Doom – A Game Out of Time in All the Right Ways

Last night I finished up all of the achievements for the base set in DOOM, wrapping up one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had with a game in quite a while. From top to bottom, I think this was the most fun I’ve had with a shooter in years – giving games like Destiny and Call of Duty a run. While it’s still fresh on my mind, I thought I’d put down a couple things that kept popping up as I was playing it.

Maybe more than anything else, I couldn’t help but think that this game is exactly what an FPS game would look like if the advances of the last 10 years or so hadn’t happened. This is what a classic FPS game should look and play like. It’s a direct line of progression from the classic id shooters – taking what has always worked and adding in a couple sprinkles of modernity to foster exploration and completion. I kept thinking that this was exactly what DOOM should be – not trying to shoehorn in a convoluted story, or contrived RPG elements; it’s fast, it’s brutal, it rewards execution and precision and has just enough bells and whistles to keep you looking in all the nooks and crannies. It’s a classic style FPS boiled down to the most important elements, and done so, so well.

That feeling that DOOM thrives on is possible because of how well the game plays. Maybe there were a handful of times I felt like the controls or mechanics didn’t work for me – the only one that jumps out at me is when the mantling didn’t take. You’re rarely in a position where those traversal elements actually factor into a fight though. Instead the combat is built around the foundation of all FPS games – circle-strafing and jumping. No aiming down sights, no thrust packs and sliding – just point, shoot, strafe repeat. The additions that 2016 brings – weapon mods/masteries, Praetor suit upgrades, Hell Runes and Glory Kills – all just add in a couple new layers of depth to the combat. And that combat is as brutal as brutal can get. DOOM certainly earns its M rating, but not through heady themes like drugs or sex – no, this is a pure, blood-caked, innards coated romp through Hell. The Glory Kills in particular are so over the top it’s incredible – there are a handful of animations I found myself chuckling at as my gruff Doomguy ripped and teared. It’s a game that is so self aware without showing it – some games like to give that little wink to the player, this one just knows exactly what it is and goes about its business. It’s challenging, it’s a love letter to the early days of the genre and at the end of the day, it’s a damn fun game. If you have yet to play it, and have any interest at all in FPS games – especially the foundation of the genre – this is the perfect game to get.

Late to the Party: Doom (2016)

I talked Monday about picking up Overwatch recently, but that wasn’t the only game that I finally took the plunge with. As part of the Bethesda Quakecon sale, Doom (the 2016 version) was marked down pretty well, so I went ahead and picked it up. I’ve been a fan of Doom games going all the way back, so I was excited to see just how this one measured up.

I’m currently through the first three missions in the campaign, and so far, on Ultra Violence the game feels very much like I want a Doom game to. It’s fast, it’s incredibly brutal and the story is engaging enough to keep me invested from one fight to the next.The newer mechanics that Bethesda and id put in work really well with the fast paced action – the mantling means that vertical spaces can be worked into fights; the Glory Kills are brutal as Hell and help encourage aggressive play and the modern changes to weapons and the Praetor suit help encourage you explore and find the collectibles. It manages to strike a pretty perfect balance between the classic FPS gameplay of the original games and still feel like an FPS that belongs in 2016’s landscape. I’m only expecting the game to keep the bar high as I keep playing the campaign.

Beyond the story though, I’ve dabbled a bit with the online modes as well – mainly for the achievements so far. SnapMap is a really powerful tool, while still being really accessible. The tutorials for it are straightforward and they do a great job of outlining the potential for the editor, while still leaving plenty of room for experimentation. Some of the maps on the browser are tailor made for achievement boosting, others show off just how powerful the tools are. It’s a really cool thing to see, I’ve always been a fan of simple, but powerful map editors in games, especially console games. The actual online multiplayer is exactly what I wanted it to be. It’s totally different from pretty much every other FPS on the market these days. It plays super fast, you need to have good map awareness and keep an eye on your health. No more regenerating health here, you had better keep track on your health and armor. Since the Glory Kills still are in the online scene too, it helps keep camping to a bit of a minimum, as the game modes do too. The weapons feel very much like the classic ones – the rocket launcher in particular is just as good a weapon as it ever was back in the hey-day of arena shooters. With the re-emergence of arena shooters over the last couple years – Overwatch, Quake, Battleborn(ish) – the fact that the original king is back and in great form just keeps the style at the forefront. If you have any interest in the history of FPS games, or just want to play a fantastic modern shooter, Doom is absolutely worth your time.

