Anyone else disappointed with Fallout 4?

[IceForce]

I keep seeing people mention that the perks have no impact... how much of the game have you guys played, exactly? Sure, there are plenty of useless perks, but there are many other that change up the game quite substantially. The penetration perk might be the most OP in the entire game. I can one-shot any robot (from the front) on Very Hard and two-shot detonate enemies in power armor by bypassing their chest and hitting them directly in the Fusion Core. That one perk changed how I engaged roughly 1/3 of the enemies in the game.

Wait, you can shoot through other parts of enemies? Why the fuck didn't the game tell me that's what that perk did? The animated icon for the perk shows an enemy hiding behind cover, and the description doesn't explain things very well. So I assumed the perk was just for penetrating through cover, not for hitting fusion cores on the backs of enemies from the front.

Goddammit.

I only know because I read about it. I honestly expect it to be nerfed somehow as fusion cores and combat whasits (the robot thing) are super easy to hit in VATS for some reason. Maybe because the whole point is that you are normally supposed the get behind your target? All I know is that I can snipe a BoS guy from a mile away with a 95% hit chance on his fusion core from any angle. Two shots and he lights up like Parliament, taking out everything within 20 yards of him XD

I can also one-shot Sentry Bots. Shit is silly.

Huh, it's possible the perk is not functioning the way it was intended. Because yeah, that sounds crazy.

Actually, there are two perks (that we know of) that are slated for changes in a patch: Loan Wanderer perk apparently wasn't supposed to work with Dogmeat (https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3ti7us/psa_yes_the_lone_wanderer_perk_still_working_with/), and some Beth dev messed up a percentage increase by typing in "20" instead of "0.2" for the 20% VATS increase value in MacCready's companion perk (https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3tpcws/is_maccreadys_killshot_perk_bugged/ / http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Killshot#Bugs).

 

[Fappy]

I keep seeing people mention that the perks have no impact... how much of the game have you guys played, exactly? Sure, there are plenty of useless perks, but there are many other that change up the game quite substantially. The penetration perk might be the most OP in the entire game. I can one-shot any robot (from the front) on Very Hard and two-shot detonate enemies in power armor by bypassing their chest and hitting them directly in the Fusion Core. That one perk changed how I engaged roughly 1/3 of the enemies in the game.

Wait, you can shoot through other parts of enemies? Why the fuck didn't the game tell me that's what that perk did? The animated icon for the perk shows an enemy hiding behind cover, and the description doesn't explain things very well. So I assumed the perk was just for penetrating through cover, not for hitting fusion cores on the backs of enemies from the front.

Goddammit.

I only know because I read about it. I honestly expect it to be nerfed somehow as fusion cores and combat whasits (the robot thing) are super easy to hit in VATS for some reason. Maybe because the whole point is that you are normally supposed the get behind your target? All I know is that I can snipe a BoS guy from a mile away with a 95% hit chance on his fusion core from any angle. Two shots and he lights up like Parliament, taking out everything within 20 yards of him XD

I can also one-shot Sentry Bots. Shit is silly.

Huh, it's possible the perk is not functioning the way it was intended. Because yeah, that sounds crazy.

Actually, there are two perks (that we know of) that are slated for changes in a patch: Loan Wanderer perk apparently wasn't supposed to work with Dogmeat (https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3ti7us/psa_yes_the_lone_wanderer_perk_still_working_with/), and some Beth dev messed up a percentage increase by typing in "20" instead of "0.2" for the 20% VATS increase value in MacCready's companion perk (https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3tpcws/is_maccreadys_killshot_perk_bugged/ / http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Killshot#Bugs).

HA! I was wondering why my headshots were suddenly so insane! I got that last night (already have the sniper perk one) and was scratching my head at the constant 95%'s I was seeing. I was expecting it to hop up to about 70% headshot to a 90% body shot, not exceed it! This explains that, lol.

Also, ever since getting that perk I feel like my headshot damage in VATS is bugged. It will forecast my damage as double what it ends up being. Out of VATS headshot damage appears correct though. Weird shit.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I can also one-shot Sentry Bots. Shit is silly.

