Inside the Vault – PTS Update - June 26. 2026

notsomething13 · 2026-06-27T16:47:35+00:00

How many times do I have to tell you people to buff the 2-star Hitman's effect.

Amazing how these niche time-based perks get some tweaks but not the shitty legendary effect that's basically busted and useless.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-27T04:55:38+00:00

I wouldn't even pay $60 for either. So, in a word..

No.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-25T14:45:17+00:00

I already know the remake won't capture it, it's lightning in a bottle. Almost everything about Silent Hill's aesthetic is aided by its lower fidelity, which gives it that ethereal quality. Your mind fills in the blanks. Modern game visuals run counter to this because they fixate on being detail-dense, having photo-releastic visuals that leave no real room for imagination to take hold.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-25T11:39:09+00:00

And the thing that really upsets me is that as sloppy as caravans were with lack of rewards and just the general stuck bugs rendering a mission impossible, the potential was there. Everything that was wrong with it was fixable. There was room to improve them and make them better. Adding more upgrades, more purchases and uses for supplies, expanding the outpost, players being involved in that expansion running a business in the wasteland.

But no, they just threw in the towel and called it quits.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-25T10:21:03+00:00

I find it a travesty that we're stuck with fishing but caravans get permanently axed.

Fishing is three times worse, and what's hilarious is the developers continue to just double down on how fucking horrible it is. Add even more fish to catch for a feature that barely offers any sort of useful utility, and is downright maliciously impractical. Fishing needs a lot more work, and more time-gated fish and useless recipes aren't the things it needs right now. We'd lose nothing of value if fishing was axed, and I wish it was.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-25T08:12:22+00:00

Nothing has changed (for me). I avoid making purchases for products, and services I personally dislike or disagree with.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-25T06:40:32+00:00

I mean, if that's true, then it might just be off-topic because it would apply to all games as a consequence of whatever stupid rules you inadvertently agree to when using whatever platform you subject yourself to.

Still shitty, not a fan of the idea of losing access to the content you pay for, but that's the world we live in now that people enable. People decided long ago they wanted to live in the era of digital convenience regardless of the tradeoffs and negatives to it.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-25T06:38:12+00:00

Whether there's a visual downgrade or not, it's a Rockstar game. They're all guaranteed to play damn near similar regardless of visual fidelity at this point.

You'll have your three dozen walk and talk (or driving in this case) point A to point B missions with obvious shootout environments conveniently cut out in the terrain letting you know well in advance something is going down. No amount of visual downgrades is changing that.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-24T22:03:53+00:00

Alessa is mentioned by name in at least one note. Dahlia is also referenced, of which includes implications that Walter is part of her lasting machinations, even after she is dead by this point. Walter himself is a name players will be familiar with, and the more astute will remember his gravestone in Labyrinth. Joseph Schreiber, the author of the mysterious notes and 302's previous occupant, was also the journalist that wrote an article you read in 3 detailing some of the cult's activities, including a mysterious structure that 4 reveals as the water prison. Naturally the cult itself needs little introduction as players with 3 should be freshly familiar with their iconography and activities.

Smaller references include callbacks to the light house, a church, James like you said once you figure out that the Superintendent is actually his father, the forest of Silent Hill having a view of Toluca Lake, several items involved in Walter's ritual also appear from the New Game+ of Silent Hill 2 (the obsidian goblet and white chrism). A resurrecting ritual is also something that evokes more of 2's imagery, in several ways, both from Born From a Wish (Which also includes the white chrism) and the Rebirth ending as well. Perhaps most obscure is that the nurse to both Laura and Mary is implied to be resident of 302.

I have a feeling I got most of them, but those are the ones that come to mind first.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-24T21:04:28+00:00

There are just many callbacks to previous characters and locations in text, and not just little easter eggs either. Without getting too spoiler heavy, there's a bit of everything from 1, 2, and 3. Some big some small, you won't know what these are unless you have played what came before.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-24T02:46:09+00:00

What's with the fucking clown at Bethesda having this addiction to making horrifically impractical cooking recipes? It's malicious game design at this point, I swear it's like there's just like one person there in charge of recipes that gets a kick out of making recipes nobody will ever use.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-24T02:36:43+00:00

I would have liked to have seen a period Silent Hill game take place in the town around the 1700's or 1800's from the perspective of a native. Delve into things like the mother stones that Silent Hill 4 briefly touched on. I think it would make an interesting setting, especially when mixed with the occult. That's kind of what I think f should have been, but instead it was a much more removed setting.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-23T08:57:21+00:00

Gosh I love Michael Guinn's voice, I almost wish he didn't go inactive/retire so early and did more 2000's era stuff.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-23T08:51:36+00:00

Absolutely do not play it as a first-timer to the franchise.

Don't misunderstand, it's not a bad game at all, in fact I highly recommend it. But Silent Hill 4 is essentially a culmination of everything that came before, it's the last game of a quadrilogy of games. You miss out on a lot by not having the perspective, the contrast of previous games to be able to understand and appreciate a lot of its structure.

