Fallout London will integrate the Next-Gen-Update changes:

Fallout London - Next-Gen Update Announcement

Thanks Couchpotato!

Polygon reports that Fallout 4 gets a major update:

Fallout 4 is finally getting a next-gen update, just in time for the TV series

PS5 and Xbox Series X players will get 60 frames per second and more on April 25

Conveniently timed following the release of the Fallout TV show, Bethesda has announced that its most recent mainline Fallout game, Fallout 4, will be getting a free next-gen update for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

According to a post on the official Fallout blog on Thursday, console players will finally get a next-gen version of the 2015 game in a native application, which will allow them to play it at up to 60 frames per second when the update goes live on April 25. There will also be quality and performance modes that will allow players to choose between a higher resolution or higher frame rate. If players have the game on older consoles, they’ll still receive an update with stability improvements and other fixes.

PC players will also get a free update with next-gen features, including ultrawide monitor support. Plus, interested players can now get Fallout 4 on the Epic Games Store. And for those who have always wanted to play it on the go, the game will be Steam Deck verified.

In addition to next-gen quality of life features, Fallout 4 is also receiving new content, including a quest that features the Enclave, along with Enclave-specific character and weapon skins, that originated in the Creation Club. There’s also the new Makeshift Weapon Pack, which allows players to use random objects, like a piggy bank, as weapons, along with Halloween-themed decorations for your Boston-based settlements.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

The Fallout: Cascadia mod team presents their newest showcase:

Fallout: Cascadia | Spring 2024 Environmental Showcase

Thanks Couchpotato!

PC Gamer presents the upcoming Fallout London mod:

One of the biggest Fallout modding projects in years is about to release, and if it goes wrong it could 'kill the Fallout modding scene'

Fallout: London is reaching the end of the line. Mind the gap.

Five years in, and Fallout: London is about ready to drop a bombshell. One of the most ambitious projects in the Fallout modding scene, FOLON (as it's known) is a "DLC-sized" attempt to transplant Fallout's familiar post-apocalypse from American shores to the bustling boroughs of London, complete with ghoul-ified bobbies and King's guards. 

We called it the true best announcement of E3 all the way back in 2021, and now its cockney armageddon is so close you can taste the ashes. Its release is scheduled for April 23, after the team's Starfield-induced delay late last year. So, as I'm wont to do, I decided to knock on their door to see what working on the project has been like, and how they were feeling now that a half-decade of their life's work was about ready to bear fruit.

The answer? Nervous, excited, tired, energised. Like any development team on the cusp of releasing their baby out into the world, the FOLON team are stressed and apprehensive about just how fans will take to the project once it's freely available. But the team has an extra weight on its shoulders: If things go badly, this could end up killing the Fallout modding scene for good.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Odin S checked out the horror quest mod In the Flesh for Fallout 4:

In The Flesh - A Horror Quest Mod | Fallout 4 Modded | Full Walkthrough

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted a progress video for Fallout London:

Fallout: London - Final Progress Video 2024

JuiceHead covers the latest progress on the various Fallout remake mods being developed in the Fallout 4 engine.

Today we take a look at some of the most recent updates around the Fallout remake mods coming to the game, as well as some of the other DLC-sized mods coming to Fallout.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:19 – Fallout 3 Remake
06:07 – Fallout 1 Remake
08:29 – Fallout 2 Remake
09:58 – New Vegas Remake
11:27 – Fallout Appalachia 

Couchpotato spotted a preview of Project Arroyo. The modding project tries to re-create Fallout 2 with the Fallout 4 engine:

FALLOUT 2 REMAKE - Locations Trailer [Project Arroyo]

Want to try your hand at recreating the classic Fallout 2? Fill out this application form to join the team!

Dualshockers interviewed the creators of the total conversion mod Fallout London:

"I Don't Know How We Managed It:" How Fallout: London Succeeded Where Others Faltered

We speak to the creators of the ambitious Fallout 4 total conversion mod set in London, which is launching soon.

HIGHLIGHTS

•  Fallout: London is a grand total conversion project that has been in development for five years and will be released on April 23, 2024.
•  The mod team behind Fallout: London consists mostly of hobbyists, graduates, and casual modders, showcasing the untapped potential of passionate individuals.
•  The mod features a post-apocalyptic version of London with recognizable landmarks and areas, while also incorporating the subcultures of the late 50s and early 60s in the UK.

[...]

“When this first began, it was very grassroots,” Project Lead Dean ‘Prilladog’ Carter tells me. “We refer to our first year as our crayon-eating year. Almost immediately, we had made a world space that was too big for the allowance of what the engine was capable of. We did not know how to fix that and merging everyone's work together, we didn't know how to do that. You don't really know anything and we got to a point, after the first year, where we were like, ‘OK, this is a mess,’ and then we restarted. From that reset, everything was a lot more serious.”

Where the pandemic was the bane of many game studios, contributing to innumerable delays and botched launches (most notably Cyberpunk 2077), for Fallout: London it provided an unlikely boon. “Suddenly we had all these people who weren't allowed to leave the house for two years, so we were able to start including things we wanted in from the start,” Dean recalls. “We had 20 of us in chat, every other day. And it was like, ‘oh yeah, we need working trains.’ And then that was a thing! There were times where we were sleep deprived just because time was irrelevant back then, but we had come up with these amazing things.”

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Fallout London, a mod for Fallout 4, has a new trailer announcing its release date of 23rd April 2024.

Fallout: London is a DLC-sized mod for Bethesda’s Fallout 4. As a continuation of the base game, the mod will allow the player to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London.

As a divergence from previous official titles in the series, Fallout: London is not set in America. Visiting a totally new setting allows for us to explore totally new cultures which have not homogenized with their American counterparts.

It also allows us to explore pre-war European history, and the effects the Resource Wars had on the class structured society of pre-war Britain.

Team FOLON® operates as an independent entity responsible for the development of the Fallout: London mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4™ game. We want to emphasize that Team FOLON® is a separate legal entity from Bethesda™, the publisher of Fallout 4™.

Couchpotato spotted a teaser for the mod Fallout: Miami:

Fallout: Miami - 2023 Environmental Showcase

Fallout: Miami is an upcoming mod for Fallout 4 on PC.

As 2023 comes to a close we’d like to share with you all a small glimpse into the Post-Nuclear Vacation Destination of Fallout: Miami. 

The Sole Survivor journeys to the sunny South, following the promise of a well-paid job but ends up embroiled in a conflict between various groups, some vying for power, others fighting to uphold their ideals.

Fallout: Miami is a brand new world space with a gripping main quest, side-quests, equipment, settlements, and a host of interesting characters and companions! Uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances and participate in the age-old struggle between Order and Freedom.

