Wow! You played the game already and know all the details. How impressing.

Don't give me that load of crap, we're not talking about the absurdities of robots or laser weapons of walking talking corpses. We're talking about logical and believable consistency within its own setting as well as by drawing a parallel to how the real world would handle it if it is applicable. A robot with valuable parts would not survive for 200 years on its own in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where resources are scarce forcing people to do desperate things and even risk their lives for something of value to trade. It's bad writing.

All right, power armor faction means either LB or MWBOS, if it is either then it is set after Tactics or Fallout 3, it could be a new faction but if I have to assume anything I'd say the chances of it being a previously established faction is far more likely than it being a new faction, especially considering how they have vertibirds, which LB does after Broken Steel. Ghouls didn't start to go "feral" until 2277, up until then they went mindless. Androids are supposedly a new thing to the wasteland. Green super mutants could mean west coast muties, and that means it has to take place after Fallout 1. I don't need more info. It's not set 50 years after the great war.

I don't need to play the game in order to see bad writing when it is so apparent.

We'll only know for certain when we get to actually play the game. But I find it far more likely with Bethesda's track record for atrocious writing that this bit we've seen is just that, bad writing.

Yeah believable consistency within its own setting with a big temple and monuments built by tribals.

I never said that part wasn't stupid. I hated that part in Fallout 2.

But that is logical and consistent with both the setting of Fo3 and NV, and to a lesser extent Fo1 and 2.

k

For all we know one of the dialogue options leads to CODSworth, explaining how he's still around.

And I don't see how that could be explained. Here is a home unit robotic that has been alone since a warhead hit near the city and it has managed to stay alive despite not having anyone to perform maintenance on it for 200+ years in a land where people are desperate for resources and where a robot could earn a good buck, if not for the whole thing then at least for the scrap parts they could scavenge. It's not like it is living in a hidden bunker or anything. It's living in a neighbourhood where scavengers 'will' travel to in order to scavenge stuff, seek shelter or just look around in pure curiosity. Not to mention the dangerous wild-life that would gladly try to kill something "weird" to protect itself or its offspring should they come near it. Or how about environmental hazards? How about rust? How about if an escaped android might want to reprogram it to protect the android? Or an android seeking spare parts to repair itself? What about the robots AI constantly running for 200 years? It has to run in order to protect itself and perform self-maintenance (and again, how far can self-maintenance really go?) so what about its software? Wouldn't it get corrupted or overheat or fry or something?

This is not a robot that is inside of a sealed bunker at a maintenance station like the ones in Mariposa or Sierra Madre Depot. It is a robot outside in the open post-pocalyptic in a deteriorating pre-war neighbourhood which will be a target for numerous individuals to check out.

It makes zero sense for this robot to have survived for this long. Yeah, there is probably a dialogue option to ask him how he survived, and like I said; With Bethesda's trackrecord of atrocious writing I don't see how they're going to be able to explain this away.

Far more points towards this being bad writing than it does being good writing.

[edit]

Quite frankly, far too many of you are willing to give Bethesda a pass on their bad writing. I'm not when it comes to Fallout in general. Sesom pointed out the absurdity of tribals building a temple in the middle of nowhere. That's stupid. I agree. It doesn't excuse Bethesda from writing stupid things though. It shouldn't excuse anyone from it. Fallout is not a setting like Fable or Borderlands where it doesn't really take itself all too seriously. They're meant to be comedic games that will gladly toss aside sensible writing for a joke. Fallout ain't that. It has a humor element to it, but it is not a humorous game. Fallout is a series that is meant to take itself seriously within its own setting. Bad writing is inexcusable for a series like that. Just imagine if the writers behind some random sitcom all of the sudden got to write a season for Breaking Bad, would it be excusable when they mess up? No. It wouldn't. If it wouldn't when it comes to that then I don't see why it would when it comes to games either.

It means that every game is up for scrutiny. Not just Fallout 4 but the older titles as well. So criticize away at the older titles, but don't give Bethesda a pass whenever they mess up. Codsworth surviving for this long is silly. It doesn't mean the rest of the game will have bad writing. It doesn't mean Fallout 4 will be an atrocious piece of crap. All it means is that in this one singular instance there is some bad writing to excuse why your robotic servant is still alive and kicking 200+ years after a nuclear war.

You jump to conclusions without any knowledge and about sillyness then you would have to declare as the worst game of the series. I feel sorry for you that you see Fallout as so serious. Why? Because you miss a lot of fun. It's a game not a real life simulator and no bible.

