I've wondered that myself. Voice off, subtitles on.

I highly doubt that. Especially considering the ESO flop.

What this guy said!

Ya'll know that little slider in the options menu titled "voices"? Either they'll make one more of those (for the player) or you could just turn that one down...

Then you can use your imagination to create all of the voices in your head. Brilliant! How wonderful!

Yes actually, modding should be thought of in regards to base game decisions. This determines what is hard coded and what is modable.

The contract cannot demand they be available as noone knows the future but rather if available to come back for more.

I have nothing against VA the main protag but it limits what can be done if a VA is not available.

Come on don't know what an RPG is than just don't say anything...you know that D&D is Rpg?That a lot of old crpgs were just about doing just that creating your own character?

Playing an RPg is not about playing a role that someone else created for you.You can do that,but creating your own Char is what you are actually supposed to do.

Bethesda can absolutely keep their voice actors with a contract, other studios (gaming or otherwise) do it all the time. Bethesda's screwed if a voice actor gets incapacitated or god forbid dies, but the main reason contracts exist in the first place is to keep talent from walking away when they've still got work to do for the studio. I've no doubt the voiced protagonists were contracted to stick around for any potential DLC.

Or, alternatively, RPG is a very nebulous genre that includes games where you define everything about a character, games where you take some established background and use that as a springboard for your character's decisions (every Fallout, voiced or no), and even games (primarily JRPGs) where you get no control over the character's identity and the RPG aspects are in the story and stat-heavy gameplay.

This. All of this. RPG is NOT a set in stone type of game. It is a varied and unique genre with little subgenres under it's umbrella.

The forced backstory is my main turn off. Taking skills off is another one. I'm sure the voice will be annoying.

Fallout 4 absolutely leaves no room to role-play. Period.

Which is why I'm HOPING to death that they at least give OBSIDIAN the proper time to make a version out West.

1. As if you didn't have a back story in every fallout game already.

2. Roleplaying is subjective to the individual. Also, if you're already making up stuff in your head... it's not hard to mind wipe the back story.

3. Obsidian would only be building off of what Bethesda has built. Even then, the Courier ended up being the most defined of all the fallout characters. Lonesome road saw to that.

Fallout 3 svcked, hardcoe. A path was already laid out for us, no real choices to make.

Fallout 4 looks like it'll svck as well. Looks like a giant wasteland amusemant park. Looks like a continuation of FO3.

New Vegas let me create an entire story in my head without having to wipe the slate clean.

I don't care what Bethesda built, because OBSIDIAN will know what to do with that engine.

Why aren't you lurking around obsidians forums instead of here then? Without Bethesda, there'd be no New Vegas. The chance of obsidian making a new fallout, any time soon is pretty slim.

Without Interplay, who sold the rights to Fallout; there would be no crappy FO3 or FO4.

The fact of the matter is, no matter how much you drag your heels, and point your fingers. Bethesda owns the brand, they call the shots, they make the deals, and they set the terms, You don't like that, guess that's your problem.

I'm quite content in my modded New Vegas game, I'm in no rush to fall for the shenanigans laid out by Bethesda.

I shan't not return until OBSIDIAN is making FALLOUT V.

Guess you won't be returning at all then. Have fun.

that is not true, u maybe wanna look like that but if u think about it on any Bethesda game ur character is a story drive character, on Morrowind u are the savior of the Dark Elves, on Oblibion u are the vanquisher of the Dreada lord, on Skyrim u are the Dragonborn, Fallout 3 u are the boy who save the DC Wasteland, on Falllout 4 we need to see.

No meter what decision u choose this game have a preset story that u can take differents approach to it, but the end bad or good are preset, and for a contiguity of the lore there is one that is Canon, like Saving the ppl from the Wasteland or Kill Alduin.

What Bethesda allow u is to choose the path to the preset end. That all, and having a voice protagonist only change that u cant imagine his voice that all, bc like in any game u cant choose what he said, u just choose a preset line of dialogue.

