It was always a divisive game, depending on what you were looking for. The rating might also be affected by that.
Review say no problem…
“Aside of a review about the game itself, I'd like to share about mod support of this. First, GOG version of Fallout 4 binary (Fallout4.exe) is virtually same as Steam version except Steam stubs. It even requires steam_api64.dll to run and GoG version has steam_api64.dll but it is a wrapper of galaxy client API. It means...
GoG version has same bug that Steam version has. You will get darker face bug with some texture replacers, nvidia gameworks related crash on RTX 3000 series or later and goes on. In short, yes GoG version has no problem to use with F4SE.
However, if mods are not working correctly, check fallout.ini and change or add following line in [ARHCIVE] section: bInvalidateOlderFiles=1 sResourceDataDirsFinal= Then all the mods can be used right away.
Note to "Buttout" f4se plugin: Use "OnProcessAttach" for LoadMethod in "xSE PluginPreloader.xml"”
If you can get it running properly I still think New Vegas is one of the best Fallout games there is, and its usually my goto when I want to hop back into that universe. However, it has not aged well.
Can you elaborate?
On how it hasn't aged well?
NV looked pretty dated even for the time it was released. Personally that doesn't bother me much but I have had a lot of issues with corrupted save files and game crashes. To me that makes it hard to recommend, but it's still the best first-person Fallout... If you get it running properly
The gunplay is nothing like a modern FPS. Hitting your targets depends on your character's stats, and is only somewhat related to where you aim the cursor. You can aim right at something, but if your skills are low, the bullets will curve and miss, and the inverse is true too - with high skill, your bullets aimed off-target will curve to hit.
There's no sprinting - your movement speed is locked to 'mosey'.
It crashes a lot, and some saves crash immediately when loaded, so you need to save often across a variety of different save files to avoid losing too much progress.
The upside is that all of these problems are fixed with mods.
Thanks for the detail!
It's Fallout 4, one of the most controversial Fallout games. That's it, really.
Not that I'm aware of. Some people who like modding Bethesda games prefer GOG in that it "defaults" to not upgrading automatically, and Steam does. An upgrade can break mods until the authors update them.
I remember I bought a PS4 just to play FO4 and I was wildly disappointed. New Vegas is better.
It's just not as good of an RPG as the other Fallout games. It shines in the action, though. I treat it as a straight up shooter and have fun ignoring the terrible story beats. If you're looking for an RPG where your choices and dialogue matters, FO4 kinda sucks.
Edit: also the GOG Version says it does not include the Creation Club. What is it and is it in some way better than using Nexus mods?
The Creation Club is Bethesda's paid mod system. Just use Nexus Mods because it's free.
Fallout 4 is a FPS with some very light RPG elements. The other games in the series are RPGs (outside 3 and 76). Also it's story is badly written. It's why the game is poorly rated on GOG.
I'm doing the same thing! I saw GOTY edition on sale with no DRM and went for it, even though I own the standard version on Steam already.
I wanted to start a modded playthrough and I usually use Mod Organizer 2, so there were a few quirks I had to work through. For instance, Mod Configuration Menu needed a launch option for F4SE (-forcesteamloader) due to some hidden dependency that never pops up for Steam players.
Once I got everything sorted, it's working great! Sim Settlements 2 is a literal game changer. More DLC than mod.
I know that some mods had issues with Skyrim from GOG as it uses a separate, different from Steams version, config directory. Some mods didn't account for that and didn't work. I'm assuming a similar issue with Fallout 4? Oddly enough older Fallouts and TES games use normal dirs so I don't know why did they decide it's a good idea.
I also got hyped by the tv show to the point I unninstalled a few games to play new vegas again. I honestly think that's the best fallout especially modded.
So I sympathise but on my end everything is going much better than I expected the games running perfect and I'm really enjoying it.
Fallout 4 is bland and empty for a fallout game. This is almost entirely due to the settlement mechanic.
You don't need, or want, the creation club. It's just frankly bad cosmetic mods with some few new weapons added, but the weapons aren't added right so you'll run out of ammo for them.
Its also buggy as hell and they never bothered fixing anything. To the point that a large modlist is required just to make the game baseline finished
However, with a decent modlist, and Sim Settlements to fix/remove the tedium of that abysmal system, it becomes a good game.
Edit: equally, because New Vegas is using Bethesda's engine from Fallout 3, it needs a large modlist to make it playable too. But it at its core is a fun game.
All things about Fallout series.