I admit I'm nervous about the voiced protagonist, semi-set character (guaranteed straight, married, with a child, and a set age range) and seemingly limited dialogue choices with confusing paraphrases along the lines of the newer BioWare games but the game really does look awesome so I'm definitely going to give it the benefit of the doubt.

See, I'm not giving Bethesda anything remotely resembling the benefit of the doubt regarding Bethesda's design choices for the main character or the story.

I will say though, right now I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of fun building up settlements and filling entire buildings with dog houses because why not?

The crafting weapons and settlements thing looks robust enough that I think I can get absorbed enough in that I might not have to worry about the male PC's voice being so completely devoid of emotion or personality it might as well have come from a text to speech application or the awful dialogue interface that will either be extremely restrictive and vague in regards to responses or vague in responses and clunky, unwieldy and just all around garbage compared to what came before.

People unfamiliar with the old games throwing a tantrum when Fallout always had a backstory unlike TES. No matter what you did, people still treated like a hillbilly in FO2 because the character was a tribal. In none of those games you could spend the story without somebody referencing to your background. People should adjust their expectations, this is not TES and the character isn't a "blank prisoner".

For me it's that the background is too specific, it doesn't leave a lot of room for roleplay or imagination. We're straight, married to some person we as a player have no reason to care about, a young advlt age range, suburban middle class, and even have a baby. Those things are personality defining rather than just circumstances. In FO3 we had a specific background but nothing that defined our personality in any way. We got to shape what kind of person we were. Also as far as expecting Fallout 4 to be like Fallout 3 (and New Vegas) rather than like 1 and 2, it's because Fallout 3 was made by Bethesda where 1 and 2 were not. Add to that the limited dialogue options as a result of the voiced protagonist and things aren't looking good for roleplayers.

I'm not going to knock it until I try it, but I'm nervous.

Regardless of the past Fallout games' lesser degree of set characters, people want and expect more features and options in each successive game as technology improves in a technology based art form. To me better technology means more dynamic stories with many branching paths, advanced A.I., better writing and more character customization options. Criticizing and expressing scepticism is not the same thing as "a temper tantrum."

It's not that we have a background, it's that that background comes with a personality grafted onto it as well, something I don't recall any of the previous Fallout games saddling the player character with.

I can see the point of you all, the story is set in stone quite solidly and does in that way set you on a particular direction. Persony i am looking forward to seeing how it all goes, but even i a'm seeing several hurdles in the future with the whole emotional tack on of having a wife/husband and kid.

What's funny is people are complaining about something they know nearly nothing about.

Really all we know is you enter the vault with your wife and child..... that is it, nothing else is known. People complain simply because people like to complain

We know we got a voice.

We know we're forced to have a spouse, a commitment to have a child with said spouse, a house in a nice neighbourhood, a military background for the male character, a trust for robots to let one be around the baby and that we sign up for a vault.

That's a lot of things to know and to discuss.

Sure enough, it is just the premise of the story, but it 'is' part of the story.

There are enough clues to express some worries, and Bethesda has not responded to any of the concerns. It's possible it will all work out swell in the game but so far we have more evidence to the contrary, like the user above me pointed out. I can't see the rewards of the certain restrictions we've seen and what is a forum without discussion?

Not to mention head trauma can cause memory lose, so yea it kinda does make sense if your character forgot a lot of things.

Fair enough.

I just hope the story isnt going to stay as generic with the protagonist being some random average jone/jane in an alien world trying to learn the ropes type thing. I want the protagonist to at least have some connection to the history of the lore in some way. Not as an outsider trying to fit in. FO3 at least had it so that you grew up within the generation in between the start of the mithos and the progression of it. In FNV you're already employed through an organization or somesort anchored to the world. Right now, you're just a guy who doesnt seem very smart at all just wanderiing around. FO3 did that better.

I imagine our child will be involved heavily. As for a spouse, well they could add them, BUT, if your a mega-badarse wouldn't you think your spouse, who you could potentially play as, would be just as driven as you? You could quite easily make an argument against that statement but still...

