Whatculture julkaisi pari viikkoa sitten kivan mitä-minä-haluaisin-nähdä-Fallout 4:ssa -tyyppisen 10-kohtaisen artikkelin. Näkemykset poikkeavat paikoin varsin rankasti omistani, mutta sehän juuri tekeekin hommasta mielenkiintoista.
10. Cross-Platform MMO
"Perhaps not a popular idea with all Fallout fans, this would nevertheless be a bold – albeit risky – way to shake up the franchise, by offering up the option of taking the game into the online sphere, whereby you can team up with buddies to traverse this epic world.
Given the power of next-generation hardware, wouldn’t it be amazing to see this living, breathing world populated with tens of thousands of other players? You might be heading to a quest and find a guy to team up with, or perhaps he’ll want to kill you and take all your loot; you’ve got to react quickly in this harsh, post-apocalyptic wilderness.
Given the resistance some players will inevitably have, it’s probably safest to offer a single-player, offline experience too, and though this might require more dev time, in the long run it will make the most players happiest"
-HELL NO FOR MMO! Falloutia kuuluu pelata yksin. Yksin! Mä saatan mielenosoituksellisesti jättää koko pelin ostamatta, jos rakkaastani väännetään MMO. Falloutin yksi suurimmista vahvuuksista ja erityispiirteistä on sen luoma suunnaton yksinäisyydentunne. Ainoana seurana robottikoira ja radio, edessä lohduton wasteland. Mahtavaa. Kaikki tämä vesittyisi aivan täysin MMO:n myötä, kun kaiken maailman pellejä pyörisi jatkuvasti ympärillä. Ei helvetissä. Vaikka ihan tosissani en kyllä jaksa hetkeäkään uskoa tämän kauhukuvan toteutumiseen.
9. Real-Time Gunplay
"It’s pretty much impossible to argue with the head-splattering awesomeness of the Fallout series’ VATS targeting system, which allows players to take their time selecting a body part to brutally dismember, before being allowed to watch the results in ludicrously gory detail.
However, the game pretty much forces you to use VATS all the time, because the third-person gunplay is so utterly awful. It’s evident that little time has been spent developing the non-VATS combat; there is no feeling of power as you limply fire away at an impending foe.
While VATS will still likely rule supreme in Fallout 4 as it totally should, Bethesda needs to at least give the impression that third-person combat can be practical, or simply not bother with it at all."
-Tämä on vähän kaksipiippuinen miekka. VATS on ihanimmillaan silloin, kun päät räjähtelevät, ja ärsyttävimmillään silloin, kun turpa tummuu ja Action Pointsit on lopussa. Tosin, ei se gunplay mun mielestä niiiiin surkeaa ole.
8. A Larger Map
"This might seem somewhat unfair and demanding on the developer given how ridiculously huge the maps in all of their games have been, but damnit, I want more, especially if the next Fallout game dares to go the MMO route.
This isn’t to say that I want more desolate landscapes to endlessly trawl, but I want greater accessibility of the US; if the rumours are true that Fallout 4 is going to take place around Boston, then I want waypoints that will allow me to travel throughout the mid-west and perhaps even beyond.
I can surrender a little of the immersion by quick-travelling to places if it means that I get to see a greater variety of the world rather than yet another dusty trail. I want to see famous monuments destroyed or covered with moss; I want a little more diversity compared to what we’re used to, fantastically realised though these environments admittedly are. Again, I expect Fallout purists will insist upon a seamless map, but personally, I feel like these games could use a little stream-lining."
-Hyvässä pelissä mappi ei koskaan ole liian suuri. Mutta hitto vie, ei todellakaan mitään streamlinetettuja putkia! Noooooo! Eikä mitään waypoint-poukkoilua ympäri keskilännen, ellei sitten mappi käsitä koko keskilänttä. Mikä olisi toki mahtavaa, mutta I doubt it'd happen. Taidan muuten olla Fallout-puristi.
