Budgets could still be low if Bethesda didn't needlessly inflate costs. Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim both sold over 200 million copies each, and neither had a voiced protagonist. But no, Mass Effect and The Witcher have it, so Fallout needs it so Bethesda can attract more gamers.

But they don't need it. They intentionally keep their development team small and continue patching Gamebyro in order to save money. Hell, they don't even support their games -- they release a tool for us to do it for them.

Pillars of Eternity brought Obsidian back from extinction. If a game like that can keep a studio like Obsidian alive, Fallout 4 didn't need to be what is it for Bethesda to stick around. It is what it is because Bethesda values money over their fans.

Yeah, that is what businesses do, but it's still [censored] and wrong.

Bethesda spent their time and their money making the game they wanted to make. That is their right in a free country.

They don't owe you anything, they make a game that you can chose to buy for the price or you can pass it up and go for something else.

The people who dedicate their lives to make this art do not deserve the disrespect shown to them by over-entitled critics. If you could understand even a fraction of the dedication it takes to make it in an industry like making videogames, you won't have such an ungrateful tone to these people.

If you want to make money go into investment banking, if you want to work long hours for low pay and to have your work insulted by every know it all with a keyboard, become a videogame developer.

Are you Todd Howard? You took it so personal bra... Just chill out, take some jet and relax

Go work an actual blue collar job for 10 to 12 hours six days a week for a year & then get back to me bud; till then you ain't worked hard a day in your life. If your feet ain't bleeding you're not working hard enough. : )

Believe it or not consumers have every right to [censored] at the company producing a good. Why else would the Better Business Bureau exist? Fun fact: it also applies to video games. People can say how they are disappointed just as freely, in this "free-nation", as the company can not respond to them. Both have the same right and can use it at any time.

I tried to be Todd Howard and I failed.

Maybe someday I will get a second chance at that, and I will make the videogame I want to make, and most likely you will hate it.

Which is why I don't understand other fellow customers going nuts over other people's disagreement with the game, it's like they're.....they're..... wait..you smell that?...-sniffs- I smell...

COMMUNISTS

If that is the case, then Bethesda would do microtransactions. More video game companies succumb to the evils of microtransactions than create decent DLC that you spend a few hours on. Obsidian has done more with microtransactions with Gun Runner's Arsenal and Courier's Stash than Bethesda ever did with Fallout 3.

As far as the devs not posting in the forums, how would we know. There is nothing preventing a dev from creating a normal forum account and making a post. I figure there are three types of devs, ones who like the game and interacting with the fans, ones who like the game, but are scared of the fans for good reason, and ones who are only are a dev for the pay cheque. In one MMO forum that I visit, there are a couple of devs that respond every day, a few devs that only respond when a new feature they have spent weeks on has just been announced or released, and most that never respond. Of course, the devs that respond all the time usually respond in threads unrelated to the game or give noncommittal answers.

I personally would at least like to know that SOME of our suggestions are being seen. I can understand not wanting to scroll through all of them, but I've seen forums with much better devs than this. With such a huge, creative fanbase these games have, it seems like they could hire a few people to browse the forums and pick the best suggestions to send to the higher ups. :/

This absolutely correct! Bethesda doesn't owe it to Fallout 1 & 2 fans to recreate old titles, and the fact is that Bethesda seems to be doing pretty well with what they ARE turning out. If everybody was unhappy about newer Beth titles, that wouldn't be the case. Here's the thing... It's a freakin' VIDEO GAME, it's designed to allow some folks to make some bucks while using their skills, art, and professionalism to create something entertaining.

Point number One: Bethesda is making money, and has a wide fan base that is extremely supportive.

Point number Two: If you think that Beth's games are not entertaining for the majority of their customers, See point number one. The two are mutually exclusive.

Point number Three: If you are such an authority at telling everybody how to make their products, then surely somebody must be paying you to develop games, right? So who pays you OP for your brilliant creativity and novel ideas and superior ideas of how to create a video game? What are the titles you've created that earned GOTY and industry awards?

Point number Four: Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 have no mandate to hold true to the concepts precepts, and ideas featured in ANY other video game. A new game is exactly that, whether it's seen as a sequel or not. Not only that, but in order to be interesting, exciting, and entertaining, it NEEDS to be different from its predecessors.

