Fallout 76 brings back old bugs with its latest patch

Another day, another misstep by Bethesda with Fallout 76. If it isn’t misleadingly-advertised pre-order bonuses or leaked personal information, it’s bugs. Lot’s and lots of bugs. And with its latest patch, Fallout 76 has unintentionally introduced old bugs back into the game, angering an already frustrated fanbase who are becoming tired of the unstable and buggy state of the game they bought.

Patch 5, released January 29, addresses a number of issues, such as capping carrying weight, re-balancing some weapons and skills, and fixing some quests and graphical effects. The full patch notes can be found here. However, whilst Patch 5 was addressing these issues, it brought back many other problems with the game that had already been patched out.  These include making bobby pins 100 times heavier, the ability to automatically scrap bulk items was removed, and some bugs allowing item duplication have returned. Many players have posted on Reddit about the issues, and even Bethesda themselves have taken notice.

Fallout 76 has been temporarily taken offline whilst the developer tries to implement a hotfix to address the returning bugs. From the sounds of things, the return of some of these old issues is probably because Patch 5 was made using an older version of Fallout 76, and implementing the patch returned the game to the state it was in when those bugs were introduced. Credit to Bethesda for trying to fix the issue as soon as possible, but the continued instability of the game is beginning to grate on the playerbase.

It is clear that the kind of planning and support for an always on-line multiplayer survival game like Fallout 76 is not quite something that Bethesda Softworks, mostly known for single player games, was quite prepared for. Bethesda have become much more transparent about their plans for the game (such as future planned changes to PvP).

However, a lot of work is still needed before Fallout 76 becomes the multiplayer Fallout survival game fans were hoping for.  Whilst Bethesda’s continued support for the game shows promise, it isn’t exactly encouraging when patches start making the game even buggier.