The storytelling in Fallouts largely relies on dialogue. There is little in the nature of cut-scenes, except some end-game sequences. Storytelling includes everything from the main story arc, to simple things like the context for a side-quest, or the story behind a town (Rivet city, Megaton). All of this information makes Fallout a compelling, and immersive experience.
After one of my concerns with the direction of Fallout 4 was addressed in a previous blog(the confirmation of First-Person dialogue), I will raise another concern. Ultimately, I felt to write about the camera perspectives during dialogue as I felt it (option of first person dialogue) was a minimum which needed to be maintained.
My next concern more closely targets the dialogue itself: The (confirmed) implementation of a dialogue wheel. I feel that the dialogue wheel presents many problems/conflicts with delivering much of the information that I earlier described as compelling and immersive. By reducing dialogue to 4 buttons (sometimes 3 and a "goodbye"), it reduces the directions that the dialogue could develop, compared to the previous games.
Some have already theorized that the buttons simply represent a pattern. 4 options: A positive (respectful) response, a negative (rude) response, a nuetral response, and a clarification/question response. Which, in theory is very similar to what was offered before. However, it is very simplistic compared to before. Fallout 3/NV had multiple different areas you could take the dialogue, all to learn about your surroundings. Now it seems there will only be 3-4, and that once you engage in any of them, it will return to the simple positive/negative/nuetral or clarification system. Much of which serves similar purposes. All of them simply "advance" the dialogue rather then choose where it goes.
Finally, the dialogue wheel presents a huge problem in that dialogue options are needed to be represented by short 1-4 word options. Naturally, there will be many who have different perceptions of the options paraphrasing, and witness an outcome/dialogue they did not intend. In other words, the paraphrased dialogue options does not always capture the essence of what is actually said. Whereas the dialogue list system in the previous games did not run into this problem - the lines of dialogue were there to choose from. In Fallout 4, lines of dialogue are paraphrased into short labels on the dialogue wheel. It's inevitable there will be a break in immersion somewhere along the line.
All of this is to incorporate the decision to have a voiced protagonist. So far, I would say a voice protagonist, and simplistic dialogue are far from the essence of last generations iterations of Fallout. The voiced protagonist itself represents, to many people who enjoy fallout, a major break in immersion. How do you project your own character onto a character that speaks in a predetermined way?
Ultimately, all of these inclusions carry inherent problems and conflicts. These design choices indicate a "dumbing down", a "casualization" of the fallout series. Choices aimed at a even wider player base, and by consequence, a narrowing of its own player base. Choices aimed at "improving flow", and cinematization, of a game which, arguably, shouldn't need it.
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For more on this concern, and the problem of projecting your own character on a voiced character, there is an excellent page discussing it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fa...
(Please take note that I deliberately did not include Fallout and Fallout 2)
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
It wouldn't be the first time Bethesda dumbed down or casualized something
I think the dialogue wheel has secretly bothered me in other games, because as it's said, you're only shown simple words. More often than not, the character may say something different, instead of what you imagined it would be.