This man, this man knows what's important.

I gotta be honest, depending on how events work out I probably won't romance anybody. If we lose our spouse in the early moments of the game, as in we know they are dead, then that is going to influence my mood going into the main game (like the departure of your father did in Fallout 3. Finding him was my character's motivation as he started going out into the Wasteland). I can't see myself getting out into the Wasteland and going "well she ain't getting any deader!". Conversely, if my family's fate is unknown, then finding them will be a driving force for my character, to the point that until I find them I won't have any resolution. That could work out any number of ways, but if they die in my arms or something traumatic or we never find them, I don't know that I would care to hunt down some other character and hammer out some kind of cheesy relationship.

I voted find one and stick with them though, because I'm hoping we can reunite with our wife. Really, the more I think about this, it seems like a poor decision to give us a family at the beginning of the game. Depending on how it works out this could be extremely depressing.

I'm definitely part of the Meh crowd. If it happens great, if not, also great. If I find out you get a spouse setup like in Skyrim where you get a shop keeper out of it, I'll probably pursue it just for that alone.

Some excellent writing can tell depressing and tragic stories. But, yeah, the chances of FO4 having writing of that calibre are slim, at best, if only because I feel pure linear storytelling works best for that sort of thing rather than the looser storytelling of a freeform open world game like Bethesda's.

I'll probably pick one if the spouse is dead when we emerge, or if they say "I've lived my life without you blah blah blah you need to live your life."

I'll stay true to my pre-war wife.

Yes, all companions are player-sixual.

Romancing in games is something I'd compare to going to the bathroom, as in not really something I'd want to see or have to do in a game.

(Romance in real life is nothing like going to the bathroom, I know that!)

Why is there no "I select the characters I can stand and try the best one first"? - Because I will do exactly that, select characters which I can stand (from both genders) and then work through them (and as I am straight I will need to do at least one female run (which I would have done anyway, but now it makes even more sense) to romance the male companions!)

greetings LAX
ps: I love this feature (I loved it in Bioware games and I will love it here!)

Darth, I think that falls in the "I'll pick one and be faithful" option. Making that option I was assuming people would do exactly what you're saying; pick the one they personally like the best, not just pick one and hope for the best.

I think the main challenge to have romance be interesting is for there to be some content once you've made it "Facebook official" (or whatever the wasteland version of Facebook is). Some people probably just want to check all the boxes, get to the booby scene, and move on. I'd like your partner to be a sort of anchor in the wasteland, someone to tie us to the world and care about what happens in it because of them. I think they started to riff on ideas like this in Hearthfire, where your spouse could be kidnapped, but as everyone in Skyrim was basically interchangeable it didn't have much impact. I'm setting my expectations high with this one (as I do with every feature in the game). I'm also willing to tolerate a certain amount of cheesiness - probably more than most people

I'm glad they made it so everyone's bisixual.

Love in the wastes is like clean water...you take what you can find.

I's rather have specifed romances with real character and backstory.

I tend to play...promiscuous high Charisma characters, so I'll probably at least make a pass at all of the options. But as to whether or not I actually get invested in them, that depends whether or not Bethesda has improved their writing for such things. Skyrim romances were pretty dull. Hopefully they'll be closer to BioWare levels of companion/romance writing.

Good, because you'll get that. The romanceable characters are all of the human (or humanoid?) companions, like Preston Garvey and Piper. When they announced this, they made a point that the companions will have more depth to them and react more to what we do.

"Player-sixual" just means we won't really get characters with their sixual orientation as a key part of their identity. But you'll very rarely find characters where sixuality is that important to them, romance or no. Or romantic plotlines that would lose their integrity from mixing the genders. We'd technically miss out on characters like Veronica, but then Bethesda can tell whatever story they please with non-romanceable characters. And let's be real, Bethesda's never explored stories about sixual identity in the past.

Also, did nobody pick up on the "come hither" bedroom vibes from the brief exchange we see between the protag and Piper? Over 200 years old and the PC still had mad game.

Preference is the wife and wife only, if not we'll see.

Romance is pretty important to me in games that include it (and do it well), and if there's a companion I like then my character will romance him and only him. If there isn't one I like, or feel goes well with my character, then my character will just 'romance' every 'romance'-able guy he meets...

I'll romance everyone I can (just on separate playthroughs)

It depends on who fits with my character, and I will probably just be with that one person with my good guy. Maybe get them in a situation where they get killed, so i can then make my character an alcoholic and slightly darker.

My real bad guy might just hook up with all of them tho.

Romance I got (currently sleeping 20 feet away at the moment). Don't need it in my game.

Since I can't blow someone's head off and loot the body any other way however...

..Yup- Shootin' and lootin' is what I showed up for. I don't need pixelated nookie clogging up my gaming experience.