#but I am a hardcore bethesda fan

[melancholy-thots]

That's Not Even a Game Yet?

I'm super hype for this one! This is my first ever time trying an Early Access game! I've had it sitting in my Steam library for like a month though, so it's already seen a number of updates and the only bug I saw was not game-breaking at all. That being said, here's a look at Snacko!

I had a WAY cuter picture of Mikan, but apparently my desktop decides it wants to occasionally not remember multiple screenshots in a row and sometimes it does. Wack computer, but adorable writing!

Oh I love when these games let me have a birthday. If freaking Clint gets gifts on his birthday, why can't I? Oh, also yeah, I'm shipwrecked or whatever.

Hehe, can't believe I received your mom. Heh. Gottem.

I really like that you invite whichever characters you want to your island. Issue: this lad is perfect, but I didn't vibe with the guy who replied to be my carpenter. But I can't reject him, I'm not a monster!

Took me a week of setting up my farm, but I finally decided to branch out and explore, but good god! Look at these areas! They're gorgeous.

This intro scene lasted like 30 seconds. So hard to pick a spot to screenshot. It all looks so good.

If I haven't sold you yet, look at how your little kitty sleeps each night! Overall, this is an awesome little game. I will 100% be coming back, especially after it gets fully released. I should've screenshot, but there were multiple things like "this mechanic is not available in Early Access." That's probably super standard, but like I said, I've never done this before, so it's super novel for me. Got me hype to keep coming back to see the new stuff. Go ahead and check this out if you've been thinking about it, these devs are cooking up something good.

[maximuswolf]

Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard Was The Worst Thing To Happen In Gaming This Generation

Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard Was The Worst Thing To Happen In Gaming This Generation Hey everyone, I just wanted to share my opinion on a matter that comes up again and again these days. In these last couple of days, Microsoft and Xbox are at the center of discussion yet again due to the Indiana Jones game's PS5 release announcement and a Crash 5 cancelation documentary on YouTube. I'm not sure if I am allowed to share links here but just write "Crash 5 Cancelled" and there will be a 1+ hour documentary about Toys for Bob, Crash 5, Crash 4, Crash Team Rumble and more.While I do believe that something had to be done about Activision Blizzard due to terrible, inhumane management; Microsoft owning them is making things a lot worse. I want to quickly say that yes, I am a PS owner and a somewhat hardcore fan. I'm saying this because people will look at my profile and look at me as a "paid Sony employer" or something.But no. Competition is a great thing and PlayStation shouldn't be allowed to be the only big console in the market.(I know Nintendo is also very big but they operate on their own space) Xbox forced PlayStation's hand on multiple things like Crossplay, Backwards Compatibility and Subscription Services. While PlayStation forced Xbox to work on their first party titles and find different ways to pull customers towards their console like Game Pass, Play Anywhere or Smart Delivery.It's clear to everyone I think that Xbox is forced to put their games on other consoles these days due to the Activision Blizzard acquisition costing them a lot and the current Xbox player base not being enough to get enough returns from that investment. It probably has nothing to do with Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond or anyone else at Xbox but of course the reality of the world is that they are the faces of that division and they will get the hate for these moves not made by them.TLDR, I wish Microsoft never bought Activision Blizzard. Bethesda was a good investment along with all the previous smaller teams they got. It has brought nothing but layoffs, developers suffering while working on games they don't want to work like Call of Duty or Overwatch, full studio closures like Tango(at least they got saved) or Arkane Austin and many IP's stuck in limbo like Crash, Spyro, Tony Hawk and more just to put more character and weapon skins into Call of Duty. It's just, incredibly sad. Submitted August 25, 2024 at 09:04AM by kayrakaanonline https://ift.tt/u8L37QR via /r/gaming

[saturdaymorningrobots]

I think I don't like Starfield. God knows I tried. Normally I am a hardcore Bethesda fan but jesus they have gotten to the point where their bad tendencies are the majority of what is in the game. Every time I find some fun or some charm, something ruins it by frustrating me.

They got too used to people overlooking these things cause there was something else there that made the games good. I am not really sure that this game is gonna be worth it even with massive mod overhauls, cause there just isn't that much there to build on.

Fallout 4's writing is a frigging Masterpiece by comparison and that is very... very bad.

In closing I would rather Replay Alpha Protocol than finish Starfield right this moment.

[trcshbirb]

can we stop making fun of people for being upset over the final season / ending of game of thrones?

i see people dragging disappointed fans on every platform and  - hell, i am not even a hardcore fan, and i never read the books, but it’s just fucking rude? yeah, it’s ‘just a ( tv ) series’. but some people have been with it since the first book came out, while others joined in 8 years ago when the show started. people got invested and followed the journey. only to be let down in the end. it’s like your favourite band, that you have gotten really invested listening to announces their final album - only for it to be 6 tracks instead of 20, half of it is autotuned, and the beats are downloaded from a freebeat site while the lyrics went from leonard cohen to hp baxxter.  imagine your favourite band, known for great concerts, announce their final live show. afterwards, the band is going to break up. you are excited. the grand finale. it’s gotta be good. you rock up. it starts. the singer forgets the lyrics halfway through the 2nd song, one band member leaves halfway through the show, the guitarist is working the drums and there’s constant mic feedbacks cause nobody could be bothered to do a proper check before it started. it’s going to a NYE party you have been looking forward to all year,  but the host couldn’t be arsed to organize anything so there’s only 2 warm bottles of beer, half a pack of stale chips, and it starts raining heavily 2 minutes past midnight.

unwrapping the PS4box shaped Christmas present, finding a PS4 box,  but it’s just full of crumpled up newspaper and a porcelain figurine of a clown with a 0.99 price tag still on it. bethesda announcing their biggest game ever but it’s fallout76. ‘you just can’t take a joke’ my dude i rarely get offended by anything, and i shared all the memes and terrible jokes about final seasons being a massive trashfire , but even i have the decency to not go “lmao sry ur dragon show is shit’ or ‘lol imagine getting upset over which fantasy character gets to sit on the metal chair in fantasyland” just --- don’t make fun of people being disappointed or sad over something they cared about for so many years , just because it’s something you yourself aren’t interested in.  it’s called ‘being an absolute asshole.’

[atishanabelas]

IF YOU ARE A WELL-OFF COMPANY WHY CANT YOU FIX SIMPLE ERRORS?????

THIS IS A RANT. ABOUT VIDEO GAMES. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO JUST SEE MY RAMBLING.

So, there is a big thing I want to get off my chest. Mainly... how the video game industry is starting to pander to investors and care about money more than the games. Like... Bethesda. Oh, everyone knows the whole Fallout 76 fiasco and stuff, but also...when did it become okay for a company to release unfinished products and just leave it like that? You know, until modders (AKA, people who actually CARE about the product and not just the money) come and fix them up for free. Like...Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim all have unofficial patches which everyone who modders agree is like, the NUMBER ONE essential mod to get for all those games. Like, I get that you can release a game and not have it perfectly squeaky clean of all bugs. But Bethesda NEVER implemented more bug fixes in patches. OH NO, SIR, we can only PATCH THE GAME to add more PAID content! NO BUG FIXES HERE DUDE! JUST MORE THINGS TO BUY!!! Don’t get me wrong. I love Elder Scrolls. I love Fallout (albeit I have not finished any of them to total completion). But this shit is frankly insulting at this point. They expect fans to just... forgive them? Be okay with it? Just be like "But it's BETHESDA?!?" And Bioware's new game, Anthem. There's shit about that too. Like how it's bricking PS4 systems apparently (not fact checked so feel free to say I'm wrong)? HOW DO YOU MISS THAT BEFORE PUTTING IT ON SHELVES???? Oh right, because EA (the BIG MONEY BACKER) pressured them to release early. Great, now I'm worried Bioware is gonna fall under (which I'd HATE because I love Dragon Age and am still hoping for more Mass Effect). And really, I think the biggest issue is that video games got popular. Yes, you heard right. They got too popular. Now, you may be wondering how that has to do with anything. Or you may have pieced it together yourself. But yeah, video games got popular enough that companies started caring more about the money it could bring. Older video game fans commonly cry about how "mainstream video games are getting" and how they're "easy" and "hold your hand." Honestly, they have a point. YES, video games HAVE been getting more mainstream. YES, video games HAVE become more streamlined (simple or easy, as a hardcore RPGer would say). The reason? C'mon, say it with me! "The more people video games can reach, the more money those corporate pigs can make!" And that's it. That's the tea.

