@johncallahan: I feel like that's kind of the reaction people have to their 2nd Souls game. For a lot of Demon's Souls players, Dark Souls was disappointing, or more of the same. And so on for people who started with Dark Souls and played Dark Souls 2, or Dark Souls 2 and played Bloodborne.

Similarly, considering how similar the Bethesda games are, I can see that kind of burnout happening. I think I got my fix largely in Fallout 3 and Skyrim; at some point I'll go back and try and get through the others but I'm pretty good on it. For me this goes in weird ways, in that I played a shitton of Civ 2 as a kid and a decent amount of Civ 4 later, so with Civ 5 I was kinda bored with the formula.

@mrroach: I have the same build. I am completely shocked that this game dips below 60 fps with a 970, especially with the way it looks. The witcher 3 looks better and runs at 60 with almost everything turned up. Extremely poor optimization.

It's really sad to me that I feel I cannot trust Bethesda to fix/polish their own games. When Skyrim came out I could overlook its myriad of problems even when I played the most flawed version, the PS3 version. As time went on playing that game and eventually I got it for PC, the more and more I played just the vanilla version of the game the more and more that game, for myself, did not live up to the hype nor the praise that I feel it got. The vanilla game was just bland. Looking back exploration was about the only thing I look fondly at.

Hearing that Fallout 4 just kind of builds upon the Bethesda formula, but still lacks polish rubs me the wrong way. My tolerance of the "jank" in their games has run incredibly thin. I know when I finally get and play Fallout 4 it cannot and will not be the vanilla game that Bethesda made. It will have to be heavily modded, because if there's one thing I have learned from Bethesda games is that the modders make their games so much better than they are. If this was four years ago, this would have been a day one purchase for me, but seeing what people have said about Fallout 4 I'm just going to have to wait until the price drops and the modders to make the game better.

I'm only about six hours in, but I am having a hell of a lot of fun so far. Playing it on the PC so I've managed to avoid many technical issues. The game definitely isn't great looking and the animations can be stiff and awkward, and I've run into some typical Bethesda bugs...but I'm still having a great time. It's a lot like Fallout 3 so far, but it's been 7 years since that game came out so it hasn't felt stale to me. Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games of that generation, so I'm pretty happy.

Those are all one problem and the solution is to turn on "Borderless Fullscreen" mode. Its bullshit that the engine has been having the same EXACT problems for three games now and yet the fix isn't turned on by default, but that is a solution to the problem.

I'm not thrilled with it, but have also never been particularly enamored with Bethesda games. Fallout 4 seems like something that clawed its way out of 2010, and its faults are especially apparent after The Witcher 3 and MGSV. The enemy AI is dumb as bricks, and it's really disheartening to see Bethesda's idea of difficulty being less about having smart enemies and more about throwing you in a room with a bunch of dudes who will bum rush you, and the partner AI is no better. I'm on the mission where I'm escorting Valentine, and that dope keeps getting stuck in geometry. So I have to keep running back to try to coax him into following me. He doesn't seem to teleport either, because if I keep progressing while disregarding him, I only see that his marker is getting further away.

The graphics are also pretty sub-par, and I know that shouldn't be too much of a sticking point, but when the game doesn't really even play well, it's hard to look past the lack of visual polish. Not to mention how janky it is. Dudes floating in air, facial animations stopping mid-dialog, subtitles not updating...

Fallout 4 is a fine last-gen game, but there's already two games that came out this year that do the open world thing so much better. In terms of visuals and gameplay, Fallout 4 feels like something that has no business being a 2015 release.

@atomicoldman:

I think that's a tiny bit unfair witcher 3, for all its positives has none of the scale of Fallout. The only real "holy shit" graphics in Witcher 3 were the faces and some weather effects. And please remember Witcher 3 also ran like shit and was buggy on PS4. At least I haven't had a hard crash in Fallout on Xbone yet, which happened a few times to me during Witcher 3. I liked the Witcher 3 it was a great game but don't try to hold it up as some kind of perfect thing.

I haven't played MGS V yet, but everyone says its pretty good but is the actual style of game even remotely comparable? is the persistency and granularity there?

Look, put me into the camp of being mildly disappointed with Fallout, the story is not that great and it could look a little better but the amount of vitriol that the game has received seems disproportionate to its problems and the comparisons to other games, while forgetting those others games flaws makes me want to play devils advocate.