7. More Mission Freedom
"Fantastic though the majority of the missions in Fallout are, wouldn’t it be great if we had a little more freedom to go about completing them our own way? With more advanced technology, Bethesda will be easier able to implement branching consequence trees where we can opt to complete a mission violently or not, specifically by way of talking yourself out of combat.
The previous Fallout games did offer choices, but they were normally totally binary and very distinct; how’s about offering us stealth, or more to the point, social skill as a way of resolving missions peacefully?
Of course, some missions should require you to pull a gun out and take care of business, but in the effort of ensuring all the missions don’t just de-evolve into shooting galleries, give us a few other options, please!"
-Täytyy myöntää, että tätä olen joskus itsekin miettinyt. Tokihan Speechin avulla, esimerkiksi, pystyy hoitelemaan useita tehtäviä, mutta seuraukset voisivat olla vähemmän samanlaiset. Ihan Dishonored-tasolle tätä ei tarvitsisi viedä, mutta ehkä enemmän siihen suuntaan.
6. Improved Visual Style
"It’s a total given that the Gamebryo engine used for Fallout 3 and New Vegas is totally redundant, and as such many have assumed that Fallout 4 will use the modified Creation engine employed for Skyrim. Whatever the case, Bethesda needs to make sure that it gets the most out of the next-gen tech, because while it’s unfair to expect amazing visuals out of a game that is so densely-packed and detailed, the Fallout games have to date always fallen a little short of the visual benchmarks they should be shooting for.
In the last two Fallout games, the character animations have often seemed stiff, and during conversations, the lip-sync doesn’t even match up properly. There is rarely an even remotely convincing feeling that these models are real people, which ends up lessening the feeling of immersion. While the landscapes are fine, what Bethesda really need to hone is the human aspect of the game; when I’m asked to help out a local clan of downtrodden citizens, make me feel for them by looking at their eyes and recognising something beyond a ropey, cold rendering."
-Tästä ei oikein voi olla eri mieltä. Varsinkin New Vegas tuntui grafiikkansa puolesta vain hieman päivitetyltä 3:n versiolta. Ja kaikki ghoulit on samannäköisiä :/ Muutenkin NPC-rosteri voisi olla ulkonäöllisesti monipuolisempi.
5. Bug Test It!
"One of the biggest complaints about these games, especially New Vegas, is that it seems they are not really bug-tested at all. Granted, these games are packed with such a wealth of data that extensively testing every facet would prove almost impossible, but seriously, there’s a glitch in New Vegas (the head-spinning episode above) within five minutes of starting the game, and all it says it that the developer hasn’t paid due diligence.
While these bugs are mostly fixed by updates, I don’t really consider that good enough; I want a refined, polished product released on day one, not some glitchy mess that deletes my saves until Bethesda patch it a week later, essentially rendering the game pretty useless during that time."
-En ihan jaksa uskoa, etteikö muka olisi lainkaan bugitestattu, mutta ihan validi pointti. New Vegasissa oli paljon, paljon bugeja. Osa oli oikein huvittavia, osa taas ihan käsittämättömän raivostuttavia. Olisi kiva, jos sellaisia tehtävien suorittamista estäviä bugeja ei ihan kauheasti olisi.
4. Greater Character Customisation
"It’s great fun creating your characters in the Fallout games, but in this day and age, the creation module seems a little minimalist and outdated, no? In 2013, we really should be able to customise every – and I mean every – aspect of our characters. The more recent Fallout games have instead focused largely on your character’s face – admittedly the most important part – but I want to be able to adjust all of the body parts, be it making one arm shorter than the other, giving him a wooden leg, or whatever my perverse mind desires.
Fallout 4 should be all about developing a completely unique character with their own set of quirks, especially if the game does boast an online option. Though it’s easy to make a decent likeness of your own face in the game, how’s about giving us free reign to see how the rest of us fares also?"
