• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

No Todds, No Masters: A Fallout 4 review/ critique

Awesome...another snarky youtuber over-analyzing triple A games comparing it to past iterations with a negative sarcastic slant. Not gonna watch the whole thing but based off the few minutes I did watch that was the just of it.

I really enjoyed my time with Fallout 4 on the PC and waiting for the PS4 Pro patch to purchase delve in that version along with all the DLC.

I can agree with some of his points and I like FO4. Your right though, it's all presented in a sparky, hyper negative tone. If that's people's thing, I hope they enjoy it but I don't got time for 3 hours of negative critical over analysis. I watched it for almost an hour skimming here and there. I get it, he doesn't like FO4. It's the tone and snark I can't handle. Hearing anyone talk about anything that long with such negative thoughts just sets the tone for a negative shit day. Ha. Props to him taking all that time to edit and make a video though.
 
Guess not, definitely dont care enough to take the time to watch a 3 hour video and argue against his points. Anyways, just saying I enjoyed the game. Fallout 4 gets way too much hate around here for how incredible a game it was.

My feelings exactly. I really don't think Fallout 4 is the kind of game one should be overanalyzing. It's not a particularly deep experience and there are issues everywhere, but it's also very fun in that brainless high octane action movie kind of feeling.
 
My feelings exactly. I really don't think Fallout 4 is the kind of game one should be overanalyzing. It's not a particularly deep experience and there are issues everywhere, but it's also very fun in that brainless high octane action movie kind of feeling.
Fallout is very important to a lot of people and is one of the deepest expriences you can get playing a video game. Even if the high octane action movie arugment had any weight behind it, it's not a good high octane action game like far cry 4 or destiny was.
 
Fallout 4 is never going to be on a "best of" list and the dialogue system was definitely a step backwards, but I enjoyed my time with the game. However we have reached the part of its lifecycle where it is fashionable to just beat the game into the ground critically, as seen with Bioshock Infinite, Twilight Princess, and Dragon Age Inquisition. It's almost like gamers have to prove their street cred establishing how much better older games in a franchise were.
but people loved the new doom and wolfenstein
 
Critically analyzing a game over a long-form video isn't a schtick, it's something that happens in every other entertainment medium, and it should be welcome. These things, in my eyes, are important to the maturation of our hobby. We need people to deeply analyze and critique games and every aspect of them, just like movie critics might deeply analyze and critique a film for its visual language, it's writing, it's score, etc.
You liked FO4, that's OK. A lot of people didn't, that's also OK. Just because you like something and the general consensus is against you doesn't give you license to whine like you are. Don't watch the video and move on with your life.

"Long-form criticism" that would even approach something of this length in another medium involves some kind of academic textual interpretation, deconstruction, critical theory, etc. Not a three-hour video on why something sucks. That's what a crazy person does.

"Critical analysis" doesn't mean "what's wrong with this piece".
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Well, I can tell without watching this video that F4 was huge dissapointment for me personaly on so many levels. And If there's good things I can say about it, it probably will be overall good visuals, amazing lighting, much better designed and detailed open world, power armor, nice and much better FPS mechanics and a number of really cool, memorable and extremely likable characters. Everything else - sucks balls. It seems to me that very few people (if any at all) in Bethesda gives a flying fuck about Fallout anymore. It's Fallcraft now, not Fallout, same goes for their future games going forward.

P.S. I'm talking about Bethesda Game Studios btw.
 

Hahs

Member
FO4 was my first XP with series - loved it! But I can understand how those that have played previous iterations feel like Bethesda skimped on production/overall direction; however this is ALL subjective anyway so to each their own.
 

AEREC

Member
Why don't people wike what I wike.

Don't post on a youtube video about a review is what I would suggest if you don't care for those types of videos? Not difficult.

More like "why do people put so much effort into something so negatively focused?"
 
Says who?
I mean, that's total subjectivity.
What is "Fallout"? For some it needs to be isometric. For some the lore has to be followed to the tiniest of detail. To some it just means a setting.

I think Fallout 4 is a good modern Fallout game. Of course it's not Fallout 2+2, it's a Bethesda game. Anyone expecting anything aside from what we got must live under a rock.
Says every Fallout fan there is. For it to be a decent Fallout game, at least it needs to follow the lore... And F4 takes a big shit on that.
 