I remember as a Morrowind fan hearing all the cries and moaning about Oblivion, and the changes it brought (my own voice was included, because I was upset about the changes to the creation kit). Finally, I fell in love with Oblivion when I decided to play it on its own terms as a new game rather than an extended Morrowind.

The same thing happened with Skyrim. Quite a few people spent thier time whining and moaning about hjow Skyrim didn't fit the Elder Scrolls lore, and how it ruined role playing, but eventually, most of us fell in love with Skyrim as well. I never did quite learn to love FO3 as much, but I did truly enjoy FONV, so for the first time, I wasn't one of those original whiners crying about Beth (or Obsidian) remaining true to some credo created by previous titles. By now I'm really quite sick of the whining that accompanies every new release because some original facet of a game was not adhered to. You'd think changing a game for a new release was rewriting the bible or something...

Anyway, the proof's in the pudding, and Beth will be laughing all the way to the bank... and when and if a FO5 is released, the whining will start all over again, with the same result in the end, while the rest of us will enjoy a new game. Face it, Beth's formula for games works, and in the end that's all that really matters.

Hey, Muggy...

Did you know the Better Business Bureau was created by Al Capone as an extortion racket? Did ya know that as long as you pay off the BBB you'll get the recommendation you want? Did ya know that blue-collar workers have every right to express their frustrations with products by not buying them?

Dude, my first job was in a cannery working 12 hours a day six days a week for $1.65 cents an hour, standing in 8 inches of water most of the time. My feet nearly rotted off. Then I got a good job in a factory working 12 hours a day six days a week for $2.62 an hour...

What will be telling will be how many people slagging off features of Fallout 4 will suddenly be praising them to the hills and back when Fallout 5 releases.

Seriously, I remember reading posts when Oblviion came out where the poster hated Feature X and hot it should have been like Y.

Skyrim came out, and lo. the feature was just like Y. But the same poster then hated Y and X was the greatest feature ever.

If you have a good idea, go make a mod.

Same reason radical kebabs made isis and want to burn the west.

Like, differing, opinions, man. Except isis is the fallout 3 crowd while the old skuel are the soviets. Neither are good.

Maybe everyone should just stop spreading hate and negativity... That's the side I want to be on.

Are you serious? Most of our complaints are about the dialogue, Immortal NPCs and the lack of choices and or little to no consequences based on said choices. Graphics be damned, I still play the original FO 1 & 2.


Fallout 4 is a great shooter, but it doesn't feel like a FO game.

Ethnic genocide & subservience to the state plays out better for peace historically imo. Be careful what you wish for..

Best way to stop negativity is to not take a side & walk away. You're not going anywhere and they aren't either. Better get use to it. : )

Not really. Bethesda was in really poor shape and bought by Zenimax during this time.

Very serious.

Ironically in my mind much of the mess of Fallout 3 was because Beth was trying to pander to the fans of the old games, its just that when you make a game the way someone else wants you to, not the way you want to it never turns out well, so 3 ended up becoming a cheap imitation.


One of the reasons 4 in my mind is a better game, because its clear Beth made a fallout game the way they wanted to and in overall quality it shows, much better story, much better world design, better combat etc.


As for why the continued numbers, I assume its because Beth officially claims the old Fallout games are canonical, something that be towards to do if you where titleing ya own games as Fallout 1 and 2

Basically, the main reason it flopped by that viewpoint is because they pandered to the fans in a very wrong manner, by focusing on icons like a business, rather than the story development and dark world of fallout. "Hey guys! LOOK! SUPER MUTANTS! Y-YOU LIKE THAT....RIGHT?!"

Well the act of pandering to fans in general is a wrong manner. You should just focus on making a good game.

Mhm, too bad that failed.

Just a matter of opinion, eh?

Each to there own, I think they did a good game, some of there experiments didn't pan out well, but some did and overall its a Damn fun experience.

I really like the direction they are going in, and I look forward to seeing what they do with it next. I hope they continue in a similar fashion and flesh out the dialogue and stuff a bit more as they continue forward with dlc and future titles.

No game is perfect, but I put Fallout 4 in my top 5 games.

Omg this is so true. I cannot agree more. Those guys are nuts. Mean too.