It all gets silly at the high end. I went the stealthy ninja route, and I one shot pretty close to everything from further away than their effective aggro range, slowly picking off entire encampments while they run around shouting and firing their guns aimlessly into the night. Other people are walking around one-two punching alpha deathclaws.

One of the great joys (or detriments, depending on how fussy you are about systems integrity) of the "Bethesda Model" games (and I include New Vegas in this) is the free-form ability to make yourself ridiculously overpowered.

I agree entirely though, perks are fine, and plenty high impact. The issues people are having with the game not rewarding non-combat solutions or allowing bonus dialogue based on perks isn't a flaw of the system, it's a flaw in how Bethesda designed their quests and encounters.

Actually, there are two perks (that we know of) that are slated for changes in a patch: Loan Wanderer perk apparently wasn't supposed to work with Dogmeat (https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3ti7us/psa_yes_the_lone_wanderer_perk_still_working_with/)

BOO THAT PERK SHOULD WORK WITH DOGMEAT LONE WANDERERS CAN HAVE DOGS DAMN IT WORKING AS INTENDED I SAY.

 

[Fappy]

Actually, there are two perks (that we know of) that are slated for changes in a patch: Loan Wanderer perk apparently wasn't supposed to work with Dogmeat (https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/3ti7us/psa_yes_the_lone_wanderer_perk_still_working_with/)

BOO THAT PERK SHOULD WORK WITH DOGMEAT LONE WANDERERS CAN HAVE DOGS DAMN IT WORKING AS INTENDED I SAY.

There's even a load screen tip that says it is supposed to work with Dogmeat...

Well, whatever.

Mods

 

[IceForce]

It all gets silly at the high end. I went the stealthy ninja route, and I one shot pretty close to everything from further away than their effective aggro range, slowly picking off entire encampments while they run around shouting and firing their guns aimlessly into the night. Other people are walking around one-two punching alpha deathclaws.

One of the great joys (or detriments, depending on how fussy you are about systems integrity) of the "Bethesda Model" games (and I include New Vegas in this) is the free-form ability to make yourself ridiculously overpowered.

Yeahhh, Bethesda don't seem to put much thought into balancing some of their things out. (But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. In fact, I love it.)

In addition to what you've said above, you can also throw legendary weapons into the mix. Legendary 'prefixes' can be randomly applied to any weapon.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon_effects#Legendary_Weapon_Prefixes
Things like "Furious - Increased damage after each consecutive hit on the same target." is absolutely insanely over-powered if you find it on a minigun or SMG. Same story with "Wounding - Targets bleed for 25 points of additional damage.", which applies on every single hit, and each 'bleed' effect stacks. So with a fast firing gun (like the aforementioned minigun or SMG), you only need to knock off about a quarter of their health, and the multiple stacked bleed effects take care of the rest. There are videos on youtube of people minigunning Mirelurk Queens to death in a couple of seconds.

For sniper rifles, there is "Instigating - Does double damage if the target is at full health.", and also "Two Shot - Fires an additional projectile.", the latter of which is awesome for headshots (because you're literally getting two headshots happening at the same time), or even better, a 'Two-Shot Fat Man' (which can be manually upgraded to a 'Two-Shot MIRV', for the lovely 16 mini nukes it can rain down on people).

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yeahhh, Bethesda don't seem to put much thought into balancing some of their things out. (But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. In fact, I love it.)

In addition to what you've said above, you can also throw legendary weapons into the mix. Legendary 'prefixes' can be randomly applied to any weapon.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon_effects#Legendary_Weapon_Prefixes
Things like "Furious - Increased damage after each consecutive hit on the same target." is absolutely insanely over-powered if you find it on a minigun or SMG. Same story with "Wounding - Targets bleed for 25 points of additional damage.", which applies on every single hit, and each 'bleed' effect stacks. So with a fast firing gun (like the aforementioned minigun or SMG), you only need to knock off about a quarter of their health, and the multiple stacked bleed effects take care of the rest. There are videos on youtube of people minigunning Mirelurk Queens to death in a couple of seconds.

