Fallout 4!

[easytarget]

I'd have a higher tolerance for this rinse repeat FPS RPG thing Bethesda has been doing over and over if they'd figure out a way of making NPCs not say the same damn thing over and over, how about giving them a few lines instead of one?!

The only reason I'm even considering picking up FO4 at some point is because I can sort of play a loaner that interacts with NPCs minimally just as I did in FO3, which at least mitigates some of what is otherwise the blatantly stupid dialogue one is forced to hear out of the mouths of pretty much every NPC in the town/village/what have you that ends up being a place you are forced to return to over and over in the course of the game.

Nothing however will fix the fact, at least for the foreseeable future, that RPG writing, story, and character development are all comically infantile as compared to cinema or literature. That piece of it just has to be tolerated.

[Myth]

Man, I never finished 3. No time to do it I guess. So I can't play 4.

[rvg]

FO3 main storyline was rather weak imho.

[easytarget]

While I don't completely disagree, I guess for my purposes it worked if only because it allowed me the freedom to ignore it for most part and just wander the wastes taking part in whatever I came across. Which is far more believable and capable of sustaining some level of immersion than the alternatives I usually get. For me at least this is one of the few ways to make an RPG work. Otherwise what I'm stuck with are cliched power fantasy stories sprinkled with a 100 hours of fed-ex quests.

[lars573]

I must agree with this assessment. Most TES games follow the exact same formula:
1. World in mortal danger
2. Some bigass monster/construct/dragon/whatever as the method of delivery of that destruction (remember Numidium, Akulakhan, Dagon's Avatar or the World Eater?)
3. You, as some random schmuck imprisoned, shipwrecked or otherwise marooned in the immediate area and prophesied to fix everything.

Actually it's:
1. The World is in mortal danger
2. Some dark god/demi-god* is going to royally fuck shit up but good and/or colliding political ambitions are about to do the same.
3. The gods** make sure that the random imprisoned schmuck that gets dragged into it by the Imperial government is the prophesied hero that fixes everything





*That was no avatar of Mehrunes Dagon It was literally him, and he is a god. Molag Bal, Hircine, and Hermaeus Mora too. Alduin and Dagoth-Ur totally make demi-god status. Manimarco nearly does too.
**Considering Akatosh fought Dagon directly, plus Talos and Azura gave the Nerevarine a pep talks.

[easytarget]

This one isn't all that far off, so if someone is pre-ordering it do us a favor and circle back to this thread and let us know your initial impressions once you've gotten 5 or 10 hours under your belt.

[Veho Nex]

This one isn't all that far off, so if someone is pre-ordering it do us a favor and circle back to this thread and let us know your initial impressions once you've gotten 5 or 10 hours under your belt.

will do, already requested the 10th and 11th off for vacation days

[Veho Nex]

14 days to go

[Veho Nex]

8 days! And 4 videos to pass 20 minutes.

http://pastebin.com/yLedwhZs

[I of the Storm]

I wanted to hold off on pre-ordering, but last night I gave in after learning that preload has started.
Couldn't ... resist ...urge
So, game is now sitting preloaded on my HD, waiting only for the activation patch. *heavy breathing*

[Veho Nex]

[I of the Storm]

[easytarget]

Enjoy it now, anticipation is often more entertaining than realization. It's one of the downsides of triple A marketing hype.

That said, I plan to eventually pick this one up and look forward to hearing if it's all that, I'd like nothing better than to hear it is.

[I of the Storm]

I don't worry too much about that. My expectations aren't sky-high. Problem right now is to avoid the spoilers.

[easytarget]

Yeah, there is a lot of that floating around, best I guess to just stay out of FO4 threads and news till you get a chance to play it.

[Slyspy]

Meh, release day purchases or, worse, preorders are for chumps, especially for a Bethseda game. I think I'll wait for a patch or two while they iron out the more hilarious and/or gamebreaking bugs and to give the modders a chance to get to work. Fallout 3, NV and Skyrim were all about the mods for me.

[AntiDamascus]

I'm probably going to wait a while since my PC likely can't handle the new game. I'll be able to pick it up in a year or so on sale. My one fear is they reuse a lot of the textures for things from fallout 3 like they did vegas so it looked more like a xpac than a new game.

[lars573]

Fallout 4 uses the same engine as Skyrim. Which is the new one. Not the one that Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and NV) were built on.

[naut]

Fallout 4 uses the same engine as Skyrim. Which is the new one. Not the one that Oblivion and Fallout 3 (and NV) were built on.

Which are all the same engine, just marginally updated.

They reeeeally need to switch to the Unreal Engine.

