Got the game early - Ask me anything

@pyrodactyl: I don't think you have to commit, no. I've already found 2 bobbleheads and a s.p.e.c.i.a.l book with permanent main stat increases and considering that lvl ups come pretty fast and there's no cap, I think you'll probably be able to do mostly everything you want.

Haven't improved stealth yet, but even without doing so, you can still sneak around at least a bit.

@sticky_pennies From what I've played I think it's pretty damn good.

What difficulty are you playing on? I'd like to start on Hard, but I'm worried about the enemies being bullet sponges.

@redyoshi: Started out on normal, because I didn't know what to expect. It's easy going so far, so I think I'll go to hard soon.

Enemies do take quite a bit of damage.

Is it a good game or is it a great game?

Is there a radio station available to listen to at the start of the game? If yes, how is the songs?

@49th: Impossible to say that early on, but I do enjoy it quite a bit already.

@urbansanta There are two stations pretty much from the get go, one playing classic music, one playing 50s/60s stuff akin to the music in Fallout 3/NV.

It's a 23.8GB download on Steam for anyone wondering about that.

why are you a criminal

@tajasaurus: I pre-ordered a copy and just got it early?

What are your starting weapon options like? Is it just a board with nails in it and a rusty revolver, or are you pretty quickly using more specialized weaponry? How prohibitive has ammo seemed?

How do you feel about the forthcoming general election in Myanmar?

@excitable_misunderstood_genius: Didn't find many good and different melee weapons yet, mostly just pipes and brass knuckles.

Gun options are better right from the start, with a few different kinds at least (handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, a laser pistol, a mini gun). I even just found a Fat Boy.

I'm mostly finding ammo for weapons I'm not actually using, but that's just how it goes in games like these, I guess. Overall it hasn't been all to scarce.

@jimbo It's a good thing they are finally getting to vote after so many years, but if this will truly be fair and correct elections is a whole other thing. One can hope, though.

Dang, so the gunplay still feels bad? That's really disappointing to hear. After replaying Fallout 3 and NV, I really hope it at least feels better than those, because GOD.

Does the world look interesting and detailed like Skyrim? I loved just walking around in Skyrim taking screenshots, and I hope I can still do the same in this game despite it being a wasteland.

It sounds like there aren't that many bugs from your first post, but I'm curious about how the performance holds up once you play it more. If I recall, some of people's real troubles began with Skyrim after they started to play the game more and more.

How is the actual dialouge options? In the past you had whole sentences and knew exactly what you were saying in full. Now it seems they've gone for a more Mass Effect style of dialouge tree, except with less options and a poor presentation.

@steadying: It's a wasteland, but the world is well realized and mostly looks pretty good.

@clagnaught Yeah, that of course remains to be seen. The issue in Skyrim was that the more items the player interacted with/left somewhere/sold to someone, the more data the game had to process, which led to a lot of problems. Same thing even happened in The Witcher 3 for me.

@bones8677 Yes, there are no full sentences in the dialogue any more and instead they are going with short phases. Those are very clear though, so you are unlikely to say anything you don't actually want to say. I still liked the old system more, but it's okay.

@militantfreudian Perfectly fine to answer questions too, if you already got the game. That gives people more opinions too.

Rapport? Can you explain what you mean by this or elaborate a little, please?

Just wanted a bit more detail on the dialogue options, do they feel limited at all? Like, is it "obviously good thing", "obviously bad thing" and "skill check/neutral thing", or is there still some nuance in the choices? I felt like they could have some really good dialogue trees with the old system that I can't see working when they're limited to 4 choices that are displayed as short phrases.

(Also, you don't have to answer this part since I think this might have been explained in the pre-release coverage I haven't watched any of, but how do skill checks work now? Is it a skill-check like "You don't have the right speech perk so you can't do this", or is it all just save-scummable percentages?)

So it seems like a pretty good game. Anything you don't like?

@teddie: Yeah, they are more limited, it's really mostly just obvious good, obvious bad, sarcastic tone and skill checks now (charm and intimidate).

You can still save-scum for things like pickpocketing, you can't even attempt to do lockpicking/hacking above your skill level. Concerning the dialogue I'm honestly not sure yet. It has colour-coded checks (green, yellow, red) for how difficult a speech check supposedly is, but I don't know if you just fail over and over at red ones or there's a roll. Will have to try that.

@edgaras1103 I like it a lot so far and would definitely say it's a good game. What I don't like is mostly things I never like in RPGs anyway, like encumbrance (fuck that shit), somewhat dumb A.I. companions and bad UI.

One thing I like about the dialogue system is that it's dynamic in a way. You're not necessarily locked into a cutscene or anything, and you can actually walk around mid-conversation, loot stuff then return to the character and reply to them. That said, it seems like the new system has some of the drawbacks of both the conventional dialogue trees and Bioware's signature dialogue wheel. For example, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which option will advance the conversation. Similarly, some of the dialogue options are potentially misleading. As for the UI, I kind of like that you can loot chests/crates/etc. just by hovering the crosshair over them.

hello there. About locksmith and hacking. Would you say that you really miss a lot if skipping them ?

@robertthqi: You miss out on some nice equipment without lockpicking and hacking, including Perk magazines/Stat bonus items, so I'd say the are rather useful. Hacking is also useful in some combat scenarios were you can hack robots or turrets.

