It was weird.

I got shot so I quick equipped a stim pack used it and re-equipped then gun.

Targetted with VATS and then tried to shoot...

And there's my character holding out the gun in his right hand... as he tries to poke himself in the chest with a stim-pack in his left hand.

So was that just a glitch or were they thinking of having a dual wielding system which didn't work?

That's just the animations combining as they are supposed to. That isn't a glitch.

However, I do hope that they will include dual wielding. It is more relevant for wielding pistols; bucanneers in the caribbean would often carry multiple pistols in bandoliers, loaded just before battle so that they could get off more shots before having to reload even one of their weapons. That led to faster responses to enemy fire and more efficiency.

The same principle works IRL. If you have four fully loaded guns and are holding two at once, when one of them jams or runs out of ammo, you can use the secondary gun to make a snap shot reaction. You will be less accurate, but your rate of fire will be ever so slightly more reliable, which can be crucial.

However, I can imagine that compared to Skyrim, dual wielding isn't quite as relevant. There's no magic, no shields (actually, I'd love a ballistic shield, wouldn't that just make sense?). You are far more reliant on your VATS and guns, which makes most uses of dual wielding obsolete. Although, having a secondary weapon might increase your VATS special options, so there's an idea.

If it was doing the animations correctly I should have shot the Raider... not attempted to poke myself in the chest with a Stimpak.

I could get into the VATS animation but no matter what weapon I selected I couldn't shoot anyone.

It was only after re-loading my save (just before the encounter) that I got it working fine again.

So maybe they did consider it but for one reason or another pulled it at the last minute.

I think that is just you using the Stimpack and not being able to shoot. Stimpacks are supposed to save your life, so dividing your attention between shooting someone in the face from 20 yards and jamming your arteries with a stimulant probably means that you will have to stop to do either one or the other, not both at once.

Though I do not own the game. I think it's working as intended, but check in the software section to be sure.

This doesn't happen all the time.

It happened once and was fixed with a reload.

I still use stimpaks and guns without the 2 mxiing themselves up.

Perhaps we'll know more when people get their hands on the Construction Kit.

No it's not in because it doesn't belong in the game. It never has...

Given that Fallout New Vegas has a heavy spaghetti western vibes, I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you on that. Dual wielding pistols may not necessarily be useful in the context of the game, but it doesn't not belong. It would fit in quite neatly, but it's up for debate how much you'd be able to do with it.

This game DOES try and keep a more or less realistic approach to most of its weapons and how they are used, and Duel weiding any kind of gun, inlcuding pistols does not work at all, it never actually happened in real life, trying to use two pistols will not only make it impossible to aim, but also to reload.

Also, funny, because the wording acts like as if they said something about it being the game, which is false, they never mentioned duel wielding in Fallout 4.

It did happen for during the era of muzzleloaders, since wielding two guns at once meant that you'd get two shots instead of one out of it. In fact, six guns was typical. There is a difference between how dual wielding is portrayed in movies, though, and the advantages of having more than one gun IRL.

In movies, both guns are fired at once (often in sequence), when it's far more likely that you'd hold one gun as backup, while emptying the other and then cycling to a third, then fourth gun, eliminating the need to load for the first few shots. The idea is that most firefights are decided based on the entrance to the battlefield. You can claim better positions with a backup weapon. Like the buccaneers, you want additional weapons to eliminate the reload time from giving your opponent the opportunity to reposition himself or strike back while you are vulnerable.

So, really, dual wielding is not actually about firing two weapons at once, it's about being able to cycle from weapon to weapon without needing to reload. The times during which this is a useful skill to master are limited, though. Firing weapons on the run is difficult as it is, firing two is even more difficult (since you cannot steady your aim). So you typically have to slow down to a snail's pace, making you a sitting duck to enemy fire. You want to do it when you have cover and only intending to shoot one weapon at a time.

There's a name for that. Submachine guns.

Really? Fallout is realistic with the way they handle weapons? Half the fun of Fallout is that it's not realistic. We have giant robot fists that make people's heads explode on impact. Have you seen some of the stuff you can make at a crafting table? Someone made a freezing flamer and posted it on reddit today. I don't think dual wielding is too out of the question.

Now personally, I've always preferred using one pistol. It just looks professional, but I would love for people to have more options.

It does give that oldtimer veteran hitman feel, doesn't it? "Kids these days, I only need one gun in my hands to look cool".

Even more so, trying to fire two guns at a target just means you probably miss with both guns. Anyone who wants Dual Wielding Pistols that is not a Hollywood Film Director has never tried to fire two guns at once and hit anything. You might hit with one gun if your smart enough to line it up with your dominant eye, but the other one is going to miss.

The only reason anyone would want to fire two guns at once in a fire fight is for suppressing fire to keep the enemies under cover.

Which pretty much is what I was saying. Use one gun to actually fire, keep the second as backup when the first one jams or runs out of bullets, so you can pick up a third weapon while keeping the suppression fire going.

Heck, I would love for the option to be there just to demonstrate how silly firing akimbo is in most situations. Put it in, make it virtually useless except for those few corner cases where the loss in accuracy is justified by some sort of utility item. Something like a remote detonator or a tagging device or a blinding flashlight or something.

Or a ballistic shield. Hint fecking hint. Love ballistic shields. EDIT: I mean, I already grab barrels and shovel them around to prevent getting shot in New Vegas, so why not make it a usable item?