Zero Punctuation Review: Fallout 4 (Hilarious and On Point)

[Irwin John Finster]

This was hilarious. From the video:
"In general terms, Fallout 4 has bent over backwards for gimmicky ideas of 'what the kids want these days' (i.e. Minecraft) and has cut off some of its own bollocks to do it - or at least shaved them down with an orbital sander. The number of missions that just boil down to 'kill everything in this area and loot the place' is almost Borderlands-y."

"And the conversation system has been really simplified...the most you can usually do is agree to solve everyone's problems in a slightly snarky tone of voice."

"The various factions involved are rather alarmingly quick to trust. 'Wow you did one mission for us because you happened to be passing and it was on the way to the pisser! You have demonstrated total dedication to our cause and we've decided to make you our King!' This happens like three times."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/116433-Fallout-4-Review

Love Yahtzee and could not agree more.

 

[FearMonkey]

I wish they would put that up on YouTube already.

 

[Askorti]

Gotta love Yahtzee. His videos are pretty entertaining, don't think I've ever watched one where I wouldn't burst out laughing. And he is so on point here. Wish he was a bit more critical, but well, you can't have everything. He wouldn't have enough time to enumerate all the flaws.

 

[AgentBJ09]

As another commenter elsewhere pointed out, he didn't touch on the differences between an Action-RPG and Action Game w/ RPG Elements. Would've gone very well with this review, I'd say.

 

[Irwin John Finster]

As another commenter elsewhere pointed out, he didn't touch on the differences between an Action-RPG and Action Game w/ RPG Elements. Would've gone very well with this review, I'd say.

I think he went into that topic in one of his other reviews if you're interested - I think it was either Deus Ex or System Shock, probably Deus Ex 1 IIRC.

I personally disagree with the use of the category "Action game with RPG elements" because what they really are are "Action games with MMORPG elements." In other words, they take all the grindfest elements that have no place in singleplayer story-driven games and attempt to trick people into thinking that is a role playing game when its just more MMORPG grindfest second-job type stuff.

 

[randomnerd123]

As another commenter elsewhere pointed out, he didn't touch on the differences between an Action-RPG and Action Game w/ RPG Elements. Would've gone very well with this review, I'd say.

I think he went into that topic in one of his other reviews if you're interested - I think it was either Deus Ex or System Shock, probably Deus Ex 1 IIRC.

I assume he would if he had much of a history with the fallout series. He started on fallout 3 and found it to be the elder scrolls with guns, in which he just assumed the series is like that from then on: he played new vegas like an elder scrolls game (ignoring most of the settlements, wanting to focus getting to new vegas), and his game bugged out and gave up on it before things got interesting in the strip. Thus, he just assumed fallout 4 was going to be another bethesda RPG with kill stuff for fun/steal stuff for fun and left it at that.

 

[Irwin John Finster]

As another commenter elsewhere pointed out, he didn't touch on the differences between an Action-RPG and Action Game w/ RPG Elements. Would've gone very well with this review, I'd say.

I think he went into that topic in one of his other reviews if you're interested - I think it was either Deus Ex or System Shock, probably Deus Ex 1 IIRC.

I assume he would if he had much of a history with the fallout series. He started on fallout 3 and found it to be the elder scrolls with guns, in which he just assumed the series is like that from then on: he played new vegas like an elder scrolls game (ignoring most of the settlements, wanting to focus getting to new vegas), and his game bugged out and gave up on it before things got interesting in the strip. Thus, he just assumed fallout 4 was going to be another bethesda RPG with kill stuff for fun/steal stuff for fun and left it at that.

He gave New Vegas a good review and liked both Fallout 3 and New Vegas as far as I can tell. He still criticized their bad points because that's what critics do.

EDIT: One of my favorite moments was during his Let's Drown Out: Ark: Survival Evolved video where he and his friend Gabriel are discussing the recent E3 event and Gabriel said "I really like where Fallout 4 is going" and Yahtzee paused mid-sentence just to reply "Oh...well...you're dumb then."