Learn more about the factions in Fallout London:

Fallout 4's Birthday! Fallout: London Factions

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted an update on Fallout London:

Fallout: London - 3rd Quarter 2023 Progress Video

DSOGaming reports that the final chapter for Sim Settlements 2 is now available:

DLC-sized fan expansion for Fallout 4, Sim Settlements 2 – Chapter 3, available now for download

The modding team behind the DLC-sized fan expansion for Fallout 4, Sim Settlements 2, has released its third and final chapter. In this final chapter, players will take their settlements to war, capture non-settlement territories, and gather allies to help you fight back the Gunner Invasion.

Going into more details, Fallout 4 Sim Settlements 2 – Chapter 3 allows players to turn their settlements into Outposts. Players will recruit settlers and wastelanders into their army, as well as train them and lead them into battle.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

DSOGaming reports on the Fallout New Vegas Remake mod for Fallout 4 which has some new gameplay video.

The modding team behind the remake of Fallout: New Vegas in Fallout 4 has released a brand new gameplay video. This video focuses on the New Vegas weapons that will return to the game. These weapons are the Recharger Rifle, Recharger Pistol, and MF Hyperbreeder Alpha.

[...]

@DSOGaming The Fallout 4 Mod Fallout London has been delayed to take into account the launch of Starfield. It is now expected during Q4 of 2023. There has also been a new developer diary recently.

Team FOLON has announced that its DLC-sized fan expansion for Fallout 4, Fallout London, has been delayed due to Starfield. Thus, the team now targets a Q4 2023 release, and this delay will give the team enough time to further polish it and fix some bugs.

[...]

Couchpotato spotted a new progress report for Fallout London:

Fallout: London - 2nd Quarter 2023 Progress Video

PCGamesN presents the Roleplayer’s Extended Dialogue mod for Fallout 4:

Stunning Fallout 4 mod finally makes it feel like a real RPG game

A new Fallout 4 mod makes the Bethesda RPG game feel closer to New Vegas and other genre staples by adding extensive dialogue and conversation options.

One of the central complaints about Fallout 4, and perhaps Bethesda RPG games generally, is how it partially forces you to play a certain type of character. Your backstory is given to you. Your objective – rescue Shaun – is pretty rigid, and makes freeform exploration feel like a guilty pleasure. If the goal of Fallout 4 mods is to expand, overhaul, and transform the 2015 original, this new one might be one of the best – and throws in some of that classic Fallout New Vegas story building to boot.

 [...]

The 1st Quarter Progress video of 2023 for Fallout 4 mod Fallout London.

Fallout: London is a DLC-sized mod for Bethesda’s Fallout 4. As a continuation of the base game, the mod will allow the player to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London,
As a divergence from previous official titles in the series, Fallout: London is not set in America. Visiting a totally new setting allows for us to explore totally new cultures which have not homogenized with their American counterparts. It also allows us to explore pre-war European history, and the effects the Resource Wars had on the class structured society of pre-war Britain.

DSOGaming reports on new footage for Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London as part of the 3rd quarter progress report.

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According to the team, the world map will be about the size of the vanilla Fallout 4 Commonwealth. Furthermore, the mod will bring new and exciting factions. Players can also expect some new weather effects. Not only that, but Team FOLON will introduce a new weather effect, Acid Rain.

Speaking of DLC-sized mods, we also suggest taking a look at the following ones. Whispering Hills is a cool Silent Hill mod, whereas Fallout 4 Project Mojave is a full remake of the New Vegas strip (featuring 3 functional casinos). Additionally, The Wilderness Mod adds a worldplace that is as big as Nuka World. Moreover, Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 Chapter 2 adds new quests and a game mode.

The Fallout London team released an extended trailer for their upcoming Fallout 4 mod to support the Fallout For Hope Initiative:

Fallout London - Official Announcement Trailer Extended Mastercut

 

This video and announcement was put together to support the Fallout For Hope Initiative, this is the extended master cut version, showing all shots in their entirety with some small additions dotted about not seen in the version found on the official channel. This has been uploaded here for the team and your enjoyment, with no ads and as a nod to the hard work the team has put in over the past few years.

This video features work by most of the team, we can't thank them enough for their continued hard work on the mod. The assets, world space and interiors featured in this video have been masterly crafted by various artists spanning from the level designers, 3D team, 2D team and more. Brought to you in video form by myself with beautifully mastered audio and music by 'Dansky' - Daniel Morrison Neil including songs by Seph Bentos and Kyle Downes. 

To those amongst the community, thankyou for your continued support!

Fallout For Hope
Fallout London is holding a panel during one of their events and we hope to see you there and support this absolutely amazing cause.

For those unaware, the Fallout For Hope Initiative was born in 2020 after the Fallout Community mobilised to help individuals in the community struggling through tragedy and hardship. The idea was that if they could help one person, what if a global community of Fallout gamers, streamers and content creators mobilised for one cause. Since it's inception, Fallout For Hope has garnered the support of gamers all over the world for St. Jude and other worthy causes to make a difference in the world.

Thanks Redglyph!

PC Gamer reports that Fallout 3's Point Lookout DLC is now available in Fallout 4, too:

Now you can play Fallout 3's Point Lookout DLC in Fallout 4

Fallout 4 - Point Lookout mod

Point Lookout was my favorite Fallout 3 expansion, adding an island full of in-bred mutant yokels who've grown thickly callused forearms they hold up to stop you headshotting them, and drugged-up locals who send you on a psychedelic visionquest. It's weird, funny, and a pretty good time, and now you can play it in Fallout 4.

[...]

Thanks Henriquejr!

A new gameplay trailer for the DLC-sized mod Fallout 4: London has been released - the game should be available later this year:

Fallout London - Official Gameplay Trailer

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Fallout: London is a DLC-sized mod for Bethesda’s Fallout 4. As a continuation of the base game, the mod will allow the player to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London.

As a divergence from previous official titles in the series, Fallout: London is not set in America. Visiting a totally new setting allows for us to explore totally new cultures which have not homogenized with their American counterparts. It also allows us to explore pre-war European history, and the effects the Resource Wars had on the class structured society of pre-war Britain.

The lead modder of the mod Fallout 4: London - Stephanie Zachariadis - has been recruited by Bethesda.

Thanks for the info, Henriquejr!

DSOGaming reports on 8 minutes of footage from the Fallout 3 Remake that is being done in Fallout 4.

YouTube’s ‘JuiceHead’ has shared a video, showing 8 minutes of gameplay footage from the latest beta build of the Fallout 3 Remake Mod in Fallout 4, Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland. This video showcases the Point Lookout DLC, so be sure to watch it if you are fans of Fallout 3.

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@Eurogamer A new Fallout 4 mod features Mark Meer (Commander Shepard) and tells the story of the Brotherhood.

