7 Days Until Fallout 4

[BanzaiCat]

IRL I've been to Boston a couple of times - back in 1988 and 2007. The first time I saw the Constitution, but holy hell, I'm 6'4" and you have to be a midget to fit below decks! The second time I did a DUKW tour, and it was pretty awesome.

I figured F4 would model Boston about as accurately as previous Fallouts did DC, or Vegas, in those iterations. In other words, it's going to be vaguely the same, but nowhere near exact.

[Gusington]

^"Little people"

[Kushan]

Do you mean in FO4 or in real life?  The answer in both cases is no (God I suck -- sorry excuse for an American -- I've lived in Cambridge for the past 18 years and somehow have never visited Ol' Ironsides. But with a 5 year old with a budding interest in history, I'm sure we'll get out there before too long  :)

Sorry, I meant in game. It looks just a little bit different then it really does.

With the exception of my twitch stream I didn't play anything else this weekend. I think I'm going to bump up the difficulty. Playing on normal difficulty because I normally suck at these games but now that I'm sitting on a pile of 80+ stimpacks and hundreds of rounds of various ammo types its become a bit to easy easy. Unless they have a decent weapon I don't even loot more then the ammo/aid of raiders anymore. Very much looking forward to a mod that will make stimpacks, food, etc more rare in the world. This game suffers from the same thing FO3 and FNV do, in that there are so much stimpacks and food around that you lose the sense of scavenging after awhile.

Speaking of mods, there already is a good selection of basic mods out, mainly retextures. I already installed a darker nights mod. Things are only going to get better once the creation kit and the script extender get released. Really looking forward to Gopher releasing his Fallout 4 version of Immersive HUD so I can turn off the UI when I'm not in combat.

[sandman2575]

Yeah, this game has seriously sucked me in. There is just so much to do between mini-quests and building settlements, modding weapons, and just exploring / scavenging -- the possibilities are overwhelming -- and I'm more or less just completely ignoring the main quest for the moment.

Another thing I've really grown to like:  the fact that your character is voiced and animated. Interactions with NPCs is, as in previous Bethesda games, pretty terrible (stiff, unrealistic animations, stilted, repetitive conversation, etc.) but the fact that you you hear and see your character interacting makes this a lot more palatable. I also enjoy that it gives a chance to see my character in 3rd-person, since I almost always play in 'FPS' mode.

The 'dress up' element is surprisingly fun, actually. I can't remember another RPG where I just really didn't care about armor protection and instead just want my character to look cool. I've embraced my identity as 'general' of the Minutemen, so I'm going full Minuteman garb and militia hat (plus badass sunglasses) even though it offers pretty much zero protection. As Billy Crystal used to say, "It's better to look good than to feel good" (or in this case, to feel protected).

The only mod I'm getting desperate for is the FO4 equivalent of SkyUI. UI is just horrible, especially the interface for settlement building. I absolutely hate how clunky it is. Who at Bethesda thought it was a good idea to have about 3 or 4 different ways of closing menus depending on what menu you're using? I mean, that's just amateurish -- nobody caught this during the Beta testing?? Bugs are inevitable in a game this huge, but the UI design is just atrocious and Bethesda deserves to be called out on it.

[sandman2575]

There's a pretty decent tips list over at Kotaku for those interested (or dangerously obsessed, as the case may be):

http://kotaku.com/tips-for-playing-fallout-4-1742667904

Some of this is obvious but others fall under the "how the hell did I miss that?" heading. I for one never noticed the "Component View" in your inventory that lets you see what items break down into...  Useful.

[airboy]

I'm getting a crash approximately every 3 hours of play.  The colors go wild and the screen becomes unreadable.  I have to get out of the game and restart the game.  Problem is then gone for a long time.

Other than this, it is a very engrossing RPG.  There is a lot of freedom of action.

I wish I could find some multifruit.  If I had more multifruit plants I could make my own adhesive - a key building block to most mods.

[sandman2575]

Sorry to hear about the crashes, airboy.

Seems players are having wildly different experiences with game stability. Plenty of (inane but likely truthful) "CRASHES ON LAUNCH OMG HELP" threads on the Steam forum. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones -- Fo4's been solid as a rock for me -- no crashes in 30+ hours of play. I do get some irritating recurring bugs -- one where I try to open up my PipBoy and nothing happens -- but a quick restart fixes it.

