Fallout 4 - Bethesda: Launch was successful

DArt took two weeks off to play Fallout 4, so he won't be around until the 24th

Originally Posted by rune_74
I don't agree with all you wrote, but I do agree that it isn't as structured as story driven games, it allows you to wander more. However, there are some great mini story areas throughout fallout 4 if you go to marked areas there have been some interesting areas. That's not to say that there are not filler areas, but this is one area I think they actually improved with 4. I have found some nice challenge out there, you could beat the game if you really wanted in a short time, but you would Missout on some very interesting story lines.

I had one simple encounter that resulted in me finding a recording of a scientist discussing using radiation on dead people….in this house was a glowing one locked a room….note, this is just a minor interesting lore item(I really simplified this encounter down before you jump on this) and this is not even marked on the map, I wandered on to this….also, I followed an emergency beacon to a lore event….lots of things happen like this that draw me away from the main quest and into some interesting things. This is by no means even close to all I have encountered.

Someone asked how this controls better? It is the controls for aiming…I was playing new Vegas before this came out….literally the week before and the controls for aiming just feel better. As well, looting is actually better the way they handle it hear with the square listing what is in a container. Lock picking/hacking is the same.

Base building is neat, haven't done much with it or seen if it matters long term, seems like a feature that will be fleshed out in expansions or future games, definitely welcome. Weaponcrafting/armor is just awesome plain and simple.

The perk select system actually works, and I was worried about this…..the way they laid it out and the graphics they used felt fallout. It stops you from getting powerful to quick, a least I feel that way so far.

It feels like a fresher more enjoyable fallout new Vegas. To me that is great, to others it depends on what you want. I've played all the fallouts and enjoyed each for what they bring.

Wow One whole cool encounter? How great! The best game evar!

Originally Posted by rune_74
Yes, mouse and keyboard…I did change the sensitivity of the controls…and did what this guy said.

http://files.shanelenzen.com/fix-fallout-4.html

Thanks for the link!

Originally Posted by crpgnut
DArt took two weeks off to play Fallout 4, so he won't be around until the 24th

Nah, I just needed a break from posting in general

As for FO4 - I've been playing and enjoying it for around 30 hours or so.

Thoughts:

In my mind, it's pretty fantastic - though it has some significant flaws too.

It's actually better than I expected.

I'm finding the "Survival Mode" a reasonably challenging setting - and I don't think it's true that monsters turn into bullet sponges because of that setting. You only deal half damage, sure, but the game is clearly designed around a long path of progression - and already at level 17, I'm finding efficient ways of dealing with some of the harder creatures.

The monsters just have (a lot) more hitpoints than humanoids in general - even on the easier difficulty levels. Not necessarily the greatest way of introducing challenge, but I think it works well when it comes to dealing with the usual issue of level scaling, because they can now have truly hard creatures early on - where in the earlier games, you never really felt properly challenged even in the earlier stages.

I love that I can take out limbs on Glowing Ones or Death Claws, for instance, to slow them down - as their speed is their primary strength.

I think it's the first Bethesda game I've played where I've had to think in tactical terms to stand a chance.

Of course, at 30 hours - that's still just the beginning - and I have no doubt that it will end up being much easier - but it's much better than their past games, and the addition of "slow regeneration" for health/radiation means Survival Mode isn't just more hitpoints for the mobs.

In terms of story, I'm not quite sure what to think. I thought the beginning was… strange - and felt rushed. They went through all that trouble to create the pre-war environment only to rush you through it? Seemed such a waste to me. Also, the tour through the vault was just too fast and what happened felt… off and over-done to me.

However, from what I've seen of the main story since then - it's actually quite intriguing and I'm genuinely engaged - which is not common with Bethesda games for me.

The side stories have all been pretty good, too, and they're all laced with the same fantastic exploration as the rest of the game.

I'm not a big fan of the execution of the new dialogue system. I particularly despise the way "persuasion" is 100% random - even if you can increase your chances. It greatly encourages save scumming, and you really have no idea what it'll take to succeed.

I've spent far too much time changing what I wear to get the Charisma bonuses I need to stand a chance, and that's just stupid.

