Fallout

[Sachi]

I was wandering around the wasteland, when I came across a crashed fighter plane that was nearly completely submerged in the water. Expecting to find an ammo crate or something, I took a Rad-X and dived into the water to investigate. What I found was a set of T-45 power armor, missing only the legs. Score! The Fusion Cores had run out on my other two, and so this was a much needed come up. Without the power armor, I'd been getting by through Survival mode relying heavily on stealth and distance. Also, big guns. No radioactive lizard is too big for a missile launcher.

I've really been enjoying my new play through so far. I finally got it so that I once again only have the main quest and my current Brotherhood quest to work on. Replaying some of the locations I'd done on my previous character has lead to finding rare items I'd missed, like magazines and in one instance a bobble head. I've also been keeping track of the radar logs each time I take down one of their hideouts. Some pretty interesting stories and rivalries between the gangs, and they even make note whenever a rival gang gets taken out by a certain lone wanderer. Neat.

On my way to my next destination, I stumbled upon the small community called the Convenant, and I had to pass some psychological test to get in. Gonna see what they're all about when I play next.

[Chuckman]

Yeahhhh I'm going to start over again.

Man I hate the character's voices. I don't mean I hate the dialog system (I don't like it, but we/e) but I can't wait for a voiceless protagonist mod, if somebody can make one. I think the female protag is worse though so despite my usual preferences I'll be playing male characters from now on. Still I hate how he goes from to at a moment's notice.

Especially since the dialog options aren't consistent. If you pick the "paragon" or "renegade" path in Mass Effect, for example, the dialog and acting has a consistent flow, it sounds like the same person. Going back and forth can be jarring but it should be, right?

In this game the protag is a bouncing around all over the place even if you doggedly stick to a consistent path.

I noticed though that if you take the time to create both characters rather than the default spouse it adds a little tiny bit more engagement to the plotline. Not much, but a little.

So I'm going to do four playthroughs concurrently because I'm nuts.

Major plotline spoilers ahead.

Victor  SPOILER: Show

Victor is a mad scientist who will side with the Institute. Before the war he was an intelligence officer with a background in nuclear physics. This character prefers energy weapons and big guns (especially the Cryolator, can you guess why?) and tries to wear power armor as much as possible. Limited sneaking, no charisma, no settlement building other than resource harvesting. (Purified water for caps)

Companion: Codsworth, then X6-88. No romance shit here.

Sawyer  SPOILER: Show

Sawyer retired as a non-commissioned officer in the war. He's proficient with machine guns and pistols, and can wear power armor as needed. His main stats are intelligence, charisma, endurance, perception, and enough luck to keep the ammo flowing. Sawyer will lead the Minutemen to root out the baddies and bring a people's order and prosperity to the Commonwealth.

Companion: Curie. Because :3

Simmons  SPOILER: Show

Simmons was drummed out of the service with a administrative discharge. He defied illegal orders from his superior officers and sabotaged some Power Armor to prevent a massacre of civilians. His wife Nora was a lawyer who defended him at his court martial. Simmons hates power armor and the prejudice his Japanese-American wife faced makes him sympathetic to the Railroad.

No companion. Maybe Cait long enough to romance her, then she stays home.

I don't think I'll ever side with the BoS because they're hateful jerks.

I wish there was some equivalent to some endings in New Vegas where you could fuck everybody/use your godlike player character skills to take over the wasteland.

[IronEvangelion]

Despite not being done with the main quest, I've already rolled out a couple more builds:

Mimi  SPOILER: Show

A pre-war girl who grew up in the suburbs and never had to deal with anything even remotely dangerous before. As such, the wasteland freaks her right the fuck out. She is also small, timid, and lightly built, so she isn't very capable of defending herself. She covers up her own weakness by finding the nearest suit of power armor and using it as a "spaceship" to travel the wastes. Power armor is her life, and keeping it fully functional is her number one priority. She will not stray more than a few yards from any settlement without it. Mimi will probably side with either the Institute or the BoS for protection later on.

The Bourbonator  SPOILER: Show

A Cyberdyne Systems T-870 series Model 101 Terminator that was sent back to kill John Connor. Unfortunately for him there was a space-time disturbance during the time-travel process and he wound up in the Fallout timeline. There is a Sarah Connor in this timeline, but her only son is named Shaun Connor. But here's the thing: his programming specifically states that he is to kill John Connor only, not Sarah or any children she may have with different names. Unable to either fulfill his reason for existing or return to his own timeline, this terminator (who was equipped with an experimental emotion chip and a synthetic digestive system to make him seem more human) has an existential meltdown and begins drifting across the commonwealth, ever in search of more booze to kill his pain. Once he finds a settlement, he locates the bar and consumes its entire stock of alchohol. Once drunk, he becomes an unhinged crybaby who blabbers his entire life story to anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. He frequently kills people accidentally by hugging them while in this state. Sometimes he gets so drunk that he loses his inhibitions entirely and begins singing. After he's done singing he whips out a gun and kills everyone in sight.

[Chuckman]

I'm trying to come up with a justification for a pure strength/endurance meathead and who they'd join.