For sniper rifles, there is "Instigating - Does double damage if the target is at full health.", and also "Two Shot - Fires an additional projectile.", the latter of which is awesome for headshots (because you're literally getting two headshots happening at the same time), or even better, a 'Two-Shot Fat Man' (which can be manually upgraded to a 'Two-Shot MIRV', for the lovely 16 mini nukes it can rain down on people).

Oh my word I need that instigating sniper rifle.

I have a "powerful" shotgun, but aside from that I haven't had much luck with weapon prefixes. All five pieces of my armor have +1/+1 SPECIAL stats, which I quite like, but aside from the powerful on the shotgun, my weapons are all entirely vanilla. All the prefixes I get on the Legendary drops are lousy. I've gotten two Junkies Sniper Rifles. I'm not a junkie!

 

[EternallyBored]

It all gets silly at the high end. I went the stealthy ninja route, and I one shot pretty close to everything from further away than their effective aggro range, slowly picking off entire encampments while they run around shouting and firing their guns aimlessly into the night. Other people are walking around one-two punching alpha deathclaws.

One of the great joys (or detriments, depending on how fussy you are about systems integrity) of the "Bethesda Model" games (and I include New Vegas in this) is the free-form ability to make yourself ridiculously overpowered.

Yeahhh, Bethesda don't seem to put much thought into balancing some of their things out. (But I'm not saying that's a bad thing. In fact, I love it.)

In addition to what you've said above, you can also throw legendary weapons into the mix. Legendary 'prefixes' can be randomly applied to any weapon.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon_effects#Legendary_Weapon_Prefixes
Things like "Furious - Increased damage after each consecutive hit on the same target." is absolutely insanely over-powered if you find it on a minigun or SMG. Same story with "Wounding - Targets bleed for 25 points of additional damage.", which applies on every single hit, and each 'bleed' effect stacks. So with a fast firing gun (like the aforementioned minigun or SMG), you only need to knock off about a quarter of their health, and the multiple stacked bleed effects take care of the rest. There are videos on youtube of people minigunning Mirelurk Queens to death in a couple of seconds.

For sniper rifles, there is "Instigating - Does double damage if the target is at full health.", and also "Two Shot - Fires an additional projectile.", the latter of which is awesome for headshots (because you're literally getting two headshots happening at the same time), or even better, a 'Two-Shot Fat Man' (which can be manually upgraded to a 'Two-Shot MIRV', for the lovely 16 mini nukes it can rain down on people).

I have that fat man, it is so much fun to use. Right now I've been playing with a high crafting build focusing on power armor, heavy weapons, and automatic weapons, so my general strategy is to fly into an area with my power armor jet pack, throwing mininukes, heat seeking rockets, and plasma grenades around. Witcher 3 has the better story and graphics, but nothing in that game gave me a gameplay thrill quite like jumping off a building spamming high explosives like a 40k space marine. Maybe I'm just easily amused though, because FO4 is still one of my favorite games this year, right up there with bloodborne and Witcher 3.

 

[dyre]

Apologies for using this thread to ask an unrelated question, but I figured this would be a good place to ask because people posting here have probably played a lot of the game already: could someone suggest some junk items that I should be on the lookout for? I realize that pretty much everything is usable, but most of them yield common resources like metal, wood, rubber, etc. Are there any items/derivative items that you find yourself consistently in low quantities of, and wish you hadn't been ignoring earlier?