 

[ZigzagPX4]

Ah, Yahtzee. My favourite reviewer. Every single one of his videos have been on point so far, and he admits whenever he inserts opinions into his reviews. And they're hilarious, because British wit.

I'm guessing he skipped touching on the plot again to avoid spoilers. Here I thought he was going to be a lot more harsh about how overhyped the game was.

If anything, most of my game choices these days are based heavily on his reviews. Not mainly, since his summaries are usually too short to make a proper review out of it, but they're a good influence. I went through his entire playlist of old videos and found that every single one of his reviews and future predictions were spot on. He coined the term "PC Master Race" too, though it was to criticise the elitism of PC players rather than support them.

I think the only opposing view I've ever had with his reviews would be the ones for Borderlands. I enjoyed Borderlands 2 quite a lot (no surprise I would enjoy Bethesda Fallouts), despite the repetition. Certain games just have enough charm to interest me long enough, and in turn it makes the repetitive gameplay actually feel fun. Like the Just Cause series for example. You do the same thing the whole game yet it doesn't lose its charm.

 

[Irwin John Finster]

Ah, Yahtzee. My favourite reviewer. Every single one of his videos have been on point so far, and he admits whenever he inserts opinions into his reviews. And they're hilarious, because British wit.

I'm guessing he skipped touching on the plot again to avoid spoilers. Here I thought he was going to be a lot more harsh about how overhyped the game was.

If anything, most of my game choices these days are based heavily on his reviews. Not mainly, since his summaries are usually too short to make a proper review out of it, but they're a good influence. I went through his entire playlist of old videos and found that every single one of his reviews and future predictions were spot on. He coined the term "PC Master Race" too, though it was to criticise the elitism of PC players rather than support them.

I think the only opposing view I've ever had with his reviews would be the ones for Borderlands. I enjoyed Borderlands 2 quite a lot (no surprise I would enjoy Bethesda Fallouts), despite the repetition. Certain games just have enough charm to interest me long enough, and in turn it makes the repetitive gameplay actually feel fun. Like the Just Cause series for example. You do the same thing the whole game yet it doesn't lose its charm.

I wanted to like Borderlands because it has the aesthetic and game world to be a great RPG game, but I agree with Yahtzee's assessment of the series. For me, it's spelled Bored-er-lands. Fallout 4 plays like a Borderlands 3, and if Fallout 4 WAS ACTUALLY Borderlands 3 I'd say it was a tremendous improvement on the series instead of a tremendous dumbing down of it.

 

[SaucyLad]

This was hilarious. From the video:
"In general terms, Fallout 4 has bent over backwards for gimmicky ideas of 'what the kids want these days' (i.e. Minecraft) and has cut off some of its own bollocks to do it - or at least shaved them down with an orbital sander.

I think this guy gives the Settlement system too much blame for what's wrong with Fallout 4. I doubt Settlement building costed Bethesda too much to make or even required much of their time to implement. So blaming it is really silly.

What really made Fallout 4 suck was its story, story telling, player interaction with the storytelling (lack of speech/SPECIAL checks), lack of fact checking on established lore on Bethesda's behalf, etc. We knew it was awful two years before its release though:


When that leak happened people commented how horrible the writing was. How linear the dialog progression seemed. And Bethesda gave no fucks. They kept trekking on, making the game the same way it was written in that leak despite having user feedback that it was awful nearly two years prior to release.

If Fallout 4 had a good story & dialog system I believe people would have a higher opinion of the Settlement system because it does have the potential of adding a bit of replay value to the game and is even good for immersion. But because it doesn't it somehow gets the blame.

 

[Irwin John Finster]

This was hilarious. From the video:
"In general terms, Fallout 4 has bent over backwards for gimmicky ideas of 'what the kids want these days' (i.e. Minecraft) and has cut off some of its own bollocks to do it - or at least shaved them down with an orbital sander.

I think this guy gives the Settlement system too much blame for what's wrong with Fallout 4. I doubt Settlement building costed Bethesda too much to make or even required much of their time to implement. So blaming it is really silly.

