Fallout: London was ready for launch until Bethesda's buggy next-gen update broke it

Cal Jeffrey

Cal Jeffrey

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In context: Fallout: London is a "total conversion" mod of Fallout 4. Although it is a mod, it is honestly more like a full game that rivals Bethesda's FO4 efforts regarding the number of factions, companions, quests and lines of professionally voiced dialogue (90,000 in FOL vs 110,000 in FO4). It was supposed to launch last month but is now on indefinite hold.

Team FOLON slated Fallout: London to launch on St. George's Day (April 23, 2024). That very day, Project Lead Dean "Prilladog" Carter announced on Discord that the team had to delay the mod indefinitely. The reason: Bethesda scheduled its next-gen update to drop two days later on the 25th. Carter and other team members were sure that Bethesda's update would break Fallout: London a mere 48 hours after going live.

Instead of risking a launch that could crash and burn due to Bethesda's next-gen update, Team FOLON made a difficult but responsible decision to 'wait and see.' While disappointing for the thousands of followers on Discord and social media, the developers made this decision hoping that any necessary repairs would be minor and they could deliver the game in its best form within a few days or weeks after the Bethesda update.

"The currently unforeseen technical challenges and logistical issues due to spawn from the update will be necessitating more time to address them. A LOT of these fixes will be coming from 3rd parties so are at the whim of their timely releases. Once we have those fixes, we can then work on fixing the issues the update has caused and get the mod into your hands as soon as humanly possible."

Now into May, and Team FOLON has yet to issue a public progress update on the project. TechSpot contacted Dean Carter on Discord for more information. Due to NDA conditions, he could not confirm or deny timeline details.

He mentioned that the team is waiting for its development partners to update their systems for the new engine, but the next-gen update is currently in bad shape. Most of the problems it is having are on the PC version. We have tested the update on the PS5 and found no issues out of the ordinary, occasional glitches or crashes that have always been a part of Fallout 4.

Unfortunately, those playing on PC have found that there are so many problems the game is practically unplayable. It broke many mods and is riddled with other bugs and "technical issues." It's so bad that mods claiming to remove the next-gen update are surging in the downloads section of Nexus Mods. Until Bethesda patches the update, Team FOLON and other developers it relies on are in stasis.

"These mods, which include the 'Fallout 4 Downgrader' and 'Steam - Skip Next-Gen Update,' have roughly 60,000 downloads as of this writing, and they've each been out for less than a week," GameSpot noted on Wednesday.

Team FOLON wants to avoid rolling things back because they made the mod for everyone. Carter is confident that they can deliver a final product that meets Team FOLON's high standards and will only roll back the update as a last resort.

"During the time since our announcement, our focus remains on ensuring that the project meets our high standards and also allows the easiest routes of access and attainability for our users. We understand that most modders out there have found their own new and exciting ways to roll back the update, but please remember we are a mod for everyone, not just the modders. So, we remain by our commitment to release something polished and working on the new system. Only as a last resort, if the update proves to be too troublesome (all signs point to that it won't be), will we consider rolling things back."

Bethesda's update controversy was not restricted solely to PC users. Upon release, PlayStation 5 players found that the free update excluded those who downloaded the game from the PlayStation Plus Collection. Bethesda responded by making the update available to those with a PlayStation Plus Extra (mid-tier) subscription, which enflamed even more players. So, on Wednesday, the studio opened the update to all PS Plus members.

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Fallout: London was ready for launch until Bethesda's buggy next-gen update broke it

 
That's kind of what I've come to expect from Bethesda lately: they could have just left well enough alone, sit back and collect money from game sales that would directly result out of the success of the Prime show but nope, they had to get extra greedy and try to cash in with another go at an update while also not investing enough time and devs to make sure the stupid thing even works and just broke the game in the process.

The game was going to be broken regardless of Fallout London release but this is just giving them extra publicity as it can easily made them even more of an antagonist to the modding community than they already are after the creation club miserably failure so kudos on just having extra terrible timing to maximize the amount of people that must be furious at them.
 
