Fallout's writers are hacks.

[Elaura]

I certainly understand your disappointment, Fen. Mediocrity seems to be good enough these days.

You know, I'm not into lore at all, at least not much more than the story it conveys, but we were watching a let's play of FO4 and the moment the main character acts as if he's worn power armor before, it made my brain itch. He didn't seem to be the type to have been in on any prototype experimentation, so if it made my brain skip like a vinyl record, it must be a big mistake. I felt the same when I saw the suit in the box car on the train tracks. It just looked odd. I have to admit, though, I totally missed the fact it was the Enclave, not the BoS that invented it.

[Fenrir]

I can understand the male player knowing how to use it, as he was in the Military, but the wife, a lawyer by trade? Hardly. And yeah, from all accounts, Enclave made the APA/X-01 for their own use, which is why we only see the Brotherhood using T-45, T-51, and T-60. By nature, they love that pre-war stuff, so they're not gonna play around with things the Enclave made. That's how I see it, at least.

Honestly, I dislike that 4 gives you Power Armor right off the bat. Obviously I like it from a gameplay perspective, it's great having this big suit of armor to crush enemies with.
But there's no sense of accomplishment with it? In fallout 3 and new vegas, and from what I've played it seems the earlier games are the same, you had to work for that power armor, and damn was it worth it. You weren't some fleshbag anymore, you had some serious protection to show those Raiders who's boss.

And now, hey, you're level 3, you need some power armor. It's okay, everyone gets power armor! The Raiders, the Gunners, any waster who can hack a terminal on a wrecked train, why not?

[Fenrir]

That, and the early introduction of Deathclaws was just handled poorly in my opinion. In Fallout 1, it's some big looming mysterious angel of death. You don't know what it is, you just know you don't wanna screw with it. Sure, by 3 or New vegas you probably have a good grasp on them, but it still takes a bit to actually meet one. By then you have a pretty good idea of what the Wasteland's capable of, and boom, this big monster that's tougher than anything you've ever dealt with...

And Fallout 4, you've beat up some roaches, shot some raiders, here's a deathclaw you can mow down with your minigun, now go help those fine folks build a house.

[Adul]

Bethedsa's all about spectacle these days. They learned that it pays off to go after the big obvious moments^TM that are trailer-ready and awesome^TM and not worry too much about the smaller details and the complexities of game making like building tension, or having a focused narrative, or whatever else it is that people always whine about. They make the summer blockbusters of gaming.