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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
So, am I the only one that thinks that Rage 2 was a better RPG than Fallout 4 was, despite being billed as an FPS game?
I mean, they both have the same 'go here, kill stuff, loot' cycle. Rage 2's combat is WAY better, go figure for a game from Id Software (now owned by Bethesda), although Rage 2 doesn't have any actual 'sniping' weapons, they want you to get up close and personal. Weapon balance is far superior in Rage 2, as one would expect from a dedicated shooter. But the surprise is the story and characters and overall plot.
Fallout 4... well, we all know where it went. Rage 2 doesn't get too fancy, but it does polish what it has very well. You're a Ranger, so you're already 'a badass'. I mean, your character in FO4 was starting off as kind of a badass being a military veteran as part of his backstory, but Ranger is a title people WILL recognize and WILL react to. You walk into a bar in your Ranger duds... people make room. That's a good feel, man. You've got your typical revenge plot, again nothing too fancy but at least you have a believable plot with a believable villain and a believable way to kill them eventually. I mean... it's pretty out there, but there's enough verisimilitude that it doesn't knock you out of the groove. Unlike "I am your father son".
It does the survival wasteland thing better as well, in my opinion. Vehicles are definitely a thing in Rage 2, and their inclusion is a good thing. While you can fast travel to certain locations in Rage 2, there's just something awesome about jumping into a vehicle and driving there. While the world did a better job at filling the world with random locations, it can still be a bit sparse if you are going on foot, and it is doubtful that you will notice it while driving because you'll get between the dead areas pretty rapidly. So they hit the 'mostly abandoned wasteland' without 'gee... this sure is empty... I wonder when we're going to get some action'.
Rage 2 is a game that wants to get you into the action, that's what it is there for. The parts between action are there for you to loot, level up, and take a break before your next action sequence. And it does so far better than Fallout 4. You'd expect that from a self-proclaimed and unashamed shooter, right? Well, how about better character development from your supporting cast, a more believable and less annoying supporting cast, and despite being a silent protagonist, better dialogue trees?
I mean, YMMV and all, this is just from my personal perspective. Whenever you start talking about 'quality', you are inherently discussing a very subjective topic, because everyone has differing values for the term. But as far as I am concerned... Rage 2 showed everything that Fallout 4 COULD have been... but wasn't.
Not going to compare it to F76 because... well, that just wouldn't be fair to F76. It's gotten bashed enough, I think. It's time to just let it rest in peace already.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ShneekeyTheLost
So, am I the only one that thinks that Rage 2 was a better RPG than Fallout 4 was, despite being billed as an FPS game?
Not bought Rage2 yet because I don't buy games new. I'm worried, I got the original too but was constantly frustrated by how linear and short it was.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ShneekeyTheLost
Spoiler
Show
So, am I the only one that thinks that Rage 2 was a better RPG than Fallout 4 was, despite being billed as an FPS game?
I mean, they both have the same 'go here, kill stuff, loot' cycle. Rage 2's combat is WAY better, go figure for a game from Id Software (now owned by Bethesda), although Rage 2 doesn't have any actual 'sniping' weapons, they want you to get up close and personal. Weapon balance is far superior in Rage 2, as one would expect from a dedicated shooter. But the surprise is the story and characters and overall plot.
Fallout 4... well, we all know where it went. Rage 2 doesn't get too fancy, but it does polish what it has very well. You're a Ranger, so you're already 'a badass'. I mean, your character in FO4 was starting off as kind of a badass being a military veteran as part of his backstory, but Ranger is a title people WILL recognize and WILL react to. You walk into a bar in your Ranger duds... people make room. That's a good feel, man. You've got your typical revenge plot, again nothing too fancy but at least you have a believable plot with a believable villain and a believable way to kill them eventually. I mean... it's pretty out there, but there's enough verisimilitude that it doesn't knock you out of the groove. Unlike "I am your father son".
