There’s never been a better time to get into Fallout 76

<em>Fallout 76</em> is good now. Actually, it’s always been good.

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[tipsy.trex]

Claiming 76 was always good is absurd and shameless revisionism. It was reviled at launch and rightfully so.

 

[SparkyMalone315]

"Always been good"? At launch the wasteland had nothing going on at all, by design. Now it has a questline, but the old couple of quests disappeared so if someone DID want to do that phase, it's gone now. Further, as every new event is added, the old disappears forever. It's a little jarring to just "skip ahead" like that. There's also no way to play on a custom server like other games of this sort (it isn't exactly an MMO after all, it's more like games like Conan Exiles or Seven Days to Die, so it would be very nice to have an option like that. Heck an option like that would solve the first issue, since whoever's running the custom server could then "flip" through different event phases.

Oh, and custom servers would mean custom mods, just like those other games, with automated processes to "sync" player's mods with the server's requirements. And yes, an "offline" play mode would be nice.

But, behind all of that? It's using the same engine they've been using since Morrowind, and it shows.

And, how can I forget to criticize it for the "pay to win" features?

None of this is correct. The game at launch had an extensive questlines, all of which is still there and fully playable. New events do not replace old events. There are private servers with changeable game parameters. And it does not use the same engine as Morrorwind, it uses an upgraded modified evolution of that engine.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

None of this is correct. The game at launch had an extensive questlines, all of which is still there and fully playable. New events do not replace old events. There are private servers with changeable game parameters. And it does not use the same engine as Morrorwind, it uses an upgraded modified evolution of that engine.

Yes, it's an extended upgraded version. Doesn't change that they should have scrapped the engine and started over again years ago, because it's buckling under it's own weight.


No, the "private servers" aren't really private servers. You can't host a server on your own rig with your own IP address, and you can't mod the game. A few changed parameters don't replace that.

No, the original game did not have a vast extended quest out the gate. It really did launch as a more or less open wasteland of nothing, which was a MAJOR complaint from a LOT of reviewers, and they had to vastly overhaul the game to "fix" the game and make it a full quest experience. And, the events do come and go turning on and off certain things, with the original stuff of "settling" the world and actually "stepping out" into an unoccupied world, if you actually prefer that, no longer being accessible.


Here's an example review pointing out just how empty the game world was at launch:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdOSTAda1w

 

[SparkyMalone315]

Yes, it's an extended upgraded version. Doesn't change that they should have scrapped the engine and started over again years ago, because it's buckling under it's own weight.


No, the "private servers" aren't really private servers. You can't host a server on your own rig with your own IP address, and you can't mod the game. A few changed parameters don't replace that.

No, the original game did not have a vast extended quest out the gate. It really did launch as a more or less open wasteland of nothing, which was a MAJOR complaint from a LOT of reviewers, and they had to vastly overhaul the game to "fix" the game and make it a full quest experience. And, the events do come and go turning on and off certain things, with the original stuff of "settling" the world and actually "stepping out" into an unoccupied world, if you actually prefer that, no longer being accessible.


Here's an example review pointing out just how empty the game world was at launch:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdOSTAda1w

Doubling down on being wrong doesn't make you right. The game had over 100 hours of quests at launch. I played from beta until last year I don't give a shit what some youtuber says about it. I played it.

 

[bthylafh]

<derp, deleted>

 

[bthylafh]

I've always wondered, why does a certain contingent of Ars readers call it "ARS"? It's clearly not in capital letters and isn't an acronym

People are dumb.

 

[garrobon]

Yes, it's an extended upgraded version. Doesn't change that they should have scrapped the engine and started over again years ago, because it's buckling under it's own weight.


No, the "private servers" aren't really private servers. You can't host a server on your own rig with your own IP address, and you can't mod the game. A few changed parameters don't replace that.

No, the original game did not have a vast extended quest out the gate. It really did launch as a more or less open wasteland of nothing, which was a MAJOR complaint from a LOT of reviewers, and they had to vastly overhaul the game to "fix" the game and make it a full quest experience. And, the events do come and go turning on and off certain things, with the original stuff of "settling" the world and actually "stepping out" into an unoccupied world, if you actually prefer that, no longer being accessible.


Here's an example review pointing out just how empty the game world was at launch:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdOSTAda1w

The game at launch had plenty of content. I played through it. Did you?

 

[jimthomasUS]

This is the best review of FO 76 I've read with regards to the specific tastes required to enjoy it. I would add that it is also an expensive game if you desire to get the most out of it. I spent plenty during my years wandering West Virginia but it remains one of the most interesting open worlds I've ever had the pleasure of traversing while gaming.

 

[raxadian]

but I genuinely think it has always been a good game.

You tolerance to shit must be astronomical, the thing was so bugged that between that game and launch and Sonic 06 is hard to tell what has the more bugs.

