Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!

[Squark]

True, I wasn't thinking about personal attachment.

From a pure business standpoint, it's a tough one. The Fallout name still definitely has the name recognition. However, the name grows more tainted day by day as Bethesda tries to piledriver the franchise into the ground with bad press. Obsidian would also be forced to use the current engine for Fallout, which is a bug-riddled mess. When it comes to picking an engine for a new game, Obsidian's engine wins pretty easily from everything I've seen/heard so far.

So it all comes down to whether or not the IP is worth it. The Obsidian devs love of Fallout is evident in their game, since it's basically Fallout with the serial numbers filed off and a Firefly coat of paint splashed over the top to hide the numbers. Is it worth all the hassle that working with Bethesda would entail just so you can show off that shiny serial number?

Speaking personally, I'm not attached to the Fallout universe. We've had 5 games in it (8 technically if you count 76, Tactics, and Brotherhood of Steel) and I feel the universe has been thoroughly explored. The games have all been enjoyable, but part of my ennui with Fallout 4 was that I feel like I've seen it all by this point. Branching out into a new IP feels much better than going over the same post-apocalyptic ground again.

I think part of that ennui might be due to Bethesda not really exploring the consequences of societies rebuilding in the wasteland, and instead just moving to a new region so they can repeat a variation on the same plot, though.

[Cikomyr]

I think part of that ennui might be due to Bethesda not really exploring the consequences of societies rebuilding in the wasteland, and instead just moving to a new region so they can repeat a variation on the same plot, though.

Noah Caldwell Gervais put it well when he talked about Fallout 76 and Nuka World.

Bethesda wants to create an amusement park feel. An environment where people could have mindless fun in the post apocalyptic future and never think about the consequences! You shouldn't care about defeating the bad guys again and again, just like you don't tell the people waiting in line at the Universal Studio Indiana Jones ride "why are you standing there, we already defeated the Nazi!!" the moment you get off of it.

[factotum]

It's a superbe shell with an empty core.

You need to look at doing the Far Harbor DLC. If nothing else, it will make you wonder why the person who wrote that couldn't have done the main game, because it's easily the best questing and writing Bethesda have done in a Fallout game to date, IMHO.

[Cikomyr]

You need to look at doing the Far Harbor DLC. If nothing else, it will make you wonder why the person who wrote that couldn't have done the main game, because it's easily the best questing and writing Bethesda have done in a Fallout game to date, IMHO.

This is exactly what Noah Caldwell Gervais said too. "Far Harbor is a DLC made for people like me. There is nothing about it that I dislike."

Far Harbor is proof that Bethesda can actually churn quality writing when they put their mind to it.

[Lord Raziere]

I think part of that ennui might be due to Bethesda not really exploring the consequences of societies rebuilding in the wasteland, and instead just moving to a new region so they can repeat a variation on the same plot, though.

Your right, and I'd love to explore a Fallout that actually progressed, but I also agree with Rodin that if all Fallout can actually give me is the same nonsense over and over again, then its probably better to move onto something that can give me the same but better. I've F4 and New Vegas, like only New Vegas, and don't see any reason to try any other game. I just have to get around to getting Outer Worlds now since apparently Steam won't get it until 2020 for some reason, yet its already out? I hope the website is not going to connect me to that epic games store I heard bad things about....

[Cikomyr]

Your right, and I'd love to explore a Fallout that actually progressed, but I also agree with Rodin that if all Fallout can actually give me is the same nonsense over and over again, then its probably better to move onto something that can give me the same but better. I've F4 and New Vegas, like only New Vegas, and don't see any reason to try any other game. I just have to get around to getting Outer Worlds now since apparently Steam won't get it until 2020 for some reason, yet its already out? I hope the website is not going to connect me to that epic games store I heard bad things about....

Do I have bad news for you...

[Rodin]

Your right, and I'd love to explore a Fallout that actually progressed, but I also agree with Rodin that if all Fallout can actually give me is the same nonsense over and over again, then its probably better to move onto something that can give me the same but better. I've F4 and New Vegas, like only New Vegas, and don't see any reason to try any other game. I just have to get around to getting Outer Worlds now since apparently Steam won't get it until 2020 for some reason, yet its already out? I hope the website is not going to connect me to that epic games store I heard bad things about....

From looking at the website, the Microsoft store and Gamestop are also options for digital distribution on PC. Don't blame you one bit for not wanting to use the EGS - even with a pre-order I had to restart my computer to get it to recognize that midnight had passed to allow me to install it.

If I had to sum up Outer Worlds with one title, it would be Firefly Effect: New Vegaslands. Setting of Firefly and Fallout, gunplay of Borderlands and Fallout, party banter and home base of Mass Effect, and multiple solutions and faction choices straight out of New Vegas.

