While I do have a range of criticisms for the game, I'm not here to voice them at the moment . I probably won't anyways, too little time to get caught up in a game's flaws and host a discussion on them anymore.

Anywho...Fallout 4.

I really wasn't expecting much from this game. Bethesda had kind of lost me with Skyrim, still haven't beaten it or touched the DLCs lol. I was expecting more bugs, less attention to detail, worse combat, worse animations, bad voice acting, terrible set pieces, and a range of other negative things from their newest release. Color me pleasantly surprised. While I wouldn't say the game is absolutely flawless in any capacity, they have substantially improved on many core areas of their traditional gameplay mechanics. Shooting isn't buttery smooth or anything, but the controls are a lot less awkward than previous games. VATS is still in the game, but it flows a lot better than before. Their world building is much improved, from what little I have explored. Only really been in the Northwest quadrant with brief forays to the center. The writing seems a little better, but not a whole lot. I'll admit the beginning definitely engaged me, despite my reservations about a semi-set character. I still would have preferred a non-set, non-voiced character, but I digress. The semi-set character is more or less working for me.

I'd go into more detail, but I don't really much feel like it. If they hold on to these improvements, I feel like they may actually make their formula interesting for me again.

Anyone else have their low expectations blown out of the water?

I seem to be very good at not expecting perfection and being perfectly reasonable even when hyped. Fallout 4 so far has provided with an amazing gameplay experience and there is nothing I have come across so far that will turn me away any time soon. I find myself constantly clock watching until my next opportunity to play; something that has not happened for a very long time. The world is compelling and I want to spend as much time there as possible at the moment, despite the flaws.

I feel ya. Few people seem to manage their hype well. Especially in regards to bethesda games. As for managing my game time? I have myself struggling to explain my absence to my friends and family lol.

The same for me. I had very realistic expectations based on previous bethesda RPGs. To me this feels like fallout 3 on steroids, a natural evolution of the series. There are things I like and things I don't, but with such a big game with so much content that's inevitable really. Over all I think this is one of the best games Bethesda have produced yet.

As someone who was rather skeptical of it and not too convinced it would do any good by me (although as its release got closer I begun to look forward to it more) I too am very impressed with Fallout 4 and have come to enjoy it immensely. The improved combat, the amount of depth in the crafting system, and what I think is Bethesda's most detailed game world yet are some of the reasons I like the game. I have spent hours just exploring Cambridge and Charlestown alone, going from one street and building to the other seeing a variety of interesting things and running into a lot of nasty yet engaging enemies to fight. I'm over 40 hours in and have only explore the northern part of the map. Haven't even reached Diamond City yet.

Only real issue I have so far being the dialogue system, and I haven't done enough quest to say anything about their design. But besides that, I've been liking everything so far.

I am a complete noob to the Fallout world. Couldn't escape the hype building up to FO4 but the gameplay vids I saw did absolutely nothing for me; zero interest. Fast forward a week, one of my buds who is not a big gamer got it and seemed to be enjoying it. Soooo, I picked it up and have been pleasantly surprised. Def a Skyrim feel, but better somehow. Enjoying this VATS system very much though I haven't quite mastered it yet.

I came for a stroll-playing action game, and was pleasantly surprised with the improved combat and crafting. Having a lot of fun.

I still play Fallout NV and Skyrim (with mods), so Bethesda is my preferred genre.

At it looks like Fallout 4 is going to be my all-time favorite. Loving it so far.