Review: Fallout 4

Over the July 4 "celebration period," Steam, the video game engine that most of the video games are now played through, at least on PC, had a big game sale.

Fallout 4 had been on my wishlist for a while. The game, by Bethesda, had received more good reviews than bad and I am a fan of their Elder Scrolls series, having played Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. I have over 1,300 hours of game time in Skyrim alone. (That's over a period of 6 years, and some of it is time I am not even playing it: I've set a pack of dimes on a key to make my character stay in stealth mode to build up that skill and walked away.) These are open-world games and enormously playable. The Elder Scrolls series are set on another planet, where you have humanoids but also characters that function as humans but which have different capabilities; lizards, cat-like creatures, orcs, and so forth. The Elder Scrolls also deals with magic and doesn't use guns.

Bethesda generally does not have great main story lines, but their multiple side quests can keep me engrossed for hours and are in and of themselves long games. I also like to explore and do not barrel through each quest. I take my time and search every nook and cranny of a cave or whatever. I appreciate the detail in the game.

Anyway, given my track record with Bethesda games, I thought I'd give Fallout 4 a try since it was on sale for a very low price, like, paperback book-level price. Given that, if I only spent 5 hours with it, I would consider it ok. Generally speaking, with Bethesda games one does not necessarily need to have played the earlier games in a series for it to make sense.

So far I have spent 6 hours with the game, and I confess I find it wanting. It is set in a dystopian world, the year 2285, more or less, in Boston, MA after nuclear war created by over-consumerism and an ignorant population (the beginning was so like today that it made me shiver) make everyone angry and riotous. It is our world though not quite, as it is initially set in 2075; however, the differences aren't enough to shake the queasy feeling that this might actually be our tomorrows.

I'm going to talk about the story line as well as game controls, so if you don't want to know any of that, stop reading here.

SPOILER ALERT

Fallout 4 uses the same game engine as Skyrim, so I thought my learning curve on the PC controls would be quick. Wrong. The menu system on Fallout 4 is terrible. After six hours of play I still haven't figured out how to favorite a weapon, use armor, or anything else useful. I can use a security baton and beat up roaches and that's about it. I found a pistol and either I am a really bad shot, taking nearly a full clip to kill a radiated cockroach, or the aiming mechanism is off. This kind of thing should be intuitive, and a somewhat seasoned Bethesda game player, playing on novice no less, should not be left still wondering how to figure out the menu after six hours of game play. If I decide to play anymore on this game, an iffy adventure at the moment, I am going to first find a walkthrough with control directions and something that explains this weird menu.

In Skyrim, the player interacts with the AI world using text. Fallout 4 gives the player voice options, but they are terribly limited and frequently are not the questions you'd want to ask. Whereas in Skyrim you might hear the player grunt occasionally, in Fallout 4 the character makes comments about the scenery around her (I was playing as a female). The story line begins with a husband and wife in the bathroom. The player sets up the character, facial characteristics, hair, eye color, all of that stuff, and the husband comments on it. "New hair style?"  "Shaun (their child) has your eyes."

Once the character is created and named, you go into the kitchen where you meet a robot helper, who cooks, cleans, and cares for the baby. He goes off to feed the child. During this time, a salesman comes to the door to force you to purchase space in Vault 111, a safe space where your family can go and stay for a year or something in the event of a nuclear event. You agree to the purchase. The robot comes back to say Shaun needs his mother. You visit the baby, spin a mobile above him, and then the robot tells you to come and look at the TV.

Oddly a lot of the things in the detailed surroundings (they are very good, graphically speaking) are more like 1950s style than futuristic. It is an odd mix of old and new. Anyway, there is nuclear war starting, the TV announcer says, and then the screen goes blank. A Vault 111 van pulls up and someone on a loud speaker tells everyone to get up the hill to the vault. Your husband grabs Shaun, and you both run. You go onto a little circle thing - other people are being beaten back by Vault 111 security, which is kind of not nice - and you go down. You are hustled into a room, handed a suit, and told to go into a decontamination unit to change.

Everything goes white for a while. Then you wake up, and you see through a glass in your decontamination chamber, which is really a cryogenic pod, a man grab your child from your husband and then shoot your husband in the head. Then you go back into stasis or whatever you call it.

