Fallout 4: Do Synths Dream Of Electric Brahmin?

[Positronic Brain]

So I needed a game to use as an escape so I decided to run the risk i would get addicted again and finally got into Fallout 4, and I'm having so much fun, There's so much to do and to explore and to see that I'm not caring that much for the streamlining of the perk system, or the dumb interface of the settlement system or the game crashing bugs I keep running into in my Xbox One. All I know is that I just crafted an incendiary sniper rifle I baptized as "Pyrokinesis" and can kill a Super Mutant brute in one sneak shot from half across the Commonwealth.

It helps that companions are not killable. I didn't use companions in Fallout 3 but I'm using them here because they are fun qnd won't be pernakilled (and, ahem, romenceable, so me/Piper 4 life, don't judge me). I wasted a couple perks in Lone Wandering before I realized that, but oh well.

My only real gripe beyond the game freezing bugs (I dread running into molerats because they crash my game as their ultimate attack) is that the main story might not fit the open world vibe, i don't think a parent, after their spouse gets killed and their baby stolen, would have time to wander around the wasteland helping wastelanders fetch nuke-cola and craft doggie armor. I know where I need to go to pick the trail for my son, but there are so many side quests that this Valentine fella can wait for now.

 

[Zef]

I should really get back to this. I don't know which shiny new object distracted me from it, but FO4 was where my "clear the map before advancing the plot" obsession came from, long before Ghost of Tushima or FFXV. I had done about 70% of the northern Commonwealth, barring a few high-level quests like the Ironworks, the X-Men settlement, or that Lovecraft house, before I even reached Diamond City. My last session involved finally making my way to Cambridge, meeting the Super Steel Bros, and crossing the bridge... but I went "I'll just check THAT thing over there" and before I knew it I was completely off track again and clearing environments on the other side of the map.

Considering I bought the game because it stars a fictionalized Boston, failing to make it to Boston is the epitome of irony

I may devote some time trying to learn how to play it again, because I actually WOULD like to have more companions than just the flying butler ball and Preston Harvey. I'm also missing some crafting gear that you can only get at/after Diamond City. My only actual complaint is that I modded my game (I played it on Steam) so I could wear an overcoat on top of a suit of full armor, and so I could lower my weapons when not in use, and Bethesda slapped a big ugly M on my profile so I couldn't ever earn trophies. I don't really care about trophies per se, but it's interesting to see when I've done something the devs consider noteworthy.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I'm a big naysayer of Fallout 4, and in general Bethesda's recent output. So I won't fill this thread full of obnoxious whining. But FO4 still nails the ambiance and the feeling of exploration. I may not have been able to force myself to sit through its main story line, but I did every single side quest and visited/fully explored every single location and monument in the game.

 

[Adrenaline]

Aren't a ton of those procedurally generated

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I mean, probably? In one way or another? It's not like Diablo where every time you enter a factory it has a new layout; everything has the same design across all games. But I'm sure things like caves weren't meticulously planned out by by designers, and they auto-generated them based on simplified tools. I dunno, point being I like exploring every nook and cranny and it feels rewarding to do so in these games. Everything else is w/e.

 

[Mightyblue]

I like the weapon customizing and crafting bits along with most of the updated power armor mechanics (the fuel cell management is...just, why?), but everything else is a personalty-less copy of Fallout 3 with an extra abstraction of the settlement system on top of it. It's pretty apparent now that they intended it as a prototype for what would become Fallout 76, but I still like farting around in it on occasion with some of the gun and armor mods that get put out for it.

 

[Adrenaline]

I mean the side quests being procedural. It seemed like it was just spitting out random locations with random enemies a lot.

 

[Positronic Brain]

I mean the side quests being procedural. It seemed like it was just spitting out random locations with random enemies a lot.

Yeah, some of them are (I've got the "go to this heavily defended place and rescue a hostage" one twice) but some are hardcoded, unless there's a daddy Dethclaw hunting the poachers who took his egg in every abandonded house of the Commonwealth.

 

[Zef]

I haven't even gotten far enough into the game for it to generate those missions, but even I know Preston is best known for telling you that another settlement needs your help.

 

[Adrenaline]

there are plenty of static quests but there were enough randomized ones that I got tired of doing both

 

[Positronic Brain]

So I just got to know what I assume is the last faction in the game (The Institute) and, well, Bethesda kinda sucks at writing nuanced factions, don't they? We have the eat-baby factions (the Fascists of Steel and the Souless Scientists) and the save-baby factions (the social justice minutemen and the android emancipators) - gee, I wonder which factions I should back now. I mean, it's going to be kinda hard to sell me "the souless scientist are just misunderstood" when one of the quests I've had literally involved a synth asking me for help to try to kill an innocent human to take his place by orders of the Institute.

