So, How Are Those Fallout 4 Bugs Treating You?
Bethesda proves once again that with video games, nothing's easy.
This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.
Last night—like many of you—I installed a fresh copy of Fallout 4 and got ready for an extended session with Bethesda's newest post-apocalyptic RPG.
For a while, it was smooth sailing. I pushed through the playable prologue, then powered down my Xbox One to go do something else. When I started up my console later that night to pick up where I left off, something strange happened: The title screen, which would normally display text like "New Game" and "Continue," was completely absent of the options I needed to jump back into my saved game—or any game, for that matter. Sure, I could have sat back and watched the camera moodily pan past Wasteland scenery until the day broke, but that's not exactly my idea of a good time.
After multiple restarts, I shrugged, uninstalled the game, and decided to let the process unfold overnight. Of course, I wanted to play something, so I turned to my Wii U. Mario Maker needed to be restarted for the sake of an update, so I then switched on my PlayStation to jump back into the middle of a Metal Gear Solid V mission I'd left suspended in Rest Mode. Boy, was I surprised when both my PS4 and MGSV demanded updates, which undid my mission progress and made me revert back to an old save. "Boy," I thought, contemplating my life choices, "Video games sure are a miserable waste of time."
It gets better, though, and by that I mean "much worse for me." Fallout 4 managed to install a whole 93% during the seven hours I slept, so I turned to Twitter to see if anyone had similar problems. Thanks to a kind soul, I learned Fallout 4 on the Xbox One suffers from some pretty catastrophic problems unless you switch a slightly obscure power function from "Instant-on" to "Energy-saving." With just five percent to go, I quickly changed this option, and hoped for the best. Once Fallout 4 finally loaded—NOPE!—the title screen still remained functionless. Now, I'm currently in the early stages of my third installation, and I kind of want everything to die.
I guess it's kind of a trite statement at this point, but it still bears repeating: big, bold Bethesda RPGs sure have their problems out of the gate. And, to be honest, this was something I'd anticipated. A little over five years ago, I nabbed Fallout: New Vegas at launch, and knew I'd be suffering through bugged questlines and general wonkiness before the inevitable patches arrived. But not since the days of DOS commands have I had so much trouble simply getting a game to work.
Fallout 4's been out for barely a day, yet we're already seeing reports of some pretty horrendous bugs. Over at The Verge, Chris Plant just wrote a particularly heartbreaking piece about getting stuck in an elevator after nine hours of play, only to have this bug haunt previous save files.
And it seems like no matter where you go on the Internet today, someone is publishing a write-up on the most egregious glitches they've spotted so far. Now, I understand it's nearly impossible to iron out every issue in a game with so many moving pieces, but, after 50 hours, I found my first bug in the similarly huge and complex Metal Gear Solid V. And it was a fairly harmless one, at that: I stumbled into a hangar, only to find the shelves within it didn't load—the items stacked on them just floated in midair. I chuckled, and went back to playing what had been—up to that point— an extremely stable experience.
So, if any bugs have gotten in the way of your Fallout 4 enjoyment, sound off in the comments below. Something tells me the more nefarious ones are still waiting to be found... Hopefully, not by any of us.