E3 2016: EA and Bethesda Press Events

It’s that time of the year again, E3 is upon us. Yesterday things got underway with two press events, one from EA in the afternoon and the other from Bethesda. This is always my favorite week of the year, there’s so much excitement and positive energy in gaming to talk about. And today, we’ll look at yesterday’s two pressers.

EA kicked the week off yesterday afternoon, and it was certainly an EA conference. The event itself was very stiff and felt really corporate, although I think the second site in London had a little better energy thanks to Peter Moore being on stage there. But I don’t really watch these events for the stage banter and presence – it’s always more about the games to me. EA was in a weird position to me this year – we already knew their big hitters going in, so it was more about if they had any surprises up their sleeves. Turns out, no not really. But they started with Titanfall 2, which looks to be a major step forward from the original. A true single player campaign that looks like it’s putting a lot of emphasis on the relationship between your character and your Titan. Some of the set pieces that they showed got me really excited to play – in particular the one where your Titan flings you across a massive gap into a wallrun. The multiplayer as well got its own trailer, showing off a bunch of new abilities for both pilots and Titans and it really made me want to get back into form. The original three Titans are being replaced with six new models, combining new and old abilities. It still looks like the scale the first game had is there, and the speed is still faster than most other shooters today. Really, really excited to play Titanfall 2 when it launches October 28, on XBox One, PS4 and PC.

As always, EA likes to show off their sports titles, especially FIFA. Last year’s show had Pele on stage, this year, they went a little quicker with the presentation. Madden NFL 17 was talked about briefly, with the bigger focus on the competitive scene. This year’s Madden NFL 16 finals will be shown on ESPN 2 of all places. They also showed plans to have multiple levels of competitive play online with Challenges, Premier matches and EA Majors. It’s a way for anyone to start getting into competitive gaming. Sticking with the EA Sports titles, they of course talked about FIFA 17. Along with a number of other EA titles, FIFA 17 is moving to the Frostbite engine, meaning it’s going to look better than ever. They’ve also put a new focus on telling a story with “The Journey” mode, telling your tale as you progress in the Premiere League. The other big focus – and part where they brought out the guest this year – was the addition of managers on the sidelines of the pitch.  In terms of actual gameplay changes though, expect better set pieces, better physical play, better off-ball AI and more ways to finish your shots on goal. It’s the usual EA Sports motto – keep refining the mechanics to make it the truest soccer game out there.

Stepping back in the show flow, one of the biggest games I was hoping to see more of was Mass Effect: Andromeda. So when the mentioned BioWare, I got excited. We still didn’t really see any gameplay, although we did learn a few new things. It’s going to be set outside of the Milky Way galaxy – that means totally new planets, species, technology, and perhaps most importantly, we are going to be the outsiders in the Andromeda galaxy. It’s going to use the Frostbite engine – no surprise there, it’s a massive upgrade in visuals from Mass Effect 3. Beyond that, we didn’t learn a ton – the footage showed an Alliance ship called the Tempest, which I think will end up being the new Normandy; and we know that the MAKO vehicle is returning, with the driving being worked on by Need for Speed developers. The new facial models look awesome, with a definite focus on emotion; I definitely want to see more, and we apparently will learn more this fall.

EA also showed their new EA Originals brand – it’s their take on indie development. Last year they showed off Unraveled. This year, it’s Fe. A game from a small team in Sweden, focused around exploring a young cub’s relationship with the forest it lives in. It has a real cool visual flair, using sounds and song to communicate with the other animals, and certainly seems to have a bit of an environmental message behind it. EA isn’t usually a publisher that I associate with strong indie development, but I was pretty happy with what I saw with Fe.

Of course, as soon as the mood was quieter, EA went loud, closing the show with Star Wars and Battlefield 1. Let’s start with Star Wars. EA said that there are seven developers working on different Star Wars games. We know that next year we’ll get a new Battlefront game, and from the video package, it looks like we might get some VR elements.The next year, Visceral will put out an action/adventure game. Beyond that, there’s a Respawn developed, 3rd person action game. The highlight here was a video package showing all of the work off, that really was a cool package. Of course, EA was always going to focus a lot on Battlefield 1. We got a new trailer, showing gameplay(?) that I still don’t quite believe is actual gameplay. II buy that it’s in-engine, but until I see clearly gameplay, I’m still a little skeptical it looks that good.That said, what they showed looked incredible – I couldn’t help but get lots of flashbacks to playing Battlefield 1942. I’ve thought that over the last few Battlefield games, the real visceral feel of the combat has been lost – that definitely looks like it’s back in this new game. I also really like the idea of the behemoths – huge vehicles that drive the combat. There are three that EA mentioned yesterday – the zeppelin, an armored train and a battleship, covering each of the areas of combat in a Battlefield game. With an open beta coming this summer, hopefully I’ll be able to get some hands on time in.

