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Offline beardo

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #440 on: September 27, 2015, 04:58:55 AM »
but u dont HAVE to!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Mastery.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Fallout series
« Reply #441 on: October 01, 2015, 02:04:55 AM »
Lady Killer...doesn't include the reverse-gender equivalent, confirmed for muh soggy knees

That's because it's a male character.  Presumably a female protagonist will be able to get the Black Widow perk.  However, it does appear that the game won't be retaining the Confirmed Bachelor/Cherchez La Femme perks that NV added.  I guess that's because the protagonist was already married.  Or maybe it's because the people at Bethesda are really petty, and they're scrapping every new element that Obsidian introduced to the series to avoid any implication that they don't already know exactly what's best for the franchise and need ideas from anyone else?  I hope not, but if it turns out that, say, they've gotten rid of the reputation system and gone back to the weird karma thing, I will flip my shit.

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Offline beardo

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #442 on: October 01, 2015, 03:01:40 AM »
On the notion of shit flipping
The Mastery.

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Offline Crudblud

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #443 on: October 01, 2015, 08:59:11 AM »
Or maybe it's because the people at Bethesda are really petty, and they're scrapping every new element that Obsidian introduced to the series to avoid any implication that they don't already know exactly what's best for the franchise and need ideas from anyone else?  I hope not, but if it turns out that, say, they've gotten rid of the reputation system and gone back to the weird karma thing, I will flip my shit.

I don't think they're being vindictive about this, they just have a very specific (and wrong) vision for Fallout in which decision making and any sort of significant loss are replaced with rainbows and unicorn farts and omniscient DJs telling you how cool you are on the Pip-Boy radio. In my opinion it's probably a good thing they aren't trying to follow suit and incorporate the changes Obsidian introduced, they'd only make a hideous mess of it.

As an aside, a song written by Todd Howard called "You're SPECIAL" was supposed to be the main theme to Fallout 4, and Todd was also to perform it live (no lip-sync!) at the Bethesda E3 conference this year, but ultimately Bethesda's PR team decided it was a little too blunt. Below is a complete transcription of the contents of a sheet of paper someone found in a waste paper basket by the remains of Bethesda's booth after E3 ended. The sheet was stained with tears and someone had drawn a heart symbol split in two in the margin with a red marker pen.

"YOU'RE SPECIAL
by Todd Howard

Hey there,
My name is Todd.
To you
I am a God,
And since I'm benevolent
I will bestow
The greatest gift
That I know...

It's a called a ten
In every slot,
It happens when
A choice is not
What you want to seeeeee.
Give praise to me,
And I will give you what you need.

Fallout used to be hard
Not any more
Yes, it used to be hard
Worry no more,
I'll hold your hand,
It will be grand,
And maybe you can jerk me off later -
Because you know my hardness is greater.

Take it away man!

(guitar solo by Slash who is the best guitar player ever)

Oh yeah!

If you don't like it you can always mod it,
If there's a bug just act like you forgot it
I gave you my tens, now you give me yours,
I don't want low Metacritic scores - oh no!
I think you're SPECIAL,
You've got SPECIAL needs,
You wanna keep good karma after evil deeds,
Yeah, I think you're SPECIAL,
You've got SPECIAL needs,
So get on your knees and swallow my seed.

© Todd "The God" Howard 2015 do not steal"
« Last Edit: October 01, 2015, 11:22:10 AM by Crudblud »

Saddam Hussein

Re: Fallout series
« Reply #444 on: November 02, 2015, 04:52:29 PM »
(Oct. 17)





Nothing much new here beyond some terrible voice acting and the same sort of very basic dialogue that a game with a silent protagonist would have.  I know we haven't been shown much dialogue so far, but it's kind of odd that Bethesda hasn't made a point to show us any of the more in-depth dialogue that supposedly will justify having a voiced protagonist.  Also, I wish the game didn't have Super Mutants in it.  I suppose it's less of a stretch to have them here than it was in F3, seeing how the Super Mutants' presence on the east coast has now been established, but still, they're representative of so many of F3's flaws.  At the very least, I hope there are less of them in this game.  Vault 87 only ever had a finite amount of FEV, and the mutants' numbers must have been thinned considerably in their many battles with the BoS.  And Boston isn't exactly a short walk from D.C.  Facing endless hordes of them again wouldn't make any sense.