What really made Fallout 4 suck was its story, story telling, player interaction with the storytelling (lack of speech/SPECIAL checks), lack of fact checking on established lore on Bethesda's behalf, etc. We knew it was awful two years before its release though:
View attachment 2463

When that leak happened people commented how horrible the writing was. How linear the dialog progression seemed. And Bethesda gave no fucks. They kept trekking on, making the game the same way it was written in that leak despite having user feedback that it was awful nearly two years prior to release.

If Fallout 4 had a good story & dialog system I believe people would have a higher opinion of the Settlement system because it does have the potential of adding a bit of replay value to the game and is even good for immersion. But because it doesn't it somehow gets the blame.

I agree entirely - I think the settlement system, the weapon/armor/chemistry crafting, and all the procedurally generated base-clearing quests, along with all the other repetitive MMORPG stuff would be a great addition to the game if they had still put a great singleplayer story-driven RPG in the game. Then it truly would be contending with Witcher 3 and with other Fallout games as it would have the best of both worlds - these optional MMORPG grinds you can engage in whenever you want, and a great role-playing game with great dialogue system and writing. But without the story and dialogue, it becomes Bored-er-lands.

 

[AgentBJ09]

This was hilarious. From the video:
"In general terms, Fallout 4 has bent over backwards for gimmicky ideas of 'what the kids want these days' (i.e. Minecraft) and has cut off some of its own bollocks to do it - or at least shaved them down with an orbital sander.

I think this guy gives the Settlement system too much blame for what's wrong with Fallout 4. I doubt Settlement building costed Bethesda too much to make or even required much of their time to implement. So blaming it is really silly.

What really made Fallout 4 suck was its story, story telling, player interaction with the storytelling (lack of speech/SPECIAL checks), lack of fact checking on established lore on Bethesda's behalf, etc. We knew it was awful two years before its release though:
View attachment 2463

When that leak happened people commented how horrible the writing was. How linear the dialog progression seemed. And Bethesda gave no fucks. They kept trekking on, making the game the same way it was written in that leak despite having user feedback that it was awful nearly two years prior to release.

If Fallout 4 had a good story & dialog system I believe people would have a higher opinion of the Settlement system because it does have the potential of adding a bit of replay value to the game and is even good for immersion. But because it doesn't it somehow gets the blame.

Reminds me of Thief 4 and how before release, old Thief fans like me knew what a shit-show it was gearing up to be, said something in response, and Eidos ignored us. And look where that got 'em.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

I agree entirely - I think the settlement system, the weapon/armor/chemistry crafting, and all the procedurally generated base-clearing quests, along with all the other repetitive MMORPG stuff would be a great addition to the game if they had still put a great singleplayer story-driven RPG in the game. Then it truly would be contending with Witcher 3 and with other Fallout games as it would have the best of both worlds - these optional MMORPG grinds you can engage in whenever you want, and a great role-playing game with great dialogue system and writing. But without the story and dialogue, it becomes Bored-er-lands.

I still wish there would be an alternative to collecting all that garbage in order to improve gear, like if you set up trade of food and water and make arrangements with traders that they will drop off stores of metals, woods, screws, computer chips, glass, and so on in return.

 

[Askorti]

I still wish there would be an alternative to collecting all that garbage in order to improve gear, like if you set up trade of food and water and make arrangements with traders that they will drop off stores of metals, woods, screws, computer chips, glass, and so on in return.

You can build some sort of a bench in your settlement, assign a settler and he will randomly generate scrap materials for you. Dunno how much they produce though.

 

[Hassknecht]

I still wish there would be an alternative to collecting all that garbage in order to improve gear, like if you set up trade of food and water and make arrangements with traders that they will drop off stores of metals, woods, screws, computer chips, glass, and so on in return.

You can build some sort of a bench in your settlement, assign a settler and he will randomly generate scrap materials for you. Dunno how much they produce though.

Not all that much, but yeah, it's there.
I'm not so sure right now because I didn't really go into the settlement building stuff, but can you set up caravans? I vaguely remember reading something like that...

 

[Askorti]

I still wish there would be an alternative to collecting all that garbage in order to improve gear, like if you set up trade of food and water and make arrangements with traders that they will drop off stores of metals, woods, screws, computer chips, glass, and so on in return.

