Just remember as you read through this. It's not a rant. I'm not upset with Bethesda. I absolutely love Nate. He's cool. But merely I'm just full of questions as of why?

This is a little bit different than Courier 6 or the Lone Wanderer. Bethesda left plenty for us to guess from those characters. They allowed the player to fill in the blanks. But on Fallout 4.....not so much. Was the point of Fallout 4 to allow players with little of an imagination to just play Nate's appearance and name as default?

What is the point to customizing Nate or Nora's appearance as the sole survivor? I feel a bit disappointed that Bethesda has stripped this character of any true customization for the player and I'll explain why I think this.

For one. This character has a voice and is pretty much already been given a name. Why should I rename this character and change his face when only his voice remains to remind me that this character isn't the character that I customized no matter what I do. The voice is a constant reminder that it is Nate, the sole survivor.

Not to mention. Nate is a grieving husband in search of his son...Shaun....the leader of the Institute. Hell. Even when you meet Shaun. There is dialogue between the two characters that let you know, you're playing as Nate.

Nate is so specified in the game that there really is no room for you to customize or define him as your own character.

My point is. Why did Bethesda allow us to customize Nate seeing as they've already done that for us? They might as well have just stripped all of that out.

This also brings what the player as Nate should do. Join his son Shaun or destroy the Institute and avenge his wife's death via Brotherhood of Steel or Railroad, seeing as the Minutemen are default either way.

I'm really at a cross roads here. I suppose the easiest way is to just play as Nate. It wouldn't be any different than playing an already designed character in Assassins' Creed or Resident Evil.

The thing is. Fallout 4 isn't like Skyrim what so ever. They left tons and tons of room in Skyrim for you to customize your character. What they did. Who they were. Other than the fact they were Dragonborn. They left tons of blanks for you to fill in. In Fallout 4. You're Nate or Nora no matter how much you try to cover that up with a character you would like to be. The voice and the fact he's searching for his son is a constant reminder that you're Nate. You can change his face and name all you want. But by the end of the game. You're Nate....the sole survivor.

I didn't even know his actual name was Nate, after having played 200+ hours as him

I think you're thinking a bit too much about the whole thing and the main story, instead of enjoying the game...

Removing the voice with a mod doesn't even take 5 minutes, if it bothers you.

Having to mod the entire face customization would take years, if they didn't include it.

I think they mainly aimed for the people that play this game once. Those shouldn't be bothered too much with the voice, as they won't have to replay as someone else.

And the minority of us, that actually replays the game several times will use mods either way, so they might as well mod the voice out, if it bothers you.

Oh... and the spoilers in this thread might be very annoying for someone that haven't finished the main story.

Someone with 1000+ posts should know better when making new threads like this :/

What's the point of customizing any customizable character if they're voice acted?

Didn't bother people who played Mass Effect and customized their Shepard.

Who the hell is nate? Do you mean nat? pipers sister? She can be customised?

I play as female. I customised Nate to be as I would like an attracitve male.

Sorry but default Nate is not attractive to me. If I had known I could change his name I would have.

-edit-

Is this entire rant because of the voice? oMG.... I could care less about the voice..

-edit-

I rather the voice than a mute zombie.

-edit-

One dear to me says "Turn the sound off."

This.. And i played all three.

the only thing i would complain about - i love the whole story and "plot twist" even if it isnt really "set up" that much, is that as in all games, the story isnt that strong nor is the sense of urgency or emotional comitment / engagement...but then again, its a bethesda game and those are about the way and not the destination

Same thing.

because, if they hadn't, we'd all gone amok.

simple as that

for "already done that for us", well it's a face preset, just like there were some in all of beth's rpg's so far,

and iirc you can select a different one, too (not entirely sure anymore though, went through facegen only once)

why that's more of a problem this time around will be, just as you said, how it's embedded in an overall background story and not presented as just another random preset face.

which also is what i (as a notorious "me"-player) find much more disturbing than the given looks themselves.

i mean i got a wife and kid ok, i'll gladly accept that much for a story's sake. but why do i need to be a friggin' military? in real life, i didn't even _attend_ our local military.

and why, just as you also said, do i need to have a name? i already got all the names i'll ever need. (and why does that name, of all, have to be nate?

