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Don´t believe the hype!

Okay, before you start to hate on me. Take a deep breath and just relax, because I´m not going to take a swing at “Fallout 4”. No, instead I´m going to share my thoughts on all the rants (most of the rants is aimed towards the graphics of “Fallout 4”), the hype and also my own expectations for Fallout 4. However, before I do that I just want to point out that I have been a fan of the Fallout series since the very first game. So I have been a fan for over 18 years time now, and yes. I have played through all the Fallout games (minus “Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel“, as I didn´t like the game all that much). Anyhow, I´m going to start with the “hype” part. As we all know, the Fallout 4 hype has been on going ever since that one day when Erik Dellums (Fallout 3 voice actor) hinted via Twitter that Three Dog (which Dellums voiced) would be returning (this was in January 2013). Nevertheless, the hype just grew even more over time.

In a way, the “Fallout 4” hype was “almost” as high as the hype for Half-Life 3 (with the big difference that “Fallout 4” would get to see the day of light for sure). And with time the expectations grew as well, and that´s also why I always tried to avoid the hype train (I did the very same thing with Half-Life 2). As too much hype tends to kill the gameplay experience (if you have very high hopes and expectations for something, then there is a risk that you might get really disappointed if things don´t turn out the way that you hoped for). My point would be this, shortly after that Bethesda showcased a +30 minute long gameplay video for “Fallout 4 “at E3 this summer. There were a lot of Internet buzz about Fallout 4 and the in-game graphics (Fallout 4 uses the Creation Engine). Long story short, quite a few people complained that Fallout 4 didn´t look good enough. In fact, some people even stated that there were no big difference between Fallout 3 (2008) and Fallout 4 (2015).

Vault 111 is the vault that the players will start at in Fallout 4 (it´s located in Sanctuary Hills, Massachusetts).

Rage trolls and haters

Well, people are of course free to think what they want. However, I don´t agree on that. Neither do I think that Fallout 4 is an ugly game. I also think that boogie2988 made a really good point in his old “FRANCIS RAGES ABOUT FALLOUT 4 GRAPHICS” video (which he uploaded in June this year). And that would be the fact that it´s all about the gameplay and having fun, because let´s be honest. What would you much rather have? A really good-looking Fallout 4 that´s fun to play, or a Fallout 4 with photo-realistic graphics that´s boring to play? I´m not saying that it´s impossible to have both (epic graphics and awesome gameplay). However, it´s a really hard thing to pull off in a huge open-world sandbox/RPG such as Fallout 4. And keep in mind that Fallout 4 offers 111,000 lines of dialogue, over 50 base guns (there are also over 700 weapons modifications in Fallout 4), and you can also build your own structures in the game as well (you can even upgrade your armor and fly around in your very own Vertibird!).

Fallout 3´s (2008) graphics Vs Fallout 4´s (2015) graphics.

Other than that, Fallout 4 is said to be 28GB big in data size. And the world of Fallout 4 is said to be about 30 square miles big (that´s twice the size of Skyrim). In other words, we will get a pretty large world to explore, enjoy and develop our character (s) in. And I bet that a lot of people will spend endless hours on just customizing their character (s) (the character customizing system is more advanced than ever before, and your kids will look like you as well, in one way or another). Fallout 4 will also be more open to modders (mods can be transferred from PC to Xbox One for example, and there will be mods for the PS4 version of “Fallout 4” as well). So no, I don´t see Fallout 4 as a Fallout 3.5 HD kind of game (or a Skyrim with Guns 2.0 for that matter). Nevertheless, Bethesda has a lot to prove with “Fallout 4”, as the hype (and people´s expectations) got even bigger after the launch trailer hit the Internet three days ago (the same can be said about the skyrocketing pre-orders as well). Thus comments such as this:

“The facial animations are especially disappointing. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet so far, but it seems like most faces don’t animate very much/very well except for the mouth. It’s a pity because something like that is complicated and less likely to be fixed with mods.”

“This part is SO bad!
And as cool as this scene is in theory, I can’t BELIEVE they seriously have their “terror” animations cycling and oscillating
around like an early-2000s MMORPG or something.People were complaining about the graphics and the art style…in my mind, the animations are the MUCH bigger sin. We should have expected this from Skyrim and before it, but…man…”

“It’s so sad because ever since I started playing Bethesda RPGs I noticed this. They always have REALLY bad animations. Like, it’s not even the engines fault, they are just done very badly. In Morrowind it was ridiculous, but Oblivion was a bit better. In Skyrim they finally got a diagonal running animation and added some slow down and accelleration phases to the animations. But still it was very lacking and everything just looked like puppets. Skyrim is one of those games that looks better in screenshots than in motion. Apparently still the same animators work for Bethesda and I don’t want anybody to lose their job,
obviously, but it seems weird that the producers don’t notice that all their games are quite obviously lacking in that department.

It’s a shame because you can see they put so much effort and love in other parts of the game and then these parts stand out like a sore thumb.”

“Who cares that Skyrim shipped with a massive bug in the PS3 version? Let’s continue to fling money at Bethesda without a demo for Fallout 4! – Liana K, Creator and Host of Agents of Cosplay

Hype and unrealistic expectations Vs releastic expectations

Dogmeat will once again accompany you (the player).

So do I believe that Fallout 4 will live up to all the hype? For me personally, with no doubt, and that goes for my expectations as well (and I think that I can speak for my two brothers as well). However, I can´t speak for everybody else. Because like I stated earlier, I never jumped aboard the Fallout 4 hype train to begin with. So I´m just going to take the game for what it is (and judge the game on those terms), and not let hype and super-high (and unrealistic) expectations ruin the gameplay experience for me. Don´t get me wrong now, there is nothing wrong with having expectations and hopes of course, but some people are demanding the almost impossible out of Bethesda. So those who’re whining about the graphics not being good enough in “Fallout 4”. Well, here´s some free advice from me. Simply don´t buy the game now, instead you should wait until the first “Fallout 4” graphic mods gets released (I bet that the first mod will be done and made in a couple of months from now).

So, what about my thoughts on grades and “Fallout 4 then? Well, I wouldn´t be too surprised if “Fallout 4” gets review grades between 90-95% (no matter the format). However, it remains to be seen how buggy the game will be on launch. Nevertheless, I´m quite certain that most Fallout fans will have a blast when “Fallout 4” launches on Tuesday (for Windows, PS4 and Xbox One). Personally I´m really curious about the dynamic weather effects and the new combat system in “Fallout 4”, as both will have a huge impact on the overall gameplay experience (the weather will even affect your odds in combat, for bad or worse).

With that said, what do you think about “Fallout” 4 so far? And do you think that “Fallout 4” will live up to the hype and your personal expectations? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Source:
Reddit

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.