Comparisons with Skyrim

[Spacemunkey79]

 

And New Vegas... really didn't have all that good dividing the map. There was a LOT of empty space before mods started placing things there. All those empty deserts with not much more than a few ants and the occasional old broken truck, well, didn't really add all that much.

 

Was it? My memory's pretty rose-tinted for F:NV, to be honest.

 

FNV feels like a world 200 years after a great war, trade routes, power, towns, etc.., whereas FO4 has the feel of the war being 20 years ago with people squatting in craters and every one dressed like The Lord Humungus.

[Biohazard186]

I think most of the environmental problems people complain about can be attributed to the fact they're using a real world location to set their game. There's only so much deviation you can make when you're modeling the world after a place that actually exists. I think that's one of the reason's Skyrim's map was so much better: it was built from the ground up and the only constraints were what could be imagined. When using a real world location like Boston you're given a map and having to try and make it work.

[DimosZargarda]

Wonder why ppl need to complain and cant just play the game and when done move to another? I mean its what you do with games.

 

Anyway just wanted to comment the world size comparisson, yeah Skyrim is bigger, but 70% of the map is just simple plains, woods, nothing interesting to see, in Fallout 4 you cant go 10 meters without something to see. But if you like quantity over quality, well good for you them.

[Athanasa]

I think most of the environmental problems people complain about can be attributed to the fact they're using a real world location to set their game. There's only so much deviation you can make when you're modeling the world after a place that actually exists. I think that's one of the reason's Skyrim's map was so much better: it was built from the ground up and the only constraints were what could be imagined. When using a real world location like Boston you're given a map and having to try and make it work.

I'm aware of it. It's unfortunate, really. But Fallout is stuck setting its games near big, well known places.

 

Having said that, with the global climate going mental in the last 200 years of fallout, you could explain a lot away with flash floods, crazy tides and rivers changing course. Shame we're not on an earthquake zone so we can't rip massive chasms in the ground.

Edited January 1, 2016 by Athanasa

[mwhenry16]

I don't think your bashing at all. It seems your review, as it were, is based on your playing style, and lore development or lack of it. I like lore, but I'm not as cognizant of it as many are and you definitely seem to be. From your perspective, and there have been similar ones in other discussions, there are "two Whiteruns", and using your perspective, I would have to agree. From one who doesn't intuitively see or follow lore it isn't such an issue. But I do love the lore when I encounter and understand it.

 

I personally think the developers did a great job, and I'm glad for the measly $60 plus tax I plopped down. Most of my "ahaa!, that needs to be improved" come from when I see a Caliente foot versus vanilla (once I even learned what vanilla was), or from some other modded part of the game. I see F4 as a well done painting hanging in a gallery, and the modders making it a Rembrandt.

 

It's easy to compare to FNV, or even the Gold standard, Skyrim. But in my view, the "community" will embellish F4 to platinum and beyond. And honestly, I think this is the future. This is where all games will go. I just hope developers don't get lazy (see Rust and other "buy but don't complain, it's in early development").

Edited January 2, 2016 by mwhenry16

[Athanasa]

I think we can all agree that followers in Skyrim were pretty bland. FO4 has excelled in their characters. Although, I wish we had a little more influence on their lives - like the ending screens from New Vegas.

 

And no, live or die is not a deep enough choice, especially with the way factions are in FO4.

[charwo]

Wonder why ppl need to complain and cant just play the game and when done move to another? I mean its what you do with games.

 

Anyway just wanted to comment the world size comparisson, yeah Skyrim is bigger, but 70% of the map is just simple plains, woods, nothing interesting to see, in Fallout 4 you cant go 10 meters without something to see. But if you like quantity over quality, well good for you them.

 

Yeah, and that's the thing I like exploring. I like the greenery, crawling through the brush. In Fallout 3, once I had two or three green mods working, I actually traversed the entirely of the Potomac from the northwest to 8th ward (that's the area on the opposite bank of Rivet City). The green mods make me actually want to explore to see vast open spaces. I lawys play head cannon as these new games being 100 years post 2077, because there are way too many ruins still intact. Watch Life After People, that's a game changer for post-apocalyptic world building.

 

But there's more to my criticism than forests and s#*!. The nine hold cities were all unique, hand crafted, they felt alive, like there was more to explore. Some imagination is required for the vastness of cities, but the burden was a lot less in Windhelm than in Megaton. Not to mention a town built around a quarry or in the Corvega Plant would have been AWESOME! And sensible considering the fortification quotient. It's not that Fallout is two Whiteruns that gets me the most, it's that Bunker Hilll, Diamond City and Goodnieghbor are COLLECTIVELY the size of Markarth, just one of the Jarlholds.

