What was the point of Fallout 4's story?

Hey uh, didn't Bethesda boast about the number of lines of dialogue Fallout 4 had? After having played it and seen just how limited the dialogue is and how few characters there are around... Well... Where is all of this dialogue they boasted about?
 
Mr Fish said:
Hey uh, didn't Bethesda boast about the number of lines of dialogue Fallout 4 had? After having played it and seen just how limited the dialogue is and how few characters there are around... Well... Where is all of this dialogue they boasted about?
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Thing is, when you "mainstream" (cough cough choke choke die) the dialogue system, the number of lines doesn't matter.

Hey, turns out we had 145000 lines of dialogue. But we summed up every one of them into "Yes", "No", "Grumpy Yes" and "Sarcastic".

"When every paragraph becomes a word, every RPG will become a shooter." - The Todd Prophecy.
 
Actually, now that I think about it, every dialogue sequence does count for at least 5 lines.

NPC: line 1
Player: Line 2a
Player: Line 2b
Player: Line 2c
Player: Line 2d
-5 lines
NPC: line 3a/b/c
NPC: line 3d
-7 lines
Player: Line 4a
Player: Line 4b
Player: Line 4c
Player: Line 4d
-11 lines

So maybe it does have a ton of dialogue lines.
Problem with this is that you can only pick a, b, c or d. So while there are 5 lines minimum per dialogue sequence you can only pick one and can only hear 1 variation of the NPC response. So if a dialogue sequence as a total of 50 lines you might only hear 6.

I actually don't think a system like this is inherently bad (Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol pulled it off reasonably well), but the scope of the game makes the dialogue feel even more abysmal than previous titles.

Anyway, the point of Fallout 4's story is that Curie is best waifu and I Danse is best boy-toy.
 
They took the same generic lines from other generic useless NPCs and had other voice actors say them for different generic useless NPCs. More lines!

@Mr Fish So you're a Curie fan huh? How is she? ;)
 
MercenarySnake said:
If Obsidian had the luxury of time like Bethesda, I'm sure they would've loved to add more lines. It's amazing what they were able to do with the material they had as it was.
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Agreed. It's funny how if the games have similar problems New Vegas has the time excuse. Bethesda has only lazy or limited interest in these mistakes.
 
What's worse is that Obsidian saw a lot of criticism in that part, where Bethesda has barely to deal with any. Despite the fact that Obsidian delivered a game that contains a ton more depth, character and role playing with 18 months of development, compared to those 4 years Bethesda had.

Mr Fish said:
Hey uh, didn't Bethesda boast about the number of lines of dialogue Fallout 4 had? After having played it and seen just how limited the dialogue is and how few characters there are around... Well... Where is all of this dialogue they boasted about?
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Not to forget all those aaaahs, oooohs! and "got it!" - "nice" lockpicking/hacking lines by the player.
 
Crni Vuk said:
What's worse is that Obsidian saw a lot of criticism in that part, where Bethesda has barely to deal with any. Despite the fact that Obsidian delivered a game that contains a ton more depth, character and role playing with 18 months of development, compared to those 4 years Bethesda had.
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Also Obsidian had to work on an engine they never worked at and in a genre of games they never did before (1st person 3D game) while Bethesda created the engine and have been using it and improving it since Morrowind.
 
MercenarySnake said:
@Mr Fish So you're a Curie fan huh? How is she? ;)
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I'm actually not, it's just something that I see a lot of others proclaim her to be. Personally I found her to be... An obstruction when she was a robot (got in the way constantly) and her naiveté got annoying and turning into a synth did not fix that. Physically she's hot, I guess. Especially after I modded her to be a nice plump fatty. But her personality is just... Blehg... So ultimately I found her as attractive as I would a child in the mind of a bombshell. Doesn't matter how hot she looks, mentally she's like a child and that's weirding me out.
 
ZigzagPX4 said:
Speaking of the Brotherhood. They're a pretty good indicator of the modern gamer's mindset. Especially when you're ordered to eliminate the Railroad. A bunch of people felt guilty over doing it but acted like they were following orders as if there was no other choice, Call of Duty style.

It's a very ironic thing to see - people actually playing their character into a "I was just following orders" role and making up justifications and defending their actions. Joining a selfish, xenophobic group, saying that they were trying to save the Commonwealth from synths, justifying their massacre of the people who helped them reach the Institute (and their son). Mindlessly following instructions. And you see it everywhere - in Reddit threads, Facebook comments, and Bethesda forum pages for the game, everyone quoting the Brotherhood as if they're a CoD-like "good" faction. "Ad Victoriam", over and over again. Sure, it's all a joke, but it does speaks a lot to psychology.

"Dang, I have to kill the Railroad! But those guys helped me... Oh well, I've to do it to continue the story, I'll do it. I feel bad about it, but I'll do it anyway, because it's the right thing. For the Brotherhood!"

It felt outright meta to me hearing it in the commentary of YouTubers playing the game on their main playthrough. Especially in a game where you can stick with other factions for a different ending. Reminded me of Spec Ops: The Line, except this time the game blatantly tells you that you can pick another path, yet the player goes with it anyways. That makes the irony all the more sweeter.