I can't help but think, after playing a few hours of this game and how largely unimproved a lot of aspects of it seem over Skyrim and Fallout 3, that this is basically the equivalent of an off year game for Bethesda.

That maybe sounds shittier than I mean it, it's not to say there isn't value here or that people didn't put a lot of work into this game, but I feel like they have to be working on a MAJOR overhaul of their engine - and just how their games play, look, and perform in general - for the next Elder Scrolls game in a few years. It just doesn't seem like this could be what they've been focused on primarily since Skyrim came out.

I'm gonna keep playing and probably have a lot of fun with this game, but yeah. That's what it seems like to me.

I had to struggle to play for the 3 hours I played it today, and I feel I've made a horrible purchase. I liked what I played all the way until I got out of the vault. From there things went quickly, and I mean quickly, downhill. The building-thing feels really bad... actually awful. Going around scrapping almost everything in the area? Yeah, fuck that (Optional, I know, but I was stupid enough to do it so it did ruin the first hours of the game for me). Then trying to build a house or some sort of walls, but nooo... good luck trying to build something that isn't made for you in advance, every system is working against you if you try to "free-build" something sweet.

Then the game gives me a half-assed tutorial-ish text in the upper corner on what to build next, so I could learn. I did lack the mats to build what it wanted me to build, and it did not tell me how to get it. Probably something very simple, but in my already aggravated condition I did not manage to figure out how (It was copper, and what copper I might have had, I think I used already). Fighting against this building nonsense for an hour or so, I give up and go out to do a mission. What follows is a godawful turret sequence that felt extremely out of place so early in the game. (Some people might really enjoy this sequence though).

Literally everything I've disliked so far is stuff others might enjoy, so I might very well be in the minority here, but holy shit was that a bad start. I now need to really force myself to keep playing, in the hopes it gets better, and that's not a good feeling. Had I not already paid for the game, I would've stopped playing for good.

I think people are exaggerating its outdated-ness a good amount. I will admit it seems more of the same, but i find it quite nice looking if not exactly awe-inspiring, and there seems to be a shit ton to do and fuck around with. Havent been burned out personally so i welcome more, but nothing wrong in feeling what you feel. Maybe come back after a few patches and/or mods.

Something about that first power armor battle felt pretty old school and couldn't put my finger on it. I guess it was the HUD design.

E: neither here nor there but been trying to play this on my laptop for funsies and found out the latest nvidia driver pretty much make every game freeze. Good times.

@monetarydread: Unfortunately I didn't see much improvement when I turned on borderless full screen mode. The stuttering while changing angles improved a little bit, but it was still pretty distracting.

Like others in the thread I'm running a 970. Should crush this game at 1080p.

You know what I've been trying to put finger on it and there is a lot written in here that could be issue. For me I simply don't feel as invested in my characters life now. There is no way back to how things were and at the moment very little motive for the character. Also none of the characters I've met during the opening 5 hours have meant anything to me. Compare this to Megaton in 3 where you were invested from the start and faced with an impossible decision.

Also I feel like this world where you can pick up anything come across "random" moments (I'm of the mind that the random moments are scripted just over the entire expanse of a world rather than limited spots, so if you play for 40 hours X event would happen at X location X number of times) is no longer enough. So what if I can collect every cigarette carton build a metal shack and then throw in a Molotov and watch it burn? The world of The Witcher 3 whilst yes it had a bunch of jank felt like it had just as much going on but in a much better crafted world. Then you have the world of The Phantom Pain which was a highly polish sandbox, much more limited in the items and variety of environments but the number of variable in how you could deal with situations and the way that's reacted to added a new depth we've rarely seen.

So I guess what I'm saying is the world of Fallout 4 relatively bland and uninspiring by comparison?

@ninnanuam: Just because Fallout has a vast environment doesn't necessarily mean it's filled with worthwhile content, or is presented in a way that doesn't draw you out of the game. Witcher 3 looked pretty great all around on PC and ran perfectly fine. I can't speak to the console versions, I never played them. While the missions did fall into a rigid structure, they exuded character. MGSV didn't have very large environments compared to other open world games but like, bigger doesn't always mean better, and for as much as you had to revisit the same locations, it wasn't that big of a deal considering how good the gameplay is.

My comparison is more that MGSV and Witcher 3 felt like current gen games. Fallout 4 doesn't, and lacks anything really innovative of fresh both in terms of being a Bethesda game and an open world game.

edit: That said, I can turn on console commands in Fallout, super jump all over the dang map, and get guns that shoot explosive rounds, which has gone a long way towards keeping me invested in it.