Then you wake up. This is when you finally really get to take over the character. Previously all you could do was walk around. (Fortunately I knew that was "w" on the keyboard from Skyrim, because nothing else told you.) You go to your husband's pod, open it, and all you say is "I will avenge you, sweetheart, and I'll find Shaun," and you take his ring. No weeping, nothing. At this point you don't know how long you've been "asleep." As you wander through the underground enclosure, you come across computer terminals that, if you read them, explain that you were put in deep freeze and that the crew that was supposed to watch over you mutinied after about 180 days of being locked underground. No one else is alive in their pods and you can't open them.

After you kill cockroaches and pick up coffee cups and various other pieces of junk (which I did only because I had pre-read that you should pick up everything), you finally make your way out. You go to your house and your robot is still there, tending to a fallen-in house (made of wood, it really wouldn't be standing, still). He tells you that you have been gone for 210 years. So it is now 2285 or so.

Everything is very dismal, with your little subdivision in shambles. Somehow couches still have some stuffing and you wander around the neighborhood picking up more junk. Across the street from your house you find a couple of workstation for creating things. Apparently crafting is an integral part of Fallout 4.

In Skyrim, crafting is an option. You don't have to improve a thing to move forward in the game. But in Fallout 4, you are ultimately creating new settlements, so you actually have to use all of that junk you pick up to make beds, electricity, radios, etc. Also, if the weather turns weird, you take radiation hits, which you have to cure somehow or another.

Anyway, the gist of this is you go from town to town and you're still searching for your son. Now, you have no idea when he was taken from his father's pod. So you don't know if that was 200 years ago or 10 minutes before you woke up. Odds are, though, given the shape of the world, that it was a very long time ago, and probably about the time the crew watching over your units mutinied, which would make it a very long time ago indeed. This really makes no sense as a main quest. I mean, I understand wanting to find your son but I would think you'd be wondering if you're actually looking for your great-great-grandchildren.

There are side quests, from what I read - you do this or that for people, and you create a settlement in your little subdivision. The things you have to fight off are killers and looters, roaches and other assorted oversized bugs, some bigger creepier things that are very hard to kill, and ghouls, which are irradiated people who are like zombies. There are normal people wandering around but they are not very helpful, or at least, not the few I met in the six hours of game time I have played.

Jumping forward, because I went and read the storyline to see if I even cared about it, in the end you find your Shaun and he's an old man, overseeing some section that was running Vault 111 and which is now trying to control the world or something by creating synthetic people.

It is not a story line I particularly care about.

It is unusual for me to feel this much distaste for a video game, but I am not keen on this one at all. It has a balance of good and bad reviews and I wish I had paid more attention to the bad reviews, but it is hard to judge those things, just as it is with book reviews. It is all subjective.

Part of the problem is I dislike using guns for multiple reasons, and part of it is the dreariness of this world is such a start contrast to Skyrim - which is full of color, northern lights, brilliant moons, etc. - that it is almost shocking. The other part is it is not a fantasy world, it's reality of sorts, and not a very nice one. It is one thing to watch Waterworld for two hours, and then return to your life, but quite another to want to invest 100+ hours in this kind of landscape.

I suppose I shall have to wait until the next version of The Elder Scrolls comes out before I purchase another open-world video game.

Sunday Stealing: Box Questions

 Sunday Stealing: The Put Your Questions in the Box Questions

1. Where were you three hours ago?

A. Sitting at the computer. But earlier I had cattle out, so I was out chasing cows (I was in the car). Actually I was watching them while I waited for my husband to come home and chase them in; I was simply ensuring they didn't find their way to the main road. Had they done so, then I would have blocked the road with my car and turned the blinkers on and moved in for more drastic action, but fortunately I did not have to do that.

A newborn calf.

2. Make a confession.

A. A Bless me Father for I have sinned confession? I really don't have any. I'm pretty vanilla anymore. Well, I read the Tarot the other day and it was eerily spot on. And I spent $26 on a video game sale on Steam. Whoo hoo, I'm a bad girl, I am.

3. Bad habits?

A. I bite my nails and I eat chocolate. Again, bad, bad girl.

4. Favorite color?

A. Blue.

5. Can you drive?

A. I have been driving since I was 12 years old.

6. Three pet peeves.

A. People who leave shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot. Liberals and conservatives who can't see past the trees and into the forest (lack of long-range understanding of consequences is a big problem today). TV commercials for drugs and lawyers.

