Fallout 76 Wastelander add-on released

So the Wastelander add-on for Fallout: 76 is being released today after a few delays. At adds human NPCs to the game, so it's like 5% on the way to a full game now?

...

Is anyone here playing Fallout: 76?

 

This article was quite good if you want to know what Wastelanders conatains: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-humans-of-wastelanders-bring-some-much-needed-soul-to-fallout-76/

 

I predicted as much. But for a lot of people that's gonna be enough to redeem Bethesda. All that matters is that F76 has speech checks but who cares if they actually do anything. A lot of people who mainstream "roleplay" just want the illusion of choice. Besides, in order to build proper RPG mechanics and quests and choices that matters you have to build it alongside the world. You can't just slap it on top of an existing world and expect anything deep.

Sad part is this is probably going to work. Not to make it beloved or anything. But just enough for a lot of people to cool down so that they can feel ok with being hyped for next product.

 

Well we have already been talking here and on the 'codex why Western RPGs are in general in decline outside the indie ones and we have not reached the bottom yet.

This expansion still doesn't fix Fallout 76's major faults which it inherited from Fallout 4 but also other game formulas the developers copied to create this hybrid monstrosity.
Like Mr Fish said the illusion that the game has actually speech checks is enough for some gamers to consider that Bethesda has learned from its mistakes while all it did was just add an extra layer to a world that is still not reactive to RPG choices/decisions.

Instead of holding Bethesda "responsible" (that might not be the right word of choice but you get my drift) and make them fix their act, these gamers instead will allow Bethesda to continue watering down what role playing mechanics there were still left, resulting in most likely a new Fallout entry they will claim is even further from what a Fallout game should be (FO3) until Bethesda comes with another quick band aid solution and the whole process starts over again.

I BTW do not think that Bethesda will ever change or learn. They will continue to make increasingly average designed sandbox games with the illusion of choice until the market has reached such a saturation point that even Bethesda can not sell their recycled mess any more.
Of course for their IPs it is long too late and even if they did get sold to be continued they would continue to suffer from Bethesda's design philosophy.

 

I BTW do not think that Bethesda will ever change or learn.

Which is why I can't even get upset anymore. I just don't care about anything beyond Fallout 2 TC mods. Anyone who still holds out hope for Fallout is going to be left disappointed. For fucks sake they added a battle royale to F76 when it didn't perform as they had hoped. If there ever was a moment when it had completely jumped the shark then that was it. Like, fuck Fallout. It's awful. We got more shit games than we got good games at this point.

[edit]

I just thought of something... So remember how Bethesda retconned BOS somehow into making them a, what? Pre-war faction? Since they've added in a lot more story elements... What else did they fuck up? I'm not buying this one so I can go through it and see it first hand so I have no idea what they'e ruined. If I'm gonna keep flinging shit at Bethesda like a mad monkey then I need to know what I'm flinging shit at them for, especially when it comes to the writing.

 

The new settlers can't be killed by nukes:
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76s-new-settlers-dont-even-mind-if-you-nuke-them/

 

Heh I did not want to bring that up when I wrote that earlier post but that was something I asked between round brackets (can the player nuke any of the player settlements, possibly upsetting them and start a manhunt for the player)
So much for choice and consequences. Why can't the player make themselves a wanted insane maniac that controls nuclear missile silos?


Oh BTW I saw a piece of ending of the DLC. It at least partly rips of Dead Money as you need to rob a Vault full of gold.

At this point in time who even cares about gold? Food, water, medicines, weapons & munitions, fuel, those are the treasures of a post apocalyptic wasteland, not a metal that has no inherent value of its own outside raw material for components such as conductors.

Even Elijah wanted the Sierra Madre for its matter reassemble technology and not Sinclair's gold.

 

25 years after the Great War, a fantastic treasure sealed away in a Vault would be better off as being a massive storage of clean, filtered water. But we forget that West Virginia is a green and pleasant land where the end of the world was actually a viral pandemic rather than a nuclear holocaust.

 

For fucks sake they added a battle royale to F76 when it didn't perform as they had hoped. If there ever was a moment when it had completely jumped the shark then that was it. Like, fuck Fallout. It's awful. We got more shit games than we got good games at this point.

Good point, and kind of like Star Trek for me. I have hated the franchise now even longer than I cared for it.
As I mentioned earlier, this franchise has been commercial design wise damaged for the rest of its existence.
Any future company that will continue on it should Bethesda fail will just make more similar games.

I just thought of something... So remember how Bethesda retconned BOS somehow into making them a, what? Pre-war faction? Since they've added in a lot more story elements... What else did they fuck up?

Not completely but the BOS was founded very soon after the war instead after a generation of so by the soldiers from Mariposa.
Apparently Maxson very charismatic and had other followers across the wasteland who believed in him (Maxson is Big Boss now). There was some lieutenant or sergeant in the Appalachians he had contact with through a satellite who decided to follow Maxson's example and founded the Appalachian BOS chapter.

Well West Tek now also had a laboratory/research complex where they also worked on the Pan Immunity Virion project. To make a cure for the New Plague but also experimenting with food to deal with the food crisis.
At some point it went all Umbrella and decided to experiment on the locals by putting FEV in the water and apparently they already referred to the mutations as Super Mutants.

