I was unaware, but I appreciate the information and I can understand where you're coming from then =P

Witcher 1 literally has collectible cards with naked women. Romance in that game amounts to "gotta [censored]'em all." While I would actually prefer non-commital encounters instead of full-blown romances in Fallout 4 (if there's romance at all, which I don't care about), you should be very careful when you use The Witcher as an example. Especially if you haven't played it.

Yeah, I don't think we'll get full-on marriage with a wedding and everything (or if we do, it won't be for all romance candidates), but just having some romantic dialog and stuff like that would be pretty solid. Like, I wish there was an "I love you" dialog option for when you're saying goodbye to Amata at the end of the prologue.

The Witcher as in the books and the second and third game? I'm still not understanding the confusion when there is more in the series than the first game. Hell I'm sure the Witcher 1 romance was still better than Skyrim's "Hey I got you a necklace, let's get married"

I thought Amata and Sarah were romance options in FO3 when I first played. I heared Sarah hints is likes your character in the Broken Steel DLC but I never finished it.

Yeah, I think with good writing and a stronger focus on character interactions romances would be great. Should stick to a small number of romanceable companions with varying ages, sixual orientations, races, etc. With the less than amazing graphics I'm hoping for other aspects like this to be more mind-blowing!

I actually liked Skyrim's design decision to have romantic partners not even acknowledge or care about your gender, but regardless of how they handle that in Fallout 4 I'd like to see more openly gay characters and what have you. Bethesda's got a pretty good track record for avoiding shallow stereotypes.

And I want to quit smoking but that ain't going too well.

Even if they want to improve upon a certain aspect it does not mean that they necessarily 'will'.

If their writers are bad at writing dialogue then unless they've hired new writers I wouldn't hold my breath for good dialogue.

Why, why would you want to turn a perfectly good RPG into a Sims game??? Next thing you know, the "quests" will involve picking out the right curtains and shopping for baby clothes. The series should NEVER have long-term romantic partners, it doesn't fit into the atmosphere/storylines at all. I think very short-term relationships (prosttutes and Red Lucy types) would be ok though. I've hated the romance thing in all RPGs I've played, even the Bioware ones and they at least had good writing. Nothing like being in the middle of a serious quest to save the world/your country/your family and then having to stop and talk with your companion about their feelings for you. Completely breaks immersion.

The writers should focus on coming up with interesting quests (something Skyrim badly needed).

The romance option would nice and have a bit of nudity too.

Wasn't there a flamboyant gay guy in Freeside?

That's Obsidian's writing, not Bethesda. I think you're talking about that Kings barber, and if so he's a pretty inconsequential character. Then we've got Veronica and Arcade Gannon, who are both pretty well-made homosixual characters (although Arcade Gannon's sixuality is only mentioned in like two dialog topics, so I may be mistaken about him). If there are any blatant stereotypes in New Vegas, it's Raul Tejada; which is painful for me to say because I actually love everything about his character.

I actually like romance/mature encounters because it adds another layer to games. Fallout 2 had some interesting moments with who you had relationships with (shotgun wedding anybody?). Would like to see that expanded and your character have the option to hook up with someone, so your character isn't this lone schmuck all the time.

Man, New Vegas should have had a marriage system where the King would officiate the wedding.

Yes please, time to take the kiddie gloves off. Marriage, pormstar like In Fallout 2, hokers, M/F F/F M/M or even Ghoul too. Now do I want it like Bioware, no. New Vegas I felt was fine although they could've went further, I'm not asking for Witcher level maybe almost at Bioware where the hoker leads you into the room and then it fades to black. There could be a lot of depth with these relationships too, like a faction member could steal your wife/husband and you have to get them back. It wouldn't be simple go to point B and kill bandit chief, you would have to work it out through a side quest.

There's a lot that could be done and I felt that Fallout 3/Skyrim used kiddie gloves with this stuff, unlike New Vegas which went the extra root. Hopefully it's more like New Vegas and maybe even a step beyond it.

I would have married Cass in a heartbeat lol

I would've married Red Lucy. Smokin'!

I'm indifferent to the marriage system, but I wouldn't say they should definitely leave it out.

If I was a man on New Vegas I would've married Sunny Smiles.

Yeah I did the Powder Ganger side of the Good Springs quest once and regretted that Sunny died so much that I restarted

HELL NO! This is Fallout, not some BioWare soap opera game. No romances, no voiced character, nothing of this cr*p! If you want all that just wait for Mass Effect 4.

There was supposed to be something like that with Cass. You romance Cass, get drunk and wake up getting married (or just got married) to her.

What about hokers?

Ain't got time for romance. Now a one night fling on the other hand...

If the Black Widow, Confirmed Bachelor and Lady Killer perks come back, it may be cool to add something akin to a relationship to go with it.
I'm not one for romance in games just for the sake of it, but it would be (darkly so) nifty to say, shack up with someone in game to access to a safe house, or because they have a merchant hookup, or something.

If done well, it could add some depth. If it's going to even closely resemble Skyrim's crappy marriage system, they should leave it out entirely and simply follow New Vegas' example.