I thought we had a choice on either perk? I only have Lady Killer available as a male. Is the same true for female characters - only have Man Hunter?

It's gender specific, yeah.

Men get Lady Killer, women get Black Widow. No gay perks like in NV.

So.. man,. is there anything thing that Beth took from NV? Did they learn anything from that game? This issue. No hardcoe mode, no dialog checks, no traits.

So there is no real freedom for your char beside exploring?

What brought this on was Dogmeat. I've been taking my time,. cause I know the MQ in this game is so much a part of everything (unlike Skyrim - where you could ignore the MQ completely - you really can't in this game); anyway the part after you search you-know-whose apartment. I should mention, that I've been playing solo. Up to this point. And I'm level 24.

I didn't have Dogmeat with me. Valentine suggests using Dogmeat. My first reaction was how did he even know I had a dog? But fine. Figured he knew everything. Then I open the door and there is Dogmeat. I left him in Rocket Station.

Then i got to thinking - is the rest of the MQ forced on you? It's looking like, besides exploring, the promised "freedom" is an illusion.

Elder Maxon seems well versed on your doings as well.

Factions, Crafting (Both New Vegas and Skyrim). Thats about it! Why did you think it would take anything from New Vegas though? Felt more like it would be a polished Fallout 3 with some elements from Skyrim.

To be fair, not like you can ask Strong to pick up the guys scent, or Valentine. Its honestly no more forced then NV could be with its MQ at some points.

And I'm glad it's this way.

I liked aspects of NV, but it was clear Bethesda gave someone else the keys to the castle.

NV had a great story, one of my favorite characters (Joshua graham) and one of my favorite DLC's (dead money)

however, it was not a very good open world. it was pretty much forced on you to go in a counter clockwise circle of the map (they stuck high level enemies and deathclaws in your way to keep you from heading straight to vegas) and It was clearly not Bethesda based on the amount of invisible walls and impassible terrain placed in your way, exploration was very restricted. also because of the focus on factions we had very little in the way of enemies around the map, no super mutants, very few raider camps, few ghouls as well.

both fallout NV and fallout 4 had different factions with the ability to choose who will win, but I will argue that 4 does it better. with the lack of karma system to hold your hand on what is good and bad, the ability to actually be a part of all of them at the same time and the effect it can have on your decisions (I was actually quite torn at times its hard to betray people you know, especially because even if a faction was bad it had some good people) and the moral ambiguity of the factions (this ties into the lack of karma, its all based on how we feel personally, and that's a very real choice) made it feel much more real in fallout 4 then in NV for me personally.

yes there was a bit of handholding, forced role, and forced questing. but I feel this was intended to help less experienced players. as I have no doubt it can be hard to be dropped in a Bethesda open world game and told "whelp. . .there you go!" us roleplayers can adapt, ignore, and overcome. however the average player can simply get lost and leave. (happened to me in morrowind, never got past the first town)

Regarding Valentine and Dogmeat, I think the "lore" regarding Dogmeat in Fallout 4 is that he wanders around helping random people who need it and every mover and shaker in the Commonwealth knows who he is. If you get to the point in the main quest with Valentine where you need Dogmeat, but you haven't encountered Dogmeat yet (99% of players would have), Valentine suggests he knows "someone" who can help. Then he emits a high frequency sound to call the "someone." It's then revealed when you exit the house that the someone is a dog and introduces Dogmeat to you. It's a bit strange that he doesn't use the call if you have previously met Dogmeat and the dog just shows up at the house.