Bethesda inadvertently revives old bugs with Patch 5.
The Fallout 76 community is once again upset with Bethesda, as previously patched bugs were discovered following the release of Patch 5 earlier this week.
Bethesda took Fallout 76 offline for over an hour today to roll out a “hot fix” aimed at addressing those bugs. While the quick action to correct course is commendable, the incident has once again soured a community already fatigued by controversy and perceived mistreatment.
Patch 5, which was released on January 29, brought with it a long list of gameplay tweaks, such as capping carrying weight and rebalancing certain weapons and perks. The patch notes also include an even longer list of bug fixes, targeting everything from graphics and performance to quests and PvP. However, in they eyes of some players — many of whom can be found posting on the Fallout 76 subreddit — the problems introduced by the patch outweigh those it solved.
According to multiple Reddit posts, and Bethesda’s own insight into today’s hot fix, three main problems arose as a result of Patch 5: bobby pins were accidentally made 100 times heavier, bulk items could no longer be auto-scrapped, and a “UI issue” was created surrounding plans and recipes for players with multiple characters.
While these three issues have reportedly been patched by today’s hot fix, there appears to be a number of potential bugs still outstanding, according to player accounts, including issues with power armor and undetected damage. And despite Bethesda’s rapid handling of the aforementioned bugs, frustration remains the community’s prevailing sentiment.
“As a company, the undeniable truth is that you have let down your fans and are continuing to do so,” wrote reddit user CoolZero_73 in a post directed at Bethesda. They added, “As someone who is still trying to enjoy the game and has been a huge fan of fallout for an [sic] long as I can remember, I plead with you to do whatever it is that needs to be done within your company to bring some sanity to this mess. This patch should have set off some alarms within your organization about the state of planning and management for [Fallout 76], and if it didn’t the overwhelming negative shift in the die-hard community should be.”
The Patch 5 dilemma is the latest in a string of controversies and disappointments surrounding Fallout 76 that began ahead of its release in mid-November. While some fans were initially upset simply by Fallout 76’s premise — taking a beloved single-player franchise and bringing it online — the first notable issue surfaced in October when Xbox players took issue with the length of the platform’s beta exclusivity. Since then, Bethesda has been on the wrong end of controversies surrounding hacking concerns, lack of communication, nylon bags, compromised player data, a seemingly half-baked ultrawide mode, and various gameplay-affecting bugs.
For more on Bethesda’s troubled online RPG, check out IGN’s Fallout 76 review, which said its “rich wasteland map […] is wasted on a mess of bugs, conflicting ideas, and monotony.”
Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @jdsirani.