[aurimeanswind]

Your E3 Predictions!—Sunday Chats—6/3/18

I’m very excited about this week’s Sunday Chats because it’s all about E3 predictions! This time next week, we’ll BE INSIDE E3! I’ll have seen Microsoft/EA/and Bethesda’s pressers come the next Sunday Chats, and I’ll be writing about them, probably! I may or may not do a Sunday Chats, but we’ll see!

To catch folks up, this week has been a full-force build up to E3 for me. A new Episode of Get Acquainted posted, with my friend Brandon Gann, who is just an incredibly wonderful and amazing loquacious individual, and we spend two plus hours talking E3! We had a ton of predictions and great conversations around all of them! You should give it a listen!

http://irrationalpassions.com/brandon-gann-e3-predictions-get-acquainted/

On this week’s Irrational Passions Podcast we had my other good friend Logan Moore on to make some E3 BETS! Nabeshin was kind enough to put together 25 amazing bets for us and a ton of lightening round bets on top of that, and it was super fun. You can watch the video version of that WITH bonus content right now, and the fully edited version will post on Tuesday.

So it’s all about E3, but before we get to that, a little personal update.

Personal Update for June

So any one close to me will no that the last week of my life has been exceptionally difficult. Some folks close to me, both physically and emotionally have been making decisions that have been pretty toxic, I can’t lie. It’s led to a pretty unhealthy living situation that I’d rather not get into, and whether things blow over, get worse, I’m not sure. I obviously don’t want to spill any personal juice here, but anyone who has seen me out here tweeting like the dramatic boi I am on the inside about how I need some good vibes, that’s a general overview of the situation, if you were concerned.

I’m thankful for all my close friends out there texting me, checking on me, and making sure I am doing okay, even if I’m not. It is upsetting that this just so happens to coincide with the busiest time of the year in video games, so if this bleeds over into our content over on Irrational Passions I apologize. Sometimes its a bit unavoidable.

Anyway, I appreciate you all taking the time to interact and be a part of my silly Selfie Saturdays or Sunday Chats, it means the world. I’ve been working hard with the team @ Irrational Passions to make some really fun stuff, including a new show that acts as a spiritual successor to our roundtables from 2017 Game of the Year talks.

That’s all we need to dwell on in regards to the bummer business, let’s get to games!

What’s on Tap

Moonlighter

So I just started this tonight and I have to say: right away I just love it.

The idea is you live in a small town that neighbors these ancient ruins that lead to these very dangerous dungeons, and once upon a time travelers and adventurers used to come here to explore those dungeons, and merchants would sell supplies and goodies to gear them up for those journeys. Eventually it grew too dangerous, but you are someone who Moonlights as an adventurer and runs a shop on the front end.

You dive into these dungeons and get awesome treasure and loot and goodies to then sell in your shop to expand your shop, get better weapons and armor, and continue deeper into the dungeons. It’s an amazing idea, and it’s executed on so well.

The game sustains such a great and rewarding loop, and it’s also got tons of charm and amazingly well executed on pixel art.

On top of that the UI is also just very good? It’s super slick and smooth. 

I’m only a couple hours in but I just adore it. Mike Burgess, producer at IP, did a video review on it that I saw the first cut of today and it’s actually what sold me on it. See it soon!

Detroit Become Human

I’ve already said so much about this game I’m exhausted. I love this game.

It has so many issues and in spite of all that, I genuinely adored my time with Detroit.

Our roundtable discussion was about this very game, so look for it soon.

Dark Souls Remastered

This game is still so good. I think I may like it even more than Dark Souls 3, a game I picked up just very briefly a few weeks ago.

I’ve now got the power to fast travel and am just warping around and exploring again. I even dipped my toe into the DLC area which I have never seen before. 

It’s excellent, and seeing it run smooth has been super rewarding for me, a longtime fan of the title.

Your E3 Predictions

Let’s get to it! This week, something I haven’t done in a bit, I asked you for your boldest E3 predictions, and while some of you gave me a good joke, a lot of you came back at me with some great predictions!

Let’s get into it!

Remember to look for my tweet on Sunday afternoons/evenings with #SundayChats in it and respond to it with your reply to be a part of Sunday Chats!

Now listen, I know this was clearly written as a joke Sam, but I think that this announcement is coming, just not here. It’s a PSX announcement, if ANY, because that’s the only place it can be really gernally accepted as an “announcement”. It’d get a big riot of an applause.

I’d love this. I think they have such a “robust” (#branding) library of handheld games that it’d make too much sense to carry them over to their now partially handheld big console.

Will it happen? Well, I mean Nintendo has said no virtual console on Switch. But they’ve changed their mind, even if it has been rare, in the past before. While it could happen down the line, this up coming direct is about 2017, so I don’t think we’ll see it there.

Nah John.

You need to stop.

But... Well

I mean maybe?

MAYBE.

Maybe?

Finally. Some announcements we, as “hardcore gamers” care about.

Some cars

Fuckin.

On stage.

The cars have sex.

And birth a motorcycle.

I love this Peter. I mean, for some reason I guess folks think that Emma Stone will be the female actress pulled into Death Stranding, and I think there will likely be a big female reveal at some point, I don’t know why everyone thinks it’ll be Emma Stone? I bet there is a good reason out there, I just don’t know. I’m not complaining, Emma Stone is great.

I am definitely with you on the “deep dive”, though I don't think there will be a long explanation of things, just a nice gameplay demo. My theory I posited on Get Acquainted was like an 8 minute trailer that leads into about four minutes of gameplay at the end, but it’s just enough cinematic that we’re convinced there will be no gameplay, and then BOOM. There is.

I could see them saying 2019 at the end too, though I doubt they’ll hit it.

YOU DONT BRANDON GOODBYE.

Nah of course. 

We talked about this on our show, obvs, everyone please go listen to it, but NO FINAL FANTASY 7. IT WONT HAPPEN. Square Enix needs to figure that shit out, and so they’ll come back to it when it, and more importantly, THEY’RE ready to.

Here’s hoping for some dope Xbox Avatars.

I mean, it’s gotta be the time, right? I need to know what this Resident Evil 2 Remake looks like. I know the director was out there talking about it not terribly too long ago, and it just feels like ages since we heard about it. With Capcom announcing RE7 and then releasing it 6 months later, on top of Monster Hunter World’s recent success, they are on a great path! Time to continue it!

As for DMC 5 I mean everyone seems convinced it’s coming and I just don’t care.

I love the Rocksteady prediction, because they’ve been cooking that bad boy for a good long while. I hope it’s Superman because I have supreme faith they’ll knock it out of the park. Maybe even an origin story? I’d love to see Rocksteady do one of those.

And I do, also, believe that Shadows Die Twice is Tenchu.

Dishonored getting a reboot I just don’t see happening. I think it’s time Arkane moves onto some new IP. Something that is hopefully a bit more eye-catchy so they get get back into a popular circle, then maybe spend a few years making iterations of that. Maybe in a few years past that they can return to Dunwall and take another crack at Dishonored.

Doom 2 can be wherever the hell it wants and I am HERE for it. But judging by the sounds of things that may not be at this E3, and that’s okay. It makes me sad, but it’s okay.

Man. I fucking wish.

Them or Bioware. I’d love to have just an original story told at Hogwarts where you create your character and go through 7 years at the school and it’s great and it has dialogue wheels and it’s great. Feed me Bioware.

