Phoenix|Down X9: Fallout 5

[Neon Ignition]

The Outer Worlds arrived this week and Bethesda will no doubt be paying close attention given the horrific state they've steered the Fallout franchise into over the course of this generation. Though complex to make the template is a clear one for these games be it Fallout, Outer Worlds, Skyrim etc - each largely the same game reskinned to a fair extent and yet the quality spectrum ranges hugely. We won't receive a new Fallout until well into the next generation at the very earliest but in light of the stumbles Fallout 4 took and the flat face in a pavement Fallout 76 delivered...



Fallout 5

In this, the penultimate Phoenix|Down thread, what would you like to see happen with the franchise going forward and how can it be redeemed in the next instalment?

[QualityChimp]

Hmmm, good question.
Part of the thing I love the most in these games is the exploration - seeing what amazing locations they can come up with and the sense of danger when you've gone where you probably shouldn't have.

The plots are different, but in 3, NV and 4, you're an inconsequential cog that becomes more important as the game progresses.

To try something different, could you start off as a major character?
How would you get that sense of wonder, if you already rule?
Maybe you could be a scout for an approaching army, waiting for your nod to attack after you've unbalanced the current controlling power?
Rather than the base-building of 4, it's slightly larger scale, building safe territories.

Recently deleted some saved vids and forgot just how much fun I had playing Fallout 4, redoing tricky sections when I was outnumbered by supermutants. Lots of great gaming memories for the last 3 full games though.

Loved the previous games I mentioned, and their DLC, so I really hope they knock the next game out of the park and we all forget about this silliness of their GaaS attempt.

[Dogg Thang]

I haven’t played Fallout 4 so I don’t really know what approach that took but I think, in order to get something a little different, I’d go much closer to the apocalypse event itself so that survival is a lot harder. Lots of off-limits zones that are barely survivable, the need to move on from your early camp as they get invaded by mutating creatures or nomadic bandits, the need to go on scavenging missions to try to stockpile things that will help you get through the next few days and so on. I don’t mean a really tough game, maybe not even much harder in real terms, but more that we’re at a point where the struggle is to survive rather than bringing some fancy item to some fancy town for some reason, if you know what I mean, framing it around just trying to get through the recent apocalypse.

And no fast travel. It makes the areas feel far too small when you can just teleport from place to place. To really make the most of the size, I’d love to really feel that sense of journey and progression by keeping any missions very close to home and then just edging slightly out as you move on.

[MartyG]

I'd like to see development given to Obsidian Entertainment (yeah I know they're a MS studio now).

Bethesda have tarnished the Fallout franchise so much that I'm not sure I care enough about Fallout 5 to even think about it. Hopefully The Outer World II will be released at the same time.

[dataDave]

A NEW GAME ENGINE.

You can now close the thread. Fan mods address pretty much everything already mentioned, and whatever else could ever possibly be mentioned for that matter.

[wakka]

Haha, I bet we are still on the same bloody engine for Fallout 5 and TES 6. And I bet it gets really janky and goes down to 20fps by the time you hit the 100 hour mark

I played 200 hours of Skyrim on PS3. I feel like I should've gotten some kind of trophy for the endurance I showed in tolerating the ever decreasing framerate.

[QualityChimp]

I normally play these things about a year after they come out and have been heavily patched, so I've never seen a glitch, and if I'm honest, a bit disappointed I haven't