Fallout 4's disastrous 'Next Gen' update

By Molly Gibson

Gameplay of Fallout 4 where the pause menu has glitched and changed to a much smaller resolution

With the release of the now massively popular Fallout tv series, Bethesda has been trying to squeeze more money from their old cash cow. However, despite their financial success they have ended up yet again fumbling the actual games.

Bethesda has always been known for buggy games but since Fallout 76’s release back 2018 the company has been slowly nosediving in the public eye. First with the fiasco with the game’s $200 (Roughly £159) pre order only “Power Armour Edition”. Coming with a cheap nylon bag that was advertised as being made of high quality canvas and not even coming with a physical copy of the game. Instead coming with a cardboard disc with a download code on it.

Then there was the game itself. Bethesda’s CEO Todd Howard famously saying before the game’s release “It’s our biggest one yet. It is 4 times the size of fallout 4 and this time it features all new lighting, rendering and landscaping technology. It allows us to have 16 times the detail.” And of course, his now famously mocked line he said a few years prior “All of this just works”.

When the game released it looked horrible, with so many bugs, glitches and exploits that the game was basically unplayable. Then there was the constant stream of greedy, anti-player decisions the company made in the years following 76’s release, essentially sinking themselves completely in the public eye.

However, with the release of the Fallout TV show, the franchise has been given a new lease on life. With six years of bug fixes and updates, 76 was finally good. A fact Bethesda was able to capitalise on with a free week of Fallout 76 that saw PC player numbers jump from 11,000 players a day to almost 45,000 players at the end of the week, with player numbers still in the 50,000 range now.

Gameplay of Fallout 4 where an enemies texture has failed to load, making it bright pink. Screenshot by Amy McCrindle

Fallout 4, being the most recent singleplayer Fallout game, was the go to game for people wanting to get into the franchise. To capitalise on this Bethesda put out their “Next Gen Update” which was supposed to upgrade the game to current generation quality. Unfortunately for players, they not only didn’t deliver, but broke their 9 year old game.

The update brough an honestly small selection of features. It included some new quests, armour and weapons as free DLC content. The weapons included in the pack are ludicrously strong and easy to stumble into. These packs also automatically give you the quests, clogging your quest log. What’s more, the PC version of these downloads them all automatically. It also adds some rather inconsequential weapon skins and assorted Halloween items.

What it quite notably does not include is any graphical improvements, leaving the game with its passible but clearly last gen graphics.

Gameplay of Fallout 4 where the sniper scope overlay is in the wrong resolution

The update also attempts to squash some bugs and in true Bethesda fashion, it not only broke basically every mod made for the game but also added a slew of game breaking bugs. Bugs including multi minute load times, overlays and menus getting stuck in different resolutions and crosshairs not matching where the bullet actually hits. Not to mention a smaller update a few weeks earlier making some of the DLC on PlayStation causing the game not to launch.

Despite the games once again being broken, the fallout franchise is more popular than it ever has been. Much like the inhabitants of the series wastelands, the franchise too refuses to die.