The First Fallout 4 Details Revealed - Update

[w23eer]

I want less voice acting in these games, not more dammit.

Relatively minor gripe aside, this sounds cool. Especially the base building idea - I always felt that a neat feature for Oblivion would have been to rebuild Kvatch after the gate closed - it's nice to see something like that finally implemented. I wonder how it's going to be populated though? Like, do we get to customize the population? I'd like to see something like an FTL-esque system where you get to name your townspeople and assign them certain jobs. Though I suppose that might be asking a lot. At the very least, I just hope they don't half-ass it.

It's also nice to see that it's coming out pretty soon. Hrrm... I hope my laptop can run it, otherwise I won't be playing the game for yonks regardless...

 

[Genocidicles]

A fucking voiced protagonist with a set past that you cant change, with a main quest that probably involves saving a goddamn baby I don't give two shits about.

Great. Into the fucking trash it goes. When does Obsidian get to make another Fallout game?

 

[Dalek Caan]

At least you can brag about playing one of the oldest characters in Fallout lore. That counts for -something- hopefully.

There's probably more than a few ghouls in the Wastelands who would argue with that. Then they might try to kill you..

 

[VincentX3]

All I want to know is HOW is the player emerging from a vault 200 years later?

Is it going to be a long long long decedent of your original char? Or are they going to sleep-freeze him\her?
Is sleep-freezing even a thing?

In fallout 3 I can vaguely remember these sort of time-beds where you fell asleep in and where put into a simulation of some sort, but even then you weren't really frozen so you still aged (I think?)

The voice doesn't really bother me because mods, It should be simple to remove the voices.
Dialogue wheel sounds stupid, unless they come up with a way that doesn't limit you to like 6 or so options it really sounds like they're trying to hard to be Bioware and forgetting what they're game is about.

Hopefully it's optimized, Skyrim ran pretty fine on most PC's and it's using the same engine. (Hopefully modified so it wont be as buggy)

 

[Bat Vader]

November 11th? That feels a bit to soon for some reason. I thought it wouldn't be out till 2016.

Then don't get it until 2016 if you're that concerned. No doubt the game will be buggy as hell on release regardless of how long it's spent in development.

Except I'm not concerned nor did I ever say in my post that I was concerned. Usually when a game is announced it is announced a year or more before the release date. That's why I said it felt to soon.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

The character's psychological profile will be created through events these parents later experience in this preamble, such as a conversation with a Vault-Tec employee who visits the house to offer a space in a Vault.

Eventually, the air raid sirens begin to blare, and it's off to Vault 111, where the player will emerge 200 years later as the only survivor.

WAit, don't tell me I'm the only one who is bothered by this. Just think about it. Your parents (mom and dad) are alive before the nukes start dropping.
They go int the vault and you, their son/daughter , come out 200 years later. That's 200 years between 2 generations.

 

[fluxy100]

At least you can brag about playing one of the oldest characters in Fallout lore. That counts for -something- hopefully.

There's probably more than a few ghouls in the Wastelands who would argue with that. Then they might try to kill you..

You'd be almost as old as Harold except that they killed him in a stupid nonsensical quest.

The biggest thing I'm seeing from this game is "Wow that's a whole lot of interesting tools and assets that i can't wait for obsidian to use and not Bethesda"

 

[ShakerSilver]

The presence of the dialogue wheel with only 4 options makes me very worried about character dialogue and story choices - of course since they have a voiced protag now it would cost a helluva lot of money to have him record a decent amount of dialogue.

Those innovations they revealed - crafting, house building, follower commands, face sculpting, etc - are either just there to add fluff or were already features that existed in FO3 mods.

The lack of a skill system is worrying, as it seems now you just need to level-up perks for arbitrary boundaries on what you can or can't do; although this isn't all that different from Fallout 3's skills system with how certain skills could only be used at certain levels (you need to be level 50 to unlock this door). Gunplay looks alright I guess but other than there's not much I can comment on. Maybe they could have showed more gameplay if they hadn't had that concept art slideshow.

 

[Frezzato]

Hmm. Do I really want to pay an extra $60 for a giant, ugly, ill-fitting PIP Boy when I could just simulate it on a smart phone?

Whelp, I guess I just answered my own question.

