» Wed Dec 02, 2015 7:10 am Hey guys, I just wanted to take a moment to off load all of the things I'm excited for. I've been so busy lately that I thankfully haven't had time to get too excited, and I've been keeping myself busy with other games, such as playing through Dragon Age again. However, as Fallout 4 inches closer to release, I have had this growing level of excitement. I am a huge ES and FO (Bethesda's take at least) fan and playing other games only serves to remind me of all the ways I love Bethesda games. The sense of exploration, the adventure, the intense fights, the isolation, and the reward from being able to just basically exist in this crazy world. I cannot WAIT. At any rate, I just wanted to run down a list of things I'm looking forward to most, and I'd like to hear yours as well!
1. Weapon/Power Armor Customization
I said I had been playing Dragon Age, and in that game there is the ability to customize your own weapons and armor, albeit in a limited fashion. Most armor in the game has a set couple of looks based upon class that get upgraded as you get the higher tier schematics and then you can tack on some hand or leg armor. Overall, the degree to which you can customize things is pretty limited, but I still spend a ton of time farming for mats and trying to find the unique looking upgrades so I can craft my own sweet and powerful gear. I tremble to think how badly Fallout 4 will take advantage of this weakness.
It is hard to appreciate how broad customization will be in Fallout 4 until we actually get into the game and can see everything that is there, but I imagine that a feature set such as this will be ripe for 1) expansion content and 2) mods. So, even if the pickings are limited (which they look anything but) we will potentially see the pool of options grow exponentially. I am also extremely excited for the power armor customization. I was never a fan of power armor in FO3, but the way it is implemented in 4 makes it feel... more bad ass. The interaction with the power armor is incredibly cool but in the E3 footage it looks like the armor has the appropriate weight to it, instead of just having that same floaty feel as all movement in FO3 did. It is going to be a major time svcking horror when I start customizing guys lol
2. Mods
I never played on the PC, but when I was burning through hours on end in Skyrim, I remember wishing very strongly that I had access to the unofficial patch that PC players had. Hopefully (knock on wood) the unofficial patch will be an unnecessary thing, or at least less necessary, but I am also incredibly excited to have access to aesthetic mods on my console. By that I mean, back packs, new weapon skins, or clothing articles. Nothing raunchy or weird, which I think Todd already went on record as saying wouldn't make it to the console side anyway. I have used mods when playing the old Dragon Age once before and I appreciated how being able to change the look of my equipment to what I thought was cool was really great, but in my experience mods that add content or do other things typically cheapened the experience and I've always somewhat preferred the vanilla game. Still, it will be great to get access to these tweaks when they release the creation kit or GECK or whatever it is called. Really looking forward to it!
3. Character interactions
This may sound weird, but I'm really looking forward to the different character interactions we'll have access to. Fallout 3 didn't have a whole lot of memorable characters, but in Skyrim I thought Serana was great. I can't wait to see how Bethesda made strides forward in character development and interaction and I'm especially interested in seeing how they will react over time. Is it going to be an impressive one off for each character or will there be moments throughout the game and interesting "radiant dialogue" which will allow you to learn more about your followers and NPCs over time. Coming fresh off of Dragon Age, I'm also very interested in how romantic development will be handled. I like that Bethesda has committed to improving this aspect of their games, because I really enjoy immersing myself in the experience from the viewpoint of my self-avatar, and so it is really rewarding to be able to have pseudo-relationships that might parallel what I would expect to have were I actually in this world. Being a game, it is never perfect, and I like that as well, because it allows me to use my imagination and engage even more.
4. The G-U-N-S!
I've seen some cool ones so far. Some cool lame-y guns as well. I remember I got more use out of the Hunting Rifle when I played FO3, just because it felt archaic and not as efficient, but so satisfyingly bad ass every time I got a kill. I can't wait to see what the full armory is like and I absolutely can't wait to get myself a hand cannon that I can customize to be suitably epic. It is going to be so AWEEEEESOME.
5. House/Base building
Oh man guys... this list is starting to kill me a little bit inside. Owning a home in Skyrim felt sweet. The customization was decidedly limited and I didn't have the patience to use the limited moving tool to micromanage the placement of stuff in my homes. Even with Hearthstone it was cool but very limited in scope. What they are doing in Fallout 4 though...
I want to say I will stay away from trying to build my own town/base or whatever you'd prefer to call it, but I know I'll dip my toe in sometime. Even if I can buy a home in some settlement, I'll try to build my own town eventually. And then... well it is going to get ugly I know. How will I ever be able to tear myself away (short of running out of resources)? The idea of being able to build your own settlement wild west style and actually populate it over time is so unbearably awesome. Even if the implementation isn't perfect or if it isn't as epic in scope as we think, it will still be one hell of a tool to play around with.
6. Character Creation
Last, but by no means least, being able to create my own character. The character models look fantastic I must say and the options for character creation seem more robust than they were in FO3. I honestly thought the character creator in FO3 was kind of a train wreck. Adjusting certain features was difficult and the whole thing felt a little glitchy. It seems so much smoother from the video we've seen and I cannot wait to try and recreate myself in the game and go out and have some fun. Here's hoping we get some more modern and cool hair options in addition to the crazy flavors we had before!
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