7. Last person you hugged.

A. My husband.

There he is, my guy.

8. Something you miss.

A. My gallbladder and my ovaries.

9. What song is stuck in your head at the moment?

A. A song called "True Love" as sung by Anne Murray on her album Croonin'.

10. Favorite quote.

A.

11. Favorite band.

A. I have so many it is hard to choose, but I am going to go with The Eagles today.

12. Something you're excited for.

A. I am getting a hair cut next week. Whoo hoo!

13. Favorite movie.

A. Lord of the Rings (all three movies in the trilogy, all 9+ hours)

Boromir dies a most valiant and tragic death in
The Fellowship of the Ring.

14. What type of phone do you have?

A. I have a Nokia flip phone.

15. Favorite animal.

A. I consider the deer to be my totem animal.

I suppose my totem would be a doe, not a buck, but
hey, it's a deer.

__________
I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: The Joker

Saturday 9: The Joker (1973)

because Stacy recommended it.

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Steve Miller claims he's a picker, grinner, sinner, lover, smoker and joker. Do any of those six words describe you?

A. All but the smoker one. I've used the other words to describe myself in answers to some of these meme questions, if I'm not mistaken. I'm a picker (guitar player), grinner (weird sense of humor), sinner (aren't we all?), lover (thank you husband), and a joker (that weird sense of humor again). And I sure don't want to hurt no one.

2) He maintains he's still a midnight toker. When's the last time you got high?

A. Ha. With illegal substances, when I was a teenager. With stuff from the doctor, not all that long ago. Good thing I don't drink alcohol.

3) The lyrics include a reference to peaches. Name your favorite fruit.

A. Apple.

4) This song had a big impact on the character of Joey on Friends, who had an imaginary friend named Maurice with the occupation of space cowboy. Did you ever have an imaginary friend?

A. Oh yes. I had several of them when I was growing up. One was named Davy and he was very mischievous. I had another named Jamie, whom I told my mother I was going to marry when I grew up (and I married a James, imagine that). There were others, too. Sometimes when I am at the store and I am buying something silly (like say, a Wonder Woman coloring book) and someone asks me if it is for my daughter (or granddaughter, now that my hair is graying), I smile and say yes. Toys for my imaginary family.

5) Steve Miller is the pride of Milwaukee, WI. What else is Milwaukee famous for?

A. Beer is about all I can think of.

6) Steve Miller considers himself a serious blues guitarist. When did you last feel like singing the blues?

A. I sing them every day, I think.

7) In 1973, when this song was popular, you could buy a portable 8-track tape player for $44.50. On what device do you listen to music most often?

A. Now I listen to music on either my desktop computer or my Amazon Kindle, and I still listen to the radio or the CD player in the car.

8) A Curious George book packaged with a Curious George plush toy was a big seller at Christmas 1973. Tell us about a toy -- either given or received -- that brightened a holiday or birthday for you.

A. My brother this past Christmas gave me Santa Mouse, which is actually a Christmas tree decoration. However, we played with it when we were children. My mother got it, I think through Avon, when she was pregnant with me just after my parents married, so it is older than I am.




9) M*A*S*H was one of TV's top-rated shows in 1973. Who is your favorite M*A*S*H character?

A. Hawkeye aka Captain Pierce, although Major Margaret Houlihan is a close second.

 

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

Toys They Aren't

Lately, I have found myself perusing the toy section at the local Walmart. Since I have no children and all of my nephews and my niece are beyond the toy age, the only reason I am there is for myself.

This started with the Wonder Woman film, which thrilled me and acted as a balm across my weary, battered soul. I am tired of seeing women in roles on TV that leave them helpless, silly, or less-than any human with a penis. It also brought back a lot of fond memories of reading comic books and playing with little action figures. It also reminded me of the 1990s, when I could watch Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Captain Kathryn Janeway on the Starship Voyager kick butt and take names. Those strong fantasy female role models slipped away after 9/11. (There is a good research paper in there for a college-level class.)

This new interest in toys began as I slid past the toy section as I always had, with barely a glance. Then, to my surprise, a display of Wonder Woman dolls stopped me in my tracks. These were the size of Barbie dolls, larger than I like. I always preferred the 6-8" action figures when I was growing up. I was never big on baby dolls (too sissy) but instead I liked GI Joe, the Johnny West series, and the first small action figure I remember, Action Jackson. These were followed by superhero figures, though I think I had outgrown many of those by the time they came around. My brother, I remember, had a pile of the original Star Wars figures.