 

[Abomination]

I do like the idea of the main character being a "survivor" from before the bombs dropped. It would give them a level of uniqueness to the rest of the wastes while also having a jarring perspective on how things should be.

I'm pretty excited and am looking forward to the directions so far.

 

[Benpasko]

A fucking voiced protagonist with a set past that you cant change, with a main quest that probably involves saving a goddamn baby I don't give two shits about.

Great. Into the fucking trash it goes. When does Obsidian get to make another Fallout game?

I'm still gonna play it, because I've liked every Fallout so far (Haven't played BoS, shhh), but this. I always play a gay character in Fallout New Vegas, is that not gonna be an option this time? I hate "Muh family" plots, so I'd better be able to sacrifice that child for the greater good.

I have a few problems with it. They're not numerous, but they're big ones:

-Voice acted protagonist makes it impossible to self-insert. So now it's no longer YOUR character. Instead you're just controlling some random guy.

-The protagonist starts out as married, giving you a lot of pre-conceived notions about how he acts before the game even begins (again, not your character anymore). It makes you feel like you're stepping into the save file of someone else's Fallout game and not making one your own.

-The dialogue wheel limits the number of dialogue options available to three, which isn't ever good.

-The Pip Boy animations. Those Goldeneye 3D models for objects look terrible and the pop-ups are going to get annoying very, very quickly.

Plus all this. Especially

-The protagonist starts out as married, giving you a lot of pre-conceived notions about how he acts before the game even begins (again, not your character anymore). It makes you feel like you're stepping into the save file of someone else's Fallout game and not making one your own.

 

[King_Julian]

The character's psychological profile will be created through events these parents later experience in this preamble, such as a conversation with a Vault-Tec employee who visits the house to offer a space in a Vault.

Eventually, the air raid sirens begin to blare, and it's off to Vault 111, where the player will emerge 200 years later as the only survivor.

WAit, don't tell me I'm the only one who is bothered by this. Just think about it. Your parents (mom and dad) are alive before the nukes start dropping.
They go int the vault and you, their son/daughter , come out 200 years later. That's 200 years between 2 generations.

No everybody is getting confused by this, you are not the baby you are the father!

November 11th? That feels a bit to soon for some reason. I thought it wouldn't be out till 2016.

Then don't get it until 2016 if you're that concerned. No doubt the game will be buggy as hell on release regardless of how long it's spent in development.

^^This. not many people have even mentioned the bugs yet. I will forgive as long as there are no game killing bugs like the ones new vegas had, forcing me to start from the beginning.

 

[Alfador_VII]

What is important is that Bethesda showed clearly that Fallout 4 can handle racial and gender diversity responsibly. See? Not really that hard after all, is it, CD Projekt?

Another misguided swipe against the Witcher? I'm sure you're aware the games are set in a fantasy version of medieval Northern Europe, Poland and the like.

There really wasn't much racial diversity back then, there's also no evolutionary reason for darker skin colours to exist in that environment.

 

[Elfgore]

My opinions on the showcase

-Fuck the Bioware style dialogue system and voiced protagonist. I want none of that in my Bethesda game. Not to mention, story-heavy modding is most likely going to be more difficult.

-The new VATS system is perfect. Now that it just slows down time, instead of completely stopping it. The power seems a lot less OP. The combat is also looking great, looks like they've actually made it into an FPS worthy game.

-The World looks colorful. Something I think we've lacked in Bethesda games for a while. It's refreshing and nice

-The customization is awesome and something that the game needed. The settlement design, while looking fun, is something that I hope is optional and that there are other methods of getting the best gear. I'm want to try it out, but I don't want to have to rebuild a town every game I play.

-Power armor better not be a vehicle, that is stupid. Jetpack is cool though.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'm...not as excited as I was hoping to be.

It looks like this series is falling victim to design trends, and I have a feeling it'll look and feel a couple years behind the curve as far as chasing Minecraft/Mass Effect/Assassin's Creed and the evolution of crafting shit, building houses and doing tower defense, and RPGs existing as amorphous blobs representing these trends that have superficial RPG elements tacked onto them.

I may be wrong about that, but I heard and saw a lot of things that I didn't ever want to equate with "Fallout" in my mind.

