Forums » Fallout

Why I Uninstalled Fallout 4

    • 411 posts
    February 10, 2016 10:10 AM EST
    I agree with most of what you are saying.
    Though i still like Fallout 4 Alot. When i get the PC version im getting a bunch of mods. Like an alternate start mod and a No Player voice mod to help with Roleplay.
    • 66 posts
    February 10, 2016 11:53 AM EST

    Well automated text-to-speech type programs keep improving. Maybe by time TES VI comes out they'll be good enough to sound smooth and convey emotions/accents. Then it would be possible for every character to have a unique voice and have Morrowind length dialogues. I can dream!

    Also, the Buzzfeed clickbait title

    • 1441 posts
    February 10, 2016 12:24 PM EST

    I know there's a few mods to make the dialogue wheel better

  • Mr.
    • 763 posts
    February 10, 2016 12:29 PM EST

    Here. Put that together with a no voiced protagonist mod, and you get as close to an old Fallout experience as you can get right now.

    • 1441 posts
    February 10, 2016 12:30 PM EST

    I mean, Fallout 4 has flaws, same with any game, but I still love it. True, it isn't exactly a 10/10, more like an 8.5, but I'm still having fun with it. Could it have been better? Yeah, but that could be said of almost all games

    • 411 posts
    February 10, 2016 12:40 PM EST
    Im getting the PC version the second the creation kit is released for it.
    • 1441 posts
    February 10, 2016 12:46 PM EST

    I'll get it when I get a PC or Laptop that can run it

    • 26 posts
    February 10, 2016 1:54 PM EST

    Definitely a lot of good points raised here. Maybe when someone creates some Alternate start mods it'll get better? Don't get me wrong, I love Fallout 4! I've already made 3 characters  dedicated to the main factions of the game...A soldier for the Brotherhood, An assassin/spy  for the Railroad, and a morally grey scientist for the Institute. But i still think Bethesda could learn from this and put it to good use for ES6. Until then, I'm gonna try my hand at Oblivion, never did get to playing around that game.

    • 26 posts
    February 10, 2016 1:56 PM EST

    Also, the vanilla speech options are absolute shite on console! Can't wait for mod support so i can get the better speech options mod. 

    • 1217 posts
    February 10, 2016 3:27 PM EST

    I mostly agree with the problems I've felt Fallout 4 has introduced, and the precedent it sets. It felt like they wanted to do something closer to what Bioware has done, while having the same kind of RPG as they have in the past, and the two just don't work together. The part that really bothers me is that I don't see any realistic way Bethesda can fix it. I can't imagine what DLC would do that would make it feel more like the RP experience of 3/New Vegas.

    • 700 posts
    February 10, 2016 3:27 PM EST

    As far as voice acting goes, I pretty much agree. I haven't tried any in-depth role play yet so I can't really say how immersion breaking it is. But so far, I actually don't mind it. I don't know how anyone could play as an evil sort of character when the character is all smiles with merchants, though. So I can definitely see the voice acting being a problem down the line, when role play almost necessarily becomes more nuanced as the game ages. 

    Because the game is telling me who my character is. It’s showing her to me, rather than allowing me to create her in the way I want to.

    Spot on. Games should never tell the player how to feel, especially in a game where the player can create his or her character. 

    DANSE:  “If you were paying attention in [the earlier mission], you should have learned some of it already. The rest will become apparent as you spend time with your fellow soldiers.”

    Interestingly enough, I didn't think this was bad writing. I thought it was very good writing for a character that the player is supposed to be wary of, to distrust on some level. I thought it was meant to show that the Brotherhood really is distrustful of outsiders. That they're so secretive that even their code of ethics is closely guarded and learned through experience, through actually helping the Brotherhood. It's questionable why a strict military organization wouldn't have these explicitly written down and taught, but again, I think it really plays into the Brotherhood's general paranoia of outsiders.

