Sure, and I was very happy.

If you know what Todd makes, you can be hyped for that, and not for what YouTubers are trying to sell it as.

Same for Starfield; I'm incredibly excited for it, moreso than any game in years, but I know what it won't be (amazing story, complex characters, systemic and emergent gameplay loops, etc), and can be hyped for what it will be (fallout 4 in space).

I remember a bunch of posts on reddit when the first images released and tons of people were bashing it for having the same exact graphics as 3/new Vegas. I never felt more confused. It doesn’t have the greatest graphics of its time, but I still think they hold up pretty well.

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite, because I'll complain about almost every aspect of this game until I'm blue in the face, but I still put like 200+ hours into it. Same for Skyrim actually.

I had no real expectations going in and it's still one of my favorite games.

The story and the roleplaying were boilerplate, not something you want in a series known for being rich in both. Could tell you about 5 minutes after the prologue who the main antagonist really was. It was the kind of twist Vince Russo would pull in the old WCW days. The heavy focus on crafting and the pain of having to defend places throughout the wasteland was also a big turnoff for me. Felt like a lot of busywork and fluff to pad the game out. I avoid and drop games that don’t feel like they respect my time.

All in all, it wasn’t a good game for me, but I’m glad some folks enjoyed it.

It’s still a good game, it just sucks as a fallout game. Like, the dialog is extremely linear. You have 4 options (you had more in the other fallout games) and it’s almost always a “yes”, “yes 2”, “more dialog” and “no”. It’s likely changed to accommodate controllers better and have less lines for the player character, but it just sucks that’s it’s the case.

Sorta the same with the story bits. In New Vegas nearly every, if not all NPCs were killable and you could still finish the story

I liked it!

I've got such mixed feelings about Fallout 4. Yes, the story isn't great but tbh I was never expecting it to be very good. This game does come from the same company that in Fallout 3 wouldn't let you send Fawkes into the water purifier because by doing so you would break the story (sorry for spoilers on a 15 year old game).

Obviously where the game really shines is in the gun play/ combat and the gameplay loop. Those two factors alone make me want to replay FO4 every so often, however whenever I do, I always find myself inexorably drawn to settlement building, each time I do a replay I try to do as little of it as I can but still end up taking ages setting it all up.

I remember when I first completed Fallout 4, feeling underwhelmed by the story, I comforted myself by thinking "They spend ages working on the creation engine for this release, I'm sure that on the next game there will be more focus on the story". welp, 8 years since the last (single player) Fallout so it looks like that ain’t happening anytime soon.

Ooof, I remember all too well. I don’t see myself being hyped for Fallout 5.

I never found dogmeat.