Western Massachusetts is scaled down more significantly than Boston itself, with distances between towns like Concord and the city of Boston drastically reduced. Fallout 4 takes place almost exclusively within the ruins of Boston, with several settlements like Diamond City and Goodneighbor formed in famous location. The two games' world designs are also quite different. RELATED: Fallout: New Vegas - The Most Memorable Companions in the Game Combined with the optional third-person camera during dialogue, and Fallout 4В often resembles BioWare games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age more than it does New Vegas or Fallout 3. The separation between Fallout 4's player and its player character also extends to dialogue options, which in the retail release don't directly represent the words the player character will actually speak.

Anyone hoping to roleplay as a kooky old man or a bright-eyed teenager will have a far easier time doing so in New Vegas than Fallout 4.

This difference is also exacerbated by the fact that Fallout 4's player character is the only voiced protagonist in Fallout history. Fallout: New Vegas prioritizes flexibility and freedom, while Fallout 4 prioritizes the characterization of the player character. However, the degree to which the Sole Survivor's pre-War life is set in stone also makes it harder for players to immerse themselves in that player character if they had something else in mind for their backstory. Like their player character and unlike the Courier, the player's complete lack of familiarity with the open world they're entering makes a lot more sense. The fact that the player starts before theВ Great War of 2077 has its advantages in terms of immersion. The player's family is completely prescribed at the start of the game - they have a heterosexual spouse and a young child, Shaun. In contrast, Fallout 4's introduction is far more prescriptive than both Fallout: New Vegas and arguably the Fallout games preceding it. However, it also makes the Courier a uniquely flexible protagonist in the franchise, a blank slate more akin to most Elder Scrolls'В characters than Fallout games. In fact, pursuing the man who once shot them in the headВ could understandably be the last thing on the Courier's list. This comes with pros and cons: There is far less reason to beВ driven to complete the main quest of Fallout: New Vegas at first than most other Fallout games. The personality of the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3В may have largely been under the player's control, but they are always a 19-year-old who grew up in Vault 101 and is leaving in pursuit of their missing father, James. It is one of the few Fallout intros that doesn't begin in a Vault-Tec vault, leaving the player character's identity and past in the hands of the player far more than most installments in the series. This introduction is notably non-prescriptive, even for a Fallout game.

They awaken in Doc Mitchell's office in Goodsprings, determine their appearance and basic stats, and are sent out into the Mojave Wasteland with a single objective should they choose to pursue it - finding Benny. Fallout: New Vegas starts with the Courier being shot in the head and left for dead by Benny and his associates. Fallout 4 and New Vegas begin in two very different ways.

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