As for the original topic, I'm fairly early into the game but so far it seems pretty enjoyable. More polished, nicer looking than its predecessors, with superior gunplay. I wasn't expecting to enjoy Boston as much as DC (a far more interesting city IRL), but it's not all that bad actually. I can sympathize with people who feel railroaded into playing a generic hero protagonist, but personally I've always roleplayed as the generic hero anyway, so it doesn't impact me much. So far my main concerns are that the quests so far seem to allow comparatively fewer approaches (compared to both NV and 3), and the settlement system is a bore. There were some very high quality settlement mods for both the previous Fallout games...I didn't like the concept then, and I don't particularly care for it now. I'm hoping that having a powerful settlement will impact my character's reputation or something later on (i.e., dialogue options like "You think you're tough? I'm the leader of the fearsome settlement at Sanctuary Hills! Hand me all your caps or else!"), but I'm not holding my breath.

YEP. I ran Witcher 3 pretty close to maxed out, and almost never suffered anything so much as a frame rate drop. Fallout 4 turns into a borderline slide-show in some areas, the downtown especially. It handles shadowing TERRIBLY. I realize it's rendering a lot of crazy shit all over the place, including on a Y axis, but this performance is WOEFUL.

I feel like this has been an issue that impacts all the Fallout series games (much more so than the Elder Scrolls ones for some reason), but can be substantially alleviated by minor .ini tweaks most of the time.

Your mileage may vary, but this worked really well for me:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3seb6u/fallout_4_performance_and_assistance_megathread_2/

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Apologies for using this thread to ask an unrelated question, but I figured this would be a good place to ask because people posting here have probably played a lot of the game already: could someone suggest some junk items that I should be on the lookout for? I realize that pretty much everything is usable, but most of them yield common resources like metal, wood, rubber, etc. Are there any items/derivative items that you find yourself consistently in low quantities of, and wish you hadn't been ignoring earlier?

Some random items to look out for...

1. Anything that gives adhesive, until you feel comfortably done with modding. All duct tape, glues, and...I think it's vegetable shortening.

2. Anything that gives oil. Oil is a shortage that can sneak up on you fast. Gas cans and oil canisters are good supplies of this, as are the light and near omnipresent lighters.

3. Copper if you plan on doing a lot of electrical work. Can be found in fuses, old lightbulbs, and a handful of other tech-style items.

4. Circuitry if you're wanting turrets and the like. Look for hot plates and alarm clocks mostly.

5. Ceramics can run low...I found myself scavenging up every coffee cup and vase I could find for a while.

6. Those are the major ones, but grab anything that gives fiber optics, ballistic fiber, nuclear material, that sort of stuff, when it comes available, as they are rarer components and if you find yourself suddenly needing some it's not as simple as a pop over to the next burned out building to find some.

Your mileage may vary, but this worked really well for me:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3seb6u/fallout_4_performance_and_assistance_megathread_2/

Alas, I already .ini'ed it to within an inch of its life. It's just a chuggy game.

 

[SerBrittanicus]

Spoiler: Setting problems

First, some minor grievances about the setting, some that carry-over from Fallout 3. Somehow 200 years after the nukes dropped the wasteland still appears as if it were just a couple of decades afterwards. Nearly all the towns and cities are just empty and people are scattered among small settlements comprised of metal shacks. Pre-war food is still just lying around in the open despite that people would have obviously needed to scavenge for supplies. Very few places actually giving an effort to create crops. The most prominent population of people are generic raiders that somehow are still a problem. The only large settlement (or town) is Diamond City, and it's still got the metal shack problem. It actually reminded me a lot of Nuketown (not a good thing). Compared to Fallout 1, where there were plenty of farmers and large settlements just 80 years after the bombs dropped, or Fallout 2 where 80 years later there are booming cities. I know the point of Fallout 4 was to put the rebuilding of society in the player's hands, but the timeframe it claims to have and the setting it places itself in just really takes me out of things and makes it hard for me to get immersed or connect with the events going on.

Fallout 4 is essentially the first Fallout game that I have ever made any significant progress in but this is something that kept annoying me as I explored - why is everyone still living like they are - why no new buildings, no real attempts to build cities, no new infrastructure - they cant even keep the streets clean/clear in the few settlements they do have. Its not like they are starting from scratch - they can see how things used to be done all around them.