A few hours later, Bethesda had their own show starting up. Last year, Bethesda kicked off the week, with a killer show – bit of a lofty expectation to set. I think though that they managed to nail it this year. From the opening game, I was hooked. That’s because the opening game was the return of Quake – and it’s exactly how Quake should be, a competitive arena FPS. Quake Champions looks like it could be the logical step from what DOOM was last month – taking the foundation of the old-school and finding ways to take modern aspects and put them in. In this case, it’s the idea of individual characters with abilities. I’m a little cautious about it, because Quake is such a near and dear to my heart kind of game, but I’m really happy to see it back.

Next up was another look at Elder Scrolls: Legends, the mobile game coming soon. I can’t help but describe it as Hearthstone, Elder Scrolls Edition. It’s the same basic idea – strategy and deck building, with a variety of modes to play through. That wasn’t the only Elder Scrolls news though – we got the confirmation of a Skyrim remaster coming this October which looks gorgeous and brings mods to console, and a couple new bits of info for Elder Scrolls Online, the big one being that they are going to put globalized level scaling in place soon. Essentially that means that as soon as you’ve finished the tutorial, you can go anywhere in the world and do anything – the game will scale and level based around you and your group.

The other big Bethesda RPG series – Fallout also got some attention. Fallout 4 had its next three DLC packs outlined – one next week based around contraptions for shelters, one in July that lets you build your own Vault and the final in August set in a theme park called Nuka World. It’s just more of the Commonwealth, which is never a bad thing. Fallout Shelter is also seeing a new update, as well as a PC launch.

Bethesda also has a couple other IPs to be excited about. They finally announced the return of Prey, a game that has been a bit of an open secret over the last few years. I played the first game way back in the day, and really just thought it was a run of the mill FPS – what I saw last night was totally different and looked incredible. It’s got a much darker tone, more grounded in realism and perhaps showing some of the dangers of scientific experimentation. I thought it was curious that, although it’s the second Prey game, it didn’t have any branding as a sequel. It’s from Arkane studios, and I am very much intrigued by what I saw. The other IP is one that I’ve been a fan of since day one – Dishonored. Much like Adam Sessler said last night, it was my favorite game of 2012, and ever since the sequel was announced last year, I have been waiting for more. Boy did we get it last night – a new trailer along with two samples of gameplay. The new setting Karnaka looks gorgeous and does have a different feel from Dunwall. The new visuals look incredible, and the new engine they built for lighting and particles make the world feel a lot more alive. The gameplay immediately made me think of the original, just with even more options – especially when you take into account the two different characters have different powers. I am very much excited for November 11 when it launches.

One last thing from the Bethesda show that I was super impressed with – Bethesda announced that they are working on VR games. In fact, they have two games set for the HTC Vive platform to come out next year – the new DOOM that came out last month, and the big one – Fallout 4. As VR becomes more and more a reality, and the platform gets better at not only accessibility but the visuals as well, games like Fallout are the kind that were built for VR. I might not have a Vive, or even next year when it comes out for the platform, but the potential moving forward is incredibly exciting. Imagine the next Elder Scrolls game, combined with VR and the newer, more powerful consoles that we’re seeing this week. It’s these kind of announcements that really get me pumped to play games.

Yesterday really set the tone – new games, returning favorites and those lovely surprises that we all talk about for weeks to come. E3 is always fun to watch, and even more fun to think about where we’re going.

Weekend Gaming Thoughts: A Little Bit of Everything

This past weekend may have been the most exciting weekend we’ve had in quite some time for gaming. Between the new April Update in Destiny, the Falcon Lost Incursion in The Division, and open betas for DOOM and Battleborn there was plenty of new stuff to dive into. And dive I did this weekend, hitting it all except the new Division stuff since I’m still a little cool on that game. I wanted to talk a bit about what I played, even though I already did a little with Destiny and Battleborn.

With Battleborn, I played a bunch more story missions – both solo and in full five man groups. I started to try out other characters beyond Marquis as well and I have to say that of the characters I did play, I really liked them a lot. Oscar Mike – the stereotype soldier guy – is a fantastic pure burst damage character. His grenade skill can not only do burst damage with the explosion, but then add in the napalm DoT effect and it’s an incredible trash clearance skill. His ultimate skill is great for doing a massive amount of damage as well, assuming you target the spot right. Rath, who was by far my favorite melee character I played, is a neat character to play. I like his health steal on hit, it helps a offset a little his fragile nature. His skills help out tremendously with crowd control, and his ultimate is lovely for trash clearance and multi-target damage. Plus, he’s voiced by Christopher Sabat AKA Vegeta, so he’s basically the best ever. I was worried a little that melee characters would be a step or two behind in the story missions, but Rath at least did really well. The only part in the two missions where he let me down was in the final phase of the ISIC fight, because he flies all around and was aggroed on our El Dragon during that phase. Assuming that the rest of the story missions have similar engagements, it looks like melee characters will totally be viable choices. Battleborn went from being a game that I was ambivalent towards, to one that I’m very much interested in grabbing.