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IT’S FINALLY HERE! The long-awaited Fallout: Brotherhood mod for Fallout 4! Fallout: Brotherhood is an interactive lore mod starring Mass Effect's Mark Meer as Roger Maxson, the legendary founder of the Brotherhood of Steel. Return to the memory den as the Sole Survivor and help the Storyteller uncover what happened at the Mariposa Military Base in the days leading up to the Great War on October 23rd, 2077.

Get the Mod Here: PC - Nexus | https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/48030
PC - Bethesda.net | https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4183521
XBOX - Bethesda.net | https://bethesda.net/en/mods/fallout4/mod-detail/4183539

[...]

One of the main draws of this mod is the voice acting, naturally, and it's pretty solid (the Storyteller's inflection can be a bit odd at times - but I kind of like the weirdness of it). Mark Meer does a nice job as the stern military commander Roger Maxson, who finds himself doing questionable things for the good of the many, and must grapple with the leadership position he finds himself in. If you want to hear the voices more clearly, I would recommend going into the game settings to turn down the music, as the background ambience can get a little loud at times.

While the mod is a pretty smooth experience once installed, you may need to exercise some patience: it can be a little slow to recognise when you're ready to move on, and on one occasion I did fall off a pathway and was plonked back down in a strange spot, meaning I had to go back to a previous save. At the start you're also given a warning to avoid walking in front of the NPCs (which can confuse them a bit), but thankfully the mod saves your progress pretty frequently in case something goes wrong.

"The main challenges were mostly making the player's traversal through Maxson's memories bug free - which paid off as I've received only a handful of bug reports regarding that sequence of the mod," main programmer Richard "Unoctium" told me. ShoddyCast member Josh, who oversaw the project, said coordinating the teams had also been a challenge - along with trying to produce something of substance without a studio-size budget. 

The October update for Fallout 4 mod Fallout: Miami.

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Summer’s behind us, and we’re back with another Fallout: Miami development update. Hope you all enjoyed the environmental showcase we released recently. Things have gotten pretty crazy this year, so we hope you and yours are doing as good as possible, all things considered. Current events haven’t stopped us from working on Miami, and we’re stoked to show you a few of the things we’ve gotten done over the past months.

The Fallout 4: New Vegas mod has a new gameplay trailer.

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Project aimed to remake and revitalize Fallout New Vegas in the Fallout 4 Creation Engine.

Website: http://www.f4nv.com/

DSOGaming reports on a new environments trailer for Fallout: Miami which is an unofficial expansion of Fallout 4.

Fallout Miami Districts:

• Meridian: On the outskirts you’ll find Meridian, an industrial zone that hosts the well-known Pop & Chill bottling plant, among other factories, and the homes of Miami’s working class.
• Atlantic: Just over the river is Atlantic, a district of two parts. Along the coast are some of the most opulent resort hotels, including the world-famous Sunshine Hotel & Casino, while the central area is mostly residential.
• Maimon: Home to the university campus and hospital.
• Bayshore: Luxury housing and luxury leisure, mansions are a common sight in Bayshore. The Cuban golf course is an ever popular destination for fat cats both native and visiting.
• Sheridan: Similarly to Atlantic, the coastline is dedicated to tourism. On the west side of the river are many suburb-like neighbourhoods, as well as Miami Beach Sheridan High School, which borders Bayshore’s vast golf course.
• Downtown: The beating heart of Miami. Business, shopping, bars, restaurants, theaters, Downtown has it all, including civic buildings such as City Hall and the Miami Beach Convention Center.
• Flamingo: A patchwork of retirement communities, entertainment and luxury, Flamingo is Miami, just calmer. Locations range from Miami’s largest yacht club to the Flamingo Trailer Park.

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@DSOGaming A new trailer for mod Fallout 4 Capital Wasteland has been released. The mod aims to recreate Fallout 3 in Fallout 4.

This latest trailer for Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland showcases the Point Look DLC from Fallout 3. Thus, we can assume that alongside Fallout 3, the team will also remake its DLC.

As the team noted, this is currently a side project. Moreover, this trailer features early alpha footage and is subject to change. Now I don’t know why the team is bothering with the DLC when the main game is not finished yet, but there you have it.

[...]

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@DSOGaming The mod to recreate Fallout New Vegas in Fallout 4 has come out with a new teaser video.

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The team behind the Fallout New Vegas Remake in Fallout 4, Fallout 4: New Vegas has released a brand new gameplay video. This video shows the main protagonist roaming the roads and talking to Oliver Swanick. It also shows the dialogue menu and reload animation.

Fallout 4: New Vegas aims to recreate Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas in Fallout 4’s Creation Engine. This mod will come with all of the original quests, story and content. Furthermore, it will have additional gameplay elements and systems from the new and improved engine.

[...]

DSOGaming reports that some new screenshots have emerged for the Fallout 4 based project New Vegas Total Conversion.

It’s been a while since our last look at the Fallout 4: New Vegas mod, right? Well, the team behind it has released three new screenshots, showcasing the Mojave worldspace. While this is still a WIP project, these screenshots will give you an idea of its art direction.

[...]

Wccftech reports on The Bleachers - A Diamond City Story quest mod for Fallout 4.

Modder MunkySpunk has released an amazing new modification for Fallout 4, the Fallout 4 The Bleachers Quest Mod.

Earlier today we already covered the freshly-released NCR Veteran Ranger armor mod for Fallout 4, and now we another great mod for Bethesda’s action-RPG.

‘The Bleachers - A Diamond City Story’ comes with roughly 5 hours of new quest content, 5 new voice NPCs, a new playerhome located under the Bleacher seats of Diamond City, over 20 new loading screens, 4 new richly decorated NPC bedrooms and much more.

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Thanks Farflame!

DSOGaming Fallout 2287 is a total overhaul mod for Fallout 4 that turns the game into a survival sim.

Modder ‘D1v1ne122’ has released a new version of his must-have total overhaul mod for Fallout 4, Fallout 2287 – Nuclear Winter. This mod is for players that want to replay the game via some additional gameplay overhauls, or for those that want a completely different environment.

Fallout 2287 – Nuclear Winter pits the Sole Survivor against the bitter cold of Winter. This mod brings frosty aesthetics such as snow shaders, and visible breathing. Therefore, players will have to fight to stay warm with thick clothing and seek heat sources.

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Thanks Farflame!

Wccftech reports on a new unofficial DLC for Fallout 4 called 'The Machine and Her’.

Created by modder ‘NikaCola’, this unofficial DLC-sized quest mod for Fallout 4 adds a brand-new content to Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic game. The mod revolves around Kit – an all-new companion with a custom-built affinity system. We’ve included the mod’s key features down below alongside a video and some screenshots.

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Thanks Farflame!

Wccftech reports that Fallout 4 mod Fallout: Miami is available for download although still far from finished.