Also maybe I can deal with the fact that everyone else apparently can't nail two bits of wood together without leaving a 10 yard gap between them, but if I am supposed to be re-building these new settlements why do all the buildings I place have to look like ramshackle, shoddy sheds that aren't even weatherproof. Maybe there is some piece of Fallout lore I am not aware of that means nobody can build properly anymore - perhaps the radiation melts that part of everybody's brains.

 

[Dansen]

Apologies for using this thread to ask an unrelated question, but I figured this would be a good place to ask because people posting here have probably played a lot of the game already: could someone suggest some junk items that I should be on the lookout for? I realize that pretty much everything is usable, but most of them yield common resources like metal, wood, rubber, etc. Are there any items/derivative items that you find yourself consistently in low quantities of, and wish you hadn't been ignoring earlier?

YEP. I ran Witcher 3 pretty close to maxed out, and almost never suffered anything so much as a frame rate drop. Fallout 4 turns into a borderline slide-show in some areas, the downtown especially. It handles shadowing TERRIBLY. I realize it's rendering a lot of crazy shit all over the place, including on a Y axis, but this performance is WOEFUL.

I feel like this has been an issue that impacts all the Fallout series games (much more so than the Elder Scrolls ones for some reason), but can be substantially alleviated by minor .ini tweaks most of the time.

Your mileage may vary, but this worked really well for me:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3seb6u/fallout_4_performance_and_assistance_megathread_2/

Keep an eye out for any complex machinery like weights, microscopes, alarm clocks, watches. circuits and copper. Screws and ceramics have really screwed me over so keep an eye out for them too.

A neat thing to note, besides being insanely OP, when plasma weapons liquify enemies they spawn radioactive material.

 

[dyre]

Apologies for using this thread to ask an unrelated question, but I figured this would be a good place to ask because people posting here have probably played a lot of the game already: could someone suggest some junk items that I should be on the lookout for? I realize that pretty much everything is usable, but most of them yield common resources like metal, wood, rubber, etc. Are there any items/derivative items that you find yourself consistently in low quantities of, and wish you hadn't been ignoring earlier?

Some random items to look out for...

1. Anything that gives adhesive, until you feel comfortably done with modding. All duct tape, glues, and...I think it's vegetable shortening.

2. Anything that gives oil. Oil is a shortage that can sneak up on you fast. Gas cans and oil canisters are good supplies of this, as are the light and near omnipresent lighters.

3. Copper if you plan on doing a lot of electrical work. Can be found in fuses, old lightbulbs, and a handful of other tech-style items.

4. Circuitry if you're wanting turrets and the like. Look for hot plates and alarm clocks mostly.

5. Ceramics can run low...I found myself scavenging up every coffee cup and vase I could find for a while.

6. Those are the major ones, but grab anything that gives fiber optics, ballistic fiber, nuclear material, that sort of stuff, when it comes available, as they are rarer components and if you find yourself suddenly needing some it's not as simple as a pop over to the next burned out building to find some.

Your mileage may vary, but this worked really well for me:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3seb6u/fallout_4_performance_and_assistance_megathread_2/

Alas, I already .ini'ed it to within an inch of its life. It's just a chuggy game.

Nice, thanks for the tips. Sorry to hear .ini tweaking hasn't worked for you....hopefully when the modders get to work, they'll come up with some more substantial fixes.

Keep an eye out for any complex machinery like weights, microscopes, alarm clocks, watches. circuits and copper. Screws and ceramics have really screwed me over so keep an eye out for them too.

A neat thing to note, besides being insanely OP, when plasma weapons liquify enemies they spawn radioactive material.

Sounds good, thanks. I guess my wanderer will be a pre-war tech hoarder, with a secondary interest in coffee cups.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Apologies for using this thread to ask an unrelated question, but I figured this would be a good place to ask because people posting here have probably played a lot of the game already: could someone suggest some junk items that I should be on the lookout for? I realize that pretty much everything is usable, but most of them yield common resources like metal, wood, rubber, etc. Are there any items/derivative items that you find yourself consistently in low quantities of, and wish you hadn't been ignoring earlier?

