My copy is not scheduled to appear until tomorrow, but some people have apparently already got it unlocked and the relevance of the anticipation thread is waning. And so, a new thread.
For my part, I think actually getting my hands on the game will severely cramp the time available to play Fallout Shelter, but let’s face it once you start lining your halls with 50th level super-SPECIALs, there really isn’t much more to do in the game.
I liked the opening a lot, probably my favorite opening so far. Short and sweet and impact. I’ve already got people I want dead, and questions to answer.
I’m jumping around mouse and keyboard, xbone gamepad and Steam controller. Haven’t decided on which I will stick with for the rest of the game, but they all feel good in their own way.
This game also oozes atmosphere. I think I spent something like 200 hours in Fallout 3, I think I’ll be doing at least that much here if not more.
In Fallout 3 and New Vegas I have found that I enjoy squatting down and sniping without recourse to the V.A.T.S. system in which head shots seem to be a lot less effective. But surely it’s difficult to pull off head shots with a thumb stick. How well is that aspect working out?
Question: I’ve never played anything in the fallout series before but am thinking of picking it up. Would it be a mistake to start with FO4?
My own personal advice would be to start with 1…but if you’re not accustomed to or don’t enjoy top- down turn based stuff you might just start with 3.
Starting with 4 you’ll surely think it’s cool, but I gain a lot of enjoyment associating each to the other.
Randy, starting with FO4 will be no problem, you do not need to know what happened before. No matter where you start, the Fallout world will be new to you, you may as well start where all of us “cool kids” are starting.
Agreed, with the added caveat that if you only want to do just one other game, do Fallout: New Vegas. 3 is great, New Vegas ( which for all intents and purposes is really F4, with the new game being F5 ) is greater. Really the main Fallout games as a group have so far been a shining example of a successful franchise series. They’re all good, though of course modern players first trying them may find the graphics on the original and 2 a bit underwhelming.
I’d add one caveat. If you are going to get FO3 or NV, it’s probably best to get it on PC. I say this not in interest of a platform war, but because they are both really buggy. At least on PC the various mods and editor can help if you get stuck due to a bug. I played NV on a PS3 and it has some real problems with things like file size.
I’d agree here. If you watch the sales, you can snag complete editions of these games on PC for next to nothing.
To go against the grain, I wouldn’t recommend playing Fallout 1or 2, and start with FO3, then New Vegas. It’s not a matter of missing great storytelling (none of them really do that), or missing a cohesive plot continutation. It’s much more about learning the game and whether you like that kind of game or not. Rather than investing in a brand new Fallout 4 at its hefty price, I’d recommend buying FO3 for much cheaper, and see if you like it. If you do, then you can invest in New Vegas and FO4. Save you money until you’re sure you’ll like it.
But I’m not a huge fan of Fallouts 1 and 2, and the game came a long way between those and FO3.
I love Fallout 1 and 2, but I would really skip them and go for Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
I have no idea which of those is better. Every time I play one, I think it is the superior game. I guess I might suggest picking New Vegas. It’s quite the game. The legendary/ultimate version was less than $3 last week on some sites.
When I’m jumping into the middle of a series (or don’t want to replay multiple past games to reacquaint myself with lore) I turn to YouTube. Here’s a video series that doesn’t review the history game-by-game but topic-by-topic:
That’s a fair bit to get through, though I think the edited cutscenes I watched to get caught up on The Witcher amounted to some 12 hours.
Here is a pretty brief summary in chronological order of events, placing the games themselves where they fall in the over-arcing history:
This one with a very similar selection of details may also help:
Here, a multi-part series goes into more considerably more detail, including some stuff about the real-world history of the game series. 13 parts, 8-10 minutes each.
It runs okay on my aging machine. If you can run the previous ones it’s probably “okay.” But it looks like it’s time for a new CPU/mobo.
Summary of all the plot you need to know:
Seriously though, you might miss some Easter eggs and references, but the game takes place in a geographically new area. I mean, I haven’t played enough to prove me wrong, but they make them accessible to new players.
I know at least one or two characters from Fallout 3 are returning. They were very minor character in that one.
IMHO: NV>2>3>1.
Everyone who says the previous games were buggy: I never noticed any bugs, and I LAUGH at the assertion that recent Bethesda games were “buggy.” I’ve played Daggerfall, FFS, I’ll show you bugs.
Uhm, playing on survival…
I think my old D&d dungeon master designed the game. I remember meeting my end 6 minutes into a campaign at the hands of 3 Owl bears. THREE OWL BEARS at level 1. Looks like he’s up to his old tricks, with death claws now.
If you headed north from the starting village in NV you found plenty of death claws as well.
That’s not the first weird and out-of-level encounter in the Fallout universe.
My first playthrough of Fallout New Vegas, I wander up the hill from Goodsprings to see the cemetery. Cuz there are vital clues there to who tried to kill you.
I cautiously crest the hill. OK, there’s a little harmless bloat fly. “Chatter-chatter” goes my 9mm grease gun and it’s an ex bloat fly.
There’s another one. Pop a 9mm or 5 in its head and swing around a bit further to the right.
OMG THAT IS THE BIGGEST WASP IN THE WORLD WTF I’M ALREADY DEAD!
I had to look up what a “Cazador” was. It has absolutely no business spawing in a starting zone and attacking a level 2 character. :mad:
Yeah, the Deathclaws by the quarry are easy to avoid (unless you stop to throw things in it). The freaking cazadors though, man. And the real-life animal that they’re based on are also horrifying.
One thing I noticed, maybe because a different design team, is that 4 has “rolled back” many of the New Vegas changes. For example, the first gun is 10mm again. In real life, 10mm is much more powerful than 9mm, and wouldn’t make a good “weak” gun. I though New Vegas was much more realistic with respect to the firearms than 3, and apparently 4.
Looked at the side by side by side graphics comparison.
Considering that it was a PC on mega video settings, the consoles look pretty good. I have a feeling there will be plenty of PC players who have a similar graphics experience to consoles, if not substandard to them.
Interesting to note that from the comparisons I saw, anti- aliasing was actually noticeably better on the consoles.
Maybe more terrain pop-in on the Xb1 vs the PS4? Neither had as much brush etc. as the PC, but that doesn’t hurt my feelings much.
From the Skyrim experience, what are the odds that the Xbox stutter or the frame rate issues on both consoles will be corrected by patches any time soon?
Before Fallout 3 came out, Bethesda said that the open world would contain areas where you would get killed if you wandered in, but other wise, you know, wide open. Fallout New Vegas had bad-assed enemies placed to railroad you into visiting certain places in a particular order. Of course, after you’re played through you can pretty much figure how to run straight through to Dangerous Dan’s Sacked Caravan where you can pick up some sweet armor and an energy weapon.
The anti-aliasing solution is identical on both PC and consoles actually. Assets and asset quality as well as view distance are also equal on Xbone and Ps4.
On PC though, view distance and terrain detail, and shadow distance are an order of magnitude better, as is the frame rate - and not just wiht a mega video card. We’re talking i3 750 ti for a better experience.
Of course my 780ti is rocking higher ugrids and tweaked grass settings, you definitely need hardware muscle to get to some of the extra ini tweaks to run well, but man, od they make a hell of a difference.