Re: Fallout TV

On Fri, 26 Apr 2024 21:28:58 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

OK. I saw its first episode. I liked it and will check out the rest. Maybe I will play its games one day. :P

I watched all the episodes (and found it reasonably entertaining).

It did inspire me to load Fallout 76 up and continue where I left
off..  I've played an hour here and and hour there for a couple of
years now, around the time they started selling it for a tenner IIRC.

Some of the things that bothered others (like sparse use of NPCs)
never bothered me, because in a post nuclear wasteland I think crowds
of people would be weird anyway and would prefer every encounter be
well designed to that "busy" feel.

I also don't like RPGs that encourage you to talk to a gazillion
people and try to track dozens of quests at once... even worse
resulting in you completing ones you forgot you were even on.
Thankfully this game isn't like that, or at least it lets me play in a
way that avoids it.

Graphics aren't great but that's Bethesda and probably most MMOs for
you.  I think it does have "something" even if it's not an easy
something to describe..  Next gen visuals isn't that "something"...
but moving through the world is still immersive enough I think.

I've heard some grumble about the brutality of difficulty compared to
FO4 for example, and there are two sides to that:

- On the one side, I don't think it's too bad as long as you don't
just spray and pray, but make a conscious effort to headshot the enemy
as much as possible -- to minimize damage to your character and to
conserve ammo and weapon wear and tear... on top of that I also kind
of enjoy the challenge. 
- On the other side, in the back of my mind I'm aware of the monthly
subscription they'd LIKE me to sign up for, and the fact that it is
all designed to alleviate the stress of the challenge is kind of
annoying.  If a player even suspects that a game is designed to annoy
them into spending more money just to relieve annoyances and enjoy the
game more, the reviews for that game will not work out well in the
long run.  When I get annoyed I put the game down for extended periods
of time and start it up later, refusing to pay more.  To me, that is
the proper response because it costs them more to serve the game but
nothing more for me to play.  Let someone else be the chump and pay
the monthly fee.

As for the subscription... I don't know.... some people make these
games their primary hobby in life and maybe that's the audience for
that particular marketing effort.  I don't mind to rank up slowly and
play 1-2 hours a week as long as I'm still having a good time, and the
quirkiness of this game remains strangely entertaining to me.
Thankfully I'm not a level-whore where playing the long game bothers
me, I'm not even level 30 yet and I've read of some folks who said
they had to sneak and play a stealth game until they got to level 50
before they were able to compete with the enemy.  Hasn't really been
my experience so far.

Honestly, in terms of just trying it out... for free or even for a few
dollars I'd probably recommend it to anyone.  I would just say be
open-minded and give it some time.  Also be sure to research and apply
the tweak for the mouse lag fix, because for me it was no joy without.

Back to Fallout TV... does FO76 capture the vibe of the TV show?  Only
a little IMHO, you might have to play some of the other games to get
more of that big picture.  FO:New Vegas is the only one of the FO
games I ever played to completion, and I always felt the first 10-12
hours were the most fun and in terms of setting probably feels closer
to the setting of the show.

But I do think that anyone who liked the show and has never played the
games would probably benefit from trying one of them, whether FO4 (the
people's choice it seems), FO:NV or FO:76.