In all fairness to Skyrim if you never visit the Jarl of Whiterun, you pretty much neglect the main quest's ability to "focus" your role playing experience into the Dragonborn. Going all the way back to Daggerfall, that's always been The Elderscroll's shtick though.

Hence why DAI went for two male voices and two female. I had hoped Bethesda wouldn't limit it to one each side incase that happened.

Male voice actor makes a great good guy but can't do much else.

I have some things stopping me from playing as well.

Sleep and work mostly. Sometimes food, but I can be pretty stubborn about that one.

Something's literally stopping me from playing as well. It's called the Monsignor Plaza glitch that crashes my game for 3 weeks now so I can't do the story missions.

Have not heard of that what exactly is happening?.

It means playing a role. Actors do it all the time, it doesn't mean they wrote the script. Creating the character and defining the backstory isn't roleplaying, it's writing. Role playing involves adopting the role and running with it.

Mate, that has nothing to do with (video)game roleplaying. And actually yes, it does mean not playing a pre-set story. Roleplaying means choices to express yourself with as your character, throughout the story. That means "not pressing next-next-next".

See above and stop making up definitions.

For my current character, finding Shaun is a slow gradual task. He wanders the Commonwealth exploring and meeting new people who slowly give him leads to Shaun. I've avoided most of the main quest so he probably won't actually find him for awhile but I feel like making it a long drawn out quest through the wasteland keeps things at a good pace, so I can explore without feeling too pushed forward by the story.

I did. Matter of fact i have gotten no less than 1000 hrs out of every vanilla Beth game since Morrowind. I actually have much fewer hours playing a modded version of these games because when i started doing that in Oblivion i got hooked on Modding the game(not using but making) and it is a much stronger addiction than playing.

Yeah, I'm also having a hard time playing OP. It's just not engaging to me like Fallout 3 and New Vegas and even Skyrim. I feel like I was being overwhelmed with boring and randomly generated quests from every side and the fun sidequests with an actual story and dialogue choices to them (like the Silver Shroud ones) were few and far between. I hate how limited the dialogue options are now and that there are no perk or skill based extra dialogue options. To me the main story was generic and not well fleshed out and didn't do enough to make me care and then you get to the part where you have to choose a faction and I felt like there was no satisfying choice. All factions seemed like jerks except the Minute Men who were incredibly boring and had no storyline and then stopped talking with or interacting with me other than to tell me about raiders hassling settlements over and over and OVER so I couldn't choose them anyway. I don't really have any desire to beat the game which is a strange feeling for me since I'm not one of those people who don't finish their games.

Why do you say that? I have around 300 hours on my most played character but I have around a dozen characters. I don't know how many hours I have in total but 1000 doesn't seem like that much of a stretch.

Player VO is the bane of roleplaying and replayability.

To the OP, at least you finished the game. I'm still trying because it's Fallout but the game is just not fun.

Its missing some of the major Fallout universe elements such as the *superstitious post apocalyptic shamanistic karma based tribal vibe* that is essential and core to Fallout experience and its universe. This most prominent element of Fallout lore is entirely missing from this game, it suggests that probably Bethesda never understood the Fallout lore, just purchased the rights and started coding and developing an Elder Scrolls clone in tattered Fallout skin.

This game has probably killed the spirit of Fallout universe.

I agree. I'm not finished with the game, but I haven't come across anything to suggest that my choices make a difference in the game. I've never had such a linear experience in an open world Bethesda game before.

No need for a mod, you only have to say "Nope, not interested." when he asks you about joining his questline. I helped the first time then told him to leave me alone, and he did.

I agree that FO4 railroads the player down a certain path more than most BGS games do. I kind of wish they'd stop with the family elements of the stories in their Fallout games. None of ones made by other developers used family as a focal-point.

Eh, not realistic. Do you have any kids? Losing your only child (especially after losing your only other family member to death) would pretty much automatically become your primary motivator in any situation...I mean, unless you're a sociopath. That's just biology. I didn't even really like kids before I had one, and now my kid is the most important thing in my life by far. There's really no getting around it. I think an apocalypse would only intensify that.

Good summary. I'm near 200 hours, finished the MQ, and still looking for some side quests that will keep me going. The world is awesome to wander in but 'the go there and kill that' is getting old. Engaging side quests that contain dialogs/stories with NPC's are rather slim. There was a glimmer of hope when I came across the Atom Cats but that was short-lived. There seems to be over reliant on the radiant quests and some written notes here and there but it just not very engaging. It's getting bad because last night I started to wander back to my modded Skyrim.

I think we need the equivalent of Interesting NPCs mod for Fallout 4. I do hope the future DLCs adds some quests. I certainly will not buy the season pass until I see some reviews on the DLC.

I see another ~3400 hours in the Mojave in my future

Meanwhile, 196 in F4, and the is intensifying critically. And i agree, too much automatically accepted randomly generated quests

I've used Power Armor with Jetpack and Gattling Laser. What else is there in this game?

You know what BGS? Forget patches and just get the mod tools out so the salvage operation can begin. And after all, we all know the modders will do a better job at patching too

Yeah but that's kinda the problem. Bethesda is relying too much on the moding scene. And don't forget about "Paid Mods" which would be implemented in Fallout 4 if people didn't protest. We all know that mods will fix pretty much all of this, and add thing we want. The thing is, some people (including me) expect that profits bethesda made from skyrim, and fallout 3 ,NV are reinvested in Fallout 4, but i don't think they were. When you look at Wither 3: Wild hunt, one of the first words that comes to mind is the word Epic. I doubt you can say Fallout 4 is epic, can you? For me it feels average in all areas. The FPS is average, the rpg element is handicaped, settlement building is average... . All those areas aren't anything special, they feel more like a gimmick then a real feature. I love Fallout 4, i already lost a lot of my social life, and i'm planning to play it extensivly especially after the geck is released. But i'm kinda dissapointed knowing what path Beth is going, and i sure hope they don't "streamline" TES6 even more.

I agree. I didn't like playing as a parent in the game. Not because it was a bad idea, but because this game in particular presented a strong sense of urgency, but that urgency was diminished when you took time to do things like building a house or planting crops. Those kinds of things ruin the immersion for me, because I think the game then becomes more about building a powerful character, more than it is about playing a role or creating a personal story for "YOUR" character. In Fallout 4, Bethesda has created a character for you to play, with plenty of backstory to give you an idea of who that character was before the bombs.

I hated fallout 3's vault beginning but it was sure better that this.

When a thread turns into a series of discussion comparing older games and the new one, it gets moved to the seires discussion forum because that is what is being discussed.

Well played admin...well played...

Well at least it means the thread won't get locked by rabid really devoted fans

Not to high jack this thread but I have also hit a dead end for Fallout 4 and only at level 19 with my first character. Had same problem with Skyrim but at level 7 and didnt play for 3 months.
My high jack is does anyone know if/when Fallout New Vegas might become Xbox One compatible? My 360 has kicked the bucket and I'm itching to play. I have actually thought of playing a gunslinger/cowboy in 4 but don't even think its possible. I need my trail carbine and .44 magnum itch scratched. Also an engaging story line with actual consequences... But I digress.