The graphics are fine (not as good as GTA V on this gen, but better than The Witcher 3, for example), but it's still early days in the life of this gen, so I suppose we might expect a similar leap between this and Skyrim's sequel as we had with Fallout 3 and Skyrim.Originally Posted by Boydy
All in all a fairly positive opening four hours. There are the issues I expected, but the world feels very well built, some lovely little touches in places. The combat isn't too bad, the non-VATs gunplay is manageable. I've only done three quests so far, but I can see me sticking with it for the long haul. Streamlined levelling system is a bonus, I can map what I want easily. Companion system is alright, but I mainly use them as walking storage. The whole building minigame can get to fuck, I've set up water, food, defences and I'm done with that side of things.
Well fuck, I need to buy a new computer
Anybody have any experience with raiders nicking their power armour? Some cheeky nonce seems to have had a go at stealing mine, got into and walked about two yards before being downed by the pathetic pistol wielding settlers of my town, but though I can take the individuals bits back off his corpse, I can't remove the actual frame, which leaves me somewhat screwed.
Anyone encountered a way of getting it back?
Why weren't you wearing your power armour at all times????
Also: While I wouldn't do anything this drastic out of the box I do like that PC modders are already banging out graphic mods.
Power armour is one of the big things they've changed in this. It's more like a vehicle now, where you need to have a constant supply of batteries to keep it going. Basically it means you should be using it on special occasions rather than plodding around in it all the time.
The settlements all have a special holder thing for keeping it on, though it seems NPCs can't be trusted to defend the fucking thing. Time to design ludicrous defences to keep the bastards away.
Well boo to that.
When I play this I'm going to spend so much time pissing about building stuff to defend my loot. I'll probably build my defences before I have anything worth defending if this is what I have to worry about.
Frig that. I rarely used power armour in 3 so why start now?
I just like the option with these things.
I'll probably initially attempt to be a talky stealthy type until I realise the game is mocking me for doing it.
21 hours in and I've just started using the power armour, and my god so I feel safe and cosy in it.
My Power Armour's fucked. I think only the helmet works now - a mission to clear out the Corvega factory ruined it.
That's good to hear, I think I'm off there next.
I've started to encounter some more varied baddies now. Just ended up in a car park full of feral ghouls (much better animations for them this time), and had an encounter with some mirelurks, which seem to have been made creepier. Positive so far in that respect.
It's a bit of an odd quiet start to the game really. I've been going for a decent amount of hours, and not done anything much of importance and not really hit anything to knock my socks off yet. In 3 for instance you pretty much bumble into Megaton straight away and have loads of things to do, whereas in this I've popped out of the vault and mainly collected desk fans and built some fences in a small village. I must have talked to about five people in 10+ hours of game. It's a strange choice, as though I'm happily getting on with it, I'm not sure it would be a great introduction to the series for any newbies.
I was thinking the same on that note Cord. I don't know whether it's because I've pissed around more in this than I have in any Bethesda game before, but (the bit where you first get the Power Armour aside) it's all been quite low key so far and I've done a fair few missions over the 20 hours I've played it for now.
That Corvega mission is pretty tough - I probably should have tried to get the Power Armour working for it, rather than just tackle it with a dogMake sure you collect
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Some of the PA upgrades sound awesome (jetpack). From reading up on it people say you can pretty much roll full PA for the whole thing if you're advancing the story at a decent pace. Fusion Cores become more commonplace later on and there's a perk to make them last longer (which I will definitely be investing in).
There are some ace weapon mods too. Got myself a fairly punchy combat pistol, and also a nifty sniper rifle with which I picked off some raider gimp from miles away who was stood on top of a lookout post
I've wandered down to the city next to the Corvega factory, which looks an interesting place.
