Fallout 4 - PC

This game is just what I wanted. I can roam the wasteland alone or with a multitude of companions. The companions can get involved in the story also, often offering they're opinion on things. You can unlock exclusive perks by maxing out their affinity, which I would recommend. The build your own settlement system is awesome for sure, even if it's a little primitive in it's current state. Mods will likely fix that. By the way playing this on a PC is a must if you want to get the most out of your fallout experiance(sp?). The main quest is pretty awesome and rather deep considering past fallout games. Choices DO matter in this game and can have advantages or consequences latter in the game with out going into detail. Eventually you will have to pick a side and one or more factions may become hostile at a certain point, like most fallout games. The game play in this edition is significantly improved and feels much more streamlined compared to past titles. There are still plenty of enemy bullet sponges though. New to this game is "Legendary Enemies or Monsters" which will often drop unique or legendary equipment. Speaking of equipment, the weapon and armor mod and upgrade system is fantastic, and well thought out, though if you want the high ranking upgrades you will have to purchase the appropriate perks in the SPECIAL tree. Often with multiple tiers. Speaking of the SPECIAL system in the game it returns in this title but with a few changes, for the better though. No longer are your upgrades linear or "on a rail". If you have the appropriate amount of points in your strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, or luck you can go ahead and grab that perk you've been eyeing down the accompnying (sp?) skill tree even if you don't have the ones before it. The only part of the game I find to be disappointing is some of the textures in the graphics. I feel like Bethesda dropped the ball on this. I mean how much harder would it have been to clean up the textures on the NPC's outfits. It just screams LAZY. Other than some specific textures the graphics are pretty good, and great if you have a PC that can handle multiple texture mods, along with lighting and ENBs. The graphical concept is similar to fallout 3 with destruction and ruin all around for you to explore. BTW explore everywhere, there is always something good to find. All in all this is an excellent game for you to just loose yourself in. I wish there was a 4.5 star to give because at this point in the industry fallout 4's graphics should just be better. I will round it up to 5 though because it certainly deserves it due to all of the other awesomeness. Also, I've just barely scratched the surface of this game and would need several pages for a proper review. Thanks for the great game Bethesda! Clint Groesbeck AKA hotdogGT.

It's Fallout! Time to get back into the realm of death and destruction? Time to visit the possible future of our planet? Hmmm....well then get this game and start your life in the bleak future of our planet now! Seriously though this game is mesmerizing! It draws you in and slaps you around. Graphics are great but could have been much better considering the video cards running in our PC's today. Still overall it has great graphics. One thing to note is the game needs some polishing: Seems like Bethesda pushed it out a little early. I'm running an ultrawide monitor and this game does not have built in support for it. To get it to display on my 2560X1080 resolution monitor I had to edit the preferences INI file. No big deal for me but for those plug and play folks it may be a little daunting. Sounds are great as is the interactions between your character and others in the game including the dog, Dogmeat. Yes, you get a German Shepherd in the beginning of the game that does your bidding (to a certain extent) and you can talk to him/her. One thing I don't like is the small amount of customization the game has on the body of your character. Yes, you can change the face quite a bit but the body is just a simple triangle similar to Elder Scrolls but that is all it is where as Elder Scrolls has a bunch of other options for the body of your character. Is this a small thing? Depends on the person playing the game. I like a fully customizable character myself and you just can't do it in this game as it is now. Still, great game! Explore, build and check out one possible future of the planet!

I'm an old long-time gamer. I remember when the first Fallout was released. The story was different from anything else around. Most other RPGs were D&D fantasy like games. Here it was more...real. You would initially pick up familiar weapons and become a bit more high tech as the game continued. Fortunately, Fallout hasn't deviated much from the original formula. Of course, it's now a first (or third if you like) person shooter with the ability to go back to it's turn based roots in an inventive way. The stories get better in each version. The interaction between NPCs become more intimate each time. Now, you can't do some of the seedier things in the recent versions that you could in the original (like pimping out your wife or killing your dog) but you can still play either side of the morality line. If you played Fallout 3, it's much the same with an entirely new story. There's quite a bit more interaction with factions in this iteration. That seems to be the draw here and with that comes a few different endings depending on which faction(s) you side with. The game is great. It's a large world with a great main story line. Hours of additional content in the form of side quests. You can freely roam the area and run into additional encounters. The difficulty scales with your level so nothing is ever to easy or too difficult. But, if it is, you can scale the difficulty level in the settings. The content is a bit adult, so you probably don't want to get this for young children (hence the "M" rating). There's sex, violence, drug use, many other things that you might not want introduced into young minds.

