This article originally ran under a different banner/website in December of 2018 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE !!! Please gather around!!! I have a treat for you today. I am sure it no secret that many lies have been told at E3 press conferences; I recall Gearbox showing fake gameplay for Aliens: Colonial Marines. I remember the side-by-side comparison of Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. Sean Murray’s lies about No Man’s Sky still ring in my ears to this very day. Well, I think it is finally time to look at Todd Howard’s E3 presentation of Fallout 76 and break down all of Howard’s sweet little lies.
I will give Todd Howard credit where it is due: his charismatic opener does help to create a more relaxed environment. He is no longer trying to sell you a product, but showing off a new project to a friend. Unfortunately, that’s where the honesty ends:
“Fallout 76 is a prequel to all the other games and it’s our biggest one yet. It is four times the size of Fallout 4. Set in the hills of West Virginia, you are one of the first to emerge into an untamed and very different wasteland.”
Right from the start, I take umbrage with this large map statement. Anytime someone mentions a large open world, I can’t help but think of Sea of Thieves: large maps, minimal content, any meaningful content has been copied and pasted all over the map. Many say Sea of Thieves is wide as the ocean but has the depth of a puddle. So to hear Howard say this and to see Fallout 76 as bare-bones as it is, just confirms how poisonous it is to point out the vast open map.
“We always start with the world and this time it features all-new rendering, lighting, and landscape technology, it allows us to have sixteen times the detail, and even view distant weather systems across the map.”
Now I have heard many people say Fallout 76 has some moments of good lighting and visual effects. I heard that some of the light coming through the trees is quite impressive, but with the amount of video footage displaying rays of light emerging from the ground, known as “God Rays”, shotty texture work, and frequent pop in objects and texture, renders most of those comments moot. I have wasted hours watching videos of all the graphical glitches plaguing Fallout 76 and can’t help but feel like the map size, “four times bigger than Fallout 4” does it no favors.
“Now most people don’t know West Virginia that well. It is an incredible array of natural wonders, cities, and government secrets. This is where the actual nuclear secrets are and the quest the overseer will send you on will take you through six distinct regions, each with its own style, risk, and rewards. There’s plenty of cool new Fallout creatures and we even use the folklore of West Virginia to bring our Fallout visions to life.”
I will give him that point. There is a wide variety of colorful minions and monsters within Fallout 76, but I could also take that point away by pointing out the final boss is just a Skyrim dragon … I mean Scorchbeast Queen.
“We have always wanted to tell that story of what it would be like for you and the other characters who were first to leave the vaults. But there is one big difference with this game, each of those characters is a real person. Fallout 76 is entirely online.”
Not really a lie, but it is rather concerning that a developer mainly known for offline story-driven games decides to make an MMO. Now, I know World of Warcraft wouldn’t exist if Blizzard stuck to making RTS games, but in the age of the “live service,” it only rings as a move to please shareholders.
“Okay, I know, there’s a lot of you who have like a thousand questions right now, so I’m gonna go through them in order. Now, I’ll hit a couple of the big ones first, of course, you can play this solo. All right. You’ll be who you want, exploring a huge world, doing quests, experiencing a story, and leveling up. We love those things about our games too, and would not have it any other way, but also like many of you, we have wanted to see what our style of game could be with multiplayer.”
While I initially wrote off Fallout 76 as a griefing simulator for anyone playing solo, I was very pleased to hear that people playing solo would not be bullied by grouped players. Unfortunately, those players also say Fallout 76 is very boring as a solo experience. Due to design choices, Howard mentions later in the presentation, Fallout 76’s world seems so flat, that many report they can’t play it alone. Todd Howard is starting to not look like a lair, but a cruel genie who will grant your wish… for a price.
“So many of us talk about experiences in our games, but we’ve never experienced them together. So about four years ago, we hit upon an idea that is perfect for Fallout: open-world survival, every person and character is real and it was an idea that we couldn’t shake. We knew we had to do it and do it in a really big way. Now, I know you may have played survival modes in like some of our previous games or some other online games and we, you know, people wonder if this hardcore survival? I like to think of it maybe it’s more softcore survival.”
This, I believe, gives a lot of insight into the thought process behind Fallout 76. Four years ago, survival games like Rust and DayZ were riding high, but the party is over and Bethesda is late to it. I, initially, was getting a feeling Fallout 76 would be more of an EVE: Online take on the wasteland apocalyptic series, especially when Howard mentions every person and character are real. Unfortunately, when he describes Fallout 76 as “softcore survival,” I had a feeling we wouldn’t be getting Eve, but a water downed Rust in a Fallout jumper.
