Who cares as long as the story is well crafted? It seems Bethesda is trying an attempt at making a decent story. Let's hold our horses and put down our pitchforks and see more of the story before reserving such deep opinions. (I do realize that Bethesda isn't known for noteworthy storytelling)

They always talk about their story this time...and then it's still Bethesda writing...

So I refuse to relinquish my pitchfork and burning torch. You can pry them from my cold dead hands.

...although eventually I'll get the inevitable GOTY Edition for the DLC and mods that are out by then....

Anyone kinda want to see the Sole Survivor get Total Recalled at some point in the story?

We already have a "Memory Den" in the game, and The Institute's level of tech could allow for it.

Realize it was all a dream or go to Mars?

Former.

It's possible the PC is part of a twisted "tranquility lane" experiment, forced to constantly relive the precursor events of the Great War and having to watch his/her family turn to ash over and over.

I'd rather it be implemented as sort of Side Missions where you can experience this-that-and the other thing...

Maybe allow him to Memory Den up some better times before the war

Doesn't work as Codsworth recognizes your character when you meet him.

That is an excellent point. God I hope you're right. I'm willing to roll with the set backstory, though it wouldn't have been my choice, but I would hate being forced to be an android.

i m going to repeat some others

it is not the story people dislike , actually nobody really knows what the story is

what people resent is the voiced protagonist that is being forced down out throat , and that this somehow essential to the story line

honestly i think that this whole intro is indeed BS

i do not like dogs and i do not like voiced protagonist and one of these two will break the game for me

Not everyone feels that way about the voiced protagonist. No doubt people are vocal about it on the forums, but not everyone has an issue with it. I'd say many people outside the forums probably welcome it, in fact. Like most cases when it comes to complaints here.

As for the dog, I'm pretty sure you can ignore it entirely.

I know this has been in this thread, but I think New Vegas' protagonist was a bit more restricted... in terms of background, that is.
You character was a courier, responsible for the prosperity of the Divide, and unknowingly responsible for its destruction.
People can get all up in arms about Fallout 4s opening, bit it depicts your character as being fairly average, given the time period, which is a pretty decent blank slate.
The military background is a simple way of explaining how your character knows how to use firearms.

Far as I can tell most people that are off-put by Fallout 4's story are bothered by the family dynamic at the beginning and, though many love to argue that it's fine, they have good reason. Let's take a look at the provided backstory of protagonitsts in previous fallout and Bethesda games.

Fallout 1: The vault dweller, sent into the wastes to find a new water chip. Backstory? You came from Vault 13.

Fallout 2: The chosen one, sent out to find a GECK. Backstory? You're the vault dweller's grandchild and come from the tribal village of Arroyo.

Fallout Tactics (Beth doesn't consider this canon even though it is occasionally referenced): The warrior, you are recruited to the BoS and fight several factions in the midwest. Backstory? You're a tribal from the midwest.

Fallout 3: The lone wanderer, escapes the vault when his/her father leaves and everyone turns hostile. Backstory? Your mother died in childbirth, your father is a doctor and scientist working on water treatment. You are a teenager, no matter what.

Fallout New Vegas: The courier, shot in the head while delivering a package, on a personal mission to find out why, if not to seek revenge. Backstory? You worked as a courier and at some point in the past carried a package with nuclear detonation codes. Other options come up in the game, but the player decides which are true.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena: The eternal champion. Imprisoned by Jagar Tharn, you escape and fight to take him down. Backstory? You were once the head of the Emperor's guard. This character was completely open when the game was released, but has since been set as a male named Talin, presumably for use in lore.

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall: The hero of daggerfall, recruited by the emperor to investigate the king of daggerfall's death. Backstory? You were once a prisoner during the events of Arena. The emperor released and pardoned you, seeing potential as an agent of the blades.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind: The nerevarine, sent to morrowind in hopes of fulfilling a prophecy and defeating Dagoth Ur. Backstory? You are sent to morrowind against your will, possibly an imperial prisoner before being selected.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: The champion of cyrodiil, gets caught up in a quest to replace the assassinated emperor and close the portals to oblivion. Backstory? You are an imperial prisoner given a chance to escape when the emperor fled assassins through your cell.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The dovahkiin, discovers they possess the soul of a dragon and are the only one who can drive the dragons back out of tamriel. Backstory? You were captured by the imperials near the border of skyrim, they think you are part of an opposed military group.