Says who?
I mean, that's total subjectivity.
What is "Fallout"? For some it needs to be isometric. For some the lore has to be followed to the tiniest of detail. To some it just means a setting.

I think Fallout 4 is a good modern Fallout game. Of course it's not Fallout 2+2, it's a Bethesda game. Anyone expecting anything aside from what we got must live under a rock.
Nah, New Vegas is a good modern fallout game. 4 pales in comparison.
 
My feelings exactly. I really don't think Fallout 4 is the kind of game one should be overanalyzing. It's not a particularly deep experience and there are issues everywhere, but it's also very fun in that brainless high octane action movie kind of feeling.
The problem with this is that, barring FO3 and now FO4, the Fallout games WERE deep experiences. FO3 received a lot of criticism, but 4 is getting a lot of hate for simplifying things even MORE than what 3 did and after New Vegas came out and was given wide praise especially by RPG fans.
 

Spyware

Member
Says every Fallout fan there is. For it to be a decent Fallout game, at least it needs to follow the lore... And F4 takes a big shit on that.
Oh, so you just decided right there that I'm not a fan?
Sorry to burst your bubble but you can be a fan of all types of Fallout games at the same time.

Nah, New Vegas is a good modern fallout game. 4 pales in comparison.
New Vegas is a good story in a boring world that needs mods to actually be fun to explore. They succeded with the quests but failed with the world. Bethesda can build worlds but often have much simpler quests and bad longer stories. They should work together, then we'd have the perfect modern Fallout game!
 
Oh, so you just decided right there that I'm not a fan?
Sorry to burst your bubble but you can be a fan of all types of Fallout games at the same time.


New Vegas is a good story in a boring world that needs mods to actually be fun to explore. They succeded with the quests but failed with the world. Bethesda can build worlds but often have much simpler quests and bad longer stories. They should work together, then we'd have the perfect modern Fallout game!
I'd rather have a consistent world like in New Vegas than a fucking thematic park like in a Bethesda game.

Obsidian could have built an even more interesting world (yes, it is a fun, amazing and explorable world despite what you say. And it doesn't requiere mods), but alas, Bethesda being the cunts they are, gave them little time.

And you're just a Bethesda fan, not a Fallout one. Fans follow the world (and that includes worldbuilding, lore, backstory, etc) and F4 Shat on everything.
 
Guess not, definitely dont care enough to take the time to watch a 3 hour video and argue against his points. Anyways, just saying I enjoyed the game. Fallout 4 gets way too much hate around here for how incredible a game it was.

"Incredible" you say?

It's great that you enjoyed it on that level, but objective cases can be made for why it falls short of "incredible" in some pretty big ways.

It is a deeply flawed, wholly unremarkable game that betrays a lot of what made the series great in the first place.
 

eot

Banned
3 hours?

This is clearly for people with more time than I.

I also don't think he has 3 hours worth of good points. Edit that shit down. Maybe some people think longer = better.
 

E-flux

Member
Guess not, definitely dont care enough to take the time to watch a 3 hour video and argue against his points. Anyways, just saying I enjoyed the game. Fallout 4 gets way too much hate around here for how incredible a game it was.

Incredible? More like mediocre, there was one standout place in the whole game which was the glowing sea but other than that it's a huge step back from even fallout 3 in all terms except shooting.

Haven't listened to the video yet but we need more videos like this, critiques that go in-depth so that people can truly see where the game went wrong.
 
Watched the first ten minutes. I completely agree and really didn't like Fallout 4, but I'm not fond of the aggressive angry gamer presentation.
 

THEaaron

Member
Wanted to like the game but the dialogues and quests were so goddamn bland that I dropped it after like 20hours. I really tried to like it but there is really not a single working gameplay mechanic that does not make you cry if you are entitled to gameplay mechanics and stuff like that.

If you are out for exploring, this game shines, though.
 

Spyware

Member
And you're just a Bethesda fan, not a Fallout one. Fans follow the world (and that includes worldbuilding, lore, backstory, etc) and F4 Shat on everything.
Everything else you say to me becomes invalid when you make a claim like this.
I am a Bethesda fan since Morrowind, sure. I am also a Fallout fan since Fallout 2. I still love Fallout 2 and consider myself a huge fan of the old Fallout series, while also at the same time loving pretty much everything Bethesda makes.
I'm also a fan of Obsidian! Oh my!
Real sorry that I don't fit into your strange definition of a fan, it must ruin your day!
 
