Think of the term RPG. Role playing game. It suggests the NPC is not playing as you, but you are pretending to be that NPC. That being said, I could see why the Me -> character -> npc can be a little annoying. If that's the case, I am sure you can read the options, select one and immediately skip the part where your character talks. I can see why it would be annoying to just want to cut to the part where the NPC says something rather than listen to your character say what you just read.

The issue I see with a voice acted protagonist, is I don't want him to go the route Star Wars The Old Republic game did (or even mass effect). The main quest is fully voiced in bioware games but the sidequests just reuse the same voices over and over again. Though honestly I could use less options in fallout and tes games, considering the NPC only responds to yes/no differently and the 3 different ways to say yes all yield the same response)

Also, just to be clear, the dragonborn was voiced in Skyrim. Sure it didnt have voice acted dialogue but he said his shouts outloud and there was no way to change his voice without mods. This wouldn't really be so different.

The change from fallout 2 to fallout 3 isn't fair. You say it doesn't matter they weren't behind fallout 2, but it is very important. Fallout 3 did not fail. It got a lot more sales than Fallout 2 so by that logic it succeeded. Also, yes the game was bought but it wasn't for its gameplay style it was for it's story and lore. Bethesda didn't ruin Fallout 1 and 2 the original producers stopped producing and bethesda picked it up to make their own version of it. If you want to complain about bethesda ruining fallout complain to the original producers who left the series behind anyways.

Yep. James Boned.

Yeah but I usually like playing as myself, I try to make every character look like me IRL and I try to make choices I would make IRL. A voiced character would really, really annoy me, this is the main reason why I never got that much into Bioware games and the Witcher series.

And yes the Dragonborn does say the Thu'um but I would not count that as voice acting, its kinda like when your character grunts while fighting.

We will probably know for sure this 14th when Beth presents their 30-min gameplay demo - I'll reserve my opinions until then

But my personal opinion is no voiced MC - A set voice in a way determines your character's views and morals. And the voice at the end of the trailer was a generic ''good guy'' voice.

He doesnt grunt the way you grunt though does he? I'm not trying to pick on you specifically I understand where you're coming from. I'm not trying to say everyone is going to like a voiced protagonist. In fact, I probably won't like it either. But saying its the end of the world and its a big enough deal to not buy the game means you weren't really playing the game right in the first place. This isn't a bioware game, dialogue isn't as important as the physical decisions you make (which you can't do in bioware games).

Besides, theres no perfect way to feel immersed with the game. You could play as a mute, but that only works if you're a mute in real life. You could play the way TES and Fallout 3 did it and select a list of options, but those options aren't ever going to be what you would do and theres always going to be those moments where you're thinking..."Why can't I just say this instead!!!". The lack of a voice even takes out of immersion. All you hear is the NPC talking at you and the game freezes and you read through all the options, pick one and then he responds to it immedietly). I think less dialogue and more freeroam is the only way to play immersively. You can choose to shoot slavers in the head the moment you see them or you can choose to be firendly towards slavers and walk beside them helping them capture slaves. Thats a lot more immersive, don't you think?

I agree there are good and evil voices...but not all good guys have good voices and not all evil guys have evil voices. Caesar didn't really SOUND like a bad guy did he?

It's hilarious to have watched this entire forum beg for Fallout 4 for the past several years and a decent amount of it complains incessantly about the trailer once we finally have one.

Reserve judgment until you play it. Fallout is a spectacular series, thus FO4 deserves the benefit of the doubt. A trailer can only give us so much perspective. Even so, it looked great to me.

I think even if the protagonist is voiced we'll have the option to turn it off.

I'm not going to get wrapped around the axle from rumors. Frankly, I doubt BGS is going to make a Bioware game anytime soon.

Him not grunting like me IRL is not the point mate, and you don't need to feel threatened by my arguments, I'm not trying to insult you or call you out or anything we are just having a discussion, I'm really exited about Fallout 4 and I would like to discuss it with fellow fans. And no, the character being voiced is not going to be the end of the World and I already pre-ordered the game, I have been waiting 5 years for this new title and I'm going to play it, even if the main character is voiced. I just want to raise some of my personal concerns and this is highly subjective anyway, some people have no problem with the main character having a voice some might even welcome it. But we can all come here put forth arguments and express different views.

Also it does not matter if this is just a "rumor", we can still have a conversation about this.

Oh only the first little bit was in direct response to you, sorry for the misunderstanding I should have spaced out my post better.

Nah I was referring to the OP saying we are 'boned' because of a voiced protagonist. Having a voiced protagonist does matter, in fact, it might matter a lot. But to say the sky is falling because of it is a bit over the top. Of course we can talk about it and have a conversation, but we can't say that Fallout 4 is boned because it has a voice acted protagonist when it's just a rumor. I wasn't complaining about your post, I enjoyed reading it. I just don't think this thread should exist until a voiced protagonist is revealed. A thread discussing the rumor of a voiced protagonist specifically would be great, I just can't handle a thread condemning fallout over a rumor. I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it

I personally don't think we'll have a voiced character and it was merely in the trailer for cinematic/effect purposes.

Who cares what it is! Its a new Fallout!! a new wasteland to explore and F&%$ s%$#$ up on! I'm sure it will be an amazing, fun experience to play. We've been waiting so long for a new fallout, I can't wait. And I hope that playing this for the next couple years, will take us to the next Obsidian fallout

This is a very good point. In a lot of games with voiced protagonists, it can get annoying because you have to go through your character repeat the option you picked. It's almost like your character is an interpreter translating everything you say into a language the NPCs can understand. Listening to my character repeat my dialogue choices can get pretty tiresome.

To solve this, many games have the character say something along the general lines of the option you picked but not the same. This often leads to the problem of the character saying something with a different meaning than you intended. This has frustrated me quite a bit in Witcher 3 when I picked an option that sounded like it meant one thing but Geralt said something with a completely other meaning.

Exactly! I'ts like you are whispering into your characters ear.

It's ok.

Thanks guys and gals for your feedback on my thread, every post here is great. It's definitely too early to judge the game, but for long time fans having a voiced protagonist is a big change, even if it's just a recitation of the games in game dialogue choices.

Thanks for everyone's input, and I'm curious to hear anyone else's thoughts on the matter.

It'll be good. No negative whiners will derail my excitement of F4 finally being made.

It has been in development for years and everyone knew it was. We were just waiting on the announcement so we'd get some idea what the game would be like.

But F3 and FNV both HAD voiced PCs!

Surely I'm not the only one who always recites the player responses in a clear, loud voice?

To be honest I didn't even like my character in new vegas making wimpy "uugghh" noises during melee combot, annoyed me even. But I shall reserve judgment until I've actually played the game.

There are several open thread in which this discussion would fit nicely. But this one is a bit inappropriately worded for this forum.