Fallout 4

There's no way that Bethesda's titles will be staying as Xbox/PC only now, that ship has sailed.

In fact the starship will have "sailed" before the end of the year too I'm sure. Hopefully better than it was last year with the existing versions getting rejigged as well.

There was some interesting chat in the noclip crew podcast about Fallout 76, the reaction to it (and to the accompanying NoClip doc that came out before it launched), and how they see it in hindsight. Danny makes a compelling argument that the backlash to FO76 is why Starfield feels “designed by committee”. I hadn’t thought of FO76 as a risky new thing that should be encouraged from established studios, I figured it was a grab at live service because it was fashionable, but it did feel a bit early-access at launch, and if they’d pitched it like that maybe it would have done better as they gradually built it to where it is now.

I'm finding myself thinking about what Rockstar did with Red Dead Redemption 2, or what CDPR did with Cyberpunk 2077 (or indeed The Witcher 3), and how elements of those could work in the Fallout doing.

Imagine having something on the scale of RDR2, but in the Fallout world. Have different biomes (trickier, given the state of the world I admit).

Having all this open space, but then having a derelict cities, or outposts that are relatively bustling. Or at least as bustling as a lore friendly city could allow.

And then as well as methodical exploring and investigating points of interest, just having the morally and ethically grey quests where the outcomes can vary. And maybe have more personal stories instead of deciding the outcome of the wasteland.

I guess that's what I'd like to see in 5.

Having finished New Vegas tonight after around 45 hours (it got to the point where I was tired of doing quests, so I just blazed through the main story), I'll say this: it sure did quests and factions much better than FO3, but I do agree that the world map felt somewhat disconnected.

It's also a bit too reliant on skills for its own good. You have a lot of agency, but you also learn very quickly that the skill check dialogue options will always give you the best results. In that regard, if you level up your skills enough before tackling on quests, it feels like you are never going to have to make a meaningful decision - the game will make it for you by outright telling you what best to say.

The latter half of the game is also a bit too much busywork, with some factions around Freeside giving you tons of fetch quests. I did enjoy some of them, others not so much. That said, there were lots of great quests too (especially once you get to the Strip), and I enjoyed the reputation system a lot, well, except when the Legion would randomly send super strong assassins after me (luckily I did find that a high melee skill and a Super Sledge will take the edge off many fights). Overall, it did have a whiff of Outer Worlds, which I wasn't a fan of, but New Vegas was much better for the most part. At least it did have a proper map and quests weren't so self-contained.

One thing I didn't understand is the karma system. Like I was stealing stuff constantly, but I still finished as "saviour of the wasteland" or something, and I'm not sure if my being overall good precluded me some dialogue options or something.

I also wasn't a fan of all the crashing and the quests randomly bugging out. Classic Bethesda engine stuff, I guess, but since Bethesda's games tend to have less convoluted quests, it was even more noticeable here.

So... is it better than FO3? Well, don't know. It sure was a change. Overall, I think I prefer roaming around. But I'll tell you for sure after I'll have played FO4 for a while.

So funnily enough I've spent a couple of hours with FO4 now and most of that has been fannying around with, erm, the base stuff. Turns out I'm finding it quite relaxing.

If you’re on PC (or, like me, console mods on Xbox), Scrap Everything was a must-have for base building. Very tidy bases!

www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5320

I've said it before in other threads, but I'd love a marriage of The Last of Us and Fallout. 3rd person, sneaking and crafting on the fly, VATS included but using the Fallout universe and enemies etc (but broaden the scope and new varieties).

VATS is a thing because the shooting mechanics, moreso on console are not great.

Actually Starfield did have a bit of this gameplay loop and it was my favourite bit. I loved gradually building my ship into an effective mobile base that meant I could carry everything and explore further. My interest died when it became clear there wasn't much out there to explore.

I'd be okay with a stronger survival aspect if it was relatively relaxed compared to the survival games I have played.

But which I mean, some survival games have this constantly ticking clock where I'd you don't eat every few minutes your stamina and health disintegrates. I usually find the timers annoying, and the whole game becomes about keeping the meter topped up.

Can't say I found that enjoying. If enough good can be found just ambiently exploring I'd be okay with it (though if it was that easy I guess it would negate the point in the first place. Just not a mechanic I enjoy I guess).

I don't mind the idea of base building, but I find the Fortnite-esque, place-transparent-templates down method in 4 a bit immersion breaking. Like being able to construct a hole shack at the press of a button just felt a bit too gamey, if that makes sense.

I quite liked New Vegas's hardcore mode, and picked it for my only run through of that game to date. Having to eat, drink and sleep meant actually using more of the pickups. Though it was fairly light touch.

No you don't want it to be busy work, but it helps with immersion. Done right the base needs are your primary focus initially, but then fade into the background once you've acquired the technology to not have to worry about them so much.

As I said subnautica did this brilliantly. A radioactive wasteland version of that would be awesome. Can still have populated towns and such, just make what's between them genuinely inhospitable so that it's an undertaking getting there and you get a sense of achievement.

There are some streamlined benefits (literal farming is one of the best ways to get caps, the more settlements the more income and passive junk collection, and in survival mode fast travel isn’t allowed so having more nearby drop off points is good, even necessary) but yes, did very much feel like jumping on a trend without much of a gameplay reason.