Heard they have massively improved the voice acting, which was a bag of steaming shit in Fallout 3.

Really want to get this, but I ain't sure my computer can run it...its getting old. It did run Skyrim though, so who knows. I can't risk buying it though.

What specs you running it on Rose?

If it works for you it might help me to compare.

Oh my god when did computers get so much better?

Graphics worry me the most. I have a Geforce 9600gt, which is 7 years old now. It played GTA V and Skyrim with few issues. But I recently tried to run the latest Battlefront and it was having none of that.

Finally fixed up my new PC on Friday, and played this for a couple of hours last night.

From what little I have played so far it seems that Bethesda has addressed almost every major complaint of the previous two games. The lack of immersion, the wooden voice acting, clunky gameplay etc. But in the process they seem to have removed the roleplaying elements that made them great. Fallout 4 feels less like an RPG, and more like an action game with some basic RPG elements.

First, the good:

I have played two hours and so far I have barely left Concord. It's so fun just exploring this world. It's very immersive. I've spent half my time exploring empty buildings with no loot, and I don't feel like I've been wasting my time doing so. More importantly, this world is actually intimidating and you feel in constant danger when you are travelling through it. The voice acting is a huge step up, and the action sequences are very fun. Also, power armor is amazing.

Those are the positives. Now for the bad...

I am very underwhelmed with the RPG elements. It seems that choice and karma have been completely removed from the game. Take the first quest in Concord; you come across a bunch of raiders attacking a group called The Minutmen. You only have two options in this quest:

A: Help the Minutmen
B: Walk away

That's it.

Compare that to any quest from Fallout 3 or NV and it is very underwhelming. Look at the choices in the first quest of NV, in Goodsprings. You can:

A: Help the town fight off the raiders
B: Help the raiders destroy the town
C: Kill everybody
D: Walk away

Fallout 4 seems to want to push me down a particular path. You only have two choices; Be the good guy, or be the good guy with a bad attitude. Which is a big step down from the previous games. For me personally, freedom of choice is what I like most about Fallout.

It was bad enough that you could only choose to side with The Minutmen, but I was even more disappointed when I find out there was only one approach to completing the quest. You HAVE to get in the power armor, and you HAVE to mow down the raiders and the deathclaw with the minigun. It's the only way to finish the quest (if there are alternative options, it isn't obvious!).

I dislike the dialog wheel too. Not in principle but in execution. Mass Effect demonstrated you can have a variety of options with a system like this, but the difference between Mass Effect and Fallout 4 is that the choices on the dialog wheel actually matter and change the nature of the conversation, and also, the writing in Mass Effect is amazing...the writing in Fallout 4 on the other hand, is lame.

One more thing! As I said, I like power armor a lot, but why did they have to give it to you for free in the first quest of the game? It would have been so much better to keep it as a rare late game item that is hard to acquire. Kinda devalues it if it's common and disposable. That whole first quest in general sucked.

I get it. They wanted to kick things off with a bang. But it was too much too soon. When I first entered Concord this huge Radiation Storm was just hitting, and I was sneaking around this eerily quiet town expecting danger around every corner. When I first heard the sounds of gunfire I was cautious, and even considered leaving the town entirely! But I didn't. And what followed was a ridiculously crazy action sequence, during which you kill one of the most powerful enemies in the game with a minigun, and find yourself wearing armor that makes you almost untouchable.

Way to kill the vibe! Why should I be fearful of anything from this point onward?

It's early in the game, I know, and maybe things improve. Those of you who have been playing it longer will be better informed than me!

Also, don't get me wrong, this is a great game and I've had a ton of fun so far. My character Amelia (designed to look like Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction for some reason) is trapped with a bunch of raiders in the Corvega Assembly Plant, with low health, no armor and little ammo. Fun!

- Has anybody run into a creature called 'Swan' yet? I ran away, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

- Entering Diamond City for the first time is really cool. Nothing is static and clunky, there are people milling about and vendors shouting things left and right. It feels alive. After this set piece I really wanted to see what the place was like at night...it was kinda dull (:
I was expecting some New Vegas Strip debauchery, with drunken people milling around etc. I guess Diamond City is full of prudes. It fits with the oppressive government angle I guess.

