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After Math: Hoping against hope
In uncertain times like these, staying optimistic can be a real challenge. But whether you keep yourself centered with meditation, daily affirmations or sheer stubbornness, take a cue from this week in rose tinted headlines.
Even the 'Fallout 76' collectibles have issues
It feels like the bad news smog around Fallout 76 will never fully dissipate. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a recall for wearable helmets because of a mold risk. The recall only impacts the red, Nuka Cola-themed T-51b Power Armor Collectible Helmet sold exclusively at GameStop, not the ones from Bethesda's own Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition.
'Fallout 76' update adds contentious 'pay-to-win' item
Bethesda started the microtransactions controversy on consoles with horse armor, and since 2006 it has extended to every annual sports game, Battlefield V, and anything you can squeeze a loot box system into. In just the latest controversy for Fallout 76, the company has made a decision to add an item to the game that players feel comes far to close to being "pay to win." Once Patch 8 rolls out later today, players will be able to use "repair kits" to patch up their damaged or worn out weapons and armor instead of relying on other resources that take time and effort to gather. While Improved Repair Kits that give your items even more power will only be available in rare drops, the basic repair kits that instantly restore an item to 100 percent health have to be bought using the game's currency, Atoms. You can get that through gameplay, but you can also buy it with real money. As Kotaku points out, players who drop cash can not only avoid the grind of collecting materials or Atoms, they could also potentially have the edge in PvP fights by instantly fixing key weapons or armor in their Pip-Boy and continuing on almost indefinitely.
Here's Bethesda's plan to keep 'Fallout 76' relevant in 2019
After a few very rough months, Bethesda is ready to show where Fallout 76 is headed next... and it might just inject some needed variety into the online action RPG. The company has published a 2019 roadmap that starts on March 12th with Wild Appalachia, a bundle of features, modes and quests to mark the spring. I'll start out modestly with a quest that opens up brewing and distilling at your home base, but it'll also include a seasonal event (the Fasnacht Parade on March 19th), the high-stakes Survival mode (March 26th), base decoration and player vending (April 9th), the Shear Terror storyline (also April 9th) and an Ever Upwards quest (May 7th) that includes Scouts-style merit badges and a customizable backpack. On May 23rd, a Purveyor vendor will scrap your legendary gear in return for fresher equipment.
Bethesda will add a high-stakes PvP mode to 'Fallout 76'
Bethesda might have a way to keep gamers interested in Fallout 76 despite all its troubles: it's raising the stakes for its more competitive players. The company has detailed an upcoming Survival mode beta where every player outside of your event group or team is considered hostile. In other words, no one needs an invitation to start shooting. A seemingly friendly encounter could turn violent in the blink of an eye, and a sniper could take you out while you're busy fighting mutant wildlife. You'll even see leaderboards that show how well you rank compared to other players in your existing world.
'Fallout 76' players found a secret developer room
No, Fallout 76's troubles aren't over yet. Gamers have discovered that the online RPG has a developer room where you can find virtually everything in the game, including unreleased items like special power armor. It even includes the game's lone humanoid non-player character, a hapless target named Wooby. It's not hard to find the general location, although getting in reportedly requires less-than-legitimate methods.
'Fallout 76' bug disabled nukes on New Year's Day
New Years came and went quietly in the apocalyptic world of Fallout 76, but it wasn't on purpose. A bug in the multiplayer survival game caused nuclear codes to be unusable. While the sudden inability to launch weapons was originally thought to be related to the holidays, Fallout 76 developer Bethesda confirmed the issue and said it is working on a fix.
Bethesda says sorry to 'Fallout 76' players with free games
Bethesda is continuing its apology tour of sorts for Fallout 76's rough state on launch, and this time you don't need to have spent a lot to receive compensation. The developer is promising a free copy of Fallout Classics Collection (1, 2 and Tactics) on PC for everyone who has logged into the full Fallout 76 in 2018, whether they played on a computer or console. You should have access to your freebie in early January, Bethesda said.
Bethesda’s ‘Fallout 76’ woes continue with sensitive player data leak
Bethesda recently said that Fallout 76 install bugs "won't be the last bump in the road," and those words have proved all too prophetic. Thanks to a support snafu, customers unwittingly exposed their private data, including credit card info, home address and more, to other users. "I am getting your support tickets on my Bethesda account," said Reddit user Jessiepie. "I now know where you live."
'Fallout 76' Power Armor Edition buyers will get their canvas bags
Among all of its other issues since launch, some of the most dedicated Fallout fans ran into a surprising issue with their $200 "Power Armor Edition" box for Fallout 76. Despite promo materials that promised a "West Tek Canvas Carrying Bag" for the included wearable T-51 helmet, what arrived was a much more cheaply-built nylon bag. Bethesda tried to apologize by granting players 500 atoms (in-game currency worth about $5) last week, but now it's going to live up to the advertisement -- even if it's a bit late. In a tweet, Bethesda announced it's "finalizing manufacturing plans for replacement canvas bags" and said Collector's Edition purchasers should fill out a ticket by the end of January. There's no ship date specified for the bags, but at this point we just want to see something delivered that is more like what gamers thought they were getting. If they're at all disappointed by the game itself that could be a more complicated fix, but another update is rolling out today with balances, fixes and expanded stash storage. In good news for console players, while it's still a larger patch than the one for PC at 3GB vs. 36MB, at least it won't mean reinstalling the entire game (this time).