Created by modder ‘Mika999’, the modification for Fallout 4 allows players to experience a journey to the post-nuclear vacation wasteland of Miami Beach where they’ll take part in the ideological struggle between Order and Freedom. As this is still an early version of the mod, it contains built parts of the old explorable worldspace. In addition, there currently aren’t any NPCs or enemy encounters and no quests. Luckily, the Fallout Miami mod will be updated over time with NPCs and new areas.

[...]

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Thanks Farflame!

A new trailer for the Fallout 4 mod Capital Wasteland.

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This is a project I have been looking foward to making for a while and i really wanted to throw together a video. I hope you enjoy

Please Note: This is pre-alpha footage everything is subject to change in the future.

The February progress update for Fallout 4 mod Fallout: Miami.

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Fallout: Miami is an upcoming mod for Fallout 4.

Welcome you to the Fallout: Miami monthly update for the year’s shortest month! This February, we have a little something-something that’s pretty exciting to announce—a gameplay feature you’ve been asking us about for quite a while! We’ve also got some sweet new content, as usual, so let’s get this show on the road!

DSOGaming reports that Project Arroyo is attempting to remake Fallout 2 in the Fallout 4 engine. Screenshots at the link.

A team of modders is currently working on a mod that aims to recreate the world of Fallout 2 in Fallout 4. This project is called Project Arroyo and the team’s goal is to give to the old fans of the Fallout games, and to the new, Fallout 2 with brand new visuals and a first-person perspective. And while this mod is still in an early phase, the team has released its first screenshots that you can find below.

[...]

PC Gamer reports that the Fallout 3 remake project has started again:

Capital Wasteland, the Fallout 3 remake in Fallout 4, has resumed development

Work was halted last year over concerns about audio rights.
Capital Wasteland is a major mod project that aims to recreate Fallout 3 into the new, prettier, but otherwise not as good (that's right, I said it) Fallout 4. But just a couple of weeks after we looked at it in early 2018, the plug was pulled over concerns about the plan to bring Fallout 3 voice acting and other audio into the project. The modders decided that they didn't want to risk "our connections with many members of the amazing dev team that is Bethesda Game Studios" over a potential legal dust-up, and so they decided to hit the brakes—while leaving the door open to a possible resumption of work.
[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

@DSOGaming A new unofficial patch for Fallout 4.

Alongside the Quest fixes, this new version of UF4P comes with Actors, Effects, Items, Locations, Mesh, Papyrus, Terminal and Placement/Layout/Ownership and other World Object fixes.

Those interested can download the latest version of this unofficial patch from here, and below you can find a portion of its changelog (you can find its full release notes here).

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

@DSOGaming An unofficial Fallout 4 patch mod to sort out all the remaining issues.

The Unofficial Patch Project team has released a brand new patch for Fallout 4. In case you weren’t aware of, the Unofficial Fallout 4 patch is a comprehensive bugfixing mod that aims to eventually fix every bug with Fallout 4 not officially resolved by the developers.

According to its description, the Unofficial Fallout 4 patch comes with hundreds of gameplay, quest, NPC, object, item, text and placement fixes, and is designed to be compatible with as many other mods as possible.

[...]

@DSOGaming A new gameplay video for a Fallout 4 mod which recreates Fallout: New Vegas. The video shows the beginning of Fallout: New Vegas in Doctor Mitchells house.

Team F4NV has released a new video, showing the first 10 minutes of gameplay from the highly anticipated Fallout 4: New Vegas mod. As the title suggests, Fallout 4: New Vegas is a remake of Obsidian’s Fallout New Vegas game in Fallout 4.

[...]

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The Miami mod for Fallout 4, receives a new trailer.

Fallout: Miami is spearheaded by Milan Brajkovic, also known as Mika999. Primarily working on the mod as a visual artist, Brajkovic is a fairly prolific modder on Nexus Mods, with his major claim to fame being the extensive Shard of Oblivion mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Brajkovic leads a team of fairly prolific modders from all over the globe, including 3D and concept artists, animators, writers, and composers to produce a DLC-sized experience for Fallout 4. The Vacation Wasteland contains all you would expect from a Fallout experience, from various factions vying for control of the Wasteland to deadly hazards such as new raider gangs, slavers, and “Gatorclaws”, the reptilian cousins of the Deathclaw. One unique aspect for Fallout: Miami will be the introduction of vehicles. Based on Fallout lore, these customized vehicles will be fully usable in-game, allowing players to traverse the wasteland with ease.

Other mysteries, including brand new threats, may befall the player while they are in Miami, but the team is currently tight-lipped on the extent of the in-game lore they are exploring at this time.

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DSOGaming reports on an interesting mod for Fallout 4 known as Fallout Cascadia which aims to bring back gameplay systems from the older Fallouts.

As with most total conversions, Fallout Cascadia will feature new custom-made textures/assets. What’s also really interesting, however, is that this mod will bring back old gameplay systems from previous installments of the Fallout franchise such as skills, the dialogue system and much more.

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Thanks Farflame!

@DSOGaming Fallout 4 Enhanced Mod aims to provide a better RPG experience and more tactical options.

Modder ‘Bdogs’ has released a brand new mod for Fallout 4. According to the modder, the Fallout 4 Enhanced mod aims to fix various bugs and rebalance the game in order to provide a more tactical feeling and a better RPG experience. Contrary to other mods, however, this one aims to stay close to the vanilla version and vision of its creators.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Two new mods for Fallout 4 have caught the attention of DSOGaming called Fallout North Star and Fallout Liberty Hell.

Liberty Wastes Beautification Committee is currently working on a new mod for Fallout 4 that will create a post-apocalyptic Philadelphia and its surrounding area. This mod has been under development for two years, and the team has released some new screenshots and a trailer.

[...]

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Fallout: North Star has been under development for four months, will recreate Minnesota (or at least will be based on it) and will feature a new story, new weapons, armor, models, companions and more. As the team’s head, Iceflamez, claimed, this mod is still in a very early phase. So yeah, we don’t know when and if it will be finished.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

A new mod for Fallout 4 called Fallout: Miami.

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Fallout: Miami is an upcoming mod for Fallout 4. A small preview of the Sole Survivor's next big adventure in the Fallout: Miami - Official Teaser Trailer. Full trailer coming soon!

The Capital Wasteland Mod for Fallout 4 that sought to recreate Fallout 3 has been halted due to copyright concerns.

If you guys haven't already heard the unfortunate news The Capital Wasteland Project (Fallout 3 in Fallout 4) is stopping development, here is their official statement. (Video on the topic coming shortly) pic.twitter.com/OMN1ZvKhbZ

— JuiceHead (@JuiceHead3311) March 12, 2018

Farflame spotted six overhaul mods for Fallout 4 on the JuiceHead channel:

The 6 Massive Overhaul Mods Coming to Fallout 4

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Today we take a look at some of the biggest mods coming to Fallout 4 modding. These are mods adding in new weapons, armors, quests and even more - all for free. Some will be pc only, but some of these great new mods will be making there way over to Xbox One.