-Jep. Mä haluaisin päästä vaikuttamaan myös hahmon vaatteisiin. Ja hei kamoon, ne hiustyylit on edellisissä peleissä olleet ihan hirveitä.
3. Epic Battle Scenes
"One thing I feel like the Fallout world has lacked is an abundance of epic battle scenes; you get the occasional tense stand-off, but I want crazy gunfights with heavily fortified armies on both sides. Naturally, the next-gen revolution will easier facilitate this, and if the game does in fact go online, then the prospect of massively multiplayer wars between factions has the potential to be fantastic. Whether as a leader or simply a general in the army, the game needs to make us feel the thrill of the battle more, of how the tide of the entire landscape can be changed by these fights.
Furthermore, we should have a more impressive array of weaponry to see these battles through; imagine if tactical nukes were introduced? This could make for one brilliantly, messily chaotic game."
-Ei mitään tekoeeppistä runkutusta! Ei! Falloutit ovat omalla tavallaan niin paljon eeppisempiä, kuin jotkut väkisinväännetyt massataistelut. Ja nyt loppuu toi jauhaminen MMO:sta. NOT GONNA HAPPEN! Mene pelaamaan Defiancea siitä, hus!
2. Complex Morality
"Video games like to think that they’ve become increasingly morally complicated over the years, but in reality, it is still an idea very much in its infancy. This is proven in Fallout 3, where the prime moral dilemma of the game – whether or not to blow up Megaton – is signposted in the most delineated means.
Rather than offer up a complicated, transfixing moral stew, it was easy to see what the “right” decision to make was, and as a result the narrative ended up seeming forced regardless of what decision you made.
These games, with their vast worlds, need a suitably ambiguous morality system to go along with it; the real world is not comprised of simply good and bad, and in a landscape like this, the lines between would become even more blurred. I don’t want to be presented with a good and a bad option ala Mass Effect – I want to decide for myself what is good and bad.
Emotional complexity is one of the biggest obstacles still troubling games these days, but with a smart writing team, this is something that can be overcome. Get rid of the moustache-twirling baddies and goody two-shoes heroes; I want something more realistic, visceral and emotionally gratifying."
-Mä en ole koskaan pystynyt räjäyttämään Megatonia, mutta varastan kyllä kaiken mikä irti lähtee. Tässä palataan jälleen tekoihin ja niiden seurauksiin. Mielelläni kyllä näkisin laajempia tekojen ja seurauksien kokonaisuuksia, jotka kantaisivat läpi pelin. Tosin kyllähän Fallouteissa pystyy kaveeraamaan joidenkin jengien kanssa, mikä mahdollistaa kaupankäyntiä ja lisätehtäviä sen sijaan, että tulisi samantien ammutuksi kun jengin tiluksia lähestyy. Samoin New Vegasissa sai loppua kohden ihan tosissaan miettiä, kenen joukoissa meinaa seisoa. Runkkujahan ne olivat sekä Caesarin että NCR:n kaverit, ja Mr. House muuten vaan hullu.
1. Vehicular Warfare
"Surely the most-requested addition of all to the Fallout franchise is the inclusion of vehicles in Fallout 4. When playing Fallout 3 for the first time, it promptly becomes distracting when you notice that there are vehicles littered around the landscape, yet none of them can be driven.However, given the poor implementation of third-person combat, I imagine that a shoehorned inclusion of vehicles would feel just as clunky. Yet, Bethesda have had time to learn, and as such I think it’s time to bring vehicles into this world, both for traversing the epic landscape, and for use as weapons against the enemy.
We know that the Creation engine can handle vehicles – there were mobile wagons in Skyrim – so hopefully Besthesda will make the most of it combined with next-gen tech to create the most alive, vibrant Fallout world yet. With the possibilities to reference classic post-apocalyptic movies like the Mad Max trilogy, why wouldn’t the developers implement it, short of technical limitations (an excuse they no longer have)?"
-Ei kiitos. I'm not a vehicle-kinda girl.
