Fallout 4

As long as you don't call him or her a nerd and refer to the Big Bang Theory in positive terms, or indeed at all. Some of us nerds really take exception to both.

So the shower, in its infinite wisdom provided me with some very positive thoughts on what the story might be like.

There's actually a pretty low chance of this being black and white, if the factions I think we're gonna have to pick between are clear (though I still don't trust Bethesda to let us choose a side unlike Obsidian, I'm not writing it off either after the Civil War plot of Skyrim).

First is the Institute. Advanced tech, lots of morally dubious ethics or well intentioned extremists at best, the Think Tank at worst. Creates Androids, enslaves them. We don't know much about their goals yet, but based on Zimmer's comments in 3, they don't particularly care for people in the wasteland. Which is what they have in common with their likely opposition:

The Brotherhood of Steel. And they're the reason I got excited for the plot finally. Because I'm pretty sure they're not the DC-faction. And for one reason: The Prydwen. Brotherhood airships like that belong to one faction of them now that the West Coast chapters have run underground: The Chicago Branch. That's what they took to get out there. They're also, while nominally "good guys," they're most definitely not a group like the NCR or the DC Brotherhood. Yes, they help the people of the wasteland, but its also self serving. And they are most definitely agressive in acquiring advanced technology. Which puts them directly at odds with the Institute.

Now, if it is the Chicago Branch, why the hell are they out in Boston? I have two ideas on that part. First, the DC Branch may have contacted them. With the Lone Wanderer a member by the end of 3, he may have told them about the Institute and their enslaving of Androids. Not having the forces to spare on a full expedition up north, they could have contacted the BOS in Chicago since they can't contact Lost Hills.

The other, is more potential foreshadowing (and based on their recent writing with Skyrim, they've gotten really good at using this [ie. the Thalmor conflict]). We know from ED-E in New Vegas that there is a branch of Enclave in Chicago. Something that wasn't hinted at before. And yet Chicago is important to ED-E's backstory as Navarro. I'm sure Avellone asked Bethesda writers for help with their side of the canon or Bethesda asked him to hint at it. If that's the case, the Chicago branch of the BOS may have even been run OUT of Chicago! We did hear that Dad freak the hell out when he saw ED-E, implying the Enclave tech was quickly recognized. If this is the case, the BOS may even view the Institute (an organization like themselves, descended from a Pre-War American institution) as an Enclave faction (and vice versa).

But there's another wrinkle in this: both factions covet tech and we've seen how factions with complete access to Pre-War technical know how (the BOS, the Gun Runners, the Followers, the New Canaanites, the Institute, and so on) can have a massive impact on this world. Which is where this could be amazing and WHY we have such a pre-determined backstory. The protagonist, a former soldier with vasts amount of working pre-war know-how? That's a HUGE boon to ANYONE in the wasteland. We're not an Android, we're not the kid (probably). We're the goddamn Robert Edwin House of Boston.

Oh yeah, its a total rip on New Vegas, BUT it puts us in the position of BEING House instead of working for him. Which is pretty cool in its own right, because the Sole Survivor has every reason to not trust either of these groups. The Institute is a bunch of slaving whackjobs in it FOR SCIENCE! and the Saxon's Merry Band of Technophile Isolationists are defectors from the US Army (something their pre-war values would find abhorrent) who ignore the suffering of the wastelanders, generally.

Oh yes, its the New Vegas NCR/House/Legion conflict but with the House option also being the Wild Care/Independant plot line. Even if they're casting in the shadow of Obsidian, I'll take it over the ham-fistedness of Fallout 3.

edited 9th Oct '15 10:15:36 AM by sirboulevard

That would be freaking awesome and the settlement stuff would sure as Hell make up for "Uniting the Mojave" not being an option, but I don't yet trust Bethesda to think that way.

What was that about a PC to play current gen games being too expensive?

Looks like it meets the system requirements for fallout 4 just fine.

Cheaper then an Xbone too.

That's also using mail in rebates and discounts and so on. Which I consider cheating when it comes to price.

Regardless even at that price it's still gonna be some time before I can get a rig together to play Fallout 4.

Even without the rebates it is cheaper then the xbone.

I just realized something. Because our character was frozen. We freaking survived the nuclear apocalypse by hiding in the goddamn fridge. BETHESDAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Mate, how about Morrowind being a knockoff of Conan the Destroyer?

At least this fridge was turned on. And hidden in a vault inside the ground. It's not the same as what Indy did.

"Guys guys, what should we add to Dagoth so that he would sound less of a rip-off!?"

"Urrrrr...."

"Dagoth Ur, perfect!"

Bethesda's shtick is copying other stories (Or outright buying the rights to them) and creating power fantasies out of them.