- I tried assassinating the mayor for shitz n gigz whilst he made a speech. I was gunned down in seconds, but he's probably immortal anyway!

- I found the combat zone, which seemed cool, and I wanted to talk to one of the raiders about the arena, forgetting that raiders shoot on sight, and they cannot be reasoned with no matter what. Boring! They also have a seemingly magic ability to tell when someone is a raider or not a raider.

- Dogmeat is a total shit. He constantly gets you into trouble and then blocks your path.

- Raiders have unlimited Molotov's and Grenades. Fighting them is very frustrating sometimes.

- Speaking of grenades, the key for throwing them is the same as the key for melee attacks. This has already led to many accidental suicides.

I'm liking this game the more I play it, but I still haven't seen anything that has convinced me it is better than Fallout 3 and NV yet.

Which is a shame because with a few changes I feel it would blow them both out the water.

Oh boy save corruption sucks.

I usually save twice in the same place just in case.

I just ran into an Assaultron for the first time. Those things are tough to kill!

I'm liking this game despite my numerous complaints. But is anybody else hoping to see Obsidian do another game with this new engine? They could do some amazing things.

I can't imagine that Bethesda have any plans for the series in the foreseeable future. Depends on their opinion of New Vegas I suppose.

Even the NPC is like "wtf is going on?"

molerrose @ 10/1/2016 20:46

Yup. And sometimes your settlers are replaced by synths.

Is this true? Cause it sounds pretty cool!

I haven't even started with settlements yet. It sounds fun but I'm too busy exploring at the moment. I haven't tried out any of the crafting stations either. I don't know where to find gun parts.

I'm well behind on the story. The last main story quest I completed was:

Spoiler	+
The memory den one, where you find out about Kellog's past to find out where Shaun is. I liked that one. I've now got the mission to go out and find the guy holed up out at sea or something, but I've postponed it to do so Goodneighbour quests. I prefer this settlement to Diamond City so far. The mayor is cool. Has anyone else met the Vault Tech Salesman? I thought that was a nice touch.

I was planning on going to the Glowing Sea, but I've been totally sidetracked by the Silver Shroud questline. That has been the best sidequest I have come across so far.

It's very hard to commit to most quests in general, because whenever you do a mission which involves travelling a fair distance, you come across all kinds of shit which is begging to explored, which tends to lead to even more quests.

I've made a point of not using fast travel so far. I haven't felt any compulsion to use it yet, which may be because I have explored so little of the world so far.

It's always reassuring when you see a Brotherhood Vertibird pass over your head in a particularly dangerous area. I imagine you must get some special perks from helping them!

I reached the Glowing Sea...explored it a little bit. Not too far in I saw a deathclaw. I tried to snipe it from afar but it did nothing, then it started running towards me. I decided that was enough Fallout for me for the night (:

Going to try again at some point! Unfortunately I didn't bring any Radaway.

Holy shit!

Made it through the Glowing Sea...

Spoiler

+

With 5 Rad X and nothing else. I ended up winging it at the end and sprinting because the radiation brought my HP to practically zero, and Radscorpions were popping up out of the ground from all directions. Now I'm in the crater of atom, with severe radiation sickness, and now I find out these assholes don't even have any medical supplies! What the hell is this shit?! The dialog wheel really annoyed me when talking to the priestess there (or whatever she is supposed to be). There were two dialog prompts for me which said: - Radiation? - Assistance? I was hoping one of them would lead to me asking for radaway or a doctor. Neither did! Anyway, one thing I have learned from this is that radiation sickness doesn't actually kill you, it brings your health down to 1 HP and stops. Which is lucky for me, because I don't fancy doing the trip through Glowing Sea again. One of the scariest locations in a Fallout game that I can remember. It reminded me of Stalker.

Update!

Spoiler	+
Radiation does kill you (:

I've had to reload to an earlier save.

Spoiler	+
I Reached Virgil's place only to immediately succumb to radiation sickness after entering.

The Glowing Sea is really impressive. It reminds me of The Glow from Fallout 1, which I think it was probably based on.

Poor preparation is a recipe for disaster, to the point that you may have to reload as I have done. I like it when games don't reward you for fucking up.