Any memorable characters?

[Walpknut]

Hard to make characters memorable when the only thing you can ask of them is a vague statement on "thoughts" that just generates a random one liner. These pack mules have even less personality than FO3's pack mules.

 

[Dr Fallout]

Cait was a pathetic and flat Irish stereotype, with very little depth.

i guess i really dunno which is the irish stereotype. well,one of the stereotype about irish people I know is that they like drink,dunno if they like pyscho too though

OK, here are some of her lines that she says when you press Y to "Talk":

1) "Rather be off murderin' a pint, but this'll do."

2) "Only thing better'n gettin' pissed is pickin' a fight. Am I right?"

She just blurts these lines out, there's no dialogue. It's a generic button press and after you press that button she just spouts off these random lines. It's horrible.

Both lines are pretty bland, and are just random fucking statements about beer or some bullshit.

 

[MercenarySnake]

Well what do you expect, most of the companions are walking cliches among other things like the generic Noir detective, or the drug addict that gets into fights, ect. They seem robotic.

 

[Mishmash]

alrite,get it.
anyway,this evening danse told to my character about a "dear friend" of him in the bos who has been turned in a supermutant who danse had to kill him. he said that after that he never had a connection as strong as the one he had with this young man. then the flirt dialogue choice pop ups.
if you think at him as an homosexual his character become deepier,actually .
i also like how he hates all the "abominations" of the wasteland

 

[ZigzagPX4]

An Irish accent? How is that possible? almost 400 since since her family arrived in america lol
OT,do 3rd generation irish americans still have a distinct accent in real life? I've got some kin in the east coast but seems unlikely that they still talk like the sopranos

It's possible in the same way Kid in the Fridge and Cabot House are possible: the writers didn't give two sh*ts about making a coherent world or decent story. They don't care about lore or internal consistency whatsoever.

I'm personally fine with NPCs having accents, i mean even Lou Tenant in Fallout 1 had a nice British accent. But the fact that Cait is such a f***ing stereotype is just dumb. There is nothing interesting about it.

Are we really just assuming that Bethesda is intentionally trying to disrespect the original games? And the in-depth lore? Intentionally? Really? Getting a little bit into conspiracy territory here.

About Cait - a well-written stereotype can be a good character. If someone like Cait popped up in an Obsidian Fallout game, as a "tough Irish gal" companion, but had a serious backstory and a well-defined personality, would she get criticised?

It's not about using stereotypes, it's about not knowing how to use stereotypes and cliches. In the end, anything in fiction can be broken down into a series of cliches and stereotypes and tropes, built up layer upon layer to form a proper coherent structure. And that's fine - that's normal.

How is it a conspiracy theory for them not to give a sh*t about internal consistency? Did you already forget what their marketing person said about Kid in the Fridge? It just means they don't care and write whatever they feel like and that's what makes it into the game.

And Cait is not a "well-written stereotype" so I don't see why you're wasting energy with that idea either.

Oh, so would Cait be a bad character anyhow if she was in an Obsidian game? The use of stereotypes should not be frowned upon unless excessively offensive. They're good as a basis. I was talking about the potential for Cait to be a good character, not whether or not she is a good character in Fallout 4 because we all damn well know the answer to that question is no.

 

[Walpknut]

A shit character would be a shit character no matter what company made the game.

Potential is irrelevant if it doesn't actually do anything on the work it's presented in. Anything can be well written with the effort, alas this game didn't put any of that, so......

 

[ZigzagPX4]

A shit character would be a shit character no matter what company made the game.

Potential is irrelevant if it doesn't actually do anything on the work it's presented in. Anything can be well written with the effort, alas this game didn't put any of that, so......

(This really walks the thin line between realism and pessimism )

Fair enough, crap writing is crap writing irrespective of who's doing the writing. Moving on.

I want to make it clear I'm not judging Fallout 4 based on its potential, because by that logic I could call every game a 10/10 based on what it could be.

 

[TorontoReign]

All of the companions had potential to be memorable and well fleshed out. You just can't get natural dialog from a shitty dialog wheel. We should compare New Vegas and Fallout 4 side-by-side as far as companions are concerned. Oh wait you can romance companions in Fallout 4 so it automatically wins.

 

[ZigzagPX4]

All of the companions had potential to be memorable and well fleshed out. You just can't get natural dialog from a shitty dialog wheel. We should compare New Vegas and Fallout 4 side-by-side as far as companions are concerned. Oh wait you can romance companions in Fallout 4 so it automatically wins.

What is it about Alpha Protocol's wheel that makes it feel so fluid and natural despite being the least informative dialogue wheel I've ever seen?

I genuinely want to know why it's good despite being less descriptive than Fallout 4. I mean, I found it very good, but I couldn't quite explain why. Someone put it into words?

 

[TorontoReign]

All of the companions had potential to be memorable and well fleshed out. You just can't get natural dialog from a shitty dialog wheel. We should compare New Vegas and Fallout 4 side-by-side as far as companions are concerned. Oh wait you can romance companions in Fallout 4 so it automatically wins.

What is it about Alpha Protocol's wheel that makes it feel so fluid and natural despite being the least informative dialogue wheel I've ever seen?

I genuinely want to know why it's good despite being less descriptive than Fallout 4. I mean, I found it very good, but I couldn't quite explain why. Someone put it into words?

For the most part, it didn't have 4 options that all said and did the same thing. It also timed your responses so you had to think quickly. Alpha Protocol is the prime example of the dialog wheel done right.

