Due to work I had put off playing FO4 until last week, and all that time I had anticipation building about how great it would be, seeing how much better New Vegas was than FO3, my hopes were high.

Jesus Fucking Christ Bethesda.

I generally try to play the pacifist as much as possible, though I don't mind curb-stomping a faction if they really deserve it (eg: Caesar's Legion).

But FO4 just felt like a massive waste of my time now that I've finished it. Just to flesh this out, I'll give an example of how a good role-play was done in NV to contrast:

• If you complete enough quests for the major factions, you generally had a way to resolve their conflicts (even if temporarily) and have them cooperate with one another.

• Even in cases where cooperation was impossible, as seen with Mr. House and BoS, there was a good motivation: House has a massive army of robots and doesn't need the BoS's cooperation and just wants the threat eliminated. The NCR on the other hand, can't afford another war with the BoS and will concede to an uneasy alliance to defeat the Legion.

• Have an undying allegiance to one of the factions? That's fine, their quest lines will allow you to eliminate all the others.

• Don't like any of the factions and fancy yourself as the sole dictator of the Mojave? Fuck all the other guys and use Yes Man to gain control of the securitrons.

This is role-play, and the plot is actually pretty well done given the number of possible outcomes and quest conflicts.

In FO4 I almost stopped playing once I realized I'd reached a point where I'd become permanent enemies with a faction due to quest advancement.

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BoS: goddamn fanatics, probably wouldn't see reason and makes sense that there would be no completely peaceful way to deal with them, but what about just assassinating Maxson?

Why the fuck do I have to blow up the Prydwen and murder a ton of soldiers who are only there on Maxson's orders, not to mention children.

Even though they are what they are, I'd much rather find a way to send them packing or set boundaries for them in the Commonwealth (since they do help exterminate mutants and raiders), than exterminate them.

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Railroad: while a noble cause, I refuse to believe that there is no way to reach some sort of truce between them and the Institute.

I'm the god-damned Director for fuck's sake, I should be able to order gen-3 synth production to be halted immediately and all the existing ones to be liberated, and have the whole SRB burried.

Also, siding with them leaves me with the sensation that they don't give a shit about the commonwealth. They want to free synths...and then what? What's their master plan after turning the Institute into a smoldering crater?

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Minutemen: sigh...what a waste. Garvey, if you mention one more settlement that needs help after I've equipped them with half a dozen rocket launcher turrets I will murder you.

The only "nice" thing from the Minutemen was the artillery, and for the rest they were just kind of there in the background to hand out menial side-quests.

I checked on youtube to see what would happen if they were used for the end-game quest and to my surprise they use the same fanatical route as the Railroad and BoS:

Seriously? You have the chance to use the most powerful reactor on the East Coast to improve the lives of the people of the commonwealth and the only use you can find for it is to destroy the Institute? These actions make sense for Railroad and BoS since both are fanatical in their beliefs, but why the Minutemen?

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The Institute: probably the biggest disappointment of all.

They claim to want to help and that they're the only hope for mankind, but they've had 200 years to do this and all they've accomplished is blight the Commonwealth with supermutants and be an insidious menace that can replace people with duplicates to further their goals.

My first instinct is to dismantle them in the least violent way possible...and it gave me hope that this would be possible when I was made Director (even though that seemed kind of hard to believe).

Nope, I either commit genocide on all the other factions and the Institute continues with its despicable ways or I have to annihilate it completely....WTF!!

According to the game I'm the director, I should be able to change its path into what I see is fit for the future of mankind. Instead, if I refuse to do accept certain things in dialog with Father, I only get the option to come back later and accept, or I get a "that's an order" response. So much for being the Director, hey Bethesda?

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The ending cut-scene: another slap in the face with a steel dildo.

The sole survivor just mopes about the past, even after all this time he was supposed to have grown and risen above.

What about my companions? What happens to my pal Nick? Or would you have me believe that he's going to spend the rest of his days pointlessly milling around Sanctuary Hills after I'm dead?

What happens to the settlements I set up?

HOW HAVE MY ACTIONS AFFECTED THE LONG TERM PATH OF THE COMMONWEALTH?

I'd be perfectly fine with a slide-show ending like NV had, I just want to know what the outcome of my actions was Bethesda!!

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Sorry for the rant / wall of text, if this isn't the place, please delete the thread. Just wanted to vent.