Episode 46: Scorched Beasts: The Crimes of Todd Howard

From its massive game-breaking bugs to its shit-storm PR nightmare--this week we're doing a deep-dive on the recent fallout from Fallout 76. It seemed like every day over the last two weeks we were only hearing continually worse news about Bethesda's latest online venture with Fallout 76. The game has seen harsh criticism for its off-kilter online ecosystem, empty world and quests, crashes, and how it wasn't what players wanted. Hell, the company is even being faced with a class-action lawsuit over false advertising. Some of that can be forgiven, but players were further burned by how a promised canvas bag in the Power Armor Edition of the game was swapped out with a cheap nylon substitute (with Bethesda promising fake money to make it up to us). Buggy games and false advertising are nothing new to the gaming industry, but it's rather how Bethesda, a major AAA developer, has followed suit and responded to it all that is troubling. In our discussion we talk about what Todd Howard and co. could have done differently following the game's launch and what they need to do moving forward to gain back our trust and keep us with their games. We also talk some TGA predictions, how Kingdom Hearts 3 has finally gone gold, how Resident Evil is getting a cinematic remake, how Red Dead Online is practically the Purge 1899, and go on about how damn good Call of Duty: Blacks Ops 4 is. This one is a long one, so hopefully you can stick out our antics (and bugs). We promise an update next week that will make listening more manageable. As always, we thank you guys for listening and being the best Save Roommates we could ask for. We hope the holidays and video games are finding you well. --------------Cuts---------------- 0:00:00--Intro/Housekeeping 0:05:47--The Game Awards 2018 0:10:41--News 0:57:30--Shoutout Article of the Week 1:03:18--Topic: The Fallout 76 Fallout 1:32:03--What We've Been Playing 1:38:27--Red Dead Redemption 2 1:49:36--Spider-Man (The Heist/Turf Wars DLC) 1:57:20--Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 -----------------------------------------------