On the run up to the release of ‘Fallout 4’, I got hold of the Ultimate Edition of ‘New Vegas’. I’d completed Vegas vanilla on its original release, but felt that getting the bonus DLC packs would make for a decent fix during the wait for the big PS4 title.
So with both games pretty fresh in mind, here’s a comparison of things you may want to know if you’re familiar with ‘New Vegas’ and ‘Fallout 3’ and looking to head back to the Wasteland again in ‘Fallout 4’.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
In the PS3 generation games you were given about 40 points to share between your starting attributes. Finding permanent ways to increase those stats were quite rare, be it through Bobbleheads or implants. Usually you’d only be able to raise a stat by one or two points maximum. You could further boost them by wearing certain items of clothing. Maxing each stat to 10 was extremely unlikely, but you could build a character that comfortably suited your play style.
In ‘Fallout 4’ you start with about 28 points. Sharing them equally between the seven attributes gives you 4/10! That on the face of it makes you feel like you’ll have a really weak character. The other option is to boost your favourite stats and leave others at 1 or 2 points. Being familiar with earlier games makes you extremely wary of having anything less than 5 in any stat!
But have no fear. In ‘Fallout 4’ every time you level up you get a perk point. You can use this point either to buy a new perk, or to add 1 to one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes. The game has no level cap, so potentially you can get every stat up to ten and still get all the perks. You don’t have to spend your perk point either so you can save it for when other perks are unlocked later or you can leave off ones you don’t want. (I never get Bloody Mess for example).
Skills
In the PS3 titles as well as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. you had 13 skills which had scores out of 100. Boosting S.P.E.C.I.A.L. would add a few points in some skills. You could also find magazines for temporary boosts, or books for permanent boosts.
In ‘Fallout 4’, skills have become one with perks. So instead of pumping 15 points into your Science stat, you can put 1 point into your Hacker perk.
Magazines are still in the game, but each one adds a permanent unique perk like providing extra damage bonuses.
Weapon Maintenance
In ‘New Vegas’ players had to constantly keep weapon spares handy so that they could take them apart for scrap and repair their main armaments. The Jury Rigging perk was almost vital for players who wanted to use special unique weapons.
In ‘Fallout 4’ repairing is gone, but modding is in. You can go to any weapons bench, and provided your character has the expertise, they can add all sorts of bits to their weapons to make them stronger, faster, and meaner.
Bayonets on the end of rifles are a great addition, as is the ability to melee bash with any ranged weapon.
Grenades
No longer do players have to switch between using a gun and grenades. In ‘Fallout 4’ you can equip a choice of main weapon and thrown explosive simultaneously. Use the R2 button to fire your gun, and hold R1 to lob a bomb without putting anything away.
Armour
Similarly to the weapons, you no longer have to maintain armour or clothing quality.
But a new way of using armour is in ‘Fallout 4’. Rather than having full suits of armour as one suit (which you do still have in some cases), you can now wear a light undershirt or Vault suit and mix and match pieces for the shoulders, legs, chest, and head separately, letting you create unique sets. Each piece can be modded just like the guns to give you various stat bonuses. You can even add pockets to give you more room to carry loot.
Power Armour
Power Armour is a completely different beast. In a way rather than being treated the same as any other outfit in the previous games, in ‘Fallout 4’ it’s more like a vehicle. You even see your character climb in and out of it.
Power Armour gives a great defensive bonus, plus a boost to your physical strength. You can also jump off of the tallest buildings and take no damage. It can still be torn open by a Deathclaw and let you be eaten like a tin of beans though.
You also have to keep it powered up. The Power Armour uses Fusion Cores as fuel, but it eats them at a ridiculous rate. You’re best off saving your armour for when you know you’re heading into real trouble: Super Mutant Behemoths and Mirelurk Queens etc.
Design
Updated graphics means some of the monsters have had a bit of a redesign. It’s all pretty recognisable but the biggest changes I’ve noticed so far are the feral ghouls and the mirelurks.
Mirelurks look much more crablike now, but for continuity purists you can put that down to being a slightly different breed to the Mojave and Washington variants.
The feral ghouls are like pale, flabby, zombies. Although you might find some dead withered ghouls around the place that look a lot more like the PS3 generation types. So perhaps it’s just a different stage of decay.
A great new feature of the ghouls is that you can shoot their arms off and they will still come at you until completely dead.
Settlements
Possibly the single biggest difference between the old and the new.
