I'm also not seeing the direct link between Mass Effect and Fallout 4, here. Obviously some mechanics have been copied - most notably the dialog, but I'd be surprised if they didn't also look to their combat when trying to see how other Action RPGs do it.

But androids have been a pretty common trope in pulp science fiction for... well just about forever. To be fair, the AIs in Mass Effect don't exactly behave like the synths we've run across in Fallout 3 and certainly it's too early to see what how it's handled in Fallout 4. But the Big Theme in Mass Effect was - "all artificial intelligence is evil and will try to destroy you." In Fallout 3, the question posed was more akin to Bladerunner - what makes someone human, and can a synthetic intelligence every be considered human?

That they both deal with artificial intelligence isn't a direct link (the topic's too broad.) I'm sure, as game developers, they looked at a lot of sources for inspiration. Why wouldn't you? But they appear to be posing very different questions. (In Mass Effect, AIs weren't even a question - it was just assumed that everyone was on the same page about them from the beginning.)

If I ran a development studio that had purchased the IP from a prior studio, I may be interested in seeing what said studio was now doing with a reboot of the game that my IP was originally a spiritual successor to...

(Sorry, that's potentially overly-convoluted: If I were Bethesda, I may be interested in seeing what some of the previous Fallout developers were doing with the Wasteland IP. Considering that Fallout 1 was considered a spiritual successor to Wasteland 1 in the first place...)

It goes further back then that in scfi lit. Colossus and the Crab series; Dune (especially the later works by Herbet's son which detail the "war with the thinking machines" ); the Robot and Foundation series from Issac Asimov (if you read them all they connect); Space 1999; UFO. - it's a long list.

Also we don't know. For all we know, the "synth" could be faction like the Brotherhood of Steel.

So why not wait and see.

Now about ME. I'm a huge fan. Right now, with all the DLC's (including Citadel) the game is VERY different from the original. Much is explained and Citadel is just flat out fan service. You got a few days before FO4 hits, why not replay ME3 (with the DLC's)? If you don't have a ME2 char to import check out http://www.masseffect2saves.com/.

There is a sub plot in ME3 about synths being people/having a soul/ect. Joker/EDI romance is pretty much that. And if you kill Legion he will ask "if he has a soul" and Tali will say "yes".

So it's part of the series it wasn't a huge part of it. Again the story of the ME is synths will turn on their creators nothing more. Even if the only example we have is the Geth who only turned on their creators because they attacked them first(so it was self defense) and they mentioned it happened before with other races the Reapers killed off but they never give any examples.

I would but the only DLC I have is Shadow Broker.

BGS may have taken inspiration from Mass Effect 3, they may have taken it from something earlier. The age old question, "What is human?" was probably first posed before dirt was invented. With the passage of time, we have been expanding our definition of "human" and including populations that had previously been, at the very best, considered sub-human.

While I can't categorically deny that the inspiration came from Mass Effect 3, most of the references in Fallout 3 are to 'Blade Runner' and/or 'Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep', and mid-19th Century US history. As I see it, these two or three are more likely the sources of inspiration than ME3 is (but that is just my opinion).

As to how appropriate the "Synth Problem" is to the Fallout Universe. The Fallout games have always been of the "rescue the damsel in distress, kill the bad guy, save the world" type of stories. And we are going to have to face it, after dealing with the supermutant menace and wiping out the Enclave a couple times, we should find a different foil for the protagonist, even if it lasts only one game.

My choices too =p

And Tali and Garrus also my favorites......but my opinion dont value nothing, because I also like.........Kaidan lol lol

I dont know ...... I will not say that this not exist, but I have hundreds of hours in Skyrim and I do not remember a single reference to Martin Septim.

Not so much to heaven, not so much to sea.