So, I got Fallout 4 on PS4, Assassin's Creed Syndicate on PS4 (for free), and Rise of the Tomb Raider yesterday, and so far I've only played Fallout 4 for about an hour, only running around in the player characters run down town; going across the bridge to meet the dog at the gas station, and then down into the other town where the mission is. I'll play more of it probably when I finish AC and Tomb Raider, but I have to say, nope, the game is so far surprisingly awesome. I am loving the little I've played, and I really can't wait to keep going. For many fans of Bethesda games, this may seem like a stretch and so, disagreeable, but it's definitely by far my favorite Bethesda game already, and the bugs and glitches, as well as frame rate were not a significant issue so far, though I have noticed some clipping (codsworth killed a radroach, and the top of his head was through the ceiling), and some frame rate hitches, but nothing major.

Also, visually, people talked a lot of crap, and while I don't think it's the best looking game on current-gen by any stretch, it is an aspect which I am surprised at just how good it looks. I think it looks great for the most part. Configuring the controls and it feeling like a modern shooter is also very welcome to me (though grenades set to the same button as melee, just as a hold instead of press, where I put it to R3, isn't ideal). In other news, AC Syndicate is actually really good too! From the little I've played of both, it brought out much enthusiasm for me. I have yet to play Tomb Raider, though I think I'll stick to AC for now. For Fallout 4, I take the game as it is, and for me, its improvements over three, so while it doesn't feel as modern as say, Black Ops 3, where you can clamber over obstacles and what have you, Fallout 4 not having those features doesn't bother me. Of course, Fallout 4 can turn out to be disappointing compared to what I've already experienced, and that'd be unfortunate, but so far, it's much better than I was expecting and I can't wait to jump back in. Furthermore, one last thing, the intro was awesome I thought, and did the coming out of the vault much more effectively, though it's not that original, and you already know what you're getting into.

Just prior to Black Ops 3 (which I enjoy, and have yet to finish it on realistic, though more than half way through on it), I was actually playing Fallout 3 on 360, after I finished Halo 5, so basically jumping from Fallout 3 to Fallout 4 on PS4, it's easy to see the improvements are huge.

Reading through the responses and looking through a couple of other threads has gotten me thinking why I didn't stick with the game initially in spite of the technical issues...

There's a good chance the voiced protagonist played a big part in limiting my immersion regarding the story. I didn't have these issues with 3 (the little I played of it) and NV (which I completed), and I think that might have to do with playing a character that I could shape completely instead of a character that would provide context for me via dialogue and emotional cues. It forces you to play the character a certain way, and when you combine that with incomplete dialogue decision information, that may be problematic for the "Bethesda" game style. It certainly didn't feel like MY character. Which is strange because I usually think that voicing a character generally improves immersion and flow, and can serve to guide player choice in helpful ways. I certainly did not expect to be turned off by it in this case.

Seriously, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Bethesda games receive massive critical praise every single release, I invest in them like the dummy that I am, and I actively dislike the experience every single time.

I feel like people must be playing a different Fallout 4 than I am.

I have really loved my experience so far. Ive mainly stuck with side quests, random exploring. Got to know Nick Valentine a bit, and some of his back story. Been enjoying him as a companion. Not having technical issues. The game doesnt feel that dated imo either. It looks pretty damn sharp too all in all. Like a lot of games the lighting helps with the graphics. W3 has similar issues. It can look gorgeous in the right lighting, but it can look kinda marginal in some texture areas in darker environments. Think you all just dont like Bethesda games. This has been great so far!

When in doubt, abuse that console to hell and back, because that's really the one thing Fallout 4 has going for it; keeping the same engine means dealing with all of the old issues, but it also allows you to have fun with it in the same manner as the previous games. The very first thing I did was to crank up my carry limit, which already did wonders to improve upon my first impressions.

In a sense, I'm fairly content with Fallout 4 just because it gives me a new sandbox to try all the old tricks on.

I get all the complaints, but I'm really enjoying my time in the Commonwealth. A lot of it is outdated but the characters, and world design shine though all the shit, and this is coming from someone who could never get into Fallout 3. But maybe that's why I'm liking it so much...

I have played this game for 20 hours in two days. I acknowledge all criticisms and share many myself, but at the end of the day I love the worlds they create even if they never quite live up to their potentials, and I could continue to shoot raiders in the head and explore the map for another 20 hours before even considering putting the game down. Bethesda's Fallout games just hit exactly what I love.