With the other beta this weekend, DOOM, I played that a bit less.I only played a couple games, but that’s because I think this is shaping up to be a really really good game. If you’ve played any classic id FPS – DOOM, Wolfenstein or Quake – you’ll be ready from the get go. This was easily the best pure arcade style shooter that I’ve played in years. It felt immediately like the old games, just with a sprinkling of modern trappings. It’s fast, it’s brutal, it rewards thumbskill and twitch shooting. If you come from the modern FPS games, you might have a little learning curve to get used to, but the game does it’s job really well. If this is at all on your radar, this is definitely a good sign. Since the beta was extended to today, if you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot.

Finally, I got to go through the Challenge of the Elders in the April Update in Destiny. I was worried that I wouldn’t get it in because I wasn’t close to 320 Light yet. And in fact, I’m still not 320 Light. But I was actually able to solo through the Challenge of Elders at 314 Light, which doesn’t exactly sound like much of a Challenge. It wasn’t super simple – the second room took me a good 6 deaths or so to clear. But because Small Arms is the modifier this first week, if you’re a little lower Light, you can easily make it up. I ran with Red Death and Cauterize on my Titan to get health back on kills to help since I’m solo, and it was done in like 40 minutes. Even with Variks taking points away, I was able to score over 40,000 points to earn a weapon from him. I did run it later with a couple buddies, which just further showed that this week in particular, challenge isn’t really the right word I’d use. That said, the actual activity itself is a ton of fun. Soloing it was the most fun I’ve had in PvE in a long time – it’s just total chaos the whole time. The rewards are maybe a little inconsistent, but that is kinda Destiny in a nutshell. It’s really fun, and cements my feeling that the April Update was exactly what the game needed.

Fallout 4 – Location, Location, Location

Dipping back into the bottomless well that is Fallout 4, today I want to talk a little bit about the Commonwealth itself. Going in, there were plenty of posts all over the web from people worried that the game looked too colorful, or too vibrant. And sure enough, it’s definitely a much more colorful world than Fallout 3 was, but coming right from New Vegas I can definitely see the progression that I think Bethesda is going for. If you look at the three games that they’ve published, there’s a clear progression of nature returning to the wastelands. Those three games take place over the span of ten years, starting with Fallout 3. Going beyond that, they take place in three very different locations in regards to the actual targeting of the bombs.

The lore of the game spells out most of the bombs hit out west, which makes sense since it was China that launched them. Of the three Bethesda games so far, Washington D.C. is the target that makes the most sense for an East Coast target. That’s why Fallout 3 looks so bleak – it got hit hard by the bombs. New Vegas (the city, not the game), despite being a symbol of American decadence really only exists as an economic location, and self-contained at that; which means that, compared with the California targets, probably wasn’t a very high priority target. Which brings us to Boston. Boston, to me, is in the same class as New Vegas. It’s not the biggest East Coast city – NYC is – and it’s not the most pertinent political target – Washington D.C. would be. Of course it’s still a cultural and economic target, plus it’s a huge city. That to me, more than just the time difference since the bombs fell, is why the Commonwealth is in relatively good shape. If the bright colors turn you off, you’ll really be missing out on one of the best games in a few years.

That isn’t quite all I want to talk about with regards to Boston though. One thing I keep finding myself saying as I explore the actual ruins of Boston is “damn, look at that ____.” Every corner seems to reveal some kind of awesome building or encounter to check out. The very nature of Boston makes it more fun to explore than D.C. to me. Boston has the same density of buildings and roads/alleys that D.C. does, but in 2287 has a lot more high rises that survived. There’s a hell of a lot more verticality to the Commonwealth than in the Capital Wasteland. Add in the updated graphics, and the more varied looking locations and, to me, Boston is the winner so far.