@DSOGaming Twelve minutes of gameplay for the Capital Wasteland mod which aims to recreate Fallout 3 with Fallout 4.

Road To Liberty, a group of Fallout modders, have released a new video showing 12 minutes of gameplay footage from their Fallout 3 remake in Fallout 4, Capital Wasteland. Road To Liberty aims rebuild the entire Capital Wasteland from Fallout 3 in Fallout 4, complete with quests, dialogues, and all locations.
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@DSOGaming Fallout 4 will have a free weekend starting February 1st and ending February 4th.

Bethesda has announced that Fallout 4 will receive a free weekend on the PC. This free weekend will begin on February 1st and will last until February 4th. And as with most free weekends, if players choose to purchase anything they play during the Free Weekend, their save data will carry over.

[...]

The Capital Wasteland mod seeks to recreate Fallout 3 in Fallout 4.

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Welcome back to the Capital Wasteland, a large scale mod that recreates the world, quests, and experience of Fallout 3 in the updated Creation Engine brought to you by the Road To Liberty modding team.

Website: https://www.capitalwasteland.com
Discord Community: https://discord.gg/bBGRbsH
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/RoadToLibertyMods
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoadToLibertyFO
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fallout4cw/

DSOGaming reports that the New Vegas mod for Fallout 4 has a gameplay video and some new screenshots.

The team behind the New Vegas mod for Fallout 4 has released the first gameplay video for it, showcasing some of its system mechanics. This video also packs some combat mechanics so you will get an idea of what you can expect from it. Furthermore, the team also released some brand new screenshots that you can view below.
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PC Gamer's best mod of 2017 is the Sim Settlements mod for Fallout 4:

Best Mod 2017: Sim Settlements for Fallout 4

Settlements finally come to life with this transformative mod.

This year's best mod is Fallout 4's Sim Settlements. Below, our writers share their thoughts on why it made such a meaningful difference to the game. To see the rest of our 2017 GOTY Awards, head here.

Chris Livingston: Sim Settlements is sort of astounding to me. It gives Fallout 4 players an entirely new way to build settlements by, essentially, allowing NPCs to build their own. Designate zones for residential, commercial, or industrial buildings, and then sit back and watch your settlers erect their own buildings, randomly pulling from pools of assets so each building is a unique. As your settlement grows the NPCs will add on to their buildings, adding more props and features and even second stories. Each time you visit a settlement, you'll be able to see their progress, which gives your settlements a feeling of real life, and gives your settlers some agency. They aren't just standing around waiting for you to place every last door, bed, or stick of furniture.

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Thanks henriquejr!

Wanna build a mech? Then check out the Mechromancer Mod at One Angry Gamer:

Fallout 4 Mechromancer Mod Adds Buildable And Usable Mechs

Looking to build and ride your own mechs in Fallout 4? Modder Gou8137977 has a new mod for wastelanders to take advantage of that integrates mechromancer abilities in Bethesda’s Fallout 4.

Despite the very service by Bethesda that has caused quite the ruckus, better known as Creation Club, many folks around and about still enjoy Fallout 4. The amount of people that still go out of their way to download mods for the game across PC, PS4 and Xbox One are still quite active.

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Thank you for the info Farflame!

Farflame spotted a Fallout 4 mod that removes Creation Club News:

No More Creation Club News

After updating to Fallout 4 v1.10.20, you are greeted with a giant spam box on your Main Menu screen.  I dislike this, so I modded the Main Menu interface file to get rid of it.

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YongYea comments on Pete Hines' standpoint "Creation Club content is not paid mods, but mini-dlcs"

Bethesda Responds to Creation Club Criticisms, Insists It's Not Paid Mods

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Thanks Farflame!

PC Gamer checked out the Creation Club content for Fallout 4:

I spent $15 on Fallout 4's Creation Club content, and here's what I got

A big-ass gun, a smaller-ass gun, a cool backpack, some power armor, and a couple Pip-Boy skins. Was it worth it?

Bethesda's Creation Club FAQ asks itself "Is Creation Club paid mods?" It also answers itself: No. In related news, today I paid for $15 worth of mods from the not-paid-mods Creation Club store to try them out.

Okay, fine, I know what Bethesda is trying to say. They have hired modders to be creators of new content, and since they don't call the creations mods, they don't have to cop to being a paid mods system. Either way, I'm mostly okay with it: modders are getting paid, and there's not a fusion gun being held to anyone's head forcing them to buy anything. I still think the mods—er, creations—should be free for players, since new content (such as free mods) extends the life of games, thus keeping older games relevant, thus leading to future sales.

Moving on. My first little gripe is that you can only shop in the Club store while in-game, which I sort of don't like, especially since when you buy something, you need to restart the game to update the data file anyway. Call me old fashioned, but when I shop for futuristic guns for my virtual character to shoot mutants in the face with, I prefer to do it in a web browser.

Another gripe, and this one is substantially bigger: I don't see a way for customers to rate the Creation Club mods—sorry, content—they've purchased. Bethesda's free mod library allows for ratings from 1 to 5 stars. Creation Club, as far as I can tell, does not. That feature needs to be added post-haste. Call them mods, don't call them mods, but let players tell each other if they like them or not.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

The Creation Club for Fallout 4 mods is now live - first Steam reactions are not so positive:

Fallout 4 Creation Club Now Live

Now there’s even more to see, more to do – and more ways to survive in Fallout 4. Creation Club is now in PC beta with a collection of new official content including Hellfire Power Armor, a Prototype Gauss Rifle, and Chinese Stealth Armor. You can even space out in a special suit inspired by Prey… or gallop through the Wasteland in Giddyup-Buttercup inspired Horse Armor.

For details on the Beta and the game's 1.10 udpate, head here.

Featuring new items, abilities and gameplay created by Bethesda Games Studios and outside development partners – including the best community creators – Creation Club content is fully curated and compatible with the main game, official add-ons, and achievements. Currently available for Fallout 4, Creation Club will be coming to Skyrim Special Edition next month. All Creation Club content works on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. And of course, Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like.

To celebrate the launch of Creation Club, Bethesda is offering all players 100 Credits to apply to Creation Club content. Additional Credits are available on PSN, Xbox Live and Steam. Your Credits will be transferrable and can be used in both Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition on the same platform for both Xbox Live and Steam. PSN does not support transferable credits between both games.

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Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition will be available from September 26 onwards.

Return to the Wasteland on September 26 with Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition. With all the latest gameplay updates (including Survival mode), graphical enhancements, the ability to play Mods for free on PC and consoles, plus all official add-ons included, this is the ultimate way to experience the award-winning post-nuclear adventure from Bethesda Game Studios. 

Winner of more than 200 “Best Of” awards – including the 2016 BAFTA and 2016 D.I.C.E. Game of the Year – Fallout 4 is the studio’s most ambitious game yet. As the sole survivor of Vault 111, players enter a world destroyed by nuclear war. In a fight for survival they are faced with rebuilding and determining the fate of the Wasteland.

Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition includes the fully updated original game along with all six add-ons: Nuka-World, Vault-Tec Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, Far Harbor, Wasteland Workshop and Automatron. Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition will be available on September 26 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. 

To celebrate the Game of the Year Edition, a limited quantity of Fallout 4 G.O.T.Y. Pip-Boy collector editions will be made exclusively available in North America at select retailers. The Pip-Boy Edition includes Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition and will retail for $99.99 USD, and will also release on September 26.

PCGAmes reports that the Cascadia mod for Fallout 4 brings back some skills:

Medicine, Guns, Speech - RPG skills return to Fallout 4 in the Cascadia mod

If you're dissatisfied with Fallout 4 and its perceived lack of RPG mechanics, mod Fallout Cascadia could be perfect for you. 

 

The mod is an expansion project that takes place in 2329 after the previous Fallout games, in Seattle. You can't use your Fallout 4 saves, but that's because the mod uses classic Fallout skills from the way the games used to be rather than the new revamped system. 

So essentially instead of featuring the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, things like Guns, Medicine and Speech can be assigned and manipulated. It will also feature skill checks and "alternative options" for anyone who misses the flow of the older games as well.

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Thanks Farflame!

@PCGamer Fallout 4 is having a free weekend which will expire by May 28th.

The free weekend will kick off at 7 am ET/10 am PT on May 25, and run until 10 am ET/1 pm PT on May 28. During that time, players will have full access to all Fallout 4 base content and mods. And if, when it's all over (or anytime during the freebie), you find yourself hooked, you'll be able to pick up the game and the season pass on sale for up to 67 percent off. Sale pricing will be in place until 7 am ET/10 am PT on May 29.

@PCGamer Some interesting mods have come out for Fallout 4. The Intimidation mod allows players to tie up and rob pacified NPCs, which you can find at Nexus mods.

I love the Intimidation perk in Fallout 4: it makes sense that even the most psychotic raider might surrender when looking down the barrel of a nasty shotgun, and it lends a little sensibility to NPCs who otherwise seem to have no concept of self-preservation. Even with three ranks in Intimidation, however, your options are limited when it comes to what you can do with an enemy you've pacified.

The Intimidation Overhaul mod gives you a few more choices, as new dialogue options become available when you successfully pacify someone. You can now demand they turn over their caps, turning you into a proper stick-up artist. You can also tell them to amscray, and they'll flee the scene. Once they're running, it no longer matters if you holster your weapon. They'll just keep fleeing, forever convinced of your superiority.
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PC gamer reports that Fallout 4 will get a free high resolution texture pack:

Fallout 4 high resolution texture pack arrives next week for PC

The update is free, and only asks that you have an additional 58 GB of space available.

A high resolution texture pack will arrive as a free update for Fallout 4 next week, Bethesda announced. The announcement included a single screenshot, which you can see and enlarge above, plus a note that you'll need a smidgen of extra room for the texture pack: an additional 58 GB.

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The latest update for Fallout Cascadia, a mod for Fallout 4.

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Website: http://falloutcascadia.com/
Community Discord: https://discord.gg/eNbXrTe
Email: FalloutCascadia@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/falloutcasca...
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutCasca...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/falloutcascadia

GameBanshee has compiled a five-page review of all six of Fallout 4's DLCs, and rates them together.

When you reach Nuka-World, you discover that the front part of the park is being run by raiders, and that you have to prove yourself to them by running through a crazy gauntlet. Unfortunately, this gauntlet is almost a carbon copy of the Saw-inspired parking garage from the main game, so it's not very exciting if it's a rerun for you. It also relies heavily on floor traps, which most high-level characters can ignore.

But past the gauntlet, the DLC gets more interesting. Nuka-World has five regions, and the raiders only control Nuka-Town USA. You can also explore Dry Rock Gulch, the home of Mad Mulligan's Minecart Ride; the Galactic Zone, complete with its Nuka-Galaxy roller coaster; Kiddie Kingdom, where you can visit King Cola's caste; and Safari Adventure, a zoo with a giant tree house.

The amusement park is by far the best part of the DLC. It's well-designed, it gives you lots of rides and attractions to check out, and it's completely different than anything Fallout 4 has shown before. And by completing the main questline, you're allowed to turn on the power at the park, which means you can even go on a few of the rides, including the ferris wheel and one of the roller coasters.

Read the whole thing here.

The International Business Times has reviewed the final DLC for Fallout 4 - Nuka World:

Fallout 4: Nuka World review - Bethesda's expansive RPG ends with a sugar crash

The final add-on for Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG has a visual pop but leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Bethesda games are frequently criticised for casting their mute, often encumbered protagonists as the The Most Important Person To Have Ever Lived™. To some extent this argument has always held water, even if the overall medium's reliance on player agency is potentially a wider issue when discussing the creation of "living, breathing worlds", where NPCs refuse to put a foot out of step or inhale oxygen until a player avatar enters their vicinity.

[...]

Bethesda bids farewell to Fallout 4 with a final trot around the Commonwealth that epitomises the base game's glaring issues. Frustratingly inept AI, inconsequential decision-making and an over-reliance on adequate, but far from exceptional gun-play undermines Nuka-World's occasional moments of promise.

The minutely-crafted, faux-Disneyland environments pack a visual punch but the obscenely bland, zero-dimensional characters completely suck the life out of the DLC's multicoloured palette. Nuka-World gives ardent fans plenty more to explore, collect and shoot but don't be surprised if its flat delivery ultimately leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

Score: 2,5/5

PCGamesN reports that the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC for Fallout 4 will launch July 26th.

Fallout 4's Vault-Tec Workshop DLC comes out on July 26, Bethesda have announced, so it's not long until you can become the Overseer of your very own vault.

Fallout 4's DLC has been a bit pants so far, hasn't it? Far Harbor was good, and the upcoming Nuka World expansion also looks to add more meat to the game, but the rest has been mostly filler.

Vault-Tec Workshop is the third workshop add-on for Fallout 4. It lets you create a massive, underground Vault and attract new dwellers.

Like the Wasteland Workshop DLC which added the ability to let your settlers, enemies and animals fight to the death in an arena, Vault-Tec also adds new mechanics as well as decorative items. Being an Overseer of your own vault, you can perform horrible experiments on your dwellers.

@GameRant Fallout 4's last DLC will be 'Nuka World' according to Pete Hines.

Bethesda Game Studios officially declares that Fallout 4‘s forthcoming Nuka World DLC is the last expansion pack set to release for the post-apocalyptic RPG.