@tackystuff: I think there's a pretty major thing that makes the voiced character not really work in this one, and it's entirely to do with context. Since you mentioned New Vegas, I'll use it as a comparison point.

In NV, you play a character that starts their journey by being shot in the head by a guy and having something you were supposed to deliver stolen from you. When you start the game, you can come up with all manner of different reasons why you are or aren't going to track down the guy who shot you without there being any real disconnect because while they set up a scenario for your character, they don't tell you who your character is, what their life is like, and they give you plenty of dialogue options to reflect your choices.

The difference in Fallout 4 is that it sets you up as a loving father/mother and husband/wife, no matter what you say or do, and then puts you out into the world tasked with tracking down your son and avenging your spouse-- both characters that the game has already told you your care deeply about no matter how you want to play the game going forward. So you're free to just wander off, but by default the narrative has set that up as being the wrong way to act-- or that you're making the character do something they wouldn't do. Some people will obviously have no problems adjusting, but it's executed in such a way that they make it easy to feel like the character isn't your own.

Bethesda has some good ideas, but they don't really have the writing ability to back up any of those ideas or make them fit into a cohesive experience. Sorry for the essay :P

I've been enjoying it personally but i'm only a few hours in, spent a lot of time running around the vault gathering information on what vault 111 was and its purpose (it does require you to log onto their terminals and read the logs) and the de-thawing was done by a raider so your son is probably still out there, you just dont know what age he will be. I felt with my dialogue choices that my character is pretty upset about this wife and kid, maybe the other choices make him sound less emotional but my guy sounded like he was on the verge of tears. I get that its not for everyone and if you are not playing it the same way i am you probably miss some of the story stuff but i dont think it does too badly, its not perfect but it is enjoyable.

Honestly, I really like it.

But Bethesda. No more trotting out this tired old engine. Build something new, or go license UE4.

The outdated/unpolished nature of it is especially glaring after putting in just shy of 200 hours into mgsv, which is the best playing/most polished piece of software to come out this generation, and one of the best ever (IMO).

This has been the case forever with Bethesda they've always felt behind, their products have always been filled with jank and they've always focused on quantity over quality. But somehow their games have had a charm that manages to make everyone overlook their numerous issues.

Maybe with games like MGSV and TW3 coming out this year its presented an immediate comparison?

Ive played about 25 to 30 hours of this game at this point and imo its the best fallout game in the series so far.Everything people have complained about is wrong from what i can see.The graphics are overall pretty good even on the ps4.I havent had much frame rate drop inside or outside of buildings,or in or out of combat.The gunplay which ive seen lots of people complain about is not only WAY better than the previous games,but is also as good as other shooters out right now.Everything else in this game from the customization even to the perk chart which people complained about,are improvements over the other games in the series and beat most games not in the series.The only flaws i have with the game are that the faces look bad and the story isnt that great.However,i never play bethesda games for story,i play them for exploration and a greatly crafted world,which i got.So overall i dont see what everyone is talking about when it comes to it being outdated,bad or whatever.Then again,i never understood everyones complaints about skyrim either and i played it on ps3 at the time(which everyone said ran awful,yet i never had any major issues).Ive just come to understand that there are people who like bethesdas games and people who dont,just like any other game studio.So i knew not to listen to everyones opinions on games,because ide miss out on my favorite games ever if i did.

You can enjoy playing the game and be disappointed by it at the same time. I know I am.

I think the biggest thing holding them back is the Creation Engine. Gamebryo was fine back in 2006 and 2008 with Oblivion and Fallout 3, but it was starting to feel outdated back in 2010 with Fallout: New Vegas. The fact that they're still using an offshoot of that engine in 2011 (Skyrim) and 2015 (Fallout 4) is bonkers to me. They had dynamic volumetric lighting as a Fallout 4 bullet point at their press conference this year which should tell you something. Welcome to 2013 Bethesda, now put the Creation Engine out to pasture and move on already. Games like Witcher 3 and MGS V absolutely destroy you in gameplay mechanics, technical prowess, and graphical fidelity.

Also, to say that we should just accept the jank - I say fuck that. I was walking back to Sanctuary with the first group of people you help, and you know what happened? Their leader got stuck on a car. He was doing the walking animation right into the side of the car, going nowhere fast. I had to physically push him away from the car before he continued on. I've already got a list of jank as long as my arm, and I'm less than 10 hours in. Everything on the list has been in every Bethesda game, and as time goes on it gets less and less acceptable and more and more embarrassing.