It's night, and so I spotted some guy on a raised platform overhead by the spotlight on his power armour (lighting effect looks great, people complaining about the graphics). I was just sneaking closer to see if I could ascertain if he was likely to be friendly or not when some ghouls dropped down onto me from above (they can climb, which is suitably creepy). My frantic gunshots attracted a whole army of ghouls, which I had to fight off while running into the nearest building for cover. I'm now stood on the roof of the building, watching the ghouls trying to assault the unspecified power armoured dude and his mates, who are firing off massive rockets into the street and surrounding buildings, all while a thunderstorm rages.
My first proper impressive moment.
Spent all night building Sanctuary into a fortress thinking that's was what was needed to get the 'build a defense' part of the quest completed. Turns out I needed to set a turret. Hah. Still looks awesome though.
As for any progress, ended up going to Lexington, found a factory, saw it was filled with a bunch of raiders and got scared off into the 'Super Duper Market' which I've cleared out before I had a crash (just) and released it's 1am.
Hmm...
Test.
Only an hour spent killing three Protecteron robots in the ArcJet factory down the road, all because I found a lift that needed power to work in the garage next door. Never did find a way to get it working
Diamond City is pretty swish looking and Mirelurks are bastards.
How many cities are in this game? I've been milling in and around diamond city for a while now doing all sort of misc side quests.
I think there's still a whole load that I haven't even seen yet, I haven't been up in the posh side in the stands for example, can we get up there?
Spent last night after the pub doing the second main story mission and some brotherhood of steel stuff. I really love my power armour.
No idea how many cities there are Dem (I'd probably rather not know), but I spent a couple of hours running around the map last night and it's huge, so I'd expect there to be a fair few more.
The map seems massive, even getting to Diamond City has meant I've got side tracked into two little suburbs (where the Electrical store is and the Power Stations) as well as a few other locations dotted around the map. I'm going to imagine this will be a bloody huge map come the end of the game.
Test.
Fallouts map is the same size as Skyrim but can be covered much faster due to lack of mountains if you were looking for something to compare scale with.
Watched my friend playing this last night, it's absolutely infuriating with no control as you're just thinking 'Pick up that. Turn left, no not that way, that way. etc.'
I'd heard that said before I'd played it, but now I have, I'm not so sure. I never understand how these comparisons work anyway. 30 square miles? How's that measured then?
It's how you generate landmass in a world. You have an algorithm that was player speed and such factored in and then it'll generate your hills and such to scale.
It's a slightly more advanced version of this;
What level are people at and what are they rocking?
Level and Special
Level 9
Strength - 3
Perception - 6 (+)
Endurance - 3
Charisma - 4 (+)
Intelligence - 3
Agility - 5
Luck - 8
Perks
Perk Chart Perks
Better Criticals Rank 1
Locksmith Rank 2
Toughness Rank 1
Other Perks
Astoundingly Awesome 8 (+5 AP)
Barbarian Rank 1
Junktown Vendor Rank 1
Weapons
Compensated Hardened 10mm Pistol (Damage 22)
Apparel
Leather Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg and Right Leg
Militia Hat
Raider Leathers
Lightweight Girded Leather Chest Piece
Overall DR of 25 (including perks)
The above is working quite nicely, but I could do with a better go to weapon to take enemies harder than raiders down. I've got 4 perk points to play with so I probably should use them, but I'm hesitant to chuck a couple of them into things that will only be a short term measure. e.g. I could do two ranks of gunslinger, which would increase my pistol's damage by 40%, but as soon as I find a better gun I doubt I'll use that again, so at this stage it'd be a bit of a waste.
I'll check when I'm home but off the top of my head..
Level 17
Strength - 3
Perception - 3
Endurance - 2
Charisma - 10
Intelligence - 7
Agility - 2
Luck - 3
I've upped Charisma quite a bit with perk points as I wanted the intimidate perk.
Perks
Perk Chart Perks
Locksmith Rank 2
Hacker Rank 1
Intimidate Rank 1
Animal Friend Rank 1
Bloody Mess Rank 1
Scavenger Rank 2
Think I have one more..
Other Perks
Cannot remember for the life of me, I've got 4 bobbleheads and a few magazines.