The Brotherhood, probably, since Strength is good for Power Armor + Melee and Big Guns, but if you don't get Science you can't get the perk that makes the fusion cores last long enough to be really useable. (I tried fistfighting the first Deathclaw in the T-45 for a lark. Besides having me down to my g-string in thirty seconds, I ended up using more than half the core before I ran away to hide and shoot it)

[Lorkhan]

A Heavy in the Railroad. They're really the only ones I can think of that sort of go in, mop up trouble, and promptly leave.

Thinking about doing a more focused build, but still want to mess around.

[Chuckman]

The Railroad feels more stealthy to me. The Brotherhood would attract a brutish thug.

[Chainsaw Owl]

Quite unexpectedly, my character is now head-over-heels gay for Piper. It's just so adorable how flustered she gets when I flirt at her.

Of course, that won't stop me from flirting with absolutely everybody who has something I want. This level 10 Charisma ain't going to waste.

[Chuckman]

Piper is okay but her teeth concern me. She's more "uncanny valley" than most other characters in the game and it unnerves me the way they made her look like the default female PC.

[Monk Ed]

Piper is okay but her teeth concern me. She's more "uncanny valley" than most other characters in the game and it unnerves me the way they made her look like the default female PC.

Ha! So I'm not the only one who noticed her teeth. I haven't seen her in a while (because my psychopathic Knives has no use for her, for now at least) and it's most of what I remember about her.

[Chuckman]

It's not even really anything wrong with her teeth, it's just the way the game lights them or something, it can get creepy.

Also her animations. I know what they were going for but they overdid it a bit.

[Chainsaw Owl]

I would like to take a moment to bemoan how very fond the ally AI seems to be of running ahead and getting into fights when I'm just trying to have a nice slow loot-crawl.

There. Moment deployed. Now back to injecting .45 rounds into eye sockets.

[Lorkhan]

So I still apparently don't understand how this "Your Settlement is under attacked" thing works. I get a message, forget about it, and then get a noticed about how I failed to protect X settlement. Usually, you you notice that almost your entire Settlement got wiped and you're down a handful of people. I notice that after I failed it, that this wasn't the case. I fast travel there, and low and behold the there are three or so Minutemen there and the Settlers are talking about how they repelled the attack. Its not the first time this has happened to me, but I just must not have ever made the correlation between the Settlements being attacked to the Minutemens presence.

If this is the case though, I really wish they used different language then you "failed" to protect your Settlement. Just having a pop up saying "Your Settlement repelled the attack." or "The Minutemen defended X Settlement" and I'd be happy.

[Ray]

Why has no one made a mod to transport fallout 3 and new Vegas costumes into Fallout 4 yet?

[Lorkhan]

We'll see them, eventually. The games only been out for a little over a month, and the modding kit hasn't been released yet either. The stuff we're going to see is going to be somewhat limited for the time being. There's also things like textures, what outfits to separate into pieces or keep as one single outfit, whether or not the modders want those pieces to be modular, so on and so forth.

I'm waiting for weapons myself.

[Ray]

I personally want NCR and Caesars legion armor.

[NemZ]

Alright, about time I finally get started on this game.

SPOILER: Show

So the plot revolves around a secret underground base full of scientists doing morally questionable things? You don't say...

Now if I can just find a vault suit with a pullring everything will be groovy.

[Trajan]

I've been playing on and off ever since I got Fallout 4 back on December 12. I've gotten up to level 21 and have recruited most of the companions and gotten about a third of the way through the main quest. While I do miss the dialogue system from New Vegas, I feel like the game mechanics have improved a lot and the Commonwealth is much more interesting visually than the Mojave Wasteland which was just barren desert for the most part.

[Sachi]

My playing has been on and off ever since beating the main quest once through. I started up a new casual run and have been very systematic about the leveling and perk system. I haven't exactly been avoiding the main questline, but let's just say that I'm level 26 and my stats say I've only completed the first of the main quests. I've been immersing quite heavily into settlement building and have successfully transformed the Drive-In into a small town-fortress, with an adorable little grove of mutfruits, melons, etc, growing around the "pond" that had been there. Reached the size limit for the settlement pretty quickly though, which is frustrating as hell, since there was a lot more I wanted to do with it, but I took at as a sign to go back and fix some of the crappy foundations I'd started on. I suppose I'll just build another fortress in some other location; perhaps Deadman's Alley next? Prime location, and naturally small so I'll be forced to get creative as I build upward. Though, I don't think there's any body of water there to stick a purifier in. I'll have to think on it.

[NemZ]

Ugh, I'm so easily sidetracked. 8 hours in, level 5, and I still haven't made it to Concord. But hey, I salvaged Sanctuary Hills down to the bare earth and have a shitload of materials to do... something, I guess? Other than dragging all the crafting stations into the same area, putting a couple of containers nearby and dropping the fast travel mat right there I haven't done anything with the place. That nearby farm is neat though, and they have a kitty! Anybody with a cat can't be all bad, so I decided to help them out. Gendo's brat can wait a bit, I'm sure he's fine...