Here's the deal. It's 2015, soon to be 2016. As the times change and evolve, so does culture. So do trends and expectations. Games must evolve and ride the waves just like any other facet of pop culture, but they must also hold true to some core elements, lest they alienate large chunks of their fan base. Bethesda has managed to walk that fine line while accommodating the wide and varying demands of today's gaming community. Yes, there is a lot of instant gratification in this game. It needs to be there to satiate the needs of the new gamers out there who really know nothing else. However, there are aspects of this game that require some reading, exploring and execution of a particular long-term strategy that may pacify the traditionalist out there. *****Some spoilers***** Some people may say that the RPG elements are lacking. That your options for interaction are limited. This is not entirely untrue. You are unable to go fully evil in this game. Your companions don't die, and sometimes you feel as though three of the four dialogue options are basically the same thing phrased slightly differently. In order to get special perks, you must raise your rapport with your companions to the highest possible level. Basically, you must be the good guy in the Commonwealth to fully open up your character. However, this isn't to say that you can't leave your companions at home (or take Dogmeat) and go on a killing spree of the various traders and other NPCs out there, if you so choose. But with no Karma in FO4, there's really no point other than to steal their stuff. In any case, there are ways of creating your own RP experiences... The weapons are very cool. You may read that there are only a handful of weapons, but this isn't the case. In fact, I think this lends itself to some RP possibilities here, especially if you like crafting. You can have a stock laser pistol, sure. But why not put some points into Gun Nut and create some cool mods for it? Make it automatic. Make it a heavy hitter. Shoot, make it a small sniper rifle if you want and throw a scope on it. After you're done, you can have two completely different weapons from the same stock weapon. Base building is a fun option, and again, it opens up some RP elements for those who choose to take it seriously. There are a bunch of great locations to build different sorts of settlements. I've taken a liking to the drive-in movie theater, since the overhang and tower create some really cool bridge and lighting possibilities. All you need to do is put some points into Charisma, pay attention to your settlement's needs, and, above all else, have some imagination. That's the core of role playing, is it not? I'm also thoroughly confused at people saying that the game is "too small". I've been playing since day one and still have huge chunks of the map that I've yet to explore. If you're an adult who doesn't have all day and night to play, Fallout will last you a good long while. I mean, besides the map, you have to take into consideration all of the buildings in the game. All the small ruins that may have a safe or crate with ammunition. All of the big establishments that you need to clear for the storyline or side missions. The subways, the overpasses, the fens, Salem, the market at Bunker Hill, etc etc. There is so much to see and do, you really should have no problem keeping yourself busy for a very long time. Fallout is not a flashy game. The graphics are not wonderful, but they could be a lot worse considering how grand in scale it is. The gunplay is top notch, the voice acting ranges from mediocre to superb as per usual with Bethesda titles. You just need to do yourself a favor and pick this up, or at least rent it, if you're playing on console. Open up your mind to what the Commonwealth has to offer you and you should have a very fun and rewarding gaming experience.

Great product! Excellent product to buy! Terrific games :-) A+++

Not bad. Not mind blowing as I would have expected given the time in development. Pros: HUGE world to explore out of the box, fairly interesting and fully voiced characters, and the crafting system/base building adds a new layer of game play to the Fallout universe. The new level up point system is overhauled and brilliant. You can pretty much pick whatever you want and build your player to exactly how you like them. Cons: Gone is the Karma system of 3 & New Vegas, and that bummed me out. You can just merrily do horrible things with no karma to make people think more or less of you. Instead each individual follower judges you on what you do, and each one likes or dislikes certain actions you take. Also, the almost instant inclusion of Power Armor at the beginning, and a very large supply of power for it, can make you rather OP through the early-mid parts of the game. In the old games you really had to work for your Power Armor. Add to that semi-easy access to things like the "Fat Man" mini-nuke launcher (I found 4 of them in my 1st 24 hours of play), makes you wonder what's gonna be left ahead. The base building\weapon crafting, while interesting, is more busy work than fun (to me, just an opinion), as you have to loot everywhere/everything to have enough materials to make any of the mid-best gear. The only con to the leveling up system is, to get a fully maxed out character you would have to get to level 200+ and once you hit 60, even the small baddies get amazingly tougher. Conclusion: You already have this game, you have your own opinions. :-). If you actually don't have it, don't let my cons list ruin it for you. This game is still massive and engulfing. As of this I have over 100 hours of playtime in and don't plan on quitting anytime soon. So go for it!