You’ll note that I didn’t mention New Vegas there. That’s because to me, New Vegas is much more about the wilderness areas. New Vegas itself isn’t quite the same hub style city as the greater Boston or D.C. Metro areas are. Where I think you can compare New Vegas to Fallout 4 is in those smaller outlying settlements. New Vegas is chock full of them – Goodsprings, Primm, NoVac, Red Rock Canyon, The Fort, McCarran – the list goes on. Fallout 4 has a similar list, they just are a lot smaller, and more spread out. The smaller cities like Cambridge, Lexington and Concord don’t quite fill the same role, but instead it’s places like Sanctuary Hills, Tenpines Bluff, Sunshine Tidings Co-Op, The Castle and so on. That’s a direct result of the addition of the Workshop system – taking places and making them into towns that function how you want them to. I’m still figuring my way around the Settlements mechanics, but I want to get something up this week about them.

A huge part of any Bethesda game is the in-between moments – those times when you aren’t going through a quest location and are wandering around the over world. Whether it’s Cyrodil, Skyrim, The Capital Wasteland, The Mojave Wasteland, or The Commonwealth, Bethesda might be the best developer/publisher at filling those empty spaces with value. Hell, the only developer that I even put in the same category is BioWare. Between the myriad different individual locations that can contain their own little stories, the very alive wilderness and the random encounters that always populate the world, there is always something exciting going on out there.

Fallout 4 – Atmosphere Even After the End of the World

I’m starting to really get into the portion of a Bethesda RPG where the little details are starting to really shine. I suppose you could get here faster, but I just play their games so slow it takes me a few days to really feel it. Fallout 4 so far has done a fantastic job of really raising the bar for Bethesda’s work with atmosphere and world building. I’ve always been a big fan of their work with that in Elder Scrolls but for because of the nature of Fallout it makes it a little more difficult to really feel alive. That’s not the case this time around. The Commonwealth Wasteland feels much more alive – in more than just the major settlements. The in between spaces have life – whether it’s finding the little bits of history, or stumbling across hidden enemies.

Bethesda might be the best developer at putting in little spots throughout the game world that have no direct impact on the story, but add so much to the experience. One of my favorites so far has been a small house in the Northwest portion of the Commonwealth. It’s nothing special, just a handful of Ghouls outside of it, and a broken down power relay tower on the front yard. But inside the house you can find a locked, hidden root cellar, with a named Ghoul behind another door. He’s got a barrel of radioactive material with him, but what makes this so neat is the terminal there. It holds his manifesto, with him furious about the relay tower. To illustrate his point, on his workbench you can find the pieces necessary to build a Mini-Nuke. There’s no reason – that I’ve found yet, or could imagine – to ever be directed there by the game. But if you do go exploring and take the time to really look through it, you’ll find tons of little self-contained stories like that all over the place. That’s always been something that Bethesda does incredibly well.

The other area where I think Bethesda has stepped up their game here is in terms of making the enemies a lot more vibrant. In previous games Ghouls were pretty easy to spot – if they were being sneaky, they just would be crouched somewhere in a room. Still easy visible and even targetable with V.A.T.S. That’s not necessarily the case anymore. Ghouls lie down when they’re not active, looking like dead bodies – or streaming in through windows and holes in ceilings/floors. They may not be zombies, but the Feral Ghouls definitely act like them now. Then you have Mirelurks – giant mutated crabs/lobsters that hand around water. It’s one thing to be able to plan your attack. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of stepping on top of one, because their dormant state has them pretty much buried in the ground. That’s a pretty common trick I’ve noticed in the Commonwealth – Mole Rats burrow underground to pop up and attack you, and Radscorpions follow suit. In a game where past experiences taught me that there were no surprises in fights, this is a hell of a switch.

A lot was made before the game launched about the new color palette and that there actually was color. The new engine basically lets Bethesda make a world that looks like the real world probably would, given the circumstances of Fallout. The new human models actually look like people – the power of the character creator in particular is pretty impressive. The new animal enemies look really brutal – especially the Radscorpion and Mirelurks. Adding in weather elements makes the world feel like it’s actually real – fog rolls in, rain starts to fall, and you can tell even if you’re inside. Sure there a couple things that I’m still getting used to – mainly the new leveling and dialogue systems. But in general, I really like just about everything Fallout 4 does. Once you get beyond the initial Bethesda-game Anxiety, where the game is just so damn big, and there’s just so much to do it can get a little overwhelming; that’s when I think you’ll really find that this is Bethesda’s best Fallout game yet. I can’t wait to see how they keep improving it moving forward.

Fallout 4 Combat Early Thoughts

Now that I have my Xbox One back and, more or less, back to the spot it was before it crashed on me, I’ve really been digging back into Halo 5 and Fallout 4. They’re both games that I’ve been looking forward for a big chunk of this year, so it’s fun to really dig into the mechanics of both games. Today I want to talk a little bit about the changes to the combat in Fallout 4, at least within the first handful of levels and quests. I know that there’s still a ton of little details to find out later on – especially once I really start putting skill points into perks instead of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats.