I really like the plot from F4 (aside the whole family thing, [censored] this), But, IMHO, will be disappointing if the guys at the Institute use monocles, top hat and curly mustache

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/snidely-whiplash_6902.jpg

To be honest, already has years I want to unite myself to them. I think it will not be possible, but at least I hope that they are not "BWAHAHUAUAHA, I AM MORE EVIL THEN WOODY WOODPECKER"

edit:

These books also deals with the slavery question; and it will be important for F4; in a good plot.

i havent saw the whole plot about Fallout but i still dont see a close relation between what happen on ME 3 and Fallout 4. We can speak more on Tues.

yeah i said Tues i will probabbly spend 12hs sitting on my computer playing Fallout and another 12 playing LotV

I would love a side villain of this nature. monocled, top hat wearing British villain drinking tea, yes please.

With fallout being somewhat quirky it could work as a side quest.

Oddly enough, it has been revealed on a website that I am not allowed to link on this site. that the Institute command structure is made up entirely of Snidely Whiplash clones.

He's only mentioned once in the http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Rising_Threat,_Vol._III. But no one is really talking about what exactly happened during Oblivion because it's been 200 years.

No, it actually seems like a stretch to me rather than "obvious".

It's way too old, overused, and popular of a theme. And it wasn't even remotely a major plot point in ME3. There has been several games/movies in that time that have used it in their main plot to even mention ME3, imo.

It's extremely unlikely that ME3 inspired this FO4 plot points.

Nah OP. It's an old Sci-Fi theme. Plus Bethesda would never F*^# up so bad like Bioware did with their pure $#!+ ending, and then basically call their fans dumbasses who couldn't comprehend such a high minded story arc (laughable. 3 colors-LOL)...and don't even get me started on the whole artistic integrity thing, Their AI vs. organic theme, though somewhat alluded to, came so far out of left field in their decision to totally wrap the entire franchise around it and to make that the central theme, that it was beyond jarring...and in a very, very bad way. Killed all replayability for me.

I'm a recovering Bioware fan...and trust me FO4's story will stand on its own, will be fairly unique, and have the added bonus of being a far better story and game than ME3.

EDIT: And yes I played FO3. At least TH admitted they may have messed that up a bit, and then had the decency to give us Broken Steel.

The theme is even older than what we'd call science fiction. As far back as ancient Greece, philosophers were grappling with the problem of other minds. Long before we could imagine the mechanics of creating artificial intelligence, we were wrestling with the idea of whether intelligence beyond our own (personal) even existed.

No such thing as a new story.

My stance on synthetics is that we have no idea what's going through their skulls.....we humans operate on a certain set of needs and wants, but what do synthetics need and want? The whole issue reminds of a scene from the movie Ex-Machina where one dude says to the main character "Yes I am a bastard but believe it or not I'm the one that is on your side here"......and then we saw how in the end kindness towards the machines was repaid. How do we know if the machines have the capacity for empathy and all the other emotions that keep most humans in check from being insane psychopaths or if they are just faking them? Of course it's not right to create sentient, intelligent machines just to enslave and keep them in an existence of torment but setting them free and giving them human rights isn't the answer either......shutting them down and ensuring no others are ever made in the future is probably the best answer imo.

There are some great stories out there in both litrature and movies that tackle various parts of this AI vs Human setting. Fallout has some roots and inspiration with Blade runner for one, which isnt realy a suprise.

Some stoeries i realy loved were among others Blade Runner, due to it never realy painting either side as good or evil. I actualy sympathise with the Synths from Blade Runner, having been made to die after such short lives. They did things that were bad, maybe bordering on evil, but i found the actions of the so called goodguys equaly bad or evil. If Fallout 4 takes inspiration from works like that, then i find it only a positive thing.

Another realy good story, althought not about synths, is Frank Herberts "Dune" series. I read the first book for my english book citation i think the correct english for it is. Since then it has been my favorite book despite having read many other great books since.

Funny I didn't notice any reapers...

Yep.. we've still got CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, Quantic Dreams Detroit: Become Human and Square Enix's Deus Ex: Mankind Divided games coming up. .. This subject seems to be a common theme that comes into play quite often.

Robots or a synthetic race will eventually take over in reality... It is unavoidable because advances keep trying to create more intelligent artificial life and humans want to play God. The plot in fallout makes sense even though it has been used before.

To be frank though... I don't give a radroaches ass if the story is similar to mass effect... I just want to blow some $$$$ up