It’d never happen tho.

This would be very cool. I feel like this Star Fox Grand Prix rumor is too big to ignore, but it’s still a little far fetched. I wonder how they’d sell it, if it is real.

Honestly, not that far out there. Kingdom Hearts don’t give a fuck about Red Dead.

Here is my thing, I just don’t think an ARMs character will make it into the Smash roster because no one cares about ARMs and I don’t think they’d be crazy interesting. Who would it be? Twintelle? I mean she is super cool, but who knows!

THey’d make great assist trophies, and I know that’s a slight but I’m sorry.

PUT GENO IN.

Anyway, if they put Banjo and Kazooie in I’d literally start crying right then and there, and it may happen, who knows, but I would. I’d cry.

I think there could be a direct apology. It depends. I think within 15 minutes or so we will know if EA has changed their tone or not. Hell, within 2 minutes we’ll know. If they want to actually be well regarded, they need to start making big moves, and right now, they’re not. Period. Come out and own up to what you’ve done wrong, or GTFO. They need to make up ground on the PR front, even if they’re still making money hand over fist. 

I’m sorry times are tough Silver, but know that I’m sending good vibes your way!

I wonder if Microsoft would make such a bold move. Regardless, it’s a great bold prediction. I hope that they are gonna give it some more time, and let this generation cook a little more. I’m digging my Xbox One X, and them implying a replacement is coming next year or so would bum me out.

Finally. The battle Royale Battle Royale we’ve all been waiting for. 

And as the dust settles, there’s sha’boi Griffin. Standing on top. Winner of them all.

And let’s not front: I’d kill to listen to Donald Glover sing Parappa songs.

Thank you all so much for your predictions! I’ve had a ton out there all week, and the Get Acquainted Episode I think has them out there in the best way. Go check them out! Either way, I’m so excited for E3, not necessarily to see if my predictions came true, but just for the hype of it all and my inevitable editorial after its all said and done about my thoughts and feelings coming out of it.

So. Big Sunday Chats update. I may be making a BIG CHANGE to Sunday Chats in the coming weeks. There is some ironing out I need to figure out personally, but I just wanted to give you faithful readers a little heads up. This could be something that becomes a proper part of IrrationalPassions.com, and for that, I’m very excited. The biggest thing is it may mean I start soliciting questions on Saturday! Stay tuned for my twitter for that.

It wouldn’t be a big change for you all, so don’t stress about it too much, but I wanted to seed it out there.

I love you all and your support, especially in these dark dog days of summer I am in. Thank you for the perpetual good vibes. 

I hope you all are here for the E3 hype, but if not, that’s okay. Regardless, thank you for reading, and

keep it real.

(the Naruto kick not only continues, but never ends.)

[knightoflodis]

I have a question about the new Fallout game, for Fallout fans. I only glanced at articles and saw “online survival rpg”. So is this going to be like those zombie games on steam where it is a free for all? Is this more MMO style? And is this something us fans actually want?

I know that I don’t want it. I stopped hardcore playing multiplayer games around Modern Warfare 1 and 2. I just want more of the single player fun that I had with New Vegas and 4.

I guess I am just curious if Bethesda is listening to their fans or if they are following another one of the trends that other companies are doing

[the-l0st-s0ul-blog]

about me, the lost soul.

i thought i’d post a little about myself so you can begin to get to know me a little. my name is jay {short for my real name, which i’ve decided to keep sort of anonymous}. i live in the united states {ew}. i am 22 years old, so here are 22 facts about me..

1.} i’ve been diagnosed with {severe} depression, {severe} anxiety, and bipolar II. {a vast majority of which is due to the grief of losing many loved ones so closely together.} i also suffer from binge eating.

2.} i have a registered emotional support animal, a little black cat named kevin. you’ll see plenty of him, he is very special to me.

3.} i love movies and tv, a little deeper love than just watching. i like to look deeper into storylines and view things the way a director might, or when i find a show or movie i love, i’ll explore other works from the actors/actresses.

4.} i mentioned my cat, kevin. i also have a chocolate lab named gilbert, and a pretty red betta fish named steve.

5.} i still live with my parents and i currently do not have a steady job {due to mental illness}. i hate to admit that, but that is where i am right now. i have tried and still do, believe me..

6.} i enjoy cannabis, and am quite the glass enthusiast. it’s just amazing to me how differently constructed pieces can affect your high. plus, blown glass is so, so pretty.

7.} i {just barely} graduated high school. straight out of high school, i went to the university of iowa, where i only lasted a year due to good ol mental illness.. i later went on to try community college, but that didn’t work out either. although i did learn that i have quite the interest in psychology. in fact, the only college credit i have is from acing a psychology class.

8.} shopping makes me feel better. i wouldn’t say i’m materialistic though, most of my shopping sprees happen at walmart or dollar general. all of my sprees happen during manic episodes, whether i know it or not. when all else fails, even just the smallest new thing can bring me joy for at least a little while. however, it has gotten me into some financial trouble.

9.} this is a lot harder than i thought. i’ve been writing this for over a half hour now. i hate talking about myself, mainly in person, but still.. so a fact here could be how i have less than no self esteem and i hate myself quite a bit. a lot.

10.} i am a cis female {she/her pronouns}. i am pansexual, if i have a special connection with someone, their gender identity won’t matter to me. love is love.

11.} my favorite shows are freaks and geeks, american dad, friends, stranger things, and that 70s show.

12.} my favorite movies are moana, the saw series, it, dirty grandpa, pineapple express, a million ways to die in the west, spy, just go with it, the thor movies, ace ventura, back to the future, and this is the end.

13.} i love the film group dynamic, and by that i mean groups of actors who almost always do films together. my favorites are the adam sandler crew, the seth rogen / james franco crew, and the seth macfarlane crew.

14.} my favorite food is mexican style food. damn near everything about it is absolutely delicious. i love taco bell, but i prefer actual mexican restaurants. los ranchitos and los agaves are my favorites.  

15.} i don’t drink. i actually decided so shortly after i turned 21. i drank through most of my teen years and when i was first learning the ropes of my mental illnesses, and now alcohol just tastes and smells like terrible, awful, horrible memories. i have made a lot of bad drunk decisions.

16.} i have been sexually assaulted three times {to my knowledge}. i was drugged at a party twice and barely remember the incidents following.. i have no idea how i ended up with these men, i don’t even remember leaving the party place to go to a house. all i know is i would never ever have said yes soberly, and with two of them, i did say no until i passed out.. but that didn’t matter..

17.}  i am an extreme introvert. i have three friends where i live, and i rarely see them due to my love of isolation. i live with my mom, dad, and sister, and i isolate so much, i rarely see them. i prefer solitude. i’ve come to love my own company.. maybe a little too much. 

18.} my favorite book is final gifts by maggie callanan. to anyone interested in nursing, hospice care, or the afterlife, i highly suggest this book. it is so very interesting.

19.} i prefer to blind myself to all political nonsense. i worry enough on my own, i don’t choose to worry further with the way the world has become and keep anything that has to do with that giant nasty racist cheeto in the boss’s chair FAR away from me. but don’t get me wrong, i will help fight for social movements and such. i’ve attended a pride march with my sister, and i support feminism as well. i am not, nor will i ever be racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. i only judge others by attitude.

20.} i love video games, though i haven’t been playing for long, so i only have a few favorites. i am a huuuge fan of fallout {3, new vegas, and 4}. skyrim is absolutely incredible, i love the elder scrolls. i love bethesda in general. i also play the sims 4 a little too often. it’s nice to virtually live a good life.

21.} music is a huge part of my life, and a big help in keeping my pathetic little heart beating. all time low, pierce the veil, and paradise fears will always ALWAYS be my favorites. they have saved my life countless times. the pop punk / alternative / post hardcore scene is my favorite. i also love the amity affliction, set it off, a day to remember, the ready set, good charlotte, and neck deep. i also enjoy early 2000s pop throwbacks, which includes the occasional backstreet boys binge. i also love throwback hip hop songs from when i was in school. the classics like t-pain, ne-yo, nelly, etc.

