Just a quick tour of all of my Fallout 76 player C.A.M.P.S. None of them are 100% finished (I need more plans!), so please consider them all W.I.P.
Much thanks to AquaNova for the inspiration, especially on the first cylindrical build. Her work is amazing! Be sure to follow her.
I’m really REALLY enjoying Fallout 76!
I was a massive fan of Fallout 4 (check out my previous Fallout posts here). I fell in love with the world and the characters and I put a lot of hours into that game. I modded the hell out of my game too (being able to modify a game was new to me, it still blows my mind). I even bought and played all previous Fallout games too (yes New Vegas was amazing).
When Fallout 76 launched late 2018 it received a LOT of negative press. One of the things I loved about Fallout 4 the most was the NPC’s and to find out that Fallout 76 wasn’t going to have NPC’s really put the nail in the coffin for me. Fast forward to 2020 and Bethesda has introduced NPC’s to Fallout 76. The game was available for purchase on Steam, discounted too, so I pulled the trigger.
My initial thoughts: I felt like I was playing Fallout 4 again. Same graphics, same janky gun play (coming from Destiny 2 the gun play in Fallout was never going to be great). I instantly missed the theme song from Fallout 4 when launching the game, but the radio still works, and that awesome Fallout 4 vibe of being alone and playing the radio whilst roaming the map was still there.
I started doing the NPC questline and before I knew it I was hooked. So hooked that I stopped playing Destiny 2 all-together and Fallout 76 is now my main game. Within a few weeks I got 2 characters to the level 50+ end game, and both builds are worlds apart. One a bloodied stealth sniper, the other a full health melee build. And speaking of builds, the new perk system is awesome (so too the mutations) and working on a min maxed build to suit my playstyle has been a really rewarding process.
The community is pretty active too, and I’ve spent a lot of time watching great guides on YouTube and checking out other people’s builds on Reddit.
A few days ago I decided to subscribe to a 1 month trial of Fallout 1st. A service which grants Fallout 76 players some pretty huge benefits like currency to spend in the shop, an unlimited junk stash box, the ranger outfit from Fallout New Vegas (this is really why I paid up tbh!) and even a private server. I’ve just managed to influence a few of the boys to also buy the game and we’ve just started playing as a crew on a private server.
Gamer for life? Maybe. Sometimes I game hard, sometimes not at all, but I always feel a little guilty for gaming too much when I do. Either way, right now I’ve got the bug, that’s for sure!
Playing Destiny 2 with Amanda!
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Back on PC with the Fireteam.
I searched for a local Eastern Suburbs PC repair shop and found Eddie of Eastside Computers in Coogee, just up the road from Maroubra. He was quick to reply to my messages and came to my place to pick up the case and once fixed he dropped it back off for me too.
I had to replace the motherboard and chip but everything else was good. Lesson learned though, from now on I must clean out the PC of dust at least a couple of times a year.
I did spend a bit of time playing Destiny 2 on the Playstation when the PC was down. 30FPS is just so janky and the really tight FOV is ridiculous. What’s worse is the insanely slow loading times for simple things like loading the character screen. PVP was a bit of fun though. I play D2 on PC with a controller which I feel has given me an edge when playing competitive on the PS4 Pro against other controller users.
Great vibes on a night out with Threesome Crew. We’re really getting along, it’s fucking awesome!
First there was maintenance 3 times in a row (nothing worse than finally getting some free time to have a solid sesh only to find servers are down), and now there’s a skills bug which renders the game completely unplayable at higher levels (as your skills work for a few seconds then they literally vanish!).
The bug only just started for me last night, but people have had the bug for the past 3 days. I’d imagine those guys are even more frustrated than I am!
I hate to be nervous… but it’s starting to look like the same old Massive, at it again. Why I thought the company would be any different this year is beyond me… I ‘hoped’ I suppose?!
