Fallout 4's big next-gen patch isn't going over well, especially on PC: "I had very low expectations but this is MUCH less than I expected"

Fallout 4
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Two-and-a-half years after it was first announced, the big next-gen patch for Fallout 4 is finally here - and a lot smaller than fans were hoping for.

The full patch notes for the update were posted to Steam alongside the update's release today, and aside from the previously detailed new content, there were, uh, 17 bug fixes. On consoles, of course, players are finally able to enjoy robust graphical options including 60 FPS support, but on PC, the list of changes is looking pretty thin aside from the new Creation Club items.

"Damn, the bugfix list is SHORT," as one Reddit user puts it. "I had very low expectations but this is MUCH less than I expected. They didn't fix almost any of the bugs that annoyed me the most (VATS crash and perception bug in Survival, for example)." You can go read that whole thread if you want to see the thoughts of upset Fallout fans, but that particular quote politely sets the tone.

The thing drawing the most criticism, however, is the update's promised ultrawide support. Sure enough, there's now official support for wider aspect ratios, but it stretches out the UI and there's no FOV slider for you to adjust your view. And, while console players are getting a big FPS boost, there's some lingering frustration from PC players that the game still doesn't support anything beyond 60 FPS.

It's certainly a disappointing debut for a patch that was first announced way back in October 2022, especially when the whole series is surging in popularity thanks to the Fallout TV show. Of course, the real joy of Fallout is the mods, which can offer TV show nods, graphical boosts, bug fixes, and more content. Just, uh, don't be surprised if you have some trouble actually downloading those mods with all the traffic right now.

Looking for a definitive ranking of the best Fallout games? Ours is unimpeachable. 

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

Read more
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Massive Stalker 2 patch starts chipping away at the notoriously glitchy game's worst problems, including over 80 cutscene problems and nearly 2,000 more bugs
Fallout 5: A picture of Vault Boy giving a thumbs up in front of a closed vault from the Fallout games.
Fallout 5: Everything we know so far, and what we hope to see
An image of the twins from Far Cry New Dawn
6 years later, Far Cry New Dawn is getting a 60 FPS update on Xbox Series X and PS5, and the way it was revealed is sending me: "Well… this wasn’t how we planned to announce this"
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 screenshot showing a group of medieval men sitting at a table with food, cheering together with wooden mugs of beer lifted high
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is getting its new 1.2 update soon, and it sounds absolutely massive as Warhorse reveals there are "34 pages of patch notes"
Starfield
Bethesda breaks silence as Starfield fans hope for an update: "We have a lot of exciting things planned for the game this year"
games like fallout - Fallout 4
Games like Fallout to jump into while we wait for Fallout 5
Latest in Fallout
Fallout overseer
Original Fallout creator says he "pushed" for a happy ending with "cake and balloons" instead of the RPG's downbeat finale
Fallout
Disco Elysium lead says original Fallout is an RPG "that's almost Biblical in its annihilation," making "other post-apocalyptic worldbuilding seem like an amusement park"
Fallout 4 mod Fallout London screenshot showing a ruinous post-apocalyptic Camden
As if Fallout: London wasn't already big enough, its devs now say the mod's "first DLC is getting closer" with "more surprises" to come
mister burke sat in a beige suit, black tie, white shirt, and black hat and shades
Bethesda fans raise $140k for prolific VA's medical bills as Bethesda describes him as "an incredibly talented and instrument part of our games"
Fallout: New Vegas mod Fallout: Nuevo Mexico
After 4 years, Fallout: New Vegas' massive New Mexico mod is canceled: "Continuing forward simply isn't sustainable"
MTG
30 years later, Fallout creator Tim Cain is searching for a legendary D&D player who cheesed an entire competitive dungeon with a lightning-fast Monk build
Latest in News
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
5 years after starting development, Neil Druckmann says Naughty Dog's new game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "still evolving and changing as we're making it"
Silent Hill f
After 2 years of silence, the next mainline Silent Hill game is getting a dedicated stream this week with "the latest news"
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2