Fallout 76

[Sly Boots]

This is mind-boggling incompetence. Yes, Bethesda games have generally been buggy, but everything to do with this game has been a disaster. Expectations for ESO 6 are rock-bottom after this.

[Sly Boots]

Comment on Angry Joe's video on this:

"Fallout 76: the most entertaining game I've never played"

[Wrathbone]

Expectations for ESO 6 are rock-bottom after this.

I'm not as worried about Elder Scrolls or Starfield, as that's tried and tested (well... user-tested) territory, whereas trying to convert Gamebryo into something that could support an MMO was always going to be a calamity. I'm honestly confused as to why they didn't outsource a lot of it to a different team and engine better suited to multiplayer gaming, like they did with Elder Scrolls Online.

Technological insanity aside, most of the design decisions appear to have been equally daft.

[DjchunKfunK]

Some of the stuff around Fallout 76 is because of trying to bodge the engine into something it clearly can't do properly but the fact that they think they can charge £12.99 a month for some of this stuff says a lot about Bethesda as a company so I think it's right to be concerned about how Starfield or Elder Scrolls 6 might turn out.

As it currently stands Bethesda are one of the worst companies around, don't forget Wolfenstein Young Bloods was a bit of a mess when it came out as well. We should probably all be glad that they pushed Doom Eternal to next year.

[Sly Boots]

Yeah, it's as much the direction they seem to be taking as a company that worries me as anything else, although their level of general competence has been called into question, I would say.

[Wrathbone]

Oh, Bethesda are undoubtedly one of the worst examples of corporate gaming scumbaggery, but it strikes me that things like the subs fee are a desperate attempt to scrape whatever cash they can from a terminal disaster of a game. I fully expect them to try stuff like paid mods again with future single player games - I’m not convinced they’ll do anything too drastic with their ‘safe bet’ games, though.

[Raid]

Don't forget that Bethesda is two entities here; the developer and the publisher. Doom Eternal is at least being developed by id Software so hopefully won't be a colossal shambles on a technical level. Let's just hope the publisher doesn't manage to shoehorn in ungodly numbers of microtransactions.

[DjchunKfunK]

Don't forget that Bethesda is two entities here; the developer and the publisher. Doom Eternal is at least being developed by id Software so hopefully won't be a colossal shambles on a technical level. Let's just hope the publisher doesn't manage to shoehorn in ungodly numbers of microtransactions.

Only in the case of games from id or Arkane, stuff coming out of Bethesda Game Studios is part of the main company.

[Animalmother]

Is there any publisher without a shit reputation other than CD Project Red? Are they a shower of bastards as well?

[Maturin]

They've really hammered their reputation with this game no doubt. But Fallout 4 previously was pretty rock solid, putting aside the usual quirks with their open world engine. Massive amount of content and I enjoyed it immensely.

So I'm not at all worried about their future games of that ilk. But it was a massive own goal trying to half-heartedly jump on the MMO train with an engine/framework/skillset that was seemingly completely ill-suited. And then compound it with all the additional bollocks since.

[The Jackal]

They've really hammered their reputation with this game no doubt. But Fallout 4 previously was pretty rock solid, putting aside the usual quirks with their open world engine. Massive amount of content and I enjoyed it immensely.

Are we all just ignoring the "you never have to do settlement-building unless you want to - except that one storyline where it's mandatory (and no we don't mean the tutorial)" thing?

[Wrathbone]

I don’t remember being forced to build a settlement. Which quest was that?

EDIT - Wait, do you mean the bit later on in the Minutemen story where you have to build some artillery? It wasn’t a huge burden.

[The Jackal]

I don’t remember being forced to build a settlement. Which quest was that?

EDIT - Wait, do you mean the bit later on in the Minutemen story where you have to build some artillery? It wasn’t a huge burden.

No, I mean where defending the fort turned out to need to be a Tower Defence round if you stood a chance of winning it. You HAD to build defences other than the guns atop the walls in order to survive, for one reason because of the waves that beamed right inside the fort.*

*which apparently was to counter people building walls over the entrances and stopping the land forces from entering at all - so the odds were stacked against the non-Mincrafters to begin with.

[Wrathbone]

I honestly don’t remember having to do that.

[Rusty]

Ditto, sure it wasn't DLC or a mod you're remembering?