Some random items to look out for...

1. Anything that gives adhesive, until you feel comfortably done with modding. All duct tape, glues, and...I think it's vegetable shortening.

2. Anything that gives oil. Oil is a shortage that can sneak up on you fast. Gas cans and oil canisters are good supplies of this, as are the light and near omnipresent lighters.

3. Copper if you plan on doing a lot of electrical work. Can be found in fuses, old lightbulbs, and a handful of other tech-style items.

4. Circuitry if you're wanting turrets and the like. Look for hot plates and alarm clocks mostly.

5. Ceramics can run low...I found myself scavenging up every coffee cup and vase I could find for a while.

6. Those are the major ones, but grab anything that gives fiber optics, ballistic fiber, nuclear material, that sort of stuff, when it comes available, as they are rarer components and if you find yourself suddenly needing some it's not as simple as a pop over to the next burned out building to find some.

Your mileage may vary, but this worked really well for me:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3seb6u/fallout_4_performance_and_assistance_megathread_2/

Alas, I already .ini'ed it to within an inch of its life. It's just a chuggy game.

Nice, thanks for the tips. Sorry to hear .ini tweaking hasn't worked for you....hopefully when the modders get to work, they'll come up with some more substantial fixes.

Keep an eye out for any complex machinery like weights, microscopes, alarm clocks, watches. circuits and copper. Screws and ceramics have really screwed me over so keep an eye out for them too.

A neat thing to note, besides being insanely OP, when plasma weapons liquify enemies they spawn radioactive material.

Sounds good, thanks. I guess my wanderer will be a pre-war tech hoarder, with a secondary interest in coffee cups.

Keep in mind, if you haven't already found this out, you can tag certain items/components for collection. What this means is that if you find any items that contain the tagged components then their name will appear with a little magnifying glass when you find them in the environment or in containers. In order to do this, go to the junk section in your Pip-Boy and press whatever button switches to component view (I'm pretty sure it's C on PC). This will allow you to see the components from the items you are currently carrying. When in there, tag (press Q on PC) any useful components such as adhesive, copper, aluminium (I kept running out when modding stuff), ceramic and pretty much anything else you find yourself needing.

This eliminates the tedious guess work of wondering whether that TV dinner tray is aluminium or steal, or which items might contain nuclear material.

Spoiler: Setting problems

First, some minor grievances about the setting, some that carry-over from Fallout 3. Somehow 200 years after the nukes dropped the wasteland still appears as if it were just a couple of decades afterwards. Nearly all the towns and cities are just empty and people are scattered among small settlements comprised of metal shacks. Pre-war food is still just lying around in the open despite that people would have obviously needed to scavenge for supplies. Very few places actually giving an effort to create crops. The most prominent population of people are generic raiders that somehow are still a problem. The only large settlement (or town) is Diamond City, and it's still got the metal shack problem. It actually reminded me a lot of Nuketown (not a good thing). Compared to Fallout 1, where there were plenty of farmers and large settlements just 80 years after the bombs dropped, or Fallout 2 where 80 years later there are booming cities. I know the point of Fallout 4 was to put the rebuilding of society in the player's hands, but the timeframe it claims to have and the setting it places itself in just really takes me out of things and makes it hard for me to get immersed or connect with the events going on.

Fallout 4 is essentially the first Fallout game that I have ever made any significant progress in but this is something that kept annoying me as I explored - why is everyone still living like they are - why no new buildings, no real attempts to build cities, no new infrastructure - they cant even keep the streets clean/clear in the few settlements they do have. Its not like they are starting from scratch - they can see how things used to be done all around them.

Also maybe I can deal with the fact that everyone else apparently can't nail two bits of wood together without leaving a 10 yard gap between them, but if I am supposed to be re-building these new settlements why do all the buildings I place have to look like ramshackle, shoddy sheds that aren't even weatherproof. Maybe there is some piece of Fallout lore I am not aware of that means nobody can build properly anymore - perhaps the radiation melts that part of everybody's brains.

