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I mean, sorry if I went a lil overboard in detail yall but as someone who knows a thing or two about games like Rust and the mechanics behind them, I figured I might as well lay it out

And frankly, even if its not a survival game.. if it's just a battle royal/arena style game.. Who said you cant have PVE hazards to avoid or preoccupy yourself with. Dont wanna deal with players, find yourself a ghoul or deathclaw. Certainly would add to its longevity

One more week, and we'll have details. As long as it isn't trash, I'm going to get it.

November 14th of this year, Fallout 76 comes out.

...Fallout 76's collector edition, Power Armor edition, has stuff like a glow in the dark map of the playable area (and a few cheap lil figures you could put on it), a T-51 helmet with a headlamp and voice modulator, and idk what else.

Map is 4x larger than Fallout 4, improved graphics, yeh.

...

Right. Think I'll pass on this Fallout outing. What few multiplayer itches I have are already being scratched by other titles in the Bethesda portfolio.

Luckily there are some exciting things happening in the older Fallout games mod scene. Fallout: New California and The Frontier are in the pipeline, and FO3 and FO:NV are being ported/recreated using the FO4 engine.

Always online. ALWAYS. ONLINE.

*sighs* Why? Why Bethesda? This can work as a sole experience off line but no, they had to implement what I like to refer to as [&@%!] you DRM. Sorry, in a bit of a mood atm. I mean, every time I see "Always Online" as a requirement, I can't help but think of it as DRM and Bethesda is the one developer that should never, ever use it. As much as I joke about Bugthesda, if it crashes a lot, it could result in causing issues if they use a system where you can be banned if you disconnect too much. I really dislike it being a prequel to the entire series(though, that is how Eurogamer worded it) and I fear they will do heavy retcons. E.g. Brotherhood of Steel being retconned into being founded in this first.

The whole nuke reveal is awful. MP + nukes = Griefers galore. I mean, I can see it turning into large groups dominating the game quickly. Darn it, I am really trying to think of something positive about it.

Ooo, the building anything anywhere sounds neat and I can see a lot of small communities forming around it. E.g. UESP gets it's own town and UESPers defend it, attack etc...

The always online has killed it for me. Just why? Why Bethesda?

https://youtu.be/oNo_VYfBSWU

Edit: Dov, most survival server games HAVE to be always online. It's necessary for these kinds of games. That's like same like wondering why World of Warcraft cant be offline, it's an mmo thats why.

It's your typical server survival game. Just like Rust or Ark. And because of base building, it's not just game hazards thag might have to defend against.. whether you are online or offline.

The nuke is a good.. twist? Like, it gives weaker players a chance to topple the king. But it really begs the question just how much it effects the area and for how long. And will this be enough to counter zergs? Or make it worse(also, it would be a cool way to wipe a server with a literal cross-map nuke)

As for griefing, well, ya, thats server survival in a nutshell trust nobody, everybody is out to kill you, and leave it alone long enough and someone will raid your base

FYI, to anybody not too familiar with server survival games. Espect the grind, and to be very salty

...Why is this an issue? Ms. Kerr's GWN was set even a few years earlier than Fallout 76, and I don't recall anyone complaining about it being set before the events of the vidyagames.

It doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference, and none for the worse. Au contrare. I expect players will be shacking up in pre-war houses, and they won't look as decrepit and run down as they do in other Fallout games. It'll make pre-war structures much more significant than just something to loot and never look at again.

My interpretation of why they set it as a prequel was so that players could simply play out their own stories, rather than rehashing stuff with groups we already know about--BOS or Enclave or anything. Speaking of which...

Whyyy do you think that? We have zero reason to think they're going to retcon anything.

I'm not sure how I feel about nukes yet. Could definitely be an interesting tool for storytelling. How will they most commonly be used? Will people be rushing to get the nukes so that they can hold the world hostage? Will separate communities keep the peace with a mutual destruction pact? Will everyone be a psycho and mindlessly nuke the hell out of eachother? Will some only nuke bothersome NPC threats? Or...will some outright refuse to use nukes, even after acquiring the means?

