Try this mod!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/18/fallout-4-mod-allows-you-to-see-what-your-character-is-saying?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=23&utm_campaign=Blogroll

I don't play on computers, and this was on the base game. I don't like it when people say, "Just mod it." It's just allowing the developers to be lazy.

I haven't played any of the Mass Effect and Fallout games, but I get what you're saying. That's actually a pretty interesting observation.

Does the game explicitly say that the left up right down buttons would be for how the player wanted to react? Or does it only say something vague like, "The directional buttons will determine how you respond, with each button having a different emotion."?

But I agree that it should be kept consistent throughout, especially if it affects the story.

I don't think I even saw a hint telling you how the options are supposed to work. I more had to intuit it from my own deductive reasoning and from playing other games with a similar system.

Ahh, then it's possible that it was meant to be random. I mean, you'd have to figure out by yourself what the tone of your response is in each dialogue option. Wouldn't sticking to one pattern be a bit...uhh...I forgot the word. But sticking to say, 1 happy, 1 sad, 1 angry, 1 indifferent, it would be a bit too predictable.

Game mechanics are meant to be predictable. They have to operate within a ruleset, or they become confusing and annoying, such as the example of the Fallout 4 example. You can argue randomness, but almost all of the game has taken out the random rolls and percentages that were in the previous games, so they were obviously trying to get away from that. The game is more based around getting familiar with it and learning how to become skilled with the rulesets layed out then anything involving randomness.

So it isn't just confusing and annoying, but it is also contradictory to how the game works now, with the only random chances being VATS attack and charisma percentages.

Perhaps random isn't the best word I could've used. Personally, figuring out what will happen when I make the choice is more enjoyable than a predictable, "Oh, you want to be nice to the guy? Press left!" Since I take choices as one of the ways I can express myself in the game, I'd rather they have more variety than just 4 emotions.

I personally don't mind only four emotions as long as the player character has some sort of personality setup already. And, honestly, there is no reason to not go a single path throughout the game as is the case with most games that use these systems. All of your companions basically only like it when you do good guy things, you only get the best rewards from going good guy, almost all of the factions other then the designated good guys are somewhat cartoonish, ect.

Oh, I thought Fallout was the type of game to encourage both (or whichever) paths. A choice with a clear, definite, and mathematically "better" outcome is more of a calculation than a choice. But hmm, perhaps this isn't the case with narrative choices, since the world's reaction to your choice is part of the reward.

But other than that aspect, would you say Fallout 4's good? I kinda wanted to pick it up, but I haven't played the third one, so perhaps I should start with that?

I would say it's good, this is coming from me only playing about five hours, and watching a few playthroughs and walkthroughs along with a few other miscellaneous videos.

The gameplay is far better than the previous game, mostly because it isn't trying to be Elder Scrolls with guns anymore, and has taken out a lot of the stats that, I hate to say, just kinda bogged it down. The graphics are pretty nice, the crafting system is pretty fun and addictive, the storyline is decently compelling as far as I've seen, and the companions are pretty varied and cool all around.

To call Mass Effect dialogue system subtle is praise it's certainly not worthy of, but it is quite a bit more internally consistent than Fallout 4's. Paragon up right, neutral or goodbye to the right, renegade to the bottom right, questions to the left.

Fallout 4 has a pretty loose set of rules that generally correspond to:

Top - Relevant question.

Left - Practical, pragmatic, "Sarcastic".

Right - Negative, pessimistic, or apathetic.

Down - Positive, optimistic, or sympathetic.

For what it's worth, I think the original system made from Fallout 1 and carried to Fallout New Vegas was better. This was needless simplification to make it into a wheel, and the game didn't really need it. Voiced protagonist was a good call in the end though, a lot of moments would be cheesy, or awkward without it; like the player was Gordon Freeman or something.

Back in my day, we needed to actually type words in. Okay okay, maybe that was something I was glad to get rid of. But what's wrong with at least selecting a large number of keywords or substances from a menu? Seemed to make just as much sense to me. Yeah yeah, I know regurgitating keywords at everyone until you get all their conversation snippets is boring and tedious and makes NPCs seem more like walking information vending machines then anything else, but I don't see how this new kind of system is really any better.

But I admit I never played Mass Effect or any game that used a more modern system then "select the topic/responce", so I have no idea how it works. It seems the trend nowadays is to treat conversation as a branching cutscene I think? It seems to me like that just has the opposite problem of the player not really having any way of asking about anything at their own pace since the pace and subject of the conversation is totally up to the NPC. Maybe doing both would work sometimes?

Also glad to hear bad things about Fallout 4 so I don't have to feel bad about my ancient laptop, and so I can continue to turn my nose up and hmph dismissively at AAA games like the dirty poor indie hipster I am.