Fallout 4

*** May contain Spoilers***

It was like Christmas in November. Fallout 4 was finally out and we were lucky in getting the Collectors Edition. All day we tracked the package while we were at work, hoping that it would be delivered by the time we got off. Two hours after we got off of work, it was finally delivered. The waiting was like the kid that didn't get that one gift they really wanted while watching everyone else play with their toys.

We took three days off from work and became reclusive for a nice five day weekend. Simon was up until 5am that first night. He kept saying, after this mission I'll go to bed. I got up and created my character, that took about an hour, so many choices! I was able to get through the opening before Simon came lumbering out wanting to play. 

For the next two and a half months I watched Simon play the game three times as he wanted to get all of the trophies for it. He played on Hard and had to fight a number of fights over and over, but he didn't give up and never changed the difficulty. Me on the other hand, played it on easy as I don't enjoy ramming my head into a wall multiple times. I play RPG's for the story, fighting comes second for me.

I slowly played my game, when I could, over the last three months and the last two weeks I've had full access after Simon finished his third game and got that last coveted trophy. I finish my game last night after flip-flopping on who's side I was going to take. Simon's endings went Brotherhood, Railroad and Institute. After watching all three different endings, I was disappointed and wanted to try a Minutemen ending. That didn't happen. 

The Brotherhood had annoyed me the minute they showed up. Watching Simon's game and seeing their missions, and how they treated everyone annoyed me. They were outsiders that came in knowing what was best and wanted to "protect" the people..no make that the Humans of the Commonwealth. In my book, they caused more problems with the Vertibirds than needed. I don't know if was a bug, but if they got close to one of my settlements while fighting something, it set off the turrets and then my settlers would start shooting them. The Vertibirds would then explode or crash down on myself (Killing me once) and the settlers. At one point, they showed up as I was on a mission to take out raiding mutants and ruined my sniping fun. I pulled out my laser rifle and took them out. How dare they interfere with my job?!? Then there was Captain Obvious, Paladin Danse. Did the first mission with him and wanted nothing more with him. Got his gun and said "Smell ya later poopicals!". 

Then I thought that the Railroad would be good to side with. Did a lot of their missions and some were fun. But as you go along, their only concern is the Synth and freeing them. They had no interest in helping to improve The Commonwealth and had no desire to compromise. The one benefit to the Railroad, is the armor. 

Then there is The Institute. You can finally work with them in the later part of the game. Can't say much as I don't want to spoil the story line for those that have yet to play or are still playing. In the end, I ended up siding with them. They had the most that "may" better the lives of those living in the Commonwealth. I say "may" because the ending is kind of open to what they may or may not do. I'm hoping that a DLC will have more. I know it's cryptic but spoilers. 

Finally, the Minutemen. I truly wanted to be 100% on their side. No matter which ending you go with, you end up working with one of the three factions. The missions were fun, at first. Then they repeat and there is no end to them. You would figure that once you get a settlement secured and give everyone nice weapons to defend themselves with, that they would be able to keep from getting kidnapped or raided. I mean come on, first your wife was kidnapped by the raiders down the road and then you get kidnapped by the same group that I took out getting your wife back? It got to a point that I ignored the requests for help. I'm the leader of the Minutemen, why can't I send someone else? *cough Preston cough*.

So here is what we think about the game itself. I honestly have no desire to play multiple games of Fallout 4. Some Gamers were surprised that it isn't game of the year. I can tell you, it is not a game that deserves the Game of The Year title. It's a good game but it's not a Great game. 

The game is like a free dinner provided by work. Long on cheap sides, and unlimited veggies, and while it tastes good, the main dish is small, like they didn't have enough for everyone. Bethesda spent to much time trying to be other games and not trying to be a New True Fallout game. For example, with the conversation system, they were clearly doing a Bioware impression from the four options, all 4 options mean the same thing, this button is sarcasm, this button is Jerk, etc, etc. Even down to the same from the side back and forth angles during conversations. But unlike Bioware, they didn't allow for the traditional "extras" section to keep the conversation going. Which has ups and downs. In some ways it's good, as it trims down the conversations to something more realistic, as opposed to stopping a random person and you two going on at detailed lengths about the current geo-political state of life. But it removes skill based conversation checks, which has always been a big part of Fallout and replaces it with a hidden dice roll based only on Charisma.  Those options are limited to "Ask for more money" which always works 3 times before they won't give any more money or "Talk more about what we are currently talking about" however that option seems to rarely make much of a real difference, just shares a little more detail. 

At one point of my game, The Railroad kept asking me to support them. There was an option to ask why they felt that the Minutemen wouldn't help them. The response was, that they would mutiny before helping Synths and given the rest of the Commonwealth's views on Synths, it wouldn't work.  Ok, why not give us a chance "prove" that theory wrong? Yes, while you travel in the Commonwealth, you hear the Settlers telling you that you better not be a Synth, however, one of your Companions is a Synth. It took time, but he was able to gain Diamond City's trust. Why can't I as the leader of Minutemen be able to convince my group to help the Railroad?

The same is true with the Institute. You're asked to side with them and to prove your loyalty you have to wipe out the Railroad. There is no compromise, no exceptions.  Here is a point that the Charisma checks would have actually been useful. What I would have liked to see was that I'm able to convince the Institute to let the "Self Aware" Synths to leave if they wished. Hand them over to the Railroad so that they can help resettle the Synths with the condition that the Synths become productive members of society.  The minute that they start taking innocent lives, they go back to the Institute for reprogramming.  If you have a high enough Charisma to make the speech checks, then it would be a win-win. But no, it is a solid "It's our way or no way." mentality for the three factions.

