<Snupes> I decided to redo the Fallout 4 opening and make the most retarded looking characters I could
<Snupes> And as soon as I get out of the cryo pod I'm unable to move
<Snupes> It takes 10 minutes to do Fallout 4's opening
<Anastas> Le meh
<Snupes> That's not as bad as I thought.
<Anastas> Not the worst they've ever done
<Anastas> Oblivion's took like half an hour if you weren't rushing
<Snupes> Well, 4's took 10 with me doing it as quickly as possible
<Snupes> Subtracting the 15 minutes I spent making the characters
<Rushy> why are you playing fallout 4
<Snupes> I wanted to make the ugliest characters possible and see how quickly I could do the opening.
<Rushy> masochism is a serious problem
<Snupes> You would know, being the resident SC player
<Snupes> w0w, my dude has a magnificent butt
<Saddam> omg sexism
<Saddam> Also F3's intro is the worst
<Saddam> And Anastas's dumb claims about it not inhibiting roleplaying are objectively wrong
<Snupes> Fallout 3's intro sucks
<Anastas> I don't remember saying that lol
<Anastas> But I bet I made some compelling points
<Anastas> I liked Fallout 3's intro
<Rushy> F3's intro is pretty okay, but I don't like the amount of characters that only go unconcious instead of dying
<Anastas> Bring on the downvotes
<Saddam>
http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=642.msg47724#msg47724<Saddam> You also argued that silly point on the old site
<Rushy> open world games shouldn't be designed in such a way that characters necessary for quests can't die before you even start their relevant quest line
<Saddam> I remember
<Saddam> I remember everything
<Anastas> Fallout games have always began with the player character in some sort of specific situation
<Rushy> if only you used that ability to do something useful, instead of shitposting on a forum devoted to the planet being flat
<Saddam> A specific situation, yes
<Saddam> But not a specific point in their life
<Anastas> Tru... it did feel a bit odd to play an older looking character in FO3
<Saddam> Complete with a specific social role (vault loser, apparently), specific family, etc.
<Saddam> Ironically, F4's setup for the player was one step forward and one step back
<Anastas> If they actually had competent writers, I wouldn't mind it if they turned Fallout into a more plot, character driven series
<Saddam> You're given a lot more freedom to decide your past, but your present situation is much more narrowly dictated
<Anastas> And left the sandbox gameplay to the Elder Scrolls
<Saddam> I agree with that
<Anastas> But right now they're trying for this terrible middle ground
<Saddam> But they've got some weird half-TES, half-Mass Effect mashup going on right now, and it doesn't work
<Anastas> Yap. I'm holding off for a bit to allow modders to work their magic. I can't wait for the settlement system to be overhauled
<Rushy> !eightball Is Fallout 4 an objectively good game?
<Supybot> Rushy: About as likely as pigs flying.
<Anastas> With an easy way to manage all of your settlers from one locaiton
<Saddam> The wisdom of Supybot
<Rushy> problem solved
<Saddam> A top-down view of your settlements you could snap in and out of would be great
<Anastas> Yes... and a bulletin board or something with all job listings
<Rushy> SimFallout City 5
Another thing I want to talk about is companions, because here, Bethesda came close to delivering what was needed. The companions in F4 have distinctive personalities, unique voices, and the option of character development as you spend more time with them. And in a rare example of a borrowed feature from
Mass Effect that actually works in this game's favor, their interactivity with the world around them is improved by having them occasionally take part in the conversations that you have with NPCs, or even talk with NPCs by themselves. Sadly, what drags it all down is (much like the quests) Bethesda's reliance on automation over scripting, procedure over storytelling, and quantity over quality. You don't earn your companions' trust and respect by convincing them through dialogue that you share their priorities, or aligning with factions that they agree with. You earn it through picking locks, hacking computers, climbing into power armor, and other piddly minutiae that no normal person should care about this much. Okay, there's also accepting and completing quests that they approve of, which makes more sense. But still, it's nothing that can measure up to how well the companions were handled in NV.
One detail that especially stands out to me is just how concerned Bethesda was of having players alienate and lose access to certain companions, because they bent over backwards to make that as difficult as humanly possible. I really can't imagine one of them leaving you unless you've been deliberately trying to piss them off as much as you can. Compare that to NV, where some of the companions could very easily be alienated depending on what you said and who you chose to align with. There's none of that in F4. When your companions begin conversations with you after you raise their affinity to a certain level, nothing that you say affects the outcome of the conversation at all, or even their affinity. They wrap it up with something along the lines of "w0w good talk bro good talk" every time. And even more annoyingly, most of them don't care which faction you choose to support, with the only exceptions being the companions who were already members of factions - they'll attack you if you destroy their respective faction. But nobody else cares. Nick, Strong, Hancock, and Curie apparently have no problem working with someone who's thrown in with the BoS, an organization that literally wants them dead.