 

[Irwin John Finster]

All of the companions had potential to be memorable and well fleshed out. You just can't get natural dialog from a shitty dialog wheel. We should compare New Vegas and Fallout 4 side-by-side as far as companions are concerned. Oh wait you can romance companions in Fallout 4 so it automatically wins.

What is it about Alpha Protocol's wheel that makes it feel so fluid and natural despite being the least informative dialogue wheel I've ever seen?

I haven't played Alpha Protocol but I VERY MUCH DOUBT it is worse than Fallout 4.

All of the companions had potential to be memorable and well fleshed out. You just can't get natural dialog from a shitty dialog wheel. We should compare New Vegas and Fallout 4 side-by-side as far as companions are concerned. Oh wait you can romance companions in Fallout 4 so it automatically wins.

I know it just sounds like I'm echoing what everyone else here probably says regarding New Vegas, but the truth is I feel like New Vegas' companions were much more interesting and better written than Fallout 4's companions.

 

[Walpknut]

It works in Alpha Protocol, but AP and Fallout are as different as night and day. Even if Obsidian made the dialogue cross work that doesn't it's appropiate for Fallout.

 

[ZigzagPX4]

It works in Alpha Protocol, but AP and Fallout are as different as night and day. Even if Obsidian made the dialogue cross work that doesn't it's appropiate for Fallout.

That's true. Alpha Protocol had a defined protagonist - Michael Thorton. And like Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher, he is more of a defined character whose actions and personality are heavily influenced by the player. So the AP wheel works for characters who already have a personality. But Fallout is about building your own character from the ground up, so I see how it wouldn't work, since it would still force or impose a personality on you.

I would still have preferred it to what Fallout 4 actually had though.

 

[MercenarySnake]

Eh in my opinion I don't care for dialogue wheels, I prefer the way it's listed like in Fallout 1 and 2. List is easy and convenient to use with a mouse with the ability to add plenty of choices, of course I haven't played Alpha Protocol so I don't know how that game utilizes it.

 

[ZigzagPX4]

Eh in my opinion I don't care for dialogue wheels, I prefer the way it's listed like in Fallout 1 and 2. List is easy and convenient to use with a mouse with the ability to add plenty of choices, of course I haven't played Alpha Protocol so I don't know how that game utilizes it.

Gives you four options labelled by the tone it takes, and a contextual time limit in which you have to choose an option. What you say can and will affect how the conversation will turn out, and has long-reaching consequences as a whole. I had to watch my mouth in Alpha Protocol and go with my gut to get through the game without everyone hating me. It's in a completely different manner to Mass Effect.



A pretty old looking game, and very clunky, but a good concept of what choice and consequence looks like done right.

 

[Irwin John Finster]

Eh in my opinion I don't care for dialogue wheels, I prefer the way it's listed like in Fallout 1 and 2. List is easy and convenient to use with a mouse with the ability to add plenty of choices, of course I haven't played Alpha Protocol so I don't know how that game utilizes it.

I preferred the list in Dragon Age 1 and then with Dragon Age 2 they switched to the dialogue wheel. I don't remember if the wheel itself was bad in DA 2 because the entire game was bad. But I definitely preferred Origins (1) to DA 2.

 

[Spacemunkey]

That's true. Alpha Protocol had a defined protagonist - Michael Thorton. And like Geralt of Rivia from the Witcher, he is more of a defined character whose actions and personality are heavily influenced by the player. So the AP wheel works for characters who already have a personality. But Fallout is about building your own character from the ground up, so I see how it wouldn't work, since it would still force or impose a personality on you.

I would still have preferred it to what Fallout 4 actually had though.

That's one of my gripes with FO4, Bethesda managed to make a protagonist with enough backstory to keep people from creating a unique character while at the same time making him ambiguous enough to feel boring and not fully fleshed out.

 

[MercenarySnake]

Eh in my opinion I don't care for dialogue wheels, I prefer the way it's listed like in Fallout 1 and 2. List is easy and convenient to use with a mouse with the ability to add plenty of choices, of course I haven't played Alpha Protocol so I don't know how that game utilizes it.

I preferred the list in Dragon Age 1 and then with Dragon Age 2 they switched to the dialogue wheel. I don't remember if the wheel itself was bad in DA 2 because the entire game was bad. But I definitely preferred Origins (1) to DA 2.

I can't stand the paraphrasing, I just want to know what I'm going to say to avoid all the silly hassle like telling someone to fuck off when I was thinking I'd say something different. I just don't like dialogue wheels, lists work perfectly fine for me.

 

[Chud]

Oh, so would Cait be a bad character anyhow if she was in an Obsidian game? The use of stereotypes should not be frowned upon unless excessively offensive. They're good as a basis. I was talking about the potential for Cait to be a good character, not whether or not she is a good character in Fallout 4 because we all damn well know the answer to that question is no.

I'd argue Cait already existed in an Obsidian Fallout game. Ditch the Irish stereotype, keep the substance abuse and salty attitude, and you have Cass. Cass's a well fleshed out character, interesting and fun to have as a companion, and yet even her storyline can be considered a cliché. Clichés aren't the real issue here, it's hack-kneed writing. The laziness is what makes the potential of an Irish character so cartoonish and unbelievable. Good writing can and will answer a lot of questions, whereas bad writing will lead to a complete mess.

 

[Dr Fallout]

Eh in my opinion I don't care for dialogue wheels, I prefer the way it's listed like in Fallout 1 and 2. List is easy and convenient to use with a mouse with the ability to add plenty of choices, of course I haven't played Alpha Protocol so I don't know how that game utilizes it.

Also it's a lot simpler to make from a coding standpoint, unless I am totally wrong here.