Fallout 76 is the score it wishes it had on metacritic

It'll be Free to Play within a year.

That's a Hexx Guarantee.

OrangeRKN wrote:Not sure I see why asset reuse is a much of problem Taf, tbh. It's a whole new map and there is plenty of new stuff alongside the old assets.

It's a perfect encapsulation of the game's raison d'etre: money.

Now I know all games are business and the business of games is money. But there's a difference between a game making money and a game being made to make money. Fallout 76 is, to me, an incredibly cynical venture, a DLC that they decided to charge full price for, a reusing of assets and frameworks to create a halfway house experience that excels at nothing and is buoyed purely by brand recognition. This example is a microcosm of this, an asset taken from one game and plonked into another, completely unchanged. People moaned when Destint reused assets in its DLC packs so there's definitely a case for complaint when Bethesda are doing the same thing with full price releases.

My experience of the game so far, which is about 10 hours, doesn't match that description. The game is definitely different and distinct from Fallout 4, which is what I thought your main criticism of it was - that it isn't what you want from a Fallout game (which is a very fair opinion to have!). To argue that it's akin to DLC and just the same experience with reused assets seems incorrect. There are changes to game structure (mmo-lite with event quests etc.), to game systems (survival aspects, combat, leveling, base building), and to game world (it's an entirely new map with new locations). It is built on the same engine and reuses assets, but those are underneath the game changes layered on top which are more than just cosmetic. I think you could argue that Fallout 4 is closer to Fallout 3 than it is to Fallout 76, as an experience (of course there is more nuance to that in reality with the various systems in play when you break them down, but I think it stands as what experience you should expect from playing the games).

Can anyone confirm if they fixed in-game communication?

One video I watched suggested no text based communication and no touch to speak when using a headset.

Slayerx wrote:...One video I watched suggested no text based communication and no touch to speak when using a headset.

There is no text comms and speech is "always on". I haven't tried the speech yet, I have switched it off in the options. I have used the emote system so far and that seems effective enough (hello / follow / thanks etc).

Tafdolphin wrote:Fallout 76 is, to me, an incredibly cynical venture, a DLC that they decided to charge full price for...

If they'd released this as DLC, it'd be the most massive DLC ever released.

Its just staggering contemplate what that would be, I can understand a fair amount of the issues people have with the game, but that one just doesn't hold water.

I was in the middle of saying earlier (went out,) that Super Mario Galaxy 2 was originally going to be DLC and ended being enough content to warrant a full release AND was seen by many as the better Galaxy.

Slayerx wrote:Can anyone confirm if they fixed in-game communication?

One video I watched suggested no text based communication and no touch to speak when using a headset.

I think that was intentional rather than a bug.
Or at least the always on voice chat.

Lagamorph wrote:

Slayerx wrote:Can anyone confirm if they fixed in-game communication?

One video I watched suggested no text based communication and no touch to speak when using a headset.

I think that was intentional rather than a bug.
Or at least the always on voice chat.

The always on voice chat is a poor design choice imo.

Fallout 76 players launch 3 nukes at once, crash server

That's kind of awesome, in a sinister way.

Surely the very basic question of whether the servers could handle multiple simultaneous nuclear detonations should've been asked and answered long ago? Oh wait this is Bethesda, never mind.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ ... mes-retail

83% drop off from F4 on Physical sales.
Obviously there's been a move to digital, but I can't imagine it's that big

It was never going to hit F4 numbers as it's not a mainline sequel. Look how much worse NV did than F3, despite being a better game.

OrangeRKN wrote:It was never going to hit F4 numbers as it's not a mainline sequel. Look how much worse NV did than F3, despite being a better game.

You're correct of course, but I still think a drop of that magnitude is surprising. Bethesda tried to sell this as a completely new type of online experience, as well as a AAA release, and from those figures this seems to have failed.*

I do wonder what their internal metric for success is though. It's more likely to be judged on how many people are playing in 6 months rather than initial sales, so I suppose time will tell.




*Actually, reading the article, the drop seems to be part of a trend in AAA games and F76 remained the UKs biggest revenue puller. But still...

OrangeRKN wrote:It was never going to hit F4 numbers as it's not a mainline sequel. Look how much worse NV did than F3, despite being a better game.

Well yeah - it's been sold as entirely new experience though - but still with "big release" whistles.. And it has been heavily marketed. That should of drawn people in. (There is the fact it's an online only game, so likely to be more digital orders than others...)
I suspect it never targeted to meet F4's sales (15% of users could stlll make them money with the MTs) - but it's still an interesting number. What he means though is hard to guess

Certainly I think they would have hoped for more, and you could attribute some of it to the game's reception, but as you also say there is a wider context (both general sales trends and non-mainline release) that also needs to be accounted for. I think people could read into 83% drop off too much as a clear indication of failure, which I don't think it is.

My attitude towards the game is...conflicted. Part of me, the rational part probably, would hate to see something people have clearly poured time into crash and fail. I wouldn't wish that on anyone (almost anyone, see the Cliffy B thread).

But the other part of me, the emotional part that's been ground down by the slow servicification of games, does want this to fail. Ideally I want a Battlefront 2 scenario, where the developers (or rather, publishers) realise they have miscalculated the willingness of people to acquiesce to the games as service model, which will go on to dissuade other companies from entering the market. That's probably not going to happen of course: I reckon it'll limp along for a year or so before going FTP or Game Pass.

