Currently the Steam page for Fallout 4 gets bombarded by negative user ratings, popularly known as a “review-bomb”, as it launches the game’s new Anniversary Edition. Of the most successful post-apocalyptic role-playing games Bethesda has developed for a decade, this title boasts a rating of “Very Positive” but has recently lowered its reviews section to “Mixed” status; the core of the backlash is not based on the quality of the base game but rather on the disruptive and supposedly unnecessary paid additions to the game.
For the majority of hardcore PC gaming community, the biggest problem is that the modding infrastructure that has been in place for so many years has suddenly been changed by the update. Changes to the core operating code of the game have rendered countless fan-made mods inoperable; infuriating players who enjoyed community-created content for extended and personalized gameplay experiences. Not only adds the technical grievance the perception that the Anniversary Edition is, at least in this case, a slanted business option, i.e. $40 for what many players will call a short bundle of content such as already released DLC and some Creation Club content packaged into one over-priced, disruptive retread of a ten-year-old product, but also, everyone believes what is said about this edition being just another “money grab.”
Not only ruining the beloved mod library, but also game-breaking bugs through this update even for vanilla installations. This strongly suggests that the core product has been changed without proper stability testing and drives fans more furious that a well-working product has been compromised for profit. Besides, the release of this Fallout 4 edition again raised many of the allegations against Bethesda that have been expressed for years with regard to other beloved and quite old franchises. Most players had wanted that some remastered or re-released editions were made for Fallout 3 or New Vegas before it focus is diverted to the 4th mainline entry.
Crosses over much of the technical concern that Bethesda had itself earlier this year when a previous “next-gen” update for the highly criticized game also caused all sorts of chaos with mods, which many then rolled back their installations to fix. As Steam reviews piled up, the developer did not release any official statement concerning either the technical matters or the community concerns regarding the edition’s financial value proposition. The community is waiting to see if fixes are coming to restore mod support and stability to the game.
