Settlements, weapon crafting, jetpacks, power armor as a vehicle, cores, radiation weapons, improved enemy AI, legendary creatures galore, perk system overhauled by about 500%.... These are pretty good changes.

Also as far as a voiced protagonist that wasn't a safe choice... It was perhaps the most risky move by Bethesda ever.

The only things I hate as I have said on these board 100 times is the facial animations and graphics are sub par at best. Otherwise it should be an amazing game!/:)

Just because it was not mentioned in reviews doesn't mean the radiant story system is not incorporated into the game.

The Story Manager was a powerful and important tool for Skyrim. I'd be surprised if it was removed from the Creation Kit. Perhaps it is involved in the events that can happen to your settlements, for example, among other types of random encounters.

Play it safe? I completly disagree. A ton has changed and yes a lot of features are experimental for Bethesda games. Looting, layered armor, enemy AI ... i.e. Play it save would be mute protagonist, power armor as simple armor, no settlements, ...

Simply to say but the PA power cells are rare (yes they should be according to lore where PA is special), the settlement system is optional, ... you make it very easy to ignore what has changed.

According to lore Power Armors run on miniature fission reactors that last hundreds of years

Not really. Revolutionary would be any feature that is brand new that has never been in the previous games. Player housing isn't new. It has been in BGS games since at least as far back as Morrowind. Crafting isn't anything new. Gun play isn't anything new. The only feature that is actually revolutionary is arguably the voiced protagonist, and that has been getting mixed reviews.

As I stated above, none of the features you listed are new besides a voiced protagonist which I already stated plenty of times before. That has been getting mixed results from reviews and certainly isn't revolutionary in a positive way for everyone. BGS has made graphically subpar games since Fallout 3, so really that is no surprise either. Thankfully, mods can fix the ugly textures.

I hope you are right. If that is the case, BGS is foolish for not communicating its presence. So far though, we have received no indication of such a feature being present. BGS doesn't just copy and paste every feature from the last game to the next one.

I see some reviews that say basically safe, and others that are blown away by the sheer volume of content. Having seen leaked footage, I'd say they've ramped things up nicely in many respects. While some may measure Bethesda technically against the industry, I think Bethesda (and most hardcoe fans for that matter) measures their latest game against the franchise as a whole, and doesn't worry all that much about official reception...since it has traditionally over time always fallen in their favor anyway. Fan reception seems their primary concern and honestly that's best measured in sales.

Having said all that, they have jumped leaps and bounds when comparing FO4 to its predecessors. Safe is not a word I would use to describe what I've seen thus far. It's usually a combination of infuriating and WOW! with me, and FO4 is not different. It's what Bethesda does, and they are still true to form. Thank God. Who really wants revolutionary or cutting edge in FO anyway? To even discuss such is pretty much a dead giveaway as to the degree of cluelessness gaming "journalists" and perhaps, the industry as a whole, seem to have regarding this franchise. That graphics were even discussed as a serious topic only supports that assertion. It's always been about content and gameplay, and FO4 (even more so than its predecessors) has that in spades...based on what we've seen officially and unofficially

I predict (rather safely I might add) that this game will outsell TW3 and any two of Bioware's top selling games...and yes, it will probably win untold numbers of GOTY in relevant categories. Once the tally is in they will solidly be in the 90's. Just my take. Seen it too many times.

Yea you forgot that, for example, with dragons and shouts, we also said goodbye to spell-making, many different skills and spells like athletics and other TES classic favorites. So, I would pick "safe" anytime over something which changed the series like the previous example.

But on the other hand, I would have liked to see more popular mods integrated to the game, like RTS was, perhaps an even bigger map and most importantly I am hoping they have made it more mod-friendly than Skyrim is.

BGS has been streamlining since Arena. They've taken out plenty of RPG features. I don't agree with all the features they cut, but it's something they have consistently done with each game. I think spellcrafting should come back, although it needs to be balanced and revamped. Athletics and acrobatics were silly and I personally don't miss them myself.

Modding is incredibly important to BGS, because much of what they do in the next game is based off of some of the most popular mods. I don't see their support of the mod community changing any time soon. It's the one ace in their hand that very few other developers have.

Which makes totaly sense from a gameplay perspective, doesn't it.