Weapons
Rightous whatever it is
Heavy Sniper Rifle
Snubnose .44 Pistol
Sawn off Shotgun with Extended Magazine
Barbed Baseball Bat
Apparel
Vault 111 Jumpsuit
DC Guard Chest Piece
Hardened Raider Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg
Minuteman Hat
Hazard Suit for when I'm in a high-rad area.
Companion
Curie
I'm a smooth talking professor who makes up for a lack of combat nouse with a good range of weapons and by padding every part of skin I have with hardened armour.
Working a treat at the moment, I change into a t-shirt and trousers when in cities to make me a charisma machine so I'm able to bump up the amount of caps I get for quests by double (Preston Hated That!..) before I pad up to the nines. Able to talk my way through a fair bit of the story, which I like, I hate not having all the conversation options available.
I'll be focusing on hacking and lock-picking perks for now so I don't have to keep writing down safes and terminals I want to come back to later.
The scavenger perks are fundamental I find, I'm constantly running out of ammo so it helps to stock up with what I can.
Good shout on the T-shirt and jeans thing Dem.
I could be wrong (as I'm far from anything like as comfortable at this stage as I was with Fallout 3 and Vegas by the end) but I suspect that on Survival difficulty the key perks (other than the obvious damage/health/AP ones) will be the modding ones - the increases in Damage output and resistance from doing them (and I've not been able to do many yet) look unreal.
Changed into the Sea Captain's Hat for the +2 Endurance gain. Richard Gere's got nothing on me now.
Also, after a few days I think I'm able to recap on what I think of the game.
Pros:
The game world is completely immersive, and its the most comfortable I've felt in a Bethesda world. I like it more than Skyrim, Oblivion and FO3. I never fell in love with the world in FO3 because it's a bit too dreary, but they've cleverly used colour to bring it to life a bit which I like.
The combat has certainly improved, trying to aim down the sights on a small target is still a nightmare and I usually resort to VATS for radroaches etc but it's perfectly good (and not just for a Bethesda game).
I absolutely love the fact the main character has a voice. I was on the fence beforehand but I think having a character rather than just being essentially a voiceless camera has helped the immersion for me massively.
The depth and variety of locations are again excellent, you can really get lost for hours after planning to poke your nose through a doorway, but you get lost because it's constantly interesting, not because you feel you have to. This was an issue I had with previous games, I felt I was sometimes exploring because I needed to because "that's what you're meant to do in these games", whereas with this one, I'm exploring because it's genuinely interesting and there's always something rewarding at the end.
Cons:
Dialogue options. I'm not a fan of the vagueness of the dialogue choices you have, they're often misleading and not actually what I wanted my character to say. All it has done is massively make me want to play Mass Effect.
I also wish they'd make it clear which options move the conversation on, and which bring you back to the same set of options. Sometimes I'll ask something because I want to probe a bit, expecting to be able to come back and move the conversation on, but it'll progress me onto the next set of options instead.
Camera angles during dialogue. Not had many glitches, but I've had two or three now, usually when people are sitting down, there the camera decides to either look up at their chin or glitch itself inside the person.
That's actually it I think. The important stuff, the gameplay, the world design, the enjoyment factor are all there. If the dialogue was up to Mass Effect's level it would be a 10/10 for me (it's a really important aspect for me the way I play these games), because it's not it's more 8.5-9/10, which makes it a bloody good game by my reckoning.
I'll hold fire before passing full judgement, but what I will say is that it's rapidly becoming the most immersive game I've ever played. Not least for some of the reasons you've listed Dem.
Just killed my first legendary beastie.