Of all the changes from previous Fallout games to Fallout 4, I think the combat is the one that’s taking me longer to really adjust to. That’s a good thing though, because the real root changes are for the best. Bethesda brought in developers from Bungie and id Software to help really nail down the combat. Those are two of the strongest FPS developers ever, so the core fundamentals are certainly improved from the previous games. The gunplay actually feels more like a shooter, and puts a little more value in thumbskill than it used to. From an RPG standpoint, that can feel a little blasphemous. And honestly, I think if it had happened way back with Fallout 3, I think it would have been a much bigger issue. But RPG’s have evolved a lot over the last 7-8 years. Games like Borderlands and Mass Effect and Dead Island have really combined RPG fundamentals with more dynamic action. Fallout 4 is just the next logical extension of the progression, brought to probably the biggest stage in modern RPG’s.

What I think is really keeping me from adjusting faster is just that I’ve been playing New Vegas so much in the last couple weeks. Those last generation Fallout games had a combat that was a bit more determined by your characters skill levels. Use a traditional lead and powder gun with low Gun Skill, and it’s going to be less accurate. That extends to the V.A.T.S. mechanic, which I always kinda thought was borderline cheating. Freezing time and getting more accurate shots directed at individual body parts seemed a little unfair. Both of those facets have gotten a pretty strong focus with Fallout 4. V.A.T.S. now slows time down, but enemies are still able to fight back while you’re trying to place your shots. It’s still a little cheap to me, but much more in line with the in-universe rules. That, combined with the new S.P.E.C.I.A.L. focus, helps decide if you’re really going to focus on V.A.T.S or real-time combat with your skill point allocation.

That real-time combat has evolved to a spot that I think really puts it into a good place. It’s certainly not setting the world on fire, especially compared with the current crop of FPS’s out now, but it’s definitely better than it used to be. I feel a lot more in control of my performance – where I aim, is where the bullet goes. That alone would be enough for the combat to feel better, for me. But Bethesda also added in more flexibility – with a melee attack and grenades mapped to a shoulder button. No more specifically equipping grenades instead of primary weapons – just have them equipped and you can toss them by holding down RB/R1 button. That means that I’ll be using them a lot more frequently. Same goes with the melee attack – you have a gun bash now, tied to that same RB/R1 button. Take out a Feral Ghoul’s leg and it’s immobilized – no more wasting ammo on it, go punch it till it’s dead. That extends to the more nuisance enemies – Mole Rats, Bloatflies, Radroaches all can be easily felled with a few gun bashes. It makes Strength important for any character build, not just melee and carry weight.

Combat is always an important part for any RPG, and Fallout has finally, I think, gotten a great system in place that really fits all the different combat styles. It works with melee or ranged, unarmed or explosives. It’s not flawless of course, but I think it’s a great step forward, and has me thinking about how Bethesda could apply what they’ve done here with Elder Scrolls. Fallout is a huge game, with all kinds of moving parts, so there’s a lot to digest. Hopefully I’ll revisit the combat in a couple weeks after I’ve really managed to get a lot deeper into the game as see how it holds up toward end-game content.

Fallout 4 – Initial Impressions (Finally)

After three weeks of waiting for my Xbox One’s service order, I finally got my console back yesterday and was able, after a good five years, to play the next entry in the Fallout series. I’m a week late with my initial thoughts on Fallout 4, but I do want to put down how my first few hours of playing got me thinking.

It’s hard to judge a game like Fallout 4 after such a short time. With a game like Destiny or Halo I can kinda tell after a handful of hours how the game is going to shake out, especially with multiplayer. Fallout 4 is a totally different beast though. It’s a game where 40-60 hours is the low end of the expected spectrum. I’ve written in the past about my love for the Bethesda RPGs – the obscene number of hours put in with Oblivion and Skyrim and the two previous Fallout titles. Since my Xbox One went down, I went back into New Vegas and easily put in another 35 hours to my old save file. Really all that says is that the initial thoughts I’m having here with Fallout 4 aren’t really worth a whole hell of a lot.

That doesn’t mean that they are totally worthless. In truth, those first 10 or so hours have a pretty profound impact on how the whole playthrough will shape up. It’s hard for me to say with where I am in the game how it’ll play out, but from past experiences, I know that those first few areas and quests help define your character. In Fallout 3, once you left the Vault and entered the game proper, your first major Karma based decisions were all based around Megaton – the first true hub area in the game. In New Vegas it happens even earlier, with your decisions in the actual tutorial area of Goodsprings impacting your reputation with two different factions. Depending on how you want your character to evolve over the game, your choices in these places matter. That’s a big part of why when I started Fallout 4 I was going really slowly through those first few squares around Vault 111. I want to build up a few points to put into my S.P.E.C.I.A.L before I hit the meat of the game.

