Fallout 4

The story could come across like that. But it could still be quest driven. Or segmented into different games a la bioware... just the map is the same in each game with key areas being altered each time.

True. Still doesn't sound like Beth's model for things. Maybe Obsidian?

yeah. But my cynical side says that the bugs alone you'd get would rewrite reality.... I kid of course.

Beth's games I love, but they always seem to fall short of the wider potential. Like, they're great engineers and design wonderful machines. But the machine on closer inspection seems wonky, or a mannequin.

Either way, I'm looking forward to what they try next... after they've tried converting every bloody game to VR, or making Skyrim run on a toaster.

Unless that toaster does VR, I don't think they'll try it. VR is their thing now. I don't know if they want to go full VR and abandon us regular folks, but they have laid out that they are dedicated to making it the next big thing, and that involves tactile feedback. When they say the tech doesn't exist yet, they most likely mean VR tech isn't strong enough to run the game yet. I hope they'll have enough attention to give us another non-VR version of their next installments in this and Elder Scrolls, but . . .

Unless we make it very clear to them that VR will never be as profitable as they need it to be, I doubt we'll see them put their focus back mainly on PC/console. They're probably doing all those other Skyrim ports to fund their VR research.

ETA: In the current job climate, I can't even see holodecks being profitable outside of a niche company. All that movement . . . most people work way too much to enjoy motion controls to that extent. They're always going to want some form of entertainment they can just sit down for.

edited 29th Nov '17 8:44:41 AM by Journeyman

And how many people have a living room with the space to dedicate to VR (Even static VR).

I feel if they go that way it's very blinkered - it's so niche it can't support bethsoft or Zenimax overall. They'd be mad to. Mind you, where I work, VR is the buzzword but I have yet to hear of a SINGLE client of ours actually ask for any development or prototyping in the tech implementations.

We'll have to see how things go in the next 5 to 10 years. Assuming the economy doesn't implode from the U.S. government shutdown that's likely to happen. IF they can make it cheap enough, and cut down on the health effects, there might be more room for it. Still not sure it'll ever be enough to run a Bethsoft level company, but it might be better.

Apparently a lot of people really like VR and it's not too much of a health drag as is.

Stand up and be counted, 'The revolution will not be digitized!'

I mean, sheesh. You don't have to like it, but if they've got the money and this is what they want to work on? Let 'em. It's up to Bethesda how they want to spend their profits. I'm not too optimistic about this thing really taking off for them as a giant moneymaker, but as a long-term investment in the technology, in a proof of concept for future investors, in trying to make it feasible rather than simply milking the cash cow, I'm sort of glad someone is trying this on. Even if I'm not really in the market for a VR hookup myself, the state of the technology being what it is.

It's my natural pessimism coming through, really. See, the way they've been talking makes it seem pretty clear that they're holding back on any more of their Fallout and Elder Scrolls games until they get VR tech up to snuff for them. I like those series the way they are, really, and the way people look at VR is a bit different than that. I don't want to have to strap on a headset to go back to Tamriel or the Fallout verse. And I'm just worried that that's where they're going.

Now, MAYBE the tech they're talking about is a new engine. I could get behind that. But they've given no indication they're looking to revamp Gamebryo. They HAVE been talking a lot about VR. So that's where all of this is coming from. IF they plan on doing both, and can do them both well, then great. I am all on board. I just don't know that they aren't testing the waters for switching their focus, and trying to pull a complete changeover to VR once the market is sound.

ETA: Plus for all my talk, I didn't mean anything special. Just that if we want them focusing mainly on PC, we shouldn't buy the VR products. Obviously, if people do want VR, they are going to buy them and we'll have to see where Bethsoft falls in the future. They've got plenty of money. They might just manage both pretty fairly.

edited 29th Nov '17 9:32:48 AM by Journeyman

My "objection" is more a personal one - though I don't see the market demand. Of course, it is their train set so power to them for doing what they want. But the constant re release of Skyrim are a tad irritating, almost memetastic...

And it's because I just want MOAR. So, y'know, entitled gamer yes.

My concern does stem from all this focus going into a niche, expensive system that then doesn't pan out, which could threaten the future of the franchise (unlikely, given the size of Zenimax) but still. And also, VR doesn't appeal to ME, but doesn't mean it won't track well overall.

