Is anyone else nervous about how Fallout 4 will turn out?

Hey folks,

I haven't noticed any topics come up on this but I've been worried since the E3 footage if this game's going in the wrong direction. I started the series with Fallout 3 but went back and played Fallout 1 & 2 and really came to respect them for what they were, tightly paced, immersive RPGS with a robust amount of options to play around with.

Over the years, I've really turned on Fallout 3, despite it being my introduction to the series. The writing was a far cry from the older titles, and that writing wasn't exactly landmark for the time either. I can hardly remember the ending to FO3, and the vast open wasteland that everyone loved exploring...it occurs to me that I don't recall any of the quests outside of that one with Harold. The balance in the game was all over the place, and of course the base difficulty of the game made every choice almost pointless as the game was going to let you have your way no matter what.

Despite all that, I know what Bethesda does best, and it's engaging the player in an expertly crafted world and allowing them to craft their own stories. I liked Skyrim despite how much of the RPG formula it was missing for this exact reason. I have high hopes that they can deliver on this front.

The thing that makes me the most nervous? The marketing campaign. After E3, they've shown basically nothing about the game, its locations, its plot, interesting characters, combat, monsters, obligatory celebrity voice actors, etc. A short demo of the perk system was all we got, and a bunch of fluffy live action/60s commercial videos. And while this campaign is effective at generating interest, it also does nothing to hype me on the game, and fills my head with more and more concerns.

Obviously, I'm passionate about this series, and my chances of buying this game despite my reservations is high. Is anyone else feeling this way? Or are you all in, preordered and ready to go, assured that your mind is going to be blown?

Eh, Bethsoft's games have never gotten crazy marketing, we didn't see footage of Oblivion, Fallout 3 or Skyrim outside of an E3 gameplay video either and 4's time at E3 this year was immensely longer than any of those games got. Speaking as someone who rewatched every scrap of footage from each of those games excessively before their releases, lack of marketing does not mean bad game here.

I never really expect to have my mind blown by Bethesda games; nothing they've done since Morrowind has been literally incredible (some parts of New Vegas aside.) The thing that I buy their games for, then, is more the unparalleled sense of freedom; they let you pick up every darn tin can in those games, not because it helped you in any way, but because not being able to do it made you feel less free, and made the world less real. The Witcher 3 had amazing writing, beautiful environments and realistic characters, but it was so static and menu driven that I wasn't able to inhabit it the same way I can in Bethesda games.

It really all goes back to Ultima Underworld for me; in that game, you had a map item that occupied a single inventory slot. If you wanted to know where you were and where you had been, you had to either get out a pen and paper and draw it yourself, or haul around this one little item for the rest of the game. This mentality of almost banal detail permeates the game: you have to eat and sleep, literally anything in the game can be thrown to damage enemies, you have to manually translate a foreign language at one point, and perhaps most tellingly, there are items in the game you can pick up that serve no purpose whatsoever. It remains an incredibly engrossing experience to this day, in no small part because of the remarkable devotion to making the systems of the game world analagous to the systems of the real world, right down to litter in the street.

@reasonableman: New Vegas was developed by Obsidian.

@mach_go_go_go: True, hence my reticence about mentioning it. It's based on the Fallout 3 engine closely enough that I don't consider it a departure.

@reasonableman: To be fair the Ultima games have always been insane, Ultima Online remains to this day the only MMO I know of that has robust custom player housing that can literally be placed anywhere in the actual world and be designed from the ground floor up I made my third story a goddamn swamp.

If you like Bethesda RPG's, it'll be another Bethesda RPG. I expect it to be at the same tier as their other stuff.

That is, I won't play it but a ton of people will probably love it. I'm sure some people will prefer 3 or Skyrim, but I wouldn't expect a steep drop-off in quality all of a sudden. They have their template, and they take their time between games so it hasn't gotten stale yet.

Not even slightly. I know it will be great.

I think Fallout 4 will be to Fallout 3 as Skyrim was to Oblivion. Essentially the same game, with the same strengths and same weaknesses.