This is partially what absolutely killed any motivation to build my own structures. It would have been a nice end-game goal to scavenge the wasteland in order to build yourself a nice house; a lone piece of luxury in a scorched world. Instead, you get to chose between a rickety wooden shack or a patchwork of metal that contains about half the useful building pieces as the wood.

As for the rest of the wasteland, I'm a cynical prick, so you don't have to remind me of humanity's love of bickering and killing each other over the smallest of things. Yet, the extent to which people have remained uncooperative for so long is really starting to stretch credibility. Despite our tendency for violence and conflict, humans are also surprisingly cooperative when it suits us, and I have a hard time believing that after all this time people would still be sitting on the same old decrepit shacks after centuries.

As mentioned by others, the raiders seem like some of the smarter and more proactive people around. They seem to actively want to expand territory and set up camp inside pre-war factories and other utilities that could be of great benefit, as opposed to the rest of the people who seem to want nothing more than living in the same one room shack for all eternity. Outside of the treatment of ghouls there don't seem to be too many sources of philosophical or political conflict, so I don't really see why they really bother being so uncooperative when there are plenty of other enemies besides their fellow humans. It seems to me that after such a period of time there would have been more effort to restore pre-war factories for at least the most essential items they use, such as ammunition (where exactly do all their munitions come from?)
Outside of it being a video game and needing a steady source of things to shoot there doesn't really appear to be any reason why 90% of the map is controlled by disparate bandit camps and a surprisingly hostile mercenary company (how and why do people even hire the gunners if they just open fire on anything that moves?).

And the food is something that has always bothered me. I really don't see how anything could be preserved that long and still have any form on nutrients in it. Fair enough if it's some kind of specially designed MRE, but over the counter food would have gone so completely bad that eating it would likely be lethal. That's ignoring the fact that most of it would have been consumed long ago by the aforementioned raiders who control the world.

It really seems putting the setting 200 years after the bombs fell has worked entirely against them when everything seems to suggest only a couple of decades.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

It's a huge step up from FO3, but it's objectively worse than NV.

Bethesda never changes.

As for disappointment? I had no expectations coming in, especially because of FO3, so I'm enjoying the game.

I assume you're joking about that. Surely you can't be serious, right?

Considering that in Fallout NV...

Companions never got confused by a slight slope in the ground and continued to follow me instead of running half-way across the map, making them smart as the demons in Doom.

The dialogue system that tells you what what the options will actually say.

There is A complete lack of the abscess that is radiant quests.

NPCs are capable of dressing themselves without the player, rather than you having to do everything from defending the town to building it (this goes for almost EVERY TOWN in Fallout 4) to bringing everyone's dinner.

A largely consistent setting that, while not realistic, made sense internally. Which is the bare minimum I ask of a setting in game so heavily invested in story (because it's sure as hell not the combat anyone plays Bethesda games for).

Unless you were talking about it being better than Fallout 3, seeing as the story is just Fallout 3 but you're the father/mother and the combat is still unacceptably shit.

I have no problem with the opinion that Fallout NV is better than Fallout 4, especially considering how much more time I've invested in NV verses how much time I've invested in Fallout 4 before already growing fairly tired of it (to be fair, I'm not sure how much of that is down to this just being another formulaic Bethesda Openworld RPGtm). My problem is with the use of the word "objective" when describing a piece of media that is "objectively better", which is a word I feel the internet sorely needs to forget.

While it might be possible to categorise certain technical elements as "objectively" better, but the extent to which they elevate the overall game is entirely subjective. It gets especially absurd when you consider the fact that story, art design, characters, gameplay, setting, sound design, and other elements make up a great deal how many rate the quality of a game, and these elements are entirely subjective.

The reason why I assumed it was a joke is because it sounds like a parody of internet arguments where fan-boys will insist that Star Wars is objectively better than Star Trek, or metal is objectively better than punk, or Coke is objectively better than Pepsi, or tea is objectively better than coffee, or any other such nonsense.

