The leadup to the launch of Fallout 4 was basically good news and good feelings all the way. Since the game has launched, the waters have gotten a bit choppier for Bethesda and Pete Hines. Some users have been taken aback at how long the game takes to install, though the company had a reasonable response to that, saying the long install time had to do with its open world nature.
A potential bigger issue has surfaced thanks in large part to comments Hines made during the leadup to the launch where he said the game was running at a solid 30fps. There have been a number of users who have gone directly to Hines in order to ask why people are seeing frame rate drops all the way to zero in some cases. At first, Hines responded on Twitter that it wasn’t really an issue and that people were blowing one case out of proportion.
When he was challenged more, Hines began adding qualifiers, such as the fact that he had actually said “as a general rule,” rather than making a promise. One user even showed the Bethesda exec a video where the framerate dropped. To this he appeared to take the approach that he didn’t see what others were seeing asking the user, “did you actually watch the video you’re pointing to?” On the one hand, guys like Pete Hines are very active on social media and that is going to lead to some pretty unwarranted attacks on them when access is unfettered and that can be tiring. On the other, if Fallout 4 is having serious frame rate issues, belittling those who are reporting it isn’t going to help Bethesda’s case.