Reviews

Attack of the Fanboy - 2.5/5

Fallout 76 is a bold experiment with one of gaming’s biggest and most beloved franchises. Unfortunately the experiment seems like a failure so far. Bugs and glitches are everywhere, but worse is that the core principles of design just don’t function the way they seem like they should.

https://attackofthefanboy.com/reviews/f ... 76-review/

Just Push Start - 3.5/5

Whether swapping NPC conversations for other players works is a bit subjective, though the change is not as severe a detriment to the experience as expected. While the roots of Fallout 76 are firmly in Fallout 4 the final gameplay experience is quite different and so there's no guarantee that fans of that game will enjoy it. Fallout 76 is worthy of recommendation with two caveats. You have to go in expecting a light multiplayer survival game in an interesting setting, rather than a deep story-focused role-playing game. On top of this, Fallout 76 is a game that really is better with friends, as that is the real replacement for the NPC dialogue in the world – if you're going in as a solo player you might come away dissatisfied.

https://www.justpushstart.com/2018/11/f ... 76-review/

The Sixth Axis - 3

Fallout 76 had a lot to say when it was revealed. It was multiplayer, it had the largest world of any Fallout, it was going to be fun. The trouble is that it just doesn't work, the world is too big and empty, and the quest design as uninspired as it gets. If the only way for a game to be entertaining is by having your friends make jokes about it as you journey together, then it has failed at one of the things that most games should be. It has failed at being fun, it has failed at being entertaining in its own right. If you want to hang out with some friends in an a post-apocalypse, then just go to a pub and watch the news.

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2018/11/16 ... 76-review/

Softpedia - 6

With some more time and more inspired gameplay design, it could have been a much better experience. Right now, unfortunately, its great world feels like a missed opportunity that's mostly not fun, only in very few scenarios and for very few people. Bethesda proved with The Elder Scrolls Online that it can turn things around but 76 may require some sweeping changes until it's ready to be recommended to others.

https://www.softpedia.com/reviews/games ... 3836.shtml

Gadgets 360 - 5

Hopefully, Bethesda reboots Fallout 76 like it did with The Elder Scrolls Online. Right now though, the game is hard to recommend to anyone but the most faithful of Fallout fans.

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/reviews/ ... ew-1948639

Currently 56% on Metacritic - https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-76
Currently 54% on Open Critic - https://opencritic.com/game/6227/fallout-76?tab=1

Reviews in progress

Gamespot

I'll continue to play the game with the intention of finishing the campaign, a good portion of the side quests, and getting involved in end-game content. This review will be updated and finalized when all that happens. But at this early stage, I feel like the only reason I'm enjoying the game as much as I am is because of an existing fondness for the Fallout series, not because of anything that can be distinctly attributed to Fallout 76.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallo ... 0-6463321/

IGN

I’ve just hit level 25 and I’m still discovering new enemies, monsters, creatures, and nightmares I’ve never seen in a Fallout game. Which is great, because I was concerned that Fallout 76 was going to be an easy list of chores and places to see.

https://uk.ign.com/articles/2018/11/16/ ... -76-review

PC Gamer

For great stretches of time I'm having a lot of fun in Fallout 76. It's a huge, interesting, comically violent world to inhabit. I'm not really invested the main quest, but several side quests have been intriguing, and ignoring quests and just exploring is rewarding, too. Bugs and optimization and lack of options aside (and that's quite frankly a lot to set aside), I'm having a good time. It's a huge, busy world full of diversions and distractions.

https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-review/

US Gamer

Right now, Fallout 76 feels like a game I can occasionally dive into and find that zen in looting and scrapping. That's what I play survival games for, that slow burn of reconstituting the world in your image. Fallout 76 isn't bereft of that feeling, but it also goes out of its way to put roadblocks in my way. Perhaps as I get farther in, those roadblocks will lessen. [15 hour impressions]

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/fallou ... mpressions

Destructoid

This is why I'm ultimately enjoying Fallout 76. Yes, the game's systems push back every opportunity they get and that's oftentimes frustrating. This is certainly the entry that strays furthest from what people loved about Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. But Fallout has created a universe where every region's history is worth learning. It holds true for West Virginia, even if I can't shake the feeling that this will be the least memorable of Fallout's stories. Well, unless you and your friends create your own memories.

https://www.destructoid.com/review-in-p ... 1390.phtml

Metro Gamecentral

Fallout 76 is peak Bethesda: shonky graphics, dumb artificial intelligence, fluctuating frame rate, and an insect house full of bugs.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/15/fallout- ... y-8142381/

Tafdolphin wrote:My attitude towards the game is...conflicted. Part of me, the rational part probably, would hate to see something people have clearly poured time into crash and fail. I wouldn't wish that on anyone (almost anyone, see the Cliffy B thread).

But the other part of me, the emotional part that's been ground down by the slow servicification of games, does want this to fail. Ideally I want a Battlefront 2 scenario, where the developers (or rather, publishers) realise they have miscalculated the willingness of people to acquiesce to the games as service model, which will go on to dissuade other companies from entering the market. That's probably not going to happen of course: I reckon it'll limp along for a year or so before going FTP or Game Pass.

Fallout 76 sales are 82% down on Fallout 4 so you might get your wish. That said, the figures only account for physical sales.