My expectations for its writing, characters, world-building, and story are low. I think it's continuing a trend away from being a roleplaying game and more towards being a casual sandbox game. There will be lots of player choice, but very little player consequence. Nothing to really challenge the player, only endless ways to reward the player. I'm increasingly finding this kind of game design patronizing and unfulfilling.

I liked Fallout 3 decently enough back in its day, but by its end, I'd more than had my fill of it. After playing and loving New Vegas, I just can't muster any interest in rehashing Fallout 3. I'm taking a wait and see approach to Fallout 4.

I'm not nervous.

If it's great, I'll play it and have a good time for many hours

If it sucks, I'll save 60 bucks.

Either way, I win.

Im worried about the complexity of the game. From what I have seen in the dialogues and whatnot, and Bethesda's trend of making each successive game more accessible to a wider audience I am a nervous.

I'm expecting a beautiful, detailed overworld with lots of interesting and unique quests to do, the likes of which we usually don't see from other developer's open world games. I'm also expecting really bad animations and some bugs. As for reviews, I'm guessing it'll probably get 7's or so on average, there seems to be a case of cynicism surrounding Bethesda lately.

This game looks really boring to me. TES is so much more immersive, and better done in every regard. Skyrim, Oblivion had that "wow" factor that Bethesda usually has for their presentations first time we saw footage, and played them. Maybe Fallout isn't for me anymore.

Review wise I wouldn't worry. Critics will kiss this games a** no matter what. They seem to do that very often with below average AAA games nowadays. (91-93 is my prediction)

@asilentprotagonist: Yeah ,The Elder Scrolls is by far the better franchise. I'm excited for this game because it's the next Bethesda game, not the next Fallout game.

After seeing some leaks (yeah, there's some out there and Bethesda is taking them down HARD), my expectations are pretty low and they've been that way even before. Skyrim was just a simply disappointing game that seriously ruined my trust for Bethesda. It seems like they work on an engine than they do on the actual game they implement with that engine. In an Underworld-inspired RPG, I want a world that wants to be conquered and lived in, not one that revolves around my character with world generating assets and linear quest lines that try to make Call of Duty missions proud, yet falter from the systems that never functions appropriately. I think if you give Bethesda a couple more years, perhaps add more people in their team, they can possibly make some good shit. But right now, everything that I see from Fallout4 speaks dated and reskinned.

Well, I really loved Fallout 3 a whole lot back in the day - probably one of my favorite gaming experiences of that generation. I expect 4 will have decent graphics and wonky animations, which I'm fine with as long as the world is as full of quests and areas that interest me as much as 3 did.

It's going to be another janky Bethesda RPG. And I will probably love it nonetheless.

@deathbywaffle: Have you played 3 recently? I loved 3 back in the day as well, but I went back and played both that and New Vegas out of anticipation for 4, and oh my God I hated them. The world is so less detailed and hand-crafted feeling than Skyrim's (especially New Vegas'), and the combat is really hard to go back to after so many of today's shooters.

I'm honestly glad they're keeping most of the plot/characters/quests/locations secret until you actually play the game (even though I've been watching the leak gameplay videos like mad). On the contrary, I think it speaks to how confident Bethesda is at their game and having the ads running with the line "From the Makers of Skyrim" if you've played any of their previous games you know what you're getting into.

I am pretty confident that most Bethesda developed games will be solid enough. They'll always have jenky bugs but they never really bother me much.

Everything I've seen confirms this is going to be exactly what I expect.

A new sandbox+stuff we saw people mod in that was real poplar. An ok story, enough space and stuff to do to fill 80 hours.

I.E. every single Bethesda rpg released since oblivion more or less. And that's perfectly fine.

The one and only thing that might worry me or make me nervous would be paid mods being rolled out. And..I think it would be a damn fool thing for them to spring that at this point, and its something they would have had to get going right away if they wanted the community not to back-lash like they did for skyrim. (I.e. either its in day 1, or not at all IMO) so..its not in so, no issue there.

The only thing I've really seen a lot of people get worried/up in arms about would be the graphics..which makes me cackle hysterically. If the only thing people can find to rage about is the graphics..in a Bethesda game..everything else must at the least be "OK".

@bladededge: Pretty sure something in the EULA states that they cannot charge for mods.