Moar footage:

http://pastebin.com/yLedwhZs

I think it's fairly safe to say at this point that the Super Mutants are once again just going to be generic enemies.  That's disappointing.  And get a load of some of those dialogue options: "GO AWAY," "SARCASTIC," "WATCH TV INSTEAD."  Also, someone helpfully transcribed a full list of all the perks here:

http://www.vg247.com/2015/11/02/fallout-4-all-perks-revealed-by-latest-leak-and-what-they-mean-for-your-character/
« Last Edit: November 07, 2015, 04:39:11 PM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #445 on: November 03, 2015, 08:23:13 AM »
Well, what other "generic badguy" would you have?
Your options seem to be:
Wild animals
Other humans
Robots
Super Mutants


Granted, my knowledge of fallout is limited to F3.  But still, not much variety of "really tough enemies" for the later progression.
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

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Offline beardo

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #446 on: November 03, 2015, 09:34:43 AM »
How about something.. uh.. new?
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Offline Crudblud

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #447 on: November 03, 2015, 11:32:05 AM »
Well, what other "generic badguy" would you have?
Your options seem to be:
Wild animals
Other humans
Robots
Super Mutants


Granted, my knowledge of fallout is limited to F3.  But still, not much variety of "really tough enemies" for the later progression.

I dunno, how about make up something new? For a start you have a whole wealth of possibilities to explore in the area of mutant flora and fauna, and I don't know if the Institute is supposed to be evil in this game, but at the very least rogue factions within it could be designing and manufacturing deadly animal/machine hybrids, not to mention the incredibly lifelike androids they are apparently capable of producing. It was amazingly dumb to include Super Mutants and Centaurs in F3 and it's still dumb to have them here, not just because it makes no sense to have the Master's creations randomly popping up on the other side of the country, but also because Fallout's premise gives you so much room to manoeuvre that there's literally no reason to repeat yourself.

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #448 on: November 03, 2015, 12:47:32 PM »
Well, what other "generic badguy" would you have?
Your options seem to be:
Wild animals
Other humans
Robots
Super Mutants


Granted, my knowledge of fallout is limited to F3.  But still, not much variety of "really tough enemies" for the later progression.

I dunno, how about make up something new? For a start you have a whole wealth of possibilities to explore in the area of mutant flora and fauna, and I don't know if the Institute is supposed to be evil in this game, but at the very least rogue factions within it could be designing and manufacturing deadly animal/machine hybrids, not to mention the incredibly lifelike androids they are apparently capable of producing. It was amazingly dumb to include Super Mutants and Centaurs in F3 and it's still dumb to have them here, not just because it makes no sense to have the Master's creations randomly popping up on the other side of the country, but also because Fallout's premise gives you so much room to manoeuvre that there's literally no reason to repeat yourself.


So robots and animals mixed together.
Or robots.
Or humans.

If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #449 on: November 03, 2015, 02:05:08 PM »
...or make up something new?
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

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Offline Crudblud

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #450 on: November 03, 2015, 02:14:44 PM »
Well, what other "generic badguy" would you have?
Your options seem to be:
Wild animals
Other humans
Robots
Super Mutants


Granted, my knowledge of fallout is limited to F3.  But still, not much variety of "really tough enemies" for the later progression.

I dunno, how about make up something new? For a start you have a whole wealth of possibilities to explore in the area of mutant flora and fauna, and I don't know if the Institute is supposed to be evil in this game, but at the very least rogue factions within it could be designing and manufacturing deadly animal/machine hybrids, not to mention the incredibly lifelike androids they are apparently capable of producing. It was amazingly dumb to include Super Mutants and Centaurs in F3 and it's still dumb to have them here, not just because it makes no sense to have the Master's creations randomly popping up on the other side of the country, but also because Fallout's premise gives you so much room to manoeuvre that there's literally no reason to repeat yourself.


So robots and animals mixed together.
Or robots.
Or humans.

If you're going to ignore most of what I've written, I don't see the point in continuing this discussion.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #451 on: November 03, 2015, 03:11:26 PM »
We don't know that they won't also have something new.