Just because you like something it doesn't make it good, I like some really bad movies but I still know they are bad.

When making a review of a game you have to take a step back and think "Okay what about the game will make people like it and what parts of the game will make people not like it?" and if the reasons to dislike the game outnumber the reasons to like by a lot or are few but wuite important flaws, then the game is bad.

Someone mentioned the game still having six year old bugs that literally stop you from playing the game at the beginning and that's not something people is going to like.

 

[Baudelier]

Please explain to me how having to pay $3.00 real money to be able to wear the same sweater vest and slacks I can wear for free in Fallout 4 makes Fallout 76 a good game.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Please explain to me how having to pay $3.00 real money to be able to wear the same sweater vest and slacks I can wear for free in Fallout 4 makes Fallout 76 a good game.

Because it's free (Amazon) or free with game pass, and most people don't need that exact sweater to enjoy the game?

You can get most of the outfits from FO4 free from containers and just lying around. What costs atoms is being able to craft some outfits yourself. Yes, sweater vest is one that must be bought, but If you play during one of the seasons, you can earn more than enough atoms to buy the plans for crafting sweater vest for free, no 3.00 needed/

There's also a bunch of new outfits not in FO4.

 

[MikeMacMan]

Fallout 76 is current free on Prime Gaming for PC and XBOX.

 

[Ken Fisher]

Redownloaded it — like an idiot I got it at launch — to see if it had aged well.

Went though character creation, all good, then my character couldn’t move. At all.

Looked it up online and the fix was — SIX YEARS after launch — to manually edit some config files.

Nope.

Uninstalled.

Still trash.

A friend ran into this. He turned on VSYNC and that solved it. Its apparently a framerate thing. I saw elsewhere that some people manually capped their frames to 120 and it worked.

 

[garrobon]

You tolerance to shit must be astronomical, the thing was so bugged that between that game and launch and Sonic 06 is hard to tell what has the more bugs.

Just because you like something it doesn't make it good, I like some really bad movies but I still know they are bad.

When making a review of a game you have to take a step back and think "Okay what about the game will make people like it and what parts of the game will make people not like it?" and if the reasons to dislike the game outnumber the reasons to like by a lot or are few but wuite important flaws, then the game is bad.

Someone mentioned the game still having six year old bugs that literally stop you from playing the game at the beginning and that's not something people is going to like.

How much time have you personally spent in the game? What specific bugs did you encounter?

 

[randomcat]

I remember being very disappointed when I learned that (then-upcoming) Fallout 76 was an MMO. That's great for people who are looking for that kind of experience but it's pretty much a dealbreaker for me.

I picked it up cheap and will probably try it sometime just for kicks, but I'll wait for the next single-player title before I get really excited.

 

[JStengah]

I remember being very disappointed when I learned that (then-upcoming) Fallout 76 was an MMO. That's great for people who are looking for that kind of experience but it's pretty much a dealbreaker for me.

I picked it up cheap and will probably try it sometime just for kicks, but I'll wait for the next single-player title before I get really excited.

It's not an mmo in the way every other mmo is. Each server is limited to only 23 other players, so in no way is it massively multiplayer. It is very easy to play it as a single player game, even without the private server that requires Fallout First.

 

[randomcat]

It's not an mmo in the way every other mmo is. Each server is limited to only 23 other players, so in no way is it massively multiplayer. It is very easy to play it as a single player game, even without the private server that requires Fallout First.

Thanks, this definitely increases my interest. Unfortunately I'm still limited by the inability to pause; that might sound like a small matter but it makes a big difference in how much time I can realistically invest in a game, for purely practical reasons.

 

[houligan]

If I could host a server, I would probably play it. I have some friends who have said the same thing. We don't want to play with random people. I'm also not paying a yearly subscription just to not run into random assholes. Give me a server to run myself. They already gave up on this dream of random people filling in for NPCs.

And it definitely hasn't always been good. I played with friends during the preorder early access and canceled my preorder. Most of them kept their preorder and gave up on the game very early on because it was shit at least until they updated to actually add fucking NPCs to game. I've heard it has gotten a lot better since then, but "it was always good" is just not true.

You can pay $13 a month to play on private servers.
No, I'm not joking.

 

[pbcheese]

There’s never been a better time to not

 

[bushrat011899]

I don't think I'll ever understand the kind of mind control Bethesda can employ on its most loyal fans. I liked Fallout 4 enough to finish it once. Fallout 76, however, was such a terrible experience I would never try it again. A d to be clear, I played on a free weekend a full 2 years after its disastrous launch. If Bethesda can't fix a live service game in the first 2 years (let alone launch it correctly), then they don't deserve my support.

If the game was a standalone experience (where I can host my own server on my own hardware) I might be more interested. But they won't. FO76 and ESO are Bethesda's experiments in recurrent revenue, and private servers are antithetical to that objective.

