We've got things like click & drag molding of our characters appearance, and cartoony graphics (sims4) gathering resources and building houses one meter square at a time (rust). cinematic dialogue (bioshock, bioware) and we've even got a phone app and a freemium game. oh, and who can forget the dog (fable). peter moleneux would be proud.

Good to see where the priorities lie for this next installment - try to cast a wide a net as possible for as many sales as possible on release. Well let me tell you, a worthwhile sequel doesn't make money, marketing and hype does. fallout 4 has fingers in too many pies.

A dog companion has been in Fallout games since one, Bioshock didn't have the cinematic dialogue wheel (hell, Booker was the first protagonist in a bioshock game to even have a voice), the Sims didn't create click and drag character building.

no, the dog was a side companion or an easter egg to boy and his dog. now he's got the spotlight, to try to catch the "oh, so cute" or "thats cool" crowd. im surprised he wasn't put on the cover art with a cute expression.

sims didnt create click and drag character building but for some reason bethesda played sims 4 and thought it was the best thing ever.

just watch fallout 3 at e3 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9gYbT_66Qs

they werent trying to cast a net on anybody... it was a first person, rpg, for people who wanted an rpg. it wasn't trying to bait anyone else, and it wasnt trying to emulate anything else. the closest thing to fallout 3 back then was STALKER because it was also a FPS with rpg mechanics.. but still they were both very different. now fallout 4 wants to try to please every type of player and looks like a cartoon to boot. spread dem legs fallout.

Not to antagonize you but so. I love Fallout and want to share it with the world. (NOt by bombs come on to easy)

If it gets super duper popular that means more games and more chances for you to get one you will like plain and simple.

Still waiting for real punk rock to make a come back by the way.

Ohhh Ohh Telltale story of a vault dweller calling it now mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Compared to most methods games use, or in many cases, the lack of any methods (can't believe some games are STILL offering systems as bare bones as WoW's...) I'm going to go with "yeah, it is."

did you see the character Todd molded in the demo? the end result looked DREADFUL. watch it again. The randomize appearance button looked like a far better option.

So what? Point-and-click facegen is a bad thing because Sims 4 had it? Settlement-building and cinematic dialog both look awesome, why the hell shouldn't Fallout 4 have them? Fallout Shelter is just another game (and as far as mobile games go, it's really not very skeevy), and they openly said the Pipboy app was just a fun gimmick. The dog's a staple of Fallout, and just as optional as it's always been.

Bethesda made a game that includes features they think are fun in games. That's all I've seen.

That wasn't a randomize button, he was cycling through the presets.

eh another one of the Grumpy old guys from NMA going GET OFF MY LAWN! thing while not realizing hes in the Terminal care hospice wing of the Assisted living center with more tubes in him than 1950s Philco^tm radio.

But just in case your actualy serious . . .

who (besides you for the most part) gives a crap? the games we had back then were always stealing whatever worked because hey they wanted to be hip and trendy and sell copys too, hell the entire industry back then could be called Magpies Inc and it would have been an insult to the Magpies. hell a lot of people back then thought Fallout was ripping off Gamaworld^Tm and that they did a duck and cover under SJG just to keep from being sued.

Time moves on, good ideas get cloned to death and sooner or later someone comes up with something new and everyone dies of shock because its actualy new, and initialy runs like hell away from whatever the newest "Inovation" is because usualy the inovation crashes and burns and takes an entire studio with it.

I thought the one he chose looked pretty good. I think you're being far too critical and having a Hipster Fear panic that Fallout isn't that niche series anymore.

It's always been a popular cult classic series, and it's getting the attention it deserves, and it's going to be fun to play. That's what matters.

they are all baseless features that are just put there to give illusion of this great game in the demos. that is until we find out it's an ocean wide but an inch deep like skyrim was why put time into these features which dont actually serve the baseline of the game? all they do is provide a distraction, or allow the game to have a larger longer feature list to wow people, but how well will these actually contribute to the core rpg elements while playing?

why haven't they showed us any important features? (besides the dialogue wheel, which is terrible) either they are leaving those reveals for later or the actual rpg portion of the game is so bad they don't want to share it.