"sign o' the times, mess with your mind, hurry before it's too late / let's fall in love, get married, have a baby - we'll call him NATE (if it's a boy)"??? )

guess a bit less would totally have done for the story, leaving more space for "you"

i'm kinda baffled that codsworth, and half the ppl in the game, can't pronounce my name. my name is Quincy. like the town. half the ppl in the game call it quinzee. like a snow shelter. if i'm being honest, i thought for a minute that the character name dictated the name of that town on my first play-through haha.

I say as soon as you choose whether to be male or female, that character no longer exists. If I choose male, a Nate never existed. It's my character now. There is a Nora though. But had I chosen a female, then Nora never existed, it's now my character and Nate is there.


Even more so to solidify this is if Codsworth says your name (if you use one of the listed ones he can say anyway).


Honestly, the name is just there for the sake of giving a name to the spouse you didn't play as. Because if they were just called spouse it would be silly.

I play in 3rd person and don't just skip the conversations so I actually see my characters.

I RP so I am not forced to follow canon.

I even customize my Nate or Nora spouse to what would fit my Nate or Nora main.

That's the point of customizing my characters. I mean, honestly, why would my person with no strength of agility or endurance be built like a brick sh**house?

Why would my military gungho guy be wearing glasses and dressing in a sweatervest?

Maybe the point in the customization is so that you can RP.

I am not forced to comply with the initial storyline. It's open enough that I can interpret it any way I want.

Thanks. You should mention that you are going to give spoilers when you give spoilers. Even though I have played the game for a few hundred hours, I've been taking my time and haven't completed the main quest. Now, I know the big secret.

Is that better? And what big secret? Let me in on it! I simply must know!

Honestly, I didn't think any of it was spoilers. Every Beth games has those things.

Nate is the default name for the male Sole Survivor. If you play as the female, that's his name. If you play as him, her default name is Nora.

I'm 50/50 with this whole thing. Even though I enjoy playing both Nate and Nora, there's a part of me that still doesn't quite feel like they're my characters. I'm not playing a character who sounds the way I want them to sound, who has a backstory that I create. It's different from Mass Effect because it was painfully clear you were not playing your character, you were playing Shepard. Bethesda's entire tagline is: "do whatever you want, be whatever you want" so something like this leaves me a little disjointed. Am I playing my character, or am I playing Bethesda's character?

Awesome, Jupiter Knight! Thanks so much for putting all those major spoilers in your opening post!

It hasn't been easy trying to avoid spoilers for this game as a moderator but I'd been doing pretty good. I knew it was going to happen eventually, and some of it I'd already had spoiled by other members who forget that there's a Spoilers section to this forum. But to cover just about every major spoiler in one post is unprecedented. Congratulations!

(I'm sure it wasn't intentional, dude - and that's the danger of moderating a forum for a game you're playing. But it's still disappointing.)

There isn't actually a whole lot that is predetermined about Nate and Nora compared to, say, Shepard.

Nate: Retired military, lived in Sanctuary Hills, married to now deceased Nora, has a son named Shaun, frozen for 200 years. Everything else is open to interpretation.

Nora: Earned a law degree, lived in Sanctuary Hills, married to now deceased Nate, has a son named Shaun, frozen for 200 years. Everything else is open to interpretation.

Shepard: Choice of three and only three fully fleshed out childhood backgrounds and three and only three fully fleshed out military service backgrounds. Joined the N7 program. Veteran of the Skyllian Blitz. Became first human spectre and put in command of the Normandy. Saves galaxy from big evil blah blah blah. Is either a goody two shoes softy ready to rescue kittens from trees for old ladies at a moments notice, or a cruel, soulless monster who would probably punch the old lady in the mouth and set the tree on fire. Almost no room for interpretation whatsoever. Gets to pick what color out of three choices the explosion is at the end.

Overall Bethesda did a pretty good job of allowing a customized character while providing just enough detail to attach him/her to the setting and main story. Honestly though, sometimes I think people would still be doing the whole "the sky is falling! no customization" routine if the only known quantity about the player character was that he/she/it wasn't from the planet Zubinfuberix 4.

fallout 3?

it was perfect.

i've never seen a better presented char customization, nor a better start for a game at all.