I dunno is it's all power fantasies, or the antagonists are so overestimating themselves that even Dora can kick thier asses

Pitting us against someone like that is still a power fantasy. It's saying the bad guys are overwhelming the world, and only you can stop them, and yet a creampuff like Dora the Explorer can kill them too. Means everyone else is weak and you're still stronger than them all.

Wait, which Bethesda villains are so weak that even Dora could kick their arses? The Super Mutant overlord? The world-eating dragon? A god of destruction? The CO of an army? Or the power-armored mutant who can rip Deathclaws in half?

edited 11th Oct '15 8:07:16 AM by ITNW1989

Where'd the mutant come from? Only one I remember quite like that was Horrigan, and that was from before Bethesda took over the series.

It's Horrigan, he who is non-negotiable, shot down entire families in your face, and killed the few and only sensible Deathclaws in the series.

Mmm, so badass, yet such an asshole.

Speaking of those pre-Bethesda games, am I right to think the voice acting in those is a lot better than what Bethesda has done? Because damn some of those dialogues sound so fetching to the ear. I suppose it helps that the layout proceed better context for that.

edited 11th Oct '15 8:22:38 AM by StarvingGecko

Right. Brain farted for a moment and forgot Horrigan was from before Bethesda.

edited 11th Oct '15 8:17:22 AM by ITNW1989

They got Mac Gyver to do a voice and they're the ones to introduce Worf to the setting. The old games win on that front until this game comes out and pits itself against them in the VA department.

ETA: Though New Vegas did get Renee Oberjinois to play House, so there's a mark for them.

edited 11th Oct '15 8:32:27 AM by Journeyman

Well as an example, and this is discounting the time gap and such, I found Marcus's VA to sound a whole lot better on 2 than he sounded in New Vegas, and I dont just mean voice wise. I chalk it up to better paced and natural sounding dialogue in the separate screens and the fact you didn't have the ambience and action of the background going on too, so the quality of the acting takes forefront. Contextual thing, I suppose.

edited 11th Oct '15 8:37:02 AM by StarvingGecko

That is true. Michael Dorn's the one who played him. And Horrigan. He's a good actor, actually.

I think that's actually just Dorn's acting in general now. Because he did an identical performance (and I mean an IDENTICAL performance, he sounded just like Marcus in New Vegas based on his tone and inflection) when he reprised Worf in Star Trek Online a few years later.

'Cause they wrote him a great storyline about Romulans infiltrating a Great House of the Empire and imprisoning Alexander, ultimately leading to his son's death (in a Heroic Sacrifice, no less, to save Worf! And he was Dull Surprise the whole way (players consider the Worf arc to be the best Klingon-exclusive storyline too, and the WRITING itself was praised, but Dorn was just blase the whole time).

I mean, its worth noting that Garret Wang who played Ensign Kim, a character so dull the writers of Voyager wanted to kill him off, acted circles around him a year later with a shitty plotline (that's generally considered to be horrible with Designated Hero and Designated Villain to the X power), but Wang's acting was considered the highlight because called the Designated sides out on their crap and was like first Starfleet character to treat the protagonist with the respect of their flag rank.

I mean, when WORF is failing to Harry Kim in the acting department, I get why Paramount won't greenlight that Captain Worf series. Michael Dorn has really lost his touch recently.

Well, with Harry, it was more an issue of direction then Garret Wangs ability. He was specifically told to be as bland and wooden as possible because.... the people in charge of that series were idiots.

Right, and most of the actors took their role reprisals as a chance to really explore their characters. Wang was excited to play Harry with emotions (spoiler: he's interesting), Tim Russ fit back into Tuvok like he never left, Denise Crosby made Sela a complex villain with lots and LOTS of issues, heck, two one-shots returned and put in more effort into reprising their roles (Kim Rhodes and Lisa Lo Cicero) than Dorn did.

And the reason I say that is that for Alexander's death scene, where he's in Worf's arms dying doing the Famous Last Words bit having a conversation with Worf about duty and honor in death, Dorn's reaction was to act so bland that it kills the dramatic tension of the scene. Its a bit of an in-joke that Worf was like "Oh, Alexander's dying? This is so sad, who wants chicken salad for lunch?" "I'm... not... dead... yet." "You're not? Get on that, if you want to be an honorable warrior or you're not my son!" (That's obviously not the actual dialogue, but it is how Dorn acted it, despite the much younger VA playing Alexander acting his ass off as best he could)

Which is why I'm like, Dorn really hasn't been acting as great recently. Almost all of his roles have this dull surprise to them. I can't tell a difference between his cameo on Family Guy, Fallout New Vegas OR STO apart. They're all acted the same way. Which is not a good sign for an actor.

Which alternate connection to Fallout: STO's lead programmer Jesse Heinig is the guy who programmed Fallout 1's engine.

edited 11th Oct '15 11:13:36 AM by sirboulevard

Maybe he just isn't good at voice acting? From what I hear, it takes a different skillset than acting.