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Obtaining a sea captain's hat has been my main priority for a while now, so far no luck. My current setup:
Level 8
Strength - 5
Perception - 4
Endurance - 4
Charisma - 6
Intelligence - 7
Agility - 4
Luck - 3
Perk Chart stuff
Lady Killer lvl 1
Medic lvl 1
Locksmith lvl 1
Magazine perks
Barbarian lvl 1
Covert Operations lvl 1
Wasteland Survival 8 (5% less damage from melee attacks)
Weapons
Heavy Pipe Revolver Sniper Rifle (damage 26, range 203)
Short Double-Barreled Shotgun (damage 45)
Glow Sighted Calibrated 10mm pistol (damage 24)
Apparel
Army Helmet
Road Leathers
Pocketed Girded Leather Chest Piece
Metal Right arm
Leather left arm
Boiled Leather Right Leg
Leather Left Leg
For a total of 32 damage resistance. I've yet to find any suitably cool charisma enhancing threads. I like to think of myself as a sort of Mad Max/Man with No Name wandering badass, so I refuse to wear anything that isn't cool.
I'm currently taking Dogmeat around with me, as I'm impressed at just how realistically annoying they've managed to make the German Shepherd, and it brings back memories.
I've officially lost Dogmeat, I sent him to Sanctuary and have never seen him again.
I wish I could lose Preston.
Wish the UI for the workshop was a bit better, clearly have consoles in mind.
Don't know how this would be possible to play on a console, the amount of qbinds I have is unreal.
Test.
qbinds?
Dogmeat should be in a doghouse, there's two already at Sanctuary. Took me a while too. And if camera glitches during conversation, hold left on the pad/mouse whatever and it'll glitch back to 1st person view.
I scrapped the doghouses in Sanctuary. Better get one back then....
My dogmeat finding tip for sanctuary is to get rid of the doghouses out back of all the random houses and put one down somewhere central. He should end up there should you need to send him back.
I'm tempted to use Codsworth more, as he was a bit of a badass the one time I used him, and also brings a bit of levity to proceedings.
Oh and as no one's mentioned it so far (unless I've missed it), how good is the music?
The crescendo in the main theme.
Can you have the dog as a companion and someone else?
The music is great, but I do wish they'd put some GTA style effort in and get some more songs for the radio. I had to do a medium length over encumbered slog back to the gas station this morning, and I'm pretty sure I looped through the songs twice. I'd imagine a lot of the stuff they'd be after would be out of copyright as well, so there's no excuse that I can see.Oh and as no one's mentioned it so far (unless I've missed it), how good is the music?
The crescendo in the main theme.
The dog is technically a companion, so you can only use him on his own.
Yeah, I've always found the radio stations to be a bit shit.
I used the dog to get the locked gun out of the vault and have been going lonesome ever since.
Quickbinds.
E.g. Have R as reload etc.
Test.
I left one in the main house, where I made a garden and kept the swing set for the kids.
Literally went full blown into making this a home from home base, surrounded the whole of it with guardtowers and fences to stop any wannabe intruders and then gutted every house apart from the main one.
Test.
I did exactly the same.
Sporting some caged armour now - I look like bad Rimmer from the Angels and Demons episode of Red Dwarf.
Hooray my game has arrived.
... however my PS4 pad is at my mates. Left it there on Saturday.
Will borrow one of Mike's over the weekend.
I'm a twit
Level 11
Strength - 3
Perception - 5
Endurance - 6
Charisma - 4
Intelligence - 6
Agility - 3
Luck - 3
Perks
Aquagirl
Armourer
Locksmith
Toughness
Lifegiver
Medic
Gun nut
Scrapper
Scrounger
Weapons
Molotov cocktails
Hardened Pipe Revolver Sniper Rifle
Compensated Hardened 10mm Pistol
Short Laser Musket
Machete
Apparel
Insulated Vault 111 Jumpsuit
Assault Gas Mask
Raider shit elsewhere
Companion
Dogmeat
The Wanderer is such a badass song. Loved it in the trailer and it goes down a storm now when you're in the midst of a firefight.Oh and as no one's mentioned it so far (unless I've missed it), how good is the music?
The crescendo in the main theme.
Alright, I've just been on this for four hours having never played a Fallout game before. I have little clue what I'm doing. Fun tho.
Nick Valentine.
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Anyone been to Swan's Place?
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