Typically, Bethesda is known for providing lengthy support for its releases post-launch with additional content, and as many fans of the studio will probably attest, Fallout 4 is no different when it comes to the company's practice of extending its titles' lives. Nevertheless, it seems as if the gravy train of add-ons and expansions for the post-apocalyptic RPG will soon be making its last stop once the game's Nuka World DLC arrives in August, as Bethesda's Vice President of PR and Marketing, Pete Hines, has declared it to be the "last one."

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Of course, Fallout 4 fans aren't being left in the lurch entirely, as Bethesda will surely provide updates and bug fixes for the title well after Nuka World officially goes on sale. Not to mention, per the expansion's description, it seems as if the studio is sending the game off with a bang, as it will allow the Sole Survivor to become a Raider in an amusement park with fresh areas like "Safari Adventure, Dry Rock Gulch, Kiddie Kingdom, and the Galactic Zone." Plus, as is to be expected, Nuka World is going to provide fresh content like "new quests, Raiders, weapons, creatures, and more."

A Polygon op-ed argues that Fallout 4 is a good example of why bigger isn't always better.

...If added open-world space comes at the expense of full artistic potential, each new location banged out without the extra little flourishes that makes it special, it may not be worth it.

As a genre, open-world titles, from Destiny all the way back to Grand Theft Auto, have long suffered from technological restraint, resulting in some overuse of techniques like procedural generation, empty buildings and modular level design. Each of these development strategies and tools have their place, and employing them is an art form, but you can feel when they've been stretched a bit thin.

In an exploration-based game like Fallout, the loss is felt the most. I want every area I approach in the Fallout universe to be a Pandora's Box of danger and mystery, each with its own story to tell. That key series element has already been tampered by heavy enemy re-spawns, repeating side quests and the constant grind of collecting scrap and parts, which arguably contributes more to the generic feel of many areas than the art kit. The solitude of methodic exploration that first drew me to the series is gone, and the feel of Fallout 3 and New Vegas lost. It's a casualty of efficiency.

If Fallout 4 were just a bit smaller, but in return offered the mystique and addictive allure of Fallout: New Vegas with each and every location, this would be easier to handle. Size is important of course, I'm mostly arguing for a slight course correction in the other direction to even things out.

Can taking a step forward technically be a step backward artistically? Sometimes, yes. While simplified development tools facilitate more efficient open-world games design, a sandbox game is only as strong as its environments. In the case of Bethesda and open-world games, I wish they'd be a little worse at their job.

This GDC talk about Fallout 4 focuses on its modular level design and how it helps create locations in relatively short periods of time.

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Large, open-world games like Fallout 4 require an efficient approach to creating many high-quality locations in relatively short period of development. Modular art kits and an iterative level design process are essential to the team at Bethesda Game Studios. This 2016 presentation from Bethesda Game Studios' Joel Burges and Nathan Purkeypile provides an in-depth analysis of the techniques used to create art kits, the level design workflow which takes advantage of them, and the production approach which empowers a relatively small content team to make an enormous world.

GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every weekday. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.

Modders are already hard at work on Fallout 4's new Contraptions DLC. One creative mind has even made a mod that helps you "recycle" meat into Soylent Green.

Bon appetit.

If you've spent some time in Fallout 4 you've no doubt produced a lot of, well... meat. All the creatures you've killed, not to mention all the people, add up to a heck of a lot of flesh, bone, and blood. Considering it's the post-apocalypse, you should really be recycling as much as possible, and thanks to two mods for the Contraptions Workshop DLC, now you can have machines butcher all the meat and produce delicious and nutritious Soylent Green.

Your first stop should be the Manufacturing Extended mod, by Kentington. Forget for a moment that we've been talking about grinding up humans for food: this is a great mod that will enhance your settlements' factories. It adds a number of goodies, like conveyors that will both take junk directly from your workshop's inventory and deposit completed items back into it (why this feature wasn't in the DLC itself, I honestly can't imagine). It adds other machines like looms that will create Vault outfits and faction gear, a power armor forge, a distillery for manufacturing cola and booze, and forges for melee and fist weapons.

It also adds an auto-butcher. Hook a conveyor belt up to it, put a corpse on it (animal or human), and it'll break it down into meat, bone, leather, and other products depending on the type of body you're processing. Sure, it's a little grim, but this is a pretty grim world, and we haven't even gotten to the grimmest bit.

There's a mod for the Manufacturing Extended mod that will let you use the auto-butcher to produce Soylent Green (you'll need to be logged in to view it), the famous food rations from the film of the same name, made of (spoiler alert) people. It also can make dog food (mutant or ghoul flavor) and food paste. You can even use it to make a new decoration: a skull candle.

You'll need the Fallout 4 Contraptions Workshop DLC to chow down. And hey, don't think of yourself as a cannibal. You're just a people person.

@DSOgaming Produced by modder 'Mangaclub' for Fallout 4. The mod contains 75 types of weather including storms and snow.

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Modder ‘Mangaclub' released a new mod for Fallout 4, called Vivid Weathers. Vivid Weathers is a complete Weather and Climate overhaul for Fallout 4 that adds 75 new Weathers with over 110 new cloudtextures to the Fallout 4 World for players to experience.

According to its creator, this mod also improves the general Image quality by adding new LUT and Imagespaces to the game.

Here are the key features of the Vivid Weathers mod for Fallout 4:

75 New Weathers
Over110 new cloud textures
Added 15 more cloud meshes to the game so Fallout4 now handles over 30 Cloud layers!
New Rain sounds
Adds 17 new Thunder sounds!
Enhanced Sunrays
Immersive Sunsets
Enhanced Volumetric Fogs for Rainy and Foggy Weathers
Night brightness depending on the Weather
Many little small details as surprise

With Vivid Weathers you can also experience following Weather Situations:

12 New Clear Weathers
12 New Cloudy Weathers
3 Fallout Weathers (Snow)
6 Overcast weathers
9 new Radstorm / Rad Rain / Rad Snow weathers
18 Different Rain Weathers (Lite,Med,Heavy)
8 Thunder & Rain Weathers (Lite,Med,Heavy)
7 Fog Weathers in different strenghts
1 Surprise Weather for all Silent Hill fans

You can download this mod from here.

@Dsogaming some more visual overhaul mods have emerged for Fallout 4 thanks to ENBSeries members.

When it was released, Fallout 4 disappointed a lot of PC gamers with its visuals. Thankfully though, its modding community has stepped in and after a number of graphical mods and texture packs, Fallout 4 can look great on the PC. ENBSeries members dpeasant and jacon have shared some incredible screenshots from their modded versions of Fallout 4. Enjoy!

A new DLC for Fallout 4 has released called 'Contraptions Workshop'.

The fourth load of Fallout 4 [official site] DLC is here and it's another small one. Following the big new hunks of story and land in Far Harbour, they've gone back to small mod-like stuff with the Contraptions Workshop add-on. Released last night, it adds new mechanised doodads for settlements like conveyer belts, logic gates, and so on for your architectural amusement. But if you want more quests and whatnot, the next big DLC for you will be Nuka-World in August.

