I would love to know more about the Talon Company,their history. If they are just a mercenary group. Mr Houses intentions. Also who hired the Reilly's Rangers to map DC. It would also be great if James(LW father) could have a little backstory. Dr Li could clue us in on the last one. Also maybe how the DC area has progressed as well.

It should. It would be a shame to not get any lore from FO 3.

I think we can safely rely on none of those things being addressed.

Im sure vague hints will be dropped, but nothing more.

I could picture Dr. Li being in the game. She went back to the Commonwealth with Dr.Zimmer. Maybe she'll share some things that happened in that time period or after.

That would be a shame, and, imo, poor writing. What is the point of having recurring characters and factions if they all suffer from amnesia?

I'd love to know some lore on stealth boys.

A side effect of making a open sandbox game, you cant really define much in a sequel because then ya risk trampling over the decisions and the internal "Canon" of players experience. Double so when you play a game with a make ya own character system.

Fallout 2 did it.

Which wasn't made by Bethesda.

Plus just because they did it doesn't mean it was a good decision, Im sure some fans back in the day choke there fist at Interplay/Black Isle for doing that.

People need to get over their idea of internal "canon". It is a ridiculous notion, and it damages good storytelling. The decisions people made playing FO 3 7 years ago are meaningless.

So basically all that freedom to play whatever character you like should mean nothing just because a sequel comes out?

Fallout NV did it, too. It even confirmed the Chosen One as a male. Hopefully BGS realizes that Fallout isn't Dragon Age, Mass Effect, or TES. It is what makes Fallout stand out among other games, a rich, defined, canon, not a bunch of what ifs with unisix heroes in 10 million parallel universes.

Yep. People had years to go ahead and do whatever they wanted in FO 3. Hell, we only had 1 year back in FO 1 time. Some things will HAVE to be declared, and if you have to do it with some, then you may as well do it with all, and write your story based on that, because it will be better in the long run, instead of NPCs suddenly forgetting what happened because of a magical case of mass amnesia.

I dunno, personally I kinda like the way Bethesda deals with this issue in TES, mentioning key events but never elaborating. Good storytelling isn't all that 'good' if it just erases certain potential events in choice-based games, imo. If you can't work around the options you gave the players, than you shouldn't have given them those options in the first place. If I want to experience an epic, overarching storyline with a definite conclusion I'll play a linear game. In an RPG I'd rather the details stayed vague.

Meh telling us what happened in FO3 IMO does not contribute to the quality of the story of what's happening in 4.

Well, this isn't TES. I hate to break it to you, but the way FO 3 is, there is no evading the fact that certain choices are going to be eliminated. It is just going to be a fact with no way around it. Did the LW poison the CW? If he/she did, then everyone is screwed and dead. If not, well, choice removed. Blow up AAFB or the Citadel. One choice removed, no getting around it. Two major events, choices the player had that have to be addressed.

RPG you are playing a role, and sometimes that role gets defined, sometimes the story gets defined. It doesn't hurt the choices I make when I play, and most people play multiple times, making multiple different decisions. If people gonna get hurt because a choice they made in a game 7 years ago turned out not to be the choice, well....

Eh, I won't be particularly bothered if that happens, I just don't think that constitutes good storytelling. Tbh, I thought the main story in FO3 was cheesy and cliche, and I honestly don't give an eff where it goes in FO4, if it does. That didn't stop me from loving FO3 and it won't stop me from loving 4. Where Bethesda shines is the little stories.

Really? Because obviously some choices have been decided, and without knowing exactly what recurring characters are going to be in 4, you can't really say that. What we do know is it is about 99% guaranteed the BoS who appears in Fo4 is CWBoS, which removes two choices the player had in 3 right there, poisoning the CW and blowing up Citadel, both removed. There goes anyone who decided to play FO 3 and for whatever reason side with the Enclave. Seeing how the LW was thus obviously "good" then you can rule out blowing up Megaton, and rule out being a slaver.

If Zimmer appears in FO 4, so much for killing him in FO 3.

I'm not saying every single detail of what happened in 3 has to be declared. But with somethings that cannot be avoided, you may as well flesh it out with whatever side quests BGS decides was important. If it was an important quest that shaped the CW, recurring characters from 3 are going to know about it, it could be something that shaped who they have become in 4, so choices removed, or it will be pretty dumb.

A player's sense of enjoyment of an RPG is lessened by what other players do in that RPG; a player believes that the choices he makes within a game have no meaning in that game, because a different game doesn't recognize them -- neither of these reactions seems rational to me.

It makes it easier to tell a story when you have defined canon. The more sequels in the FO Universe, all taking place after multiple and multiple and multiple choices occur, eventually you are just digging yourself a narrative hole, if you don't declare any canon. FO isn't a world like TES where there can be games that take place 200 years after the other. Huge time skips like that in the FO world would make the game ridiculous(it wouldn't be post apoc anymore).

While it may not guarantee a "good" story, it makes it easier to write one, and avoids something really stupid happening down the line. And yes, having recurring characters/factions in 4 who don't know what happened to themselves, would be pretty dumb. It is much easier the way TES goes to avoid that, Fallout, not so much.

Is this canon? I ask because I always killed Zimmer.

No. Li just went to the commonwealth, not necessarily with anyone. As of right now, there is no canon describing the fate of Zimmer. Yet. This could change in 9 days. lol.

Im sure they will canonise the ending, but beyond that I doubt they do anything else (at least not in any detail), none of the side quests will be defined (not even megaton, because choosing the purifying ending does not automatically mean the protagonist was good through and through)

Heck Zimmer wont turn up, just so that they can pull a shr?dingers plot and have him dead or alive at the same time.

Certainly, it's easier. What I'm saying is, I suppose, that I kinda doubt Bethesda's ability to write a 'good' main story, so I don't really see the point of them clinging to those events at all. Why not move away, New Vegas style, take place somewhere else, where those events won't really matter anyway. I realize that's my personal preference, and that many fans really want to know what's going on with Lyons' BoS, etc. I don't, cause FO3 never managed to make me care about them, quite the opposite. But that's just me.

I suppose in FO4 the Railroad will be the token good faction, and so, no matter how we play, the canonical SS will have supported them in FO5, if that ever comes to be. So in FO5 we'll have synths living peacefully alongside humans. I don't mind that either, but I still think it'll make for a cliche story.