Ah yes AlphaPromthean, forgot about that.

 

To be fair, West-Tek still working on the Pan-Immunity-Virion Project at other facilities actually makes total sense. It was still an important project, and you can't really expect that it just got dumpstered when the FEV operation began.

Putting FEV in the fucking ground water is where that immediately comes to a brain aneurysm tier halt, especially since was it not the case that they only reached Super-Mutant level development with FEV with the millitary at Mariposa? I recall, West-Tek only reached the stage of animal testing before the millitary swooped in and nationalized the project. Also, is drinking ground-water infected FEV enough to turn you into a super-mutant? What happened to dipping in the vats of goo?

 

To be fair, West-Tek still working on the Pan-Immunity-Virion Project at other facilities actually makes total sense. It was still an important project, and you can't really expect that it just got dumpstered when the FEV operation began.

That is not the problem and it could perhaps have led to something else that is new.
But this was just an excuse for more wacky FEV hi-jinks and of course Super Mutants! Because no Fallout game is a Fallout game if it doesn't have shitloads of Super Mutants to fight.

I recall, West-Tek only reached the stage of animal testing before the millitary swooped in and nationalized the project. Also, is drinking ground-water infected FEV enough to turn you into a super-mutant? What happened to dipping in the vats of goo?

Correct, I think it is also mentioned in the lore that the scientists at Mariposa are just now entering the human testing phase.
I don't recall why the scientists in Virginia thought it was time to start experimenting on the residents, especially as that was not part of the project. (they were suppose to try to create a cure for the New Plague and superfood for the food crisis)

 

Worst part is you probably couldn't even bring up these arguments with someone who likes Wastelanders because all they'd say is "You wanted humans and speech checks, you got them and are still unhappy."

 

I think it was more people throwing shit at Bethesda for not having a thing that the games have had since the first one, one of the most basic things in a RPG. It shows how far this franchise has fallen when a game in the series didn't had npcs at launch. I don't think they cared if the game eventually got npcs.

I certainly couldn't care less if the game eventually got npcs because the majority of characters and dialogue in the previous Fallouts made by Bethesda are horribly written. Same for how shallow and pretty much non-existant true choice and consequences their games had.

 

Good God, people literally forgetting what Bethshitda've done and starts praising them for things that are normal everywhere or should be there in the first place began much sooner than later. Steam rating is picking up and last time I saw it it's nearing 70% these dumdumbs really don't care about the substance, only style

 

It's that easy yes. People buy things like they vote for politicians that get elected.
As a citizen of Redding who's name escape me right now once said it in circa 2241...

He is a crook but people like that.

 

Yeah, game's having a turn-around in ratings on Steam. It's Mostly Positive at 70% right now.
I hope the gaming industry gets worse. I hope the lootbox regulations fail. I hope microtransactions become even more insidious. I don't buy AAA titles at release anyway so I don't care. Gamers keep supporting awful business practices so fuck it; I hope they get worse. I hope they get everything that they deserve. See, even if Wastelanders had been good it still wouldn't excuse any of the other shit Bethesda pulled. And by the way, microtransactions are still there and "private" servers are still behind a paywall of 100 bucks a year. But hey, let's give Bethesda props for doing the bare necessity for an actual game.

Gamers don't deserve a better industry and I hope it turns worse so I can see them bitch and whine about things while still shelling out cash to be shat down their throats. While I won't get any entertainment from AAA games I will get entertainment from watching it all rot and decay while mad men run around praising and condemning it at the same time.

I knew that so long as it wasn't a total trainwreck that the people would come around and l was right. They wiped some of the shit off of their rusty keys and started dangling them in front of the unwashed masses again and they shriek with glee to finally hear that good ol Bethesda jingle jangle.

I don't see how I'm supposed to take any outrage coming from these fuckers seriously anymore when it can turn around this easily. Like I said, they deserve everything that's happened and more. Oh god I want more. I want the AAA gaming industry to become even worse. I want to see just how predatory and insidious it can get. If anything it'll be good for a social experiment of the human psyche.

 

Steam rating is picking up and last time I saw it it's nearing 70%

I expected as much. As soon as Beth makes a token attempt to 'fix' their mistake, the collective Fallout tourists will forgive them and praise them for listening to the complaints.

Looking at the recent reviews, they look more like joke reviews that are only positive because the users clicked on recommended before posting. Still stupid. Starfield is going to succeed even as a buggy mess, isn't it?

 

A lot of reviews are from people that are Bethesdrones because they barely have much playtime (like three hours or so). Of course they are gonna try to flood the system with positive reviews to try to trick people into buying the game.

I do love the reviews with "i played the original games" right at the start to make them seem unbiased. That's the first sign that they haven't actually played the original games and are obviously using it as leverage.

 

A lot of reviews are from people that are Bethesdrones because they barely have much playtime (like three hours or so). Of course they are gonna try to flood the system with positive reviews to try to trick people into buying the game.

I do love the reviews with "i played the original games" right at the start to make them seem unbiased. That's the first sign that they haven't actually played the original games and are obviously using it as leverage.

Have you been playing it any? Or are you equally unqualified to talk about it lol

 

The originals? Last year.

 

Have you been playing it any? Or are you equally unqualified to talk about it lol

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what 76 is kid.