I do agree with the OP to a point, though I think youi are also overlooking an important detail as well. Fallout 1 and 2 were developed by Black Isle and Fallout: New Vegas was developed by Obsidian. When Inteplay ran into financial problems, Black Isle was closed and several members went to Obsidian and several went to InXile. I love both Bethesda games and Black Isle/Obsidian/InXile games, but they do have very different styles. Bethesda has been the master of creating open world games, where as the other companies have had their stengths more in story and dialogue. So while I do think that Bethesda could improve with regard to story and dialogue, and I do think they are improving in some areas, but I still don't really think it is a fair comparison. Perhaps if you want to compare with Fallout 3, which is the only previous Fallout game developed by Bethesda, but I honestly think that Fallout 4 has improved in those areas from Fallout 3. Just my opinion though. I certainly wouldn't mind more clairity with the dialogue options though. I should also point out that the old Black Isle Fallout games had a lot more dialgue because it was all text based dialogue, and they didn't put anywhere close to the amount of resources and developement time into the rest of the world, and therefore were also able to implement a lot more into dialogue. Really though, if the older games didn't have great dialogue, you wouldn't have had much of a game either lol, where as the Bethesda Fallout games are action RPGs. While I loved the original Fallout games, I still love the direction Bethesda has gone, and prefer the style of the newer games, though I do think there is a lot from New Vegas that Bethesda can learn from, with blending the two styles and in fact I do see some things in Fallout 4 which seem influenced by New Vegas, which I think is great. I am not trying to defend the dialogue, or lack of, just trying to point out that it is an apples to oranges comparison to a degree, while in an agreement that they still have some room for improvement.

I thought I would hate the voice too, but I'm really liking it and wish my char would talk more lol

Love little stuff, like the stupid voice you put on in the Shroud quest, and that your greetings get more rowdy and loud the more booze you've drunk.

I wish the speech selector showed what you were going to say and not random words, but the voice works

I really think it is a huge step backwards to have a voiced protagonist. Especially in the way it has been done. There is really no room anymore to really have character that is anything else than generally a goodie-goodie. Like an evil character. It just becomes totally immersive breaking every time he opens his mouth, no matter what dialogue you pick. To have had this work in some way they would have had to have at least 5-10 different actors with different styles and personalities on each gender. Then it could sort of work and even possibly be interesting if it was not only just the same lines given even. (even though i prefer silent protagonist)

For example I was looking forward to playing this guy: http://postimg.org/image/umkd0c7fh/

A sort of creepy cannibalistic phsychopat. But as soon as there was a dialogue, no matter how bad or creepy I tried to make him it just got totally immersive breaking every time he opened his mouth.

I wonder if these kind of conversations are dead now forever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PqMe7fydq4

I can only hope that Bethesda listens to the fans and their user ratings (lowest every for a game from them) on metacritic and go back to being unique in the industry and doing their own thing instead of just trying to mimic other games like Mass Effect and the Witcher (those games are great, especially the latter, but why try to be another one of those instead of truly standing out as unique and something you can't get anywhere else).

I don't care about the dialogue so I couldn't care less about voice acting, no idea why anyone would moan about it.

Why do people keep saying this? Of course it isn't.

A step backwards is going back to a previous state before the last. So if they had removed voiced NPCs, that would be a step backwards.

They tried something they havent done before, so it's moving forwards.

That doesn't mean you have to like it, of course. Seems to be matter of personal preference really.

I think it's fine though.

I don't know, I kind of like it. Especially when he says funny things. Like when doing the first BoS quest and

'Oh my god, are you OK?' I couldn't stop laughing.

Adding my support to the I like the voice side.

That said, some conversations could have more 'depth'

I did not mean a step back literary. I meant it as the opposite of an improvement. As something that makes the game less good.

Guess only what you care about matters, huh?

I just logged in after a few years to say ...

Don't you dare add this nonsense to TES:VI, Bethesda!

I really can't understand why they didn't stick with Skyrim's dialogue system, mainly that it doesn't change the camera. It was much more immersive because it didn't take you out of your current experience, and further, FO4's terrible lip syncing doesn't support the in-your-face camera very well. There is no reason why you should shove a weak point of your game into my face, Beth.

Don't think they would do this for TES, though. Unless they want to use the same voice for all 10 races.

... Oh goodness.

this again is your own opinion. Myself i love the new voice on the game, make me connect alot more with my Character.

Is hard to come to a middle ground since old timer from rpg games will love a unvoice protagonist, other ppl dont. Like the vote how show alot of ppl actually like the voice protagonist.

I think the biggest problem for me is the little options i get on the Dialogue wheel.

I didn't care about the main character in Skyrim, voice acting might do a lot to change that and I'm totally loving it in Fallout 4! I'm all in with this.

They really should make that an option.