You hate NV's companion quests too? Frankly, this argument won't go anywhere. Our thoughts on these games are nothing alike. I'll leave it saying that I don't find a little ego-stroking to be a bad thing. But I also don't feel that they do these things specifically to stroke our egos. It simply makes sense for the protagonist to get recognition when they publicly perform great feats, and it also makes sense for their actions to have a large bearing on the world if said actions are as spectacular as those in every Fallout.

I really hope it has a difinative ending with multiple (FACTION RELATED) outcomes, where one wins over the other, and power in the wasteland changes hands. Broken steel (and the whole mq/ ending for FO3) was horrible. We don't need to repeat that.

But it's Bethesda- they have their way of doing things.

I was fine with how 3 played out as well as how NV played out. At least NV gave you a heads-up that you're 'danger close' to the point of no return and could decide to change course if you wanted to. I noticed some folks mentioning Skyrim's lack of 'instant knowledge transmission' where nobody in the region new what you had accomplished; I'm perfectly fine with that. After defeating Alduin, it made sense that the Dragons honored you before pursuing their agendas, but there would be no logical way I can see that Brynolf or J'Zargo or some random farmer near Whiterun would be aware of my actions.

If there is an ending complete with slides for FO4, cool, if I can continue playing after the MQ, I'm good with it. I prefer the journey.../cliche

Good gaming to all, regardless of what happens

I hope the game shouldn't end after the ending... I dislike that myself. One of the reasons why I play New Vegas primarily on the PC is to mod that MQ's ending so it doesn't end the game...

I rather just play through the MQ and then go do side stuff rather than being stuck with the final part of the MQ on my questlist (in a way, it wasn't like that in New Vegas if you do it right but it was like that in FO3 before Broken Steel DLC).

I hope they took a queue from Fallouts of olden tymes and New Vegas and just let it end.

If they do leave out open ended play after the MQ, then in my opinion they need to not rush us into the main quest. Skyrim did a decent job of this, and Morrowind did it some would say too much lol
To me, it just seems like if you have this impending doom hanging over you, then it doesn't feel right to just go and wipe out raiders which is one of my favorite pastimes in Fo3 and NV, or just waste time doing small stuff.

Don't care much for differing design philosophies do we?

It's not a mistake

It's a saddening indictment when core design tenets of the Fallout series are now regarded as "mistakes" by newer fans

This seems to be a relative skill, possessed by few and ignored by many.

Playing after the end is no problem at all. It also makes no sense at all from a gameplay perspective, since you can play indefinitely before the end anyway.

This is how playing after the end should be done:

The game ends. The ending is impressive and shows the consequences to your actions and the way the world went. Since playing after the ending should in no way restrict how the story plays out, the changes can be grave.

After the credits roll, you're back in the main menu. You see a new option: Continue after the Ending

When you click this, you see an autosave of your ended game. You can pick it and continue playing from a set point. However, you'll get a message that none of the endings are taken into account and that playing after the ending is solely for your personal enjoyment, not so that it makes sense within the game world. Since you've been warned that everything you play now is irreal from a "lore" perspective, you can happily continue with your savefile and don't have to worry about illogical quests that tie into the storyline.

I'd support this

Well crap, just have it do an auto save after the slides roll and play from that point or start a new game. No need for additional messages at all.

I'd like a message to let people know the ending has not been taken into account in the world but with an option to always redo the last mission whenever you want. This way you can always check the ending slides which is especially useful if you rushed into the main story without doing side quests, companion quests, etc.

Isn't that basically the same as just saving before you do the last mission on the MQ? My argument is that even that doesn't make sense from a role playing perspective, unless of course you are role playing a hero with a really short attention span. "Oh look, this is the last objective in my campaign to free the entire Commonwealth. I think I'm going to go explore and help that old lady in the village I passed by earlier."

See? Doesn't make sense.

It is a mistake, given that there are more than enough people who are irratated by such a design flaw. enough so that bethesda already had to fix it once in the past with broken steel. That is reason enough to think they won't do it again.

Im not a newer fan btw, Im technically a fallout dinosaur. the ending to the original fallout was pretty damn lame too, but it wasn't as big of a deal since the gameplay wasn't designed a great deal about free play any ways. a fallout title developed by BGS has way too much to be done to be limited in a chronological order.

Of course there is, otherwise the players will not know what's going on and why nothing has changed and they'll complain and feel betrayed.

The other option is of course an insignificant or very personal mainquest, which changes nothing in the world. This is what you get when you want to let people play on without such a message.

I 2nd the consequences after the ending, with the game being current gen only I'm hoping the power is there to see the choices that you make pan out to some extend. Some choices you won't see because it's the type of choice that you can't see the results of immediately.

Most Bethesda games do have npcs that comment on you finishing the main quest. I would love to see in game consequences while exploring after the MQ.

Easy solution:

After ending slides/credits display a prompt "Would you like to discard any progress you made in the game in order to continue your travels?"

Selecting yes allows post-game play without any acknowledgement of prior accomplishments, and selecting no boots the player back to the title screen.

Everyone is a winner!

How do they know about that if the ending was insignificant enough that those are the greater consequences and why don't you get new quests after the ending which eventually lead to a new ending?

Resources. Never let them get into the way of your storyline. If you have a mainquest, you should make it matter.

The npcs aren't the only indicator that you finished the MQ. You would get the slides that revel in your accomplishment. The NPCs are just there for those who want to continue playing the game after the MQ is over, to say "Good job, guy!" As far as the side stuff, what you didn't do wouldn't be included in the ending and if you did, say, finish The Power of the Atom in favor of Megaton before finishing the MQ, well you couldn't blow it up anyway so no harm no foul.

i don't play bethesda games in order to see post main quest slides so its no big deal for me to keep playing after the main quest, you can always just stop playing after the main quest at any time, none of their games will ever have game ending quests, bethesda games just aren't the type of game that warrants an ending.

So a lot of people saying they hope the game ends when you beat it instead of exploration. What. The. F#%$!? An RPG (especially one by Bethesda) should be able to be explored for as long as you want, not as long as you're allowed to. Think about traveling to get all the side-quests and undiscovered locations incomplete. but itd be cool because youd maybe see the world in a different way, depending on which ending you chose.

Start of game - OPTIONS/SETTINGS

[CHECK BOX HERE] - Allow game play past main quest line

I'd click it every time

Sorry, ambigious phrasing from me. What I meant is an alternate start that does not start off the story. Hope I made myself clear