Now Fallout 4: The sole survivor, emerges from the vault after 200 years, motivation unknown. Backstory? You are married, to the opposite six. You have a male child named Shaun. You are potentially a military veteran (listen to dialogue at beginning of character creation).

Which of those games most restricts your imagination when filling in the blanks about your character? Answer: Fallout 4, followed by Fallout 3. Did Bethesda decide to get a new lead writer? They could have at least made you a single parent, leaving things a bit more open. I definitely see a reason to be off-put by this change, especially for the role-players of the fandom. When you come to expect a ROLE PLAYING game where you actually get to make up your own role, forcing a particular role can be anger-inducing. Imaging playing a tabletop where you've grown really invested in a character and come up with a cool backstory, and your game master blows it out the window in the first few seconds by saying all the PCs are siblings, or assigning them all spouses.

I will play Fallout 4, I'll play the [censored] out of it, but I fully understand why people are angered by this story decision.

Lots of different types of people get married and have children. Most people in fact.

Not many have the soul of a dragon.

I vote Skyrim for most intrusive to player freedom.

This, and the forced voice. Imagine if you created that character and you imagined him/her with a booming, dramatic voice and personality but the gaming master said, "No, no, he/she is more calm, a family-man, with polite mannerism, etc."

From what we've seen of Sole Survivor, he's just that: a calm family-man with polite manners, etc. Not everyone wants to play this type of personality.

Except that that has no impact on anything else you imagine about your character. It is a surprise just as it is supposed to be, you find out when your character does. That fact is layered on top of anything else you decide to be. Even if you decide you don't want this character to be special in any way, that is still true for their background since they never knew.

But it was done in a way where your character would literally never know unless he/she fought and killed a dragon. You could skip out the entire main quest if you wanted and role-play that someone else was the Dragonborn.

In Fallout 4, the backstory is shown to us almost immediately with no way for us to pretend otherwise.

That would have been the best imo, if it's important that the player has a child. It seems to me like there are more possibilities to create diverse characters if the parent is single. We only know that the other parent is not present - let the player's imagination decide why.

They could have let the player create the appearances of the protagonist and Shaun.

From what we know so far, which isn't much, I'm with Mr.SmileySmile.

It is a bit a problem, with story as a selling point, since they can't give away 'the story'.

I agree. I really enjoyed the Courier quite a lot myself too for the same reasons.

Also, our character being in the military in Fallout 4? At least it supports my backstory I'm writing up (something about me being an undercover agent or something like that to act like a "boyfriend/husband" to this possible female criminal and accidentally having a child).

I have no idea what I'm going to roleplay as for a story, the combinations are endless even with all this preset stuff.

That would be difficult, since Shaun is a baby and creating his advlt appearance would instantly reveal his unexpected (yeah, right) return later on. He could be half based on us, half randomized, I guess.

Many people seem to be assuming that the baby and/or spouse survive, especially when Mr Howard talks about "emotional resonance" and suchlike with respect to the story, and that finding them is the protagonists' motivation once escaping the vault.

But what if they died in Vault 111? What does Mr White-Picket-Fence do then, realising that everything he knows, everything that was important to him, everything that he ever cared about, is utterly destroyed? What effect does this have on him? What does he do then?

It could be that we meet characters later in the game who simply remind us of our family, and this is where "emotional resonance" plays a part.

Of course, if we are indeed chasing after our spouse and child, I can see why that would be a problem for some people. And if that is the case, I hope that it is an entirely optional quest; otherwise, it goes against the whole "be who you want, do what you want" freedom philosophy.

We would still have the preset tutorial stuff, of course, but honestly if you can't use your imagination to get around that, then I would suggest that a Retro-Futuristic, Post Apocalyptic Fantasy is perhaps not the game for you.

I personally don't really see how the "find ur family" thing is any really different then Fallout 1/2's plots, which are based around the whole notion that the people of Vault 13/Arroyo are your friends and family who you have a deep personal and emotional connection too, due to living with them your whole life.

This is just taking that premise but actually building on it to show the player why they care, rather then just telling you "you care about them".

Little bits and pieces have come out. Spoilers.