I am also kinda miffed they offed Sarah Lyons off-screen.

 

[ThricebornPhoenix]

I suspect the Institute was originally conceived as a more straightforwardly evil faction of mad scientists, like the Think Tank crossed with the Enclave.

But FO4 still nails the ambiance and the feeling of exploration.

It's a great "running around in the wilderness after a nuclear apocalypse" simulator. The writing is mostly atrocious and the systems are not well designed*, but I enjoyed running into packs of critters or the occasional bandit camp while scouting for loot and potential settlements.

*Legendary items in particular are bad. I once got a Wounding Laser Pistol at level 5 or 6, which meant the game was basically over already.

 

[Zef]

I suspect the Institute was originally conceived as a more straightforwardly evil faction of mad scientists, like the Think Tank crossed with the Enclave.

I just absolutely love the idea of MIT becoming this mad scientist cyber-utopia, honestly.

Bethesda should've gone one step further and turned Southie into a faction of its own.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

It's a great "running around in the wilderness after a nuclear apocalypse" simulator. The writing is mostly atrocious and the systems are not well designed*, but I enjoyed running into packs of critters or the occasional bandit camp while scouting for loot and potential settlements.

Yes, all of thisss. The writing was SO bad, but the locales and everything about exploring the game was very compelling. I did just about every single side quest and explored every landmark on the map before quitting the game. I got as far as Fenway in the game's core story and just gave up on that bit because exploring random shit and setting up settlements was way more interesting. It's part of why I'm enjoying RimWorld right now so much because screw your shitty meta story, I'll just make my own.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Oh great, my 96 hour playthrough has come to a screeching halt as I've ran into a quest breaking bug in a history quest. It's even a common one, as I've seen plenty of complaints online, and most fixes are PC only as the involve using the console to force the quest past the broken logic that makes a boss spawn and get stuck. below. the. ocean. floor.

All non-PC "fixes" haven't worked, so I will reload my last save two hours ago and try again. Man, I should have learned not to buy Bethesda games in console by now, but here I thought in my naivete that all game breaking bugs would have been patched four years after a AAA release.

 

[Positronic Brain]

So fixed it. The solution was to load an earlier save, go to the quest location before accepting the quest - now that the game doesn't have to check for the conditions of the quest to be met, the boss spawns as intended. Once the location is cleared, go back to the quest giver, accept the quest, then travel back to the location and collect the experience.

I know nothing can be 100% bug free, but this is the kind of scenearios you'd think they would have patched by now. Oh well.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I'm pretty sure every Bethesda-ish game I've played on console, the save file always got so jacked that it started causing game crashes every couple of hours. It became very tedious. Fallout 4 was probably the least glitchy of them all, but it still did it on occasion.

 

[Positronic Brain]

the save file always got so jacked that it started causing game crashes every couple of hours.

Oh, it still happens, particularly in downton Boston where there is lots of geometry in memory and then something crits, making my poor XBOne kneel and die trying to render the gibblets. I've learned to close the game when I'm done playing instead of leaving it in hibernation to keep those crashes to desktop from happening.

 

[Positronic Brain]

So I think I'm finally getting tired of this game? It only took, uh, 145 hours. Plus some scouting ahead without saving and replaying sections to avoid glitches, so let's say 155 hours or so.

It has to be the open world, because the perk and skill system is not as good as other entries. The fact that every quest has a lockpicking, hacking and "walk through a hole" solution particularly annoys me - I remember a time where skill allowed you to take branching paths, instead of just being alternative solutions that drive you back to the same room/conversation/reward as every other skill.

Well, Piper and Deacon helped, I guess. I also had lots of fun with the Robot Bench (before I learned how dumb robots are as companions) and settlement building (before I learned the provision system is so buggy that the gameplay rewards are eaten by glitches - why do my settlements have negative water if each one produces at least 30 units a day?!?!?!)

Anyway, I'm planning to finish the main story with one of the save-bay factions, because I want to see how they wrap that up. Again, I do like this game (155 hours!) - it's a good game! It's just not that good of a Fallout game, I think. I hope the MS adcquisiton relieves them of the pressure to streamline the gameplay so much.