It's a bit early to say what they're definitively not doing.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Fallout series
« Reply #452 on: November 06, 2015, 06:45:16 PM »


The Blade Runner influence is obvious, but it's certainly preferable to rehashing ideas from TES and the previous games in the series.  And the "atompunk meets cyberpunk" atmosphere they're hinting at could lend itself to some cool visuals.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2015, 02:24:27 PM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline Particle Person

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #453 on: November 06, 2015, 06:52:31 PM »
That voice acting is so awful. Also, those facial animations are literally laughable (I literally laughed).
Your mom is when your mom and you arent your mom.

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Offline rooster

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #454 on: November 06, 2015, 10:51:47 PM »
Looks pretty fun.

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Offline Fortuna

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #455 on: November 06, 2015, 10:54:58 PM »
The bugs in the PC version are going to be absolutely glorious.

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Offline beardo

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #456 on: November 06, 2015, 10:58:12 PM »
Also, those who preordered the game on Steam can start preloading it now.
The Mastery.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Fallout series
« Reply #457 on: November 07, 2015, 04:57:59 AM »
On the notion of correcting a mistake I made earlier in the thread:

Also, I don't like that Bethesda is once again going out of its way to ensure that your character has no knowledge or experience of the outside world whatsoever, and that no, you can't come up with your own backstory or motivation.  It's like they don't understand that there are plenty of stories to tell in science fiction without falling back on the whole Campbellian archetype.

This is going to sound really dumb, but somehow, I misinterpreted the brief explanation of the story we were given at E3 and thought that for the bulk of the game, the player character was going to be the son or daughter of the introduction's protagonists, now grown up and with a character design reflecting that of their parents.  I'm not going to bother reviewing the E3 coverage to see what it was specifically that tripped me up, but in my defense, can you tell me that you honestly couldn't see Bethesda doing something like that?  Anyway, I was so relieved to discover a few days later that the PC was actually one of the parents that I couldn't bring myself to really complain about it.  In fact, I actually think it's a fairly neat premise.  Yeah, you have a prescribed backstory again, but at least this time you're an established adult with a military background and an active life, as opposed to:

You're a naive, gee-whiz young kid with zero previous life experience and no idea of what he's doing stumbling headfirst into a world he doesn't understand.  The game sets this out so clearly that there is literally no wiggle room to imagine anything more interesting about yourself or your past.  Maybe you feel conflicted from an event in your past that-NOPE.  Maybe you once had this friend who-NOPE.  Maybe you're seeking amends for-NOPE.  Maybe something interesting once-NOPE.  All you are is a bland and naive young kid, and if you forget it, the game will remind you every chance it gets.

What do the rest of you think about the Rip Van Winkle/Captain America premise?  Also:

<CasterYourMom> Because F3 was unique enough by itself
<beardo> I do have a problem with the voice. Because I can't picture the type of character I want to play having that particular voice
<CasterYourMom> Did they even add hardcore more to F4=
<CasterYourMom> ?
<CasterYourMom> mode*
<beardo> I don't know if it's been announced
<Saddam> I don't think they're keeping anything that NV added
<CasterYourMom> what the shit
<CasterYourMom> it was the proper way of playing fallout
<Saddam> The Correct Way to Play the Game
<beardo> boo le hoo
<Saddam> Like the way they scrapped the gay perks
<CasterYourMom> No more fem fatale lesbian do de doo?
<CasterYourMom> lame
<CasterYourMom> I don't remember if fem fatale was gay or not
<Saddam> No, because in this RPG, it has already been decided that your character is straight
<Saddam> Cherchez La Femme was the lesbian perk
<CasterYourMom> Why not bisexual
<CasterYourMom> like every other fallout game
<beardo> it was the female equivalent of confirmed bachelor
<beardo> just got some unique dialogues with some female NPCs
<Saddam> And you could do extra damage against women
<CasterYourMom> I hope they at least included some kinky perks instead
<Saddam> Of course, Bethesda is too cool for unique dialogues
<Saddam> Instead, it's back to poorly-written persuasions that basically have your character going "Aw, c'mon!"
<beardo> "Fuck you."
<Saddam> All jokes aside, that's the one scrapped improvement from NV that disappoints me the most
<CasterYourMom> I loved hardcore mode. It made everything you did seem like it meant just a little bit more
<CasterYourMom> like you weren't just some invincible player character
<beardo> But you're not going to see what you're going to say anyway
<Saddam> Every single one of F3's speech checks reads like a failed speech check would in NV
<CasterYourMom> too bad new vegas had the shitty legion in it
<CasterYourMom> such a shitty concept
<Saddam> NV's speech checks were both really smart and really funny
<Saddam> The successful speech checks took into account the personality of the character you were talking to
<Saddam> And it was always clear why that would succeed but the failed ones wouldn't
<beardo> lol, Steam says I played Fallout 4 yesterday
<Saddam> Like when House offers to buy the Platinum Chip from you, the failed check is you making a lame joke about him being "chip out of luck" if he doesn't offer more money
<Saddam> The successful one keeps to the serious tone House prefers, telling him that the "market value" of the Chip is higher than what he's offering
<Saddam> It makes sense
<beardo> the flowers of poclypse
<Saddam> Bethesda would have written that check as "Aw, but I want more money than that!"
<Saddam> And sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't
<Saddam> BAW
<CasterYourMom> Aw, but I don't want to pay you a toll
<Saddam> Robot! Let me past!
<beardo> probably due to time constraints, Obsidian didn't have time to add dumb versions of every dialogue option if you play ad unintelligent character.
<Blanko> F3 couldn't really have unique failure lines because the speech checks were a dice roll
<beardo> that was bad
<Saddam> That's my point, it shouldn't have been dice rolls
<Blanko> Indeed
<Saddam> At the very least, they shouldn't have brought them back after NV showed just how much better its system was
<Blanko> I got into habit of quicksaving before every dialogue because savescumming lol
<CasterYourMom> I hate dice roles for important stuff like dialogue
<CasterYourMom> I like getting the most of the game by always maximizing social options
<CasterYourMom> rolls*
<Blanko> Bethesda is now even encouraging savescumming by making quicksaving possible on consoles
« Last Edit: November 07, 2015, 04:38:06 PM by Saddam Hussein »

