While Fallout 4 does get alot of criticisms there are some really fun or interesting locations and events out there in the Commonwealth that do redeem parts of it.
For example after like 6 replays I never even realized until today that the General Atomics Factory from the Automatron dlc has a Miss Nanny testing area in the far back, bottom level where you can test out how good of a Nanny you are.
Any of ya'll find anything out in the Commonwealth that surprised you after nearly 2 years of playthroughs?

So recently I watched Oxhorn's video on Kellogg and also played Fallout 4 again after countless times of playing it, but what really caught my eye is Kellogg's whole persona. He seems shockingly reminiscent of Max Payne from his attitude to even his appearance.

Just to remind you, here's the evolution of Max Payne in Max Payne 3:

Spoiler:

Here's the evolution of Kellogg in his memories:

Spoiler:

Look awfully similar, right?

Not only that, but the whole nihilistic depressed voiceover narration Max does in all the games is also done by Kellogg in his memories. Max's drunk Father often beat his Mother like Kellogg's Father did, Max's daughter and his wife are killed and Max gets his revenge, just like Kellogg does. Max also during the events of 3 takes up work as private security for the Branco family, while Kellogg becomes a mercenary for the Institute.

Of course, I'm not declaring that they did plagiarize the character, but the two are so similar to one another it makes me question whether they were just inspired by Max Payne.

Either way, both characters are great, just some fun thoughts.

Having Dogmeat around is always good for a laugh, like when he salutes Elder Maxson

I know this isn't a big hidden gem, but I really like it. Did you know when you walk into a conversation that you know that you're gonna be apart of, you can instantly turn on the cinematic camera by pressing ENTER or E on any of the characters in that conversation? Like for instance, when you first see Piper complaining to that one Diamond City Security guy, you can press ENTER or E to see the full conversation in the Cinematic camera. Before then, you would have to wait for one of the NPCs to talk to you first to activate it. For me, this adds to a lot of the immersion. It doesn't work for all conversations, but it works for most of them.

When you do play game not as initially intended, you learn Bethesda did think of it and often even have comments or NPC reactions to it.

Like, when you never let out MM (certain Institute quest later for example replaces them with mercenaries, some NPCs comment in random locations about lack of MM). Or that you can shoot railroad at as soon as open the door and decode the chip yourself - best done with music from terminator film! Or you get extra quest never joining RR either.

And then there's funny situations, when you never interact with BoS prior certain quests and so on, and so on. There's a lot of 'little things' I keep walking into.

Well when I think of gems within fallout 4, I immediately think of the wreck of the FMS Northern Star. I remember discovering it during my first playthrough and thinking nothing of it. On a later playthrough, however, I realised the raiders were more... interesting. Not only were they all ghouls, but I started noticing what they were saying. They were speaking scandinavian and, well, that kinda blow my mind. They were just called raiders and it didn't seem like there was anything of real interest so I originally never thought much of it. Small things like this really makes the game enthralling.

I think that a big part of why most people feel so frustrated with Fallout 4 is the potential the game has to be great, with so many small treats to be found and such a nice environmental design, yet so lacking in writting to back it all up.

I recently decided to build a motherbase like the one in MGSV TPP inspired by one of Robbaz videos where he does just that. And in order to find a good spot for it I pretty much swam through the entire coast from north to south, to find a surprising number of small shacks built in the most unexpected places, like a small setup with a cot and some junk hidden behind an in-sea cliff , to the south east of Salem. The corpse of the former owner sitting in a wheelchair, floating atop some plywood, with a pack of buffout laying by its side.

I found many many more little visual stories accross all sorts of make shift homes, built on the sea, and I really enjoyed trying to figure out what happened to its residents. It's small things like that what makes the game still enjoyable for me.

I just wish they had delved deeper into making actual storylines for these little spots.

I think the combat is the genuinely the most favorable upgrade from FNV/FO3 to FO4. Its like 100000x better and with all the customizable accessories makes for a more varied gunplay. The other thing I guess is the settlement, poured more hours into building a settlement than actually scavenging and doing quests because that's how enjoyable that thing is.

I think Nick Valentine is one of the few gems of Fallout 4. A lot of the characters in the game feel bland, uninteresting and poorly written. He had a personality I liked, a good backstory, his dialogue was well written, his quests are good and I love how he played a role in Far Harbor. I hated the main story and how Bethesda ripped out the RPG elements that makes Fallout Fallout, when Nick was ever involved in the plot he made it more interesting with his presence. He's like the Boone of the companions, he's the one I take the most.

Orth wrote:

I think that a big part of why most people feel so frustrated with Fallout 4 is the potential the game has to be great, with so many small treats to be found and such a nice environmental design, yet so lacking in writting to back it all up.

I recently decided to build a motherbase like the one in MGSV TPP inspired by one of Robbaz videos where he does just that. And in order to find a good spot for it I pretty much swam through the entire coast from north to south, to find a surprising number of small shacks built in the most unexpected places, like a small setup with a cot and some junk hidden behind an in-sea cliff , to the south east of Salem. The corpse of the former owner sitting in a wheelchair, floating atop some plywood, with a pack of buffout laying by its side.

I found many many more little visual stories accross all sorts of make shift homes, built on the sea, and I really enjoyed trying to figure out what happened to its residents. It's small things like that what makes the game still enjoyable for me.

I just wish they had delved deeper into making actual storylines for these little spots.

I think you got the right Idea. I also think that people can expect too much from a game sequel. To me this game is really no different storywise then the past two were. I`m ok with that though because we were given a huge world to play with and customize. To me the fallout games were all about the little things you stumble across, some of those leave a more powerful story then the writing. Like when you find a bunch of bones outside a bus with a teddy bear siting next to them. So just because a story isn`t added to your questlist in your pipboy doesn`t mean there isn`t alot more around you can discover.

I think when they initially made the game they wanted people imaginations to take them places. Now though it seems if the story or content don`t pop up in your pipboy, people don`t like it.

@RangerGUN I disagree. Fallout 4's companions were one it's greatest strengths. Don't get me wrong, there's many of poorly written boring characters in the game (just like previous games, might I add), but it's companions are equal or superior to previous games.

Many people hated the affinity system but I think it was perfect. The companions can now actually hate you for what you in the main storyline and sidequests, and then actually leave you. The characters give you their backstories, they all are interesting and all are pretty unique. They all show emotion instead of standing like robots at everything you do, hell even dogmeat whimpers when you kill certain NPCs, like the Brotherhood Knights.

Piper, Nick, Cait, Deacon, hell even the weaker companions like Danse and Preston have personalities. I'm not trying to bash on the previous games, but look at companions like Charon or Lily in comparison. Danse, Preston and Deacon actually refuse to travel with you or just trigger combat with you outright if you are disliked by their respective factions.

There's many features Fallout 4 forgot to add, or just cut out, but it definitely had great companions (with the exception of Strong).

Now with Far Harbor I think they listened to the criticisms of 4 and tried to make up for it. Far Harbor is an excellent DLC with a huge map, great atmosphere, great factions, a morally grey dilemma, exceptional dialogue and RPG elements the main game lacked. In Far Harbor, you can be evil, good neutral, it's a pretty great DLC if you ask me.