Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

[Ben X]

I do not mean to be contentious, but how do you spoil the beginning of something?

 

Same way you spoil anything - you say what's going to happen so the reader won't get to experience it properly themselves.

[Badfinger]

I do not care at all about the base building, but I already care a great deal about the gun building. SCOPES AND STOCKS. POCKETS IN MY JACKET.

[eot]

I do not mean to be contentious, but how do you spoil the beginning of something?

Elements of surprise can be crucial to any scene regardless of its place in the story, see: Mass Effect 2.

Just thinking about that makes me want to go play ME2 again, that's a damn fine game.

[Architecture]

I do not care at all about the base building, but I already care a great deal about the gun building. SCOPES AND STOCKS. POCKETS IN MY JACKET.

When do I get to this part?

[juv3nal]

 

you can make a dog wear goggles. DOGGLES! GOTY

[elmuerte]

Mine is wearing a heavy chain and goggles

[Vegas]

The Bombcast also said that it only took Jeff around 40 hours to beat. If you don't have time I get it, but it doesn't sound like it's another 100+ hours.

 

Edit: My impressions are mostly positive so far. It seems like much more of a real world than Fallout 3 or New Vegas did. Actual vegetation, more realistic seeming terrain. I thought having a voiced main character would bother me, but it's been pretty good so far. Voice acting is about the best it's been in a Bethesda game.

 

 

The main quest in Fallout 3 didn't take forever either, if that was the only thing you wanted to play. But I don't think you're supposed to go into these games with a "have to beat it" mindset necessarily.

 

Voice acting is great, but also the writing is a huge step up. I felt the NPCs in Skyrim were 2- or 1-dimensional characters, basically just quest-givers. Aside from the added functionality of having companions live in your settlements, they're also fully-formed characters. The RPS review mentioned that this game brings them closer to a Bioware methodology, and I think that's true in regards to a lot of the people you encounter. You want them around, you want to know about them.

 

That kind of stuff goes a loooooong way for me by making the moment-to-moment gameplay more meaningful. It's a role-playing game, right? I need people, agents to bounce my identity and motives off of. In Skyrim I constantly felt I lacked that.

 

Also, this is kind of tangential: is anybody else ever weirded out that in Fallout World, culture didn't evolve at all in the century after World War 2? If the whole idea is that nuclear power brought on immediate and sudden change to society, wouldn't culture change in a big way as well? Cell phones, the internet, even just TV each changed culture dramatically. Hell, they even have TVs, but you don't ever watch old TV programs in this game. The whole "freeze culture in the 50s" thing trips me out especially after watching Mad Men, because the progression of that show is essentially everything that DIDN'T happen in the Fallout universe

[Cordeos]

Also, this is kind of tangential: is anybody else ever weirded out that in Fallout World, culture didn't evolve at all in the century after World War 2? If the whole idea is that nuclear power brought on immediate and sudden change to society, wouldn't culture change in a big way as well? Cell phones, the internet, even just TV each changed culture dramatically. Hell, they even have TVs, but you don't ever watch old TV programs in this game. The whole "freeze culture in the 50s" thing trips me out especially after watching Mad Men, because the progression of that show is essentially everything that DIDN'T happen in the Fallout universe

 

That sort of cultural stagnation is possible, if difficult given the advance of technology. Chinese imperial culture stagnated pretty much post confucius because the state often cracked down on innovation.

[Vegas]

That sort of cultural stagnation is possible, if difficult given the advance of technology. Chinese imperial culture stagnated pretty much post confucius because the state often cracked down on innovation.

 

So that implies the culture after WW2 would have been extremely conservative. That DOES jive with the whole nuclear war thing...

 

I'm definitely not up on my fallout lore, I'm sure the nature of the post-war, pre-fallout government and society must have been covered somewhere

[Ninety-Three]

Also, this is kind of tangential: is anybody else ever weirded out that in Fallout World, culture didn't evolve at all in the century after World War 2? If the whole idea is that nuclear power brought on immediate and sudden change to society, wouldn't culture change in a big way as well? Cell phones, the internet, even just TV each changed culture dramatically.

 

In Fallout, the transistor wasn't invented until shortly before the 2077 apocalypse (How do robots work then? Don't think about it too much), so a lot of those things didn't exist. The culture of pre-war Fallout isn't given a ton of detail, like the question of how transistorless robots work, I don't think you're supposed to think about it too much because it's just there to produce a fun campy game-world.

[Badfinger]

When do I get to this part?

For me it was about 45 minutes to an hour into the game. As soon as you gain the ability to do base building, you get the opportunity to tinker with weapons and armor as well. There are work benches in your settlements.

 

Shortly after that you learn that the wasteland's most precious resource is duct tape.

 

 

you can make a dog wear goggles. DOGGLES! GOTY

 

My company makes a veterinarian product, and we sell doggles for dog protection during treatment.

 

 

 

 

Hah, I'd totally forgotten that the Fallout world has fusion but transistors were late to the party.

 

I'm not weirded out by the strangeness of the world, just bummed that apparently only 8 songs were popular from coast to coast on the radio.

[elmuerte]

21 hours in, haven't even visited the main city yet. I'm not going to use fast travel, so I have to walk to everywhere.

 

One thing that bugs me a bit is that traps often disappear when they kill you.

