Your Favorite Non-Player Character (is there any?) /spoilers

H

Hartigan

First time out of the vault
Okay, Moira.

No, just kidding.

One of the Fallout 3 biggest drawbacks, at least when it comes to characterization and voice-over actors, is that they all sound the same. Everyone speaks in a correct AmE accent, and sometimes there's even no audible distinction between character voices (e.g. the old man). I remember original Fallouts were, though having the voice-over lines incomparably shorter in number, more diverse in this field -- just recall Butch, Loxley, Lieutenant or Set.

"There'd be a killer reason for standin' in ma' shadow."

Of all of them, I'd pick Eulogy James, or Jericho -- both voiced by the same (though different-sounding) guy, James Lewis.

Eulogy strives hard for being a cold-hearted and kind of a reserved but polite businessman, and I buy it -- but it's like having one well-written bad character in a children's tale -- just for the sake of having an antagonist.

Jericho -- I suppose he was discussed before. You meet him as a guy who almost say "fuck you" to the PC. But then what? He starts off with some fucking silly divagations and this crappy "goody two-shoes" line (in case you have good karma). Come on, he's a drug-addicted drunkard, hitman, hard gambler, rapist and whatnot. I want him to behave like a jerk, but a funny jerk. He does only a bit of that. They had such a potential up there, and they kind of screwed it.

But in comparison to the other folks, he's acceptable.

During the first playthrough, furthermore, I thought 3Dog could be quite a cool guy to talk with. I couldn't help myself but think the quest is a mere spin-off of "Vanishing Point"(-on-feet), and the SuperSoul character, though, you know, it seemed the DJ will have a lot of things to talk about. That he will be something more that just another waypoint. Wrong. You know, what I expected from him was a strong affected Black Vernacular accent, talking slang here and there, and throwing "motherfuckers" at you from time to time -- not a P.C.-correct pussy, "fighting mean guys with his voice". . . oh, how great!

Anyway, what do you think?

edit: Sorry if the matter was, by any chance, mentioned before in a stand-alone thread; I was searching for it -- to no avail.
 
Charon, because of his badassness and the best scripted sequence in the game.

Star Paladin Cross because of her ULTIMATE badassness.

And Colonel Augustus Autumn. A great character, crippled by bad writing.
 
President Eden. Best Voice-acting in the game, some of the best writing in his radio broadcasts.
 
Mikael Grizzly said:
And Colonel Augustus Autumn. A great character, crippled by bad writing.
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And unfit voice acting.

Y'know I was actually thinking on this subject a few days back. Fallout 3 has some ok characters, but nothing memorable. Not sure why you guys are focusing on followers because they're all pretty badly written - they can still be badass in fights, but none of 'em even have decent writing.

I liked Pinkerton in Rivet City even though the dialogue structure when talking to him is kind of half-assed. He saved quite a bit of that quest which was interesting in structure but kind of butchered by the android's atrocious voice acting and that annoying Railroad chick.

Other than that...errr...maybe Knight Captain Gallows?

PS: it's Eulogy Jones, not James. I love his name, the character is uninteresting.
PPS: Lou Tenant is one of the best video game characters ever. That guy is seriously sold short.
 
Good thread.

Jericho. Simply cause he walks around megaton telling everyone to fuck off! Seriosly he is one of the few fitting charachters that seem natural to the ruined and hostile world of fallout. And he is not bland. Good voiceacting as well.
Flack&shrapnel are made with a similar "tough guy" style, but they are not charachters really, they just sell stuff.

President Eden. Excellent. He is times more likeable than any of the 'good' human charachters. Underdeveloped as well :( Id work for Enclave just cause of him!

"Anoying kid" just for the lulz (and that vid)
 
Brother None said:
Other than that...errr...maybe Knight Captain Gallows?
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That's exactly what I was thinking.

Other than that, hmph. President Eden has magnificent acting IMO, and his speeches are good, but that dialogue was the most anticlimactic thing in the whole game (it really left me wondering if he was the big bad).

I also liked that whassisname in Big Town. Movements. Two types of movements...

Mr. Burke tries so hard to be cool that it's funny. Paradoxically, other characters who were apparently meant to be trying to be cool that it's funny were just plain obnoxious.