I spent 1,953 hours on The Division 1. That’s a whole lot of hours on a game that’s stuck in what feels like December, Christmas time (a snowy city full of Xmas decorations).
I was always nervous about expecting too much from The Division 2 but one thing I was sure of was that they would take us out of a snowy NYC. I’ve avoided most YouTube videos to date and last weekend I dove into the Open Beta. I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on spending a few hours in the brave new world.
At first there’s an instant familiarity with the controls (I use a controller on PC). Walking slow to admire the world feels smoother now and the fantastic cover system is still there. At 4K and ultra I was only getting 30–40FPS so I ended up playing the Open Beta in 1920×1080 in full ultra instead for a solid 60FPS. The world is super colourful, and missing the spooky dark snowy NYC vibe, but it’s more packed with details like rubbish and overgrowth. I appreciate the slight boost in graphical detail over The Division 1 for sure.
Shooting feels more weighted. Recoil is savage on the controller and I like it. Many audio bits are lifted directly from The Division 1 which is a good thing. Panning out to get an aerial view of a newly discovered landmark feels a little Far Cry to me, but that’s nothing major, the same old audio collectibles and ECHOs are still here and just as boring as they were in The Division 1.
All in all I had a good time in the Open Beta. The Division 2 feels a lot like The Division 1, and that’s not such a bad thing though I was secretly wishing for more. I did encounter some bugs, specifically some AI glitching and skating. That really worries me as it’s crazy immersion breaking. I’m not so sure I like all the UI changes either. Going from a cleaner linework style UI to a more photographical UI makes everything look a little heavy. I would have liked to see a more tech/minimalist approach to the UI rather than the old UI tarted up to look new.
NPC’s still look really gummy, cartoony and fake to me, especially their faces but my main gripe is the NPC chatter. I hated it in The Division 1, mostly because it was repetitive at places you often hung around at like the Base of Operations. It’s worse in The Division 2, where random NPC’s yell out things like “Hey, there’s that Agent!” or “You’re the best, Agent!”, why is this dialogue always so cheesy and juvenile? It makes me feel like I’m meant to be 15yrs old to play the game.
I’m still on the fence about spending up to get The Division 2 when it launches on March 15th. I don’t feel any sort of urgency to pre-order it, but I do have an urge to go back into the Open Beta, which sadly ended yesterday.
E3 2017 Anthem gameplay reveal.
One of, if not the biggest reveals at E3 2017 was Anthem. Watch the gameplay reveal in the video above, ignore the fact that the game is being made by EA Games/Bioware, ignore the cheesy dialogue, look at that lush world. Quite impressive, right? When I saw this reveal in 2017 I called absolute bullshit. The scene in the hub where your character speaks to that random guy, come oooooonnnnn, that can’t be live?! It looked so pre-rendered to me, there was just no way the game was going to look that pretty live and too right, the game is out now and the downgrades are savage.
All the YouTube reviews that matter are strongly suggesting that right now, gamers DO NOT BUY THIS GAME as it’s an unfinished and unbalanced buggy mess. Whilst it might be safe to buy the game in a few months when they’ve sorted out a few teething issues, some things might not be able to be fixed at all such as the abundance of long loading screens (oh this is a deal breaker for me!), dead hub, a map that looks the same wherever you go, repetitive game structure, weak story and cheesy dialogue.
A comparison between the Anthem E3 2017 Gameplay Demo and the Public Demo (2019).
In reaction to E3 and downgrade culture I did a podcast in January 2018 outlining the importance of TRANSPARENCY, especially in relation to business. Sadly, the lack of transparency in the gaming industry is still just as rampant today as it was when I made this podcast despite the big guns on YouTube calling out the devs and firing shots this entire time.
The internet is smarter than you — Transparency and being an honest business will get you far.
Am I surprised about the downgrade? Not at all. Am I upset about it? Nope. Would things be different if I bought in on the hype and pre-ordered the game? Most likely. I’d say all those who pre-bought and are currently playing the game are already defending because they’ve already committed so much time into living with the bugs, the server disconnect and reconnect issues and sitting through loading screen after loading screen.