@steadying: Ok, well there you go. As that was the only thing I could seriously think would make me nervous about the game, if that's true then that only strengths my "Nope, I am worried for nothing, getting exactly what I want" response.

Christ the hand wringing over this game has been borderline ridiculous. It is a Bethesda open world game therefore it will be vast, immersive, somewhat janky yet ultimately a hugely enjoyable experience if their brand of open world RPG is your thing.

@rafaelfc: So basically you are saying that your opinion of the game being great or not is going to be formed from other people?

they showed like a billion hours of gameplay

and they have done huge amounts of marketing in terms of like billboards/buses/trams etc

i honestly don't see why everyone is so sceptical about this game. it seems real weird

You must play some terrible games if you judge them by their marketing budget.

I don't know guys, have you seen those S.P.E.C.I.A.L. vignettes? They are exactly the tone I want out of Fallout, so I'm not too worried. Plus the footage I've seen of the game excited me so I'm on board. Haven't been on a hype train like this since the nemesis system.

As long as you understand that it's likely to be a game that focuses on quantity rather than quality, you'll probably be fine. I feel like the target audience is people who play a handful of games a year and really want something that will last them months (years, even); people who shrug off technical issues as 'that's just how video games are'.

It's funny because I crashed on the hype pretty early on once I knew that they were dumbing down a lot of the role-playing (and graphics tbh), but these leaks have really put my mind at ease. After going back to play OG Fallout and a few other CRPGs I've made my peace with the new style. The new perk system seems cool, apparently the shooting is dope, stealth is viable, weapon crafting is up my alley, and hey I've even made peace with the voiced protagonist. Wasteland 2 will be there for me when I want a modern "classic" Fallout. This game really just seems to be logical conclusion of 3, which still has me excited, because 3 (also NV) is one of my favorite games of the last generation.

But yeah, the story will most likely be complete garbage, just like every Bethesda story!

Also, if you're worried about the marketing cycle, don't be. The leaks seem to me to show quality through the whole thing and the impressions all seem rather positive. If you're worried, wait for reviews. Don't buy it on release! I will though, because I have no self-control and am a monster.

I'm cautiously waiting for what people have to say about this game. I've loved pretty much every title that Bethesda has made, but some of the changes and new gameplay mechanics I'm just not too sure about. I do enjoy hoarding tons of guns and bits of armor, now with a system that allows players to create armor pieces and guns kind of takes that out of the picture even if it is "optional". I also really dont have the patience for house/village making. To me, Fallout has never been about settling down somewhere or creating settlements. It's been about Lone Wanderers who have profound effects on groups of people for better or worse, but even then, they move on to the next adventure. So having this minecraft bullshit kind of pisses me off because it goes against that formula and to be honest, just sounds like a time and resource dump.

Fallout New Vegas is one of my favorite games ever.

They could have just said Fallout 4+ release date and not show a damn thing and I would have pre ordered it in seconds regardless.

Naaah, it's a Bethesda game and people will eat it up, they are fun and have huge appeal.

As a fan of original Fallout's I have made piece with their style of doing the game, so my expectations are set accordingly. It will be an interesting sandbox to fuck around in and sink in some time, but I have 0 expectations of depth of RPG systems or storytelling. And that's fine.

About the only thing that's iffy feeling for me are kind of old looking graphics in what they have shown.

Unless the game is exceptionally broken or somehow terrible at launch I think I already know what to expect. It won't have especially great writing or interesting RPG systems, but we'll excuse both of those things because no one makes open world games like Bethesda does. I don't mean that as an insult, because I'm sure I'll have fun. Their worlds have a breadth and attention to detail that is always impressive, even when the moment-to-moment gameplay isn't the most exciting. Fallout 4 looks no different from that angle, though there's always a hope that the writing and combat is better than 3 (which I thought was the weakest of Bethesda's last-gen offerings). The leaked complete list of perks I've read reflects a kind of safe, bland character building that makes sense when you're selling to people who don't play a lot of RPGs or games in general and I've long since come to peace with that fact.