Back to the toy department. I looked at the dolls. I wanted one. I am 54 years old, I thought to myself. You don't need a doll. Instead of buying the doll, I wandered the aisles. I ran across a series of Metal DieCast DC figures for $4.97. I bought a Wonder Woman and a Supergirl. (I also love the Supergirl TV show.) Ok, I thought. That's $10 for two things. Good enough.

My odd little metal superheroines,
with a spoon for size comparison.

After I saw the movie a second time (something I seldom do - I can't recall the last movie I saw twice at the theater), my husband and I slipped into Walmart to pick up some deodorant. Despite the fact that the toy section was all the way on the other side of the largest Walmart in the area, I limped over there. I stood in front of the Wonder Woman section.

My husband told me to buy the damned doll. I declined.

"You've looked at them three times that I know of," he said. "Which one do you like?"

I wanted one with the sword but all they had was one with the golden lasso, so I pointed at that one. He picked it up, put it in the cart, paid for it, and we came home with it.

My Barbie-sized Wonder Woman doll.

Today I was in Walmart and I looked at the toys even though I was short of time. I ran across a line of tiny little metal toys. They were 94 cents. Not even a dollar! The Wonder Woman looked cool. I tossed her in my shopping cart.

My very tiny Wonder Woman metal collectible.

But this is not really about my purchasing Wonder Woman items, though that is what has led me to this point. This is about the toys I see on the shelves. I am beyond shocked at the merchandising tie-ins with movies. The stock rotates with every new film. Wonder Woman, Spider Man, Beauty and the Beast. It rotates through once and then again with the films hit the DVDs. The toys are also weird looking. A lot of them have these huge heads and tiny little bodies. Many of them are Lego figures, which have no hands and are square and pixilated and incredibly creepy looking. They must also be quite popular.

The smaller action figures are in the boys' section. Larger action figures, the Barbie-sized ones, are in the girl's section. I do not know why. In the action figures, the manufacturers offer wrestling guys, lots of Marvel Comics characters, Superman, Batman, and a few female superheroes, like the Black Widow. No small Wonder Woman, though. I remember when Stars Wars: The Force Awakens came out, there was a little kerfuffle about the lack of a Daisy Ridley character. This was especially surprising since she was essentially the lead in the film.

I found toys that were remarkably familiar - puzzles, a Slinky, PlayDoh, and games like Sorry! Life! and Monopoly. I saw bubble-blowing goo and bicycles. But most of the items being sold to children these days are simply commercial tie-ins, things to make money for movie stars and the movie studies, including Disney, Pixar, and the like.

I saw too that toys are still divided by gender. Without even thinking about it, I knew which aisle was for girls and which for boys (incidentally, in every store, there are more toys for boys. I don't know what that means but it means something.). The Barbies were on one aisle; the trucks on another.

A part of me wanted to redo the entire department, and mix it all up. Who says girls can't play with dump trucks, or boys with Barbies? How did the smaller action figures become relegated to the boys' section? Are girls supposed to only be happy with Bobble Headed Wonder Woman?

I think a visit to Toys R Us is in my future, if only to get a better sense of what the children are playing with these days. I don't understand the weird looking figures, the crazy Lego items, the completely unrealistic nature of some of the things I saw. I like fantasy, but I also like for it to make sense. A weird-looking little doll with a massive head makes no sense.

My Wonder Woman items, and Supergirl, will go up on the top shelf with my Xena action figure and my Charlie's Angel doll (the Drew Barrymore version). I will consider the collectibles.

I missed a lot of trends by not having children. Perhaps had I spent more time in the toy section, some of the things I see there today would not surprise me. But I always bought books for my niece and nephews. I did not buy them toys. I left that to their parents.

The merchandising tie-ins with movies troubles me. Childhood should not be so commercial. It should be a time of freedom, a time to see a movie and enjoy it. I don't recall ever seeing a movie as a child and then clamoring for the toy that tied in with it. However, now that I think about it, I know I received a watch that had Alice on it, for the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie.

I remember receiving a Batgirl doll that tied in with the old Batman show featuring Adam West. Gumbi, I think, was a cartoon character. Obviously by the time Star Wars hit this merchandizing tie-in was well in place, but I was a teenager by then and into books, music, and boys, not dolls.