[Lord Raziere]

Do I have bad news for you...

Ah, guess I'm waiting then. I've got other games to finish first anyways.

Edit: wait, gamestop and microsoft? awesome. and all those games are ones I liked in some capacity at some point so.....cool.

[Lord Raziere]

Okay so I tried both?

and apparently the microsoft one only sells for xbox?

while I tried gamestop and for some reason I couldn't download the pc version and after 24 hours of processing my order they cancelled it out of nowhere?

whaaaaat? I'm confused as to how these websites work.

Edit: no wait, there is a pc one on the microsfot store, darn it. why do they make the pages for the xbox and pc versions so similar!?

[factotum]

I was about to say, I definitely bought and downloaded Outer Worlds for PC from the Microsoft store yesterday!

[LibraryOgre]

I'm trying not to load up Fallout or Fallout 2.

[Narkis]

I'm trying not to load up Fallout or Fallout 2.

Why? They're great games. You really should give in and play them one more time.

[Cikomyr]

Am I a bad person if I feel Dogmeat is annoying as ****. Always gets in the way, obstruct my view, etc..?

[Rynjin]

Am I a bad person if I feel Dogmeat is annoying as ****. Always gets in the way, obstruct my view, etc..?

You're a terrible person.

Maybe if you were nicer Dogmeat would perform better for you.

He's a good boy.

[Cikomyr]

You're a terrible person.

Maybe if you were nicer Dogmeat would perform better for you.

He's a good boy.

All right. I get it.

I'll go full Renegade. Go Institute!!

[Squark]

Am I a bad person if I feel Dogmeat is annoying as ****. Always gets in the way, obstruct my view, etc..?

That's Fallout 4 melee followers in general. At least Dogmeat is closer to the ground.

[Rynjin]

All right. I get it.

I'll go full Renegade. Go Institute!!

Oh, Fallout 4 Dogmeat?

He's just a cheap knockoff put there for marketing purposes. Hate him all you like.

[Cikomyr]

Oh, Fallout 4 Dogmeat?

He's just a cheap knockoff put there for marketing purposes. Hate him all you like.

There's another Dogmeat that obstruct your view?

[halfeye]

Am I a bad person if I feel Dogmeat is annoying as ****. Always gets in the way, obstruct my view, etc..?

That thing is amazing, graphically, it looks just like an Alsatian (German Sheppard in the USA I believe).

The game is meh, but the graphics are sometimes awesome, and Dogmeat is one of the better parts of the graphics.

[Cikomyr]

That thing is amazing, graphically, it looks just like an Alsatian (German Sheppard in the USA I believe).

The game is meh, but the graphics are sometimes awesome, and Dogmeat is one of the better parts of the graphics.

I think anything that compromises the "sweet" gameplay feel of the game should be ignored in Fallout 4, since that feeling is the only thing the game got going for it.


Edit:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I am browsing the Fallout 4 wiki at the moment. It's covered in ads for The Outer Worlds.

[druid91]

Eh, I know I'm in the minority here, but Fallout 4 is personally my favorite when compared to New Vegas. Not by much, but it definitely wins out. That isn't to say Fo4 is perfect, it's not. But it's trying something new to make the world feel just a bit more.... responsive. Because, not gonna lie, New Vegas always felt dead to me after the first playthrough. Which is an issue with a lot of games like that. The first playthrough? Amazing. Maybe a few bumps to your Verisimillitude here or there. Afterwards.... You know exactly what everyone is going to say. Which can be alleviated to a degree by doing something else.

Fallout 4.... The most 'story rich' parts of the game are those without dialogue. For the same reason Dwarf Fortress can spawn such epic tales of nonsense. Just looking at what happens and not trying to pull the story from the dialogue makes it so much easier to play over, and over, again.

Now, this doesn't mean they had to do what they did and more or less completely gut the dialogue and story.... but yeah. Never said it was perfect.

[Rodin]

Eh, I know I'm in the minority here, but Fallout 4 is personally my favorite when compared to New Vegas. Not by much, but it definitely wins out. That isn't to say Fo4 is perfect, it's not. But it's trying something new to make the world feel just a bit more.... responsive. Because, not gonna lie, New Vegas always felt dead to me after the first playthrough. Which is an issue with a lot of games like that. The first playthrough? Amazing. Maybe a few bumps to your Verisimillitude here or there. Afterwards.... You know exactly what everyone is going to say. Which can be alleviated to a degree by doing something else.

Fallout 4.... The most 'story rich' parts of the game are those without dialogue. For the same reason Dwarf Fortress can spawn such epic tales of nonsense. Just looking at what happens and not trying to pull the story from the dialogue makes it so much easier to play over, and over, again.