Everything else you say to me becomes invalid when you make a claim like this.
I am a Bethesda fan since Morrowind, sure. I am also a Fallout fan since Fallout 2. I still love Fallout 2 and consider myself a huge fan of the old Fallout series, while also at the same time loving pretty much everything Bethesda makes.
I'm also a fan of Obsidian! Oh my!
Real sorry that I don't fit into your strange definition of a fan, it must ruin your day!
It doesn't become invalid. But whatever float your boat, I guess.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
That guy's voice and demeanor is unlistenable.

If his argument is that it's a bad Fallout game, then we certainly don't need three hours explaining that. Fallout 1 & 2 are obviously very different to Fallout 3 & 4 for better and worse.
 
Watched all of it. Pretty good critique, tough but very fair (he's not completely negative, he praises the combat and how the companions in FO4 are a massive improvement over the ones in FO3, among other things.)

He lingers a little too long in some of his points but I agree almost 100% with them.

If you don't have the patience to watch it all, at least watch the final 20 minutes. Some really good commentary on Bethesda.
 
The problem with this is that, barring FO3 and now FO4, the Fallout games WERE deep experiences. FO3 received a lot of criticism, but 4 is getting a lot of hate for simplifying things even MORE than what 3 did and after New Vegas came out and was given wide praise especially by RPG fans.

Fallout is very important to a lot of people and is one of the deepest expriences you can get playing a video game. Even if the high octane action movie arugment had any weight behind it, it's not a good high octane action game like far cry 4 or destiny was.

Oh yes absolutely, you are correct and Fallout was a very different kind game back then. I did not mean to say that it getting streamlined like crazy excuses its flaws or something, just that pretty much the same flaws were already there in Fallout 3 and 4 just expands on the experience that game provided. Don't know about Destiny because I don't play primarily multiplayer games, but Far Cry 4 is a good comparison to Fallout 4. It offers better gunplay, but the world of Fallout 4 is still more fun IMO to shoot shit at.

And that's pretty much where I am with the series in its past two numbered sequels (NV being a beautiful oddity), it's very flawed but it helps if you don't look at them as being part of the same universe as the first two games. They're fun and I get a good feeling about it not being very pretentious about it being anything else other than a pastime videogame. It's a decline for what it once stood for, but there are worse offenders out there.
 

Flipyap

Member
I'm five minutes in and I'm already starting to feel like this guy is going to try to find me, stab me in the gut and burn my house down. I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry. I'M SORRY! Please, don't hurt me, angry youtube man!
 
Awesome...another snarky youtuber over-analyzing triple A games comparing it to past iterations with a negative sarcastic slant. Not gonna watch the whole thing but based off the few minutes I did watch that was the just of it.

I don't even like Fallout 4, but YouTubers doing feature-length analyses of AAA games has been stale for at least a year now. I've never seen a single one that's actually done well.
 

Redd

Member
Guess not, definitely dont care enough to take the time to watch a 3 hour video and argue against his points. Anyways, just saying I enjoyed the game. Fallout 4 gets way too much hate around here for how incredible a game it was.

Basically every mission was go to this area and kill everything. Rinse and repeat. Hell Bethasda had more variety in Fallout 3.
 
Yeah... A three hour video to expose the "hidden flaws" of a game that's already been obsessively dissected again and again? Surely we've reached the point of diminishing returns here.
Is there some kind of limit on criticism? We still discuss and critique books, movies, music from decades ago, that have had countless articles over the years. Why are games any different?
 

danm999

Member
Echoes a lot of my thoughts about the game. Some smart changes to the series overwhelmed by a ton of regression and dilution of the RPG elements. You begin to wonder if Bethesda will one day make a Fallout with no character creation.
 

televator

Member
Character backstory does suck and dialogue options do too. Random paint by number quests are also a bore. I like settlement building to an extent, but they really should have made it more rewarding. Like have special NPCs who only start showing up once you build enough and then they give you unique side quests and/or sell unique inventory. Eventually settlements you built would be functionally equal or better than the prebuilt cities and towns in the game. That would have been neat.

Overal, I really like the game. Customizable armor and weapons are fantastic, and power armor is awesome. Enemy designs are bad ass.
 

