Nice article. But, whatever framework they are using is broken. Honestly, a lot of issues go all the way back to Fallout 3, at least. Personally, I'm at a point where anything Bethesda related is no longer a day one purchase.
Yeap, Bethesda have always been synonymous with releasing broken and buggy games, remember the mess that was the Fallout 3, and then the add-ons Broken steel and Point lookout, these were the first software i have ever came across that would freeze the xbox 360 on a regular basis when playing them, so it became normal while playing F3 to save, save, save and save while playing it just in case...... and that continued with Skyrim, and even in the Skyrim remaster on xbox one and PS4 there are still bugs and even a game breaking bug that was there in the original launch, so yeah nobody should touch a Bethesda game at launch because they just never seem to improve, and with F76 they seemed to have reached the very pinnacle of what a Bethesda game release means. lol
^^But in F3 you had to save not because of the gameplay but because of the crashing, so you could walk 20 steps and the game would crash, you could enter a area and the game would crash, you could bring up your menu and the game would crash, access your pipboy and the game would crash, you also had to disable auto save because if the game crashed during saving the save file would become corrupt. lol
It's due to all the kludge they've added onto it over the years. It is obviously not working as well for them as it once did. It's like a foundation with cracks. Well, you can paint and repaint the house as much as you want (ie new renderer making things prettier) but that won't change the fact that the house is still leaking through the cracks unless you go through the intensive and expensive process of fixing the foundation. So, essentially they'd have to rebuild their foundation and fix what's broken underneath, but likely are very reluctant on doing. Would likely just be easier to switch to a completely new engine (IdTech?) and completely new toolsets.
As badly as Fallout '76 seems to be broken, it would seem to be in their best interest to do something beyond adding more spackle. They release the Elder Scrolls VI in this kind of shape, they'll kill their golden goose.
Agreed! But I also I think that a large part of why it's such in bad shape is the netcode tacked on, and badly at that.. Bethesda being a developer primarily experienced in single-player games, adding netcode to an engine that was primarily built on single-player experiences, it's animating the skeletons in their closet so to speak. It's pushing the engine to its limits in ways that are unforseen and giving us some hilarious bugs. The hideous pop-in, and the frozen poses and and sometimes the lack of damage, for example, are likely results of the netcode trying to interact with older code originally designed for single player. It's doubtful that a new Elder Scrolls would have as many issues as this does unless they decide to tack on some multiplayer.
I tend to disagree this is solely about the network stuff being added to the engine. While they got better, eventually, Fallout 4 and Skyrim aren't exactly what I call stellar releases on a technical level. Even now I still experience crashes with both, continue to have frame-rate issues and even have times where they simply won't run and I have to reboot my console to get them to work. Bethesda has two great IP's that are being damaged by their maddening insistence to hang on to a framework that has never been stable.
Well yeah, they've obviously got tons of problems. Even Oblivion didn't look that great at release and every game since have had technological progress problems. I'm not saying they're not and I'm not saying the networking is the only problem, but I do think it's a very large part of the problem in what we're seeing. And you're preaching to a choir here. I've said the same thing as you in regards to the framework. They either need to rebuild it from the ground up or toss it.
It is even worse when you see them not fixing anything, but rather spending their time on less important and non essentials stuff like the creation club so they can sell mods, and i wonder just how far off the gaming industry is from monetizing patches and updates, or how long before a patch can only be had via a season pass, dlc or expansion pack, i personally don't think it will be long before someone tries this, my bet will be some free to play game will do this, then the flood gates will open. Lol
I remember back in the old days when everything was on floppies, some publishers would offer the chance to upgrade to the latest versions by paying $10 or so for shipping.
I preordered the Tricentennial edition since I loved Fallout 4 so much and I downloaded it on the release date. I was four hours into the game and still haven’t seen one NPC. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I actually felt like I was going stir crazy.
Well, it seems Bethesda finally relented and will be sending out the canvas bags they had originally promised to send: https://kotaku.com/bethesda-is-sending-out-replacements-for-fallout-76s-n-1830833935 Hey, how about that canvas shortage?
okay, I've been playing this with the wife since we enjoyed a ton of Fallout 4 together Fallout 76 isn't exactly Fallout 4 multiplayer, but it's very much the Next Best Thing, so we're enjoying it quite a bit - as we both didn't exactly play Fallout 4 for the companions, NPCs and general storytelling (which, it's all not exactly amazing), we don't really miss them
I guess it very much depends on what you're coming to the game for we're a 2 Xbox household, so we bought a digital copy that we can play together on deep discount, it worked out really well for our needs
Noah Gervais was surprisingly not down on the game, which is what originally made me reconsider playing it
I’m not really a big fan of MMO. I was hoping it would be more like ESO or Red Dead Redemption 2, where you have the option to play quests with others and engage in multiplayer activities but the solo quest still holds water and anchors the game. Even games that don’t rely on their solo play still have NPCs. I doubt anyone actually plays the campaign in Call of Duty, but you have the option to and it’s usually decent, considering. I just can’t fathom why they would have made the main quest so dry on their first run at multiplayer. I was really excited for this game. Thank God RDR2 was so great or I would have been throwing my PS4 across the room.