who did you side with on your first playthrough

[Joelzania]

Yes, I think that helps enforce my feelings for House. The idea that choice has been taken away from us in this endeavor, when Fallout is all about choices, really shows House as a controlling, powerful character. Now, this may be interesting from a character point of view in relation to the universe, as a player I want to be able to do what I want. Sorry, House.

 

[TorontoReign]

House kept the caps rolling in, and that's good enough for me!

I found it so hard to go with a house playthrough. I remember getting some way into helping house and then dreading the idea of working for him, he just seemed so sleazy and untrustworthy. I trusted the robot instead.

I think that ONE little change would have made House my unparalleled favorite choice: another option to "deal with the Brotherhood".

If it would have been possible to, say, activate the self-destruct sequence on their bunker in Hidden Valley, but do so without immediately being found out AND convincing them to evacuate and leave the Mojave behind (which would involve being on good terms with them, and possibly getting far enough with the NCR to form the non-aggression treaty (or Hell, have whether or not you do color the ending slides for HOW safely they returned home)) would have satisfied House, and left many players feeling morally justified in their actions. There would be no BOS presence, so House would be more than content, and the BOS would be able to survive the conflict, possibly even learn from some of their mistakes in doing so. Practically a win-win!

Either way, I do know that for most the necessary elimination of the Brotherhood was their deal breaker with House. I personally considered him the best option, but I conceded that one particular point left me unhappy. Some kind of third option (which, according to the devs, they'd initially intended, but scrapped because they couldn't get it to make any sense) would have solved everything...

There is a mod that kinda does what you talk about. Something akin to a House/BoS alliance.

 

[SnapSlav]

Well, I dunno if I'd get that, to be perfectly honest. If it was AT ALL "akin" to an alliance between the 2, then I'd definitely not find any interest in it. I'm with the developers' sides regarding their decision to remove the option to save the Brotherhood while working for House. It really doesn't make sense given both factions policies. They'd come into conflict with one another, and House simply wouldn't allow that as a remote possibility, even if it was theoretically an option to "convince" the Brotherhood to somehow not conflict with him.

But I thought that "forcing" them to leave the Mojave would have been a viable alternative. Their ending would be effected in several ways, depending on the player's choices, so that JUST their departure wasn't everything. If Hardin took over, then they'd never reconcile with the NCR, and he'd refuse to leave the Mojave, and they'd all die out. If Still In The Dark was completed with McNamara still in charge, they could peacefully leave, and it would depend on whether or not the NCR was still hostile to them to determine if they'd SAFELY make it out of the Mojave or not.

But still, even if THAT was what the mod proposed, I'd probably still have an issue with it, because it would involve some dialog with NPCs that was never recorded, and I detest mods that make or turn NPCs into mimes. Even if it was user-created voice overs, I like seeing mods that provide some LIFE for its material.