For the time being, I haven't got the free space or freedom of movement to handle real VR. If it's still a big thing and growing when I have the free income/space to devote to it, I might change my tune. In the meantime, I doubt VR will ever replace consoles and computers, just stand beside them as an option. I don't want Beth to ditch those in favor of this, and I'm just worried they'll do it.

ETA: The best thing I can hope for is that they take a lesson from Doom VFR. Doom and VFR are NOT the same game. VFR is a spin-off built for VR's unique needs. If Bethsoft can prove out the viability of VR, and then Zenimax/Bethsoft spin off a new company devoted to it, while leaving the old Bethsoft to continue with PC and console games, that's awesome.

edited 29th Nov '17 9:51:05 AM by Journeyman

(shrugs) I'm not (worried, that is). They're still going to need a revenue stream, and it strikes me as more likely that they'll use this as a springboard, a 'look what you're missing out on!' kind of killer app. I'm not saying they'll succeed, but I don't imagine they'll burn their bridges just yet.

Still, even if early adopters like Bethesda do get burned, we're not going to move forward without them, and I admit that this is technology I would love to see bear fruit... Eventually.

edited 29th Nov '17 9:53:36 AM by Unsung

Obviously. It's one of the seeds for the holodeck tree.

Admittedly, there isn't currently much to found my fears of abandonment yet. Hopefully there never will be. Just with all the other stupid decisions companies make these days, and the way people get greedy, I am a bit jumpy about this stuff.

Maybe in their absence, another competitor can put out a Bethesda-style RPG?

I'm reaching.

Which is why they should sell the engine like RPG Maker. I mean, I personally would love to get my hands on the engine so that I can try to make a game like Fallout or Skyrum (though I doubt I'd be able to do anything good), so I'm sure the hundreds of hard core modders would go crazy over the idea.

I would totally play a flying pirate game named Skyrum . . .

Isn't CD_Projekt Red the people who did that?

Yes they are. When I get my new 2Tb hard drive next week I really need to install the Witcher games. I have all three, but only played a bit of 1.

I kind of want "Crawl Out Through The Fallout" to become the theme of the entire series. It's such a perfect fit (or perhaps, the Fallout series is a perfect fit for the mentalities that created it) that it's sometimes easy to forget it's a preexisting novelty song.

edited 29th Nov '17 10:12:08 AM by KnownUnknown

I think the next big RPG is going to be Cyberpunk, if and when they launch it. Hopefully that will cause SE to reignite Deus Ex again and maybe push Beth to compete as well.

I think we'll have to wait another 3-4 years for the next Fallout, as that seems the cycle. But we are overdue an ES game.

I don't blame the VR focus or MMORPG as much (But that will take monetary focus, not necessarily physical asset focus) but nothing is stopping them outsourcing to Obsidian or someone to make a spin off or something else.

I'd have loved another DLC, with another area to visit, but Far harbour and Nuka world aren't TOO bad...where else could they have gone?

I don't know? Post-game expansion? Returning to the Capital Wasteland? Something?

At the moment, I'm not even sure if Far Harbor and Nuka World feel like good continuations? They're pretty sure, but Far Harbor feels like an extended side-quest and Nuka World feels so tonally inconsistent and isolated from everything else that it might as well be a side game accessed by the main menu.

True, NW probably should've been an AU / alternate start. Like those overhaul mods.

Haven't gotten to Far Harbour but from what some of my friends said, it handles the Synth side of things with more depth than the main game.

I think a visit to CW would have been good. Or a trip to the fringe of NY - which is still probably a crater (DC as a city is actually fairly flat and underdeveloped IRL I believe, because it's just a government centre; NY is the towering skyscraper metropolis so would be a good target from an economic POV)

A Fallout game set amidst proper clustered skyscrapers, with bridges between buildings and barely touching the ground could be fascinating. Really make use of the Vertibirds, as the ground is flooded, or hideously radioactive. Would be good vertical combat, climbing between buildings half collapsed into each other.

Based on Concept Art, the Fallout MMO was going to go for such a design to its world as set in Seattle.

I love the Nexus Modding Community.

Did anybody have mods they recommended? Someone said they did awhile back.

I tried clicking on your link, but it's not working.

Eh, whoops. Yeah, took me to a different page too.

I was looking for Jojos Bizarre Adventure mods and there weren't a lot, but one of them replaced the Critical! Sound with theme music from the JBA series.