So here is the review after playing for 28 hours. Let’s start and say Fallout and Fallout 2 was and will be my favorite games of all time (now I can add Witcher 3 to that list) I did not like Fallout 3 for lack of being Fallout and being Oblivion with guns, but I enjoyed Fallout New Vegas a lot. I love TES series, but it’s not TES series we will be talking about here. Character System: We don’t have skill anymore just perks. The SPECIAL system became even more casual then Fallout 3. Combat: It not interesting and very outdated. Combat stopped being tactical. Super mutants don’t feel threatening at all. I play on hard. Dialogue system: There is no need to invest points into speech (there is not speech skill). Dialogue has only 4 options. 1) Yes 2) No 3) Question? 4) Sarcasm There is no writing involved. Dialogues are not fun. You dot need to use your brain at all. I like to hear my name in the game that was a nice touch. Quests: Side quest are go fetch that item and go kill everyone at the specified location. To join the BOS in the first game it was so hard but afterword’s it felt amazing. Completing side quest without killing anyone (never happened so far and I played 28 hours). There is a quest where it feels like there should be a peaceful solution, but there is none you should kill one side or the other. There is no third option in this game. Equipment: I like how power armor is designed in Fallout 4. But it stopped being special it need no skill. Everyone can use it. You can find it everywhere. Good thing all equipment is customizable (I like it a lot). Building: I don’t like micromanagement part at all. I would love to have the ability to gather resources and tell settler to build walls and everything else. At least have that option in addition to Farmville simulator. It’s not Sims it is fallout. Upgrading settlement is a great concept but very poorly implemented. Graphics: Graphics is not an issue for me since I like Fallout 2. I do have GTX 980TI and the rest of the good components so I would have appreciated having better graphics and physics like Witcher 3. Recycling old engine is just so... have no words but lazy and greedy. If was Bethesda I would be ashamed to release such product. Bugs: Never ending glitches. This game has 10’s of it. But it's ok, I don’t mind. All bugs can be fixed. Open world: Need to load game every time I enter a large building if super annoying for me and game breaking. I’m tired of never-ending loading screens. Gameworld is so small I would have been ok if there was something to do besides: * Killing everything * Retrieving objects and * do Minecraft things. Verdict: If you like Minecraft and FPS, in general, this is definitely game for you and must buy and most probably the game of the generation. If you like true RPG experience and you fan of fallout universe please stay away and don’t make the mistake like I did. Bethesda destroyed Fallout series with Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, thank god there was Fallout New Vegas (thank you Obsidian for that). Bethesda it was last time I trusted you to make real Fallout but no more. Score: 1 out of 10 (not 0 because robot can say my name and original art style of Fallout Series is back)

The story, gameplay, plot, and characters are all amazing. This game is a far improvement over Fallout 3 and it does indeed have a familiar, yet very different feel that works incredibly well. When you also combine the vast depth of crafting, trading, and settlement system this game is on a completely different level. Even the combat feels far more fun and I have yet to put a reason as to why - it just is. I'll let you read the dozens of positive reviews but if you're looking to get lost in a post nuclear world and learn to survive and thrive than this is the game for you. However, there are things to consider before getting this game: 1. Downloading: No matter how you get it for the PC you have to download parts of the game and depending on your connection, it could take a while. I have a fantastic provider so total installation time took around 40 minutes. This is an anti-pirating movement and is the way of the future for all games out there so it's just something we're all going to have to deal with as the folks who pirate software have forced the industry into this. 2. Steam: You need steam to play and yet again this is another anti-pirating movement. See above. 3. Know the minimum PC requirements: This game has minimum requirements set for a reason. If you don't meet the requirements then you can expect issues - it's as simple as that. On my 4 year old gaming PC (with only 6GB RAM and 1GB graphics card) it runs fine on high settings with some frame issues during certain scenes, but that's to be expected on a 4 year old PC. My friends’ 4 year old gaming PC does not meet the CPU or graphics card requirements and the game does not even load. 4. Crashes: The game may crash. I have not had any issues with this but others have (such as my friend). Make sure to appropriately update all your drivers, your operating system, and any other necessary system updates. Crashing sucks so contact both your hardware manufacturer and game tech support for further assistance and be VERY specific with your issues and system build. Be patient - the game is brand new and there's bound to be issues. 5. Bugs: The game will have bugs that overtime will likely be addressed. The game is both massive in scale and complicated. By default that's what sandbox games are. It's impossible to playtest every potential factor and possibility i've yet to encounter a main quest line becoming broken. 6. Poor Graphics: While subjective, I would say the the visuals are very fitting for the development/release date. No it's not cutting edge visuals and rendering but it is a sandbox game and therefor has certain restrictions that come with it. Graphics are important but gameplay is a priority and while we would all love for this look cutting edge next gen. it looks very good on the higher end settings and is playable by a wide audience, rather than power gaming PC's. I’m sure someone will make a extreme HD texture pack for those who want to lick their screens. 7. It's Boring: I would suggest at least 24 hours of game play are necessary to really get aquainted with how the game plays and explore some of the incredible locations within. Short of exploring the edges of the city, doing some gun/armor smithing, and tinkering with settlements will not give the full scope of what this game is all about. The difficulty setting can be adjusted at any time and I personally avoid the VATS system and free range it. Overall it's fantastic, full of character and I would agree with the predictions that this game is going to clean house as Game of the Year.