As part of our capitalistic culture, it never occurred to me to question the merchandizing of everything. But I think it is past time that I did so.

Something about this whole affair troubles me. I can't quite put my finger on why it bothers me so, except that it is terribly exploitive. Expect to see me revisit this issue again.



Yes, I loved the movie. Yes, I will own
the DVD. I will watch it many times.
I will memorize the dialogue.
I am weird.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen reasons to vote a straight party ticket when you're in the election booth.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. There is no reason unless you have thoroughly exercised your duty as a citizen and read up on each and every candidate for which you are casting a ballot. If the only reason you are voting for an individual is because there is an "R" or a "D" beside a name, then you are the problem and what is wrong with this country.


__________

 

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 507th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Happy July 4th!

Sunday Stealing: Bud's Last Questions

Sunday Stealing: Last The 40 Questions from Bud

Here is a song for Bud, who is no longer authoring the Sunday Stealing meme. It's called The Last Goodbye. Congratulations to Bev, who is taking it over, at least for a while.


1. My uncle once : Told me I couldn't read when I was three years old, so I picked up a book and read it to him. When he said I was just "remembering" it, I told him to give me something else, and then I read him that. He didn't tell me I couldn't read anymore.

2. Never in my life : Have I gone parachuting.

3. When I was seventeen : I was young and foolish, a dreamer who thought the world had promise. I know better now.

4. High School was : Something I'd rather not revisit.

5. I will never forget : The day I married.

No cake-smashing for us.

6. I once met : A man with seven wives, as I was going to St. Ives. Each wife had seven sacks. Each sack had seven cats. Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks, and wives, how many were going to St. Ives?

Alice.

7. There’s this girl I know who : Fell down a rabbit hole and landed on a chessboard, where the Red Queen said, "Off with her head."

8. Once, at a bar : Somebody had a drink.

9. By noon, I’m usually : Done for the day.

10. Last night : I did not sleep well.

11. If only I had : Paid more attention.

12. Next time I go to gym/church : The roof will fall in, as I don't attend either one.

13. Susan Boyle : Is not someone I know anything about.

14. What worries me most : Is the way that people no longer love one another or understand the cooperative nature of society. Where has all the empathy gone?

Looking left in my office.

15. When I turn my head left, I see : Two clocks, a bookcase full of books, some cameras, and a picture of Gandalf the White from Lord of the Rings.

16. When I turn my head right, I see : A picture of three angels, painted by a friend, a plate hanging on the wall that says Friends are the family we choose for ourselves, and a bunch of papers piled on my desk.

Looking right in my office.

17. You know I’m lying when : I flush or blush or something. I don't know. I don't lie often enough to know what my "tells" are.

18. What I miss most about the eighties : Is being younger and more able to do things.

19. If I was a character in Shakespeare, I’d be : One of the witches in Macbeth.

20. By this time next year : I hope to be feeling better and maybe working more.

21. A better name for me would be : Smart ass, according to a number of people I know.

22. I have a hard time understanding : How people can vote against their own interests.

23. If I ever go back to school, I’ll : Get a Ph.D. and become a college professor.

24. You know I like you if : I talk to you.

25. If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be : My husband.

26. When I compare 80s rock to 90s rock : I just don't do that.

27. Take my advice, never : Sniff a dog's butt.

28. My ideal breakfast is : Scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy.

29. A song I love, but do not own is : American Pie, by Don McLean.

30. If you visit my hometown, I suggest : That you take a hike up to McAfee's Knob.

31. My favorite Beatle is : Paul McCartney.

32. Why won’t people : Put the food carts into the bins at the supermarket instead of leaving them all over the parking lot.

My couch.

33. If you spend the night at my house : You will have to sleep on the couch, because I don't have an extra bed.

34. I’d stop my wedding for : A fire in the building.

35. The world could do without : Negative political advertising.

36. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than : Jesus, I don't know. I am not much on licking cockroaches.

37. My favorite blonde is : I don't have one.

38. Paper clips are more useful than : Nail polish.

No fingernails for nail polish. I bite my nails.

39. If I do anything well, it’s : Write and be a smart ass, apparently.

40. And by the way : Thank you, Bud, for hosting Sunday Stealing for 10 years even though I've only been playing for about five of those. (I played a while before I "signed up" but I answered the questions.)

__________
I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.