22.} i love candles. i like to coordinate the scents with the seasons. i’ve moved to my spring scents already though, which are sweet sangria and peach & mango. my winter scents were cranberry mistletoe, gingerbread spice, and by the fire. and my fall scents were pumpkin spice and hazelnut cream. the gingerbread spice with the hazelnut cream was also an incredible combination.

FINALLY DONE. though i highly doubt anyone will even read this. leave me a message if you did though, or if you relate to a certain part. i know i rambled, but this was pretty damn hard lol. enjoy your night, loves. xx

[nicklesthename]

Get the game at Amazon.ca for PS4, Xbox One, or PC. These are affiliate links.

Ah, Fallout 76. Modern Fallout’s first foray into the online multiplayer territory and it went over���less than perfectly with its fans. When it was first announced that a new Fallout game was coming, people were pretty excited, except for the looming fear that Bethesda would take the glorious single player, choice valuing, multiple solutions Fallout and bastardize it to match today’s most toxic gaming trends. Would it be a battle royale, like every other game seemed to be? Would it be multiplayer? If it had multiplayer, could you still choose to play it as a single player?

Then when details starting coming out about exactly what Fallout 76 would look like, it seemed like everyone’s worst fear had been realized. People were freaking out, screaming into the aether, burning down villages, the usual internet outrage machine. But among the remains lay a small group of people who were at least willing to give this thing a shot. Some were even excited about it! While I had been expecting a typical Fallout game, I had also always wanted to be able to play alongside my fiancee and other friends in my favourite video game franchise. After tens of hours of playtime, here are my conclusions about Fallout 76.

Major Differences

Firstly, I think it makes sense to run down a list of the way this new entry into the franchise differs from other modern Fallout games. Obviously, there is multiplayer, it’s online, and the quests are more MMO directed than RPG. Another difference is that there are no NPCs in the sense that there are no other normal human beings in the world. There are enemies such as ghouls, Scorched, and other wildlife, but there are no raiders or human settlements. Anytime you see another human in Fallout 76 it means it’s another real player. There are also new things like timed events and PvP zones. Finally, there is no real end game, no ending conditions that could be considered winning or completing the plot.

Story and Environment

Personally, I’m no offended by the idea of there being no NPCs. Sure, in the past, raiders have been a key part of the universe, the omnipresent villain no matter where in the US you’re playing. But I was interested in seeing how they would make up for the lost characters. It was also reassuring to know that other players couldn’t hide in plain sight and attack me when I wasn’t expecting it. My problem with this new world is the reasons for it given in the plot. According to the game, there is a virus running rampant across Appalachia that is turning people (and anyone else for that matter) into the Scorched. The reason why there are no people is that they have all turned into Scorched or been killed by them. The only people living are the ones who have only just left the vault with you.  But really, literally, everyone has been turned into Scorched? There isn’t one tiny faction somewhere that survived? Not even one weird hermit living in the mountains? It’s very hard to believe in a world where people have always managed to avoid other plagues such as FEV, Vault 22 virus, and the like.

Besides that annoyance, I find that the world is still very true to modern Fallout. The stories that can be found at every house and settlement, the giant monstrosities hiding around every corner, and the ever cynical take on large corporations and government programs. As far as the story goes, to make up for the lack of actual humans telling you their account, the terminal entries, voice clips, and notes seem to have at least doubled in size. This doesn’t work super well with a game that is now multiplayer. Many times I’ve told Nick to hang on for one second, I’m still reading that note I found minutes ago. If you can deal with that and suspend your belief to accept that everyone was keeping a diary on exactly what was happening to them at all times, this shouldn’t get in your way of enjoying the game.

Workshop Building

In the interest of full disclosure, I have always been a big fan of the workshops in Fallout 4. It’s the first time in Fallout that you can actually have an effect on the rebuilding the world around you. In previous games, you had to just work with what other people have rebuilt into settlements and that was it. I really loved building new settlements, getting people to work together, and trying to fix up the wastelands.

As for the workshops in Fallout 76, I still like it, despite missing a large part of what made them so satisfying in 4. In 76, you have your C.A.M.P (Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform) which you can use to build a personal settlement for all your crafting, cooking, and resting needs. It is still fun to put together a building and try to get creative with your architecture, but the best part about settlements in Fallout 4 to me what the rebuilding of society. Since there are no NPCs, there are no beginning villages to build up.

So far, all I’ve built is a fairly normal 2 story house with a turret balcony and every crafting table in the game. However, I look forward to crafting better and better settlements as my level grows and my settlement capacity grows too. The only choices made with this system that I flat out disagree with is the Stash (a personalized container that you can use but no one else can access) having a limit to how much you can store in it and the lack of ability to scrap other things that were in your settlement before you placed the C.A.M.P. Both of these things are supposed to be changing in upcoming patches though.

PvP

I absolutely hate PvP. I am a horrifically competitive person and while I’ve learned to not get too heated when I lose to computer people, losing to real people still rustles my jimmies. Especially since people online can be a touch rude when then win and when they lose. Luckily, Fallout has a system in place for people like me! Something called consent based PvP means that until your target fights back, you do little to no damage to them. That means you can’t just sneak up on an unexpecting level 5 player and snipe them into oblivion with your level 92-ness. It’s almost like every fight is a proper duel, with both parties aware and prepared for the fight before it begins properly.

Hanging out with all my friends

Queen of electric chairs

All hail the Mothman.

There are some flaws in this system though. For example, there is nothing stopping people from just following you around, jumping up and down in front of you, and waiting for you to accidentally hit them with a stray bullet. Once you hit them even once by accident, you are now fair game. While this has only happened to me once before, and I managed to avoid the jerk anyways, it kind of undoes the work to reduce griefing. Of course, you can block people, but all that does is mute their microphone to you, remove them from your map, and remove you from their map. They still exist in front of you though, so they can still do that annoying jumpy thing. I think blocking someone should remove them from your game in all ways. You shouldn’t be able to see them in the game or on the map and they shouldn’t be able to see you either.

  There is also the bounty system. This means if you are repeatedly attacking someone who is pointedly not attacking back, you get a bounty on your head. This is to stop people from abusing the fact that even if the other person hasn’t fought back, the minor damage initial shots do can add up to a kill. If you have a bounty on you, you are fair game for PvP as well. However, this system is a little broken too. For example, the jumpy thing I mentioned earlier doesn’t net someone a bounty. It only goes into effect if the person is repeatedly attacking a bystander, not trying to troll that bystander into attacking them. There is also no way to forgive a bounty, so in the off time that Nick has accidentally shot my C.A.M.P or me (before we are in a team together), he just has to wait for someone to come and off him. I can’t just report that I, as the target, forgive him and it was an accident.

Multiplayer

Did I mention the occasional visual glitch?

My experience with having other players in my Fallout has by and large been very pleasant. Except for the single moment I mentioned in the PvP section, I’ve only met lovely people. There were the people who came by our C.A.M.P, waved at us, used our workbenches, and then paid us in steel for our trouble. There was the person who came to collect the bounty on Nick and after killing him, not stealing Nick’s loot and just leaving him some stimpacks for when he came back. We’ve had random people come to give us back up in fights, which is especially helpful when we were probably way too under-levelled for it. At one point I needed to kill a deathclaw, and when I ran up to the quest marked one, someone else was about to kill it. Instead of finishing the job before I could get a hit in, they stopped and waited, letting the deathclaw whale on them for a minute while I got my shot off.

  Basically, Fallout 76 is full of cheerfully emoting, generously sharing folk and a couple of trolls in between. I think this comes from the fact that I don’t know if any hardcore Fallout fans really wanted a multiplayer game, so they are trying to make the best of it by being nice to the other players. It actually warms my heart quite a bit, especially if you’ve ever tried playing some of the other MMO games and heard what people are willing to call your mother if they lose.

