Fallout 4 — Boston Makes Me Feel Good

[Azniac]

Since the rumors first started ages ago about the game being set near Boston, there were a lot of people throwing around the likelihood of The Institute being involved in Fallout 4, since it's mentioned in a Fallout 3 quest.

 

The Android quest near Rivet City. 

 

I'd also hate it if they gender-locked the player. I hope that's not how it ends up panning out.

[Kolzig]

Casually browsing through reddit today I stumbled upon this post made 11 months ago by someone claiming to be a former employee. It possibly spoils the main plot, game, size, and gameplay options, and even the release schedule (if indeed it's true) but it's interesting and (given reference to The Institute last page) prescient. 

 

I'm more interested to play this after reading that. The story sounds vaguely closer to the original games. But potentially gender locking the main character doesn't impress me at all.

 

I came here just to post about that, really fascinating stuff.

 

I found it through this article that pretty much says it all also.

 

http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/this-exbethesda-employee-leaked-fallout-4-a-year-ago-but-nobody-believed-her-33141

 

A really big shame if they've locked the plot and the game that you can only be a male character.

[mikemariano]

Hey, everybody; I've got this great idea for a game!

 

Your wife gets murdered.

[Smart Jason]

Hey, everybody; I've got this great idea for a game!

 

Your wife gets murdered.

 

Aw jeez, sounds like that game would involve a lot of grief counseling, strained interpersonal relationships, and no clear objectives for victory - right?

[Vasari]

Casually browsing through reddit today I stumbled upon this post made 11 months ago by someone claiming to be a former employee. It possibly spoils the main plot, game, size, and gameplay options, and even the release schedule (if indeed it's true) but it's interesting and (given reference to The Institute last page) prescient. 

 

I'm more interested to play this after reading that. The story sounds vaguely closer to the original games. But potentially gender locking the main character doesn't impress me at all.

 

People are going insane over this on Reddit, but it looks completely false. For one thing the only "confirmed" parts of the rumour are things like "It's set in Boston" that we knew years ago, and "It'll be announced at E3" which isn't exactly a difficult thing to guess. Only allowing the player to be a male character is one of the parts people are latching onto because of the voiced part of the trailer, but I'd be very surprised if Bethesda actually went down that route. The bit that really looks unbelievable is the idea that the game can be played in first person or in an isometric view - That would mean that:

 

A) All the environment assets would need to be made to cut away to let you view them from above and the world would need to be designed so that you never see the seams from either angle.

The combat mechanics and controls would need to change entirely between view modes. Considering the combat in Bethesda's Fallout games is real time I guess that means it'd be a twin stick shooter?

 

It's honestly easier than it seems to make a rumour like this appear true. All you need to do is fill it with mundane, believable lies, and things we already know or are obvious. Then you can drop in a couple of huge reveals and they'll seem believable by virtue of the other stuff.

 

Just don't point any of this out on reddit, though. They're in a frenzy right now over Fallout.

[SecretAsianMan]

As someone who enjoyed both Fallout 3 and NV but never played any of the rest, Fallout 4 is going to have to work pretty hard to make me want to play it.  Don't get me wrong, that trailer looked very good, but mostly it just looked like more Fallout to me.  I had fun in 3 and NV but I also got my fill.  If Fallout 4 is the same game in a different location, I'm honestly not super excited by it.  It'll probably end up being one of those games that I wait for the GOTY edition where I can get all the DLC.

[Mawd]

I don't think the E3 announcement is anything that gives credence. As to a top down combat system if there was one it'd largely be reliant on VATs and action points I would presume.

Anyway with the VoiceOver and family plot of the trailer I wouldn't be too surprised if there was a more direct story this time around. If they were doing PC voice acting would it really be surprising that they only recorded for a male role?

Anyway I'm still hoping that the setting feel is closer to the original games. Fallout 1 and 2 were my main jams and Fallout 3 never sat right with me.

Sigh I'm trying to enjoy some dartboard speculation here! I don't need people going apeshit or ruining the fun, harrumph!