You can build some sort of a bench in your settlement, assign a settler and he will randomly generate scrap materials for you. Dunno how much they produce though.

Not all that much, but yeah, it's there.
I'm not so sure right now because I didn't really go into the settlement building stuff, but can you set up caravans? I vaguely remember reading something like that...

You can set up connections between different settlements, which basically gives you access to stuff from other settlements. As in, if you have lots of junk stored in one workbench, you will be able to use it to build stuff in another settlement that is connected to it. And that's pretty much it.
And this is worth, I believe, 7 charisma and 2 points in "local leader". Did it once, was extremely disappointed. But stuck with it, because I didn't really have anything important to spend perk points on.

 

[ZigzagPX4]

Ah, Yahtzee. My favourite reviewer. Every single one of his videos have been on point so far, and he admits whenever he inserts opinions into his reviews. And they're hilarious, because British wit.

I'm guessing he skipped touching on the plot again to avoid spoilers. Here I thought he was going to be a lot more harsh about how overhyped the game was.

If anything, most of my game choices these days are based heavily on his reviews. Not mainly, since his summaries are usually too short to make a proper review out of it, but they're a good influence. I went through his entire playlist of old videos and found that every single one of his reviews and future predictions were spot on. He coined the term "PC Master Race" too, though it was to criticise the elitism of PC players rather than support them.

I think the only opposing view I've ever had with his reviews would be the ones for Borderlands. I enjoyed Borderlands 2 quite a lot (no surprise I would enjoy Bethesda Fallouts), despite the repetition. Certain games just have enough charm to interest me long enough, and in turn it makes the repetitive gameplay actually feel fun. Like the Just Cause series for example. You do the same thing the whole game yet it doesn't lose its charm.

I wanted to like Borderlands because it has the aesthetic and game world to be a great RPG game, but I agree with Yahtzee's assessment of the series. For me, it's spelled Bored-er-lands. Fallout 4 plays like a Borderlands 3, and if Fallout 4 WAS ACTUALLY Borderlands 3 I'd say it was a tremendous improvement on the series instead of a tremendous dumbing down of it.

My opinion is actually this - there's a time and place for everything. Some games work better by being repetitive, most don't. Borderlands is casual, humour-driven, and meant to be something a group of friends are meant to sit through and just mess through, comparing loot and co-op made that obvious. But it isn't what I come to Fallout for. I'm find with Borderlands the way it is, but Fallout needs to start making its own ground. Like I said a lot of times, it has an identity crisis.

So it doesn't want to be a good tactics RPG, but doesn't try to be a good FPS either. It wants to streamline for more casual players but doesn't go the effort to improve performance, graphics, and leave bugs in the game. The entire thing as it stands now has no focus. It attempts to be a collection of dozens of gimmicks and well-known game mechanics. But we all know what happens when you aim for everything - you end with nothing.

 

[FalloutFan85]

That site is shit, they are contrarians just for the sake of being contrarian. Shitting on an shitty game is easy.

 

[Ilosar]

I still wish there would be an alternative to collecting all that garbage in order to improve gear, like if you set up trade of food and water and make arrangements with traders that they will drop off stores of metals, woods, screws, computer chips, glass, and so on in return.

You can build some sort of a bench in your settlement, assign a settler and he will randomly generate scrap materials for you. Dunno how much they produce though.

Not all that much, but yeah, it's there.
I'm not so sure right now because I didn't really go into the settlement building stuff, but can you set up caravans? I vaguely remember reading something like that...

Once you have Local leader, run up to a slave, errr settler in Build mode and you can send them to a settlement as Provisioner. Which means that what's stored in the workshops in settlement A can be usable in settlement B, as far as I get it. They will visibly start walking around with a pack Brahmin and such. Local Leader 2 allows you to set up shops in your domains, albeit I don't know how good those are.

 

[Askorti]

Local Leader 2 allows you to set up shops in your domains, albeit I don't know how good those are.

They generate money depending on how big your settlement is.
And the best shops have some high end toys(depending on your level of course), but I wouldn't say they are any better than stuff you can buy at normal traders'.