Many of us would decorate the homes we were given in ‘Fallout 3’ or ‘New Vegas’ with the treasures we found around the wastelands.
In ‘Fallout 4’ you can build pretty much anything you want from scratch. Disappointed that the house you liked in Vegas didn’t quite have everything you needed in a home? Now you can build it exactly as you want, provided you have the resources.
On the back of the new settlement feature is the other thing that makes ‘Fallout 4’ incredibly different to its predecessors. There is no such thing as junk. In ‘Fallout 3’ and ‘Vegas’ players while looting would skim over cans, bottles, and burnt books. Now you have to fill your boots. Take it all home, pulp it, and recycle it to make your dream mansion/fortress/playhouse.
Looting has become a whole lot easier too. You no longer have to individually open every chest, crate, desk, and box to see what’s inside. Simply looking at any container will allow you access to its contents.
Followers
‘Fallout 4’ has its share of followers just like all that came before. Of course there’s a new Dogmeat too.
However, in this game you can only have one at a time. That includes the faithful hound. 3 and Vegas allowed you to have the dog plus one, but this time around you have to pick your favourite, or have a rotation system.
There’s no companion wheel any more either, so commanding your allies is a bit different too. You talk to them then decide to discuss their general thoughts, your relationship, dismiss them, or open the trade interface.
You can equip your companions in whatever you want. They no longer use the strongest thing you give them. They’ll keep their default gear unless you tell them otherwise.
Your relationships with your companions will be affected by things you do while they are in your company or even nearby. Most like heroic, noble deeds, but some with more grey morality will be impressed by things like your hacking and lockpicking.
The best new companion feature is that you can order them to ‘go’. So in combat if you want to try a flanking manoeuvre, tell them to ‘go’ while pointing your cursor at where you want them to… uh… go.
Conversations
This is one thing I preferred in the PS3 generation games.
Speech seems to have taken a few cues from ‘Mass Effect’. You get up to four options of what to say which is generally a vague short sentence that sums up a longer one that is actually spoken. It’s not always exactly clear what the summary is going to lead to. Speech challenges are colour coded for difficulty level.
The older games told you exactly what you were going to say, and as you had a scroll down list, you weren’t limited to four topics.
But one change that makes the game a whole lot more immersive and enjoyable is how individual characters behave. In the PS3 generation, most NPC’s would stand still, blank faced, and perhaps throw in a generic hand gesture while talking to you. Half the time you’d have absolutely no interest in learning this seemingly dull person’s backstory. In Fallout 4, the individuals have much more unique movement in their body language, making them much more engaging.
Pip-Boy
A few things have been moved around in the new Pip-Boy design, but in many ways it’s an improvement. The random notes and holotapes you pick up on your travels no longer clutter up the quest section and can be discarded as you see fit.
The Rad-meter is now a dial on the side and needs to be watched. Getting irradiated lowers your maximum health, so you’ll need a good stock of Rad-Away handy.
Alongside the Quests are ways to track the status of your various settlements and keep an eye on any improvements you need to make.
You can also get an app for your smartphone to use as a personal Pip-Boy.
V.A.T.S.
The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System returns but functions slightly differently to how we remember. Now instead of pausing time, it slows it, so you need to stay on your toes when using it. You’re not immune from Super Mutant clobberings while checking your targeting computer.
There’s also a new critical hit system. Every successful hit made in V.A.T.S. adds to the critical meter. When it’s full, you can unleash a critical attack and do more damage.
Menu Functions
It might take a while for you to find the trusty ‘wait’ feature. In ‘Fallout 4’ instead of simply pressing Select, you have to find somewhere to sit and then press Triangle.
This would be a pain for those of us who used the wait feature as a quicksave method, but fortunately ‘Fallout 4’s pause menu has a built in quicksave function anyway.
No Lag!
‘Fallout 4’ is an absolute joy to play compared to ‘Vegas’ due to this one reason. This was less of an issue for PC players and even XBox players, but for those of us on PS3, ‘New Vegas’ was a constant battle against lag. Sometimes you could only play for 20 minutes before it froze up. I had to learn a trick that helped clear some memory space for the game to run better. Hold L2, R2, and Square as soon as you press ‘OK’ when the trophies load, and keep it held until the main screen appears and the logo for Fallout and ‘Press Start’ appear and disappear.
All of that is no more with ‘Fallout 4’. Now I can thoroughly enjoy a flawless playthrough without the frustration of feeling like my character is trudging through four feet of snow.