I have the lowest expectations and I probably won't play it until a very steep discount happens after a GOTY version. It really hurts me to not be excited about a Fallout game, but after 3 and Skyrim I just can't look forward to this. I'm sure people will love it the same way they did Skyrim, but I've accepted that I'm just not getting a game I'll want out of this.

Nope. Everything I've seen, all the leaked footage, has confirmed to me that this is going to be a fantastic game.

@whitestripes09: The settlement stuff is entirely optional, and personally I think it could be pretty cool. I don't think establishing a settlement will somehow bind you to that place, you can still go off and do lone wanderer nonsense, but now you'll have a cool place (or a few places) to come back to every now and then that you yourself built.

nah, at the very least it will be a good game worth my time. I honestly doubt they will fuck it up in any major way. The only problems that I see could be of technical nature.

The thing that makes me the most nervous? The marketing campaign. After E3, they've shown basically nothing about the game, its locations, its plot, interesting characters, combat, monsters, obligatory celebrity voice actors, etc. A short demo of the perk system was all we got, and a bunch of fluffy live action/60s commercial videos. And while this campaign is effective at generating interest, it also does nothing to hype me on the game, and fills my head with more and more concerns.

And thank God that Bethesda is confident enough in their game and its sales potential to not feel the need to show us three quarters of the content before we even get our hands on the fucking thing.

I think Fallout 4 looks pretty great. Yeah, the writing's going to occasionally be problematic and the combat's probably going to have issues, but whatever. The combat actually looks way better now than it did then, although it still kinda looks like all enemies just mindlessly run at you or halfheartedly walk to the left or right while shooting at you. But hey! Have you seen that crafting stuff? Looks pretty cool!

If it turns out to be a stinker, oh well. I try to approach every game purchase with the knowledge that I might be buying a turd. Always be prepared to come to the realization that money spent on leisure might not be the wisest of moves.

Never got deep into Fallout 3 nor New Vegas so I don't have any crazy expectations. Hell, with how difficult it seems to be these days for a game to grab me, I'll be happy if this game holds up my interest for 10 hours or so and stays enjoyable for that duration.

Fallout 4 looks to be continuing Bethesda's track record of making hard average games that are mega broken.

I'll probably buy it because I'm a darn fool.

This game at the very least will be great but has the potential to be a masterpiece. Let's hope it hits the latter mark

Not nervous at all. I've been loving what I've seen from the leaks so far.

I thought this was gonna be another thread complaining about the graphics...

You mentioned the writing, but it's kinda unfair given the scope of Fallouts 1 & 2 vs 3. A better comparison would be New Vegas' writing versus 3's (which New Vegas would still win if you ask me).

I'm just concerned they'll have learned nothing from New Vegas and go right back to their "Super Mutants are all Ogres with guns" and "The Brotherhood of Steel are the good guys" nonsense of Fallout 3 regarding the world building.

I saw some of the leaked footage and I'm 100% sure I'll play the shit out of this game, but man Bethesda really needs a new engine.

The animations overall are pretty weak, but the facial animations take the cake; that's some hideous stuff. Also; there still is a 'loading screen' between indoor and outdoor locations (really, what year is it). Lighting outdoors looks alright, but falls flat indoors.
They really need a new engine, something like a Fox Engine, which produces far better graphics and is even 60fps on the consoles (including dynamic lighting and everything). Bethesda needs to invest in either a new engine or hire a license, because this won't last another game (and I'm sure they don't want to, because all scripting work from all those years is in their current engine - I'm pretty sure some of the AI routines are still from Oblivion for instance).

I just hope it's better than Skyrim was. I thought that game was bland. Not bad, but so boring that I started it three times and haven't made it further than 10 hours in.

It looks like a Dragon Age 2 era Bioware game. The HUD is ugly as sin, they have no skills anymore, etc. I'm having a really hard time getting excited about Fallout 4.

If it is another Fallout 3 it'll be worthwhile, and I don't think it'll be worse than that. Graphics won't impress,nor will animations or voice acting, but it'll still have something that keeps me playing, I hope. Not having high expectations helps, I guess.

Bethesda makes what I'm into. I have the utmost faith I'll have a fantastic time. I'm also a massive Fallout fan, so that helps.