![\"2015-11-10](\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/2015-11-10-20.47.40-576x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019ve been a bit busy as of late and perhaps a little slow on updating the blog. Some updates:<\/p>\n
![\"Fallout_4_cover_art\"](\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Fallout_4_cover_art.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Somewhere in the middle of all of that I managed to sneak in a few hours of Fallout 4. I\u2019ve been a major fan of that franchise since it started, from the first day of Wasteland back in 1984. I can\u2019t say I\u2019m big on the first person shooter feel of Fallout 3 and 4\u2026 Perhaps I\u2019m an old stodge, but I like the top-down turn based RPG-feel of 1 and 2. Wasteland 2 was awesome\u2026 Fallout 4, no so much.<\/p>\n
Now, before the torches and pitchforks come out, I\u2019m not saying F04 is a bad game. One glaring thing I\u2019ve noticed early on is that the sense wry humor that infused everything about Fallout 1 and 2 is notably absent. If not for the use of the ubiquitous Vault Boy, power armor, and the quasi atomic-1950s styling of things, \u00a0this could\u2019ve been any generic post-nuke apoc game. The \u201cfeel\u201d of the fallout universe is thin at best. The original creative team (Black Isle Studios I believe) who did Fallout 1 and 2 lent the game a unique atmosphere which F04 utterly lacks.<\/p>\n
Second, I could\u2019ve done without the \u201cbuild a village\u201d mini-game. It\u2019s cumbersome to try and place\/arrange buildings from a first person view, and having to assign individual people to single plants to farm is testicle-smashingly tedious.<\/p>\n
![\"Fallout4SettlementGuideFarming-5-1024x564\"](\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Fallout4SettlementGuideFarming-5-1024x564-1024x564.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
As far as the story is concerned, I haven\u2019t had a whole lot of time in yet \u2013 but the main character\u2019s baby is abducted in the opening sequence by parties unknown, and the game seems to expect the character to set this aside and run around doing miscellaneous crap for total strangers, set up a village, help this person and that person, and be content NOT to focus all effort on finding the missing infant immediately. To me that feels a bit odd to set up such a high-emotion storyline and then fall into the typical RPG trope of random quests.<\/p>\n
I suspect there is <\/em>a way to ignore everything and chase down the missing baby, but the dialogue options are pretty thin and short of guessing where to go, the character isn\u2019t given much story options\/agency in trying to find their kid as priority 1.<\/p>\n Grenades \u2013 I\u2019m not sure why they even bothered adding grenades and moltovs to this game. The handling of them is so clumsy they seem to exist only to show off the game\u2019s dismemberment animations when you blow yourself up with them. If there\u2019s even a single blade of grass between you and a target, the grenade will find a way to bounce off it and come back to you. (Forget taking cover, the character is incapable of throwing the grenade over\/around anything and it will bounce off the wall\/car\/chair\/desk\/table whatever and hit you in the face.\u00a0 (Also, never, under any<\/strong> circumstances give explosive weapons to companions. They will kill you.)<\/p>\n Giving this to your companion is a REALLY bad idea.<\/p><\/div>\n Still, I am looking forward to having some time to set aside for the game when I can, but the pull to edit\/write is stronger than the pull to play video games.<\/p>\n Maybe I am <\/em>getting old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I\u2019ve been a bit busy as of late and perhaps a little slow on updating the blog. Some updates: New kitten (Dorian) is settling in and playing with existing cat (Loki) like they\u2019re brothers. (Yay) The new final chapter … Continue reading ![\"Giving](\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Fallout4_E3_Fatman-1024x576.png\")