Topic: Fallout 4 --OT--

I read the patch is out but I won't be at home for the next 2 hours... Hope it works!

@andreoni79: Hopefully. Will be playing this post update tomorrow.

In response to 'why fallout 4 is bad' well that's nonsense, if you didn't enjoy it or it didn't live up to expectations it doesn't make it bad. I thought Witcher 3 was too long but it didn't make it bad, neither did the repetitive sidequests.

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi:

Yeah, that's the thing, every game has some flaws, Fallout 4 was my second favorite game of 2015 and I'll give it a second playthrough within the next month or so (going through TW3 for the third time right now, lol). It was a hell of a lot of fun and will likely stay on my HD for this entire generation, despite all of that, yeah, it had some disappointing aspects for sure.......bit would I recommend it to someone? Without a doubt.

I'm now currently on my second playthrough of F4 and I love it, but this isn't especially surprising considering I'm a Bethesda game junkie. I started with Morrowind back in 2004 and I've been hooked ever since. I've played over 2000 hours in Oblivion, more than 1000 in Fallout 3, and probably something like 5000 in Skyrim, one of my all time favourite games. I've got something like 750 hours in Fallout 4 and I'm still loving it. I don't see a lot of these glitches that people speak of. I do encounter the odd one, but not as game breaking as some of the ones people list around the internet. Some people complain about the graphics, but this is the tradeoff of making the game more playable and less visually appealing as is the norm when playing on a console. Most of the game time in games listed above was on my PS3. I read about people en masse complaining about how bugs made the PS3 version of Skyrim unplayable, yet I encountered a very low occurrence of said bugs. I also have Skyrim on my 360 and encountered far more problems on it than my PS3 version. Most notably the overworld freezing when the game was loading a new sector.

Fallout 4 has crashed on me only a handful of times in my 2 playthroughs, and I've never encountered a game breaking bug. I think the graphics look pretty good, and there are some areas that encounter a drop in framerate, but this is the same engine that they used in Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim, and many of those areas also slowed down without being really annoying. People slam Bethesda as not having any quality control, but be reminded that Bethesda employs about 40 full time people as opposed to say, Rockstar who employ around 100 full time people testing games and writing code. Bethesda only has so many resources devoted to identifying every little problem, especially considering how complex their games are. To develop a completely new game engine would require a massive undertaking that a small staffed company like Bethesda would not be able to do and still deliver games on a relatively short timetable.

In short, if you don't enjoy Bethesda games, don't waste your money and don't play them expecting the world to change. Play them, enjoy them for what they are, and utilise the worlds and tools they give you to maximise the enjoyment factor. I enjoy a phrase from Bad Santa which is, "Wish in one hand, s**t in the other and see which one fills up first."

Enjoy the experiences without the entitlement mentality society has empowered you with. Be grateful that these companies give us these great games. They do it so we can enjoy them, and the company can enjoy a profit to invest in future projects. Without said profits, we wouldn't have these worlds to explore and enjoy. I, for one, am extremely grateful. despite the odd glitch. It's not that they have no quality control or lazy developers as some self entitled gamers like to assign blame. It's simply a matter of manpower and economics. Pay and play and enjoy, or don't pay and don't play. Don't assign blame for your lousy experience. They do what they can with the resources they have! Game on, all. Hail and enjoy!

@SaiyanFury: I am NOT criticising it because I hate it. When I wrote the piece in the 'Why Fallout 4 is Bad' thread before it was closed, I was merely commenting on why it felt disappointing especially after playing the Witcher 3. I know I said it felt more like Fallout 3.5 but Fallout 3 was a good game. Fallout 4 is a good game too but in my opinion its not as good as I was hoping for or expecting and I think that's part of why others also felt disappointed by it. As far as 'bugs' and 'glitches' go, it wouldn't be a Bethesda RPG game without these. For some people though that's more important than the 90% of the playing experience that was 'bug' free. Bethesda I know are not the 'only' company to release games with a few bugs/glitches and like those, works to put these right. Its almost impossible to find 'every' bug/glitch in games of this size with so many different combinations and possibilities before launch. I also know that 99% of games released, are released because the developers have tried to put out a game for our enjoyment and fun - I don't think many (if any) games are released intentionally as purely a 'cash grab' - well not on Consoles at least - mobiles and PC's maybe a few...