I played over 20h of Fallout 4 in 2 days. To say I wasn't enjoying it would be a bold faced lie. I am actually enjoying it quite a bit. Just like I really enjoyed F3 and NV. The core of it is great fun, and I just love walking around the wasteland and picking up desk fans, sporting my patchwork rifles. There's still nothing else quite like it.

But, any and almost all complaints aimed at this game are completely legitimate. The UI is absolutely horrendous. The writing is mediocre at best, cringeworthy at worst. Bugs, glitches and scripting errors run amok. The NPCs all live in uncanny valley limbo and the framerate is freaking awful even while looking like a game from 2012. I'm absolutely wishing for more, better and prettier. But honestly, until someone else steps up to give a comparable experince, I'm just gonna keep liking Fallout for what it is. Instead of thinking about what it's not.

I think my biggest issue with the game atm is the fear that my saves will get corrupted. Had a crash yesterday after which I was unable to load any of my saves. Fortunately it was fixed by verifying the game files. Though it appeared that last couple saves were corrupted in some way so i had to load an older save.

I understand all of the complaints about Fallout 4, but I honestly just don't care. I'm loving the hell out of this game. It's Fallout 3 by way of Skyrim with all of the pros and cons that come with that, and though the issues are numerous, I haven't found one that's proven to be a significant roadblock to my enjoyment of playing it.

i dunno sounds like maybe they're just not for you man

I'm enjoying it a lot, but I also have a huge tolerance for jank and a pretty deep love for the franchise.

I can absolutely understand why someone without that patience for wonkiness and who doesn't care for this style of open world wouldn't like this game at all.

It's a game made by Bethesda, outdated is putting it nicely!

Isn't that every sequel ever?

I can't argue about any of the technical faults, particular on console. But as far as the plot and story go....It's a Bethesda game that's never what they've excelled at our been about. You play it to explore giant worlds, have dynamic experiences, and hopefully get clubbed into outer space by a troll once in awhile.

I wonder if this will become the new Dragon Age 2/Mass Effect 3/Assassins Creed 3: games that reviewed really well, but are generally looked upon as being lackluster/don't live up to prior installments.

/shrug

its another one of those games. There have been a few times where I was like, "This looks like Fallout 3" but that's only really out in "the wild". I do like the game though, but its no Witcher 3.

I've never played Fallout 3 before, and I think this game is completely underwhelming. My first Bethesda game was Skyrim, and I loved it at the time, but I acknowledged the fact that the actual game mechanics were pretty terrible. Flash forward to now, it still feels like I'm playing a game from four years ago, and from what other people have said, it seems like mechanically it hasn't changed much since FO3. Something about the combat just doesn't feel very...engaging?

Eh, same here. I was seriously stoked for Fallout 4 as I love open world ánd post-apocalyptic themes. It's just so damn unpolished though. Bethesda seems to be quantity over quality. Is it really too hard to ask for proper facial animations in damned near 2016? It's been done right for many, many years by now. And the vast world isn't really an excuse for all the jank and poor 'feel' of either the gameplay or writing/screenplay either, because there are many open world games with a lot more polish in both departments.

To me (and trust me, I'm jealous of the people who love Fallout 4) it just seems like a very large amount of mediocre game. :(

Well, him and every other commenter in this whole thread aside from you, LOL.

When I saw the pre-release coverage for Fallout 4 and game play demos, etc... I knew to come into this one with low expectations - I could easily see all the same jank that the previous games had, and was REALLY unimpressed with the graphics, textures and animations (as usual). I loved the previous Bethesda games overall, but I've grown more and more tired of the terrible engine, bugs, and writing with each one... So much so that I couldn't finish Skyrim (but I did play it for over 100 hours), even though I put 200-300 hours into every other Bethesda game up until that point, and was confused that everyone else seemed to love Skyrim so much.

So, coming into F4 with these low expectations, and having watched my roommate play for about 6 hours so far - I have to say I'm impressed, only in that it sure seems better than I expected it would be. (I'm going to finish MGSV and maybe the Bloodborne DLC before starting F4, so a few patches & game-fixing mods have hopefully come out by then).

But the game-buying public, and especially the critics, NEED TO STOP giving Bethesda such a pass for their terrible engine, writing, and QA. It's simply not acceptable anymore. When open world games that are as huge, beautiful, and polished (comparatively to Bethesda games) as Witcher 3, GTA V, and MGS V have all come out recently, there's really no excuse anymore for them to not start with a new, or at least different, engine and fire the current writing staff & QA department and hire some people with talent this time.

