Haha yeah. The Behemoth vs the bridge defences at Sanctuary was a good watch. 2 missile turrets, 2 shotgun turrets, 2 heavy lasers, 2 heavy mg, 4 light mg, 2 light lasers, flame traps & tesla traps all lighting up the night sky.
Armin my settlers to the teeth was also a good decision.

I'm playing on hard for my first run and I'm at level 42.

Cool, should of made a clip as that sounds great Maybe catch it next time.

Think I'm nearly at the point where I have to pick a faction and turn the others hostile. I've been trying to do as much as possible while keeping everyone neutral for my master save file.

I finally went into the glowing sea today, plenty of radscorpions and deathclaws to kill. It's only the bloodbugs I had trouble with. They're almost impossible to hit outside of VATS and my hits only do about 5% damage so I can't kill them before I run out of AP. When there's 3 or 4 of them it's pretty much instant death. I then 'killed' the synth in the next mission now I have to take the part to the railroad.

Also failed my first mission. Had to go into Dunwich borers to rescue a settler and after doing so he decided to continue following me as I went exploring as I knew there was a bobblehead in there somewhere. He ended up getting killed by a legendary ghoul. Got given the mission again not long after so hopefully it removes the failed quest from the completed quest log.

Doing a quest for Preston 'Taking Point: Murkwater Construction Site' which is one of the basic settlement ones where you go to a location, clear it and then build a recruitment beacon. Hadn't discovered the location yet so had to fast travel to the nearest destination (Suffolk Country Charter School) and run the remaining 150 or so meters.

Upon arriving I see a Mirelurk queen standing in the distance. Now I've already killed the one at the castle (although that was quite a struggle back then) and have killed another 2 that I randomly encountered in the wild but didn't expect to find one as part of a basic radiant mission.

i think during my play through i encountered about 12 giant creatures (either behemoths or mirelurk queens)

So I have saved the Commonwealth, everyone loves me. Now what? Should I walk about a bit looking for quests or start again with a new faction?

I got the biggest kick from Fallout 3 by just wandering about and picking up random quests and discovering stuff. It kept me going for years!

same here that was what i loved most about fallout 3. as for fallout 4 after completing i would roll back to and earlier save before the institute then do the other 3 endings. each had a different way of getting to their factions ending and its worth doing

I've teamed up with Codsworth and although he's not a lot of use he keeps me amused with the things he says.

Mr Andy - don't you think we ought to take a gander in those buildings?
Mr Andy - are you aware that you are rather...er exposed? (I was wearing combat separates but had forgotten to put on some pants).

If I pick up something useful he'll often say 'there'll be some use to that or I'll eat my hat!'

And if he has got lost somewhere and I call him to come, he'll say 'I'd love to sir, but I appear to be trapped!'

30 hours in now. Some random thoughts.

The world is great, It can look lovely too. Sometimes it looks horrible.
The character models are rubbish.
The new enemy behaviours are good, burrowing, climbing, etc. But the AI is still generally horrible.
Voice acting and writing is definitely a step up from previous Bethesda titles, but still not what i would call good. A lot of characters are a bit dull, but a few are pretty good.
Its still great fun to explore.
I really like the new power armour system even though i rarely wear it.
Crafting is good, but fiddly. Settlement building is too fiddly to be bothered with..
I like all the perks, but i miss skills.
PC UI sucks molerat balls
The combat is passable but not great.
I think most disappointingly of all nearly all the quests are basically go somewhere and kill everyone there. Perhaps it's rose tinted glasses, but i'm sure there previous fallout games had more variety.

Overall im a bit dissapointed. I was really looking forward to this and i think Beth have failed to keep up with whats expected of a AAA game in 2015. I'd only give it 7/10. It's a good game, but lacking in so many areas.

I agree with pretty much everything there, Vast_Girth. It fell short of what I expected from Bethesda. They're still using the old game engine, albeit tweaked a little. Look at the character models and animations, for example. They are awful compared to to other games such as Witcher 3 or even Dragon Age: Inquisition. I doubt they'll change it much for their next game because they'll get showered in money anyway so why bother?

That said, I'm still enjoying the game though, despite the negatives.

Even a die-hard fanboy wouldn't disagree that the game has its flaws, built on an out-dated engine.
Some things have been improved like enemy behaviour.
Some things have been ruined like the dialogue system.
Some things have remained the same like NPCs blocking doorways.
Settlements were a good inclusion and a decent distraction.

It's still undeniably fun. I'm at 120+ hours now without getting anywhere near the main story, haven't met the Railroad or Institute and have no plans to stop playing any time soon.

Just cleared Spectacle Island last night and made friends with the Atom Cats.
Got a Legendary Gauss Rifle from a Legendary Glowing Mirelurk on Spectacle. What a Mirelurk needs a Gauss Rifle for is a mystery.

I don't know what it is with Bethesda games but I and many others seem to forgive their many flaws due to the undeniable fun they provide to all us experimenters and explorers.