 

And if they had put any effort at all into Diamond City, the design would be totally different, it would barely look like a stadium anymore, certainly all the stands would have been ripped up for housing space. THE UPPER DECKS ARE EMPTY! And this is supposed to be the BIG settlement in Boston? I'd laugh except I paid $90 for the privilege.

[BadReplicant]

 

But there's more to my criticism than forests and s***. The nine hold cities were all unique, hand crafted, they felt alive, like there was more to explore. Some imagination is required for the vastness of cities, but the burden was a lot less in Windhelm than in Megaton. Not to mention a town built around a quarry or in the Corvega Plant would have been AWESOME! And sensible considering the fortification quotient. It's not that Fallout is two Whiteruns that gets me the most, it's that Bunker Hilll, Diamond City and Goodnieghbor are COLLECTIVELY the size of Markarth, just one of the Jarlholds.

 

And if they had put any effort at all into Diamond City, the design would be totally different, it would barely look like a stadium anymore, certainly all the stands would have been ripped up for housing space. THE UPPER DECKS ARE EMPTY! And this is supposed to be the BIG settlement in Boston? I'd laugh except I paid $90 for the privilege.

This. The towns really don't measure up at all. The companions had less depth in Skyrim but their were a LOT more people to interact with with more interesting stories and quest lines. We can all imagine a better Diamond City easily. We can also imagine how much a couple more towns would've done for this game. It is severely lacking.

And I keep seeing that you "discover" something around every corner. What does it matter when it's all the same?

 

This game is an open world shooter adventure game. You can say it's a better open world shooter adventure game than Skyrim but that's it. Map, towns, character, quests, loot, story. What most people play an RPG for is just poor.

[Boombro]

 

This. The towns really don't measure up at all. The companions had less depth in Skyrim but their were a LOT more people to interact with with more interesting stories and quest lines. We can all imagine a better Diamond City easily. We can also imagine how much a couple more towns would've done for this game. It is severely lacking.

This game is an open world shooter adventure game. You can say it's a better open world shooter adventure game than Skyrim but that's it. Map, towns, character, quests, loot, story. What most people play an RPG for is just poor.

RPG is not just role playing though.

 

 

And I keep seeing that you "discover" something around every corner. What does it matter when it's all the same?

How it is the same? The girl in the cabin, the old man in this cave, the mayor bunker, the old state house, the gallery, the quarry and many more...they all hardly the same.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Boombro

[Moraelin]

Yeah, and that's the thing I like exploring. I like the greenery, crawling through the brush.

While I respect the idea that you like green stuff -- and really, it's just as valid as any other personal taste -- that isn't all there is to exploring. Exploring my way through a collapsed building to the roof, over a fallen power pole to the next roof, up some stairs, an elevator, an outside scaffolding and another elevator to see what's on top of a skyscraper is just as much exploring. In fact more, since more stuff tends to happen or be there to play with, than just some bushes and the occasional rabbit or fox. It may not be the landscape you like to take a stroll through, but it IS exploring.

 

Besides, even Skyrim wasn't all that in that aspect. For example, there's a whole huge chunk of just snow south of Dawnstar.

 

But there's more to my criticism than forests and s***. The nine hold cities were all unique, hand crafted, they felt alive, like there was more to explore. Some imagination is required for the vastness of cities, but the burden was a lot less in Windhelm than in Megaton. Not to mention a town built around a quarry or in the Corvega Plant would have been AWESOME! And sensible considering the fortification quotient. It's not that Fallout is two Whiteruns that gets me the most, it's that Bunker Hilll, Diamond City and Goodnieghbor are COLLECTIVELY the size of Markarth, just one of the Jarlholds.

And here just the Trinity Tower alone is bigger than Morthal, another capital hold. The Institute is bigger than Markarth, if that's your platinum standard. Or Libertalia is bigger than Solitude OR Windhelm. So is the Corvega Factory, for that matter. Etc.

 

And if those don't look hand-crafted and different from each other to you, I have to wonder: have you even played the game enough to reach them?

 

Or if we're talking settlements where you can interact with the people or robots, does the General Atomics Gallery not feel handcrafted to you you? Because it sure as hell does to me.