Quests, Events, and Dailies

I am actually surprised at myself with how much I enjoy the dailies and events in Fallout 76. As someone who absolutely revelled in the normal Fallout quests with their alternate solutions and moral quandaries, I expected to find the quests in 76 to be weak and empty. Honestly, some of them are. But I have found that it doesn’t mean they aren’t fun too! I think the number one less I’ve learned from Fallout 76 is to stop taking Fallout so seriously. I know it might be hard to believe anyone can take a game about a post-apocalyptic sock-hop world full of zombies and smart-talking robot butlers too seriously, but here we are.

Favourite Things

The photo mode is actually ridiculously fun to mess around with

The Atom shop is full of great additions to the options for clothing, C.A.M.P building, emotes, and more! Plus the fact that you can earn the premium currency for free through achievements is a huge plus

Getting to play my absolute favourite game franchise ever with my fiancee, something I couldn’t do besides sitting next to him and watching him play

Honestly, just the fact that there is more Fallout in this world is great

Mothman. Just…Mothman.

Fighting the boss type creatures, such as Scorchbeasts is a great challenge

Weapon crafting, upgrading, and modifying has been tweaked a bit and I enjoy the mechanic

I appreciate the survival mechanics, especially since they are kind of on easy mode. Playing with those additional metrics is previous games would mean playing it on a higher difficulty than I prefer

The new perk system combines what I liked about previous Fallout levelling while adding some new dimensions, such as combining cards and sharing them with teammates

Changes I Want

Anti-griefing systems to take into account people who are griefing without technically damaging someone else

Larger limits on building size and an infinite limit on stash size

More Mothman

I WANT TO SELL EXCESS AMMO

Any automation in settlements (hire robots to tend to crops?)

A better, more robust blocking system

Higher bounties sooner to increase the incentive to not be a jerk

Ability to romance Mothman

Conclusion

I like this game. I really do. Sure I have some criticisms, but I have some criticism for any of the modern Fallout games. It’s pretty impossible to have a completely perfect video game. I haven’t gotten around to playing it in a couple weeks, but I definitely wouldn’t say that I’m giving up on it in any way. I know they’re still working on it and that my issues with the game will be addressed in one way or another. For now, I’m just trying to not get too caught up in fussing about lore or continuity and enjoy just being a wanderer.

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I tried to condense all my thoughts about Fallout 76 into this one review: enjoy! Get the game at Amazon.ca for PS4, Xbox One, or PC. These are…

[jamesbyerj]

Modder to Developer - KospY

In this feature, we're chatting with [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/337717]KospY[/url]. The brains behind the massively popular VR game, Blade & Sorcery, who began his journey into game development as a modder tinkering with his favourite games.  [b]Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us, KospY. To start out can you tell our readers a little about yourself? [/b] I am the developer of [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/629730/Blade_and_Sorcery/]Blade & Sorcery[/url], a physics-based medieval fantasy VR combat game which was released in Early Access end 2018. The particularity with my background is that I never worked in the games industry before, but I have been passionate about gaming since my childhood and never stopped to mod the games that I liked on my free time. In 2017, after I received my first VR headset, I was instantly hooked to VR and started to work on a "little" sword/magic combat game from time to time as a hobby. One year later, I got the opportunity to leave my daily job and took the plunge to work full-time on it and try to live from my passion. At the end of 2018, Blade & Sorcery was released on Steam and the game became one of the most played VR games on the platform. [b]Can you remember how you first go into gaming? Or any games that have special significance for you?[/b] I think the first games I ever played were on the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600]Atari[/url], and later, on something that did a big flop called [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-i]CD-i[/url]... But everything really started when I got my first computer (a Pentium 133mhz!) in the nineties. I was around twelve at this moment and I remember playing a lot of games so it would be too long to list them all! But if I need to pick some of my favourites from that time, I will say [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_(video_game)]Duke Nukem[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Annihilation]Total Annihilation[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Jedi_Knight]Jedi Knight[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game)]Half-Life[/url] and maybe [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)]Battlezone[/url]. In the 2000s, my favourite games were [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game)]Deux Ex[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_III:_Morrowind]Morrowind[/url], [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arx_Fatalis]Arx Fatalis[/url] and [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeworld]Homeworld[/url]. These games really shaped my childhood and I still play them from time to time for Nostalgia :P [center][youtube]fOJkoHDfaNU[/youtube][/center] [b]Before working on your own game, Blade & Sorcery, you created mods for several games. Could you talk us through your modding history?[/b] I first started to mod games when Half-Life was released, I made maps with [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)#Source_SDK]WorldCraft (Hammer)[/url] and later did some sounds and visual overhauls for Counter-Strike. At this time, I was not doing any coding but I remember messing a lot with HL2 physics to create some stuff like human cannons, physics-based vehicles and other things :P Later I moved to the Bethesda games, this is when I started to publish my mods. I did a small balance mod for Skyrim ([url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/4429]Hardcore and Balanced Experience[/url]) and a home replacement for Fallout New Vegas ([url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/40731]Lucky 38 Suite Reloaded[/url]). These mods are still hosted on Nexus, and the FNV one has been taken over by someone else :). At last, I moved to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/kerbalspaceprogram]Kerbal Space Program[/url]. As a fan of moddable games and everything space-related, this game was pure joy for me! I worked around 2 years on KSP and created two mods that are still popular these days: [url=https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/kerbal-attachment-system-kas]Kerbal Attachment System (KAS)[/url] and [url=https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/kerbal-inventory-system-kis]Kerbal Inventory System (KIS)[/url]. I owe a lot to KSP because without this game I would not have learnt Unity and C# development, and B&S would surely not have existed! [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596019529-631392265.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596019542-1776028845.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]For those who've never played it, Blade & Sorcery is a VR medieval fantasy sandbox game which makes full use of its unique and realistic physics engine to deliver an incredibly satisfying combat experience. How did you come to the decision to design and build your own game?[/b] The decision to do my own game came after I did the KIS and KAS mods, at this point I simply realized that I may know enough of Unity and C# development to be able to do my own game. As designing a game had always been a dream for me, I started to work on a prototype of a 2D space game, a mix between GTA 1 and FTL. I have been working a few months on it until I bought an Oculus DK2 for playing [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/359320/Elite_Dangerous/]Elite Dangerous[/url]. I remember being blown away by VR so much that I started to shift about new ideas for a VR game. When I received the Vive with the controllers, it confirmed my new ambition and I stopped my 2D game development to start to work on a VR game. I will be honest, development was a bit chaotic at first. I picked the medieval fantasy theme (as assets were easier to find) and started to work on a simple wave-based arena with teleport movement where the player had to fight waves of skeletons with magic. As I found this boring, I decided to scrap skeletons, add multiplayer, smooth locomotion and physics-based weapon handling and moved the game to something closer to [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/219640/Chivalry_Medieval_Warfare/]Chivalry[/url]. After some tests with other players, I found out that it would not work as I wanted, lag and non-physical enemies being too much of an issue to create satisfying melee combat. I also realized that competitive multiplayer was not really my thing, and that would cause issues in the long term. From there, I scratched the entire project and rewrote everything towards something closer to what I love, keeping only the physics-based handling and some other stuff I liked. The idea at this point was clear: create an innovative melee combat system, focusing on immersion and simulation rather than abstractions, allowing total freedom in the way we can fight and interact with the environment. [b]Blade & Sorcery is a big hit on Nexus Mods, with over 7.8 million downloads for the 1,900+ mods created by the community. It was one of the hottest games in 2019 for us. When you see how popular the game has become, how does that make you feel? [/b] I feel relieved! When you work so hard on something for a long time, it is a big relief to know that what you worked on and loved is also liked by others. I basically did everything in the game depending on my own liking, as a solo dev, I did not do a lot of playtesting and basically trusted my own guts on many things. A lot of time during the development, I wondered how the players would react to the way I did combat, especially as it was way different than what other games proposed at this time. I was also concerned with spending so much time about modding capabilities and wondered if players would be interested in modding a VR game about melee combat. Fortunately for me, a lot of players supported me and believed in my project right from the start, I can't be grateful enough for them :) I now feel a lot of responsibilities for them and I keep trying to not deceive during this early access, especially as the scope of the game has risen a lot since the beginning of the Early Access! Anyway, thanks to the players and our wonderful community, I am not alone anymore, and we are around 10 people working on the game. Blade & Sorcery is a long-term project, the next coming years will be decisive for us and I am eager to show what we are cooking for the future of Blade & Sorcery! [center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596019141-1411200176.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596019145-1028863626.jpeg[/img][/center] [b]Do you have any mods that you're particularly impressed by?[/b] Sadly I don't have much time to play mods, but I recently saw the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/2195]B.A.R.Z.E.L mod[/url] in video and I was impressed, it really shows how crazy creative some modders are!  [b]What would you say the main challenges are in creating a game as moddable as Blade & Sorcery?[/b] Being an ex-modder myself, and B&S using Unity, I would say that it's not much of a challenge as long as you think about it from the beginning and you are open to it. It obviously requires more work, debugging can be a nightmare (players reporting issues caused by mods), and you constantly need to think about flexibility, but ultimately, I think it forces us to have a good foundation and allows the game to be more scalable, something that will be really important for our future plans. [b]The [url=https://discordapp.com/channels/327809947272478720/511186201043271680/719944828103819317]roadmap [/url]for Blade & Sorcery extends all the way to 2021, which upcoming features are you excited about working on?[/b] I am excited about the next big update, U9, featuring the first step to the player progression system and the randomly generated "dungeon". I cannot say much for now, but that will be a major milestone as it will finally move the game from a simple sandbox to something with more depth. Many players are looking forward to this and I hope we will not deceive anyone! On the long term (after B&S 1.0), there are a lot of things I would like to do... First, I am eager to work on non-humanoid creatures and be able to add more original content to the game like new armours, weapons, and environments. Secondly, I still think I barely scratched the surface of what we could do with physics and interactions, and I would like to work on some new physics-based features ;). At last, I would really like to add multiplayer for the dungeons (coop), and later some kind of open world. Sadly our team and technology are not ready yet for the last point, but if the players keep supporting us for our post 1.0 extension(s), and we successfully port the game to other platforms, that's something I hope to be able to accomplish in the long term! [b] We worked very closely with KospY to create the Blade & Sorcery addon for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/1]Vortex[/url]. Thanks to this close collaboration with the brains behind the game it's one of the most feature-rich extensions. What is your opinion of Vortex?[/b] I use Vortex personally for B&S and other games and it is simple and easy to use. I do recommend it for everyone wanting to mod the game without messing around with files and having to constantly check for mod updates :). [line] A big thank you to KospY for taking the time to talk to us! If there's an author or mod project you'd like to know more about, send your suggestions to [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b].  Published first at Modder to Developer - KospY

