"Public Occurrences" sounds like a generic, 18th-century name for a news pamphlet, which I'm fairly sure is what they were going for. The printed news is nonexistent in previous games, so for a population unused to news in this format (or probably any format) it's as good a title as any in my opinion.

"Public Occurrences" sounds like what happens when you see someone really really attractive, and you're a man...

Can't be the only one who thought this?

It raises the question of how many people can actually read in the universe.

Auto correct strikes again

Is this a trick question?

And this thread is why Bethesda avoid giving detailed character profiles ahead of release.

I'm still waiting for the "Piper looks like a man' threads...

PIPER'S A WOMAN!?!

I think her lips need to be closer together so she doesn't look like she's bearing her teeth at you. She must be proud of them things.

I had an issue with the newspaper being called public occurrences but that was about it. I guess generic names are back for things like newspapers and factions

It's the first multi-page newspaper in the US - so it has history behind it. One theme of Fallout is clinging to the past (the old world), so the newspaper is fitting.

Thanks for that reference!

Full name was "Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick (Sept. 25, 1690)".

Only reason I read these forums - you never know when you might learn something - and it adds to the game lore.

Why are we calling the male protagonist a dullard? Because of his blithe comments about Nuka Cola or Sugar Bombs? Or because he sounds confused and anxious while talking with Codsworth, after waking up alone 200 years after the vault opens? His acting seemed appropriate for all of the situations we've seen him in, I don't see what the big deal is.

As for Piper, it's fine to worry about uncanny valley. And I don't see anything that throws me, but I completely believe people would be more keen to that than me, especially in a Bethesda game. But this thread was started specifically about Piper's looks, and I'm just like...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/piper.jpg

HEY COME ON

I'll just say, if there's one thing gamers are good at, it's finding minor details we can blow up and quibble over.

I wouldn't consider the facial animations and voice acting a minor detail, I mean we're gonna be staring at people's faces and talking for a good portion of the game, do you consider it to be quibbling when they look as http://webmshare.com/YLrJ5 as this? As for the MC being called a dullard it's because of his deadpan, monotone voice for everything we've seen so far and rewatching his talk with codsworth I'm not sure where you get "anxious and confused" from.

Besides you can't really blame people for dissecting and scrutinizing every little thing we see considering just how very little Beth does actually show off. People take the little they can get and just take it apart.

It's really strange to me, because you listen to the real guy talk and he's full of energy. Very boisterous personality. This makes me confused about his performance but also gives me hope that what we've heard isn't the majority.

I don't really see where its THAT bad, its actually quite a bit better then a lot of games that actually try to have actual lip sync, rather then the typical "mouth just moves up and down" stuff.

I also don't see where people are getting deadpan or monotone, he seems fairly genuine with being confused about whats going on.

He's not massively overreacting like most video games VAs do, but most video game VAs seem to act under some bizarre notion that every emotion has to be turned to 11 or else it doesn't count.

Maybe janky was a too strong word, it's a definite improvement from previous games that's for sure, but it's still pretty sub-par. Those games you refer to doesn't change that fact.

And I can understand why he doesn't overreact and just has a neutral voice, that way the player can insert their own emotions or whatever, but at that point why even have a voiced protag when something like microsoft sam or the simple text boxes we had before deliver the same emotional impact.

Well, it doesn't sound that neutral to me.

And he doesn't overact because people in general don't. It has nothing to do with inserting your own emotions, it just that's not how people act in the real world. What you are describing is more like the stuff you see in TV shows and movies, which is overacting for the spectacle, rather then acting like actual people do. I've seen plenty of people hit with some pretty heavy things, and, in like 95% of cases, those people responded with the same level of general "what?" as the SS did in what we have seen.

And I would personally rather have that then the [censored] we normally get from NPCs in video games most of the time, like where Boone's VA was trying way to hard you could basically hear him say "AUDIBLE SIGH OF SADNESS!", or Bioware companions where Garrus's VA was trying more to act like "LE COOL EPIC COP BUDDY!" to the point he came off more as a cliche rather then an actual person.

Well it sounds neutral to me soooo

I'm generally not very emotional at all but if I found out my whole life and world as I knew it was completely [censored] and my entire family was probably dead, I wouldn't think even I would have a reaction that is equivalent to "what?".

I didn't find Boone or Garrus to be trying to hard either, (hell boone was somewhat monotone himself sometimes) and Garrus definitely acted like a cool cop buddy at times but not to the level of "LE COOL EPIC COP BUDDY!" imo.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree

She kinda looks like Krysten Ritter from Jessica Jones. The dead-eyed look and big mouth.

To be fair, Howard is likely just keeping it together (the military would've taught him how to perform under undue stress) for the sake of his wife and kid. Ditto for Nora if she were the player character.

So the dullness is just the result of the military teaching him/her (if you play as Nora) how to not flip out and suffer an emotional and mental breakdown when faced with an ungodly amount of stress.

Having been in the military, I can assure you that they do not train you to be unemotional when under stress. They don't want your emotions too affect your thinking but they aren't really interested in having everyone act like Mr. Spock.

Most people when they suffer one psychological shock after another will go into a kind of autopilot. They will get the Infinity Gaze and pretty much only react to their surroundings without much thought, while their brain tries to put some semblance of order to the world.

We don't have all the details, but basically the protagonist has been experiencing many life altering shocks over a very short period of time (at least from his/her viewpoint it is a short period of time). I don't know if it is intended in the game, but in real life the effect would be pretty similar. The protagonist wakes up and starts the normal daily routine. Bathroom, gets dressed, check on the kid, cornflakes and OJ, etc. Suddenly the sirens go off. Grab the kid and run to the Vault. Watch the nuke hit as you are lowered into Vault 111. Get processed in and stuffed into cold storage. Wake up from that and find the whole Vault dead. (It is unknown at this time if you find the remains of your spouse and baby, either way, they are no longer with you.) Exit the Vault and see the world you once knew has been replaced by a terrible wasteland populated by nightmarish beasts and other abominations. From the protagonists perspective this all happened in the space of a day or two.

The protagonist is acting like a dullard? It is really a wonder that some feral ghoul didn't find him/her laughing hysterically outside the Vault entrance and eat lunch.

Her looks dont matter. My guy will still Piper...

I seriously don't get what people are seeing wrong with Piper. She looks fine to me and I haven't seen anything that wrong with her mouth movements.

Really? Its highly noticeable with the upper lip. Its like she is snarling. Then once you notice that, you can easily see the same issue to a lesser extent on the bottom. Its like her face is some sort of mask. Not exactly a huge issue, and it can be fixed with mods eventually.

I think I see what you're talking about(assuming the scene E-DE 123 linked is the one). That doesn't really bother me, especially since Piper was supposed to have a bit of attitude in that scene, so some "snarl" isn't out of place.

Yeah, unfortunately what I saw from Piper didn't really impress me. There have been several RPGs since Skyrim that advanced things so it's generally feeling dated overall now.