Strax

Member
Is there some kind of limit on criticism? We still discuss and critique books, movies, music from decades ago, that have had countless articles over the years. Why are games any different?

Of course there is no limit on criticism but the person in the video is coming at this from such a niche angle and clearly can't check his feelings at the door. So much of what he says is it was better before Bethesda got involved like a game franchise isn't allowed to change, for whatever reason. This kind of reminds me of Metallica fans who wouldn't give Jason Newsted (Fallout 3) a chance and called them sellouts when Black Album (Fallout 4) came out.

This person knew that moment he saw the first Fallout 4 trailer he wouldn't like it and maybe even played it just get a I knew I was right feeling.
 
Of course there is no limit on criticism but the person in the video is coming at this from such a niche angle and clearly can't check his feelings at the door. So much of what he says is it was better before Bethesda got involved like a game franchise isn't allowed to change, for whatever reason.
Let's be honest, is that completely without merit? Like Fallout 3 was my first RPG so it holds a special place among games for me, but as RPGs, it and 4 dont have the depth and complexity of the first two

A franchise can change, evolution is a good thing, but fundamentally changing so to be practically a completely different genre (or subgenre at least) is questionable

Consider XCOM and DOOM 2016. Series that evolved to suit the modern era while not completely shifting gears and maintaining what made the originals so popular and acclaimed.

Would Fallout done with the care and detail of a Pillars of Eternity or Torment be a bad thing, versus shifting to first person a la Elder Scrolls and focusing more on being a shooter?
 
I loved Fallout 4. It's always so weird to me to see how strongly negative a reaction many people had to it.

As for the three hour rant format, I mean, maybe summarize your points in a quick essay instead? As a reporter I learned how important it was to be quick and to the point, even when dealing with complex issues. I could watch two feature films in the time I would spend on this video.
 
Watched it all the way through. His tone can be a bit overbearing, but virtually all of his criticisms are valid and relatively well-structured, if sometimes maybe a little tangential.

He also goes HAM on the Youtubers and Beth PR shit that went down late last year, which I liked. That was an issue nobody really seemed to talk about, outside of Giant Bomb dedicating a good two hours to it on their podcasts.

And he also was kind enough to point out the fact that all this shit isn't specifically Todd Howard's fault, contrary to a lot of hate being thrown solely at him.

And this is totally a side-note but he sounds very much like (his voice) a guy I used to know who was also very passionate about Fallout so I started to picture that guy in my head as this guy was talking.


Also goddamn that was a 35,000-word script he wrote for that video. That is a lot of dedication.
 
Man some of the replies in this thread are mind boggling. Criticism isn't allowed?

It seems like neither criticism nor positivity is allowed about Bethesda games. If you hate it, someone will tell you to shut up. If you like it, someone will call you a fanboy or shill.
 
As for the three hour rant format, I mean, maybe summarize your points in a quick essay instead? As a reporter I learned how important it was to be quick and to the point, even when dealing with complex issues. I could watch two feature films in the time I would spend on this video.
I actually really enjoy these kinds of long-form, ultra in-depth looks. A lot of people don't want to sit through something like that but I think there's an audience for them. There aren't that many of them so it's not like the quick essay style review format is in danger from them or anything.

It's nice every now and then to see critique that doesn't always focus on painting broad strokes, whether they're positive, negative, or more even-handed. I appreciate that a longer video gives someone the opportunity to lay down a lot more specific examples to reinforce their point.

That said I'm only just starting to watch this one, so I can't say whether or not that time is all justified in this case.
 
Fallout 4 gets way too much hate around here for how incredible a game it was.

Clearly it doesn't get enough.

As for the three hour rant format, I mean, maybe summarize your points in a quick essay instead? As a reporter I learned how important it was to be quick and to the point, even when dealing with complex issues. I could watch two feature films in the time I would spend on this video.

It's a critique of a 40+ hour game, not a news article.
 
I enjoyed Fallout 4 but this was seemingly despite the game's best efforts.

That is modern Bethesda for me. With every new game they pile on more shit I do not like or care about, but despite getting more crippled with every game, the emergent gameplay makes them at least fun if not 'great.'

If they get any more cinematic-obsessed then this might change. As it is Fallout 4 basically felt like a shallow but at least intriguing world to explore.
 
Finally, I finished the video. A pretty solid critique, and EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH IT! Instead of feeling offended (for no reason), give the video a chance.
 
Top Bottom