 

[cherijo78]

Serious question:
I am somebody who absolutely does not want to group with anyone else, ever. Not only is this a personal preference, but my experience as a member of a couple of minorities within gaming "communities", even ones people say are generally friendly, has generally been anything but, with a few exceptions. Thus, for many reasons, I prefer to play alone.

I seriously want to play the storylines and see the locations in Fallout 76, but I really don't want to deal with other people. Have the updates made this more possible?

 

[Murry Wilson]

Bethesda games are way more interesting than their detractors

 

[Snarky Robot]

I seriously want to play the storylines and see the locations in Fallout 76, but I really don't want to deal with other people. Have the updates made this more possible?

Oh it’s 100% possible. For $100 a year.

 

[darkowl]

The question I'd like to know is, four years later, does it finally have sixteen times the detail?

 

[garrobon]

Serious question:
I am somebody who absolutely does not want to group with anyone else, ever. Not only is this a personal preference, but my experience as a member of a couple of minorities within gaming "communities", even ones people say are generally friendly, has generally been anything but, with a few exceptions. Thus, for many reasons, I prefer to play alone.

I seriously want to play the storylines and see the locations in Fallout 76, but I really don't want to deal with other people. Have the updates made this more possible?

It was possible at launch. I rarely grouped with anyone. The few times I did group were at least not negative experiences. I never heard any spew the typical gamer bs.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Serious question:
I am somebody who absolutely does not want to group with anyone else, ever. Not only is this a personal preference, but my experience as a member of a couple of minorities within gaming "communities", even ones people say are generally friendly, has generally been anything but, with a few exceptions. Thus, for many reasons, I prefer to play alone.

I seriously want to play the storylines and see the locations in Fallout 76, but I really don't want to deal with other people. Have the updates made this more possible?

There are no story episodes that force you to group with other people, aside from one totally optional side quest fighting a Sheepsquatch as an "event" (see below).

Unlike FF XIV, there are no grouped raids that you must complete as part of the main quest or other side quests.

You'll see other people as you go through quests, but key story missions are in solo instances unless you have invited someone to co-op with you.

"Events" are area mini-raids where a bunch of super-mutants attack or similar, and you can join in with those or not, your choice. You're not forced to be in a group to join one you just need to fast travel to that area. You don't queue for a raid or form a party, 1-23 people just show up if they feel like it. 100% optional.

There are longer 5-person raids, but again totally optional and not part of the story.

If you want to never see a real human player anywhere, then you need to get a Fallout First sub and use a private server. That's $13/month or $100/year and also gets you 1,500 cash shop points a month for cosmetics.

 

[Alexstarfire]

"It’s still not for everybody, but for a select few of us who’ve stuck with it, there’s nothing else quite like it."

Survivor bias, if I've ever read it.

Online live service games aren't for me. Full stop.

Fallout ends for me at FO4, and much of that wasn't to my taste as it was probably prep for FO76 with it's focus on base building, and radiant quests.

I'll get my FO fix replaying 1-4 and NV.

Yea, why was there so much effort put into base building in FO4? It's kind of cool what can be made, but if you do nothing it also makes no difference. Kinda thought it would have some use when more and more people started coming to my places. But no, nothing.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The question I'd like to know is, four years later, does it finally have sixteen times the detail?

It might just be the settings and art design, but the world does look better than FO4 to me. Sixteen times better on PC? Not really, but I've taken some great screencaps of the scenery.

 

[ScifiGeek]

But I'm too busy playing Fallout 3 again right now! The bestest Fallout. Sure, I like New Vegas and 4 a lot as well, but 3 is still my favorite.

I appreciate the world the first two games built, but I never found them particularly fun to play even when they were not as old as they are now. Particularly with part 2 I more or less had to force myself to the finish line. Suffice it to say, I don't think I'll ever touch them again. ~shrug~ While there are some weird nerds who will forever proclaim that Bethesda sullied their holy and crusty games, the expanded breadth and scope they brought to the franchise has always been a big plus to me.

Anyway, as for Fallout 76, I gave it a try via Gamepass during one of my far-and-in-between subscription stints a year or two ago, and I actually liked it, but I wasn't going to keep paying to play. I finally bought it when it went on sale for $8 on Steam just now though. The only game I bought there in years - I don't imagine it'll ever show up on GOG, considering the way its tied to its server dependencies.

Anyway, I'm planning and looking forward to giving Fallout 76 a proper go once I'm done with my current run of 3.

FO3 and FNV are my favorites (I can have two favorites).

But what I am looking forward too are some Mods for F04:

Fallout London, seems like it was going to be ready soon, but the FO4 patch put it on hold.

F1 and F2 remakes in the F4 were started. It would be cool to see these finished to make the F1 and F2 lore more accessible to modern gamers.