You’ve got to be in it to win it, but in this case I’m glad I went with my gut and made the choice to sit on the sidelines.
Controller from my first console, the Atari 2600. Woodgrain baby, woodgrain!
I watched a fair few ‘gaming addiction’ related documentaries on Youtube last year. There are a couple of really good ones BTW, especially loved this one by SBS Dateline where young Korean boys are sent off to rehab to cure their addiction.
How much gaming is too much? The answer is debatable, but I know 15-20hrs a day playing games is indisputably too much, and yet when I was doing it I was quite proud of myself for being more hardcore than even the most hardcore of hardcore gamers out there. “Thumbs of steel!”, these were just the kind of comments I was fishing for when I bragged about breaking landmark levels and hours played.
Speaking of hours wasted (Oh that’s harsh… geez I’m quick to go 180 aren’t I?!), finishing the main storyline and a handful of side quests on a good role playing game (RPG) averages around 30hrs. I’m much more keen on end-game though where the ceiling on upgrading gear and character development are lifted and the carrot dangles forever.
I’ve spent 1,953hrs on The Division (most of these hours were spent in group play with mic active), 1,405hrs on Warframe (mostly keyboard chat), 692hrs combined in Destiny 1 & 2 (50/50 mic play and solo no comms) and 2,308hrs so far on Black Desert Online (BDO), a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game which I play mostly alone (not the point of MMO’s but hey, go your own way?!). Worth noting; there are a lot of ‘away from keyboard’ (AFK) activities in BDO (I fish!) so the number is inflated.
Now that I’ve got the bragging out of the way I realise that those massive numbers aren’t anything to brag about. Much like how I’m not advocating for weed so much at the moment, where I was once so proud to push weed into people’s faces I now realise how much of a passive aggressive dick I’d been.
Whenever the experts suggest that 2hrs gaming a day is more than enough I’d snicker, no fucking way could I keep up with the boys if I was only gaming 2hrs a day. But wow, seriously, without the bong I now find myself struggling to spend 2hrs of quality gaming time in any game. It now absolutely boggles my mind that the boys can play games until 3am nearly every work night whilst their wives and kids are asleep. I’ve been missing the boys, missing my daily login rewards on BDO… I’m not even doing AFK fishing FFS.
For me, bonging and gaming every waking hour, (and every non-waking hour as I often had epic long microsleeps whilst gaming) caused extreme sleep depravation, which caused poor health both inside and out to the point I didn’t want to see people, or for them to see me (I have an unhealthy soft spot for social isolation/being a hermit) which led me to depression and eventually suicidal thoughts.
In relation to problems; people say “sleep on it” but I’m more of a “I’ll sleep when I’m dead!” kinda guy, but the unfortunate truth is the shorter your sleep the shorter your life. Sitting for tens of hours straight (well, slouched on a couch) took a toll on my body. I forgot to care for the important things that I wasn’t doing, things that really matter like moving and getting a good nights sleep!
TL;DR, Staying awake gaming was my problem. 2hrs gaming at most per day, with regular sleep at the same time every night, for the same amount of hours every day has been my solution.
Also on Medium.
Always late to the party. I’ve finally decided to buy and play Destiny 2! Honestly I kinda got sick of watching the constant stream of Destiny 2 hate videos on YouTube over the past year.
Hate videos get more views and publishers (some who don’t even play the game) cash in on this big time so I figure fuck it. Ima buy it (was on sale) and yup, too right, the fun I’ve had in the game over the past week has far outweighed the years worth of negativity I’ve seen online over the past year.
In a week I’ve done the main story campaign 3 times over to build 3 characters (as you do), now the grind to 380 begins!
I’m playing on PC. Could do with some help getting to max level so add me Guardians!
Battletag: ZENGARAGE#1837