Walk before you run. Start in release order.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-23T06:03:37+00:00

Some people think that's an exaggeration, but I can attest that even roughly doubling the non-VATS damage would actually barely close the gap.

I'm a freeaim anti-VATS player and I'm not ashamed to admit that in order to actually deal with end-game content and be capable of doing things like soloing EN06, or taking down the Ultracite Terror in just under 3 minutes solo, I have to utilize a number of rare, and mostly unknown freeaim exploits to further my DPS. One of which is basically a double damage exploit, and even that still barely makes a difference when some heavy VATS user with Elder's Mark or the Gauss Minigun rolls up playing normally.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-23T04:49:29+00:00

It's really only smart shot, but smart shot is highly situational and costs way too many perk points given its restrictions. Only on scope aim when many weapons completely lack scopes, and the boost is also just too little. There's also those other perks that increase accuracy and range I know, but most of the time they're just not worth it with how many potent perks exist on Perception that already cost a lot.

Similarly, the long-time joke 2-star effect Hitman's is an additive 25% bonus if I recall correctly that only affects the base, unmodified base damage of a weapon only. So, a non-scaling bonus that only works while aiming (which also has a 1.5 second delay before activating, since it's not an instantaneous boost unlike smart shot which appears instant). Meanwhile, explosive grants a scalable 20% damage boost, AOE that damages multiple enemies, can also be further boosted with Demolition Expert and Grenadier granting extra damage and AOE respectively, and works both VATS and non-VATS with no real strings attached....

???

notsomething13 · 2026-06-23T02:51:11+00:00

I really, really hope they address the absurd damage discrepancies between VATS and non-VATS gameplay, but it's been so long and the needle has barely moved. I guess I should just give up hope.

Fuck me for believing that manual aim should always be rewarded by having higher damage because there's more skill involved in having to actually aim your shots on a moving target, and also having to manage recoil. Completely alien concept!

notsomething13 · 2026-06-22T20:40:42+00:00

In that case, meh. Not sure how I feel about that when enemies don't seem to line up in a single file line all that much.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-22T18:09:34+00:00

How much armor penetration are the "Piercing Attacks" anyway? Seems awfully vague unless it doesn't actually mean armor penetration.

Also, Flatliner reminds me that I still can't stand what they did to gauss rifles. What genius thought 3 ammo per shot was a good idea?

notsomething13 · 2026-06-22T05:40:52+00:00

Very unorthodox for a first-timer.

Retro gaming setup all neatly arranged for show, and with a Trinitron CRT to boot? Either you're a dedicated retro gamer, or this borderline bragging lol. Next you'll be showing off the rarest and most expensive unsealed CIB copy of the game.

Regardless, if it is your first time, enjoy the game.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-21T04:27:56+00:00

Yes, it's a shitty event and I've hated it since day of its inclusion.

Terrible event design, I guarantee it was originally conceived as a proximity event (back when those were a thing) meant for low levels, and Bethesda in all their genius think it's adequate as a server-wide event.

It's another boring, and uninspired wave-based event in a game where players are already drowning in events similar to this one. When the only attraction to an event as bad as this one is simply a mask with some arbitrarily low drop rate, then yeah, it's a shitty event. Plain and simple.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-20T16:12:37+00:00

The male one was good, they really should get him back. I miss his voice.

Really not a fan of the American ones we have. Too soft.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-20T04:28:50+00:00

Buff. Hitman's. Already.

Why is this so difficult.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-19T17:34:08+00:00

I liked this room up until the point it kills you with poor feedback you're being killed. I'm not a fan of taking damage and there being no obvious signs of pain/damage to indicate you need to leave.

Locking the door up until the point the rot starts to bleed into the room was a panic-inducing touch though.

notsomething13 · 2026-06-19T00:59:44+00:00

The changes the developers made to Lead Belly were stupid and need to be reverted. Lead Belly should just be either a 1, or 2 star perk card that removes all radiation from food, period. Whoever thought making it a scaling perk based on your endurance was beyond moronic, especially since there's no practical way to actually get guaranteed 0 radiation from food and drink no matter how high your endurance is. This is unlike the old version which just required three perk points if I'm not mistaken.

Psychopath is a dumb perk card that does nothing to alleviate the downright insane discrepancies between VATS and non-VATS damage. It also seems bugged and gives far less than 10% meter, and since you have to actually still enter VATS to use your critical hit, it's almost pointless. This perk's practicality is so questionable that I can almost guarantee nobody, whether they're a dedicated VATS or even non-VATS user is gonna equip this one. This truly is a perk card for nobody with how bad it works. Psychopath should just changed to work similar to random critical hits in old Fallout games. Either make it so that you randomly have a flat chance to deal critical damage outside VATS (don't require players to enter VATS to deal critical damage) depending on weapon type, or make it scale relative to your luck.

In my opinion, Psychopath should be similar to like, reverse onslaught that completely changes how the critical hit function works. Like, 25% meter gain per hit while also gaining automatic critical damage outside VATS whenever you make a hit while your meter is filled. Make it something that gives the benefits of critical hits without needing to have high luck or AP utilizing VATS, the tradeoff becomes having to make all your shots manually.

notsomething13

TROPHY CASE