Witcher, the Souls series games, Far Cry, GTA V, and MGS V have considerably raised my expectations for open world games at this point. Bethesda has been, and continues to, fall way behind.

I feel like the Witcher 3 ruined me on games like this. I have been so bored during the first 5-6 hours of this game. The Witcher was so interesting and all the little stories were so well done that nothing can even compare to it now.

Outside of the fact that you can mod the hell out of them, I just don't get the love for Bethesda's games. They're super open ended sure, but that ends up making the experiences super janky. Like the whole glitch up the mountain nonsense from Skyrim. I tried playing Skyrim, but without a compelling story to draw me in, the jank just made me want to give it up. Fallout seems to be the same deal. I'd rather play Witcher 3 or MGSV or even something like Rise of the Tomb Raider. Those games, while not directly comparable, give me a lot more out of the open sand box type world, and are way smoother experiences. Who cares that I can pick up every object in the world when the character can't even mantle a small jump properly?

No, you are probably just overencumbered from carrying the big ass gun that you carry when wearing the Power Armor. Happened to me, too. Also, the majority of the stuff you listed is either fixable by .ini editing, console commands, messing with your Catalyst or Nvidia Control Panel settings, or using an older video display driver...or just using the settings the game recommends (or slightly higher) instead of cranking stuff to the max because this game simulates a lot more than the average game, so you can't run it at ultra right at launch and expect perfect framerate. If you want that, you should have bought a gsync or freesync monitor.

Again the difference in scale and interaction isn't the same in those other games. They aren't clockwork worlds on a human scale filled with what could possibly be a hundreds of thousands of moving parts. GTA V is beautiful, the textures are fantastic as is the lighting but it may as well be painted cardboard for all the interaction you can have.

Bethesda can get away with making "terrible" buggy games like this because no-one else has (well since Two Worlds at least and that was a true pile of bugs) tried to beat them at their own game. Its weird that everyone is saying the game feels dated, I don't think it does it feels like a Bethesda RPG which are still ambitious when compared to 90% of games released. People want what they bring to the table or if not the actual product then some idealized version of it because the style of game resonates with people.

If it was easy to make someone else would have tried to get a piece of the market, I mean Skyrim sold at least 20 mil. That no-one has tried tells me that its not as easy as "Farcry did it".

People calling for Bethesda to use a new engine realize it isn't as easy as it sounds, right? There is a reason they continue to use the Creation Engine. It has been coded in a specific way so Bethesda can make the games they want to make, which cater to a specific audience. They run the risk of alienating their entire audience by switching to a new engine to please the most vocal of critics while it is clear that many fans of either Fallout, or their other games, will play the games they release because it plays a certain way.

I am enjoying the game quite a bit so far. I have played about 9 hours probably so far and haven't run into any bugs that seemed like they ruined my experience. It does feel pretty similar to Fallout 3, but I am completely fine with that quite honestly. I also love the inclusion of the base building stuff, although that is where I have probably encountered the most issues.

"JUST MAKE A NEW ENGINE ALREADY"

Some people haven't a clue how difficult that is to do.

This game is bad and should not feature in any game of the year discussions

@frostyryan: This may sound really cold but it's not the responsibility of the end user to know, or frankly care, how difficult making a game is. You pay for the end product. If all the aches and groans of Bethesda games are a result of the gamebryo engine and they aren't actively investing time and money into moving onto something better that would make their games run and feel way better because "it's really hard" then thats really shitty.

They've been using a variation of this engine for several games now. They are probably well versed in exactly what it can and can't do - what they can and can't fix. With this knowledge Bethesda went ahead and made another game knowing how it would run: the wooden NPC's, occasional glitches, frame rate shenanigans, duplicate hacking/lockpicking minigames, warts and all. They knew all these issues would rear their ugly heads once again, because how could they not, and they went ahead and shipped the game anyway.

Now I'm not saying Fallout 4 is unplayable or anything like that. I've played several hours on PC and it worked fine - I even thought, despite a lot of things said in this thread, that is looked surprisingly really good at times. But releasing a product, knowing fully well that it will have nearly the exact same issues your previous ones did, should really be inexcusable - even if this means that this really big studio that made millions and millions of dollars from the sale of these games would have to buckle down and do something "difficult" to fix it.