It does the survival wasteland thing better as well, in my opinion. Vehicles are definitely a thing in Rage 2, and their inclusion is a good thing. While you can fast travel to certain locations in Rage 2, there's just something awesome about jumping into a vehicle and driving there. While the world did a better job at filling the world with random locations, it can still be a bit sparse if you are going on foot, and it is doubtful that you will notice it while driving because you'll get between the dead areas pretty rapidly. So they hit the 'mostly abandoned wasteland' without 'gee... this sure is empty... I wonder when we're going to get some action'.
Rage 2 is a game that wants to get you into the action, that's what it is there for. The parts between action are there for you to loot, level up, and take a break before your next action sequence. And it does so far better than Fallout 4. You'd expect that from a self-proclaimed and unashamed shooter, right? Well, how about better character development from your supporting cast, a more believable and less annoying supporting cast, and despite being a silent protagonist, better dialogue trees?
I mean, YMMV and all, this is just from my personal perspective. Whenever you start talking about 'quality', you are inherently discussing a very subjective topic, because everyone has differing values for the term. But as far as I am concerned... Rage 2 showed everything that Fallout 4 COULD have been... but wasn't.
Not going to compare it to F76 because... well, that just wouldn't be fair to F76. It's gotten bashed enough, I think. It's time to just let it rest in peace already.
Am I getting something of a STALKER vibe from this description? The Stalker series obviously had problems -- like the somewhat undistinguishable characters and the bugs, two problems that were more or less solved with COP -- but always beat Fallout 3 and 4 when it came to combat. I still think it's the series with the most satisfying ballistics I have ever played. The monsters, anomalies, and artifact detectors all were pretty greatly executed. And the setting is great. Also good AI (I seem to remember that it isn't actual AI though, more like invisible rails on the levels for the bots to follow). It's also less crammed with features (which can be good or bad, depending on taste).
Of course, it is no RPG, just an open-world shooter with a map, an inventory, and dialogues.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ShneekeyTheLost
I mean, your character in FO4 was starting off as kind of a badass being a military veteran as part of his backstory
If you ran with the husband's storyline.
If you ran with the wife's storyline, she apparently was a working woman who got a law degree... so her only military experience was being the Soldier's Wife.
So whether soldier husband or lawyer wife, you had the same skills in ... shooting a gun in combat?
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sihnfahl
If you ran with the husband's storyline.
If you ran with the wife's storyline, she apparently was a working woman who got a law degree... so her only military experience was being the Soldier's Wife.
So whether soldier husband or lawyer wife, you had the same skills in ... shooting a gun in combat?
In Retro-Future America, plus gun shooting is pretty crappy to start with until some perks accumulate.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
I always thought of her as having served as well, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. Lawyer Corps are a thing after all.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
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Originally Posted by
Triaxx
I always thought of her as having served as well, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part. Lawyer Corps are a thing after all.
I just assumed she was a military lawyer. I don't know if it was a tidbit I read or if this is just head-canon to explain away how Nate and Nora met. It could also explain why Nora has enough time for maternity leave, because if she had her own law firm, I would assume Nate would have to watch Shaun on his own. Then again, the Great War takes place on a Saturday.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Most of the other Fallout games start you as a dumb kid from a vault that learns all kinds of skills unrealistically quickly. The background of the characters in FO4 is probably the very least of its problems.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
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Originally Posted by
Anteros
Most of the other Fallout games start you as a dumb kid from a vault that learns all kinds of skills unrealistically quickly.
I'm not sure that really applies to the first two games, because levelling in those was actually rather slow and it could take weeks or even months of in-game time to get to the point where you're routinely blowing people's heads off from across the room.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
factotum
I'm not sure that really applies to the first two games, because levelling in those was actually rather slow and it could take weeks or even months of in-game time to get to the point where you're routinely blowing people's heads off from across the room.
I'm not sure why you seem to be arguing that going from "kid who has never seen violence" to "combat sniper who maintains pinpoint accuracy under fire" in a few weeks is realistic.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
It is actually quite a bit longer than weeks to get good in Fallout 1 and 2, unless you're really speed-rushing things and very particular on your skills and traits. Even at mid-levels you're going to be reliably hitting, but head-shots with great accuracy are pretty late game. I can't remember the timeline for sure, but the waterchip timer in FO1 150 days, extendable to 250 days, and that is pretty "mid-game."