That meat, to me, starts with the Concord encounter and then back to Sanctuary. Which is where my current save is set – I’m currently in the process of rebuilding the town, which is a whole other topic to discuss this week. But in those first few quests, while you’re still learning the mechanics, Fallout 4 does a really great job of showing you just what world you’re in. Concord in particular is a perfect example of a Wasteland town – overrun with Raiders, and even infested one of the most dangerous creatures on the East Coast, a Deathclaw. You learn about lockpicking here, along with hacking terminals. You get your first chance to really enter conversation trees. You can start to decide what kind of weapons you’ll use. You learn how the new inspection mechanic works – containers and dead bodies no longer involve opening up a separate menu, it’s all very fluid – which is admittedly taking me some time to get used to. Then you get the Power Armor.

Power Armor has always been the Fallout mascot – there’s a reason it’s on all the packaging. It’s directly linked with the series, not only for promotion, but within the actual context of the game world. This is the first game where the Power Armor you wear feels special. It’s no longer just a piece of gear you put on to give you high damage and radiation resistance. Now it’s almost a character in and of itself. You actually have to power it with Fusion Cores. It feels like a totally different way to experience the game – and it makes me feel weird. I am a huge example of RPG anxiety in my playing. I worry about every item I find – if it is at all a little rare, I squirrel it away somewhere safe. In New Vegas I’m a Guns and Speech character – I talk my way out of sticky situations to try to make the Mojave more peaceful, and use my lead shooters to take out Caesar’s Legion. That means I should sell any Explosives or Energy Weapons I find, especially the unique weapons that are worth way more Caps. I don’t though – I have them all in my safe in Novac. I do that with armor too. So with the Power Armor in Fallout 4, my instincts all say to find some safe space and just leave it there, lest it get destroyed or lost.

Part of my worries with that seem like they don’t exist anymore – Bethesda took item condition out of the game. This is just one detail of a larger design ideology – you see it in the dialogue system too. Bethesda went the same route that BioWare has done with Mass Effect and to a lesser extent Dragon Age. They simplified all the RPG mechanics way down. Long dialogue trees with reputation and karma are gone, in favor of a more fluid system that leaves a little mystery to what you say. Item condition is gone to focus more on keeping you in the action. Individual Skills are gone in favor of everything being built around the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. All of that can be a bit of a shock – especially to longtime fans. As someone who is coming right off of New Vegas, it’s certainly tough to get used to. It’s almost like going from a college class to high school. All the same ideas are there, just in a little less detail.

Here’s the thing though, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Streamlining all those complicated mechanics helps open the game up to a larger audience. And for RPG purists, there are other places in the game that still have a lot of depth. The new skill system actually does have a lot of depth – since you only get one point when you level, it puts a lot more impact in your choices early on. The weapon and armor modifications are pretty crazy in how many choices there are. The workshop/settlements are in that same boat – it’s not at all unlikely that working on them will be a major portion of my play time.  There’s still a lot that I need to dig into with the game obviously, but early on, I have to say that I’m really enjoying my time in the Commonwealth. I’ll have a lot more to talk about with Fallout 4 in the coming days and weeks.

Fallout 4 – Pip-Boy Edition – Look It’s All I Can Do

With my Xbox One still being at the Xbox Service Center being worked on, I knew that today was going to be a bittersweet gaming day. And sure enough, on the front porch this morning was a lovely cardboard box from Gamestop with my Pip-Boy Edition of Fallout 4. While I can’t actually play the game yet, I can give you my thoughts on the collectors edition goodies today. And since I have been waiting five years for this game, I want to get talking about it as soon as I can.

As far as collectors editions go, this one is kinda hard to judge. Generally, I’m way more in favor of them having some kind of digital goodies to make their value worth it. Whether it’s exclusive items or a built in season pass, that helps make the collectors editions feel special as you’re playing the game. That said, I’m also a sucker for sweet physical loot. I love my posters and cards and strange coin from Destiny. I really enjoy my poker chips and playing cards from Fallout: New Vegas. Going into the Pip-Boy Edition, the biggest physical treat I had was the Batman: Arkham City statue. I think the Pip-Boy itself probably is a little bigger in the long run, so that’s kinda neat. It’s actually got a surprisingly big size to it, which kinda makes sense. I don’t really plan on wearing it a whole lot, but it’s definitely big enough for an adult to wear. I will say that some of the materials feel a little on the cheap side – but that could also be my specific one.I love the functionality with the new companion app though, and I definitely plan on using that app as I play through the game.

