Game Development Giant

There is a very strange phenomenon.

Now there is just a sign, nothing can be seen yet, but in the future, this will basically become a problem that game companies are often criticized by players.

That is about a game being called a new year's product or a cold meal.

So, what is cold rice?

This was originally just a joke among players, but for some reason, the term "New Year's goods" suddenly became a derogatory term, referring to a game company's treatment of a heavyweight IP. , unscrupulously consuming the value of this IP, basically putting new wine in old bottles, releasing one game a year.

There is not the slightest improvement in the gameplay and system between the new and old games. At most, the graphics can be improved - sometimes the graphics are not even improved. The story is changed, the UI is changed, and the UI is not even changed. Another game will be released next year, and Players also particularly buy into it, the most typical ones being Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” and Activision’s “Call of Duty.”

Especially Activision's "Call of Duty", this series was amazing from the beginning and gradually moved towards greatness, especially the Modern Warfare series, which directly established this game as the world's number one FPS game.

But then, Activision suddenly discovered the huge business opportunities hidden in this type of game. They discovered that in fact, this type of game only needs to change the skin, and then continue to use the original things as materials, and the graphics can be slightly improved. , you can be careful about game sales! And the players still buy it!

In this way, the famous New Year's goods series was born.

Activision is even shameless to the point where they keep releasing new games, but they don’t even change the engine.

But there is one thing that Jester found strange when he was studying this issue, that is, it seems that players only call this kind of game once a year a New Year's good, but for those who have spent four or five years making it, A highly anticipated game was released, but the story turned out to be mediocre, the sound effects were mediocre, and there were constant bugs. The UI is outdated, and the graphics can’t even be called average. It’s simply not worth the price of a 60-dollar 3A masterpiece.

In addition to having the same high degree of freedom and high degree of exploration as always. There are really no other advantages.

This game is "Fallout 4".

This game has received constant bad reviews since its release. Many people have criticized it, saying that it is for MOD, for better freedom... and other remarks, but in fact. If this was a game that came out in 2010, there would be no doubt that this game would be great.

But it's already the end of 2015, and there are no longer many games with such a high degree of freedom and a high degree of exploration.

Basically, for a 3A-level work that hopes to compete for the top games of the year, this is basically a must-have condition. This is not about one such game being better than other games, but that everyone is better. Something.

Moreover, it is still old and was used in "Fallout 3". The system in "Lao Gun 5" that has been beaten to death is brought out again, and once again is ignored.

Do you really think that the negative reviews of this game at the beginning were caused by the players being unreasonable?

Nothing new, no surprises.

Players seem to be playing a game from five or even seven years ago. The so-called innovation is just copying some things from the player's MOD and making it into the game, such as building your own house - this It is a MOD that is included in "Fallout 3", and it is an extremely powerful MOD. There is really nothing worth bragging about.

At that time, IGN's evaluation of "Fallout 4" was full of flaws - but from Jester's point of view, this game was just a cold meal of B Company, and there was no difference at all from Activision's new year's COD. They are all the same thing, and to be honest, they are not as good as Activision’s cold rice New Year products. Activision knows that it wants to make cold rice, and at least it needs to package the cold rice in a more elegant way. Let players see something different from before.

As a result, in "Fallout 4", B Company was even too lazy to package it.

For a game that took five years to develop, at this level, it’s no wonder that players have received rave reviews.

Fun?

"Fallout 3" is fun, and "The Elder 5" is also fun. It would be fun to re-explain these things and sell them. The players are still the same players, and the audience is still the same audience. How can it not be fun? "The Elder 5" was able to sweep GDC and VGA and win two major game of the year awards at the same time because of the groundbreaking nature of this game. However, "The Elder 5" was a great game back then, but within one or five years, in With "The Witcher 3" redefining the ARPG benchmark, another game similar to "The Elder 5" would be like that.

You can't say it's not good, you can only say it.

Besides, "Fallout 4" is not as good as "The Elder 5".

"The Elder 5" was top-notch in the industry from system to graphics at the time, but "Fallout 4", in the environment he was in, could really only be called an "original" cold meal.

This may be the main reason for the negative reviews from players. This is not to say that this game only has five points. If you score it with conscience, this game will probably have eight points - but for radiation, this European and American video game industry In terms of maximum feelings, is there any difference between eight points and five points?

Or it may be more accurate to reverse IGN's statement that the flaws do not hide the flaws.

It's certainly impossible to say that "Fallout 4" has not improved at all.

Not talking about the plot, the plot is definitely not as good as "New Vegas", but "New Vegas" is supported by a complete Van Byron plan, which "Fallout 4" does not have.

Let’s talk about his game environment. Compared with the old game, the environment of the new game is more complex. Whether it is the messy woods or the ruins of the city, the scale and level of detail have increased significantly compared with the previous game. The world environment under the new background is even more gorgeous. For the first time in the radiation world, the production team used high brightness, high saturation, and even oversaturated tonal styles based on red and blue, not to mention whether it is "orthodox" or not. ”, but from the first impression, at least it looks good.

Thanks to the evolution of the scene, the overall sense of immersion in the game has also been enhanced to a certain extent. Indoor scenes have always been Bethesda's strength, and this time is no exception. The dark ruins and whispering ambient sound effects add to the tense atmosphere. In comparison, the experience of walking between ruins and jungle is beautiful. However, since there is not much random content and it is mainly about encounters, it will become boring after a long time. Fast travel will still be one of the most used features for most players.

It must be mentioned that after "borrowing" the MOD "Nevada Sky" from "Fallout 3". FO4 finally has true dynamic weather to a limited extent. But in fact, except for radiation storms that will continue to increase the amount of radiation, the existence of other weather changes is still very weak. Compared with The Witcher 3's weather system, which has sound, light, and animation effects, FO4, which uses fixed scenes, does not seem to be "dynamic" too much due to changes in the weather.