Now, this doesn't mean they had to do what they did and more or less completely gut the dialogue and story.... but yeah. Never said it was perfect.

How do you mean responsive for Fallout 4? Because to me the game was more static than any of the games to come before it, other than maybe Fallout 3. Fallout 4 gave a good first impression with its story, but on a second playthrough you realize that all the dialogue options lead to the same result and there's only one way through the main quest up to the point where you pick a faction that you're going to end the game with. The non-story stuff is just the same old post-apocalyptic logs from 3 and New Vegas, which brings me back to my ennui. It took me a good 4 or 5 playthroughs of New Vegas to exhaust my options.

The only thing I can think of for emergent storytelling is the settlement system, which I didn't touch because I'm there to play Fallout and not Minecraft. It didn't help that the UI for it was designed by an infinite room of monkeys.

By the by, Outer Worlds isn't totally immune from the whole "ennui" thing. If I get invited to stay for dinner by a weird family living in a ghost town one more time...

[druid91]

How do you mean responsive for Fallout 4? Because to me the game was more static than any of the games to come before it, other than maybe Fallout 3. Fallout 4 gave a good first impression with its story, but on a second playthrough you realize that all the dialogue options lead to the same result and there's only one way through the main quest up to the point where you pick a faction that you're going to end the game with. The non-story stuff is just the same old post-apocalyptic logs from 3 and New Vegas, which brings me back to my ennui. It took me a good 4 or 5 playthroughs of New Vegas to exhaust my options.

The only thing I can think of for emergent storytelling is the settlement system, which I didn't touch because I'm there to play Fallout and not Minecraft. It didn't help that the UI for it was designed by an infinite room of monkeys.

By the by, Outer Worlds isn't totally immune from the whole "ennui" thing. If I get invited to stay for dinner by a weird family living in a ghost town one more time...

Which... is precisely what I'm talking about. It always bothered me in Fallout that you can't CHANGE the world. You can do some quests, maybe unlock a new area. Change the shirts on the NPC's.

With Fallout 4 I got to watch settlements rise from the ashes, productive, safe, etc. I got to have some effect on the wasteland beyond just.... picking one option.

This also seems to be a common thing. People don't play the settlement system and then say that the game is empty. Well of course it's empty, you're ignoring a huge portion of the game. And While I can understand not liking it.... Personally I love constructing things.

[Rynjin]

The Settlement system is half-baked and unrewarding is why. If I wanted to play Minecraft, I'd play Minecraft instead of Minecraft-lite but way more tedious and janky.

[druid91]

The Settlement system is half-baked and unrewarding is why. If I wanted to play Minecraft, I'd play Minecraft instead of Minecraft-lite but way more tedious and janky.

Eh, I've always found it rewarding. It's not even really 'Minecraft-Lite' It's just a building system.

[Vinyadan]

Thanks for the advice about the DLCs, I think I will try out the simple game for now and, if I see that I want more, buy the DLCs at the next great sales.

[veti]

In the 40-odd hours I played FO4 before deleting it in disgust, I did a lot of settlement work. And it really felt like "work", too. Like Sims without a sense of humour, or a gratuitously grimdark version of Minecraft.

Quick question, is it possible to murder Preston Garvey? I assume not, but I never actually tried.

[Cikomyr]

In the 40-odd hours I played FO4 before deleting it in disgust, I did a lot of settlement work. And it really felt like "work", too. Like Sims without a sense of humour, or a gratuitously grimdark version of Minecraft.

Quick question, is it possible to murder Preston Garvey? I assume not, but I never actually tried.

I'd guess if you side against the Minutemen, you can kill him?

[Narkis]

There's another Dogmeat that obstruct your view?

All Dogmeats had a nasty tendency to get between your minigun and the nearest Super Mutant.



I found Fallout 4 to be better than 3, at least. The story, the quests, everything that puts the "RP" into "RPG" were, of course, godawful. But it was a pretty good sandbox. And it had the most satisfying Power Armour I can imagine. And yeah, Preston is an essential NPC and thus unkillable. I hate that about the new games.

[Rodin]

I found Fallout 4 to be better than 3, at least. The story, the quests, everything that puts the "RP" into "RPG" were, of course, godawful. But it was a pretty good sandbox. And it had the most satisfying Power Armour I can imagine. And yeah, Preston is an essential NPC and thus unkillable. I hate that about the new games.

Meanwhile, in Outer Worlds, they have to put the main questgiver NPC behind bulletproof glass just to stop me from ending him on a whim. And it looks like there's options to refuse to work with him (and/or betray him) right from the start of the game, but I haven't explored that so there may be a "But thou must..." lurking somewhere in the dialogue tree.