Fallout 4 - More Reviews

Eye found a bunch of reviews:

Mashable:

[...] That's not a knock on Fallout 4. The story's big ending isn't supposed to leave you happy. The choices you make determine the winner, but this isn't a case of good vs. evil. Whoever wins in Fallout 4, someone loses. And it's always going to be someone close to you. You have no idea how powerful that is until you're making those final choices yourself. [...]

The Good

Huge, dynamic world to lose yourself in • Impactful story • Great writing across the board

The Bad

New gameplay mechanics feel half-baked • Technical issues abound

The Bottom Line

Fallout 4 is another Fallout game, but it's not the better one we were hoping for.

Click to expand...

The Daily Dot:

[...] Bethesda games, however, are the most obvious demonstration of the fact that the more you love a game, the less any bugs and technical issues are capable of marring your overall experience.

I have spent more than 60 hours in the Xbox One version of the game and don’t feel anywhere close to having tackled most of the content. Fallout 4 could be the only game you buy for the next six months, and you might never get bored. It’s everything that Fallout fans were hoping for. When it comes to game releases in 2015, the best was truly saved for last.

Click to expand...

Wired:

[...] Playing Fallout 4 is an engrossing, but sobering, experience. It thrills and excites while it points and criticizes. The fun belied an ever-present sense of dread that, from time to time, bubbled to the surface and crippled me emotionally. Fallout 4 wields its narrative tools with remarkable skill—softening you with absurdism before dragging you down into tragedy.

Click to expand...

Teamcoco - Conan O'Brien: The Clueless Gamer

CONAN Highlight: To really get into the nuclear spirit of "Fallout 4," Conan dons a skin-tight Vault Suit. Look out ladies of the post-apocalypse!

Click to expand...

PCGamerN:

[...] But while the overfamiliar flavour may mean Fallout 4 doesn’t quite stand tall, it does mean you can guarantee what you’re getting and that’s a damn fine game. Its combat is the best Bethesda have ever produced: involving, kinetic, and exciting. The collection of weapons at your disposal are destructive and inventive, and strapping on power armour makes you feel like an absolute killing machine. Plenty of the missions are rote, but the narrative is the best Fallout has seen, and the factions you interact with seem more complex and multi-layered than ever. There’s enough choice to make at least two playthroughs worth it, meaning this is a game with over 100 guaranteed hours of compelling play in it. With a menu like that, chances are you won’t care about the blemishes and deja-vu. You’ve been happily drinking classic Nuka-Cola for years, so why would you want a changed recipe now?

Score: 8/10

Click to expand...

Forbes: Fallout 4 Review Roundup

More information.

Thanks Eye!

More News:

Update: 1.1.30 (PC)
Fixes crash related to xaudio drivers

Conan delivered again.

I am quite surprised to see that Fallout 4 apparently has a pretty solid storyline and writing - not traits I normally associate with Bethesda games . The main complaint is that it doesn't really evolve the typical gameplay mechanics much, but I can't say that would bother me as I love the Bethesda formula. I will say that they don't get enough kudos for their innovation in character leveling and skill progression. I feel like Bethesda puts a lt more attention into trying to streamline and refine skill progressing while keeping depth than any other RPG developer.

GuybrushWilco said:

I am quite surprised to see that Fallout 4 apparently has a pretty solid storyline and writing - not traits I normally associate with Bethesda games . The main complaint is that it doesn't really evolve the typical gameplay mechanics much, but I can't say that would bother me as I love the Bethesda formula. I will say that they don't get enough kudos for their innovation in character leveling and skill progression. I feel like Bethesda puts a lt more attention into trying to streamline and refine skill progressing while keeping depth than any other RPG developer.

Click to expand...

