Fallout 4...

[eLPuSHeR]

The way the dialogue with the companions is set up just seems really ... robotic.  Doesn't feel natural.  Do some stuff they like, then you get a conversation with them where they open up a bit about their past.  But you don't actually get to ask a whole lot.  So it's just them performing a soliloquy and ending with "but that's it for the moment, let's get back to the task at hand".  You can prompt a couple of times, but there's no big back and forth dialogue.

 

On a positive note since I seem to be focusing on the negatives in my posts, it is an addictive game.  I don't even know why that is -- maybe it's the exploration, or the combat, or the overall "feel" of the world.  But it's fun.

 

On another note, is anyone else a hoarder?  I can't help keeping stuff and just dumping them in my storage unit back in Sanctuary Hills.  I've got stuff that I've never even used and probably will never use, but I just can't bring myself to sell it.

 

 

Yes. I made three different trunks to store all kind of junk I came across: one for weapons, another one for armor and another one for misc stuff.

[HoonDing]

I'm waiting for a mod to send companions "home".

[Fenixp]

I'm sure a mod which makes companions mortal will be out soon enough.

[Longknife]

Is this the holy grail of bad writing?

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me it doesn't get worse than this. I will feel so satisfied knowing I hit rock bottom, and so frightened and disappointed if it can actually get worse than this.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Longknife

[HoonDing]

They would've put a woman in the fridge, but were unable to in the current SJW climate.

[sorophx]

wait, do ghouls not age in the Fallout universe? were there any child ghouls in FO1 or 2?

[Raithe]

Yeah, it's the thing that the ghouls regenerative abilities basically do the "immortality" syndrome thing.

 

Why there's a Chinese sub with a surviving ghoul Captain in the water. I find it odd he never got around to getting rid of the dead bodies of his crew and left them decomposing in the sub with him for 200 years..

 

And the Vault-Tec representative who took your details at the start of the game turns up in Goodneighbour.

[WDeranged]

The kid should have been a complete and utter feral wreck, gnawing off his own fingers and gibbering to imaginary friends.  As it happens he's a totally normal kid and he just wants you to take him home where his ghoul parents have waited for 200 years.  I get that this quest is meant to be a dumb ten minute diversion but it's still pretty galling.

 

It's fine to have these derp moments in the game if you've got enough talent to make them genuinely funny or interesting, Bethesda apparently don't 

 

 

Tell me it doesn't get worse than this.   I will feel so satisfied knowing I hit rock bottom, and so frightened and disappointed if it can actually get worse than this.

 

Actually I think this might be the most frivolous bit of nonsense I encountered, not that I've seen it all but I reckon this is pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.

Edited December 13, 2015 by WDeranged

[HoonDing]

Guess you must those Roman Legion cosplayers.

[WDeranged]

Guess you must those Roman Legion cosplayers.

 

I kinda didn't (like the concept) at first, but then I got talking to them...

Edited December 13, 2015 by WDeranged

[Longknife]

 

The kid should have been a complete and utter feral wreck, gnawing off his own fingers and gibbering to imaginary friends.  As it happens he's a totally normal kid and he just wants you to take him home where his ghoul parents have waited for 200 years.  I get that this quest is meant to be a dumb ten minute diversion but it's still pretty galling.

 

It's fine to have these derp moments in the game if you've got enough talent to make them genuinely funny or interesting, Bethesda apparently don't 

 

 

Tell me it doesn't get worse than this.   I will feel so satisfied knowing I hit rock bottom, and so frightened and disappointed if it can actually get worse than this.

 

Actually I think this might be the most frivolous bit of nonsense I encountered, not that I've seen it all but I reckon this is pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.

 

 

 

I honestly think the best part of the whole scenario is that someone obviously took care to say:

 

 

"WAIT! Make sure he reacts all hypersensitive to light from the sun. He hasn't seen it in over 200 years, after all. Otherwise this plot line simply won't be believable."

[Vaeliorin]

Is this the holy grail of bad writing?

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me it doesn't get worse than this. I will feel so satisfied knowing I hit rock bottom, and so frightened and disappointed if it can actually get worse than this.

I don't know about bad writing, but it just might be the holy grail of bad voice acting. Is all the voice acting in Fallout 4 this emotionless? Shouldn't that kid be hyper excited to get out, imstead of just sounding kind of whiny? Wouldn't the PC be at least somewhat startled or incredulous when finding a kid who's been locked in a fridge for 200 years?

[Longknife]

 

I don't know about bad writing, but it just might be the holy grail of bad voice acting. Is all the voice acting in Fallout 4 this emotionless? Shouldn't that kid be hyper excited to get out, imstead of just sounding kind of whiny? Wouldn't the PC be at least somewhat startled or incredulous when finding a kid who's been locked in a fridge for 200 years?

 

 

In regards to that clip, I am completely blind to the voice acting cause I'm so overwhelmed with the plot. I was watching and waiting for the kid to reveal himself as a con artist or something, didn't expect he was legit.

 

 

All I can say on that subject is I would guess that a competent sound director can be an unsung hero in game design. I recall watching Making Of videos for New Vegas and Skyrim respectively. In New Vegas', all of the voice actors sounded very into their characters and provided good detail about who their characters were, as if someone sat down with them, handed them a script and had a talk about how the character is envisioned. In Skyrim's, they briefly spoke with the voice actress for that one Blades lady, and her comment was akin to "Boy this is hard work the way they want me to provide such a wide variation of emotions and scenes back-to-back in such a short amount of time!"