[Veho Nex]

So 20 or so hours in. FO4 has a lot of steps forward and I do mean a lot. But there are some horrible steps backwards or outright removal of steps.

My gripes: No equipment durability (not including power armor), radiation reduces health and nothing else, Your SPECIAL and skills and perks have been streamlined into 7 distinct paths. Building towns can be a little tricky. Only 1 companion allowed (common mods you aren't here soon enough)

My loves: The layered armor system. Being able to throw random stuff like a pocketed leather cover on your shin is kinda nice. The weapon modifications. The city building as a whole. The atmosphere, yeah its like other FO games but I enjoy wandering the wasteland. The into movie was pretty sweet.

Another 14 hours in further thoughts:

So 34 hours of wandering the wasteland down. I haven't done too much with the story. I kind of like how it doesn't seem a major emergency like in FO3. I don't feel forced to run down the story path. I hit the main city following the story quest and it kinda stops forcing you to search. Its like heres a city, now go look. So I turned around and left to wander the waste.

Wandering has been fun. There have been sites that I show up to and everyones dead. Sometimes I think its a glitch sometimes it turns out there was a legendary deathclaw around and I didn't see him. The random encounters are also pretty entertaining from finding a man putting a gun to the head of a android that looks like him.

Its all been quite entertaining and I will admit that the first 6 hours I had a very MEHHHHHHHHHHH feeling about the game. It seemed like I had done this all before. I was really let down with the lack of equipment durability, dialogue, the perks. They were all major bummers to me. As I went on though, they really mattered less and less.

Leveling up has grown on me, mostly cause I really don't have a choice but to let it grow. I still miss having actual skills to level. Lockpicking and hacking are now "Thats impossible for me" if its too high of a level. No more going through 600 bobbypins trying to find that sweet spot on a master lock with only 5 in lockpicking.

Power armor, something I never really used in the previous fallout games, continues to be that way for me. I had a lot of fun running around in it and customizing it. It definitely keeps you alive in situations you'd normally instagib. Found a T-60 this morning and dropped a mini-nuke at my feet when fighting a deathclaw and I lived. I destroyed all my armor and almost died but I still lived. You might have just read that and gone "But Veho, you just said there was no equipment durability!" Well I lied but only kinda. Power armor is just the only equipment I've encountered that needs regular maintenance.

Speaking of Maintenance. The settlements are really bugging me now. there are a series of missions you can do to help these suckers out. So I did them and guess what? I've now become their personal savior. Molerat attack, better call Veho! Water purifier on the fritz? Call veho! I wish I could charge these idiots everytime they send out help request. I wish they were a little more autonomous. Need more food? Water? Beds? Raiders giving you a hard time and the 3 turrets I built aint cutting it? Why not use the flippin' stockpiled resources I leave behind.

I probably don't do the game any favors with my half-assed review of it buuuuut...

I do recommend FO4, even if you "obtain" it through less than ideal means. The gameplay itself has been a blast. The story has been meh, but I havent done much for it. The random encounters and just general exploring of the wasteland is where this game shines. (like duh Veho) The inclusion of weapon mods, armor mods, and settlement building in the end add far more to the game than was removed.

[I of the Storm]

Taking it slow here. 6 hrs in or so. Did the intro stuff to Concord and back to Sanctuary, decided to go off exploring. Combat seems more fast paced than previous Fallouts. I haven't done much settlement building apart from getting Sanctuary running. Still a lot of game mechanics to figure out. Also: no degradation of equipment sucks.

I miss mods!

[Veho Nex]

Mods are already coming out for it.

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/categories/?

[rvg]

Got this game a few days ago. Now, whenever I take a stroll around the neighborhood, I feel the urge to scrap every tree and every mailbox that I happen to pass. Thanks, Bethesda.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Mods are already coming out for it.

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/categories/?

I have it on good authority a lot of them may kill your game, and possibly kill your performance if they use loose files - there's some weird optimisation voovdoo with the new file formats.

[I of the Storm]

Since the Mod Manager is now updated for F4 on Nexus, installing/uninstalling has become much more safer. You don't have to fiddle with the files yourself anymore.
Once the GECK is out, we can expect to see some real modding. Right now it's just tinkering with the available stuff, like armour, weapons, body types and visuals.
I'm running a few (still being cautious myself) and it seems fine.

[Greyblades]

I have it on good authority a lot of them may kill your game, and possibly kill your performance if they use loose files - there's some weird optimisation voovdoo with the new file formats.

I have it on even better authority that the no fusion core drain, more armour slots, lowered jetpack ap drain, settlement supplies expanded, enboost and newdialogue mods do not kill games.

[I of the Storm]

newdialogue is a must. I felt so lost with the vanilla dialogue weel ... thing.