A lot of the hackable/pickable doors can be opened by the other skill though, so maybe you don't need both.

How is the music?

@sessh

I haven't found a quick way to access the map. Also the map isn't great.

This isn't doing a good job of alleviating my already existing concerns that the game is focussing to hard on being a cinematic story focussed experience, rather than a traditional Bethesda experience.

@sessh: Does the world feel big? I don't know what it is about the footage I've seen, but it just doesn't seem very vast to me. That might just be because there's trees blocking the line of sight, but I've always had this feeling that the game is smaller. How does it feel to you?

Also wondering how the PS4 performance is. Is the draw distance acceptable to you?

Anyone else's copy came in early yesteday?

@sterling:The music in the radio stations is good, music in combat and ambient music are nothing special.

@freakache Well, I'd say that depends on what you think at traditional Bethesda experience is. I've only done the first 3 story missions and have since done nothing but a sidequest here or there and a ton of exploring, which to me seems very Bethesda-like.

@lukeweizer I thought it looked really small at first too, but after doing some exploring it seems reasonable big. A bit bigger than Fallout NV I'd say.

Draw distance isn't great (Witcher or MGS are better), but it isn't terrible either.

@sessh: Cool, thanks for the reply.

I'm getting the PC version for free thankfully. I've played 7 hours as of now (PS4)

- Tons of pop-in

- Poor FPS

- Load times are good

- World is a bit small compared to Skyrim from what I can tell

- Cities are more dense which is more aesthetically appeasing, but unfortunately most of the interiors are sort of boring to explore, and quite are uneventful.

- Settlement's are very deep, and a bit overwhelming. It's looking to be very addicting.

- Game looks pretty dated

- I'm having more fun with the combat than the other Fallout games

- Character modules have this really weird style, and they look pretty poor at times.

- Dialogue system is too dumbed down.

- Weapons don't degrade

@asilentprotagonist Before you mentioned it I didn't even notice that my weapons aren't degrading, weird that they pushed the whole mechanic away, except for the Power Armour.

Weapons don't degrade? Wow. That'll help with the encumbrance issue and carrying extras of a certain gun in order to repair.

When you say "Poor FPS", is that just cause it's 30 on consoles or because it dips below that regularly? I'm planning on getting it for PC, but I accidentally pre-ordered on PSN the other day. Asked Sony for a refund but have to wait for approval.

@sessh: what do you mean by you found a 'special' book? I know the old skill books give you perks, and there was never any books that gave you special stats before so it must be something new.

@alistercat: Exactly what you said, there are new kinds of books that give you a permanent +1 in of the special stats. There are also still perk books and books that do other stuff (increase criticals, increase melee damage) not directly connected to the perk system.

@sessh: are those permanent as well? Thanks for the info. Looks like the max for any stat you'll want to set is 8 if you can get 1 bobblehead and 1 book for each stat

@alistercat: Those said "as long as you keep the book", but I don't see any reason why you would ever throw them out (or sell them), since they don't even weigh anything, so they might as well be called permanent too.

Also yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

@sessh: well, there are times in the games where you are stripped of your gear so you might be at a disadvantage there. Depends on if, and if, how long. Interesting that you have to keep them in your inventory.

@lukeweizer: It dips below pretty often. It's unfortunate, because the atmosphere at some parts of this game are actually really well done, and it kind of ruins it by killing the immersion. I honestly have the feeling this game is going to cause a s*** storm of disappointment. Still waiting for something interesting to happen.

Just keep your exceptions as low as you can.

@alistercat: Okay, sure, that could certainly come up at some point.

How much below? Because previous games could dip into the 10's at times. I never had any ounce of expectation of a smooth framerate in a Bethesda RPG, but I don't think I can stomach that much of a drop again.

@gamehaver: It gets even stranger. Let's say an outlet, like Kotaku, wasn't sent a review copy. If they are able to get their hands on a copy (through a friend at another site or early from a retailer) they have literally no embargo because they never signed an NDA. So while other outlets have to wait for the embargo to lift, they can say and do whatever.

I'm having a bit of a hard time with it. I thought Skyrim PS3 would make me ready for anything since it's the worst port I've played last gen. It's just not acceptable to do this anymore. To answer your question It's along the lines of the previous games quite frequently. Smart man. Keep those exceptions the way they are. I'm dropping this version as soon as the PC one hits. Sad for the PS4 owners who will get fooled by the reviewers. They magically forgot all of Skyrims massive PS3 issues last time I remember.

Console gamers don't deserve this crap.

Any mod tools on console? Or any menu's etc that lead to loading mods or any indication of how it will work?

@oursin_360: Nothing of the sort, but as far as I know mod support will first be implemented into the Xbox One version and the PS4 version will come at some later time, if it's possible there at all.

@asilentprotagonist: console gamers don't have much of a choice unfortunately; hardware is too limiting.

Im gonna sound like a complete weirdo, but I like weapon degradation, especially in these types of games. That's actually a pretty big bummer for me.

I was gonna preorder so I could get an extra 10 dollar bestbuy gift card, but Im not so sure anymore. My expectations have lowered significantly after reading this thread.

Not the year for an open world game to be mediocre.

How is the atmosphere? Are there any locations that gives horror-ish vibes? Compared to Stalker and Metro series.