[Bjorn]

It's been awhile since I played 1, but didn't Bethesda kinda botch the whole 50s motif?  In the original, in the outside world that culture hadn't continued, but in the isolated vaults, it had?  Bethesda just ignored (or fundamentally misunderstood) what F1 was doing. 

[Vegas]

In Fallout, the transistor wasn't invented until shortly before the 2077 apocalypse (How do robots work then? Don't think about it too much), so a lot of those things didn't exist. The culture of pre-war Fallout isn't given a ton of detail, like the question of how transistorless robots work, I don't think you're supposed to think about it too much because it's just there to produce a fun campy game-world.

 

Yeah that's definitely how I take it. The continuity stuff kind of got to me in the beginning of this game though. Like when

you go to the museum and the vertibird is stuck in the roof. If you read the computers in the place, unless I read it wrong, the vertibird crashed almost right after the bombs fell. And what, just sat there for 200 years? Though again, maybe I read all that wrong

. Though it got me thinking about it.

[Ninety-Three]

Yeah that's definitely how I take it. The continuity stuff kind of got to me in the beginning of this game though. Like when

you go to the museum and the vertibird is stuck in the roof. If you read the computers in the place, unless I read it wrong, the vertibird crashed almost right after the bombs fell. And what, just sat there for 200 years? Though again, maybe I read all that wrong

.

 

Haven't read that, but given how Fallout behaves, your read is probably correct. The writers on the modern Fallouts generally act as though it hasn't been 200 years. If it had, then everything but the most thoroughly hidden, thoroughly locked, and thoroughly defended locations would have been stripped bare, and any old world item should have turned to either pure rot, or pure rust, depending on its composition. They have all these cars lying around that will explode when a stray shot hits them during a gunfight, are you telling me that in the past two centuries there have been few enough gunfights in these areas that most of these explosive barrels haven't been exploded by now?

 

Modern Fallout is built upon layer after layer of "Shut up, don't think about it."

 

Though it got me thinking about it.

 

Well there's your problem. Fallout is much more concerned with putting neat stuff onscreen (be it a campy 50s car, or a sweet robot) than it is with making any sense. That sounds negative but it's really not, I like Fallout, and I appreciate that they don't waste time trying to narratively justify their gameplay-first worldbuilding decisions.

[Plyem]

I've put a ton of hours into Fallout 4 so far. It's a ton of fun but feels a bit off in some places. Not really in a "Bethesda Jank" kind of a way, but more in a "I'm comparing this to the past too much" kind of way. The new dialogue system doesn't really seem that good. While I like the more freeform camera and the departure from past "Locked in place" style system, it's sometimes hard to tell when dialogue is actually happening. I ran past a few NPCs several times wondering why they wouldn't stop repeating some line, only to later realize they were attempting to start a dialogue with me. For all its flaws the "locked in place" system made it very clear who was an NPC with something to say and who was a generic NPC. 

I also lament the lack of skill checks in dialogue and a random chance persuasion system that is very opaque. Also the settlement tutorial is really poorly done, or, rather, not done at all.

That being said I've been enjoying building my little tree-forts around the world, even if the game isn't really telling me why I should want to build them or tell me how any of it works. It's a nice break from wandering and scavenging.

Edit-- 
I just had a good idea for a mod. Are there any high-quality scans of the Thumb's paintings? Can we convince Daniel to do some voice-acting?

Edit Edit--

This is a good and fun game.

[syntheticgerbil]

I've been checking this thread for several weeks and I just realized this thread's title is a Ghostbusters joke.

 

I don't have anything to say about FO4, I just wanted to share my realization in case anyone else missed it. Good job on the title, mikemariano.

Duh

[miffy495]

Listening to the bombcast, it just sounds like more Fallout 3. Which is cool, but I had my fill of that. If there's nothing new in there, I'm kinda glad. I don't really want to play another 100+ hour open world game this year.

 

Pretty much this exactly. Due to a HDD failure, I never finished New Vegas. I feel like that should take priority.

[elmuerte]

So I fenced the shit out of my sanctuary after super mutants attacked it. So that appears to be a thing.

 

Dogmeat is quite annoying in a lot of cases, moving in the way block doorways and stuff. Or worse, running of in some direction and waking ghouls.

Here's my dog

[TheLastBaron]

Is it possible to play without the dog at all?

[Cordeos]

Is it possible to play without the dog at all?

You should be able to send it back to sanctuary, you can after you get other companions.

[Dinosaursssssss]

I feel like it's really weird hearing someone SAY the name 'Dogmeat' out loud repeatedly. In text, when it wasn't directly being used to address the dog I didn't notice it so much, but I feel like a real jerk calling him that to his face.

 

It also feels like he regularly alerts enemies to my presence when I'm sneaking, but the detection feels really imprecise in this game so I donno if it's just me.

[Gwardinen]

Stealth has always seemed like more trouble than it's worth in Bethesda games.

[Cordeos]

Stealth has always seemed like more trouble than it's worth in Bethesda games.

It can be useful to get an opening sniper shot, but for close up i just used lots of stealth boys

[Woodfella]

Last night I enjoyed clearing out an entire warehouse of raiders while I was wearing a lovely red dress, wielding a bat and classical music played.

Then I went for a wander and got killed repeatedly by Super Mutants, Deathclaws, Bugs, pretty much everything. Mostly enjoying it, can't get in to the base building though. Seems quite fiddly and don't think it's explained very well