Personally? Unless I knew everyone on the server, I wouldn't mind having access to a nuke or two for deterrence. If there was a significant, respawning NPC threat somewhere, I'd probably bomb that, yeah.

Man. Can we talk about how horrific and disgusting some of the creatures look? I love it.

I mean, I wouldnt even call it a prequel. It's like, the perfect starting point. Like, literally no other vault has opened except for 72, and not too long after the bombs dropped(give or take a generation). Do you know what that means? No factions, no pre established settlements, and no other people except for the ghouls, mutants, and fellow 72s. I'll be willing to bet that there would be no npc raiders or whatever to speak of, since, ya know.. 72s will be fullfilling that niche. Any PVE otherwise coukd ve fullfilled by fauna or machines(and lets be frank, some of those beastd are BADASS)

"Nuclear weapons are fun and cool, shoot nuclear weapons at other people!" is so wrong thematically. Not even getting into the gameplay issues which yeah, that would be annoying. But that's probably my biggest issue with the game, it's not going to be about anything thematically at all. Like, sure maybe it will be a fun little jaunt with friends, I imagine I'll get it. But a game that encourages nuclear proliferation is so amazingly off base from a series standpoint. Although Bethesda seems to present a lot of Americana and warfare without irony. Your Pre-War Suburb is presented as being a great place to live in Fallout 4 until the bombs drop. Liberty Prime as a walking Weapon of Mass Destruction that spouts jingoistic propaganda seems to be embraced by the series as the super cool battle robot that people love. It's... disappointing. The series could be so much more.

Also for an online game, which is what they're making, a lot of their choices seem kinda bad. "You'll never see a server and won't know who's in it!" I'd rather know this server is full of people who are gonna build massive swastikas and shoot nuclear weapons at people they shout slurs at in advance to be honest.

Being a prequel is pretty cool though. Like 25 years, sure, could be neat. Super Mutants are from Vault 87 I'd imagine. The sloth and especially the Night Gaunt/Bat Creature look rad as hell. There's what looked a lot like a crashed space station too. Also like Baloth said, having remnants of the US military doesn't mean they're BoS. And West Virginia looks like a fun place to explore, very pretty. It's not what I wanted but hey, just have to see what it's like. I'll probably play it.

And look, it was never Fallout 76 or some other game. It was Fallout 76 or nothing Fallout for over half a decade, barring giving it to Arkane, like they should. It reuses assets, you save a lot of voice, plot, quest construction, art, etc. Just everything really, resources you need for Starfield.

I hear ya, but part of me wonders if that's a part of Fallout 76, part of what Bethesda wants to see from the community--what WILL we do with the nukes? The Vault-Tec slide is all "yeehaw, nukes sure are good!", but at least in-universe, that's just Vault-Tec being Vault-Tec.

Hell, they might write it into future canon, depending on what public feedback is like. "The West Virginia wasteland? Yeah, it's a radioactive hellhole, because a bunch of stupid yahoos got into some nuclear missile silos and went nuts, as if the world wasn't [&@%!] enough." THAT would be cool.

Any UESPers on Steam, sold on the game, want to team up come November? I'm not 100% on just what my playstyle is going to be like, but I know I'm not going to be a murderhobo. Come to think of it...what IS your playstyle? Like, any aesthetic you go for with your character or choice in weapons, which weapons and armour you favor?

Me, I tend to go...lightweight, close-to-mid ranged. New Vegas helped to instill in me a love for cowboy weapons--revolvers and anything lever-action. I do also like a small assortment of melee weapons, usually blades. I'm an awful sniper, I avoid that. I tend to avoid explosive weapons, save for the occasional grenade. And sometimes, a SMG is called for. I'm not so much into stealthy takedowns (unless the situation calls for it), so I'm more of a skirmisher/stormtrooper.

But on special occasions--you know the kind--sometimes you just need to put on power armor, and go mowing down baddies with a gatling laser, or smooshing them with a super sledge.

And I also go nuts for settlement building. Given the setting, I think I'd like to build lots of CAMPs for use up in the hills--good vantage points, safely away from most threats.