If u want true freedom u should play pen and paper game no Video games, is almost impossible to translate the freedom from a pen and paper game to a video game.

im sorry u feel that way dude, but if prices Obsidian for Fallout NV and it was the most story drive game ever, since no meter what ur character was the Carrier, lol, all the DLC where focus on tell the story of your character, no meter what u choose.

But u point the strong point on Bethesda games u Mod Fallout NV so u like it, and that is the reason why u like the game.

My qualm with a silent protagonist, besides it being extremely tired out, is that there's this slight disconnect produced when I'm surrounded by NPCs that talk, and my response in dialogue with these character's is always just silence. Indeed, it's imagined that my guy is saying something, and yeah I can fill that voice with one of my own, but the disconnect is still there. It's somewhat jarring but not a huge deal in that same breath.

Beyond that, a voiced protagonist just helps push a narrative forward, more so than a silent one. When my character is a complete [censored] and blows someone off, I can hear him do so. When he's filled with joy and or excited, I can hear him react accordingly. With a silent protagonist, you can't achieve that connection. It's personal preference, but I like to hear my protagonist react to a certain situation because it's fulfilling. I don't like "implied" happiness, anger, or sadness. I always remember character's like Geralt, Shepard, Jensen, or Denton. Silent protagonists, on the other hand...forgettable (there are exceptions, however - KOTOR).

I'm happy that I'm a filthy casual. That way I can play and not worry about what worries me about a game that hasn't been released yet.

Can people just stop with the whole "you can't RP with a voiced protagonist!". It might be true for you but don't assume this is true for all of us. I can and will RP, I do it with other games where the lead char has a voice. I would hate a silent lead char in a game like Fallout 4. It would have improved F3 and NV if they have had a voiced protagonist, Imo.

200 years is a long time to rebuild. I hated the endless bleak landscapes and towns. What happened to the concept of paint?

Most people would at least spruce up their environment once they got the basics out of the way. I want to see what the world has done to lift itself up out of the ashes.

Tell me more .

Not sure how I feel regarding the voiced protagonist. Roleplaying as Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series didn't bother me, but then again, those games were focused on telling a grand story, not provide freedom to the player. It does seem a little incongruous with BGS's whole "be who you want, do what you want" motto, but I'll have to try it before I can form an opinion.

Well it's "Be who you want, do what you want" ... "but you're going to sound exactly like this every time". Reminds me of when Ford would sell cars, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black". (Yes I'm old enough to know that quote)

The ammount of blasphemy in this thread is insane.....how in the hell are you going to complain about all the things Fallout 4 does awesome and call them mistakes with a straight face....what's wrong with you?

1) A voiced protagonist is amazing, the acting deffinitely sounded solid from the few bits we've heard so far so it's great.

2) Wait wut? Have you actually seen any of the freaking game footage? Obviously not. The spirit and feeling of Fallout is deffinitely there more than ever. Are you complaining about the pre-war intro? That's supposed to be colorful because that's before the bombs fell, nothing wrong there....and again....the feeling of Fallout is deffinitely awesome.

3) The new perk system is only about a thousand times better than the skill system ever was.....this complaint really takes the cake as the most incomprehensible by far.

4) What "things"? I don't see anything remotely similar to skyrim much less something that needs patching. As for a respec before leaving the vault....how do you know we can't? And even if we can't, what's the problem? As long as you pay attention when you make your character you should be allright.....and if you don't pay attention that's your own fault not the game's fault or something to cry to bethesda about.

So in conclusion there are exactly zero legitimate problems here.

It may be great for one play-through, maybe two, but that's about it. I tend to play these open world games (mainly TES and FO) with 30+ some characters, so each one being voiced, with the exact same voice, be it my Savior of the Wasteland or my Psycho Killer Maniac or anyone in-between is going to be a problem. For those that play this game once and then move on to the next game they can shoot things in you're right, it's not going to matter and can only be a good thing. So no, it's not insane to say so and yes my face is straight.