Or relatives in the series, or even just games as a whole, in general?

I bring up the question because, in my experience, relatives are not common aspects of a game. ESPECIALLY not core aspects of a game, like the main character's father in Fallout 3 was-as you had to find him for a good portion of it. Unless you took short cuts. ;] Usually if there ARE relatives, they're just "there." Or, worst yet, they were just "there." As in before you had any part in the game, at all. This is especially common if you have some sort of special ability or position in being related to them, often the case for the role of the "chosen one"-and I don't mean just the character from Fallout 2.

I personally thought the whole concept of actually having relatives, and people attached to your childhood, was pretty awesome. But like a lot of things in Fallout 3 when it comes to characters, I felt they didn't fully utilize the concept's potential. Especially when it came to making those characters likable and with thorough depth. Especially with characters like Amata, who was supposed to be your best friend, but seen as annoying or worse by most people. Even I often found she seemed to be more of a best friend when you weren't there than when you were. Though, I'll give Bethesda credit for not having the father, James, simply found dead. I was expecting such, for the very reason of a lack of relatives in my experience of games.

One question.

Why is my dad English?

I have to say that I'm not a fan of it at all in Fallout. The more personal relationships it forces on you (ones that are in-depth at least), the more "locked" you become as the player in creating a character that makes sense. Furthermore, I think it was a terrible move to have characters like the dad unkillable, just so the plot could have its "omg teh drama" moment by killing him off later on by itself.

I'm not saying that that type of character drama is always wrong in gaming, but the beauty of Fallout is that... well, it didn't have that stuff and instead it was about you, the player, lots and lots of freedom in what you wish to do in the gameworld. The stories themselves are very "light" and open, it's all about the player blazing his own trail. A free-form story.

So yeah, wasn't a fan of it myself unfortunately.

The problem I had with Family in FO3 was that it made the story as railroaded as the Flying Scotsman (A long distance train journey for those of you playing at home). There was no in game option to take the evil option down the main questline. Admittedly, FO2 had this flaw to an extent as well (FO1 at let you least join the master, even if it was followed by a game over screen).

I don't think it's a good idea to flesh out a player character's history in a game like Fallout, and this means that I don't think it's a good idea to have a developed relationship between a player character and their relatives. The entire premise of Fallout is that you are a rugged individualist who travels the wastes and either helps or hinders others along the way, and your motives and philosophy should be left up to you. In introducing relatives that have an extensive role you're railroaded into taking a certain path; I didn't think it made any sense to be anything other than a nice guy who wanted to find daddy in Fallout 3, and I don't think it was supposed to make any sense to be anything other than that. The game tried to force you to care about James, and there was very little reason or motivation for your character to do "evil" things considering his or her history.

I think he's an idiot.

I think that Fallout 3 had a great story line. But mainly, I like Liam Neeson's voice.

One question.

Why is my dad English?

Because everyone except the Welsh, Scottish and Irish forget where Engalnd stops and the other consituent countries of the UK begin?

(Liam Neeson is {Northern} Irish).

Well there's no such thing as a British accent, which is what I was going to say, and to be honest Liam Neeson isn't exactly the brogue-est of speakers.

I like Liam Neeson's voice. But there were many things they could do with the Dad story that they didn't. (Such as killing him yourself :chaos: )

Recieved Pronounciation/BBC English?

(Also, if you want to get predantic, then there's no such thing as an English accent either. Lots of regional and class variation going on)

I never got that. David Warner, Tony Jay and Malcolm McDowell put more effort into doing American accents than Liam Neeson did; he didn't even try.

Whatever trevor, I'm English, and I have a Received Pronunciation accent. All I was saying is this:

Why is my dad in Fallout 3 appear to hail from the British Isles even though just about nobody else in the game (well apart from Desmond) seems to have come from that side of the Atlantic or even possess a accent from the British Isles.

There's Moriarty too.

I don't think the father is actually English/British/Irish/U.K.(whatever you want to call him), I think it's just the failure on the voice actor's part to speak with an American accent. There's nothing suggesting he was born outside, or grew up outside, the United States. Unlike Moriarty, whom is stated by Daring Dashwood to have come to the U.S. as a kid. Though I earlier figured you were being sarcastic, to imply the voice acting with an improper accent and all is just stupid. Which it is.