I kind of knew what I was getting with Fallout 4 and in the most part it delivered. Like I said though I was a 'little' disappointed it didn't 'feel' like Fallout 4 but hat doesn't make it a 'bad' game and I know the potential is there or hundreds of hours - more than most games can deliver. Therefore it does offer good value for money. I know its not the most visually impressive game but graphics are only a small fraction of the overall experience - its not that bad either. Fallout 3 still looks good too. I don't think visuals affected Minecraft - probably the worst 'graphics' in any game in the last 5-10yrs!

Even though I do think the Witcher 3 is the best RPG on consoles, Fallout 4 is certainly a game I would recommend to.

I'm really looking forward to the new survival mode in this game. It's just a shame that it wasn't there to begin with, as I will certainly be making a new character and starting a new play through for it. I also imagine that, at the bare minimum, there will be a trophy for playing in this mode without switching difficulties. So my question is this?

How will you be playing Fallout before/during/after the content drops?

For me, it will be new survival play through from scratch. Existing character to plough through the content DLC, with the aim to eventually "main" with the survival character. Until it drops, however, I don't think I will be working on my current character. Don't get me wrong, I am really happy this content is coming. I just can't bare to work on my existing save until it does

I've seen only one of the ending (Institute) and I'm waiting the new survival mode to play with BoS and RailRoad. I've different saves so I don't need to start from the beginning and I think I'll dive into the 3 DLC in summer, hoping in a retail version as they did with Fallout3.

@andreoni79: I see. I've platinumed the game (thanks to the multiple saves), so am left with exploring the wasteland in preparation for the new content. I am still unclear whether the new survival mode requires a new character. Even if it doesn't, I would regard the mode as being the most satisfying to play, hence my reservations at sticking with my existing save.

I enjoyed the Automatron DLC but it was really short. You can easily beat it in one sitting.

It was a great distraction, but don't think I would have stumped up the cash for it if I didn't already have the season pass. Can't remember what youtube channel it was (maybe Mattyplays) but he pointed out a big miss. One of the trophies is linked to collecting mods for the robots. All of them are unlocked anyway on completion of the main story. It would have been so much better to be able to continue hunting down elusive parts through the radiant questing on completion. Right now, I've got everything and no need to touch the DLC again, unless I really want to spend time on my robot companion.

Yeah, I'm back in the same boat I was before the DLC. I have nothing left to do outside of repeating quests. Those get old after a while.

I am starting my first campaign this week on Fallout 4, and I am wondering do I need the DLC when I am first getting started? Or is most of the content geared towards later in the game?

I would recommend waiting on the DLC. You are going to want to be a higher level before starting Automatron and Wasteland Workshop is a "crafting" DLC which you are going to have to build up supplies for.

I would give the Far Harbor DLC a 9 out of 10, I must have put about 10 hours into it........but only if your able to overlook the frame rate issues........it does get better as you get deeper into the storyline, but it never fully goes away.

Anyways, the new area is very well crafted, it has it's own dynamics, and I would say that the quest design and general narrative is superior to the base game. You'll often find yourself thinking twice about the decision at hand........the new characters aren't amazing, but none of them are poorly designed either (besides the new partner option, who is under-developed).

Overall it's more interesting than the majority of the main storyline.

I loved Far Harbor. The frame rate did drop for me a bit at times but it was never gaming breaking. I hadn't played the game in awhile so the DLC really pulled me back in.

Okay so, should I go with survival mode?? I can't decide...I know once you switch to it, you cannot go back to it, if you decide to lower the difficulty later.

@scubydo: If you want to get properly into the game world and spend countless more hours than you would with the regular modes, then survival is the way to go. If you would like to see most of what the game has to offer, but not have to dedicate 100+ hours then go with normal mode. I have completed the game with all branching paths and attained all the trophies (except for a few story trophies in far harbour). I couldn't imagine doing all this is in survival mode.

What is a good survival mode build geared towards heavy damage and guns? Not necessarily stealth .

Any thoughts?