[ciathyzareposts]

My 10 Most Controversial Opinions

            Counting down to my ten-year anniversary in February 2020, I offer this quick retrospective on my 10 most controversial opinions. I base this on the number of comments I’ve received arguing back at me when I’ve made certain statements, as well as what people have said about me on other web sites.

I was originally going to title this article “10 Reasons to Despise Me,” but I feel like we have enough invective slung back and forth about fairly trivial issues. Indeed, if you find yourself “despising” me for any of these opinions, I would suggest that you’re taking the entire subject too seriously.

          10. I think there’s a “right” way and a “wrong” way to play even single-player games.

         In my entry on “Cheats & Liars,” I used an analogy with crossword puzzles. The “point” of a crossword puzzle is not to fill in the blocks with letters; it’s to use your knowledge, intuition, and puzzle-solving skills to interpret the clues and derive the only possible answer. Thus, you are doing crossword puzzles wrong if you use a crossword puzzle dictionary or some other source to help you finish the puzzle. An unfinished puzzle is preferable to a puzzle that you finish by cheating, because at that point you’ve sacrificed the ability to ever finish it properly.            

No one disputes that people should follow the rules when it comes to competitive sports. I can’t ride a bicycle along the route of the Boston Marathon and expect the same recognition–or any recognition at all–when I have the fastest time. Nor is there any other aspect of life where we say that it’s okay to break the rules if no one else is watching. A practitioner of a religion, an alcoholic in recovery, or someone on a diet does not get to argue “but I was alone!” when he (respectively) neglected his morning prayers, drank himself under the table, or ate an entire cheesecake. 

         Playing single-player RPGs may be a solitary activity, but that doesn’t mean there are no rules. Sure, breaking them doesn’t harm anyone but you, but then neither does breaking your diet. That doesn’t mean it isn’t at least a little shameful when you do it.

         9. I wouldn’t mind if modern RPGs still made us take notes and make maps.

             The other night, I was playing GreedFall with Irene. Some NPC was giving instructions to a character about a potion, and she said something like “note the ingredients carefully.” Irene immediately reached for a piece of paper and a pen, and I laughed. I don’t care what the NPC said, I knew there was no way the game was going to make a player depend on an external note to properly finish the quest. I was right, of course.

But I wouldn’t have minded if the game had required us to write down the ingredients. I would have welcomed it. I miss the days of gaming with a notepad and graph paper by my side. Quest markers have ruined modern RPGs. Even “hardcore” modes generally don’t turn them off.           

Playing Might and Magic involved a lot of real work.

            8. I don’t like music playing during my games.

That’s not the same thing as saying “I don’t like game music.” I very often admire the compositions; I just don’t want them playing during the actual game. I think this is largely because I’m very music-oriented generally, and I see listening to music as an active experience. I only want it playing when my primary task is listening to music. To me, “background” music is like having someone constantly talking at you while you’re trying to focus on something else.

So I play my games with the music off. Sorry. I know–I miss so much.           7. I don’t like games about rape.

You wouldn’t think that one would be so controversial, but on at least one site it makes me a laughingstock.             6. I don’t like Japanese graphics.

I don’t know if it’s because I was born too early or because I never owned a Nintendo, but for whatever reason I missed out on the era where Japanese animation and tropes became normalized among American youth. I look at the result and I’m baffled. (There was a time when I would have said “disgusted,” so perhaps I’ve made a little progress.) Part of the issue is the artwork itself, perhaps more of it has to do with what the artist chooses to depict–and what players are apparently okay with. If I’m going to play a racing game, I want to race racecars, not goofy little go-karts piloted by mustachioed plumbers. If I’m going to pit monsters against each other in gladiatorial matches, I want them to look like monsters, not characters from the Island of Misfit Toys. And if I’m going to play an action-adventure, I want to play a classic hero, not an effete little elf with bare legs and a pointy hat.

I have a lot of readers that want me to play Chrono Trigger. I’ve watched videos of it. It looks like a bunch of children running around. If I was a fan of the game, I would not be clamoring for my review.

5. I think computer RPGs are superior to console RPGs.

The primary issue is the nature of the input. A controller naturally limits the possibilities of a game. You cannot offer the complexity of NetHack‘s or even Ultima‘s interface with a controller (at least, not without annoying nested menus), nor can you move, look, and click with the same precision as a keyboard and a mouse. Entire styles of gameplay, such as Ultima IV‘s keyword-based dialogue, or text-based inputs for adventure games, or even most point-and-click adventure games, become impossible on the console. Nowadays, because successful games must be offered on both computer and console platforms, these limitations functionally inhibit even computer RPGs.

Then again, I do occasionally like playing a game on the couch, with my wife, next to the fireplace. If a keyboard is better than a console controller, a console controller is better than any attempt I’ve ever seen to make a keyboard, mouse, and PC setup work from a comfortable position with a television. So there are situations in which the console is better than the computer. I just prefer action games in those situations.

              Even I admit: time for a console RPG.

