Skyrim did simplify things, but I still think it is the best of the Elder Scrolls(I have played them all except the first one, Arena).
I liked New Vegas and would say someone should play but but I also found it overrated. The world was visually pretty bland and boring (was glad the Boston area actually had color and not more brown on beige on tan landscapes), the invisible walls were just stupid (had to mod those out), the karma system was pointless (I had no differences between my angelic charismatic stealth sniper and my 3-INT civilian-murdering cannibal brute aside from faction choices), I think the companions in FO4 were much better, etc. Again, a good game in its own right but it doesn’t universally shine over the rest.
Really? The version I played through had a storyline like this: “Go to faction A, either make friends with them (by running errands) or kill them. Repeat for faction B, C, D, E, F, etc. until you trigger the generic final battle.” Maybe I got a bugged version.
Ugh, I know- I fell into that trap for awhile, with Preston constantly telling me to help this or that settlement out. I didn’t mind fighting off the raiders or super mutants attacking a settlement, but after about a dozen “help us build up our defenses” requests I was very over it. Worse yet, after traveling to Sanctuary to get some gears or something to build a turret, going back to the other settlement and finishing the turret, and being about to leave, a settler would say “we could use another water source” or something. What do I look like, a plumber? Put in your own damn well!
I really appreciated the in-depth analysis @engineer_comp_geek , thanks!
I am a little confused on the terminology, though. So first person is obviously played from the point of view of the player character; third person is sort of looking over the shoulder of the player avatar, right? Are RPGs always one or the other, or can they vary?
What distinguishes a FPS from a RPG? Can a game be both? Can you say, describe a game as maybe 20% RPG and 80% FPS? What qualities are required to call a game ‘RPG’? After all, to some small extent, all games can be considered RPGs to the extent you play as a character.
Probably dumb questions, but I’m still very much a gaming newb.
Let me show you Fallout 2, which was isometric.
Western RPG’s tend to be either First Person, Isometric, or third-person(over the shoulder).
I think it is very wrong to say Fallout 4 is that different from 3 and New Vegas. I really think anyone that liked Falout 4 would love both of them. Lots of criticism to go around by many, but all three of those games were good. I rank Fallout 4 last, but it is still a great game.
One thing fun about 3 and NV is that you character does not speak his/her dialouge. This allows the game to have a TON more speech options. You can say tons of crazy things and surprisingly, even being low IQ makes your character borderline unable to form sentences, which is hilarious.
For comparison, here is what Fallout New Vegas looks like. I think you’ll find it quite similar to Fallout 4.
Ok, thanks. So isometric is also what some refer to as a ‘top-down’ game then, I take it.
Yes, I definitely see FNV in my future. I only watched a couple minutes of the FNV video, but it looks like the pip-boy in that one gives you a lot more info than in F4, especially regarding quests.
RPG just generally means it’s story-driven with multiple dialogue options or some branching paths. It usually implies things like skill trees, character stat progression and different gear/weapons that may also impact your stats. You can have RPGs played in the first person, third person, isometric, text adventure or whatever else so long as they hit most of the marks described.
FPS just means first-person shooter. But back when the original DOOM and Wolfensterin 3D and other FPS games were newly out there, all the RPG games were either isometric grids like Fallout 1 or stuff like the early Final Fantasy titles. A few RPG games might have used a first person perspective when traveling but shifted to something else for combat (the old SSI AD&D Gold Box games). So when games started merging the two, there was never really a new term made for it, just people saying something like Fallout 3 (or NV or FO4) was an FPS RPG or an RPG with FPS gameplay or some other clunky description.
These days there’s rarely clear lines. Even the recent Wolfenstein games, for example, had some skill trees and other RPG-lite elements despite not really being an RPG and definitely being a first-person shooter.
Again, criticisms abound, but Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4 are all very well done.
FNV has three main factions. There is also a fourth “independent” route that you can take using Yes Man. This results in your four main endings.