In addition, FO4's modeling has greatly improved based on the previous game. Character detail has been significantly enhanced. Although the character movements are still stiff, they are much smoother than the previous game. The refined firearm no longer has the light and airy texture of the paper box in FO3 and FNV when held in the hand. The detailed animation of the firearm when firing, sound effects, and special effects are combined together to give FO4 finally the so-called "shooting feeling". ".

Of course, if we consider it by the standards of a shooting game, his so-called design sense will not even pass the mark.

This is almost all the advantages of "Fallout 4" summarized by Jester. To sum up these "Fallout 4" in one word, it is a great improvement on the previous work.

why?

indeed. The world of the new game is much more beautiful overall than the previous game, but if you look closely, you will find that in addition to the more refined characters and props, the environment, ground surface, vegetation and buildings still continue the sloppy attitude of the previous game. The texture of the buildings is serious, and many scenes have obvious excessive accumulation of textures, causing the whole thing to look like a mess.

Perhaps due to the engine, there are still many problems with the interaction between characters and scenes in the new work. The running motion is still like skating, the character will still stumble on the road, and will still be blocked by unknown air walls on the complex surface. As for the problems that often appeared in previous games such as hanging in the air, diving, unable to open the door, and sinking into the ground. It is also common in FO4 - this is a problem that occurred in the engines produced by the old engine of B Company.

But after five years, they still haven't solved the problems.

Where did the magic modification of the old engine go?

It can be seen that COD has not changed its engine since the eighth generation. The improvement in the graphics is obvious - at least that is how the players see it. This is called a modified engine.

If the above problems can be excused by engine defects and "the picture is not the focus". As a 3A game released in 2015, produced by a first-tier manufacturer, and aiming to be the best of the year, "Fallout 4" actually still has a large amount of loading time, which makes all players incomprehensible and even shocked. , they don’t believe how a first-tier manufacturer could produce such a thing.

Yes, in the new work. Most scene switches still require reading.

The scenes mentioned here are not only multi-story buildings and abandoned large shelters, but also include small churches and utility rooms of more than ten square meters or even several square meters. From the perspective of empathy, this design may be based on the compatibility of the scene MOD with the original game. But look at CDR and Kojima Studio next door... Bethesda, have you gone into seclusion collectively in the past five years?

Is it so difficult for this company to keep pace with the times and open its eyes to the world?

There is another point that Jester feels very dissatisfied with, and that is the UI. Company B has indeed put a lot of effort into the UI. The various first-person perspective UIs obviously "borrowed" the famous MOD "Nevada" from "New Vegas". Plan", but even with all the tricks, Bethesda's UI design is still thrown out by Obsidian dozens of streets - not to mention the dog-eye green color scheme that exudes fluorescent effects like radioactive waste. Of course, this has been continued from one generation to the next. Color matching.

Just the switching method between the first and second level menus, as well as the small and slow-moving map, many old players have not gotten used to it after playing the game for more than ten hours. The UI animation that fills the screen is still very interesting at first. After looking at it for a long time, it just makes people feel confused.

Since B Club has time to embed so many mini-games, can't they optimize the UI?

Of course, what Fallout players like to talk about is the game's gameplay. Those who play Fallout don't play for the graphics. Why don't those who play the graphics play Crysis? We in Fallout have noble gameplay!

It is simply the same ugly face as Ren Dou, facing the mosaic that fills the screen, and Ren Dou proudly calls it full-screen gameplay.

Isn't this exactly the same as radiation powder?

Speaking of gameplay, if you have spent a lot of time drilling caves, picking up trash, doing branch lines, building equipment, reading entries, and opening teleport points in FNV and FNV, then this "Fallout Scrolls: New Boston" will be basically for you. There is no threshold to get started, because it's just the same thing, it's just a new layer of Fallout 4 skin.

Yes, the game gives you a huge map and a large number of locations to explore; yes, the game places many random events around the world to enrich your journey; yes, the game has many NPCs with different personalities that you can interact with. Interact, and even become comrades-but look at the previous games, look at the works of the classic RPG era decades ago, look at the two generations of radiation of Black Isle, and look at other open world works this year, these things can really be counted as " Highlights" instead of "standard features"?

Ultimately, quantity does not necessarily lead to quality. The difference between "interesting" and "boring" may just be a well-designed background story, a charming character, a motivation that makes people's blood rush, and a little bit of thinking that you don't usually think of.

Unfortunately, FO4 does not have the advantage in this regard. Bethesda seems too keen on telling some serious, grand, and deep epic stories, but has no idea how to flesh out this world with different styles of humor, absurdity, and even weird plots. This flaw can be found in every previous Bethesda game, even Skyrim.

The construction system can be regarded as one of FO4's "killer trump cards", but after actually playing it, you will find that whether it is diversity or fun, FO4's construction system has too many areas that need to be polished.

The materials currently provided by the game are extremely limited. In most cases, you can only build an "iron box" with air leakage on all sides. To truly realize ideas such as "Modern Villa" and "Battle Fortress", most of them still rely on MOD or DLC to contribute new materials. Overall, the building system serves more of a framework and is quite primitive compared to other games.

In short, judging from the first impression, "Fallout 4" does make some new tricks in terms of environment, action, fluidity, etc. However, after taking off these "new clothes" borrowed from players, the world essentially becomes Still a huge, empty, lifeless oversized set.

In the final analysis, it is a cold meal that cannot be colder.

And it's a cold meal without any sincerity. (~^~)