As I understand it Fallout 4 has no skills- only S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes and perks*. IIRC Skyrim had no attribute scores and only skills… I'm not sure that's the kind of streamlining that deserves kudos. Seems to me more like something that's dumbing down RPGs for a casual audience that prefers action games & shooters to deep RPGs with "too many" numbers and statistics; that's not to say that games should have needlessly complicated systems either but I enjoy customizing my character's during generation & level up. Some CRPGs have such interesting progression systems that I've spent many hours on the character generation / reading the manual because I need to carefully plan out my build.

And apparently FO 4 has no level cap so which perks you choose on a level up don't matter much at all, because you can quite literally get them all eventually.

You see, I'm not interested in becoming a God in my RPGs. Yes, I want to become more skilled as I level up, but it's the trade-off that makes it interesting… If I put a lot of points into intelligence (science, tech skills) etc then I won't have much left for combat oriented skills… So I need to either avoid combat as much as possible or recruit some muscle. This is also why I prefer RPGs that have some sort of class / restrictions.

*Moreover, in Fallout 1 & 2 (and other Fallout inspired games like Arcanum) the "traits" were interesting because they involved trade-off- there were pros & cons. Perks were more of a beneficial only thing but in Fallout 1 & 2 they were only useful in specific situations (Ex; Adrenaline rush, +1 Str when HP drops below 50%). In Bethesda's FO games, perks do everything from make you shoot farther to bullets doing more damage etc. You can become a god by killing weak respawning enemies if you feel like grinding for days.

Semantics. They could have called half the perks skills and you'd still find something you didn't like. There are a ton of decisions to make every level in Fallout 4. Yes, you can eventually master everything, but there are more perks that you want in the early and mid parts of the game, than you can possibly acquire.

Do I take a level of gun nut so that I can use better weapon modifications or do I train explosives so that my Molotov cocktail doesn't hit the wall instead of the baddie? Do I take a hitpoint perk or just take a perk to make me sneakier? I can eventually have both, but not for a long, long time.

Also, there are level restrictions. I can't just take lockpick to master because I need to be level 23 and have at least a 7 in perception. If I started with the average of 3, then I'll need to increase perception 4 times before level 23 and that takes away from all the other perks I might have chosen. There are a ton of trade-offs.

Finally, crafting will often take multiple perks to make more complex items. Let's say you want to make some stealth armor. You might need 2 levels of science, 3 levels of armor and a level of blacksmith to make it. All of this takes planning and I'm constantly being tempted by perks that aren't in my build path.

crpgnut said:

Semantics. They could have called half the perks skills and you'd still find something you didn't like. There are a ton of decisions to make every level in Fallout 4. Yes, you can eventually master everything, but there are more perks that you want in the early and mid parts of the game, than you can possibly acquire.

Do I take a level of gun nut so that I can use better weapon modifications or do I train explosives so that my Molotov cocktail doesn't hit the wall instead of the baddie? Do I take a hitpoint perk or just take a perk to make me sneakier? I can eventually have both, but not for a long, long time.

Also, there are level restrictions. I can't just take lockpick to master because I need to be level 23 and have at least a 7 in perception. If I started with the average of 3, then I'll need to increase perception 4 times before level 23 and that takes away from all the other perks I might have chosen. There are a ton of trade-offs.

Finally, crafting will often take multiple perks to make more complex items. Let's say you want to make some stealth armor. You might need 2 levels of science, 3 levels of armor and a level of blacksmith to make it. All of this takes planning and I'm constantly being tempted by perks that aren't in my build path.

Click to expand...

Aye my feeling exactly. Besides its an open game with mods and consoles. Complaining about the open levels seems foolish - you can make yourself a god anytime you want or slow down your experience and put your own cap into place.

From what I read you have a soft cap in the sense that you get through most of the content by a certain level. I would think you only have to worry about too many perks/points if you grind endlessly.

I am finding it VERY HARD to decide on my perks. So many great options but so limited in points.

Fun game and enjoying it a lot.

You two should get a room, buy some champagne, light some candles and exchange heartwarming stories about how lucky you are to live in the same era as Bethesda... :lol:

zahratustra said:

You two should get a room, buy some champagne, light some candles and exchange heartwarming stories about how lucky you are to live in the same era as Bethesda… :lol:

Click to expand...

