GhostofAnakin

That was actually a damn good game. I kind of wish Bio had kept with that franchise.

The only charisma checks I've noticed dealt with trying to get a NPC to pay for money for a fetch quest. I also noticed it once or twice when it comes to getting a NPC to reveal a bit more information that they may not be forthcoming about. I have a 10 in charisma, so maybe I've seen the option appear more than some who don't bother with high charisma. Still, it doesn't seem there's all that many opportunities to use it compared to most games that utilize it.

Agreed. There are a lot of things to like about FO4, including the stuff you mentioned. It's just that one of the things I like most in an RPG is incredibly lacking in FO4, so I tend to notice it more. What's weird is that previous Bethesda games had it. So it's not like I'm wishing a feature that Bio/Obsidian/CDPR do (ie. depth in dialogue) and Bethesda never did. Bethesda's dialogue may have always been generic, but it was at least present. FO4 seems to have really streamlined this to a weird degree.

I had this gem of a conversation with my companion tonight. It was the reporter I mentioned above. I forget the exact one word option I had available -- it was something to do with asking them their thoughts, so maybe it was just that. But in any case, this is the best I've seen so far in terms of "getting to know her". Me: "Thoughts?" Follower: *random comment about raiders* Me: "Thoughts?" Follower: *random comments about making a difference* Me: "Thoughts?" Follower: *random comment being a good person* Rinse and repeat. Essentially, my "dialogue" with her consisted of my character literally repeating the phrase "Thoughts?" and her making some random observation that you usually get out of those NPCs in other games you don't actually chat with, but if you click on them they say a pre-determined one sentence over and over again. I mean, come on. I don't think it can even be written off as just because it's a Bethesda game. Skyrim and FO3 had more dialogue than this. Even the important NPCs have almost nothing to say to you. They may say something the first time you meet them -- and even then it's sparse -- and then they're mute after that. Having said all that, I am actually enjoying the adventuring/exploring. It's just the actual dialogue/character interactions that disappoint me so much.

This is why Obsidian's version felt so much more alive than FO4 does. You came across a lot of characters who actually had something to say, so you learned about them and learned about the places you visit. FO4, so far it feels like barely anyone has anything to say about themselves or the place they live. And the ones that do don't say a whole lot. I mean, the dialogue has been broken down to such basics. Player: (press Y) "The Institute?" NPC: "You haven't heard about the Institute? It's where they make synths." Player: (press Y) "Synths?" NPC: "Short for synthetic humans. They're created by the Institute." Player: (press X) "I just want to trade." That's it. That's how much you get out of these NPCs! I met a reporter who had a "quest" for me where she interviewed me. If I agreed to the interview, she'd travel with me. Great. Except I don't get the option to actually ask WHO THE HELL SHE IS. No questions about her background, or why she became a reporter, or what is transpiring in her life. If I want her along, I've got to basically agree to let her tag along just because. Such a stark difference to say, learning about Cassidy's past before taking her on, or learning about Boone's wife before taking him on.

Is it me, or is there much, much, much less dialogue than in previous FO games? When you can actually speak to a NPC (without getting a generic response), you have maybe one line of dialogue and then the options become to "trade" with them and nothing else. Where's the dialogue about background info? Where that NPC came from? Why they ended up where they are? The dialogue seems so sparse.

That sucks. As I said above, I prefer then FO:NV's approach where there are a bunch of settlements with pretty decent sized populations to visit.

Sort of like every group of whiners/complainers on the planet.

I'm assuming the big cities/settlements comes later? Early in the game, but the only "cities" I've come across are Sanctuary (and that's not even big) and Diamond City. Everything else has been a 2 or 3 person farm/settlement.

Early impressions (very early): -Big game world, but seems rather sparsely populated. -Prefer the various towns/settlements/communities in FO:NV to FO4 so far. -The workshop is more annoying than fun so far.

These fusion cores for the power armor run out so quickly. Half the time I don't even bother with the armor because it seems to run out halfway through a quest.

I figured it out. It wasn't very clear about being able to move to a different location while in the workshop menu. I was trying to build beds right at the workbench, then bringing them to the room. I didn't know you could move to the room and then build.

I already hate the workbench in this game. I'm supposed to make beds for the folks in Sanctuary, but it doesn't allow me to. I don't even know what I'm missing as the only "requirement" I don't seem to have met is the little pip boy posing with a thumbs up. WTF is that? I seem to have the actual materials requirements.

Got that sitting on my shelf. I bought it the same time I bought Wasteland 2, but decided to go for WL2 first.

What the hell? Fallout 4 is taking forever to install. Every other game took like half a minute to a minute at most. It's already been 15 minutes for Fallout and I'm only at 20% installed.

So much for the Best Buy Black Friday sale. The website was down most of last night (when I was trying to get on it), and then when I finally could access it and place my order, the thing kept timing out. By the time the site was stable, Batman was out of stock. Good job, Best Buy. One of the busier online shopping days of the year, one in which you advertise like crazy for, and your website is down.

Best Buy has some good deals on recent games. I decided to order Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Batman Arkham Knight because both are currently on sale for $30 off their regular price for Black Friday. NHL16 is also $30 off, but I'm just not into the hockey games at the moment.

Got the achievement tonight for siding with Mathias. Hehe oops.

And I just finished the massacre in the Bastian. Not sure if I'm going to bother with finishing the "end run". IMO, the Seal Beach stuff was the weakest part of Wasteland 2. Perhaps it's time for me to join the Fallout 4 bandwagon. I've got the game sitting on my shelf, but haven't played it yet due to my finishing WL2 first.

Gotta finish off Hollywood and the associated maps, then I'm pretty much done my second Wasteland 2 play through. I need to get the achievement for killing all three Gods Militia leaders, so a blood bath is in my future.

^The "dream sequence" in Mass Effect 3 still gives me nightmares. No, it wasn't scary. It was effing boring.

Wasteland 2 crashed AGAIN in the exact same spot, when I was about to make the transition from one map to the next. Luckily for me this time I'd saved the game a couple of minutes back, so the only back-tracking I had to do was sell off some excess gear to a merchant before leaving town. Love the game, but man, it does crash more than most games I've played.

Geez, does Wasteland 2 ever crash a lot. Yet again tonight the game crashed right when I was saving it. And wouldn't you know it, it was right after I'd spent an hour clearing out an entire town of bad guys. My last autosave was *before* that point, when I'd just entered the map. So annoying.

More Wasteland 2. In Rodia, trying to get the mayor's son in charge. I hate when my party members go rogue. I had to re-load (so sue me) a couple of times because they kept hitting a NPC I wanted to keep alive when they went rogue. So annoying.

Still Wasteland 2. Just finished Damonta and now I'm on my way to sort out the folks at the Prison. I gave the Monks the nuke this time, so I came across a different potential NPC when I returned to the Temple of the Titan. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring him along because my party was full and I didn't want to dismiss the three extra NPCs I had.