Fallout 4 Next-Gen Upgrade - DF Tech Review - The Good, The Bad & The Bugged

[Kenrou]

"Fallout 4 is back, transitioning to Xbox Series X and S consoles along with PlayStation 5. New quality and performance modes are added, so how do they stack up - and is the promise of ultra settings delivered? Meanwhile, what's the score with the PC version? Tom Morgan takes a look."

00:00 - Intro
01:38 - PC Ultrawide Issues and PhysX Crashes
03:12 - Xbox Series X and S Mode Selection Bug
04:31 - PS5 vs Series X and S Graphics Comparison
06:04 - PC Ultra Settings Compared to Console
07:44 - Xbox Series X/S Analysis
10:35 - PS5 Analysis Tested
14:10 - Conclusion

TLDR: console peasants should get rid of their toaster and buy a proper #masterrace PC. The game is still VERY bugged on all platforms.

 

[freakdiablo]

Can't watch the video right now, might later.

Put a couple hours in since the update hit. It's been a while since I've played so it didn't even register there was an improvement in graphics, even with everything maxed out.

I did get burned by one of the new graphics options - "add gun effects to world" or some such, will have to check when I get home. Enabled it mid playthrough and the game started crashing, anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds after loading a save.

Thought it was a corrupted file/save. Redownloaded the game, was about to start a new game when I decided to try the current save one last time. Ran fine - doing the reinstall reset the graphics settings.

Saw posts online complaining about that setting later that night

 

[rainless]

Thankfully I'm playing on PS5 and not X-Box. (Fallout 4 was the second game I ever bought on PS4... after the Witcher. So I've had it a VERY long time.)

Just started a new game... before the patch. Woke up in a pod and all that. Updated and now I'm continuing that game. You really wouldn't notice a difference unless you were looking VERY... HARD.

 

[Woomack]

Just started a new game... before the patch. Woke up in a pod and all that. Updated and now I'm continuing that game. You really wouldn't notice a difference unless you were looking VERY... HARD.

The same here. I recently bought it for PC on Steam because of a huge price drop (it was $3 or something), and I thought I could play it some more (I passed it a couple of times just after the premiere). I see no significant differences playing the game on max details.

Instead of releasing something new, they only refresh old games and sell them once again as promo packs or special editions. The world has huge potential and many fans, so it deserves a new and well-designed game every couple of years.
The same they made with Fallout 76. The game had been dead since its release. The price was going down to about $5 because no one wanted to touch it (there were promos where it was free). Some months ago, they made a couple of simple changes and promoted it as something new ... also bumping the price to a regular ~$50. It's not new and is still very bad. It's a game that has over 5 years, which was looking just after release like previous single-player Fallouts, so like games that were on the market already for 5+ years ... and they barely improved it since then.

I went back to Fallout Shelter maybe two months ago. It has no lags or bugs, is free, and works on everything I'm close to maxing out everything, and I am only wondering how to get all the characters for the last Steam badge. I only check my shelter once every 2-3 days, make a quest, and change the production.

 

[magellan]

I was a big fan of Fallout 3 -- bugs, warts and all. I wanted to like Fallout 4, but it just wasn't as good as Fallout 3. The graphics and character animations were better (if you look at your character 3rd person in Fallout 3 and run diagonally the result is really quite bizarre). The whole idea of Boston seeming mostly intact in Fallout 4 was ludicrous. I really doubt that 200 years after a nuclear war and a nearby atomic bomb blast any of the wooden homes would be standing or that 200 year old boats would be still floating or that a 200 year old submarine would still be seaworthy. I never even bothered finishing Fallout 4. I just hope STALKER 2 doesn't turn out to be another letdown.

 

[Woomack]

I liked every Fallout, but they recycled the same engine for 15 years and shared it with Morrowind, Skyrim, and some more. All those games have similar stability issues and share similar bugs in general. The textures are better, and there are some additional improvements, but that's all. I can't wait for something larger and somehow fresh in the Fallout world. I would be happy with a high-budget MMORPG. Fallout 76 was a huge disappointment when it was released, and they shouldn't invest more; they should simply kill it and move forward.

 

[Kenrou]

Correction there, don't kill the Fallout franchise, just change the damned engine. One of the big reasons Fallout 76 failed was same engine, EXACTLY same bugs, including many that fan mods had fixed.