That wouldn't work very well; at least for me

Now, if Piper would like to meet me in that room.....

Not having skills is a major issue for me personally.

You're supposed to be a random person that gets out of a vault and you dont even need to train how to use weapons. You just grab an automatic rifle or an energy carbine and you're proficient with it. I dislike this a lot as the skills in Fallout were a trademark of the series and very fun to level them up. The new perk chart system is not bad i suppose but it's not what i would expect from Fallout.

Also, because i have to say it again, the UI is freaking horrible. I can't wait for mods to come out to fix stuff.

Not that it matters to anyone but for me Fallout doesn't even get into the top 5 games of this year

"The fun belied an ever-present sense of dread that, from time to time, bubbled to the surface and crippled me emotionally."

Really? Crippled emotionally? I haven't played for very long yet, but I suspect this reviewer needs to take a break and go for a walk or something.

Giovanni1983 said:

Not that it matters to anyone but for me Fallout doesn't even get into the top 5 games of this year

Click to expand...

Well it's in my top 2 this year.

1. Bloodborne.
2. Fallout 4

Of course those are the only games I've played for any significant time this year.

My list for this year's best experiences from a crpg perspective:

1. Skyrim replay
2. Fallout 4
3. Fallout 3 replay
4. FNV replay

wolfgrimdark said:

Aye my feeling exactly. Besides its an open game with mods and consoles. Complaining about the open levels seems foolish - you can make yourself a god anytime you want or slow down your experience and put your own cap into place.

Click to expand...

True. I've already installed a mod that cuts the XP you get from quests by 1/2. I noticed every major quest I finished almost always resulted in a level up, and I was already level 10 after a day and a half.

crpgnut said:

My list for this year's best experiences from a Beth fanboy perspective

Click to expand...

Giovanni1983 said:

Not having skills is a major issue for me personally.

You're supposed to be a random person that gets out of a vault and you dont even need to train how to use weapons. You just grab an automatic rifle or an energy carbine and you're proficient with it. I dislike this a lot as the skills in Fallout were a trademark of the series and very fun to level them up. The new perk chart system is not bad i suppose but it's not what i would expect from Fallout.

Also, because i have to say it again, the UI is freaking horrible. I can't wait for mods to come out to fix stuff.

Not that it matters to anyone but for me Fallout doesn't even get into the top 5 games of this year

Click to expand...

Just a side note that it states your character was in the military and fought in the war so that might explain why they are proficient with weapons.

I think Nora is a lawyer though I don't know if you make a female character if it reverses and the guy is a lawyer and the female is the military.

crpgnut;1061366897. said:

All of this takes planning .

Click to expand...

Or time.

crpgnut said:

That wouldn't work very well; at least for me

Now, if Piper would like to meet me in that room…..

Click to expand...

Billie Piper?

Pibbur who would like to remind confused watchers (excluding the ripper ) of his avatar.

Just like Skyrim was the first ES title I could really get into, Fallout 4 is the first Fallout title I find myself able to really get into. Love the game.

huh? From what I see in the first few hours it doesn't seem much different from FO3 or FO:NV. The core gameplay is the same.

Thrasher said:

huh? From what I see in the first few hours it doesn't seem much different from FO3 or FO:NV. The core gameplay is the same.

Click to expand...

The core loop is roughly the same. The main differences:

- Perks and skills are grouped together and have their own multiple "tiers" with SPECIAL requirements exposed and explicit.
- You can put points directly into your SPECIAL stats.
- Damaged limb repair seems to have been abstracted and repaired by general healing (actually maybe it's just stimpack usage and not "just" healing?).
- A large workshop construction system.
- A settlement system woven into a number of quests and the SPECIAL system.
- A more complicated weapons/armor mod system that replaced the old repair system (no more items degrading).
- Significantly expanded Power Armor systems.