Oh god, that's actually making me laugh now. Vault 76 is designed to preserve the American way of life, so what they end up doing is killing each other to steal their stuff, decimating local wildlife and blowing everything up with nuclear weapons. The worst of Manifest Destiny and the Cold War rolled into one, it's gone horribly right!

I still need to decide on Steam or PS4. We'll see. Given that it's Fallout 4's mechanics I'm 100% going to go for semi-automatic rifles, laser, plasma or ballistic, any works. I loved them in Fallout 4, red dot scope is my jam. How weapons work in that game that I can turn any fully automatic weapon into semi-automatic was great. Then for armor, combat armor over the vault suit. I don't truck with power armor. And I like wearing blue so it keep making sense for Piper to call me it. Also why I dyed my character's hair.

I wont lie, the nu lear option is a good game mechanic in theory. Like, it's literally the ULTIMATE weapon and best means for the little guy(s) to finally stand a chance on a vastly superior foe. Most survival games are just a cluster [&@%!] of clans and zergs being the powerhouses. Numbers=power, not necessarily skill. They can make or break a server sometimes(especially if all the 30+ zergs have an alliance). But how do you develope a mechanic that benefits the individual without making the many individuals in a clan/zerg that much more overpowered. Being able to nuke em helps. (Also, it may be larger groups/settlements might draw in more dangerious enemies/events)

Plus, the cherry on top is that the resulting ground zero is a prime spot for rare supplies. So not only will that massive base be just gone, but now it's swarming with scavangers

Which platforms is this gonna be on? Because if it's on xbox.. I might try it out <.<

Btw, ya, it sort of suchs with how 'discrete' they want the server process to be. Like, it's getting the same treatment like loading screnes did. Problem here tho, dedicated servers actually serve a purpose! You can have multiple official servers and just let players decide which they want. Maybe a server is getting too dominated by one or two groups and reeks with PKing. Maybe another has all your friends. So why take that away?? (And if their smart, unofficial servers can be a thing)

Btw, thing to keep in note, crafting and loot tiers might be different than from, say, Fallout 4. That means scaling as well. And the balance of the game could always be shifted. And biggest thing? Not everybody will be on an even playing field(example: Rust, player with bow and wood armor vs dude with AK47)

I just watched Bethesda's presentation from E3 (slow moving, I am), and wew I'm sold. Exploring the wasteland and shooting mutated creatures with friends seems like such a hoot. I'm not entirely sure yet if I'll end up getting the game (so many other games to play... like ESO and stuff...), but I think I might.

People are talking about ammo in other threads, so I have been inspired to complain here.

I'm playing the Old World Blues add-on for F:NV, and THERE IS A SEVERE LACK OF AMMO. I'm playing a Guns character, and there is so little ammo for anything (aside from those stupid caravan shotguns; I've got lots of ammo for those). So I'm forced to use Energy Weapons and Melee most of the time (both of which I suck at).

I really should have looked up the add-on before going in.

Old World Blues is really odd. It's SUPER fun, but it definitely is a case of stripping you of the familiar and making you deal with the difficulties that arise. Not as badly as Dead Money (which I have my own problems with).

My advice? Stick with it. It's gonna be hard, but you'll manage. Get one of those proton axes, don't rely on VATS too much, and try your best to be careful. You get so much EXP in the Big MT that you'll be able to invest in one of those lower skills.

You'll make it! It'll be worth it. My main character was also guns-focused and I survived OWB in the end.

The Sink sells ammo. It restocks every few days.

wait are you serious

oh my god i never knew

Don't worry, fam. I may be annoyed at the lack of ammo, but Big MT is a hoot (though I'm starting to get a tad sick and tired of all those lobotomites). Anyway, no, it's a great add-on! I'm loving it. I'll defo stick with with it to the end.

I know that the Sink sells ammo, but it's never much. I didn't realize how often it restocked, though. I should try to get in there more often and accumulate my stocks over time.