After Math: To all the turkeys I loved before
The holiday season has officially kicked into high gear, which means it's time to gather around the hearth, count your blessings and quietly roll your eyes as uncle Jerry launches once again into why smoke wouldn't rise straight up if the Earth weren't flat. While he's blowing smoke about thermodynamic theory, here are some examples of tech institutions finding the holiday spirit and giving back to their fans.
47GB 'Fallout 76' patch nearly replaces the entire game on PS4 and Xbox One
Prior to release, beta testers of Bethesda's Fallout 76 ran into an issue that caused the entire game to spontaneously redownload itself on their PCs. Now a major patch has arrived on all platforms and for PS4 players at least, it's a similar experience. Patch notes indicate the update addresses many performance and stability issues, as well as tweaking the game's PVP mode. But on PlayStation (update: and Xbox One), gamers faced a 47GB download, compared to the game's initial 53GB install size (after the patch is applied it takes up roughly the same amount of space). On PC it was a more modest 15GB, but players who have bandwidth caps that are already stretched to their limit by fall releases aren't all happy, with the game requiring nearly 100GB by itself in just a couple of weeks. The developers did mention this prior to releasing the update, and said "This update will be large compared to what we expect for patches going forward." Of course, Overwatch just reinstalled itself with a new patch for at least the second time, so maybe it's time for ISPs to ease up on bandwidth restrictions because the file sizes aren't going down. Update: The size of the patch is similar between PS4 and Xbox One, leaving PC gamers with the smaller 15GB download.
'Fallout 76' gets glow-in-the-dark postage stamps in the UK and Europe
Bethesda's Fallout 76 marketing onslaught is continuing apace ahead of the game's November 14th release. Last week, it snagged Ninja, Rick and Morty, and Logic for a nerdtastic livestream -- now it's releasing limited edition postage stamps across the UK and Europe that glow in the dark. The set of five stamps feature imagery from the game, including Vault-Tec mascot Vault Boy, Power Armor, and Perk Cards. They'll be doled out via social media and community promotional campaigns and competitions.
Bethesda enlists Ninja and Rick and Morty for 'Fallout 76' livestream
To build up hype for the upcoming release of Fallout 76, Bethesda pulled the handle on the pop culture slot machine and it landed on Ninja, Logic and Rick and Morty. That motley crew of nerd stardom will play through the new online survival game on during a livestream event. The broadcast will be available on Bethesda's Twitch and Mixer channels, as well as Microsoft's Mixer. The stream will start at 9 PM ET on Thursday, November 8th.
‘Fallout 76’ install bug ‘won’t be the last bump in the road’
PC gamers hoping to have a crack at Fallout 76 in beta this week were left disappointed when a mysterious bug stopped the 50GB installation from unlocking. Now, Bethesda's vice president Pete Hines has apologized for the issue, making the rather large understatement that "we've hit some problems that we quite honestly didn't expect."
Bizarre 'Fallout 76' bug deletes beta instead of letting players in
Tonight the Fallout 76 beta was supposed to unlock for a few hours so players on Xbox One, PS4 and PC could test it out. Unfortunately for players on PC, for some reason many people saw the 50GB beta installation suddenly begin to redownload instead of unlocking -- a serious problem since it was only scheduled for access between 7 PM and 11 PM ET. Bethesda's support accounts haven't mentioned anything about extending the test period, so hopefully none of you were impacted -- otherwise you'll have to wait until November 1st between 2 and 7 PM ET for another shot. Still, it could be worse -- this could have made it into a wide release, or just broken the game's AI for years until someone noticed. Update: Bethesda just announced that as a result of this bug, it's extending the November 1st test session to run until 11 PM ET.
'Fallout 76' won't come to the Switch because it 'wasn't doable'
Bethesda has made a habit of releasing Switch versions of high-profile games (with the help of Panic Button) despite technological limits, but it won't be pulling a rabbit out of a hat with Fallout 76. Marketing exec Pete Hines told guests at PAX Australia that it wouldn't bring the apocalyptic shared-world game to the Switch because it "wasn't doable." The developer has asked about the possibility of supporting Nintendo's system with every game it's working on, Hines said -- it just wasn't an option here.
'Fallout 76' preview: This isn't 'Fallout 5'
I really wanted to find the Mothman. Apparently he resides along the Greenbrier River, in the lush, post-apocalyptic forests of West Virginia. Pull up the map in Fallout 76 and a friendly icon proclaiming "Mothman Museum" sits along the river's east bank, just below Vault 76 and above something called The Giant Teapot. Fallout 76's world is four times larger than Fallout 4's, easily making it the biggest game in the series, and the Mothman is just one pit stop among hundreds of attractions littered across the freshly irradiated land.
'Fallout 76' beta begins October 23rd
You still have a while to wait before you can dive into Fallout 76, though Bethesda is whetting fans' appetites by releasing the game's intro video and revealing launch dates for the beta. The clip sets up the story, in which survivors of a nuclear war are leaving their bunker and stepping into the West Virginia wasteland with the aim of rebuilding America.
'Fallout 76' deals with trolls by making them part of the game
When Bethesda mentioned that Fallout 76 was an online game, you could hear alarm bells ringing in fans' heads. How were they going to deal with the inevitable trolls who come in to ruin other players' fun? Now we know: it's making them a part of the game. In a presentation at QuakeCon, game lead Todd Howard revealed that people who kill unwilling victims will get bounties on their heads, with the money coming out of their total cap balance (that is, currency) and reflecting their character level. They'll also be impossible to miss -- you'll see a red star on the map.