 

[Legatum_of_Kain]

I have a long standing boycott of online games that will stop working if they don't bring enough revenue, cost too much to the company to keep up, or if there's a merger.

Those that have a lot of disposable income and don't care about losing access to the game suddenly go ahead.

I'll stay with the offline versions, thanks.

 

[fiddly_bits]

Haven’t played it much yet since getting the game free from some prime deal, but I intend to spend some more time with it. We’ll see.

My first experience when stepping outside the vault was someone running up and somehow handing me a bunch of useful stuff, which was pretty cool.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

You can pay $13 a month to play on private servers.
No, I'm not joking.

Yes, that's one of the reasons I said I want to host a server.

 

[Flatline403]

[checks Steam]

$40 for a 5.5 year old game!

[Adds to wishlist, waits for sale]

 

[SommerAlmostGone]

I've got FO76 right after Wastelanders update and I've definitely enjoyed the game. For about 100 hours.
Then I've spent another 100 hours grinding the stuff (Mea culpa) and quit because of two major issues:
1. Lack of content (which is pretty obvious comparing to another Bethesda MMO - Elder Scrolls Online).
2. Lots of bugs which they will introduce in every upgrade.

And I can understand the lack of content (they've built a game similar to single-player predeccors which kinda limits the expansion) but the nature of bugs made me think that they have severe lack of QA testers or major issues in development process. Like 'if game starts and runs for 10 minutes - it's ready for a release'.

I had a hope that after Starfield's release and change of ownerhsip Microsoft will provide some much needed manpower to a FO76 team but looks like they've decided that they're happy with a status quo.

 

[OOPMan]

 

[sarusa]

Even Todd Fricking Howard isn't ballsy enough to pretend that Fallout 76 was good from launch. Yes, it was interesting at launch, there's a lot of crap games (kusoge) that are still very interesting, but it launched in just a shameful unfinished shambles, kicked out early to start making money. The people who actually survived that shitshow (no NPCs!) till it improved now view that the same way as people who got beaten by their parents with belts as children think that made them better people just because they survived it - and now it's all rose colored glasses and 'ha ha remember when we survived things that lesser men could not?!' (I've been there with other games, I recognize my glass house here).

https://www.pcgamer.com/todd-howard-there-was-very-little-we-didnt-screw-up-on-fallout-76-launch/

 

[sarusa]

A friend ran into this. He turned on VSYNC and that solved it. Its apparently a framerate thing. I saw elsewhere that some people manually capped their frames to 120 and it worked.

I bet this is fallout (har) from one of Fallout 76's horrific launch fails (since fixed) that absolutely proved how amateur the people making it were. They tied the physics to the frame rate and there are still some things in there that depend on the frame rate.

Back on old consoles (NES, SNES, Genesis, Master System) or even fixed config 8-bit computers (Apple ][, C64, Atari 800) where you had a fixed configuration and you were damn sure you could always hit 30 (or 60) fps and never deviate from that, that was a cheap way to do timing. You could always figure that every vsync was 1/60th of a second and time things that way, like explosions or physics - though oops, now things run 20% slower in PAL than NTSC and a lot of games never bothered fixing that. And oops, people with aftermarket CPU boosters had to toggle them back to slow mode to play games properly. But it mostly worked.

However as soon as you start doing things on PC this falls apart since you can't guarantee that every PC is the same or even anywhere near the same. You have to tie time things to actual time passing, not the frame rate, and any competent PC game design (or console after PS3 design) does this. Fallout 76 failed to do this, which led to really funny things at launch like people who ran around looking at the ground (or more practically, just degrading their graphical settings) having a real advantage over other players because they had higher frame rates. They were capped at 60 (IIRC) but tons of people couldn't hit sixty, so if you could you had a real advantage over people who couldn't... It was just saying 'okay, a bullet travels this far every frame, or you run this far every frame, so if you had more frames, you and your bullets go faster!' (I actually don't remember if the bullets in F76 actually used physics at all or if they were instant hit, so maybe not bullets, but it would certainly apply to rockets and grenades and anything moving).

 

[TwoKiloBalls]

I played it about 18 months ago and thought it was garbage. To think they focused on this dross rather than Fallout 5 pains me greatly.

 

[araczynski]

lost all interest after "join a casual party as soon as you log in"... that's not fallout, that's forced sheep herding.

 

[DaveSimmons]

lost all interest after "join a casual party as soon as you log in"... that's not fallout, that's forced sheep herding.

It is completely optional -- being in a party just gives you bonus XP and extra fast travel points, that's it. No travelling with others, no forced co-op, nothing. It has no effect on gameplay.

People are deciding they hate the game without trying it, even if they can do so for free. You don't need to do anything MMO-like at all in 76 unless you want to.

There is plenty of single-player story content to play through. When you finish that you can just stop playing.