My other only real issue with the collection is that, aside from the Pip-Boy, there’s really not a whole lot of extras. Yes, there’s a Steelbook case – and it’s a fantastic one. It looks super sick with my other two Xbox One Steelbooks – Destiny and The Taken King. I love the use of the Power Armor for the main art, and the interior art being the garage from the reveal trailer is also a great touch. But that’s about it for special exclusives. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Perk poster comes with every physical copy, so that’s out. The Fallout 3 code also comes with every Xbox One pre-ordered copy, so that’s out. I really think that including the Season Pass with the Pip-Boy Edition probably would have made it a much more worthwhile collectors edition. As it stands now, I think it’s a special edition that really is built for hardcore fans of the series. I love my Pip-Boy, but people who are just getting into the franchise might not get the same feeling for this collection.

At the end of the day, am I upset I got the Pip-Boy edition? Not at all – I think it’s a really cool idea and will be a lovely addition to my growing collection. The Pip-Boy itself will probably be a part of my desk setup for a very long time. Do I wish that there was maybe one more little part to it? Sure, in particular the Season Pass would have been perfect. But I don’t think that ultimately it’s going to impact my feelings toward the game, nor will it impact the success the game has. It’s a cool thing for fans, and really that’s something that I love seeing developers do.

Fallout 4 Character Progression Thoughts

Shifting gears away from Destiny for a bit, today Bethesda put out a nice little article about the changes headed to character leveling and progression in Fallout 4. One of the things that I’ve been really curious about was what kind of changes were going to be taking place with that. Prior to today, we knew that there was something happening, but no specifics. Now we know exactly how it’s going to work – and I really like what they’re doing.

In the past Bethesda Fallout games, you had three things to keep track of – your character level, your skill levels and your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. Each one of those played a role in determining which perks you could select upon leveling up. In Fallout 4, that’s all being streamlined – character level still exists, and is still dictated by XP; but skills and S.P.E.C.I.A.L. are being rolled together. It sounds a lot more like you only will need to worry about your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats now – the perks you select will be gated based around the amount of points you’ve put into them. That seems like it could keep some players locked out of certain perks, but there are a couple things that should keep that from happening.

First, there isn’t going to be a player level cap. In that regard, Fallout 4 is going to be a bit closer to Oblivion. I would guess that certain enemies will scale with you as you progress, that way there’s always some challenge, even for end-game players. But it does give you even more opportunities to be able to grab, eventually, all the perks in the game. For a completionist like me, that’s a great aspect of the game. I already plan on sinking a ton of time into this game as it is, and the idea of being able to experience all the perks in one save file is a really nice thing. The other side of the coin though is that in order to put points into your S.P.E.C.I.A.L., you’ll need to use a top-level perk that lets you put a point into them. In previous games it was called Intense Training – with ten ranks. I would assume that there isn’t going to be a limit on the ranks this time around, but we’ll see.

What originally worried me about that shift was that it sounded like a limit to the number of perks available. The cap on S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats is still ten, which means 70 base perks. I was worried that would be it – 70 may seem like a lot, but in a game where 100 hours is bound to be the low end, that’s nothing. Luckily, today’s post cleared that up. Considering that a number of the perks have multiple ranks – many of which are where some of the classic perks will live now – the stat based perk count is looking to be right around 270. That’s a lot more appropriate for the scope of the game – and it gets better when you consider the likelihood that there will be quest-based and collectible-based perks. They confirm the latter by saying that the skill magazines now grant different levels of a perk, as you collect them. They used the Grognak the Barbarian skill book – a series mainstay – as an example, as it gives you the Barbarian perk.

Bethesda is saying that the pacing is closer to Skyrim‘s leveling, which I remember being pretty quick early on, before slowing down at the higher, more powerful levels. If that’s true, that should mean that we’re able to get a good base of perks early on, before we dig into the really tough sections (Deathclaws). From what they’ve been teasing with the perks, it looks like specializing in early game builds is probably in your best interest, while still allowing you to have a really well rounded character in end-game play. With the removal of skills, some classic perks have been looked at again and shaped into new forms that make sense with the new system. Gun Nut is a good example – it used to just be a boost to Small Guns and Repair, now it helps determine what weapon mods you can put together.

As we get closer to the November launch of Fallout 4, I find myself getting more and more excited for it. It was already my most anticipated game of the year, and while I am still trying to stay relatively blind as to a lot of details, things like this and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. videos that they’ve been releasing each week really help keep the hype high.