Towards the end, the story line dried up and I didn't like that there wasn't more peaceful options with the factions. The longer you play, the more holes you see in the game. This is something one would expect to see in a game that a company took a year to make, not a game that was 8 years in the making.

The positives of the game is that it's not THAT buggy and most of the graphics are pretty. Designing settlements is fun, up until a point. (Oh my god, you have 10 turrets, a canon, 4 guards, and a wall around the place. Keep the gate closed and stop letting the baddies in!)

Our favorite Companions:

Nick Valentine-  He has one of the best developed character history and story lines.



Strong- Not smart but has some great lines that made us laugh throughout the game.


And of course, Dogmeat. I mean, come on, how can you NOT love wondering the Commonwealth with a really cute and expressive pup at your side? He doesn't talk back, won't get in the way of your lined up sniper shot and doesn't keep telling you about a settlement that needs your help!

Our Favorite Missions:
The Silver Shroud Story Line


Last Voyage of the USS Constitution

Cindigo- The death of Daniel.

This past week YouTube's Cindigo and Markiplier lost a member and a close friend to suicide. Simon and I didn't follow Cindigo but do Markiplier. Their loss has been felt across the community and their fans. I didn't realize just how far until we received a text message from our oldest nephew asking if we had heard about what happened. I had forgotten that my nephews follow Cindigo and Markiplier.

This is his first experience with suicide and he's going to be 13 soon. We hope that this will be his only experience with it. We had told him that we did hear and asked how he was doing. He was very honest with us in saying that he was upset and confused as to why someone would do that. He couldn't imagine walking into your friend's room to find them laying there. Why is always the question one asks after a suicide.

We were honest with him.  Simon told him that it's ok to be sad. When people decide to take their own lives it is so sad because there are so many people they have who care about them, and who will be hurt by their leaving. But sometimes people become locked in their own mind and they can't see past their own sadness and own feelings of loneliness. Even when they are a famous person, it can become too much to handle. It can be worse for people who are famous for being funny, as they can become trapped by it and the pressure to be funny makes them put on a show to hide how they feel.

But when it comes to this, it's because people feel they have no one to turn to and no one who cares. But that isn't true. If someone wants to say "I want to kill myself" to a perfect stranger, chances are even that person would care and want to help. 

I then expanded on what Simon said and spoke from experience. I suffer from depression. I told him that it was very sad. People that suffer from depression do become locked in their minds. I've been there.  The thought is, everyone would be happier if I wasn't around. I'm a bother to everyone. To thoughts that no one likes or loves me. It's a vicious cycle that is hard to get out of. Lucky for me I reached out for help. Even now there are days when my mind goes to dark places but, Simon pulls me back.

He was surprised with what I said. Then it was my turn to be surprised and I really shouldn't be. He said that depression is one of the saddest things there is. He then told me that he continually sees kids at school with tons of scars on their arms and it makes him sad to see anyone that thinks badly of themselves. He then mentions a girl that he's friends with and she's one of those that are self cutting but she's getting help. He said that it kills him to know that he can't help them but he wants to.

I told him that he can help. He can be there for them. Tell them Good Morning and ask them how they're doing. Listen and don't judge. If you think that someone is on that brink of killing themselves, call the suicide hotline. It's 1-800-273-8255. I told him that someone is there  24/7 and they will tell him what to do to help. I also told him to give the phone number to that person. I told him again that there is always help but just know that there is only so much that you can do. If something should still happen even after trying to help, it's not your fault and you should never feel guilty.

We need to speak to our kids and give them the information that will help them reach out for help, either for themselves or for their friends. September is Suicide Prevention Month. There is so much help out there it's amazing and sad at the same time. Print out the information on a card that they can carry with them. Help is out there. Educate them on where to find it.

Need help? United States:

1 (800) 273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week

Languages: English, Spanish

Website: www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

National Suicide Lifeline

My love for Dragon Age Inquisition

I'm having a love affair with a game, Dragon Age Inquisition. This is the best out of the three Dragon Age games. I love the story, love the characters and the world. The choices that I made did matter and Bioware learned their lesson from their fail ending of Mass Effect 3, but I have to play the game as a Human. 

I've played through DAI two and a half times now. I didn't finish the third round because I had enough of the graphic glitches with my Female Rouge Dwarf during the cut scenes. The floating shoulder pad from my armor and then her floating torso. I had asked Simon why I seem to only have this problem with my games and he responded with a very valid point. Games are still made with the mind set that Gamers are going to play a male character. The developers don't take the same amount of time with female characters as they do with the males. They don't play test using female characters with the different sets of armor to make sure the armor is in the right place. (This also happened with my Female Human Mage.)

My Dwarf Rouge during a cut scene in DAI.

The floating torso just shows that they didn't render a female dwarf to fit correctly during the cut scenes. It got really weird with the romance between my dwarf and Iron Bull. She got stretched to Human height during that cut scene. 

I'm not saying that the graphic glitches are only on female player characters. Simon doesn't like playing Humans and will always choose another race. When he did his play through of DAI, he played a Qunari with a beard. The beard was rendered or coded for Humans so it floated just above his face and again it was during the cut scenes. I would think that Bioware would have had these fixed almost a year later. But I just ran into the floating shoulder pad on my Human Mage in the latest DLC. I got sick of it so I changed the arm set on her armor to a lesser one. No more floating shoulder pad.

I just finished Bioware's final DLC for DAI. The story was awesome and I loved how it did sum up what everyone was doing and took into account the choices that I made. The only things that I was disappointed in was the armor graphic glitches and the lack of armor upgrades. The armor that I had at the end of the main game play through was still better than the armor that I was getting for a story that is two years later. But then again, the DLC, I feel, is more about the ending than it is about getting the leet loot and Bioware accomplished that. This gives us hope for Mass Effect 4.