I still play the older games Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout 3 years after I should. I'll suddenly think 'I wonder how a character like THAT would do it'? Then I'm off on an adventure again. I already have ideas for my 2nd and 3rd playthrough on this

So I don't mind the rubbish dialogue, the holes in the world you fall through, the companions stuck on roofs or in doorways, etc it's all part of the course

I can't be bothered to build settlements, but it seems other than that I've completely run out of things to do. In desperation I decided to romance any companion I could by just taking them on radiant quests, but even that's run its course.

It does feel like there are less missions in general than there were on Skyrim.

Have you explored everything? I have barely touched the main quest due to little quests and mini-quests I keep finding.

If it's anything like F3, there will be years worth of stuff to do if you just wander around.

A question - I've set up several settlements with food, water, beds and turrets. Do I have to arm the individual settlers and if so how is it done?

...and don't forget we've still got the DLC to look forward to.

I'm at Level 22, 10 days & 4 hours on Normal. I've barely touched the Main Quest line as I am concentrating on both the Minutemen, exploring the Commonwealth zone by zone (I've covered the first two and now doing Z4 as far down as Revere before moving onto Z3 and any side quests I come across.
I use the Power Armor for any areas/enemies that are likely to give me trouble, but I don't want to use up the Fusion Cores too quickly. BTW, is the number of FC's fixed or is there a limitless supply?
Only using Sanctuary Hills as a settlement at the moment, and that's coming along slowly. Although I realise I will have up my game there to get the Benevolent Leader trophy eventually, it might just not be on this playthrough!
Currently clearing out Dunwich Borers (Loving the Lovecraft reference, remember the horror show that was the Dunwich Building in F3? Bethesda do seem to be disciples of the Great Old Ones!)

This was probably my most anticipated game ever and to be honest I was disappointed at first, I had to be I guess. I knew I would have issues with the voiced protagonist and dialog system and after playing it for a bit it did feel off, the male actor irritated me, god knows why! I didn’t think the graphics would bother me going in, I was just happy to play another Fallout game but I will admit I was disappointed by the character models and terrible interior textures, which at times I was surprised how bad it looked. Thankfully I feel the exterior stuff looks great and exploring is a pleasure.

On my initial game I followed the first quest stuff and was underwhelmed, didn’t like the pacing and shoving the main themes down your throat so early. This added to some technically problems on the PC nearly lead me leave the game alone for six months. And then I just thought what the hell, start a new game with the female character and just explored some of the upper map stuff instead of the initial quest. After a while it was business as usual and pretty much love it now.

I just think my initial expectations not being met put a damper on it to begin with, I don’t really know what I expected. I realised the problems I have with the game are only part of it, it doesn’t have to ruin it. It’s taken a bit of time but its game of the year for me, Skyrim and FO3 all over again, can’t get off it!

You don't have to arm them. Most seem to have at least a basic pipe pistol. You can upgrade there weapons and armor if you wish just by trading with them and telling them to equip whatever you give them.

You don't have to if you don't want to.
I did. You get loads of extra weapons and armour when you're out and about so keeping some half-decent stuff to give to settlers improves the defensive capabilities of each settlement.
My guards assigned to guardposts all get rifles to pick off attackers at range and full armour.
Everyone else gets shotguns or an upgraded pistol.


Fusion Cores
I'm on 130+ hours and have 90+ fusion cores in my inventory. Plus 16 Power Armour suits with a core in each. You start finding lots in random containers. Dead BoS members are always a great source. Myrna in Diamond City has one for sale every time she restocks.
There's a perk and a bobblehead that will increase fusion core life by 125%.


I'm in my own little resource war right now. Trying to find enough oil to build turrets and water purifiers is becoming a challenge. Even finding enough bone to create cutting fluid is hard. You should be able to pick up the whole skeletons that are scattered around the place. Raiding all the hospitals and super mutant camps every few in-game days now.

I have mopped up most of the achievments. The 100% settler achievement eludes me though. I have 26 people at sanctuary hills. 54 food, 107 water, 55 power 174 defense 29 beds. Yet happiness is stuck on 79%. It was up to 90% a while back, then happiness shot down because it said my water and defense was at 0. I travelled back to find out it was a bug,but ever since I have struggled to get into the 90's again. It is just stuck at 79% now and will not move.

Got the platinum yesterday. The settlement trophy was totally pointless, and the description is really misleading. Got mine in a settlement with 4 people and about 30% of the size bar. So much for 'large'

Must say the main story was a real letdown. I spent 80% of my playthrough walking around exploring, clearing random buildings and was level 40+ before I even went to the glowing sea. Everything from that point forward put a dampener on the game, and I didn't enjoy any of the 3 faction endings. I think any further time spent on the game will be on my save file before I turned any of the factions hostile.

Finally got round to doing some Brotherhood quests but not liking those guys They want me to coerce food from Sanctuary by bullying them into it. No way, that's my home!

Also what a bunch of hypocrites. They are against technology but use any research they find, fly around in helicopters and airships, use power armour all the time, but don't want anyone else to use anything they find and expect people to feed them by toiling by hand in the fields.

Think I'll leave their quests for later and try the minutemen instead.

the brotherhood aren't against technology they are dedicated to controlling and regulating technology in the wasteland so history doesnt repeat itsself