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Offline beardo

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Re: Fallout series
« Reply #458 on: November 09, 2015, 11:54:18 AM »
"This game will unlock in approximately 14 hours"
I'll be sleeping by then. :(
The Mastery.

Saddam Hussein

Re: Fallout series
« Reply #459 on: November 10, 2015, 05:29:53 AM »
All right, so due to my l33t haxx0ring skills, I've gotten to play a few hours of F4.  A few of my initial impressions: The options to design your character's looks are an interesting blend of the features from both F3 and Skyrim, and one of the presets is clearly based on the generic Dragonborn that Bethesda used for its marketing of Skyrim.  Also, the option to decide how muscular/large/thin you are is lifted from, no joke, TESO.  However, not having any options for your voice is really lame, especially when you can change your race.  Come on, Bethesda.  If the Saints Row series can give us multiple voices, so can you.

Also on the subject of Skyrim, it looks like the crafting system from that game is being used here.  Weapons and armor don't degrade anymore, and so the repair system of mashing similar items together in your inventory is gone.  It might be a bit different for power armor, because that's being treated a lot differently in this game.  They're more like mechs this time around, as I noted earlier in the thread, and they need to be fueled and maintained.  You do this in special little workshops, which you also need for things like making and improving gear.  And you can store all the useless junk you scrounge up for use of their raw materials, which is a pretty neat twist on the typical Bethesda formula.

As far as the story/lore goes...well, I don't know too much about that yet.  It starts out a lot like F3, with an overlong introduction that starts off the main quest by giving you the very personal motivation of a family member in distress - this time it's your son.  The problem here is that it's very hard to come out of this intro thinking of your character as anything but a sympathetic, lawful good type, and it's clear that must have been the character that Bethesda had in mind when they wrote this game.  You don't get to be a charismatic Wasteland conman, a lunk-headed bruiser, an energy-weapon obsessed tinkerer, or any other unique character you might think up of.  You already have a character.  You're a loving spouse, a devoted parent, a proud veteran of the military, and an all-around decent, upstanding pillar of your community, whether you like it or not.  Hell, this is even reflected whenever you talk to minor miscellaneous characters - your greetings to them are always polite and respectful, calling them sir/ma'am, asking if they're okay, etc.  Yeah, sometimes you have rude or unfriendly dialogue options, and I'm sure that later on in the game you'll be able to do plenty of evil things, but choosing those options feels false and jarring, because it doesn't fit into the archetype that Bethesda has designed for you.  Still, I'd say that the writing is somewhat better than it was in F3 so far, so maybe they'll handle all this well.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2015, 04:32:40 PM by Saddam Hussein »