So Beth took from other games, and implemented them into Fallout 4? It's Beth, that's no surprise when they see something they like, they adopt it.

Personally, I think there are more important things to complain about, than the system used to configure the PC's face/body, the graphics (that honestly don't look that cartoony. They're bright, but not cartoony. Honestly don't see where people are still getting that after seeing all the footage from E3,) etc. I think how the character appears to move, should probably be a complaint more often said, than these other minor bits. Nobody should walk in such a restrictive looking way. It's something Beth doesn't seem to learn from.

And what do you define as important features?

They showed us the intro, character generation, base building, a montage of combat, weapon customization, there's footage of POwer Armor use...Sounds like early preview standards to me.

show us how stats work, is it done better this time? do they matter? have they been simplified like choosing "health, stamina, magicka" in skyrim?

what are perks like? do they offer different variants of play style? no, doing 20% extra damage with bows is not a perk.

i didn't find the e3 demo's very satisfying to watch. all it's done is raise more questions for me because all they've shown are things to try to wow everyone (everyone but me, it seems). everyone in the audience cheered when they saw the dog go for that wrench, even though it had a brain fart halfway there and stood there with no animation for 2 seconds, before resuming it's motion. im not impressed. skyrim looked great too but it was a let down after some time of playing.

What purpose do NPC's have and how to they behave in the world? Do they just stand around and do basic things like skyrim? or do they have full schedules and radiant AI like oblivion had?

they actually copied minecraft according to todd. just cause they try new stuff dont change the game. its their job to draw in more people. if you find a company that dont kiss them goodbye cause they well eventually die off

So the things that would just bore a packed house, gotcha.

Well...Worst comes to worst, save your caps and go play something more your flavor. They say Wasteland 2 is pretty good.

Nothing you say now is gonna change the product now, and buying Fallout 4 isn't mandatory.

it wouldn't bore me to know they are coming out with something worth years of entertainment, not 5 minutes.

"A mile weed, an inch deep" is a completely empty phrase. I could say that about Daggerfall, or Fallout 2, or Mass Effect, or whatever. It's a "trendy" phrase.

Well, that's you. Not everyone goes to E3 to listen to someone explain stat and system mechanics for an RPG.

Wait for it to come out, read the reviews. If it tickles your fancy, buy it. If not, save your money for other ventures and interests.

I'd say you've grossly mis generalized all of those points. Most of the things those things are things people on these forums have been either complaining about or asking for since FO3, especially the thing about random junk mostly being useless now going to have a point for existing in the game.

also the thing about trends or fads, is that they're a thing because enough people want them. Will these features eventually not be relevant any more? yes, just like a great deal of previous game play mechanics in games past are no longer relevant.

I am tempted to criticize you but I also recognize that for what ever reason you dislike these things or if you just don't like them because its the latest popular trend in gaming. So as much as it is my or any one elses prerogative to enjoy all those things you dislike, its your prerogative to not give them a try.

how is the phrase empty?

a game is deep when i play it for years but still find new things, because the game is deep and has a lot of layers to it. you are always reminded that the developers spent a lot of time fleshing the game out and had a lot of ideas on how to keep it interesting.

a shallow game you play for a few months and never pick it up again because it's predictable and you've seen everything it has to offer. I've experienced both kind of games, they both exist and i know what kind i prefer fallout 4 to be.

that building feature alone is going to keep me entertained for at least a 100 hours alone, and that is a very conservative estimate. different people have different tastes.

no doubt it will be fun, i love lego too. but im here for fallout.

How are the graphics cartoony? Just because they decided to diversify their color palette doesn't mean its cartoony.

The focus on the dog really annoys me too.

I understand your concerns, that Bethesda are focusing on the crowd-pleasing aspects of the game, and I'm worried that it won't be dark or deep enough. Having said that, I don't think we should be pessimistic. Bethesda have worked for a long time on the game and all the new features really excite me. We'll have to wait and see if they deliver on their promise, or if we get another Skyrim.