“Death never means the loss of progression or your character. Your character isn’t tied to one server. As a matter of fact, you’ll never see a server when you play. You’ll be in a world with dozens, not hundreds, and not thousands of other players. It’s the apocalypse. It’s not an amusement park, okay, and you’ll be able to join your friends whenever you want and all of your progression goes with you.”
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy… where to begin with this statement? Let’s start with the statement about seeing a handful of players within the world of Fallout 76. The combination of limited players and no NPC has players describe the post-apocalyptic West Virginia as lifeless. DOOMSAYER, you carry, it is the apocalypse, shouldn’t there be any survivors? To that, I say look at the many asset flip games on steam that drop you into empty worlds with little to do. Sure, it thematically makes sense to have a lower player count, but from a gameplay perspective, it does not create a memorable experience. Another reason Bethesda might have a low player count per server could be because they knew the servers could not handle a large number of players. Numerous critics experienced frequent server crashes while attempting the traverse the wasteland. I am sure many of you hear the hilarious tale of three nukes being dropped at once, causing the server crash. Todd’s exclamation that you will never see a server, was definitely a lie.
“When we think about games, we think about worlds and the choices that you can make. The stories that you create and tell yourself. By creating a wide-open world with very few rules, we have a game more than any other game that we’ve done where the choices are yours. Where you’ll decide what happens. You will decide the heroes and you’ll decide the villains. Look this is a whole new world for all of us.”
You know what other game promised no rules: No Man’s Sky. Enough said right?
“Like previous Fallouts, you can play this game solo and quest, but the easiest way to survive in the wasteland is to team up and build together. And in this one, you can build wherever you want and you can also then move that to wherever you want.”
Didn’t most people not really enjoy the building aspect of Fallout 4? Or ignore it entirely? We all knew Bethesda was going to just rip out this feature and bolt it onto Fallout 76. Honestly, I haven’t heard many people excited about being able to build fortresses in Fallout 76. Todd Howard, Bethesda’s cruel genie, strikes again.
“We love dynamic game systems, so we thought why don’t we put multiple nuclear missile sites on the map and then let all of you do whatever you want with them.”
Surely, our player base won’t discover that we don’t change the codes for the missiles and post them to Reddit. Surely, our player base won’t try to launch three missiles at a time and expose that the server isn’t built for these dynamic game systems. Oh wait, they did.
“We know you’ve played a lot of our games and a lot of online games but this one really is unique. We have built a platform, a hundred percent dedicated servers that support this game, now and for years to come, and look, look, we know this is new for all of you it’s new for us. It’s a bit scary and to that end, we’re gonna need your help, because, yes, we are going to have a beta and it is sponsored by our friends at Vaulteq as well. The Break-it Early Tests Application, because evidently, these online games are hard. They can have a lot of nasty issues. I have read on the internet that our games have had few bugs. I did. I read it on the internet, so it’s true and that sometimes it doesn’t just work.”
NO TODD!!! YOU HAVE ZERO RIGHTS TO MAKE THAT JOKE!!! WHEN SOME OF THE BUGS THAT HAVE EXISTED SINCE FALLOUT 4 STILL EXIST IN FALLOUT 76, YOU CAN’T JUST LAUGH OFF BUGS. You have this “Break-It Early” beta, people tell you the game is broken and boring, and rather than pull it back, you release it anyways. This screams to me that you wanted a “live service” game now and didn’t care that it was broken.
Despite my anger at Bethesda, I didn’t do this breakdown to smear Todd Howard’s reputation. Nor did I write this piece to convince you to hurl rocks or verbal insults at him. The man had the unenviable task of trying to sell a game that most likely higher-up CEO’s wanted more than him. A lot of what Todd Howard said, wasn’t necessarily lies, but “careful what you wish for” statements, which still feels just as bad.
“You asked for Fallout 4 with multiplayer, FALLOUT 76 SHALL BE WHAT YOU RECEIVE,” looming within his Bethesda branded lamp.
As I said earlier in the rant, this is not the first time we have been lied to about a game at E3, and could possibly not be the last. With the results of Fallout 76 and Sony pulling out from E3, I am starting to think we should retire E3 as a whole. While I admit, I do have fun covering E3, I am tired of the lies. I am sick of the hype from promises unmet. I am sick of fanboys defending these uncooked games. Frankly, I am tired of the bullshit that games like Fallout 76 attract. I don’t dare dream that removing E3 will make all of these issues magically disappear, but maybe it will deflate some of the hype. With how easy information is to get out, companies can still try to tempt players without the grand E3 stage. Nonetheless, I truly believe for the video game industry to survive, we must bring an end to E3, or else the end of the video game industry is nigh.