           4. I don’t care about voiced dialogue–in fact, I wish it would go away.

I’m convinced that voiced dialogue, more than any other factor, is keeping modern games from greatness. The necessity of getting an actor into a studio to voice every possible line of dialogue is what prevents developers from creating more quest dependencies, creating alternate endings, fixing bugs, and including a lot more NPCs in games that feel very sparse without them. It also keeps the character’s chosen name from ever appearing meaningfully in the game.

The Infinity Engine games had the perfect balance. Key dialogues were recorded with voice actors, but most of the time the text was unvoiced. It shouldn’t have progressed beyond that.

3. I don’t mind about re-use of engines.

I mostly want new content, not an entirely new gameplay experience. I grant you that a few series have taken it too far–the Gold Box comes to mind–but in general I think developers should be getting a lot more use out of interfaces and mechanics already developed. It never bothered me for a second that Might and Magic VIII had basically the same interface as Might and Magic VI. I doubt any fan agrees that the “upgrade” in Might and Magic IX did the series any favors. I think it’s basically insane that developers only issue two or three expansions for titles like Fallout 4 or Dragon Age. I would pay as much as the original game for a new story set in the exact same world using the exact same locations. Surely, I can’t be the only one.

2. I don’t hate Bethesda–or, at least, I don’t hate them for the same reason you do.

I love nonlinear, open world games, and there’s no one that’s shown they can do them as well as Bethesda. I don’t mind if some of their other features are a little rough around the edges. Many, many years ago, in the midst of the most addictive period I spent with the game, I opined that Skyrim was “perhaps the best CRPG I have ever played.” That got quite a reaction from my own commenters and commenters on other sites.               

I later had reason to regret the statement; I was basically high when I wrote it. It was the equivalent of telling some guy you practically just met, “you’re my best friend, and I love you, man” when it’s 3:00 AM in a bar and you’ve both been drinking gimlets all night. But having qualified the original statement somewhat, I have to admit that it’s still one of the best CRPGs I’ve ever played. If that upsets you, I’m sorry. It gives me what I’m looking for.

That said, I do hate Bethesda a little. Not because of what they produce, but because of what they don’t. Skyrim sold over 3 million copies in its first two days. It won “game of the year” from practically every magazine and site that offers that award. It ultimately made over a billion dollars. What the hell kind of management decision delays the next game in the series for over ten years?! I’ve rarely seen a company that financially irresponsible with its intellectual property. George Lucas before he sold Star Wars to Disney comes to mind, but even he allowed a generous Expanded Universe.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t have my chibi hangup and I could be a fan of Pokémon or Zelda instead. Lovers of those franchises must lose track of all the main series games, expansions, off-shoots, and remakes. You know who knows how to run a brand? Marvel Studios. In a decade, they issued 23 films and 11 television shows, plus associated web series, comic books, and novels, and still none of its fans are complaining of “oversaturation.” Bethesda needs to sell to Disney, hire Brandon Sanderson, or otherwise do what it takes to get their heads out of their asses and start producing.

1. I not only think Fallout 4 is better than Fallout: New Vegas, I think it’s much better.

I say this believing that New Vegas is already an excellent game. But I listen to its fans describe how much better it is than Fallout 4 and I don’t know what they’re talking about. How can they argue that it has more factions, when 4 has essentially the same number? How can the argue about role-playing choices when all your choices in New Vegas collapse into the same battle at the same location? Do they honestly think that Boone and Cass and Gannon are more memorable than Nick and Cait and Deacon?

         One of the 10 best NPCs ever.

          Every time I get into an argument about this issue with someone, I offer basically the same list of why I think 4 is a better game:

             No ridiculously low level cap–no level cap at all, in fact

The ability to keep playing after the end of the main quest, with bonus content depending on what factions you went with 

A much larger, more open world with more locations to find; the game really rewards unfettered exploration

Boston is a huge, dense city rather than Vegas’s three buildings

The Settlement/building/settlement defense system

A perks system that actually encourages different character builds

Better item crafting

Much cooler power armor (with jetpacks!)

No invisible walls

An excellent “survival” mode; I can’t imagine playing without it

Flying around in vertibirds

Along with the jetpacks and vertibirds, just a more “vertical” game in general; there’s a lot to find on building tops and elevated highways

Behemoths and mirelurk queens

A gun that shoots actual cannonballs

The ability to call artillery salvos on enemy fortifications

Can blow off enemies’ individual body parts, allowing for more interesting combat tactics overall

               Against this, I accept the arguments that the dialogue system isn’t very good and that whoever nerfed the deathclaws ought to be fired. Beyond that, Fallout 4‘s superiority is so obvious to me that I feel like I must be living in another universe when I get into a discussion with most fans of the series.

So there we are: my 10 most controversial opinions. Everyone will probably be enraged at something. Even if you don’t agree with me, I hope you admire my honesty and the risk I’m taking with my Patreon account. 

Coming up: Ten years of upsetting people with more controversial opinions, starting with fans of the Arkania series.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/my-10-most-controversial-opinions/

[nerdburglarsgaming]

For quite a lot of people, myself included, Fallout 3 was the first adventure into the games universe. Hardcore fans of the original games might think it is an abomination, but the game did pretty well and I  absolutely loved it. Having loved the theme and style so much, I went back and played the older games. Fallout 1 and 2 were fantastic, but due to their age, are not widely available on all platforms. The PlayStation was only a little baby when these games launched.

Skyrim remastered has been released about 90 times now. Bethesda game studios are not a company against this sort of thing, not that they should be either, remasters are awesome! There seems to be a lot of grumbling about a Fallout New Vegas remaster, but nothing official yet. If there were some interest from Bethesda to make any Fallout remastered, wouldn’t the original fallouts be the best for this?

Fallout 1 was released in 1997 and Fallout 2 in 1998. This was back in the MS Dos days. It is still possible to play these games on modern computers, but the games have not really been ported elsewhere. I would think it might be down to the age of the source code but they managed to get Wolfenstein 3D running, so anything is possible.

Fallout remastered on PS4 or Xbox One would be the primary market for this sort of thing. Since the original games will not run on these systems, it is an open market for them to be released for the first time. With a pretty big install base on these platforms and a large fan base for the franchise, it would be foolish to make it a PC exclusive even if the original games were released on consoles.

Fallout 76 has left a sour taste in the mouth of most Fallout fans. I am sure things will get better, but it won’t undo the damage that has already been done. There definitely needs to be some effort to try and win back the trust of the fans. As a way to show that Fallouts soul has not been sold to the microtransaction devil.

Elder Scrolls 6 has been “announced” but we all know this game is years away. Since Fallout 5 has not even been discussed publicly, we can only assume that it is going to be quite some time before we get to open up the Pip Boy in a new game…unless they go for a HD remaster of the original Fallout games!

A return to the turn based gameplay of the original two games would be a great way to undo some damage that Fallout 76 caused while also filling the gap between now and Fallout 5 (I say this like remastering the original fallout games is a walk in the park).  Some might say that the game wouldn’t work on consoles due to it relying so heavily on a mouse. This wouldn’t be the first game that faced this problem. We have seen plenty of PC games ported to consoles, and done so very well. A few drops of creativity would be enough to come up with a decent control scheme to replace the requirement for a mouse. It is a turn based game anyway, it isn’t like you need to have lightning quick reflexes to survive the wasteland.

One thing that has just come to my mind would be the expectation for Fallout 1 and 2 remastered. Would people expect this to be a top down, turn based game like the original or would they want the original story and setting, recreated in a modern engine (debatable if we were to reference the engine used for FO 76) with all of the features and enhancements we have gotten in the latest Fallout games?

Personally, I think both have potential, but it seems like there would probably be more money in a full blown upgrade. Those who want to play the original, have done so already. Having to play a top down game like this may not appeal to newer gamers. Feels like it could be a lose lose situation for Bethesda if they were to stay true to the original. Fans of the original will not be happy with a remake no matter how good it is. New gamers might feel the classic style is outdated. A full blown remake with the modern style seems like the only way to go.