Granted a year isn't a huge amount of time to become an expert. But if you trained and practiced pretty hard at anything for a year in real life you would get pretty good at most things. And you're practicing that sort of thing all throughout the game. Which is orders of magnitude better than many games where the whole thing lasts very little time.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
According to the wiki, she had a law degree, but was not yet practicing as a lawyer.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Nora
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Yeah, but they 'Improved the shooting', by totally disconnecting it from character ability.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Anteros
I'm not sure why you seem to be arguing that going from "kid who has never seen violence" to "combat sniper who maintains pinpoint accuracy under fire" in a few weeks is realistic.
It's more realistic than "woman with law degree who's been frozen for 200 years is able to reliably shoot medium-sized insects within moments of leaving her cryo-pod", that's for sure.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Meh, people have hobbies. Yes, she was a woman with a law degree. But she also might have been a hunter. Or a sport shooter. Maybe she grew up on the mean streets of Boston and learned to shoot in the racist gang wars that resulted in a burned out Chinatown, then went to law school afterwards and tried to put it behind her.
If your Nora starts out able to shoot well, ninja-kick a Protectron, or carve the giblets out of a deathclaw, maybe that's the background she had. If your Nora can't shoot her way out of a paper bag with a flamer, but can build a flamer out of an empty aerosol bottle and half a lighter, maybe she did really well at the science fair, maybe she just watched way too much Junkyard Wars.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Are we really going down the "character is inexplicably skilled for a normal human as part of being the main character of a game" route? I mean REALLY?
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Within the context of F4 holding onto the Pretext of being an RPG, with a character you can mold, yes.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Triaxx
Yeah, but they 'Improved the shooting', by totally disconnecting it from character ability.
That's always going to the question that game developers have to ask, though: how much should character skill affect the out-come of player actions? Fallout 4 is what happens when you have no connection between character skill and player actions. Err too much the other way, and you get games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance, where the early game is torturously difficult.
I actually imagine that Fallout 4's design with character skill was directly influenced by the criticism that Fallout 3 received. As you may remember, Fallout 3 had a system where poor gun condition and low weapon skill made a weapon less accurate. The result was that game critics and the general public alike lambasted the game for its wildly inaccurate weapons.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
factotum
It's more realistic than "woman with law degree who's been frozen for 200 years is able to reliably shoot medium-sized insects within moments of leaving her cryo-pod", that's for sure.
Did anyone here watch the Stallone movie Demolition Man? Cause Nora being subliminally trained in combat skills during her long sleep sounds like it could have been a neat little side project of the vault before things went to heck. :smallbiggrin:
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
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I actually imagine that Fallout 4's design with character skill was directly influenced by the criticism that Fallout 3 received. As you may remember, Fallout 3 had a system where poor gun condition and low weapon skill made a weapon less accurate. The result was that game critics and the general public alike lambasted the game for its wildly inaccurate weapons.
Yes... but Fallout New Vegas already did it correctly. So... they corrected a problem by creating a new one.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
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Originally Posted by
Balmas
Err too much the other way, and you get games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance, where the early game is torturously difficult.
That's actually the way the RPG difficulty curve used to be--much harder at the start due to the low skill of your character, getting easier later on as your skill improved. I actually kind of liked that, because it meant if you managed to make it through the first few hours of the game you stood a pretty good chance of being able to complete it--I like completing games, and getting partway through and finding the game's difficulty has surpassed my skill level is incredibly frustrating.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Huh, I had forgotten that "Nora" had a canon profession. I always assumed it swapped who was the combat veteran based on who the player character was.
Going by the Wiki article, her profession is mentioned all of three times - by the lookout on the USS Constitution, by a holotape right at the start of the game, and by her diploma in the house before the bombs fall.
Why are we getting all twisted up about this, exactly?
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
factotum
-I like completing games, and getting partway through and finding the game's difficulty has surpassed my skill level is incredibly frustrating.