 

Sure enough, the father ghoul sounds like none other than Joshua Graham, and while I'm certain no one would criticize the man's performance with Joshua Graham, his bits of voice acting here can be rather simple and uninspired. It's not the voice actors, it's a director that just doesn't give much of a damn. :/

 

 

I say kudos to Boxcar's voice actor though. He seems to give pretty consistent quality in his work across both NV and FO4.

[Rosbjerg]

Wow that was embarrassingly bad. Teenage fan fiction bad. Also, that would mean Ghouls never age and don't need water or food?

 

edit: All right, so I looked it up, because I really couldn't believe that they actually wrote this... and fans are pointing out he might just as well be referring to the Gunners attack on the area and not the Great War, in which case he's been there for a few days/a week.. and not +200 years. Which would make much much more sense.

[Longknife]

Wow that was embarrassingly bad. Teenage fan fiction bad. Also, that would mean Ghouls never age and don't need water or food?

 

edit: All right, so I looked it up, because I really couldn't believe that they actually wrote this... and fans are pointing out he might just as well be referring to the Gunners attack on the area and not the Great War, in which case he's been there for a few days/a week.. and not +200 years. Which would make much much more sense.

 

 

I hope this is the case, I truly do.

 

At the same time though, I do feel familiar with how fanbases work, and I find die-hard fans are quick to want to find excuses for bad writing instead of accepting it at face value. As a counter-argument to that, don't the parents state at the end they attempted to get into a bomb shelter but didn't make it and thus became ghouls? The parents and their dialog seem to provide stark contradiction to that theory, implying it's truly the Great War in question. The protagonist's dialog and the fact that no one bothers correcting him if he's mistaken implies the very same. The wikis also currently have the parents listed as Great War survivors.

 

I'd personally just be more curious to hear developer commentary on that quest. Who came up with this plot, why, and why did the guy in charge greenlight it? I mean another explanation I've heard is it's an Indiana Jones nod, but wasn't Crystal Skull critically panned, precisely BECAUSE it did ridiculous **** like that? I don't think giving nods to media that gets critically panned is the best idea.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Longknife

[WDeranged]

I'm still leaning towards it being 200 years.  The family weren't ghoulified last time they saw each other and the father explains that the radiation did it.

[Gorgon]

It's from from an episode of Southpark. Cartman convinces Butters he has been a coma for 200 years and survived the apocalypse, so he can get to go to Cassa Bonita for Kyles birthday instead of Butters. Some of the lines are the same. Meant to be in there for  a gag I'm sure. 

 

 

Just terrible though. 

[WDeranged]

Me ten years ago would have loved every bit of this game, that's the weird thing.  I'm getting all reflective over what it means that I don't like a game I know I would have liked 

[HoonDing]

Wild Wasteland.

[eLPuSHeR]

I'm waiting for a mod to send companions "home".

 

You can send companions to their "home" place if you click cancel when asked for destination.

[WDeranged]

 

I'm waiting for a mod to send companions "home".

 

You can send companions to their "home" place if you click cancel when asked for destination.

 

 

That's what I was doing but It only works if you've not previously sent the follower to a settlement.

[GhostofAnakin]

Food for my settlements always seems to be an issue.  I grow a bunch of stuff, but they still seem to be in the red when it comes to food.

 

Water is easy since you can just build water pumps to raise your score.  Same with defense.  But food is giving me a hell of a time.

 

I also still don't really get the point of power.  Unless I need some to run a water pump that's in water, or to raise a recruitment antenna, I've seen no point to power.

[Raithe]

Food for my settlements always seems to be an issue.  I grow a bunch of stuff, but they still seem to be in the red when it comes to food.

 

Water is easy since you can just build water pumps to raise your score.  Same with defense.  But food is giving me a hell of a time.

 

I also still don't really get the point of power.  Unless I need some to run a water pump that's in water, or to raise a recruitment antenna, I've seen no point to power.

 

The Laser Turrets are quite good for ramping up the Defenses, and having power so you can put lights in and around buildings can make things a touch nicer during the night time visits.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

Food for my settlements always seems to be an issue.  I grow a bunch of stuff, but they still seem to be in the red when it comes to food.

 

Water is easy since you can just build water pumps to raise your score.  Same with defense.  But food is giving me a hell of a time.

 

I also still don't really get the point of power.  Unless I need some to run a water pump that's in water, or to raise a recruitment antenna, I've seen no point to power.

 

The Laser Turrets are quite good for ramping up the Defenses, and having power so you can put lights in and around buildings can make things a touch nicer during the night time visits.

 

 

Speaking of lights, that's another thing that's giving me problems.  I built a generator for a settlement, then decided to build them one of those tiny outside lights.  It said it requires 1 thingy of energy, and the generator produces 3.  Yet, the light won't turn on.  And there's no option to "attach wire" like there was when I was connecting the generator to the recruitment antenna.

 

What gives?

[Raithe]

Speaking of lights, that's another thing that's giving me problems.  I built a generator for a settlement, then decided to build them one of those tiny outside lights.  It said it requires 1 thingy of energy, and the generator produces 3.  Yet, the light won't turn on.  And there's no option to "attach wire" like there was when I was connecting the generator to the recruitment antenna.

 

What gives?

 

If you look at the various things for Power, one of them includes the varieties of connectors? The power line pylons and such? Several of them are things you need to put on a house, and those you can connect the power lines to.  Anything within a certain radius of them that needs power in a house will then function, so depending on the size of the house, you might need to connect several together going around it.

 

In fact, this might help : http://www.gosunoob.com/fallout-4/how-to-power-up-a-house/

Edited December 14, 2015 by Raithe