IMO - FO4 -vs- FO3 & NV

[Moksha8088]

 

According to what Kris Takahasi mentioned in the latest episode of his Lore Friendly podcast, he's just signed an NDA with Bethesda, presumably for CC content. But that's all he would say.

 

Since Kris is known for his quest and character mods, then my guess might prove true. On the other hand, Bethesda might simply want an improved Horse Armor. Of course, to do anything meaningful with Kris's talent to churn out better work than Bethesda, they would need to release the product in a standardized DLC format.

[Fkemman11]

They should contract or hire Kris and his team as well as some other great mod talent and have them design games for them like the next Elder Scrolls or Fallout game. These people and teams have a resume' that is unmatched by anyone at Bethesda. Plus, you know the quality to expect from these people and they have come up with some fantastic ideas over the years. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd put a hundred or so of the best mod authors here against ANY dev team that Beth can offer- not just because I think they're super talented, but because they LOVE the games and WANT to make them as good as they possibly can be. Not sure how Beth feels about that anymore.

[kevkiev]

 

One good way for Bethesda to monetize in a significant way would be to enter secret negotiations with Kris Takahashi to produce a well written and clever DLC for the Creation Club. I know I would buy it.

According to what Kris Takahasi mentioned in the latest episode of his Lore Friendly podcast, he's just signed an NDA with Bethesda, presumably for CC content. But that's all he would say.

 

Wow. Considering that, imo, TofC has perhaps the 2 best companions in the game (R4-04 and Audrey), the best quest (Alternative Medicine), and overall voice acting and dialogue that's at least as good as in the game itself, that's some intriguing news.

[Gruffydd]

I have played most of the DLC's in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. They were all pretty good, and well written. Fallout 4's is, excluding Far Harbor and Automaton, were laughable, at best. Nuka World turned you into a raider, basically. And the workshop ones? No real stuff there. Just a bunch of settlement stuff. I have seen better writing out of games made in other languages and badly translated to English. Sometimes most of those were funny. Before I digress too far, I still say that Fallout 4 needs better writers, rewritten all dialogue, and the settlement stuff dropped. Or put into one DLC, and only brought when you get to that point. Not forced on you.

 

Nuka World was a direct response to a lot of people whining that FO4 wasn't a "real" RPG because you weren't allowed to play a bad guy if you wanted to. Completely missing, of course, the point that you certainly CAN play a bad guy with the base game, especially if you side with either the BoS or Institute and focus on the more negative aspects of both groups. Unfortunately, the result was something that felt rushed, and almost totally lacked plotline for those who did not want to suddenly have their character go raider.

I disagree with the workshop mods being "laughable", however. They simply weren't aimed at you. A lot of people really enjoy settlement creation, and those add-ons were aimed at those people. I like the fact that they made something for everyone. What I don't like was that they only did the two (one and a half?) large storyline add-ons, when the prior games had significantly more. I think there would be less dislike of the settlement add-ons by those who don't like settlements if they weren't such a major part of the "season". I put them on the same level as "Courier's Stash" and "Gun-Runner's Arsenal".

 

I'm currently in a playthrough of New Vegas. In an honest comparison between it and FO4, I have to say that, even with mods that add a bunch of new things to find (ex: AWOP), it's still large stretches of empty/generic, with the vast majority of things to do/find at the marked locations, unlike FO4, which has a much more detailed map, where by detailed I mean that even in the areas where you aren't anywhere near a marked location, there is still likely to be something to do or something to find in close proximity. Going further, even when you do get to a marked location in NV, a lot of them are no more than a couple of ruined buildings with a few foes lurking, with no real story. Some FO4 locations are the same, but given that most of NV is only​ at the marked locations, each one that isn't fleshed out is a wasted opportunity.

Even when it comes to the actual featured bits of the story, the main quest, so far I am not gripped by the main story of NV. A bunch of different factions, most of which are repulsive in one way or another, battling for control of important resources and territory, with (as usual for Bethesda) the actions of a single person dramatically changing who comes out ahead. But then, I wasn't particularly gripped by the main story of FO4 either, and by the end really didn't care about finding the kid.

 

What I definitely like more in NV, though, is the way they handle the factions, where what you do seems to have a greater effect on how you interact with the factions, rather than simply having some key points at which factions either do or do not like you in kind of an all-or-nothing way, as in FO4. I also like the dialogue based on skills, where different things can happen if you've got a specific skill at level X than if you don't, although I wish there was an RNG associated with it as well, even if just to apply a +/-5 to your attempt. Given the lack of skills in FO4, I would have liked to see more of them doing the same thing but with different perks required for different options.

 

I haven't played all of the DLCs yet for NV. I loved Old World Blues, silly as it was. I hated Lonesome Road, and still have not finished it. I find it boring, despise the story, and have not enjoyed the gameplay. I liked Dead Money, but found it a distraction from the main game, rather than an enhancement of it. It felt like a separate game tacked on, as it changed too much of the game play. Much the same way that some people feel about the settlement building in FO4. I have not yet played Honest Hearts.

In FO3, I liked Point Lookout but wasn't thrilled by it, enjoyed Broken Steel, didn't bother with Operation: Anchorage or Mothership Zeta, and never got around to The Pitt, although that wasn't intentional, I just got distracted by other things before I did.