[Griddlelol]

As someone who enjoyed both Fallout 3 and NV but never played any of the rest, Fallout 4 is going to have to work pretty hard to make me want to play it.  Don't get me wrong, that trailer looked very good, but mostly it just looked like more Fallout to me.  I had fun in 3 and NV but I also got my fill.  If Fallout 4 is the same game in a different location, I'm honestly not super excited by it.  It'll probably end up being one of those games that I wait for the GOTY edition where I can get all the DLC.

 

I'm in the same boat, except I really liked 3 and NV and will get it just to experience more of that since I've not touched that style of game in a long time. If I had like Skyrim, maybe I'd be less inclined to care, but that was such a let down for me that I've pinned my hopes on Fallout 4.

 

I do hope they ditch VATs, or at least make it a bonus, rather than something you do all the time.

[Badfinger]

My feeling is the same on VATS. I would be very surprised if they didn't rework combat. I know VATS was a halfway house of compromise so there was something akin to a turn-based aiming system, but everything else in the game was live world navigation. It either barely worked when you were low level, or you were just splattering fools left and right. If you were already competent at 1st/3rd person movement and shooting, it did nothing of benefit or made it so combat was autopilot with not a ton in between aside from the behatted man and his mysterious revolver. It was a neat idea that I don't think you can roll into a 3rd major release so many years later.

[JonCole]

So, people don't like VATS because it devalues the combat? Or are you guys saying that VATS is indicative of the combat system being poor? I never really got the first criticism, considering it was completely voluntary. It would have been nice if they worked VATS into difficulty, so that in any difficulty above normal it was disable or maybe it was just a toggle. I can understand the latter a little better, I've never been terribly in love with the combat system of Bethesda's games but it's particularly not well suited to shooting. I don't know enough about their engine to make any informed criticisms of the shooting, but I do wish that there was some kind of auto-aim.

 

All of that being said, VATS was essentially crucial to my wife's enjoyment of the game. She isn't much for first person shooters and whenever she can reduce the need to use those mechanics, the better. I can only really get her into RPG-FPS style games, of which there are few, and most that are straight-up shooting like Borderlands wear on her patience. FO3 and NV were perfect for this, because she could almost always use VATS and get through it with the difficulty on easy. She also played DXHR and did a full non-lethal stealth run, minus a couple places where she slipped up (understandably).

 

So basically, I want VATS in FO4. I never used it all that much, but it was nice in a pinch and made the game accessible to people who weren't so much for shooters.

[Azniac]

I'm kinda torn on VATS. On one hand, I think it's an interesting idea, and it's nice to be able to pull off a chain of headshots/crits at the start of a fight when you're far enough in the game, but it also made combat a lot less interesting in general. A Super Mutant or Deathclaw running at you isn't as terrifying when you can just freeze time and unload into them.

 

I felt VATS was a lot more optional in New Vegas, probably because they included iron sights. So if they keep those, I probably just won't use VATS most of the time.

[Cordeos]

The main thing I liked about VATS was that it conserved ammo. now that I have NV on PC I sometimes give myself 1,000,000 minigun bullets and just tear up the world.

[Badfinger]

No, my feeling on VATS is it was a cool idea in concept but was a compromised solution to a previously turn-based series that was seemingly over or underpowered at all times, as I said.

[ratamero]

I liked the idea of VATS and, as someone who never plays FPSs, used it a lot, but it never worked very well. As mentioned, it was terrible at low levels (to the extent where I, someone who's terrible at shooters, preferred not to use it because it was still easier to kill things by shooting at them myself) and it became way overpowered on late game, where combat became a matter of getting your VATS shots -> hiding to recover AP -> getting more VATS shots. I would not want Fallout to go full FPS in terms of combat, but a significant reworking of VATS is definitely something they should do.

[Griddlelol]

No, my feeling on VATS is it was a cool idea in concept but was a compromised solution to a previously turn-based series that was seemingly over or underpowered at all times, as I said.

 

Pretty much. It was either useless or amazing. Hence why I'd like them to get rid of it, or change it to always amazing, but you can only use it sparingly. 

Or come up with something better...

[JonCole]

Underpowered or overpowered is certainly a worthwhile thing to note, I noticed that too, but I imagine that it was so because of the general mechanics of the game. Namely, your weapons are way more powerful in the late game, your stats go up resulting in more critical hits/more raw damage values, plus there are a ton of perks that greatly benefit VATS specifically. At the same time, your opponents are leveled but they generally don't get stronger armor plus they frequently only have parts of a full outfit so they often have no damage resistance on their heads for instance.

