At long last we can crawl the postapocalyptic wasteland again, Fallout 4 is here. I haven't played all that much of it, and it's taken awhile to settle back into the gameplay style.

I'm sort of just button mashing my way through the adventuring, here is a taste:



(Nothing special, just initial gameplay action.)


The game looks great, with a few caveats:

• Character models are fairly mediocre, it feels like Bethesda dedicated rendering resources to environments. Since a lot of the game is solo exploring, this may have been for the best.
• Animations are pretty archaic. Dogmeat just sort of skips around, NPC movement is pretty unnatural.
• Framerate can go from great to horrendous really quick.

Like Fallout 3, the combat system is extremely unforgiving at lower levels. I expect things will get easier as I level and put less skill points into lockpicking and crafting.


The signature Fallout retrofuturistic style and alternate timeline really flourish in the new installment. Polygons and lighting go a long way.




The other characteristic of the series is the dark humor of Vault-Tec instructionals.

Source.

The most discussed feature Fallout 4 is the construction/customization of ally camps throughout the wasteland. It feels a bit like the Mass Effect 3 war asset gathering that was supposed to help you in the final battle. I'm not sure how it will play out and am avoiding spoilers for the moment.


On the whole, though, this one plays much like Fallout 3 and quite a bit like Skyrim. It's great to have more of a good thing (and prettier), but considering the innovation that went into Fallout 3, the fourth is lacking.

Turkey Bowl

The Thanksgiving(-ish) flag football game is fast becoming a tradition. Starting last year we decided to theme it like we were still in grade school and wear really lame Pilgrim/Indian costumes.


The home team won it, zone defense prevailed in a packed 7v7 matchup.

Democracy is non-negotiable.

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