Maybe the only way any of us will ever get to return to Vault 13 is with some sort of crowd funded kickstarter to give Bethesda the money to get the ball rolling and show them there is interest. It seems like something that might be better outsourced like Fallout NV was. Will have to start putting pressure on Todd Howard to make this happen!

Closing thought: I wonder if Bethesda have the rights to remaster the original games or do those rights stick with the original developer?

The post The Time Has Come For Fallout Remastered appeared first on Nerdburglars Gaming.

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[cohenwilson20-blog]

Ideas, Formulas and Shortcuts for Fallout 76

Understanding Fallout 76 Fallout 76, however is a little more different. Fallout 76 is in the procedure for getting its very first patch of the new calendar year. Fallout 76 will have a number of the elements of previous Fallout titles in regards to graphics and gameplay features, however they'll be modified to work in real-time in internet mode. With Fallout 76however, the thought of mods isn't as well received for numerous reasons. If you've touched social media in the past several weeks, you may have seen a number of the backlash against two particular games. It's unknown precisely what the game's post-launch calendar is likely to look like. The issue with that is, if you aren't already acquainted with the Fallout universe, I am not sure there's much here for you. One of the biggest issues that gamers and reviewers alike appear to agree on is the comprehensive absence of Non-Playable Characters. No matter in which you stand with Fallout 76, it's necessary for you to admit that it appears like Bethesda is attempting to do the perfect thing with the game. You're just going to get to get the game to realize how cool it is for yourself. Now it is about to get real! It will focus on survival, but it will not be as hardcore as other survival games. Eagle-eyed Fallout fans ought to be nominally mindful of Vault 76. Fallout has an aesthetic meant to be digested over a long length of time, which may not do the job for new players trying to find a strong first impression. Fallout 4 was a little more modest, but still quite enjoyable nonetheless. Also Typhoon Hunter is going to have VR version. Warcraft uses clever instancing to show you content that's related to your spot in the story whilst still enabling you to interact with different players. At length, a bit more about the approaching new PvP mode was revealed. Details of Fallout 76 How to move your CAMP Having a base is remarkably handy for numerous explanations. Since you might imagine, that creates all sorts of problems. The issue with vigilantism is it can get out of control. Furthermore, the collectors edition includes a glow-in-the-dark map. Perk Cards may also be shared with the group of intrepid, and since there are dozens and dozens of cards to pick, sharing will be convenient for specific group tasks. Naturally, they expected the company to provide better options. Fallout 76 limits the speed at which you may get mutations, so after every mutation is obtained, you have to log from the game and back in again (aka server-hop) so as to find another mutation. Generally, the rooms will have content that was cut from the major game, or content that's predicted to get there at a subsequent date. Check to see whether it's still true that you have the essential quantity of good mutations (you should have no undesirable mutations). Top Choices of Fallout 76 The most significant thing though is that you create your own decision and prevent allowing others to produce your decision for you. There are a great deal of stuff they didn't include though because you can clearly see. A few days ago, they began to whisper about its existence in Fallout 76 on Reddit, with more and more people searching for it. You make a minumum of one comparison each day between the way things work in real life and the way that they work in Minecraft. Someone put lots of work into it to make it seem nice and neat. You had a ton more choices. Howard says Bethesda has ever wished to tell the story of the very first individuals who left the vault. The internet team play desperately needs improvements, a number of the bugs still will need to get fixed, and Bethesda clearly have lots of work ahead of them. It's very clear that Bethesda has taken a whole lot of respect in making a sympathetic portrayal of the Mountain State, and thank goodness for it. Each number corresponds with the most quantity of card points that could be stacked underneath. Types There are a few different styles and materials they are produced out of and it is not too large of a collection, therefore it makes your choice simpler. The target is currently selected and the sections of the target should be chosen. The band is currently prepared to release the cover on digital music. The initial loading screen to get in the game apparently isn't enough because every important building interior demands a loading screen to enter and out of. After the nuke is appeared we can observe the huge fire in and around. The Ultimate Fallout 76 Trick

[iamanartisttype]

My hang up with niche versus mainstream gaming.

I figured It’d be a good idea to bring this up now since I’ve been going all in on this topic. So, what’s my problem with the niche and mainstream markets? It comes down to the type of gamer I am and the direction the market is shifting toward. There’s a reason people are running around screaming that the markets going to crash. It’s because, like me, their favorite series are gearing toward the mainstream. The mainstream being the largest pool of people who will pick up whatever video game. Being a niche title puts the game into a smaller pool of people. That smaller pool sees the newest version of the game as casual and geared toward people who don’t want to put in the work or learning the game, The newer players love the simplification of the newer titles. They can grasp it far easier than before. As much as I and many others rave, I feel like we all fall into this casual category in some form.

 First I’ll look at how I feel about a developer's out look toward this. It makes sense that they would want to gear their games toward more people. That net’s them a bigger budget. In a previous post I said that I don’t mind devs trying to make more money. That is the entire point of everything. You have to have the funds to do what you love. Someday I’ll want to make money off of my writing. Someday I’ll need to like they do. It can be frustrating at times and I have the right to throw a fit over Skyrim’s faults, Dawn of War III’s huge shift and the changes to WoW over the years. I just always come back to not blaming them. Money makes the world go round and without it I would never have had Pre-Wrath WoW, Oblivion and Dawn of War 1-2 and all those expansion packs.

 We all have those publishers who we know for a fact aren’t helping the developers and are in fact pushing them into this. That’s not always the case, but for the set few we all know it is. They are the ones often blamed for the lacking freedoms that their devs have over game design. They’re job is also to make money, but they don’t get the same treatment as devs do. This is rightly so. A publishers only reason for existing is to fund the game and make the money back, but at times they will become overbearing in their control. This forces the devs to make further changes that they do not want to make. Simplification isn’t a horrible thing if you can compromise it. With extreme control over the title can suppress that kind of thinking just to change it for money.

 Sometimes it is a good idea to simplify, but if they go too far they gain a new fanbase that isn’t as hardcore. If the sequel is poor the new fan base will  push it aside for the next big thing. Hardcores will stick to something even if they dislike the change. Deep down they know that if the dev is trustworthy the next title will be improved upon.

 This is the reason why devs and publishers should not go to an extreme and instead they should stay somewhere in the middle or even slightly to the side of the hardcores. They’ll keep winning and not lose it all in one big pool. Luckily for us gamers, there will always be another company to come along and capitalize on the failures of the previous one. Until they too see the dollar signs twinkling in every gamer's eyes.

 So, what does this whole thing boil down to? It comes down to the fact that I, like many others, am hardcore and casual. For instance, the Civilization series is one of my casual pleasures. I could not figure out the fourth one for the life of me. The fifth one I picked up  on how to play instantly. Did Firaxis go too far with the simplification? Perhaps. I would need to talk to a hardcore player and get their insight. Given that Firaxis seems to be doing well, I’d say they didn’t go too far. I’d love to hear from people on if my hunch is correct. Hopefully, it’s an example of how to find common ground so the universes and companies we love can stick around just slightly longer.

 The final thing this all stems from is nobody wants their favorite title to die. If it does then there’s no guarantee that the same magic will be captured with a newer company. Yeah, I just said we’re all lucky that there will always be a new game around the corner if this one fails and yeah, It’ll be a similar game, but a Bethesda game with silly glitches is a Bethesda game much like a Fromsoft game with exceptional lore is a Fromsoft game. It’s those little charms that we all don’t want disappearing anytime soon. This is why I am so hung up on niche vs mainstream markets.

Thank you so very much for reading!

 Writer's Note: One other example I could have used for my casual pleasures that I have enjoyed is Xcom: Enemy Unknown, but I haven’t played the older titles, so I wouldn’t know. I do love the unfair feel of that game and I really need my punishment fix that I know exists in the second one.