Completely agree. The thing about games where the world levels up with you is, if you mess up your own build, the game actually gets harder rather than easier as you level. Then you end up devising strategies to compensate for the game mechanics, rather than strategies to accomplish your goals.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
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Originally Posted by
veti
Completely agree. The thing about games where the world levels up with you is, if you mess up your own build, the game actually gets harder rather than easier as you level. Then you end up devising strategies to compensate for the game mechanics, rather than strategies to accomplish your goals.
q.v. Oblivion, where monsters would quickly get more powerful than you unless you leveled up very precisely.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
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Originally Posted by
Mark Hall
q.v. Oblivion, where monsters would quickly get more powerful than you unless you leveled up very precisely.
I understand what you mean, levelling up without taking care to level up everything else was terrible, but it is easy to go farther than the middle, and level up to be much stronger than the monsters.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
factotum
That's actually the way the RPG difficulty curve used to be--much harder at the start due to the low skill of your character, getting easier later on as your skill improved. I actually kind of liked that, because it meant if you managed to make it through the first few hours of the game you stood a pretty good chance of being able to complete it--I like completing games, and getting partway through and finding the game's difficulty has surpassed my skill level is incredibly frustrating.
Oh, I absolutely agree. I love having a really difficult first act, where anything and everything can kill you. I love tiptoing around Daedric shrines in Morrowind, because I know that if an Orc warrior appears around the corner and starts sprinting at me, I'm toast. I can either run or die. It makes it that much more satisfying when, in the late game, you can come back to that same Orc and give them the righteous butt-whupping they deserve.
I prefer it, but I also don't think that Bethesda will ever sacrifice money for a better game.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Balmas
I love tiptoing around Daedric shrines in Morrowind, because I know that if an Orc warrior appears around the corner and starts sprinting at me, I'm toast.
Or maybe just hand craft a few more NPCs instead of using a radiant system to populate your world. By TES lore, an Orc warrior is something to fear, a mage encounter is almost always deadly.
Considering Fallout, they even made Deathclaws into first level "bosses" (before you realize the DC you fight is apparently an elderly variant and you basically just beat up the giant lizard equivalent of an old grandma).
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
halfeye
I understand what you mean, levelling up without taking care to level up everything else was terrible, but it is easy to go farther than the middle, and level up to be much stronger than the monsters.
In Oblivion, I levelled up Destruction very fast, and was stronger than needed for most of the game.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Scaling the world to your character always seemed counter productive and the opposite of what should happen in an RPG. I know it is so they can reuse an area more times and still have it be challenging but it doesn't make sense. Although there are a few games where events might cause the dangers in an area to increase dramatically, that shouldn't be done by having the same orc with a club be level 40 instead of level 2.
I think the biggest issue with games like Fallout 3 and 4 is that they're fighting against expectation. The combat in early game doesn't feel "challenging because your character lacks skill" it feels like "we've made a really bad shooter with a clunk feel." The shooter/action RPGs that I enjoy the guns/combat always feels good, but it just doesn't do as much damage, you don't have as much health, and you don't have the skills for nearly as many options. But in Fallout the guns do the same damage (essentially, if they do change it is hidden from the player), which also sucks in that even though all the weapons have a different feel and combat style, you don't get to choose that style because some are "early game" and some are "end game" weapons so you really only get to use them while the game says they're good options, not because you like them.
Nostalgia is a weird thing... here I am still following this thread and Fallout in general simply because I loved 1&2 so much, even though they've proved 4 times now that the direction their taking Fallout is not one I like and have no interest in playing. I didn't find anything about Fallout 3 worth making it into even mid-game. Was like 80% of the way through New Vegas and just came to a point where the busy work just wasn't worth it and saw the story "payout" of several DLCs and decided the ending was going to be exactly as predicted and not even that interesting.
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Re: Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
veti
Completely agree. The thing about games where the world levels up with you is, if you mess up your own build, the game actually gets harder rather than easier as you level. Then you end up devising strategies to compensate for the game mechanics, rather than strategies to accomplish your goals.
I've never found any of these games to be difficult enough where world scaling was actually a roadblock though. These type of games already tend to run on the mind numbingly easy side of the street. They're designed to make you feel powerful and important in a sandbox world, not to be difficult. World scaling at least keeps things somewhat interesting, as opposed to literally not even needing to look at the screen as you play after a few levels.