Oldirtybearon

Probably because Bethesda doesn't have writers. At least not a writer like say, Chris Avellone. You know, somebody whose primary job is writing fiction.

They have hobbyists. They have people who have dabbled in writing. They don't have anyone who has actually honed their skills, however. Todd Howard once said his programmers are writers. That should say it all, really.

I say this as someone who really enjoys Bethesda RPGs, too. Their primary writers left after Morrowind and they just never got real writers again.

@milijango: Cait's is probably the worst one from a narrative perspective. I enjoyed Valentine's. I got every companion to max affinity except for McCready, and that's because I was done with my playthrough by the time I got to him. Paladin Danse's is probably the most interesting/out of left field of the handful of companion quests, though. Using him requires committing to the Brotherhood of Steel though.

In case you're wondering, companions don't have endings, so it's not like in New Vegas where random people show up in your ending that you've never met before or even knew about. Just pick the one you want to roll with.

Nick is probably the best humanoid companion. I'm a sucker for noir detectives, though.

I didn't really like the humanoid companions much. They all had more depth than the companions in Fallout 3, but the problem with Bethesda games is that their plots and quests have a lot of "and then" in their stories, as opposed to "therefore, but."

Obsidian has a lot of "therefore, but" for instance, which got me attached to even the most bland of New Vegas companions; Boone.

only so long as they're already farming.

It's... not the best system. Especially when it's easy to forget which nondescript settler you assigned to what. Hopefully a better interface with more information is patched in.

Just finished it. I sided with The Institute.

The Brotherhood are back to being assholes. Instead of building on their depiction in Fallout 3 (which I was fine with; it had an explanation that made sense), they junked the whole deal and decided to put a real prick in charge. Disappointing, but after being hammered for so long with "hur dur they fucked up BoS" I imagine Bethesda thought they didn't have much choice.

The Railroad were naive. Just naive. They thought that Synths were human beings (they're not), and they thought Synths were slaves (they're not). Synths are robots. Machines. They need to be closely monitored and controlled. They're not people, even if they look like it.

The Minutemen were... eh, they're there. They're not that interesting. I could have built up resentment over the fact that every time I handed in a quest Preston had another one waiting for me, though. I didn't even get a chance to do any Minutemen end game quests for some reason.

Out of all the available factions to choose from, I had to go with The Institute. They're not bogeymen. They're not evil. They're just scientists and engineers underground, living in a safe environment and conducting their research. Siding with them, you see their Wasteland interactions from the other side. If anything, the Institute being so secretive is what has set the Commonwealth against them. They don't abduct people by force; they ask politely, and most agree to go. They corral escaped synths because without close monitoring and control, synths can go haywire and malfunction. You know, like that guy who got shot at the noodle stand. Pretty much everything the Commonwealth had to fear from the Institute was given a satisfactory and understandable explanation. The Institute were not the bad guys. Nobody in the game are "the bad guys" save Kellogg, and he's just a mercenary with no personal involvement in your plight at all. Hell, the only reason you fight with the Railroad and the BoS is because one won't stop stealing your shit and the other wants to take all your shit. The Institute leaves the Minutemen alone, because the Minutemen are just regular people trying to help other people.

I think the plot suffers a bit for this, having no real villain. At the end of the day the game ended for me at my son's death bed, saying goodbye, and promising to lead the Institute to a brighter future for all mankind.

Oh yeah, your son puts youin charge when he's gone. By the end of the main quest there's nothing in the Commonwealth that'll stop you from making things better.

@professoress said:

You can equip Dogmeat with bandanas, dog dollars, and dog armour. Just talk to him and initiate a trade. When you're in the trade menu, go to his inventory and hit triangle (or Y, I guess), and voila, companions equip shit.

@nardak said:

you have to assign a settler to harvest the food. Click on settler, walk to food patch, click on food patch. Resource has been assigned.

Game companies tired of Kotaku's shit. More at 11.

@humanity said:

I just got pointed to Vault 81 last night while wandering with Dick Tracy; is that going to trigger a main quest thing or is it safe to travel to?

That's kind of my big thing with Fallout 4 and Bethesda games in general; I love exploring and doing all the side stuff first, but these games have a history of the main quest breaking if you find something you weren't supposed to early enough. From what I can tell so far, that's been more or less fixed with Fallout 4, but I'm still paranoid.

One quick correction: Fallout 4 takes place in 2287. Check your pip-boy.