Here's how you make a good Fallout game: Fire Todd, permanently. Sell the IP to a decent company, maybe indie because they are so much better nowadays than AAA (get it as far away from Bethesda as humanly possible). Stay away from UE5 (because requirements). Fix the bugs. Change the ridiculous inventory system. Make weapons/armour craftable, not just upgradeable. Remove the online components for single player versions. If you're going MMORPG, get proper servers. Don't change the lore unless there's continuity errors, only add to it, Warhammer is going through the same crap storm, learn from it. Do not, any under circumstance, pander to the woke companies, no one gives a fig if the main characters are male or female as long as the story is good, stop making it a goddamned useless political statement. Make realistic time projections and don't let the marketing team rush you.

Fairly sure there's more to add, it's really not that hard, just identify what's wrong and change it, the bug fixing and inventory alone would likely take you a few weeks and it would feel like a whole new game afterwards

 

[Woomack]

For most gamers, Fallout 76 could even have that old engine. However, it started with a map that was not big enough and no quests at all. When I was checking it, I saw that on the map were barely a few people, and all of them focused on attacking me on sight as they had nothing to do. I remember the same complaints from most people, and the engine wasn't even high on the list.
5 years ago, this engine was still acceptable, but they still sell it as something new. There were some changes, but it's like playing any other dead online game ... but with friends, if you convince anyone to play it.
I don't get why with so many already good ideas, there are so many bad games. If the engine is good, then everything else is bad. Only prices are going up, but I still can't find any game that I wish to play for longer.

 

[mackerel]

Fairly sure there's more to add, it's really not that hard, just identify what's wrong and change it

That's quite a list there! I'm not familiar with the engine they currently use, but moving to another engine is going to be like making a new game. If they were to go that route they might as well make the new game.

What engine could they go to? In a quick search there is a suggestion they move to the updated version of their current engine for the next game. Otherwise it does feel like UE5 is the main choice unless the recent Unity drama has disappeared. What about UE5 requirements? It still has decent scaling as long as your hardware isn't too ancient or ultra-low end. If anything I hope to see faster uptake on UE5 to look forwards, not back.

Moving studios? Given Bethesda are in the MS group, if it were to be reassigned then might it get shuffled to another company under the same umbrella. Can't see MS wanting to give it up externally. Maybe id? They have a history with fps so maybe?

 

[Kenrou]

It's the same engine they've used for almost all their games, from Skyrim to Fallout 76 to Starfield, it was already outdated and hard to use when it came out (in comparison to others at the time). Considering that most people are still using 3060s and lower according to Steam, I would still go with UE4, as long as you put a little more work on the code.

I honestly don't know about Unity on a game this size/complexity. I shudder to think what Amazon would do to the franchise after the New World/LotR fiasco. CryEngine or IdTech are mostly for FPS as far as I know, would they be able to handle the inventory/crafting/questing? Frostbite maybe, ME:Andromeda would have been good if they hadn't had so many development issues and they did the Battlefield games, so adapting would be easier.

FIY, moving studios would be for the simple fact that we know Bethesda will F it up again given the chance and I simply don't like Todd, he lies too easily on stage If nothing here is feasible, just put all your effort into fixing the spaghetti code in the current engine instead of making new games with the same buggy mess

 

[Woomack]

It's the same engine they've used for almost all their games, from Skyrim to Fallout 76 to Starfield, it was already outdated and hard to use when it came out (in comparison to others at the time). Considering that most people are still using 3060s and lower according to Steam, I would still go with UE4, as long as you put a little more work on the code.

Out of curiosity, I checked when Morrowind was released ... 2002 ... it has almost the same engine, so they have been using it for 22 years

 

[Kenrou]

"Fallout 4's 'next-gen' upgrade launched with a range of issues - not least that the quality mode didn't work on Xbox consoles. Bethesda Game Studios has fixed that issue, but actually opened the door to a whole range of quality vs performance options - and added those options to PlayStation 5 as well. Tom Morgan re-reviews the upgrade with a comprehensive range of testing, finding that the new options are welcome - but the intrusive hitching isn't and needs addressing."

00:00 - Introduction
02:07 - Is the Xbox Series X/S Graphics Mode Toggle Fixed?
03:32 - PS5 versus Xbox Series X/S Visuals Mode Comparison
06:48 - The Benefits of Running at 30FPS Over 60FPS
08:28 - 1440p and 120Hz Output Modes Tested
09:48 - Performance on Xbox Series X
14:02 - Performance on Xbox Series S
16:05 - Performance on PS5
18:00 - Final Thoughts