For three of the four main factions, you will be required to eliminate many (but not all) of the minor factions, as well as the other two main factions. However, it’s not a simple single point of choice. You can follow all three of the main factions simultaneously or in any combination, up to the point where they require you to choose. So you can get pretty far through each questline, if you want to go that route.
If you go independent, you will be required to kill one main faction and defeat another. But you can do what you want with the third. You can completely destroy them or you can basically leave them in peace. For all of the minor factions, you actually have three choices: Make friends, kill them, or just do what you want and ignore them. As Yes Man says, you decide the shape of the wasteland.
There are also quite a few other factions which are not part of the main quest, and you can do what you want with those.
As for gameplay, you can also be a complete psycho and kill everything, or you can play as a complete pacifist, or anything in between. A true pacifist run isn’t even possible on FO4. Some players have figured out how to do a “I got people killed but technically I have no kills on my score card” type of run, which is as close as you can get. It’s a shooter. It expects you to shoot things.
No need to do that part yourself. You can have your settlers schlep junk from place to place by assigning them to supply lines; any settlement on a supply line will share its workbench contents with all other connected settlements.
This also works in Nuka-World and Far Harbor so there’s no real need to bring anything back to Boston, just set up a supply line and drop stuff off at a settlement.
Cool, good tip, thanks! I thought I had to get some sort of advanced perk to set up supply lines.
Yeah, you do need a perk first. It’s the first rank of Local Leader, under Charisma.
A comment on F3 and FNV - they are both more ‘classic RPG’ in that they have levels including a level cap, and barring DLC in 3, have a fixed end of game. You will be clearly warned that you’re about to enter the final sequence, because in both these games, once you complete the ‘main’ quest, the game ends.
As opposed to F4, where even after finishing the ‘main’ storyline, you can keep endlessly exploring and doing side and radiant quests. As well as being able to level to the point of silliness until you have every perk in the game.
So I had an eventful night last night. That is, if one can call sitting in front of a computer for several hours playing a video game an eventful night. And I can.
I went back to 35 Court, this time in daylight so it was much easier to see what was going on, destroyed the assaultron and sentrybot, and am now the proud owner of a spiffy new set of X-01 Mark III power armor. Thanks again for the tip, Skywatcher! I would have missed that if not for you.
When I leveled up I picked up the Local Leader perk. I didn’t get a chance to start setting up supply lines though, since I got distracted…
My son came up while I was playing and told me the F4 season pass was on sale, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on that. I started up in Nuka-World, and I finally stopped the game after getting quite a ways through “the gauntlet”. I can tell I’m going to like Nuka-World— those pockets of raiders and super mutants in the Commonwealth were getting a bit too easy to clear out. Walking into a room and taking out a dozen or so turrets all shooting at you at once, now that’s a fun challenge. It’s a shame my new X-01 power armor is getting dinged up pretty bad, but that’s what it’s there for.
Don’t bother leading any of them back into the Commonwealth – they’re more needy than regular settlers! They’re supposed to be these elite warriors; they should be able to manage to fend off Commonwealth raiders on their own but no, they need your help!
The only benefit to handing over a settlement to Nuka raiders is that it pisses off Preston.
I do like the idea of pissing off Preston, but maybe after I finish the main storyline.
I played for a couple more hours earlier today, finished the gauntlet and killed the Overlord, with the help of whatsisname who helped my by giving me the squirt gun. Now he wants me to become the Overlord, but I didn’t know how far I wanted to go down that rabbit hole quite yet, so I hopped on the monorail back to the Commonwealth. My X-01 power armor was shot to hell and needed repair anyway. I think I’ll go back and finish the main storyline before I get back into NW and the other add-ones.
I also started establishing supply lines. I started at Starlight because I’m running low on steel to scrap at Sanctuary and there’s tons of scrap at SL. I also set up a supply line from Starlight to the Castle.
Question: does establishing one supply line from Starlight to Sanctuary and another from Starlight to the Castle mean I also have a line from Sanctuary to the Castle, like a connecting flight, or do I need to set up a direct route?
It does, yes.
Great, thanks for your help!
Hey, @solost, found your “brand new car” yet? 
If not, talk to the robots at Graygarden.