    I think that for all of the game I've explored so far (about 100 hours over 3 characters), there is a good deal of immersion to be had, and it's still quite a fun game mechanically (though my gaming roots are in shooters, so I'm biased). The main quest can be ignored (as I've largely been doing) and I've forgotten that I even had a son. So...I see where you're coming from, for sure. I just don't think I've really played enough to agree or disagree with you on any fundamental level. So, is it a terrible RPG? I really don't know. But I'll certainly think about what you said as I'm playing. 

    • 1483 posts
    February 10, 2016 3:35 PM EST
    I actually love that the character is voiced!! My biggest gripe with this game is its focus on killing. Situations when you can avoid combat are very rare.
    • 26 posts
    February 10, 2016 3:37 PM EST

    I've noticed that as well...even with a high Charisma build you'll still be fighting your way through most situations! 

    • 1441 posts
    February 10, 2016 3:41 PM EST

    That is true, I would have liked more oppertunities to focus on non violence, especially if you're running a non fighter type of character. I still would have liked another voice actor, like, well, even if it is cliche, Troy Baker or heck, David Tennant to voice the PC, the VA did alright.

    • 8 posts
    February 10, 2016 5:26 PM EST
    Fully agree with this felt more like an fps than a rpg at some points I always enjoy a chem feind character and we'll chems are better in this than old games and I still tried to rationalize it but just didn't feel right, my favorite fallout remains new Vegas most roleplay potential
    • 1467 posts
    February 10, 2016 5:30 PM EST

    I don't think Alternate Start mods will work unless the modders completely rewrote the Main Quest. The problem is that it literally hinges on Shaun and Nora/Nate being killed, without it you have no reason to have a Main Quest at all.

    But who knows, maybe it would work. 

    • 411 posts
    February 10, 2016 5:45 PM EST

    I wouldn't do the Main quest personally with an Alternate start mod. My character wouldn't even be voiced if i had Access to mods.

    • 490 posts
    February 10, 2016 7:10 PM EST
    I am with you. There are many jokes that point to some sad truths how speech options aren't really "options" but just 4 different ways of saying yes...

    I remember in FO3 not being able to just do whatever. FO4 took that to a new level and kind of minimized what you can do even more. I don't mean there isn't any freedom per say, but there were some key elements removed like karma that put too much water in the sauce. Bland.

    I love the game but there really is no replayablity other than some VERY forced RP and a few character sets. I usually roll with a shotgun/revolver character and after finishing that I don't have an urge to really play much else. I will wait for the DLC and of course play through it but I just can't bring myself to being another character who wants to do completely different things speaking with the same exact voice in the same inflection.
  • February 11, 2016 12:55 AM EST

    I'm going to break with the general consensus here (*Gasp!* But, AMQ, you never play Devil's Advocate!) and say that I don't think the player character having a voice, or there being a specific personal story at the heart of the game are as problematic as other people believe they are. Sure, there are (many) aspects of those things that could definitely have been executed better, but I'd say that both of those things were almost mandatory if the Fallout series intends to keep evolving. If anything, the issue is that they haven't innovated enough.

    But! I do have a pretty big gripe with the game, and one that I think is the reason I've lost a lot of the desire to play after 50-60 hours when I had 660 in Skyrim. I think it's very central to the entire process, and something that ripples out and hurts quite a bit of other aspects:

    The Commonwealth just isn't that interesting of a setting.

    One of the great things about Skyrim is how well it sets up a world, and then how well everything in that world flows organically from its central, and strong, premise. It makes excellent use of the lore left over from previous Elder Scrolls games, while taking those things in a fresh and compelling direction. There's also a lot going on: in addition to the main quest storyline of the dragons' return, you have the civil war between the Empire and the rebel Stormcloaks, the cloak-and-dagger noir of the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, the mystical mysteries of the College of Winterhold, the chest-pounding action of the Companions...not to mention more localized story hooks such as the Reach's Forsworn insurgency, the political games in Riften and the many Daedric quests. And so much of those things tie into larger aspects of the Elder Scrolls setting as a whole, with the civil war simply a small reflection of the Aldmeri-Imperial clash of civilizations or how you talk to Daedra all the time yet never hear the gods...