Guess I'll be the devils advocate since im bored on a call, but boy am I glad im not a game developer, like I would be mad with myself if I broke my own game, I get that part, but having to take extra flak because people who are using my work to push their own stuff are salty too, that would piss me off.

then psplus users are also mad because the game they didnt pay for doesnt get the good stuff? the more I read gaming articles the more I just shake my head, every year more bs and hurdles are placed in front of me to buy a game. I have to figure out which edition exist on whichever platform then have to hunt for the buy it outright button thats usually hidden behind all these subs theyre pushing, gaming sorta just sucks these days.

rant over.
 
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kira setsu said:
Guess I'll be the devils advocate since im bored on a call, but boy am I glad im not a game developer, like I would be mad with myself if I broke my own game, I get that part, but having to take extra flak because people who are using my work to push their own stuff are salty too, that would piss me off.

then psplus users are also mad because the game they didnt pay for doesnt get the good stuff? the more I read gaming articles the more I just shake my head, every year more bs and hurdles are placed in front of me to buy a game. I have to figure out which edition exist on whichever platform then have to hunt for the buy it outright button thats usually hidden behind all these subs theyre pushing, gaming sorta just sucks these days.

rant over.
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To be fair. Team FOLON is not salty with Bethesda. Prilladog said that the team is actually excited about the update, especially the wide-screen support. They are just disappointed that they couldn't launch on St. George's Day because that day has cultural significance for the UK, and in their game, the player emerges into the British wasteland on that day.

The saltiness mostly comes from PC players and the modding community in general because the update broke mods, including very extensive ones that "fixed" a lot of the bugs that Bethesda neglected to bother with in vanilla FO4. Some of these mods have been updating for years to fix all the bugs in the game. Now it's like starting all over again, so instead of rewriting years-old massive mods. many are creating mods that roll back the update.
 
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I feel like the only guy on Earth that doesn't have a bunch of issues when playing vanilla Bethsoft games.

FO4/Skyrim/FO:NV/FO3 have all been solid for me.

Only mod I ever had to use was the one that disabled GFWL in FO3, otherwise rock solid and crash free experiences.

The curse of a stable build I guess.
 
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My only real «gripe» was that it broke more than it fixed in vanilla FO4. They have never managed to fix «weapon debree» either. After a year of delay for the «next gen» update. You enter a wasteland that looks and feels the same, only more buggy.
 
GodisanAtheist said:
I feel like the only guy on Earth that doesn't have a bunch of issues when playing vanilla Bethsoft games. FO4/Skyrim/FO:NV/FO3 have all been solid for me.
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I guess if you enjoy playing on a large TV from 10ft away with 60 FOV, then "stock" Oblivion, FO3, etc, would be just 'perfect'. Playing on a large monitor up close, a 'stock' Oblivion / FO3, etc, inventory showing a whole 7 items at once in giant size 30 fonts looks absolutely ridiculous without DarnifiedUI, SkyUI, etc, style mods making the PC version feel like a PC version and not a bad XBox360 port.
 
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Bethesda is a timex watch in a digital age... creation engine absolutely sucks by todays standards... youj can only put so much spit and glue on something till it shts the bed...
 
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The Goose

I really feel for the FOLON mod team. They obviously have to try to make the best of a bad situation. It is particularly curious as some of the FOLON team were poached by Bethesda. One wonders how much back channel communication may or may not have happened between the two units.

Gotta say this, though. There has always been a unique love/hate push/pull yin/yang between Bethesda and the modding community. On the one hand Bethesda created a few games in a particular era that, while maybe not that great by today's standards, were left open enough to a modding community that is STILL pushing the envelope and making them great games by ANY standard, mostly all based on volunteer labor. Modding those games makes them into an almost impossibly complex, border-line addictive, personal experience, exactly the way YOU want it. New quests, textures, armors, weapons, followers, enemies, mechanics, lands, high resolution, low resolution, etc, etc, both safe and NSFW, many free-of-charge and open source! Skyrim SE alone, launched in 2011, has well over 60,000 mods (a search has over 88,000 hits) with 4.3 billion downloads on nexusmods.com, still going strong with many more added every day! Even Bethesda's sloppiness ("Bugthesda", or whatever it is) has encouraged a thriving cottage industry of bug fixes!