It's definitely my favorite of the New Vegas DLCs. Goofy, unique, a lot of fun. Honest Hearts is fun and straight-forward but a little bland, Dead Money is outright infuriating, and Lonesome Road is an absolute mess of atrociously overdone writing that highlights all of the bad things about Chris Avellone as a writer; unnecessary ambiguity at the expense of a clear plot, disconnecting the player from their character, overuse of metaphors and obtuse symbolism, and trying to use length as a substitute for quality and interesting dialogue.

I feel like I have to rant about how disappointing Lonesome Road was to me bi-monthly or else I'll explode. I adore Chris Avellone, he's written for some of the greatest games ever made (even KOTOR II, which is objectively an unfinished game with a lot of the problems I described above, is brilliant) and certainly some of my favorites, but some of the projects he was involved in just flounder so hard. Lonesome Road is, gameplay wise, pretty cool; challenging, sure, but you get to use your courier's full power and arsenal, which a plus.

But the story. The dialogue. It's almost as bad as Pillars of Eternity or, heaven forbid, Tides of Numenara's (both Avellone-influenced products) problems with dialogue. If I have to hear a certain character mention "The Bear" instead of the "NCR" one more goddamn time I'm going to shove a flagpole up his nethers. I really do think that if any character in Lonesome Road delivers a single straight, non-confusing line of speech, they will spontaneously combust and light the Mojave aflame. It's like everyone is being held at gunpoint and forced to read a script with all the length and all the monotony of The Scarlet Letter.

Anyway play Lonesome Road it's a great time

I’ve got some special version of the game (it’s got a red case), so I’m pretty sure that I have all the add-ons. I will indeed be playing Lonesome Road, on a later date. :’) I’m excited. You’ve done such a wonderful job promoting it.

Does anyone here, like myself, sympathise with the aims of the Master? I don't think he was crazy after all.

For what I expect to be much of the source of Union's frustrations about Dead Money, with no spoilers, I'll say that it ties in to the narrative and end message. Though yeah, I'm not big on being locked in to an area for the duration of a questline. I enjoy the enemies, though I feel they should have been...slower, and more numerous.

I really like the vibe of Honest Hearts and its characters, but as Union said, it's pretty straightforward.

Lonesome Road is...ehh.

But yeah, enjoy your adventures at Big MT! I didn't exactly have a blast with the gameplay itself, but I greatly enjoyed the goofy dialogue.

...Everyone sympathizes with the Master's intentions, sure--the idea of unifying sentient life and adapting to the wasteland is interesting. But uh, the whole kidnapping, spying, killing, forced mutations and sterilization is not cool. If you don't call that crazy, please tell what you do call it. It ain't right, in any case.

Oh, the master was [&@%!] insane. Any arguments to the contrary confuse me. He's easily the closest thing we had in the series to a cackling Saturday morning cartoon vilain.

"Purifying" the wasteland is a neat idea on paper, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Why do ghouls need to be 'purified'? Just because they are monstrous on account of the mistakes of humanity doesn't mean they need to be culled. Baseline humanity doesn't need to be 'upgraded' to survive the wastes either. The existence of the NCR and major cities proves that. No need to force others into your search for the ubermensch. If your ideal for uplifting the human race involves removing their free agency and forcing the change regardless of their objections, then I want no part of it.

___

@Baloth: most of my frustrations with Dead Money are gameplay based. After I finished it for the first time the very sight of a cassette radio made me very angry.

I think the message of the DLC and the story are actually very well executed and coherent. You can't take it with you; the hardest part is letting go.

Because the age of the human shall be passed by the age of the mutant!

And then all the mutants die out because they're sterile and sub-intelligent. Earth becomes barren wasteland devoid of higher functioning life, some other creature evolves over hundreds of thousands of years to become the next dominant society, yadda yadda yadda.

No, there's absolutely no way to justify the master and his plans. Even if you're willing to excuse genocide, forced genetic mutation, and all other sorts of atrocities, there's still the fact that his plan simply cannot work. You run out of mutants eventually and you're left with nothing.

Fallout 1 isn't a game questioning the question of good vs. evil (neither is the 2nd one, really), it's simply about survival and protecting yourself & yours from people who would do you harm and terminate your free will.