    As a whole, the Fallout series actually has a pretty decent base as a setting. Mixing the retro-futurism of 50's aesthetics with a post-apocalyptic scavenger world is a stroke of genius, but I'm constantly frustrated with how Bethesda never seems to really push the boundaries of what that should entail. I've complained before that Fallout 4 (and 3, and to a lesser extent New Vegas) don't really fulfill their promise of a new world...because they don't. In a fantasy world like the Elder Scrolls, it's easy to set things apart, because you're at a technology level and a daily routine that's totally different than what we're used to. It's harder in an Earth-based setting like Fallout, even with the 50's filter over everything. When Fallout does give us a glimpse at how life has changed, it's almost always good. Concepts like the Brotherhood of Steel, unique tribals, the New California Republic, Caesar's Legion and the Institute are fantastic because they show people dealing with the end of civilization and developing ways of life that are alien to us.

    The Commonwealth of Fallout 4 largely fails, in my opinion, to offer a world that's half as compelling and multifaceted as it needs to be. With a few exceptions, most people in the Boston metropolitan area act pretty much like 21st Century humans, except dirtier. There's lip service paid to how life has changed since the bombs fell, but otherwise everything is pretty much just business-as-usual aside from the odd super mutant attack or radiation storm. I mean, this is a setting where everyone complains about how dangerous the roads are and how hard it is to just get though the day, but you also have greaser gangs living in the middle of nowhere armed with the most advanced military hardware known to man and nuclear (har har) family units farming in prime raider country as if that's not completely suicidal. If attacks are such a problem, why aren't there more fortified towns? In situations like this, you should see people banding together in groups, not scattering out across the wasteland.

    Finally, while the main quest is well done (particularly the final act, once the big spoilers have been shown and the choices get really personal), there's little beyond it to keep you going. With only four main factions, and each one tied inexorably into that main quest, you basically have nothing to do once the credits roll. In Skyrim, the "dragon question" was certainly in the background of much of the stories, but it really only intersected with one other (the civil war). In Fallout 4, the "Shaun question" is the only game in town. It drags in every faction, and then blows up the ones you didn't pick. There are certainly a few other reasonably large questlines that don't involve the major factions, but none of them impact the setting the way the College or Dark Brotherhood stories do. They're just sort of...there.

    TL;DR - If Bethesda wants the next Fallout game to get the kind of passion Skyrim, Oblivion or Morrowind has, then they need to take their world-building to the next level and stop just giving us more "modern humans in broken buildings."

    • 1441 posts
    February 11, 2016 1:12 AM EST

    What could be interesting is making the next game more survival based. You have to eat, sleep, and drink regulary. People will be suspcious of you, with few trusting you from the get go. One think I liked is how the various Raider gangs interacted. If you wipe one out, you can hear and read terminal entries from the other gangs mentioning it. 

    • 288 posts
    February 11, 2016 2:42 AM EST

    Yes, text-to-speech is the solution, I've thought about that since long ago. It can solve another long standing issue too - a custom named protagonist whose name is spoken by NPC's. Back in the era of text based dialogue having the other characters call you by your chosen name in conversation was a big boon to immersion.

    • 66 posts
    February 11, 2016 2:52 AM EST

    I made a morrowind char named (''')^;,,;^('''), I'd like to see NPC's try to pronounce that.

    • 1217 posts
    February 11, 2016 11:34 AM EST
    Yeah, I'd say this definitely feels like a problem, too. That's at least one they can improve with DLC.
    • 1441 posts
    February 11, 2016 12:10 PM EST

    For instance, something like The Pit, or Lonesome Road

  • February 11, 2016 1:17 PM EST
    I had some irritating bugs with it, but this is an unmoderated (for the most part) and unpatched Bethesda game. It's shipped with bugs. But this, this disconnect with the character, zaps any interest I have in the game, any investment I have in the character, any motivation to complete quests, build builds, or really give a damn what happens in the world.

    And I'm so glad I'm not the only one.