However; the often unannounced "updates" feel almost malicious. They break beloved mods, create division in the community, often deliver only marginal improvements, and leave one wondering what the goal is. Many say the last Skyrim update was to try to cash in on a new version of the CC. Others say Bethesda has to convince MS that there is still gas in the tank and money sitting on the table, especially since more recent games have been... disappointing.

I don't know if that explains the whole thing. But it must really drive Bethesda and MS crazy to see the massive, thriving community that is Skyrim and FO modding, and they just can't figure out how to use it to drive up their own stock prices. If they are not careful they may kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
 
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mountains said:
The Goose

I really feel for the FOLON mod team. They obviously have to try to make the best of a bad situation. It is particularly curious as some of the FOLON team were poached by Bethesda. One wonders how much back channel communication may or may not have happened between the two units.

Gotta say this, though. There has always been a unique love/hate push/pull yen/yang between Bethesda and the modding community. On the one hand Bethesda created a few games in a particular era that, while maybe not that great by today's standards, were left open enough to a modding community that is STILL pushing the envelope and making them great games by ANY standard, mostly all based on volunteer labor. Modding those games makes them into an almost impossibly complex, border-line addictive, personal experience, exactly the way YOU want it. New quests, textures, armors, weapons, followers, enemies, mechanics, lands, high resolution, low resolution, etc, etc, both safe and NSFW, many free-of-charge and open source! Skyrim SE alone, launched in 2011, has well over 60,000 mods (a search has over 88,000 hits) with 4.3 billion downloads on nexusmods.com, still going strong with many more added every day! Even Bethesda's sloppiness ("Bugthesda", or whatever it is) has encouraged a thriving cottage industry of bug fixes!

However; the often unannounced "updates" feel almost malicious. They break beloved mods, create division in the community, often deliver only marginal improvements, and leave one wondering what the goal is. Many say the last Skyrim update was to try to cash in on a new version of the CC. Others say Bethesda has to convince MS that there is still gas in the tank and money sitting on the table, especially since more recent games have been... disappointing.

I don't know if that explains the whole thing. But it must really drive Bethesda and MS crazy to see the massive, thriving community that is Skyrim and FO modding, and they just can't figure out how to use it to drive up their own stock prices. If they are not careful they may kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Click to expand...
According to Prilladog, Bethesda has provided no communication--zero regarding any of this. No "heads up, we're changing things" no outline of even possible conflicts their update could cause. Nothing. But that's not really surprising as that would take time and effort on Bethesda's part and the studio has a long history of putting out garbage and letting the community fix it with mods. Even though this mod was a particular mess on PC, I have my doubts that "Bugthesda" will fix it. More likely than not they won't address a single thing. And it will be up to modders to fix even more bugs than vanilla ever had.
 
Ugh, this whole Fallout: London situation is a bummer! Those devs worked so hard and were ready to launch, then Bethesda's buggy update throws a wrench in everything. Waiting for Bethesda to fix their mess must be frustrating for the team. Hopefully they don't have to roll back the update, but it sounds like that might be the only option.
 
Cal Jeffrey said:
... it will be up to modders to fix even more bugs than vanilla ever had.
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Thanks for the reply, Cal! Agreed.

Again, that love/hate thing I alluded to. On the one hand, everything you said is so frustratingly true. On the other hand, many studios would have sent attorneys at FOL to shut them down.

Bethesda needs the modding community to keep their marginal products working, but can't quite figure out how to monetize off of it, so they risk killing the golden goose. I wish they would embrace the modding community more.
 
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