I love that they've been bold enough to enable you to actively leave a conversation - at any point - at will, and I'm not sure I've ever seen that level of flexibility before - but I think the execution is flawed. You spend a lot of time trying to engage people in conversation, because it's not clear when you need to click - and there are several visual glitches with angles and what not.

Voice acting is very good, though.

In that way, it's not unlike Radiant AI - because the potential is great, but they still need to work on the details. Not sure what it would take to perfect it, because according to Todd Howard - they've spent much more time polishing FO4 than they did with Skyrim.

One thing that I've found delightful is the sound design for the various monsters. I ADORE the voices for the Synths/Robots and the Super Mutants. I don't think I've laughed out loud at such things in a long time - and I always get a big smile on my face when fighting Mutants. "Human, human, human - I have a treat for you!"

The visuals are a mixed bag, but even so - I'm finding it to be quite attractive overall. Especially in terms of lighting and atmosphere. My biggest issues with the visuals would be the somewhat awkward facial technology and some disturbingly low res textures - much like Skyrim on release. It's weird, because "most" of the textures are fine (if not great) - but occasionally you come upon some really crappy stuff, like the textures in the Trinity Tower. Almost like you're not playing the same game.

The gunplay feels like a refined version of Fallout 3. I'm finding that it's still not quite as polished as a pure shooter, but it's getting there. One of my primary issues is that enemies move too fast and are often too hard to hit once you've engaged them in combat. VATS, of course, is a solution for that - but I don't like that I feel forced into using it.

The mods for Fallout 3/NV fixed that by introducing a "slow time" feature, but FO4 only has that for certain perks or items. Jet, for instance, serves that function - but the duration is short and then there's the addiction problem.

I think they should have added an early perk line for "slow time" - or they should have adjusted the movement speed for certain enemes. It just doesn't feel quite right to me.

Fortunately, I ALWAYS play a stealthy sniper bastard - so I don't spend too much time in frantic combat - but I imagine a lot of people do, so it might be a bigger problem for them.

Apart from that, it's pretty much more of the same. So, if you don't care for the formula, this isn't likely to change your mind.

But in terms of gameplay - this is pretty much perfect for me. I think they've outdone themselves when it comes to variety and sheer content density.

It's like Skyrim - only better. I doubt I've explored more than 5% of what's on offer - and I've done almost nothing but freeroam exploration. Most locations are HUGE and full of neat things to find.

Then again, I felt the same way about Skyrim - and some people seem to feel Skyrim has little or no variety and all dungeons were the same, so what do I know.

All I know is that Fallout 4 - so far - is the best game I've played when it comes to exploration, and exploration is my favorite activity in pretty much any game.

Every single location has had something interesting - including terminals with interesting stories, unique magazines, legendary enemies with unique loot, bobbleheads, interesting NPCs and so on.

I simply can't stay focused on a quest for long, because every thing I come across has something special that I feel like investigating - and that's how it should be.

So far, it's the most fun I've had since Last of Us Remastered last year.

I have absolutely no idea why certain people feel compelled to rate it 0/10. That's just ridiculous to me.

I will refrain from rating it at this point - because for a Bethesda game, you need at least 50-100 hours before you have the complete picture. Just too much content there.

Let's just say I'm loving every moment of it, warts and all.

I had a hilarious bug yesterday. During one quest 2 Miraluks spawn and attack you but for me one spawned as Legendary Miraluke. And he was fast, and would charge and one shot me. So I would run atop a nearby rock and snipe him from there. The creature would then run away somewhere but again come back once I shot at him there as well (Radiant AI LOL) and do the dance again. Then he decided to run away in another direction but due to his Legendary status was charging the whole time and moving like crazy left, right, left, right and then he went up top and disappeared.
I had to follow him and he suddenly appeared there out of thin air and one shot me with a charge. So I reloaded last save and went there again but this time he never showed up lol. And the quest would not finish until I had killed both Miraluks. So I had to fast travel somewhere and fast travel back and now the Legendary Miraluke spawned at its original location and I was able to kill him.
Bethesda bugs, Bethesda bugs never change.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Wow One whole cool encounter? How great! The best game evar!

