We finally have a release date for Fallout 4, following the presentation made by Bethesda for E3 early this morning. 10 November 2015 is the day the game is coming to PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
Fears of losing the important features of the game such as customising your character and free world exploration have been proved groundless: we can still play as either male or female (news greeted by much rejoicing in the auditorium) and the new character creation window looks fantastic. No more nasty sliders – just pick a facial area and use arrows to sculpt and mold the look of it. According to Bethesda, “Player freedom remains our absolute number one goal“, and the world is geared to allow you to “create any kind of character you want, go where you want, and do what you want”.
They showed several Fallout 4 gameplay clips, including a part of the intro, which frankly, looks a bit too Sims-y for my liking, but it’s mercifully brief. While no major story details have been spoiled, we do know that you play the sole survivor of Vault 111 and you’re Boston-bound. The dynamic volumetric lighting and shadows on the gameplay trailers look absolutely brilliant, and if that’s what the ‘new generation Creation engine’ does for the game, then I can’t wait to see more of it. There has been much arguing about whether the graphics are any good, and whether the necessity to keep the requirements low enough so that consoles can handle the game, but so far it looks great.
In other Fallout 4 news, the publishers are coming up with a real-life version the Pip Boy and it will be part of the special game edition. The American retailer Best Buy now lists the edition for PS4 for $119.99 and players will need to use their smartphone as the screen of the device. It is, therefore, simply a second-screen experience with a phone app (iOS and Android), but according to Todd Howard, Bethesda’s Game Director and Executive Producer, it’s the “best f**king stupid gimmick” he’s ever seen. It uses the same actual code as the Pip Boy in the game and supposedly works perfectly. It might be a cosplayer’s Holy Grail, but it’s also a great way to get game immersion ratings to go through the roof. The only thing that could make it better is being able to play games on your Pip Boy… oh, wait, you can! The couple of games show seem to have been inspired by Nintendo classics, Donkey Kong amongst them.
It’s shaping up to be an exciting next installment and I’m certainly looking forward to November. Time to hone my Luck skills in Fallout: New Vegas in the meantime.
