That "Lets go fuck some shit up" was really weird and out of place.

Also, I hope they hired competent writers if everything is going to be voiced, because the writing in Fallout 3 was dire.

I don't understand people's blow back to the voiced character so much. In Bethesda games you man or lady always said things, just not out loud. Like your character had interactions and conversations with people that were explicit and specific. Now those just have voices. It's like how Morrowind having minorly voice acted NPCs to Oblivion and every further game having fully voiced NPCs.

If they improve conversation technology (a lot) you could speak yourselves with the game characters using kinect (or whatever is used in 2050).

Another point for MMO games.

I think it's mainly that they can say a lot more different things if it's not voiced. Like how different characters in the early games will react to you based on your stats. Maybe they will prove me wrong and have main character dialog consisting mainly of grunting for minimal int playthroughs, but somehow I doubt it.

If everything is going to be voiced, they have to cut back on the total number of lines of dialogue. Time constraints, money constraints, actor availability, these are all things that have to be taken in to account.

And now we can never have another "two bears high-fiving" moment. Thanks, Bethesda.

Just to add to this, the dialogue options in the conference footage were mapped to the face buttons, aka only 4 dialogue options per-choice. I'm hoping they at least stick speech checks on the triggers or something because it'd be even less if your science/intelligence/speech stats ever came into effect in dialogue.

It looks like a reaction to the changes in the dialogue presentation for a more cinematic camera.

I don't mind the silent protagonist if I am in first person, but if they went with that new camera for conversations and still keep my character silent, it would have been super distracting. The conversations would look like Kingdom of Amalur, which were awful and completely removed me out of the action.

It has nothing to do with your lack of insanity but everything to do with your own, complete lack of an imagination.

That's not a whole lot. Considering you appeared to have 4 options for each dialogue choice, that means ~300 choices, considering a good chunk of dialogue will likely be story-based or incidental.

@the_last_starfighter said:

Yeah, I lack imagination because I don't put on fake voices inside my head as I read... good one.

Eh, I suppose so but I preferred the voiced everything of Oblivion and onward than the collection of text boxes in Morrowind and before. Maybe in much older, sprite based games text is neat but...in an increasing lifelike game? I'd like everyone, including the woman or duder you play, voiced. Bethesda games feel like living worlds, not storybooks to me.

As soon as Bethesda started including voices, they've gone downhill. They don't have enough voice actors, nor the talent to believably write them. They spend too much money acquiring celebrity voice actors who don't lend themselves well to the medium, and fail to do anything halfway interesting with any of the characters involved. NPCs exist on stiff rails, spouting non-sequiter nonsense at you whenever you walk by, and they get by on having a living world because they include lots of journal entries in their copy-paste caves.

I spend dozens and dozens of hours in Fallout 3, and similarly Skyrim, but those worlds are not living and breathing. They make time-waster games that exist for you to experience, not to discover. It's a school trip to New York in comparison to travelling abroad.

I don't so much mind the voice, but I don't like the fact that they are making you married with a kid. It would be perfect if you were their kid. Has it been confirmed either way?

If it's a silent protagonist to make it feel like YOU are on the adventure, then I am fine with that.

If it's a silent protagonist because they are to lazy or poor to hire a voice actor, then I am not fine with that.

The courier in New Vegas had sooo much personality that he or she really should have been voice acted. Would have been hilarious too. I have no problem with this as long as it's done right. Having a main character who is voice acted makes a big difference story wise in my opinion and allows for more connection between the player and other characters. It's just more natural in my mind to have two characters talking out loud rather than the the typical Bethesda dialogue where what you read as a choice is what you're literally saying, but then the other character responds vocally. I don't know... that just seems very low tech to me and not as smooth since the player is literally going from hearing what the character on screen is talking about, then having to go back to reading each possible choice. There's a big break in the flow of dialogue and it's very unnatural. Thankfully they have the last thing the other person said or else there would probably be more confusion.

Something like Witcher 3 for instance feels very natural because the character is pretty much decided for you and any choice you make dialogue wise is just a small variation of what that character might actually say given the situation. I know within just a few seconds what each option is and how it may or may not come out because of the connection between me and Geralt. The same could be said about Sheppard in Mass Effect. By the 3rd one, the developers already pretty much had the personality of Sheppard down to where basically everyone who played came to the same conclusion depending on their alignment with good and evil. It just makes for better writing overall. So in a way, if they do go this route, I hope it's done in a way where the vault dweller has a strong enough personality for me to connect with.

Granted I've only played Skyrim but I think it's a bit odd that the advancement to the dialogue system there was not zooming in on the person you're speaking with so that the first person perspective has more weight to it. I know they said during the presentation that the dialogue system in Fallout 4 still let's you view it from first person but I'm wondering if it still uses the same face button controls in that situation or if in first person it presents a list like before.

Also with the face button selection I'm not sure how you leave the conversation. I hope you don't have to physically walk away...

It's kinda funny because Obsidian has experience with both Elder Scrolls style role playing and Bioware style third person narrative focused stuff. I wonder if Bethesda talked to them at all for their perspective.

Also I'm starting to get annoyed by the constant need to characterize every protagonist and the constant push that if the player's avatar isn't chatting the living daylights out of the situation that the game is backwards or somehow objectively lesser.

I was hoping they would do it right, but it seem they aren't. They really fucked the dialog options because of it, and now there won't be as many options because of it. Real shame.

Unfortunate that the Vault Dweller is a voiced character, but Bethesda always royally fuck up something.

Hopefully the rest of the game is a masterpiece.