At least they have more experience with the Skyrim engine, and the world size/game design won't be hamstrung by having to somehow function on a PS3 that has no right trying to run it. I need to see a lot more to know if I'll get this, it's not like 1-Vegas are going to disappear upon release.

 

[zinho73]

As much as I can see people getting worried about the idea of a voiced protagonist somehow taking 'their' character away from them... I find it infinitely more satisfying to have a character who actually interacts and behaves with the world around them. I'm not opposed to the silent protagonist either, lord knows I've been playing them long enough, but a good voiced protagonist is capable of changing to reflect the actions of the player UPON that character in a much more organic way than hollow scripting and a bunch of talking heads explaining WHY you should feel X way about Y thing.

It's the difference between playing a camera carrying a gun... and playing a HUMAN BEING with thoughts and feelings and emotions which actually have an impact on the gameplay. Assuming it's done right, we may very well see our hapless survivor from Vault 111 slowly devolve into a profanity-sputtering drug-addled psychopath. Or maybe the Vault Dweller become a cold, cynical, mercenary wastelander willing to do whatever dirty deed it takes to get by. As a writer and a reader, I find that the most compelling characters for me are the ones which write themselves regardless of how the author intended they turn out. A certain thing happens when a good character gets away from you and takes on a life of their own... they begin to feel like a PERSON instead of a fictional being. They begin to behave more naturally, more believably, and the story itself tends to become a little less predictable and adherent to convention.

So while I understand why people want to cling to control of their characters, and their narratives... and I definitely understand the complication that arises for modders who wish to create content for the game who cannot simply go out and 'borrow' the voice actors... for me, the voiced protagonist means that I am going to GREATLY enjoy the vanilla game experience, probably even more than I did when I first started playing Fallout 3.

I just hope they've considered the implications of this change, and left enough room in the narrative experience for player agency to really shape the behavior of the protagonist and his/her dialogue.

To me, the problem with a voiced character is that what I would really want was more dialogue options and story branches depending on your stats and perks. With a voiced character and a dialogue wheel, i know I will get less.

But maybe I am wrong, maybe they will double the world record of voice overs in a game, but somehow I doubt it.

Also, the silent protagonist is quite fitting in a post-apocalyptic setting. Mad Max does not talk too much, he is an observer of the crazy things happening around him. The silent protagonist is not just a tool to place us in the driving seat, it is also a very effective tool to focus on building the world around the character. It is cool when we get to play an interesting character, but there is less games nowadays with the focus on the world and Fallout was one of them.

But, as I said, I am not against it, it just seems that when the focus goes in that direction, the role-playing depth actually suffers. When DA2 introduced the talking protagonist, they just eliminated from the game all the role-playing skills. The game became an adventure game with some RPG elements.

Again, not a problem per se, but it is kind of sad watching every triple a game trying to walk the same path. It seems to me that they are all trying to blend with the environment and losing their edge.

 

[JET1971]

Wrong release date. November 10th is the correct one.

 

[zinho73]

Slow-motion VATS?

It seems that the days of tactical RPGs are relegated to kickstarter now.

 

[soren7550]

Holy christ, so many sour, bitter people here. "Gur-hur, the player character is more than a camera and a weapon, you can do some society rebuilding, and you start off in a heavily American 1950s styled era where hertro marriage and kids were the norm? THIS IS TEH RUINATION OF FEH SERIES!! BETHESDURS IS IN TES GARBAGE TANK. GIMMIE BACK MY MONIES."

Also, the crafting/settlement building is all entirely optional, you are not the baby, you are the parent (either the mother or the father, you choose), and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Holy fuck, pay some attention.

I went into this not caring too much, and came out of it super mega hyped even having a Fallout 4 dream last night where the PC was Chris Pratt.

EDIT: One thing that really bothered me that I haven't seen any one make comment on is the vault jumpsuit. I mean, it's a jumpsuit, it's supposed to be a bit baggy, not skin tight and rubbery looking.

 

[zinho73]

Thinking about it, i now know what bothered me with this announcement.
It is not the focus on crafting;
It is not the voiced protagonist;
it is not action oriented VATS;

It is the fact all those additions are just features that were successful in other games. There is not one original idea, there is not one idea that plays to the strengths of the franchise. They may or may not be cool, but this is just design by committee, it is very difficult to be excited with that.