Simple comment. So glad you read what I wrote.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
As for FO4 - I've been playing and enjoying it for around 30 hours or so.

Thoughts:

In my mind, it's pretty fantastic - though it has some significant flaws too.

Let's just say I'm loving every moment of it, warts and all.

Here we are agreeing again! Great entire post. Glad to hear you are loving it, as am I! Bethesda games are always something unique and special, and Fallout 4 is no exception. Good times!

Count me as another RPGWatch member who is enjoying my time playing Fallout 4. I especially love the new power armor system Bethesda developed for the game.

So as said before it has faults but I really don't care. Oh yes and I can't believe Bethesda has finally developed a game with good writing compared to their last offerings.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Count me as another RPGWatch member who is enjoying my time playing Fallout 4. I especially love the new power armor system Bethesda developed for the game.

So as said before it has faults but I really don't care. Oh yes and I can't believe Bethesda has finally developed a game with good writing compared to their last offerings.

Aye I am really enjoying the story and characters myself now that I am starting to get a bit deeper into it.

@couch - maybe you can explain how power armour negates damage? Doesn't seem to protect me much as much as I thought it would! I have BOS power armour, upgraded quite a few parts, and it still lets through a fair amount of daamge. The armour ratings are ludicrously high - so I shouldn't really be taking anything but a tiny fraction. (I assume). I know it gets broken fairly quickly, but can be repaired easily enough.

I'm level 16, so maybe I haven't unlocked certain high-level power armours…I haven't had any problems finding fusion cores - initially I walked everywhere since I didn't want to drain my core supply, but now I'm less concerned.

I didn't proceed with the story so I don't have BoS PA. Somehow I believe (since it's obtainable very early) that it's T-50 or copypasted T-50 most probably.
Play some more you'll find other PA versions with better stats.

For tiny fractions of damage you need to drop the game on easy. But even in that case, if your opponent uses plasma weaponry or special stuff like minigun with exploding effect, you still won't be godlike.

I've managed to pass 70ish hours of the game in just combat armor (heavily upgraded though). And now I'm using heavy combat armor which almost doubles default values of combat armor vulgaris.
Note that it can't protect you against specific bosses, for example the one where a kid brought some sword to a boss and you're sent to rescue the sword and if possible the kid too. But in such cases either return to the scene later when you're beefed up, or jump into power armor (any will do).

Usually on locations where you'll be up against something hard, there is a full or partial power armor hidden nearby so do what you're supposed to do - explore!
I have a mass of cores now not because I don't use power armor all the time, but because I explore everything. Seen many steam forum posts about game finished in certain low hours amount… I honestly wish Bethesda locked the main story steps behind at least 10 sidequests solved or 10 locations cleared.
Fastruns in other games, okay, but FO4 seems to be designed for exploration, not for rushing through the main story.

If somebody is prepared to pay 60 euros for a few hours of gameplay they are welcome to it.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
If somebody is prepared to pay 60 euros for a few hours of gameplay they are welcome to it.

A few hours of gameplay?

My first impressions after about 15 hours are positive.
Fallout 4 is a lot like Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas and that's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by Lev
My first impressions after about 15 hours are positive.
Fallout 4 is a lot like Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas and that's good enough for me.

That's my impression too after 90 hours.

I wasn't impressed by the intro and the way it started out, and my original thoughts were that FO3 was a little better.

That's not the case now though. It took me a while to realize it, but FO4 is definitely better than FO3 imo. I liked the beginning more in FO3, but FO4 is better in pretty much every other way.

I miss the Centaurs though. Who's idea was it to not bring back the best monsters in FO3?

Fo4 is certainly better than Fo3. It is a nice action loot fest game.

Originally Posted by sakichop
A few hours of gameplay?

I was talking about speedrunners saki.

Urgent news: I have HUGE plans for urban renewal! I've sketched architectural drawings for a five story mega-resort with scenic boardwalks and neon lights. It will be the greatest achievement the wasteland has ever seen!

I just wanted all of you to know my plans for the next 40 hours of gameplay!!!