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Hi. I'm Jason Schreier, from Kotaku. I had forgotten how... passionate the Fallout community can get. After I reported on Fallout 4's existence in 2013, people here first spent two years calling me a liar, and then when it was confirmed, they just yelled at me for "spoiling the surprise." But hey, I'm also a big fan of the series, and in fact may or may not have just started replaying Fallout 4 on my PC in the wake of this week's news.
I've seen a lot of rage and confusion (and denial) on this subreddit so I just wanted to chime in to say a couple of things. One is that, after publishing my story, I heard from a few other sources (in addition to the three mentioned in the article) corroborating that Fallout 76 is an online game. If you're really still in denial, I guess you can wait until June 10, but hey, don't say I didn't tell you.
The second thing is that I'm very optimistic about this game. The buzz I'm hearing (both first- and second-hand) is that it's really cool, interesting, and just as story-focused as any other Bethesda Game Studios game. It might have multiplayer and base-building, but hey, it's still a Fallout game. I don't want to drive hype for a game I haven't seen or played, but I also don't want people to be so closed-minded that they spend the next nine days freaking out every day on Reddit because this game isn't going to be like the last three.
I mean, how many of you remember when hardcore Fallout fans flipped a shit because Bethesda was making a first-person shooter?
I think that in retrospect I shouldn't have tweeted that anyone expecting a traditional single-player Fallout will be "very disappointed" -- really, I should have said that they'll be very surprised. I wanted (and still want) to make sure people's expectations are calibrated accordingly.
Short version: Yes, Fallout 76 is going to be a multiplayer RPG. No, that's not automatically a bad thing. Just like all of you, I'm stoked to see the game on June 10, and I'm optimistic that it's going to be really cool.
(PS - Special shoutout to those of you who AREN'T sending me nasty and antisemitic messages on Twitter!)
Pretty easy to become immersed in the experience so far. I just wish they hadn't tampered so much with an already winning formula...too many bells and unnecessary whistles with this new one.
'It is time for us to be doing what we have been doing every day. And that time is now'
Fallout 76 has potential and is certainly not as bad as many are making it out to be. That said in comparison to recent open world titles like Red Dead 2 and AC Odyssey, from a purely technical perspective, Fallout 76 has some glaring weaknesses. The engine is old and Bethesda's refusal to move away from their dated Creation engine may end up being their undoing in the long run as both Starfield and TES6 are going to be on the Creation Engine. Of course Bethesda have said that updates are planned for the engine but at a certain point they are going to hit a limit with what they can do with it.
Right now Fallout 76 is having a bit of an identity crisis. The lack of NPCs hurts the single player experience. The multiplayer experience is not particularly smooth. So far I have seen fairly empty servers and very little group play. The way the world is structured doesn't really encourage social interaction while at the same time the game itself lacks the kind of depth needed for a single player experience.
It is a game I will jump in and out of as I think over time the game will likely improve as technical issues get worked out and as Bethesda makes adjustments based on player feedback.
Last edited by M0G on Thu Nov 15, 2018 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
M0G wrote: ↑Thu Nov 15, 2018 3:34 amThe engine is old and Bethesda's refusal to move and away from their dated Creation engine may end up being their undoing in the long run as both Starfield and TES6 are going to be on the Creation Engine.
I disagree with this for the simple fact I've played morrowwind, oblivion and skyrim and never thought to myself, why oh why haven't they updated the engine!
Plebs like me don't care, graphic upgrades > engine, I'll leave you nerds to discuss the rest but I guarantee 90% of gamers don't give a flying fuck or would even understand what you are complaining about.
Main gripe I have with the Creation engine is the lack of seemless open worlds (though in fairness I'd expect F76 is likely one seemless world). When you compare the world in a game like The Witcher 3 to Fallout 4, Witcher 3 has a far better environment.
Despite that, Bethesda do a great job of making compelling worlds worth exploring, I just can't help but feel that with some technical limitations removed, it could be a tonne better than what it is now.
F76 certainly seems intriuging - the idea of playing a Fallout game with others is certainly not without appeal. I think with some time this could be an excellent game, but as previously stated I'm not quite ready to dip my toes in yet.
Yeah so I cannot in good conscious continue to take up for this game or give Bethesda a free pass. I rarely side with the "gaming community" but this game is a fucking mess. I gave it another solid go and in my opinion for Bethesda to release this game, in this state, in 2018, is unacceptable. The game is full of bugs.
It cannot maintain fucking 30fps in 2018 on a fucking Xbox One X. I am not a pc gamer but from everything I have read and seen it is one of the most poorly optimized PC ports of all time. Graphically it looks EXACTLY like Fallout 4 with the added Volumetric God ray tech they put in the Skyrim remaster. I could probably have even lived with the game looking outdated but I cannot accept the game being this buggy and performing this badly.
I wanted to be positive about this game. I wanted to give it a chance. It was always going to cause contention in the Fallout community because many old school Fallout fans can't get over the idea of a multiplayer Fallout. I thought as I got further into the game the core gameplay loop would be compelling enough for me to overlook the game's technical failings. Sadly there just isn't enough there and honestly even if there was I am not sure I would continue playing the game in this state. Plus after awhile the lack of human NPCs really does become a problem. Experiencing the story thru holo tapes and terminals isn't enough to keep me engaged.
As soon as I jumped back onto AC Odyssey the difference is absolutely night and day. AC Odyssey looks and plays like a current gen game. Fallout 76 looks and plays like an old game on an outdated engine. I never expected Fallout 76 to look like Red Dead 2 as that game is pushing the limits of this current console generation, but I did expect something far more polished. I expected a significant performance improvement from the BETA and it just isn't there.
Again I hate to jump on the F76 hate train. I wanted this game to be good and I still hope that maybe a year from now, after a number of updates, maybe something decent could emerge. I certainly don't think the game deserves the review bomb it is getting on metacritic. I don't agree with the 2 and 3 out of 10 scores I am seeing, but I wouldn't give the game anything higher than a 5 in it's current state.
People are all to quick to jump on the hate train. Fuelled by hype, building expectations of games based on false assumptions from trailers and marketing teams. The good news is that games can be better than their initial launch would suggest. No Mans Sky went from being a solid, but slightly underwhelming game to being pretty damn great. Bethesda has a record of good support for games post launch, so not really giving up hope just yet.
The reality is it sound like it's still a beta. Not unusual for a game that is online focused, and coming from a company with little actual experience in delivering this style of game. Will wait for 2019 to roll around and check it out then.
Man the Bethesda E3 conference was underwhelming. How the mighty have fallen. Still milking Skyrim and a broken Fallout 76. What the hell has happened to Bethesda? We need a Jason Schreier article on that story.
Yeah, nothing worth getting excited over at all tbh, though I haven't checked out the trailers for the new IP yet. That they're relaunching Commander Keen as a mobile game is a massive lost opportunity