I imagine our child may have the same role as, say, Doctor Li. Not essential entirely to the story but will involve his own thing. He will of course have a much larger role than Li, but I mean it in the same style as him being integral, but not truly the main "goal" of the overall story. Sort of how the goal was find dad, well you find him, and then he soon after is no longer a part of the overall goal of defeating the Enclave and restoring Project Purity. Not in the same way, but he will become and accessory to the rest of the game whether he is still a child or grown man.

Best case scenario: Your wife and kid were never real. Hologram implemented memories as you are an android.

Moderately good scenario: Your wife and son are dead and were only there to show the pre-war era.

Moderately good scenario: Your wife and/or son survives and is involved with the plot, but not too heavily with major impact.

Worst case scenario: Inverted FO3 story were your son is looking for his father (you).

Your best scenario would be actually the worst case scenario for me... because it would be so uninnovative... The theory 'The PC is an Android' was there since Harkness in FO3... it would be the most boring scenario ever and it would in no way a plot twist... it would be a rage moment for me...

Heh, its interesting how different people can be

I find the android theory the most appealing, and the cryo-sleep to be safe, boring and unimaginative. My post was just my opinion ofcourse. It will be interesting to see if Bethesda can manage to surprise us both.

Think of it like this, for a moment. You coming out of Vault 111 almost alludes to you being reborn. Its almost like your starting over. Compare this scene to literally being born in Fallout 3. After this moment, you then decide what your really going to do. All that happened before means nothing. You have been raptured from the troubles of an old world and are sent to fix the issues of this one. Its hard to explain, and of course he will be looking for survivors he may know and may even have some special scenes relating to him being ex-military, but beyond that. It is a blank slate. But first, to except this reborn reality, you must accept that there was once a life before you had your hands on the controller and your rapture in the waste.

Haters gonna hate.

Really though, I think there are optimistic people and then there are pessimistic people. Even though I was skeptical at first, I choose to see the glass half full. I have faith in the development team to make an incredibly fun and satisfying game. I don't see how a voiced protagonist or a 200 year old backstory is going to ruin this game for ANYONE.

Edit: I co-sign the rebirth from the vault theory. My character will have changed just as much as the world around him. You can go in a robot owning family man.. And emerge a cross dressing technophobe.

Exactly. If people can't grasp that thought, then there is nothing else anyone can say to convince them the freedom of choice is going to be very much alive.

This feels like right before DA2 came out. I hope Bethesda doesn't go down the same route as BioWare.

There was some tension to say the least right before DA2 came out. It didn't feel 'natural' to me but I have the ability to enjoy something for what it is, and not what others think it should be. A bad game is a bag game just like bad traits of a game are bad traits but if it keeps me entertained until the end then it has done its job, more of less.

To sum it up, DA2 was decent for what it was but it didn't feel how Dragon Age should. Truly, I blame EA. They get a lot of flak for stuff they don't deserve but I imagine they busted up in BioWare and demanded the gameplay have more action to try and appeal to more...simplistic... gamers who don't care about story as much as some of the more dedicated fans, all the while trying to keep those dedicated fans. It didn't work, but hey. It gave us DA: I and I think it was almost a perfect game for what it was.

People will piss and moan about everything that they don't prefer. There is no balance on the interwebz much less game forums. There can be solid arguments made, but most will take everything way too far, too personally and too seriously.

You had a backstory in Fallout 3 too. The only difference is this time around, the focus is more on your wife and child than your dad.

You don't have discovered locations because Doc Mitchell gives you the pip-boy AFTER you get shot. You might have also lost your memory.
The Courier has a...spirit of discovery in him/her. Always travels, of course I'll have some questions about Benny.

I don't know about Voiced Protagonist but the story sounds intriguing, plus we can go out and create our own story too.

Someone did have a very good counter argument to Fallout 3 having a background. You pretty much decided that background. You decided if you wanted to fight Butch, defend Amata, be gracious, etc.

Overall I agree with what you say, just wanted to point out that detail haha.