I was tooling around mass pike interchange when a random wastelander died a few dozen feet from me, he had a note in his pocket...

(that's about the most non-spoilerish hint I can give on the no-spoilers thread)

She was the last companion I found besides X6-88...

Nick, probably my favorite companion in any fallout game. So glad they gave him an actual quest.

Speaking of companion quests it seems like most of them lack one.

ahh right, that makes sense. maybe in another lifetime If I played this game through again, my wife would surely kill me....

yeah but the end of that quest pissed me off so because they don't make you figure out the code yourself, so it just ends up being a REALLY LONG fetch quest!! (although its cool that it makes you go to many areas of the commonwealth that you might not otherwise)

I can min/max between the others to find my favorites, but my only real answer is:

Dogmeat.

I get more out of that cocked head and little whine he gives you occasionally while you're sneaking than most of the other companion dialogue combined. Dogmeat: all the character with none of the exposition.

Codsworth into a synth body should be high on the list of requested mods. Additional suitable dialog might be hard.

Cait, Dogmeat, Cait, Piper.

Cait I just love her attitude, though I admit in some role-plays it can get in the way. Also love her personal quests and her struggle to trust you.

Dogmeat can carry stuff. Find stuff. Fetch stuff out of radioactive soup (but I'd never do that of course). Also since he has a low profile he doesn't get in my way when sniping nearly as much as other companions.

Cait again. When compared to the other girls I think she's cuter and again has the best personal quest (especially since Piper has none). I like the way she says ars.

Piper. Hard choice though. One is the Gumshoe, the other the nosy reporter. Neither has much depth beyond that other than Piper is also a sister.

I keep trying companions. I got some kind of Steam achievement (for 5 companions).

Supposedly you get some kind of bonuses unlocked from achieving high companion affinities?

But the truth cannot be denied...

I'm not happy unless I am alone and by myself, and free to go or do whatever I wish, and not 'saddled' with any companion.

At the end of the day each and every one of them is strangely annoying. They all muck me up (every chance they get, LoL).

I can pop in to the Red Rocket anytime - a settlement of 1 (Cait) - and visit her and my Dogmeat any time.

I get my Lover's Embrace...

And she tends the plants, wearing Grognak and black leather, heheh. Perfect.

So I can travel with my dog, it's okay with the 'solo' perks I selected?

That's kewl - thanks, I did not know that.

But Cait would miss him. And he's not too bright, suffering terribly most of the time!

Codsworth is my favourite with Nick a close second and Hancock bringing up third.

Least favourite: Curie (hate that voice)

In all honesty the rest are starting to aggravate me, I leave them all at Red Rocket (no other settlers) and they never shut up, Strong in particular spews line after line whilst using the Chemistry station. And whenever I use a work bench they all have to comment, I may have to spread them out (but then I tend to forget where I leave them)

Where's the none/neither options?

Haven't voted as I hate Codsworth and Dogmeat with a passion. Why have they done this to Dogmeat? Bastards lol.

My answers for what it's worth:

1. Curie. I just love her innocence and accent and curiosity

2. Neither. They are both annoying as hell.

3. Curie. Did I mention I love her accent and innocence and ...

4. Piper. I love how she calls me Blue. I'm a man of simple pleasures lol.

I do like Nick though, his voice acting is outstanding and a very interesting character. Just what the [censored] is going on with that quest of his though? I mean seriously, they want me to trek all over the whole damn map for holotapes for that. Done it once, ain't doing it again.

Edit: Haven't travelled with Hancock, Strong or X6-88 yet.

Worth noting I guess. I've never used (other than in pre-selected missions):

Codsworth. Just seems really weird having a robo butler following me around the CW. Just hate his voice also.

Deacon. Most my characters don't work with the RR much anyway. My current character is some so I might grab him. Not fond of his 'so cool' personality though.

John Hancock. The only way to be able to get him

MacCready. Never actually spoken to him. I mean I get this magical suggestion that I should go talk to him, but I have no incentive to actually do it. Why would I do this? Reasons?

Strong. No. Just no. I can't even imagine.

X6-88. Never been much into the Institute, but I may give him a try sometime. Nothing against him really.

One that I regret getting: Preston. There is only one thing worse than trying to use a Musket rifle and that's having a companion that uses a Musket Rifle. I mean it's bad enough that he only shoots once every ten seconds, but when you miss 80% of the time why are you even here? Yeah I know I could give him another weapon, but that just didn't seem right.

I always have Danse with me. I don't care about the others.

Have to say - NONE of them, Dogmeat managed to kill me four times (twice by running past me and effectively shoving me off building from sufficient height to kill me, once by charging a Deathclaw I was trying to sneak past and once by bumping me into the line of fire of a missile when my health was low), the others I havent bothered taking as I'd rather have the extra damage and carry weight given by the Lone Wanderer perk than take a companion that seems to have difficulty in killing anything other than ME!

Oh and Strong peed me off as every time I got into my power armor, there would be a pop-up saying "Strong disliked that". Really? Some super mutant is going to dislike the fact I decide to use power armor? Then he can stay at Spectacle Island on his own, out of my way and keep his disaproval to himself.

I mean they are all cool but the AI just ruins it for me,I can't tell you how many times they all have stepped right in front of me one second before a crucial shot,I want to scream the F word as loud as I can every single time,so yeah I prefer to travel alone most of the time.

this all day,I feel ya man,really want to hang with them all but this stuff just buzz kills it.

dogmeat, because it allows for a "companion" and I get that buff lol.

Also hes less in the way unless im crouching a lot.

I agree about Codsworth but you can have that bog-trotting, foul mouthed, whining Irish skank....

I'll hold off on the poll just because I haven't used Strong, X6-88, Hancock, Preston or Curie yet.

That said, I fully intend to have Nick along for the ride as soon as I gather the companion perks from the others. The reason for this is because Nick can hack computers, and I [censored] hate hacking computers. I've been playing that god awful minigame since 2008 when Fallout 3 came out, and I am completely done with it. So far, my total number of computers hacked while playing F4 is three. Those where only hacked because some quest required them, and Nick wasn't able to get them.

If one of the five companions I've not tried can hack PCs and pick locks, then they will become the new favorite. Minigames are so last decade.

Mini-rant complete.