But everyone made good points on the storyline and such. It was ridiculously linear, and I agree that they really didn't do well with the concept. Though I, personally, still find the concept on its own a pretty good one. It's cool to see everyone's views on it, with detail and all that. :]

For character reasons, I suppose... And marketing the title to the gamer public, maybe.


When I played F3 the first time, I suspected mommy and daddy were renegade Enclave. Kinda surprised when they were given no origin, like they came into being with Project Purity. I appreciated how the story leads the player to 'heal' their mother, and join her, with the sacrifice for her Purity; the project was for a second creation, or second birth, as the Revelation verse alludes. In that context, the Enclave seemed like a tacked-on enemy, and the real villain was the fallout. You either side with the irradiated, dead world, or you purge it. No super-villain, shadow government required.

Yeah, DC was like dead mom.

I'm still wondering how he got around unscathed being the pacifist he seemed to be.

Sometimes the apples does fall far from the tree...

Maybe he has luck/charisma 10? Or he could have 'reformed'

Yeah, that was going to be my best suggestion for an answer that doesn't completely break the lore/common sense. Though if he's around anything that you can't speak with, he typically attacks it. Considering the only reason he doesn't die in that case is because the plot temporarily protects him, there's no reason aside from technical as to how he survived.

:ahhh: :ahhh: No no no....shadow government is always required :nono:

I liked the concept... as a personal and emotionally-driven storyline is always something I can appreciate... but where 'Dad' falls short in Fallout 3 is largely in 'selling' himself off to me. I never once really found myself feeling -attached- to his character. He seemed more like a distant memory viewed through a dream-sequence than an actual member of my character's family.

Instead, he immediately becomes an absentee the very moment that his presence might come to be appreciated... my time in the Vault is cut short prematurely by all hell breaking loose, and me suddenly being forced to become some kind of homicidal psychopath... and by the time he shows up again as a viable plot-device... it only serves as a minor 'judgemental' scene where he either praises or criticizes and scolds the player before promptly exiting the scene for good.

Where is the emotional attachment in all that?

When you can really get a good look at it... how do you feel anything for a character who is ripped away from you at the beginning of the game before any of the qualities that make a person feel attached to their parents can be fully displayed? He's just a guy that the player gets to see getting progressively older.... without really bringing anything to the plot other than himself.

He's a MacGuffin... the magical item the player is driven to search for solely for the purpose of giving the game a plot. Does that make him bad? No! Of course not! It means that he isn't going to appeal to a certain selection of the audience... but hell! I love the idea! It's a very reasonable plot, even... one which makes a great deal of sense. What it -does- make him, however, is shallow... and poorly defined. And in the vagueness with which he becomes defined, there's no real way of defining the character we play as his son.

This leaves even some of us whom loved the element of your 'dad' being a character in the game... and instead makes the game feel a bit disconnected from the plot by giving us next to no reason to feel attached to him.

Yeah. That's how I felt too.

As for Dad's accent, I thought Neeson did well pulling off an American accent. The only few times I can hear him reverting back to his Irish accent is when you're listening to the holotapes in the Jefferson Memorial, in that one tape where the Dad says, "...It's just enough to power the emergancy mainframe..."

Colin Moriarty's accent? Well, from what I've heard, he didn't exactly pull off a good Irish accent. He sounded like he was pretending to be Irish.

James was sweet. He birthed The Lone Wanderer, built a water purifier that could skim radiation and toxic waste from water, could make it across the Wasteland twice in 20 years with only a .32 pistol and .32 Hunting Rifle, and martyred himself so The Enclave couldn't outright win.

He was selfish.

Instead of trying harder to work on the Purity Project he instead took his child and went away to a vault.
So I think that his motives were selfish.
Only 19 YEARS after did he try again cause he thought the player character were all grown up by then.
So I think he was a selfish bastard.

And wasn't he the guy to started the whole panic event in Vault 101 which led to several residents deaths?

Yeah something never sat right with me regarding James...

Exactly, all that "for the greater good" [censored] means exactly the same as the ends justify the means, you know the whole reason why the Enclave is "evil".

It's hard for me too get into Fallout 3's plot as a whole with my well established bias; but from objectively as I can manage James is a dike. Like what was said by the poster above, his "greater good" type motive is no different from the Enclave, he abandons you, he is around very little and he found the need to create the worlds most powerful dirty bomb and put in the control room/purifying chamber of his water purifier!!!