 

I feel that this is a problem with their combat system in a greater sense. In the late game of Skyrim it doesn't matter if an enemy is ridiculously armored, a ghost, a huge dragon, or what as long as I can snipe them with my bow and arrow from afar while they stagger slowly to try and meet me. If I level my stamina enough, I can continually stagger almost any monster with a good heavy sword or club and a barrage of heavy attacks. If I level my alchemy enough, I can create such potent poison that a single arrow can kill most human enemies. However, while my stats are low and I'm wearing Fur Armor, I get totally wrecked by mudcrabs.

 

I really just hope they take steps to fix the combat system. Some of the best mods for Skyrim that I used completely overhauled the perk system and didn't just give you a stat advantage for certain perks, but gave the bonuses situationally. I really liked the changes to the light armor, where for instance you'd get a damage resistance buff if you were running directly towards a particular enemy. Or if you were fighting a more heavily armored opponent you'd get a speed buff. This would make it so the game actually adapts to your playstyle and rewards you for using it logically instead of giving these over-the-top stat boosts that make the game super easy in the late game.

 

None of this is to say that there are no problems with VATS. I'd be really happy if in FO4 they'd remove all perks specific to VATS. Have it be a system that only overlaps the combat instead of replacing it. Take the mysterious stranger aspect out of VATS, make it so it just procs randomly in regular combat. And man, I totally forgot that iron sights were particular to New Vegas. I really hope they don't pass up putting that into FO4, made the shooting feel more like... shooting.

[SecretAsianMan]

Count me in on the "interesting idea but flawed execution" group on VATS.  I can appreciate that it was useful for people who don't play FPS games very often but didn't want to entirely skip combat.  But as a combat system it seemed pretty broken to me.  My experience with VATS was usually to queue up headshots then watch a head explode into bits.  Once I got tired of doing that, I mostly used VATS as a way of quickly locating enemy positions.  Once I saw on the compass that someone was nearby, I'd initiate VATS and the camera would zoom to their position, instantly telling me where everyone is.  Then I'd cancel out of it and shoot them all.  Really the only thing I'd consistently use VATS for was explosives, just to make sure I was getting it in the area.

[Bjorn]

I don't disagree with y'all about VATS, but if my memory serves, the aiming system in Fallout 1 wasn't different really.  Critical headshots all day long in late game if you chose to build your character to go that route.

[Gamebeast23456]

I like VATS a lot. I fired up New Vegas and I am actually still enjoying using VATS. I don't know how much I'd like to see of this system in the future, and I'm certainly cognizant of it's flaws, but I think overall it's fine. 

 

I feel like Fallout 4 just has to have VATS, though. It feels integral to Fallout at this point. 

[Cordeos]

I hope they ditch the hacking minigame, hated it so much!

[SecretAsianMan]

I rather like Fallout's hacking and lockpicking.  I think it's one of the better implementations of that sort of thing.

[mikemariano]

In all cases, VATS works better than pointing your weapon at someone and attacking.  Real-time combat was so unconvincing for me that I exclusively used VATS.

[Gamebeast23456]

In all cases, VATS works better than pointing your weapon at someone and attacking. Real-time combat was so unconvincing for me that I exclusively used VATS.

Yeah, exactly. I think all Bethesda combat is pretty horrible and its a shame that there is such a combat focus in their games.

[Professor Video Games]

I liked the hacking game for a little bit, but it eventually became tedious (like all of these minigames inevitably do). Luckily I played on the pc and just installed a mod to make hacking & lockpicking just a skill check.

 

In Fallout 4 I just want good/interesting writing and hopefully an engine that allows characters to move less like robots. A more interesting combat system would be a nice bonus.

[Gamebeast23456]

I'd like for this game to feature more congruity between the scale of your actions and the way people react to them. Its always weird in these games when you are the most important guy ever, and people still treat you like crap.

Assuming this is a game where your actions reverberate throughout the game's plot and you do EVERYTHING. Based on the fact that its a Bethesda game, this seems like a safe bet.