Yeah, that has a lot to do with the backstory, which is that the only bomb aimed at Boston missed it and came down on the outskirts, in what's now called "The Glowing Sea." You'll end up there eventually, usually because the main storyline runs through it. But yeah, I absolutely love the inclusion of weather and how the game world actually seems to acknowledge it, like how everything gets a wet sheen to it when there's rain falling from the sky. But I could definitely do without the rad storms, which I only discovered when I was in Concord and totally without basic rad resistant clothing.

> - The art design on stuff that wasn't inherited from the previous
>game is pretty good, and even the redesigns on most of the stuff that
>was (that I've encountered so far) are decent. The new 10mm pistol,
>for instance, looks more plausibly like an actual gun than the
>previous version, which is good, since you're evidently stuck with it
>for a while. I also like that they made Wonderglue containers a
>reasonable size, as opposed to the half-gallon jugs they were in FO3.

I really do love how seamless they've seemed to make the transition over to the new graphics engine, though admittedly there have been some changes that I didn't like (hello, glowing eyed feral ghouls).

> - The weapon mod system is stupidly complicated, yet I'm starting to
>like it, if only because its complicatedness comes in part from a wide
>range of customization options than the one in New Vegas, and
>FO3 didn't have one at all, so take the win, right?

As was already noted, the mod system is largely on a "Mk 1, Mk 2" system, with some variety thrown in like adding burning damage to energy weapons or energy damage to melee ones. But it also allows you turn that pipe pistol you found into an SMG, a heavy pistol, or a semi-auto sniper rifle depending on the parts you add to it. No telling where the limits are between DLCs and third-party mods.

> - Having a bin to dump junk in that semi-automagically figures out
>what it's good for is nice.

Amen.

> - The new power armor mechanics are... interesting. I'm not sold on
>having to keep it fueled, particularly since that isn't compatible
>with the (Grodd help me, I'm about to use this word in a
>gaming-backstory context) lore of previous games; it's clearly just a
>way of imposing a new limit on an old toy. Reminds me a bit of when
>BioWare waved their hands around between Mass Effect and
>Mass Effect 2 and suddenly there was an ammunition mechanic for
>the weapons, although at least the fusion core thing is a
>reasonable explanation and not as head-slappingly stupid as the
>heat sinks thing. However, the modularity is interesting, the
>donning/doffing animation is cool, and I like the changes to the user
>interface. It did always strike me as a little weird that you'd still
>be consulting your wrist computer while wearing power armor. :)

I think I complained at an earlier date about the power armor system, but have since come to respect the thinking behind it if not totally agree with it. The old hand wave of saying that your character couldn't use power armor without proper training would have been a stretch for a pre-war military vet, and power armor is common enough in the Commonwealth that a "look, but don't touch" policy would have just frustrated characters. So, by giving you armor but making it reliant on fusion cores, they've at least found a way to dissuade players from abusing it in the early game to just steamroll their way to Diamond City.

> - No crashes to desktop so far! In FO3 I'd have had four or five by
>this point, and at least one corrupted save.

I'm a console schlub mostly these days, so the most I've had to deal with is the traditional Bethesda wonky physic engine. You haven't lived until you've seen a radscorpion bust out of the ground, then proceed to rocket into the sky.

> - Did anyone else notice that Codsworth says your name when
>you meet up with him again after the tutorial? (Or at least has a
>fairly high percentage chance to be able to do so?) I thought I
>imagined it the first time. That is pretty badass.

Finally, a game where the acknowledgment that your character has a name is not simply the random "fill in name here" spots on documents.

>Not so good so far:
>
> - It's cute how Bethesda tried to address their legendary tendency
>toward clunky UIs (lookin' at you, Skyrim) and, in doing so,
>made the Fallout UI clunkier than it was before. Though at
>least there are hotkeys for the different Pip-Boy modes you want to
>look at before you actually look at your Pip-Boy, that's nice.

No kidding. Where's that mod support you promised us console folks, Bethesda?

> - No skills? Really? It's all stats and perks now? This and some
>of the design choices made in the clunky UI redesign noted above
>scream "dumbed down for the console peasantry and their pitifully
>inadequate input devices" to me, but maybe I'm just a jaded PC
>elitist. :)

Like the power armor system, I've come to respect the perk tree method because it does simplify a lot of things that previous Fallout games made a pain (25/50/75/100 in Science/Lockpicking was always a bother), while at the same time making perks seem more valuable (Bloody Mess Lvl 4: Exploding enemies have a chance to make other enemies explode).

> - The character models actually look too good, by which I mean
>that they're so close to convincing it makes them less convincing than
>if they were just... less convincing. Everyone in Fallout 4
>comes from the Uncanny Valley.

Yeah, the better the environment looks the easier it is to get immersed, and then I run into someone and the immersion totally evaporates. Still, it's nice to have a conversation where the world doesn't seem to freeze and I get this glass-eyed stare from the NPC.

> - Did non-power armor really need to be this stupidly
>complicated? I'm thinking no.

It didn't, but I do appreciate being able to mix and match between the various bits of armor I've picked up with attached perks. In some ways better than the "lugging half a wardrobe full of armor just between that set of Naughty Nightwear helps my speech stat."

> - Speaking of stupidly complicated, I don't get workshop mode. I
>mean, it's neat that they tried to include a town-builder subgame, but
>trying to play SimCity in the mayor's first-person view is
>just... no. Would it have killed them to go to some kind of god's-eye
>cam for things like building placement?

I'm rather ambivalent upon the whole "SimFallout" element, mostly because it seemed like every time I walked into Sanctuary, one of the settlers was begging me to go rescue his kidnapped friend. I've got enough firepower at the bridge to take down an army, and yet raiders/supermutants keep sneaking in and grabbing somebody. ARGH!

> - Coupled to both of the previous points, the game is not very good
>at explaining any of this stuff. Or indeed very much of anything,
>mechanics-wise.

Oh, the number of things I've had to learn about this game by reading online forums or the wiki. Example: You can use HTML tags when giving weapons unique names.

> - This next thing is arguably something I screwed up for myself, but:
>I had a nice little homestead set up for myself in Sanctuary Hills
>before I went to Concord, and now these people have just moved in like
>they own the place. Fergus or whatever his name is is just blithely
>using all my workbenches and ordering me around like it was his idea;
>the others have taken over the adjoining house, which I settled in
>rather than my old one for convenience's sake and because hey, painful
>memories, you dig? But hey, gang, don't mind me, go ahead, use my
>bed, use my generator, eat my melon patch. I'll just go exile myself
>to the Red Rocket station and stay out of your way, shall I? Jeez.

It's a Bethesda game, which means game mechanics are not introduced when you want to use them, they're thrust upon you in that "But Thou Must!" fashion. Yeah, I appreciate the XP, but I ain't your damned gofer!

> - This is a super-minor thing, but, I'm sad the game no longer draws
>your holstered weapon when you're not carrying it around in your hand.

Probably had to do with complaints in the last two games about object clipping, aka "there's this laser rifle shaped tumor sticking out of my power armor."

> - I'm intrigued by the evident fact that the one piece of lost Old
>World technology that post-War humanity cannot make for itself, most
>powerfully yearns for, most desperately seeks and most jealously
>hoards, without which all the New World's innovations are useless, is
>not nuclear fusion, not energy weaponry, not telecommunications, no,
>it's a decent adhesive. Not a future scenario I would have
>anticipated.

Who knew all those rolls of duct tape we threw away in DC and Vegas would come back to bite us so squarely in the behind? Or, as I heard it dubbed the other day, "Hoarders: The Video Game."

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CdrMike, Overwatch Reject