Brother None said:
PPS: Lou Tenant is one of the best video game characters ever. That guy is seriously sold short.
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Too bad he was in the same game with The Master. ;)
 
I haven't had the chance of meeting Charon, it was a haste play -- just to kill-- finish the game and get rid of it. I might replay, though -- The Vault wiki entry on him seems, indeed, interesting.

Eden: Yeah, I really loved the voice-acting, but---what now appears to be a trademark Bethesda issue---he was butchered by bad writing. I'd like the suicide speech to be challenging, demanding -- after all it's the president of the United States who you're trying to talk into suicide. It should be fraught with speech, intelligence and charisma checks -- but not as obvious as they are. Fallout 2 was way, way better in this point -- you couldn't trick Richardson that easy. In fact, he stood firm with his beliefs, no matter how illogical they might have been.

Eulogy: Ah, right; a typo. In his case, I actually turned a blind eye at writing sometimes, just because of good acting. Still, I think he's okay in relation to some other bad-ass wannabe characters.

Autumn: Actually, I find him a typical Nazi-stylized wuss, with a fag haircut and a black leather trench coat. Again, there's some potential in there and the room for shaping an interesting anti-hero, but it simply doesn't work this way.

Burke: Sure, so cool as he is, his quasi-pompous speeches and the over-usage of a manifestly high-sounding lexicon is really, really disturbing. Just as the Intelligence checks are. Now I can imagine a group of 12yo Fallout 3 fans using this kind of talk.

For the guys who hadn't had the pleasure, see how they did it in the West, some ten years ago:

Set: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=XLySGSRAhWo
Lou: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=oXb4FRx5Ecc&feature=related
Harold: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=OJjYczaQdZ4&feature=related

"It is so good to see you. . ."
 
Autumn: Actually, I find him a typical Nazi-stylized wuss, with a fag haircut and a black leather trench coat. Again, there's some potential in there and the room for shaping an interesting anti-hero, but it simply doesn't work this way.
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He had some potential as a defector from the Enclave who had a diferent idea. He could've been a interesting antagonist. I don't think that 'water in exchange for protection, anexation, submission and recruits' is a bad deal for the wastelanders. But you can't ask him what are his ideas or something else, whatever. Nope, he gotta die. Just because.
 
Brother None said:
And unfit voice acting.
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Well, I had no real problem with that, although he did have that unneeded 'Nazi colonel' vibe to him.

I liked Pinkerton in Rivet City even though the dialogue structure when talking to him is kind of half-assed. He saved quite a bit of that quest which was interesting in structure but kind of butchered by the android's atrocious voice acting and that annoying Railroad chick.
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Oh yes, I forgot him. He's good.

Other than that...errr...maybe Knight Captain Gallows?
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YES. He reminded me of that belching contest with Badger.
 
She reminds me of the BITCH WITH THE BEARD, a bearded woman bum who strolls the streets of my city.
 
Fuck, now I have to reinstall the game just to see if there are any memorable NPC's in the game, as for the life of me I can't even remember most of them.
 
I liked Mr. Brotch! Maybe because I think the 'tutorial' is the best area in the whole game.

But I don't know... I really bought Mr. Brotch. It made me laugh how extremely bored he sounds when he gives you the last G.O.A.T. question. You know the Overseer one. He has also a little bit of a story, how he happened to become a teacher because of the G.O.A.T. and how he dislikes it. You can nearly feel how he hates to be the teacher.
 
Can't remember any good NPC, they were all pretty boring and forgettable. Except the bad ones, like moira. Or harold.
 
Dave of The Republic of Dave....because he is retarded and he loses a vote because I stick my hand in the ballot box.
Another NPC I liked is Tenpenny because he is probably senile.
 
AndreiD said:
Another NPC I liked is Tenpenny because he is probably senile.
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He has to be senile. On one hand he goes on about how much he hates ghouls and then says...well ok, if you can get some of the other residents to tell me its alright then I'll agree. I mean you'd think the dumb bastard would just spend a little coin and have the ghouls in the area wiped out! He had to know they were a threat and if given the opportunity... I like Tenpenny too, hes silly.
 
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