Fallout 76 is in rough shape. It’s buggy at the best of times, with textures not loading in, erratic enemy behaviour and buildings just disappearing, and downright unplayable at other times with unstable servers and unrelenting performance issues. It’s a game whose massive 50GB day one patch didn’t really fix enough, despite requiring a redownload of the entire client if you had either pre-loaded it or kept along your files from the beta. Now, just a week after launch, you can expect to do it all again.
The first big patch for Fallout 76 is out now, and at least on Xbox One and PS4 you’re looking at a download in the region of 47GB. Eurogamer pulled down the patch on PS4 and found that it basically rewrote most of what you have installed already, with the actual installation size at the end of the update hardly changing. It’s a much better outlook on PC though, where the patch only weighs in at around 15GB. Substantial still, but at least not nearing 150GB in total downloaded data as both console versions have required in just a week.
The changes are big too, with Bethesda citing vague but broad performance enhancements that reducing stuttering, changes to facets of PvP play and their intricacies and fixes for some quest-breaking bugs that have plagued a majority of players. You can read the full changelog here, which isn’t nearly enough text to keep you entertained while the game updates again.
It’s just another indication that Fallout 76 was released in a really poor shape, as Bethesda scrambles to address many issues at once that are preventing players from even just engaging with the story in a single-player capacity. Over the weekend servers were brought down after multiple players launched nukes at once, while many others (myself included) find the game difficult to put up with after frequent server disconnections and persistent performance plummets. Fallout 76 feels extremely far from polished, even by Bethesda’s earned standards.
It’s a pity then that there isn’t much good to the game lying beneath this all that makes it worth sticking with, but we’ll have more thoughts on that with our full review soon.
Last Updated: November 20, 2018
Dutch Matrix
November 20, 2018 at 07:44
Thanks. But no. I will stick to Fallout 4 and Fallout New Vegas for my Fallout kicks then.
Guz
November 20, 2018 at 09:43
yip rather play falllout 4 with all the DLC and mods, better option IMO
Guz
November 20, 2018 at 09:43
yip rather play falllout 4 with all the DLC and mods, better option IMO
Kromas
November 20, 2018 at 08:11
And here I am STILL waiting for my game. Raru screwed the pooch.
Jonah Cash
November 20, 2018 at 08:13
Luckily they did in this case. Otherwise you would be downloading into perpetuity…
Kromas
November 20, 2018 at 09:27
PC gamer …. we no day 1 download so this will be our first 15gb patch.
Kromas
November 20, 2018 at 11:28
had*
Jonah Cash
November 20, 2018 at 15:11
Not that bad then. Hope they sort the game out soon.
Gavin Mannion
November 20, 2018 at 08:14
lucky you, you can cancel your order and save your money then.. apparently the game is complete trash
Allykhat
November 20, 2018 at 08:42
Kromas will tell you otherwise, mate…
Kromas
November 20, 2018 at 09:27
I quite enjoyed it and others enjoy it as well. I am not arguing that it does not have too many bugs and it’s launch was terrible. I am however arguing against the fact that people who shout no content are wrong.
Magoo
November 20, 2018 at 08:12
Looks like it.. Fellout https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab4d5cbcd59622863388ff60385b451564065c9cf3c2b8bfb3f2b53f781f982c.jpg
Guz
November 20, 2018 at 09:27
yeeeeeeeaaaaaaah!!!!
Pariah
November 20, 2018 at 10:02
The music/audio thing played in my mind while reading this. Approval rating is at 100%.
Admiral Chief
November 20, 2018 at 08:24
Don’t people learn?
YOU NEVER BUY BETHESDA GAMES ON LAUNCH!!!
You wait a year or two, buy the complete GOTYE package with all the DLCs for cheeeep on Steam sale, then you wait another year to play it
Dutch Matrix
November 20, 2018 at 08:26
And even then it won’t be fun. Unless it is Skyrim.
G8crasha
November 20, 2018 at 09:56
The only problem for Fallout 76 is that it is online based, so chances are, in 1 to 2 years’ time, the player base will be dead. So most of the point of the game will be lost. They should have just stuck to what they know, and created a SP game in total. Not some hybrid that plays a balancing act between MP and SP. It has a serious identity crisis!!! I mean they have all the assets in place It’s just a case of adding in some NPCs and dialog, and they’re sorted. A new, far more agreeable SP experience. What the fans really want.
Pariah
November 20, 2018 at 10:05
To be fair, that’ll be the case in a week or so, so waiting another year won’t make much difference.