6. It's Too Gun-Happy For Fallout Fans, Not Enough For Casuals
Bethesda obviously have a hugely profitable franchise in their midst, and even though for every comment stating Fallout's 3 and New Vegas are still the best RPGs of all time, you'll get another fan of the older games stating how they "just aren't Fallout". Maybe they are, maybe not - I go with the notion that whatever a creator's mark of approval gets stamped on, means it's worthy of the name (that's what's got me through being a Metallica fan, anyway). That said, the extremely gun-filled gameplay demo at E3 that ended on a jet-boosting mech-fight rubbed plenty up the wrong way, whilst on the flip-side any prospective consumers drawn in by this stuff would be roundly put off by the crafting, stat-management and base-building aspects everywhere else. Fallout 4 is in danger of appealing to everybody and nobody at the same time, and whilst fans need to be more accommodating of modern game design aspects that make the experience more immediately fun and engaging, that split approach can really scupper any sense of both identity and playability.