 

[Kyrian007]

I'm enjoying it. Don't get any of the criticism about the PC optimization. I only slightly exceed minimum requirements and have had no problems with performance at medium settings. Not nearly as bad mechanically as FO 3 or NV, both of which I had to edit .ini files to get to run properly (although the cut and paste .ini edit fixes took almost no time, were simple, fixed the problems permanently, and anyone who can't do that much shouldn't be pc gaming anyway.) FO 4 on the other hand installed, optimized itself graphically for my rig (with exactly the same settings my NVidia program suggested, unless those exact settings are the "default" somehow) and has run nearly glitch free for 50+ hours. I can't believe the suggestion that GTA 5 is somehow "better optimized" as Rockstar has never released a good or well optimized PC port (admittedly 5 has been the best for pc so far, although that's not saying much.)

And as far as story complaints or comparisons to TES or other Fallout games... yes I understand fanboys have to fanatically love their favorites and say everything else sucks and is not as good. Nothing new about (or from) haters. Yadda, Yadda, Immersion... Blah, Blah, some other term I don't use properly but sounds "smart"... all the same fanboy stuff.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Not gonna lie. I've begun putting in early mods and tweaking the .ini stuff so my game runs better and so that shadows don't reduce my game to a slideshow in urban areas. I'm still baffled as to why survival mode even exists? All it does is place an arbitrary timer on healing items and... more legendary enemies (hooray for my 122nd Sprinter's Leather Thong of Perspiration). I'm surprised Bethesda didn't take any notes from this [http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2761/?] mod regarding survival, as it's done quite nicely, almost to a Stalker-esque level in this mod. And we know they pay attention to mods, we can look to settlement creation as an example. It even does away with the unnecessary damage/armor ratio that makes most human enemies into bullet sponges and puts the player and enemy on the same page: bullets hurt everyone equally, as they should.

I also have a mini-rant regard how badly Perception is fudged up and the way crits work now, but I don't wanna be here all day.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'm enjoying it. Don't get any of the criticism about the PC optimization. I only slightly exceed minimum requirements and have had no problems with performance at medium settings.

Fallout's default medium shadows are exactly the same as its low shadows. The draw distance for them is identical, and extraordinarily short. Making the game world look flat/washed out. With any kind of actual shadow draw distance, performance almost immediately starts tanking.

Short Draw Distance = 3000
Medium Draw Distance = 3000
High Draw Distance = 14000
Ultra Draw Distance = 20000

Given the first two settings are identical, it's probably something we can attribute to a long line of bugs. You can use the .ini to give yourself a custom "medium" setting, but at anything above those virtually non-existent shadow levels the game starts huffing.

PS - Another link for the "melee is underpowered" guy.

http://imgur.com/gallery/WNfOe

Note the top comment, upvoted 444 times...

Melee is ridiculously overpowered in this game.

 

[IceForce]

I'm enjoying it. Don't get any of the criticism about the PC optimization. I only slightly exceed minimum requirements and have had no problems with performance at medium settings.

Fallout's default medium shadows are exactly the same as its low shadows. The draw distance for them is identical, and extraordinarily short. Making the game world look flat/washed out. With any kind of actual shadow draw distance, performance almost immediately starts tanking.

Short Draw Distance = 3000
Medium Draw Distance = 3000
High Draw Distance = 14000
Ultra Draw Distance = 20000

Given the first two settings are identical, it's probably something we can attribute to a long line of bugs. You can use the .ini to give yourself a custom "medium" setting, but at anything above those virtually non-existent shadow levels the game starts huffing.

The texture quality setting is another setting that doesn't appear to make any difference between setting levels.

(Skip to about 1:40)

It would appear this new iteration of the Creation Engine uses some special form of 'streamed' textures, which always display at their highest quality closest to the player. So the setting only affects the textures further away. (Quite a big change from the way it was in Skyrim.)

Far Cry 4 actually uses the same system:
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/far-cry-4-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide#far-cry-4-texture-quality
(And once again, this is different to how Far Cry 3 handled it.)