While I understand you are likely a self-proclaimed "lore buff" in all things "Fallout," your understanding of events and where things take place in time is almost completely irrelevant. I say this partially because BGS did not exactly stay true to the lore in Fallout 3. I also say this because in many respects Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics may as well be non-existent in the greater scheme of things. Not to say that they didn't happen, but they may as well be considered an alternate universe.

Unlike The Elder Scrolls, Fallout's continuity and lore is much more fragmented due to the change in leadership and development studios. This isn't to suggest your understanding of events is inaccurate, but I probably wouldn't rely on your understanding as much as you clearly are. Remember, gameplay and business decisions will trump lore anytime. The Expanded Universe of Star Wars is a perfect example of where everything outside the movies was canon until Disney bought it. Now all of it is merely "legends" or in actuality didn't happen. The Fallout games before Fallout 3 may as well be regarded that way at this point.

If Bethesda can't stick to the lore then it's all the more bad writing. I don't care who owns what, bad writing is bad writing.

...We are looking way too deep into what is so common in the Fallout Universe that it makes my head hurt...

Robobrains roaming the wasteland...okay...

Securitrons meandering aimlessly...Okay...

Mr. Gutsy's patrol dutifully...Okay...

Sentry Bots await the order...Okay...

Our robo butler is still around...SHENANIGANS

What Bethesda needs to do now, just to settle it, is the first DLC is Codsworth regailing you of his adventures from his point of view.

The securitrons didn't appear until House let them out.

As to all of the others, I never liked those either. Random pre-war robots surviving for 200 years just wandering around the wasteland is even more absurd than the butler. Least the butler kept himself secluded to one place. And wandering robots didn't happen until Fallout 3. IIRC there aren't any generic random encounters with robots in Fallout 1 or 2, maybe there are in Tactics but that could be explained by Calculator sending them out, meaning they aren't just wandering about, but rather they're patrolling the area and scouting.

Only robots I can think of in Fallout 1 are the ones deactivated down in West-Tek, a place so irradiated even the BOS couldn't get far in. As well as some down in the vault by the Master, a place that had been sealed for quite a while and with the Master's forces it is not difficult to believe that they found and brought back robots from other more secure locations. As well as Mariposa which had been shut down for a long time, running on auto-pilot. And that place was so full of lethal crap that it makes sense no one made it far in enough to kill and loot a robot.

And the robots in Fallout 2, we had one by a recently crashed Vertibird. Makes sense. We have some over at the Oil Rig, a place that never fell. makes sense. I think there may have been some in Vault City, a place that never fell. Makes sense. We had a robot in NCR, singular, that someone had repaired. Makes sense. We had Sierra Army Depot. A place with such high defenses that you could see corpses just rotting outside the gates from previous people trying to get in and the robots were all on stand-by inside the sealed depot. Makes sense.

Most of those makes sense for why they are there and why they could still be there. I don't remember much of Tactics' robots at all so I can't comment much on that. So as far as I know, it isn't until Fallout 3 that robots started appearing 'everywhere' for no sensible reason.

Not securitrons...the...the things. Looks like large [censored]'s with arms.

Edit: Protectrons. That's the one.

On top of it...Take a deep breath, it's a thing in this universe, it isn't changing...You cannot ask for that level of realism, in a post apocalyptic fantasy...It's not that serious a series.

Yes, I can, because it has been shown in Fallout 1/2. So why would I accept anything less?

I take it you've never spissed off a Mr. Gutsy before, have you?

THOSE BOTS DON'T PLAY.

Gutsy's use flamers right? Wouldn't the fuel run out after a year of defending themselves if they run out of things to resupply themselves with?

"If you wonder how he eats and breathes, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself it's just a show, I'd better just relax."

The "It's just a ____" is never a valid argument to me.

That's because you are taking it too seriously. Relax. It's a video game.

No.

you know I began wondering about that when the PC was reunited with him after leaving the vault. The first thing I noticed was that Cogsworth's flamer fuel was still going strong after 2 centuries.

Which got me to thinking...the robot must have been pre-programmed with self health monitoring subroutines. But successfully scavenging the wasteland and then performing self repair to maintain itself is one thing. Being able to successfully self generate a perpetual motion machine-like energy source for 200 years is quite something else.....

edit: although with 99% of humanity on the surface being gone, it's entirely feasible that Cogsworth put himself into an autostasis mode ,when he realized there was no immediate need for his services. That would explain why he still had quite a bit of fuel to move about.

Then this discussion really can only go downhill, short of Bethesda doing a rewrite to satisfy your need for realistic robotics in a series that does not have realistic robotics in it.