It is subjective to an extent, but I was also joking.

Regardless I don't agree with either Avellone or Saywer on everything, but they're still good writers.

I liked Ulysses, but I get why he's such a controversial character.

I think Ulysses had potential. But the "big reveal" of his vendetta left me going "Really? You hate me for that? I've heard of shooting the messenger but DAMN son."

And then after all his planning it was ridiculously easy to suddenly be best buddies with him. I mean I appreciate reconciliations as much as anyone... especially when he literally has no reason to be mad at you, but it was just like that.

I hope he was rushed. From a metagaming point of view it makes sense.

He never Once discovered that I was Houses man in all of my playthroughs.

the war was over 200 years ago so i think it might be a descendants of the family or maybe the memories of the people in the vault was put in to androids

This was my only issue with Ulysses. They did a poor job of making him recognize the faction you belonged to.

Otherwise I thought he was a brilliant character and a great foil to the Courier. I liked that he had a plan that he could have easily accomplished without bringing you into things, but in his eyes it was just as important to teach you a lesson as it was to make a change in the Mojave.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Survivor_%28film%29

Anyways, on the topic itself, I doubt the family survived that blast. I'm wagering we'll be seeing some Bladerunner themes - which, I do not mind one bit.

I am also not discounting the cryonic theory that's running around on the forums. The whole pre-war flashback could be related to what is described in the Halo series:

Source: http://www.halopedia.org/Cryonics

The whole pre-war flashback could just be a random dream the unknown-111 guy had while he was experiencing REM from the thawing process. The fact he has a family in the dream is probably irrelevant and just a dream. The pre-war dream ties in well with the character waking up from a bad dream when the nuclear blast wave hits his family.

I don't like it for two reasons.

1. I like Bethesda games because I can play whoever I want. Having a family feels like I'm already too much of a predefined character.

2. IT draws parallels to Peter Molyneux and forcing us to "Care" in fable games.

A lesson he apparently and conveniently forgot he should have learned himself when he sought out and destoyed other "fledgeling states" at The behest of Caesar. For all of his pseudointellectual rantings, in the end, he turned out to be a bat[censored]e insane hypocrite with deri grasp on the most basic logic and rhetoric. Despite his stats and "erudite" musings.

I dont appreciate it when someone takes me for a complete twit.

And oh. His blaming me for nuking a place when he either deliberately or by ignorance forced my hand? Thats not too bright either.

I very much disagree with everything except his hypocrisy, which I think he is aware of, but this isn't the thread to discuss Ulysses so I'll drop it.

I don't mind it personally. Fallout never really had a "blank slate" character as the PC (at least in the way most people here want, like in TES or something where you are literally nobody and have to make believe your past) and the PC in all games has a clear motivation and somewhat explained background. Now, I'd still prefer for them to go the New Vegas route of having the background of the PC balancing on the line between being a defined character and a nobody, instead of going down the road of defining everything about the character down to his relationships, but I don't think its that big a deal as its Fallout. TES is made with the intention of some players never wanting to be the Dovahkiin and instead be a potato farmer or something, and tries to accommodate that. Fallout was never that, and even Fallout 3 was more about the quests and story (however bad you think it is) than the emphasis being placed on "be whoever you want to be." And on the plus side of a defined PC, maybe the world will actually react to you now, unlike all TES games.

All in all though, I still REALLY doubt the PC will be a defined character. I think it was either just done for theatrical purposes for the trailer, or if the Kotaku leaked script is to be believed, is probably just for the purposes of the prologue.

I am totally and utterly AGAINST it. Though it would be such a little thing for some players, it would seriously kill the game outright for me, since so much of my gaming is based on the ability to 'write' my own character. Deciding for me that character has/had a WIFE? And even a freakin' kid? LOL, no thanks! It would make any kind of roleplay impossible and the game just uncomfortable for me to play at all. It would most likely also make the entire game's story about them; find your family, reunite with your loving wife and child, etc. That is simply a story I have no interest in being told, or being a part of. Bethesda have always let me/us play our own character throughout Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series. The lack of strings attached gave us the freedom to do so. Why change their tradition now? It makes no sense. But, I don't for a second believe that this ridiculous unconfirmed speculation will be the case.

Eh I like the idea of the character having a past. Not to thrilled about the wife/kid angle though. I liked fallout 3s approach, where you have friends/family that give a little color to your character.

Rushed or not, how they decided to have Ulysses pick out your faction was pretty bad.

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/44042/?

I'm EXTREMELY AGAINST it. If they force you to have a spouse of the opposite gender. BUT, if they allow you to choose the gender of your character's spouse during or right after character creation, and have the baby be adopted for same-six couples, and maybe even opposite-six couples too. (Maybe, the Protagonist can't have kids, similar to what Bethesda did in Skyrim) IF spouse gender selection is available THEN I would support the idea.

I really hope they do, after all of the LGBT content in New Vegas and same-six marriages and being able to adopt children in Skyrim. It would be VERY disappointing if they didn't allow it.

I want to be able to express myself as a gay guy through my character like I did in New Vegas AND Skyrim.

It would kill the whole game for me playing as a male character and I would have to play as a female character. (I role play my female characters as bi-sixual anyway)

Fallout 3 is culpable of both of these offences by enjoining us to care about our father, which is supposed to serve as an emotional hook in the plot.

Yeah, the only reason I did the FO3 main quest was because I like to see how the story unfolded. Later characters just simply pretended James didn't exist. As of now, my current FO3 character has left James with the others of Project Purity. Far as she's concerned, her work is done. Now it's up to James to do his thing and she'll do her own thing.

I'm unsure whether to buy FO 4 or not, as I didn't really get into FO:NV first time I played it. But now I'm replaying it, and I think the main reason why I didn't get into it the first time, was that my character was over-encumbered a lot. It's a good game (except that I feel that I have to carry around as many things as possible "just in case").

Anyway, if the player character has had a spouse and child in FO4, I won't buy it, even if I get into FO:NV this time around.

I don't like games with set characters. I prefer to create my own. Even if I get to decide what my character looks like and their name, a past family is crossing the line between set character and my own character, for me.

I can accept the player character having an identified mother or father - everyone has parents after all, and no one chooses their parents. But not everyone would marry and have a baby. Most of my characters in Skyrim never marry, despite that there are many different NPCs that can be married and despite that marriage is not gender restricted.

I could accept something like a choice at the beginning of the game, with a few different pasts and you get to pick one - family man/woman being one of those.

I can't see a way of implementing something like having a family that wouldn't limit roleplay.

I don't like the idea at all. I disliked the ham-fisted, overly-specific beginning in Fallout 3. It hurt roleplaying very badly, in my opinion.

To me, Fallout 3's origin story was like Skyrim's scripted dialogue: cool the first time, then an annoyance.