On the other hand this ex-50s house wife is also a veteran, apparently. So it at least makes sense why she's a badass.

I think I'll be playing as a female, mostly because I like the character implications of being a mother at the very beginning of the story. If the kid dies in Vault 111, her entire world is taken out from under her. She can either try to find a new purpose in life, or decide that the world isn't worth a damn and she should just let it burn. On the other hand, if their is still a chance that her kid is alive, then the Bostonian Wasteland has got a rabid Mother-Bear on their hands. Either way, it'll be fun to play.

Courtney Taylor, Jack from Mass Effect, is doing the Voice for the Female Protagonist. Hell yeah I'm going to play as a women.

Just out of curiosity, wouldn't the death of a child have a similar effect on a good father?

Bouth.

I prefer male, because I'm a dude and because, well, bears.

I hope we have the option to use a freaking long bear in F4. Something like ZZ Top.

I dunno, so the survivalist bear its good enough for me.

As for woman, I usually play a blonde black chick. This time, I am have to forget this whole [censored] that Bethe do with this char from the past because the women in 2077 are like 1950 women not like punks from future.....well, lets see.

I'll probably play as the male protagonist the first time around.

Absolutely. But the narrative feels different in how a mother would react versus how a father would react. The emotions are the same, but how they would react to it would be somewhat different, in my mind. I did the same thing with the Lone Wanderer and the Courier. How does a son react to the abandonment by his father versus how a daughter reacts? How does a male mercenary seek answers to their attempted murder versus how a female mercenary does so? Seeing how the genders affect my PC's actions always fascinates me when I play a good RPG.

I actually rather like the look if the two default protagonists.

I know it would be a 'waste' of the CC, but there we are.

I also like to be able to reproduce my protagonist for future play throughs, which for a 'grab and tweak' system would be impossible

(unless there are face codes referenced).

That's a matter of personality, not gender.

But still, a mother is an unusual action hero. There are a few in movies, but I can't think of any in games. Unless you have your Skyrim character adopt a kid.

I'm inclined to agree that gender might play a role in family dynamics, particularly in the parental bond (people of the same gender can still have wildly different reactions to the same situation, of course). But I'm not sure if it matters in your example of a man or a woman seeking revenge. I guess you could spin it on the enemy's gender, with a man's pride being wounded more deeply if he's defeated by a woman or something like that... But I don't think it was an important factor in the Courier's situation. That one was entirely down to the Courier's personality, as broder_fisk said.

I really like the theory poster Kilo presented, that your son could possibly be aged up and be one of the main villains / antagonists. For me - being the mother and not the father of such a child is just... so much more. As in: "I gave life to a mass murderer, and now I will kill that which I gave life".

Just one of the many theories but if our son turns out to be a primary antagonist, then playing the mother and not the father would be so much more awesome imo.

Playing female, as normal, in third person

I find that personality and gender always go hand in hand, at least with how I play. My characters can start with the EXACT same background and personality, and yet my male PCs will inevitably differ from my female PCs in how they react to specific situations and plot points. They will develop and change in different ways, despite the fact that the only thing I changed about them was gender. It's one of my favorite part of playing PCs of different genders. YMMV.

Unless there's a significant difference between the male/female PCs to justify additional playthroughs, I'll just keep playing women since for so long of having no choice, I'm going to more than take advantage of it now. If I really want to see how things are on a different gender character, I can go look things up on youtube.