I planted a bunch of Tatos, Corn, and Mutfruit right next to my cooking station, in an attempt to have easy access to crafting the vegetable starch that gives you adhesive. Only other ingredient you need in supply is purified water. A water purifier is good for this, as it automatically adds batches of purified water to your settlement's stash at random intervals.

The thing I *cannot* find is Nuclear Material (ironic, isn't it?). I badly need this to upgrade my trusty laser rifle, but it never turns up.

[JudgeDredd]

I've had one crash and also annoying glitches - mine being my weapon "disappearing". It's there and it fires, but the model doesn't show and the crosshairs are missing. Restart is required.

But my game has also been pretty solid. And the gameplay is superb.

[Gusington]

Any of you guys skip New Vegas and just go straight from F3 to F4?

[JudgeDredd]

I had Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

I didn't complete Fallout 3 (far from it). I just thought the interaction was wooden and not very immersive and from what I remember the weapons were rubbish.

New Vegas I recently fired up to try but didn't really get into it. No idea why...I wasn't feeling it.

So this is my first proper foray into the Fallout world. And it's damn good.

[BanzaiCat]

I loved New Vegas and would play it again. Admittedly it takes some time to get into it. Same with Fallout 3, but I liked it very much - liked 3 better than New Vegas, actually. I would replay either of them again (and have multiple times), because I still find locations that I hadn't found previously. I'll usually get the mapper perk (can't recall the exact name) that reveals all locations but I still have yet to have a game where I visit every location.

Underground locations kind of freak me out in these games. I don't like going into caves or vaults in general (though will if I have to, to further a plot line). So in each playthrough I'll go find an underground locale I haven't been through and try my luck.

With New Vegas I tend to fall on the side of the NCR, though I've played through once as a Legion sympathizer and once as a Vegas king. Towards the latter end of things, it's easy to just say F it and mess with everyone if you want.

[Gusington]

I loved the subway stations in Fallout 3 - they felt very real to me.

I played New Vegas just for a couple of hours but something about it I just didn't like...I also can't put my finger on it.

[Con]

Havent bought the game but I guess I am living in one of its locations.  I recently did a search for on the internet for my town an got a bunch of hits for Fallout 4.

When I will eventually breakdown and buy the game I will be able to see if a post apocalyptic Malden looks cooler than the real life version.

Con

[W8taminute]

^I made it to Cambridge in game and took a tour of Harvard Square.  It's pretty close to the real thing actually.  The first in game representation of the real thing that's fairly close landmark and street layout wise.  Even some of the building architecture in this particular area matches the real thing.  Brought a tear of joy to my eye.   O0

[BanzaiCat]

I played New Vegas just for a couple of hours but something about it I just didn't like...I also can't put my finger on it.

How far did you get, Gus?

If I remember right, you start in that hick town with the pretty dull intro (though going through it nets you lots of XP - at least, 'lots' insofar as a low-level character is concerned). Then you head south, then you have to go east, then north again before you can even hope to get to Vegas. Along the way you'll have plenty of opportunities to level up, but the scorpions and ants that are everywhere are major pains that early in the game.

If you made it to that first town that the Legion 'visited,' I think that helps to draw you into the game a lot more. The game really opens up after that once you start to land on the NCR's and Legion's radars. It's really difficult to be a Legion sympathizer unless you want to play an a-hole. Otherwise there's little complication to attacking Legion troops, other than getting jumped every so often...but by then, you can handle it no problem. It's all good anyway because eventually Caesar will call for you to come visit him, and doing so nets you some good backstory into their motivations and history. Also if you so choose, by that point your character should be powerful enough that you could actually kill Caesar and his little house guard and then wipe out their entire camp...which is fun, but the events of the main quest keep rolling regardless of what you do there.

The real dilemma in New Vegas is what to do whilst in Vegas. If you've not played that far I won't ruin it, but once you get there the place is rather colorful and very entertaining and worth the wait/build-up. You'll be faced with a variety of choices while in Vegas and your good guy/bad guy outlook on things really doesn't help. I found myself poised with a real dilemma when trying to figure out what to do. I loved that the game put me in that position.