I do have power armor already from coming across a random suit just out in the woods, wheeee! Which is good because Ritsuko is not strong or tough or sneaky or particularly good at shooting things, so the wasteland has been pretty rough on her so far. Sudden molerat ambushes are terrifying! I need to find some orange paint and rename that suit Unit 00.

So far I've got lockpicking, hacking, scrounger and scrapper, probably going to start investing in better modding perks next, starting with science! of course. I don't know how to use these guns so well yet, but maybe I can adjust them to compensate for my lack of Misato-ness.

[NemZ]

Ritsuko is now level 18, having gotten respectably good at all things technical and still kind of just making do elsewhere. I'm making a concerted effort to focus solely on unlocking, crafting and healing skills rather than the more obviously useful force multipliers, and I am proud to report I still have not once activated vats. Admittedly this is probably only working because I kept the difficulty at normal and am not ashamed to just run away sometimes.

Just met the BoS and I'm deeply torn... they are clearly jerkasses who would flip their shit if they know I had a fortress with laser turrets and half a dozen nearly complete power armor suits just laying around, or what they'd do to my farming robo slaves over at greygarden, but at the same time I so badly want to get my hands on their neat stuff. Garvey is being a possessive little bitch about the idea, but maybe I can ditch him later and work with them on the down-low for the time being. I tried to 'accidentally' kill the big dumb paladin oaf with a rocket engine but it didn't work so I locked him out and did it again... still no dice. I suspect he knows that second time wasn't a mistake.

Went home to sleep on it and found Sturges in my goddamn bed rather than using the perfectly acceptable barracks I set up in the other houses for these useless moochers. I scrapped the thing in spite and built a new one that hasn't been befouled by his stink. Will have to have a talk with Dogmeat and Cogsworth about keeping these vagabonds out of the house while I'm out scavenging with 'the midnight cowboy'. And seriously people, I'm sleeping here! I keep weird hours so don't be in my house first thing in the morning! Mama Murphy, get your filthy junkie ass off my couch and tend those damn melons like I told you to! I'm sooo tempted to just drag all my shit down to that abandoned drive-in and set up a proper HQ at the very top of the screens away from all these peasants. Hmm, I wonder if I could see the town from there with a scope, maybe take warning shots at the slackers? Something to check tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just shoot this Mary bitch in the face the next time she gives me attitude about the living conditions I provide for her. Yes, please walk up to me while I'm crafting advanced energy weapons and repeatedly tell me about how I'm bothering you and we aren't friends... this can only end well.

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On the subject of the game itself though I feel like I've done enough to be a reasonably fair judge of it. It is aesthetically much improved (though not at all in the sound department... did we really need to recycle most of the radio list from F3?) and seems at least a little more stable than Bethesda games of late typically are (no crashes yet, but some noticeable bugs). I don't mind the change to perks/skills/stats though some of them seem pretty stupid. I don't hate the change to power armor but it does feel like it was handed out far, far too early and as such has warped the difficulty curve to make it practically necessary at times, though more often than not I just use it to lug more crap in fewer trips.

Lugging all that crap is my biggest gripe by far though, and it all boils down to how poorly thought out all the crafting in this game is. Practically everything is worth grabbing now and gear doesn't degrade so you can very quickly end up with full pack multiple times over the course of a single mission, even with a companion. A very full list indeed now that armor is broken up into separate pieces and mods make very similar weapons not stack nicely, and those same diablo-like adjective systems make sorting a tremendous pain in the ass. Yes there are mods for some of this but I shouldn't need them when they intentionally built the game around more focus on these mechanics.

So much of this just plain doesn't make sense. Why aren't armor bits treated as separate component slots in a single armor type item? Why isn't ammo craftable? Why don't the legendary modifiers attach to a specific part rather than existentially to the whole item? Why can't I just pull the parts I want out of the scrap in the field and drop the rest? Why can't I break weapons down and rebuild them from components, but rather have to keep them functional and whole? If item degradation is largely gone why does my power armor need a battery life and have parts that can be destroyed? Why can't I clip my structures a little into each other to close up the gaps snugly, and why isn't snapping something I can toggle on and off with a button? Why do slopes exist in building zones while structures must be strictly vertical?

On a different subject, why did they not carry over the dual equip system from Skyrim when we clearly have plenty of weapons that only take one hand slot, adding some much needed depth to equipment choices? Why are there no shields in a world where so many people and things are using melee weapons? Why is there no effective cover system in a modern game full of gunplay and stealth? Why can't I climb or hang from ledges? Why no Parkour perks? Why is the conversation system so dumbed down in what is supposed to be a role-playing game? Why is persuasion not a minigame when you insist on turning lockpicking and hacking into them? If power armor works like a vehicle now why can't I ride a motorcycle yet or tame a mount (or just a packmule)?

There's potential for a great game here, but I guess I just haven't installed enough mods yet. Clearly Bethesda has decided that the existence of a modding community means they don't need to do beta testing or care about making a useable UI. Even that however doesn't explain why I needed to alter a .txt file to get the game to work in a proper full screen on my monitor and to enable using keyboard/mouse. This shit is just plain sloppy. Overall I still think F:NV is the better game and I desperately hope Obsidian gets another crack at it with this new engine.