I find it interesting how in the trailer we see the player character and his family running to the vault. I also find it interesting that Todd Howard says "you" made it in the vault, and that "you" are the only survivor. Now, who here thinks that means your family is dead? And who thinks that both your spouse and son will be featured somehow in the story? Afterall, the PC needs motivation to move forward. And why does he need to leave the vault in the first place? I have my theories so I'll start...

I think it's quite possible your family didn't make it into the vault with you or that they themselves escaped prior to you, perhaps your vault did receive a GECK and some of the experimentation went wrong, or your family were turned into supermutants?

I find it hard to believe that the PC's personal life will have nothing to do with the main story. There has to be something pushing the story forward, like how the PC was trying to find his/her dad in FO3 and track down his/her attmepted murderer in FNV.

Anyone wanna tackle this one?

You make husband and wife how you want them, then choose one. The child gets aspects from both.

Now that you care, the game story forces them to be taken from you.

Naturally you start of wanting to get them back

We've been pondering this question since E3.

They're dead. The generated baby is probably a stock feature of their modeling software (James in Fo3 was generated based on the PC as well.) Lone survivor means everyone else is dead. Not that they left before you or any crap like that, because then they would have been survivors too and you wouldn't be alone anymore.

Anything else and I'll loose any faith I had in bethesda being able to pull off a decent story since it will end up being Fallout 3 again but with the ages reversed (Father seeks son instead of son seeks father)

What if they never made it into the vault though? What if they're... Gasp... Ghouls?

I( and many others) think the child is at least alive. Either as a ghoul or he made it into the vault somehow but was release before you was.

All i'm saying is there better be a reference or easter egg somewhere in vault 101, to the classic disney 101 Dalmations lol

[edit: Just realized i mistook 111 and 101, lol im tired.]

i think and i know this svck, but u go inside with your family and when u wake up u find then death on the pod, and everyone else is death too, and probably a computer tell u they save all the power just to keep u alive.

The spouse woke from stasis 25-30 years before with the child. The spouse came out all innocent and chartiable and blah blah blah. Spouse is now an evil bandit lord/warlord/dictator of a small settlement of evil doers. The son has become the spawn of evil bandit lord/warlord/dictator except more evil.

The player will then have to make The Moral Choice to join them and take their "rightful" place at the side of evil bandit lord/warlord/dictator and above the spawn of evil bandit lord/warlord/dictator. Or to ignore them or to fight them.

I am betting they are alive.

Faction X breaks into the vault, taking it's popsicle people for reasons- good ones. Your pod is defective, and so monitoring equipment shows you as skeleton city. Thinking you've gone south, Faction X doesn't bother with you and moves on. Then, 200 years after entering cryonic stasis, the 200 year timer for your pod dings, and you wake up.
Fast forward a couple of weeks when you're captured by Faction X and taken to their leader, who is.... *duhn duhn duuuuuhn* YOUR SON! Your spouse died, brutally, long ago, leaving your son a cynical tyrant.

And together, rule the Wastelands as father and son...
*Muffled Heavy Breathing*

I hated that story. I hated looking for daddy and being chastised when I found him.. He was an uncaring, selfish, ass.. If Bethesda has no more imagination than to simply reverse the story.. My dollars won't come so freely.. I mean it.

It was a bland, boring story.

You know what would both svck and be totally awesome at the same time? If you meet some big-wig leader guy and you blow him to bits and ~then~ find out it was your own son!

NoooooooOOOOooOoOoOOooO!

That's whatcha get for shooting first and talking never!

I really, truly, hope they're dead. I'm gonna barf if I get dragged into some family drama

I'll probably forget about PC family 15 minutes after leaving the vault.

It is still a mystery to me why do they insist on pre-determined background of player character in their Fallout games, in Fallout 3 you were a 19 years old vault dweller in search of his/her's father, in Fallout 4 you are a middle-aged military who had/has a family (i believe you are actually an android btw).

I would much prefer if they approached Fallout stories like they do in The Elder Scrolls games,i.e. blank slate start.

I honestly don't really have any idea of any aspect of the story. I kind of like how silent gamesas is about it.

Unless your "The Lone Rangers"

I see I see... *clicks pen* ...Do you get along with your parents...?

Yes. They're dead.

(Just kidding)

Assumptions like this are bound to lead to disappointment, but keep at it.

BTW, Lone Survivor is not the same as Sole Survivor (just for the record).

Seeing as we can marry any of the human companions later in the game I think it is a given that your wife/husband is dead and chances are we will see them one last time in the vault.

The son maybe, maybe not. It could be a greater part of the story or it could be something to get you attached to the world and then taken away like everything else.

It would be like Bethesda to allow you to marry, only to reveal your spouse had survived and make no mention of the awkwardness that you re-married. I can see it now.

NORA: "OK, Howard, you stay with Garvey who is totally not my new husband while I go scout ahead for Ferals. Assist me if you hear shooting and shouting, OK? Be back in a bit, hunny-bunny-boo-boo."

GARVEY: So...you and Nora knew each other for a long time...right?

HOWARD: "She was my wife from before the War!"

GARVEY: Right, right, sorry about that. This whole pod thing from Vault 111 is new to me, you understand. Usually the people that were alive from before the War are now Ghouls. Who may or may not turn into Ferals-

HOWARD: So you mean Nora and I might be shooting up our old friends and neighbors!? AND YOU'RE MARRIED TO MY WIFE, MAN!!

GARVEY: I'm...going to be over in that corner...

Up the Irons bro!!!

I don't think we will see them again.

The whole point of the family is to show us what we had pre-war. A stable and loving family with a quality life. Now, we awake to our family dead and our old life gone.

We seek to make a living in this new world and rebuild our life anew much like how the rest of the world is. That's my opinion