In short, everyone feeling like the hero sticking with the Brotherhood of Steel tells us a lot about modern gaming attitudes. A lot.
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Ahhhh Spec Ops: The Line. A linear FPS that has more consequences and player agency than Fallout 4.

For me, the point of Fallout 4's story is just to show that in Bethesda's world no matter what the problem, genocide is the solution. All three endings force you to commit a needless act of genocide just because someone told you to do it. Kind of a bit like a $60 Milgram Experiment, really.
 
TheLittleKnyaz said:
Ahhhh Spec Ops: The Line. A linear FPS that has more consequences and player agency than Fallout 4.
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While SO:TL is a very good game, achieving more consequences and player agency than Fallout 4 had isn't really an achievement. And to be honest, it was simply fit into four choices at the end. Not very diverse, but it accomplishes making the point it sets out to make. That game's premise had a different aim.

But, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 had more consequences and player agency than Fallout 4. A Call of Duty game, of all games, had eight different endings and no "illusion of choice". It was the first CoD where I geniunely screwed up because I had done the wrong choice, and actually felt intrigued enough to go back through the campaign and figure out the point of divergence, scattered somewhere throughout the fast-paced storyline.

If your RPG game fails to have more C&C than a linear action FPS marketed to the masses who don't even care about plot, then I think you need to have a long hard think about your development priorities.
 
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ZigzagPX4 said:
While SO:TL is a very good game, achieving more consequences and player agency than Fallout 4 had isn't really an achievement. And to be honest, it was simply fit into four choices at the end. Not very diverse, but it accomplishes making the point it sets out to make. That game's premise had a different aim.

But, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 had more consequences and player agency than Fallout 4. A Call of Duty game, of all games, had eight different endings and no "illusion of choice". It was the first CoD where I geniunely screwed up because I had done the wrong choice, and actually felt intrigued enough to go back through the campaign and figure out the point of divergence, scattered somewhere throughout the fast-paced storyline.

If your RPG game fails to have more C&C than a linear action FPS marketed to the masses who don't even care about plot, then I think you need to have a long hard think about your development priorities.
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But they won't think about it. They'll look at their charts and their figures, pat themselves on the back and continue feeling a little more dead inside. Creative feedback means nothing to these people! They don't care in the slightest about any kind of art-form they are creating.

I'm not really sure where this post is going; i'm incredibly drunk and incredibly angry.
 
That is okay. :drunk:Your drunk words are still coherent, and your drunk opinion is NMA's norm. :-)

But that is correct. Fallout is, to Bethesda, not an art. It is a business. A franchise. It is supposed to be a product sold for money, not entertainment treated with love for people to enjoy.

Can we just finally just accept that this is the world now?

"It's just a game, duuuuude. Don't be so butthurt about it. The old games were for nerds anyways... New ones are kickass, stop being such a dinosaur and get with the times, man!" :twitch::wall:
 
ZigzagPX4 said:
That is okay. :drunk:Your drunk words are still coherent, and your drunk opinion is NMA's norm. :-)

But that is correct. Fallout is, to Bethesda, not an art. It is a business. A franchise. It is supposed to be a product sold for money, not entertainment treated with love for people to enjoy.

Can we just finally just accept that this is the world now?

"It's just a game, duuuuude. Don't be so butthurt about it. The old games were for nerds anyways... New ones are kickass, stop being such a dinosaur and get with the times, man!" :twitch::wall:
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Ehh, let's just hope Bethesda allows Obsidian to make a spin-off game.
 
Maybe we should not.

I mean, Obsidian, without a doubt, will deliver on a good narrative, decent roleplaying, great characters, and of course get again flak for the same shitty stuff they always overlook with Bethesda. That they have to use a shitty engine, with bugs, and now also outdated visuals - the earliest Fallout you could expect to see by Obsidian would be in 18-24 months.

Don't get me wrong. I would love a new game by Obsidian set in the Fallout world.
 
Crni Vuk said:
Maybe we should not.

I mean, Obsidian, without a doubt, will deliver on a good narrative, decent roleplaying, great characters, and of course get again flak for the same shitty stuff they always overlook with Bethesda. That they have to use a shitty engine, with bugs, and now also outdated visuals - the earliest Fallout you could expect to see by Obsidian would be in 18-24 months.

Don't get me wrong. I would love a new game by Obsidian set in the Fallout world.
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So what you're saying is you would rather Obsidian does Fallout on their own will rather than be strung a series of random requirements they have to meet by Bethesda. Also, you would rather Obsidian not get hand-me-downs and limited time from Bethesda, but does Fallout on their own free will.

Would you prefer an Obsidian Fallout under Bethesda or no Obsidian Fallout at all?
 
I think it's best to let the series die with the little dignity it has rather than watching it get beaten and raped. Just what I think.
 
I think Obsidian should stay as far away from Bethesda as possible from now on. They deserve better than that "85% Bonus deal" bullshit Bethesda put them through. Besides, I'm not sure it's possible to salvage a decent game from the Creation engine and its awful UI.

If this means no more Fallout, so be it, as MercenarySnake said, let it die with dignity and pretend Bethesda's games don't exist.
 
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