The First Fallout 4 Details Revealed - Update

[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.

 

[Conrad Zimmerman]

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

Oh, derp. You're right. Good catch. Terribly sorry about the error.

 

[Jaeke]

Spoiler: Literally the entire time that last gameplay demo was happening

Oh, and then the release drop...

Todd shoulda just dropped the mic and walked out without saying anything.


Damn it feels good to be this excited for a year in gaming again.

 

[Neonit]

I am worried. The game looks good but.... Dialogue wheel with max 4 options? Plus its voiced? The cool thing about fallout was that the dialogue options appear depending on your skill, sometimes multiple options. I worry that this will be gone.

The customization seems interesting though. I like how apparently you can make an asymmetric (power) armor. Fits the theme i think.
Also, settlements. I wonder what will stop me from building a bunker with a kill box preventing any raid?

Anyway, im too old for hype. I shall see. I will 99% likely buy it anyway, but im not gonna get hyped. Then again, im kinda busy in real life, so i guess that might be why i just cant get hyped.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

So a forced family background and likely a save-the-baby plot. I am unimpressed, but not surprised. Maybe they'll get Liam Neeson to voice the baby for extra feels.

 

[Wolf Hagen]

as an oldtime fan, I'll be quite weirdet to see the old Dialoque System beeing replaced. The Voiced Character is nothing that puts me too off, never bothered me too much in Saints Row or GTA either.
Still a bit off for Fallout, but due to this beeing the only downsides I saw, I kinda am glad to see what else they heaved in like the crafting System that well... it's a nice thought to have a Mansion (of Scrap) optional to beeing a permanent Roamer of the Wastes. And Weapon Costumisation!?! Frigging Sniper Plasmarifles. O___o

OK, lets just say: I'm on the Hypetrain.

 

[Genocidicles]

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."

People are angry because it's a step back from New Vegas.

You'll be stuck playing the same character (pre war husband/wife) looking for their kid in every single playthrough, and giving the character a voice means you'll have less dialogue options. Look at the differences between Bioware games before and after they started voicing their protagonists.

The crafting looks pretty sweet but other than that it just looks so much more shallow than New Vegas.

 

[JoJo]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say I'm tentatively excited, the plot details seem unclear right now but I'm game for a family based plot, those tend to resonate well with me. Not sure about the voicing, I'll reserve judgement until I see it for myself. I only hope the baby has grown up to at-least preschool age by the time the proper game starts, it would be nice to be saving something that has a bit of personality and can talk back to me when I find it.

 

[The Harkinator]

I'm building a settlement, I'm going to be a goddam king of the Wasteland. I do hope there's options to build a palace and a throne and craft a crown.

Of course the palace will still be a big house made of scrap, and the throne will be a pre-war chair. But still. AWESOMENESS ON A DISC

 

[Imre Csete]

Not digging the voiced character, but at least they said they recorded names for your character so I name my guy Norm, they'll call me Norm which will hopefully lead to a Cheers reference. On the other hand, I probably won't be able to call my character Grand Emperor of the NuKa Cola Consortium or anything ridiculous, which saddens me. Here's hoping theirs some actual vegetation seeing as it's 200 after the apocalypse.

Ah good old character names, I used to name characters 'your father' in Neverwinter Nights, introduction moments never got old.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I liked how they empahsised the fact you could play as a woman. An people "WOOOOOO" as if its a new addition. They have had that in all the Fallout games. What idiots thought that this wouldnt be the case?

An for that kid creator thing. Makes me want to create the most god awful deformed parents just to see what the baby will look like. A child that even a ghoul/supermutant cross breed would flush.