "missing limb pop up window" in the middle of the fight leading to your death; it happened at least once to me). Sure all these things, along with crap UI and other smaller things, can and probably will be fixed in the future. But...

There are certainly some rough edges. No doubt. The UI one bothers me a bit. They knew it would be an issue for PC gamers. But they have been doing the same thing (favoring consoles in the vanilla game) since Oblivion, so it isn't unexpected. But like I said before, it isn't a huge detraction - just a small annoyance.

Bethesda could probably make a sandbox world about watching mundane things like paint drying and grass growing and I would be in.

Please... is this the standard we accept these days? Lets just push unfinished product out the door as fast as possible and wait for modders to fix it for us for free?
Thats why i think pre-ordering games is a really bad thing for the whole industry, developers/publishers dont seem to care anymore after they received enough money, and the game is not even out there yet. I pre-ordered one game before (Total War: Rome 2) and i promised myself not to ever again. I almost broke my promise with Fallout 4, but man im glad i didnt.

I am with you on the pre-order thing. I didn't buy F4 until I think the day before it launched, just so I could pre-load it. I have been burned way too many times on pre-order and in-development games on Steam. I am done with that.

The bugs are a tricky issue in that with a game this massive and with so many ways to approach any situation, there are just more things that can go wrong than in a smaller game. So you will have more bugs. Now am I accepting too low of a standard? So far, I would say no. I haven't run in to anything bad yet. But my opinion on this could change. Either way if someone is on the fence about the game, waiting a couple months for patches will only make things better.

Im pretty sure if the game wasnt named Fallout and made by Bethesda, hype wouldnt be as high, and pornub traffic wouldnt be hurt.
But since the "Project Fallout 4" was (probably) a financial success, in the future we're gonna see similar shit with Fallout 5 or Elder scrolls 5 or 6 (i lost count). The same bugs, bad graphics, glitches and empty open world for 60 Euros. Because we accept it and support it.

I disagree about the graphics. This isn't Crysis 3 or Forza where half the point of the game is to push the limits of what is possible graphically. Bethesda wants to keep the number of systems that can run it as high as possible while making the game look good. I think they struck a fair balance.

I also disagree about the "empty world" thought. The world, from what I can see, is every bit as full as F3 or F:NV. There is not less content. I really don't get where that is coming from.

The bugs are a fair point though. A game shouldn't ship with game breaking bugs. So far my experience has been OK. But my mind could be changed if things get bad during my play through.

[Simon]

I also disagree about the "empty world" thought. The world, from what I can see, is every bit as full as F3 or F:NV. There is not less content. I really don't get where that is coming from.

When i said empty world I meant more about quality of the content than quantity, but i guess it depends on the individual taste. I just didnt like what i saw, it didnt feel alive, at least until frame drops started to happen so i couldnt continue. Maybe Diamond City is nice or other locations, but im probably never going to find out.

I disagree about the graphics. This isn't Crysis 3 or Forza where half the point of the game is to push the limits of what is possible graphically. Bethesda wants to keep the number of systems that can run it as high as possible while making the game look good. I think they struck a fair balance.

Well if they had balance in mind here, they failed. For example can play Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid 5 almost on ultra setttings, but here i have frame drops on mdeium, and graphics are way worse. And from what i read on the forums, im not the only one. Its not like i need graphics to like the game, its just one of the things.

The bugs are a tricky issue in that with a game this massive and with so many ways to approach any situation, there are just more things that can go wrong than in a smaller game.

I agree that its a lot more complicated, but there are companies out there handled this so much better than Bethesda, for example CD Project RED (Witcher 3). I cant recall any big bugs or glitches with that game during my playthrough, world seemed much more alive (yeah i know Fallout world is after nuclear apocalypse, but you know what i mean ) and the biggest issue players had with the game was that the graphics were downgraded compared to what we saw at E3 before. I know, its graphics again, but downgraded graphics in Witcher 3 are way way better than "upgraded" graphics in Fallout 4.

Oh and one more note about Fallout 4's open world. I read it somewhere, that you can travel(on foot) from one end to the other in 11 minutes. I didnt try it myself obviously, but if its true this world doesnt look much "open" to me.

I dont know, maybe im too harsh on this game, since its Fallout. User ratings are slowly going up on Metacritic, from 4.7 to 5.0/10 at the moment. I guess its 50-50, half of the players like the game and half dont.

[Bill]

Yeah, you aren't bothering me either. I like discussing it and won't take it personally.

Bethesda could probably make a sandbox world about watching mundane things like paint drying and grass growing and I would be in.

Please... is this the standard we accept these days? Lets just push unfinished product out the door as fast as possible and wait for modders to fix it for us for free?

I certainly don't blindly buy things just because the Bethesda name is on it. But Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout:NV are among my favorite games from the last 10 years and I had to have played 1000 hours between them. I would be perfectly fine if all they did was completely take F:NV, move it to a new location, and maybe give me a couple new guns. I can get 200 hours of happiness out of that pretty easily. Maybe I have low expectations.

I also don't tend to fall into the trap of paying the other $50-100 for all the "other stuff" they start rolling out. I don't really do that for any game (yes EA, I'm looking at you....). Madden has to be the worst for this.

Lastly, minor things like frame rates and tears in textures don't tend to bother me. I just don't care if there is a white flash in a rock. The game is still fun. True though, I tend to play on console a lot where those are less of an issue.

[Simon]

Frame rates isnt minor issue if they sometimes drop to 0 for few seconds :)

[Bill]

Frame rates isnt minor issue if they sometimes drop to 0 for few seconds :)

What, you don't like stop motion video games? lol
Yes, certainly 0 is a problem that should be corrected.