Fallout 4 - Why Details Matter

Skelok

Skelok

Mad Man with a Mad Plan
This is an unlisted video posted by Bethesda's YouTube account. It includes new commentary and some new gameplay. Thoughts?



Let me know if your having any problems watching the video.
 
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I definitely like the new color scheme, as refreshing as it is I still wish to see more plant life. I wonder if the radiation storms are a good explanation for the lack of plant life? But wait, how could people grow crops? I really hope we see plants and farms in this next installment.
 
Stalker-like blowouts? Sounds interesting, but only if the effects will be more of "Seek shelter or you die" rather than "A few more rads, whatever".
 
Too much graphical focus, though, if we're being honest, that sums up most of the leanings of the industry and player demands.
 
Details matter... except in rpg mechanics, dialogue writting and setting building. In those you can just throw wathever in, I mean most nerds can't even tell the difference between a good and bad story in the first place.
 
Skelok said:
This is an unlisted video posted by Bethesda's YouTube account. It includes new commentary and some new gameplay. Thoughts?
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The world looks more vivid and realistic.

ChildServices said:
Well it's certainly pretty. What disappoints me though is "details" to them seems to mean "GRAPHIXXX™ SPONSORED BY GUNNAR OPTICS™"
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Its about world and interior design, think a long the lines of the silly "where is the food" meme
 
But do you actually need it? Does it really enrich the gameplay, as far as the game as Role Playing Game goes? I am not saying new graphics and better use of technology arn't welcome. They are VERY welcome! There is no reason not to use new engines and to update those. But having 5 different models of the same Fork? Or Teddy Bears and Garden Gnomes you can pick up? Would a game like Fallout 1 be a better game if you had 10 times the number of junk items to pick up? I would say it would be actually a worse game. And what I find funn in particular, because I had this discussion a few times, is how some explain the reason with this one weapon in the game that shoots garbage at enemies ... and it is actually seen as a big and important feature.

But since Fallout by Bethesda is actually a theme park and closer to the Sims in terms of gameplay it is no surprise that they have a very high focus on visual fluff rather than what actually gives an RPG the bones where you have the meat on. Story. Consequences. Good writting.
 
The color scheme is just so... Sunset Overdrivish...

I liked the ugly and depressing grayness better.
 
This doesn't solve the "where do they get food" question (it's not a silly meme, unless of course Fallout 3 fans find quality writting silly). If only it only makes the problem worse if they haven't worked on actually building the world to show how it works on such matters. If you can pick up 3 types of sporks, or if teddy bears have shirts and you can even pick up worthless junk items for giggles yet the game still has a theme park design, no farms, no trading routes, not even relationships between settlements then it will be even dumber now that there is more visual representation of completely useless things while they are trying to sell a world where people are trying tu survive yet they have no visual representation on how they are they doing it exactly or how they are failing.

But people want to pick up garden gnomes, so I guess they are just giving their player base wat they want.
 
TBH "Frostfall, but for Fallout" type gameplay would immediately push the game up a point for me. Skyrim is unplayable without mods like Frostfall installed.
 
Crni Vuk said:
But do you actually need it? Does it really enrich the gameplay, as far as the game as Role Playing Game goes?
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Assuming that you are asking just that, and not using this as segway to complain about writing. Then yes, everything Todd said is spot on. In FP openworld game, most of your time will be spent exploring the environment, and adding visual verity and more interaction options is important. The level of detail will help conveying the story the designers are trying to tell (visual storytelling), sometimes using your imagination is far better then spoon fed infodumps.
 
Why would you want a complex Skill system, more than 4 dialogue options and good writting when you can find 3 different kind of spoons?
 
@fred2 is right that the particular feature of paying attention to visual details enriches the gameplay. The problem is that it seems like that's their only focus, and that they are dumbing down everything else, and that won't be balanced by a few visual effects and different walls and what not IMO.
I'm personally not against having great looks. I'm against the game being *just* great looks and no substance.
Having said this, I could be against great looks if that means I can't play it because I need a U$S3k computer, but I hope they are at least somewhat efficient in their programming, or allow me to disable features like any sane game allows. At the time of GTA IV, for example, I never managed to finish the first mission, because it ran infuriatingly slow. Around a frame per 5 seconds. Really.
 
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fred2 said:
Crni Vuk said:
But do you actually need it? Does it really enrich the gameplay, as far as the game as Role Playing Game goes?
Click to expand...


Assuming that you are asking just that, and not using this as segway to complain about writing. Then yes, everything Todd said is spot on. In FP openworld game, most of your time will be spent exploring the environment, and adding visual verity and more interaction options is important. The level of detail will help conveying the story the designers are trying to tell (visual storytelling), sometimes using your imagination is far better then spoon fed infodumps.
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Yes ... I know what you mean. Feeding teddy bears and garden gnomes to your crap-luncher - because that is pretty much all you can do with that garbage you find - so you can burst the heads of raiders is incredible important for story telling.

 
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Well, I wouldn't mind being able to kill people in very impractical ways, like with a fork or a spoon.
 
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