Because PA as suit and as simple armor it is so boring and bad. Terrible how they even can do it. It was so special in FO1 and FO2 and then they completly destroied it. Also it's 200 years later how could there even be functioning Power Armor. Yes I remember it all...

I hate "lore" fetishist.

Yeah....

Skyrim was in no way revolutionizing. They stripped many features, streamlined others too much, and the dull, generic, and forgettable characters/story was enough for me to put the game down after one playthrough.

Hopefully it has a better programmed script engine, easier language and it's more stable (please god). I miss a lot of things besides spell making, even attributes, which have been considered "redundant", as were traits and later, skills for FO4... I wonder if SPECIAL becomes redundant in the future too.

Edit: I'd pick athletics and acrobatics over shouts any day.

To me, this is the best news yet.
Exactly what I was hoping for.

I don't play FO for the stories and quests. They're an excuse to explore and discover.
Wandering and surviving with the occasional bizarre random makes me totally happy.
I was afraid they'd go all NV/HALO.

Happy to hear it's like 3 fleshed out.

I don't dispute that. The new system seems very interesting, and i'm all about gameplay having the priority.

Same. I love a good story, but most importantly feeling like living in the world, making choices, surviving, exploring, replayability.

What a saddening post

Good writing and exploration aren't mutually exclusive, and by preliminary opinion Bethesda has at least tried to weave a more complex tale(who knows how successfully).

I agree in part because BGS has been doing storytelling all along. They just take advantage of environmental storytelling and emergent gameplay as a way of providing a narrative to the player. I don't see anything wrong with them trying to make a better protagonist, main characters, and an overarching main story. It has tradiationally been the weakest part of BGS games and I think BioWare/CDPR-level storytelling could do wonders for a BGS games.

I love BGS games. Honestly, however, if I wanted to just play an upgraded Fallout 3, I could literally mod Fallout 3 and do virtually everything Fallout 4 is doing. When BGS releases a new title, I like to see them take risks and go a bold new direction. Even if it doesn't work out as they hope, it's still nice to see them being pioneers rather than just rehashing the same mechanics because they worked last time.

Quite easily it would seem. The T51b in Operation Anchorage was stored and never used, so the fusion core would be fully functional.

The Brotherhood of Steel is obviously capable of manufacturing new power armors based on Tactics. The Enclave were manufacturing more advanced models than before the war. If they're capable of recycling microfusion cells and creating these technologies, then they are also creating the fusion cores as well.

The only armor that didn't make sense was T-45d and that was Bethesda's problem. Obsidian just recycled it, most likely because of time restrictions.

...

All those things you listed in your own OP (voiced character, crafting, etc) are specifically where Beth swung big and took risks...

?

Voice protagonist is a risk and I have stated that. The rest are merely improvements or upgrades of systems that were already in previous BGS games. The point is BGS, aside from the voiced PC, hasn't done anything new here. The game is largely just an upgrade of features they've been using for years. That's why many of these reviews feel that Fallout 4 is a safe installment rather than anything truly impressive of mind-blowing.

awww

So sorry to upset your delicate sensibilities.

I shall grovel in the dust at your feet awaiting your pronouncements of things that are properly enjoyed.
My unworthy ears await your wise and just proclamations.

Did they take anything from moden shooters such as climbing or if there is a four foot fence do we have to walk around it?

Isn't that how most games are, upgrades from their predecessors? I can't think of a recent game that had a mind-blowing never before seen mechanic to it.

the Fallout games are still the biggest and most immersive games, that I've ever played and Fallout 4 looks like it will be even more than that

I don't really get, why the game gets downgraded for having old animations and things like bad UI...

those minor things can't really overshadow the fact, that the rest of the game is absolutely huge and full of details, that no other game has to offer

I really don't get how a game that has so much work in it can get the same scores as games like Fifa, Crysis or Minecraft

even games like Bioshock or Dishonored are very good, but it's beyond me, how they can get better scores than a game that is as impressive as Fallout

how do you compare a game that has <10 hours gameplay, to something that is able to keep you interested for >100 hours on such a high level?

I feel like games like Fallout & Witcher should get way higher scores, than something like Dishonored... :/

Just judging from forum reaction all these past months, I think voiced protagonists and the most "set" background weve had yet were pretty big risks.

More so than Fallout 3 inventing VATS at least...

True, they aren't. They could do a better job indeed. But compared to the the gaming industry's terribly low standards, it is natural to be more than happy to have at least one of them...