Here's the blurb from Bethesda:

"Machines that sort! Machines that build! Machines that combine! With Fallout 4 Contraptions, use conveyer belts, scaffolding kits, track kits, even logic gates to construct crazy and complex gadgets to improve your Wasteland settlements. The Contraptions Workshop also includes all-new features like elevators, greenhouse kits, warehouse kits, fireworks, armor racks and more!"

Todd Howard has come out and admitted that Fallout 4's dialogue system wasn't a success.

While chatting up with GameSpot's Danny O'Dwyer at this year's E3, Bethesda Game Studios game director Todd Howard admitted that the dialogue system for Fallout 4 "didn't work as well" as other features of the title. While I'd personally argue that's the understatement of the year, as the way the dialogue was designed and recorded behind the scenes are utterly baffling to me (suffice to say, Bethesda didn't make this design choice because they wanted to be cheap with VO), it's a good thing that the company is at least aware of player feedback.

The full interview covers some other interesting topics, such as Bethesda's experiments with VR, their internal culture, why they decided to make a Skyrim remaster, and more. It's only 18 minutes long, so I'd highly recommend you give it a watch.

Fallout 4's upcoming Nuka-World DLC will let you play as a raider.

It's always bugged me that raiders in the Fallout 4 universe attack me on sight. No matter the situation, even if I'm dressed head-to-toe in their dirty, rusty armor, even if I'm essentially playing the game as raider scum—or at the very least a raider jerk—their only reaction to me is to immediately open fire. Rushing into combat against everyone you meet is a terrible recruitment tool. I'm filthy and angry, too, guys. Why can't I join your filthy, angry club?

That sounds like it may change in Fallout 4's upcoming Nuka-World DLC. The Steam store page is now live, and here's how it's described:

"Take a trip to Nuka-World, a vast amusement park now a lawless city of Raiders. Explore an all-new region with an open wasteland and park zones like Safari Adventure, Dry Rock Gulch, Kiddie Kingdom, and the Galactic Zone. Lead lethal gangs of Raiders and use them to conquer settlements, bending the Commonwealth to your will."

To which I say: rah. My dreams of being a raider, a legit raider, with real raider pals, might just come true. I'm hoping it won't simply be contained to the new region but spread game-wide, so I can be a raider all over the damn place. Maybe I can even attack all those settlements I spent hours building.

Nuka-World is $20 (oof), though it's included in the Season Pass if you bought one. We're told it's due out in August (though the store page says July, which I believe is incorrect). The Contraptions Workshop (coming June 21) and Vault-Tec Workshop (July) are also up as part of the Season Pass, or they can be bought individually for $5 each.

Rjshae spotted an interesting Fallout 4 mod in the making:

Fallout 4: Wyoming, Rise of the Great Khanate

Greetings everyone and welcome to our 2nd development blog!

It’s been a little over a month since I posted this project’s first development blog and at the time I was working alone, a lot has changed since then. To begin with, as of now there are almost 20 people working or having contributed to this project in some way. While this certainly sounds good, we still have many empty positions which are affecting the overall progress of the mod.

Namely, we desperately need people with experience in quest design/implementation in the Creation Kit. Whilst we have a team of talented writers, they cannot complete their work since the storyline and the quests need to be designed in accordance with what is possible with the Creation Kit. Lacking people with experience in the field of quest design/implementation means that we’re unable to realistically write our story and quests. Thus if you have some experience with quests in the Creation Kit and you would like to help this project (even if it’s only as an advisor: letting us know what is possible and what not) we definitely need you! So feel free to send an email at atlas1080p@gmail.com and we’ll get you started!

In addition, if you’re a 3d artist and you have some experience working with nifskope, the Creation Kit and implementing your custom assets into the game, we could definitely make use of your skills. We’ve hit a wall when it comes to importing custom assets into the game and we definitely need some help there in order to progress the mod.

But enough with talking, let’s start this preview!

 

World Building:

Whilst a lot of talented people joined the team, in this field I still largely work alone. Over the past month, I’ve been working with the regions tool in order to generate a first layer of textures for the entirety of the worldspace. In order to do so, I’ve decided that the world should be split into three different climate areas (this determines the texture set and overall look of these areas).

[...]

There is a large mod for Fallout 4 that has been in the works for the past six months called Fallout Cascadia which is looking at opening up Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately the mod is still several years away from release but is already looking quite ambitious.

Fallout Cascadia Information: Cascadia is an upcoming new world-space mod for Fallout 4 set in a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic version of Seattle and the surrounding areas. Users will start a new adventure entirely separate from the main game. The scale of this project is a land area that is just a bit smaller than Fallout 3, but more quests and locations than Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC. We currently have approximately 18 members working on this project to the bring the Pacific Northwest to the world of Fallout. Work on this mod began six months ago, and has intensified with the release of the Creation Kit. Inside the mod, players will find new quests that challenge them mentally and morally, locations that tell a story, and factions that are vying for control. Please consider following us on any and all our outlets, as we have much more to share as the project matures, and the release date begins to comes closer.

[...]

Any special requirements to run?

Our plan is to make this mod run on any machine that runs Fallout 4, without any additional script extenders, or additional mods to make run. However are currently considering adding a requirement to own the DLC to run our mod. The resources contained in the DLC could greatly enhance the quality and the speed of the creation of our project. More details will come later.

Do I have to start a new save?

Yes. Our adventure is completely separate from the main game. It begins before the intro movie and character creation even start. You will not be able to travel between the Pacific Northwest and the Commonwealth. This is a design choice (but if you really want to, a simple mod will likely make it possible).

What can you tell me about the plot?

Its pretty cool. Sorry, no spoilers from me. Nice try though.

What is the setting?

This mod takes place several decades after the events of Fallout 3/NV/4. The city of Seattle is the main hub of the game. Many locations of the game focus around the city proper, including certain fair grounds, public markets, and other famous locations. The game will also include other locations to the west and south including Mercer Island, Redmond, Bellevue, forested areas and airports. The project make an effort to make the world a believable and alive one.

PC Gamer reviewed Far Harbor and gave it a solid 80.

The island itself is perfectly enjoyable to explore: gloomy, marshy, shrouded in mist and prone to radiation storms. It’s a spooky and atmospheric setting, weird and evocative even in broad daylight. It’s not that heavily dotted with locations, but there’s enough exploring, combat, and mission running to keep most players busy for 20-plus hours. There are also plenty of raiders (here they’re called trappers), supermutants, ghouls, and some new weapons to kill them with, such as a harpoon gun and a lovely giant hammer equipped with an afterburner to help you swing its radioactive head. There’s also a new companion in the form of a grizzled and salty old coot, and a few new settlements to build (if you haven’t already had enough).

Far Harbor is a bit pricey but worth it for those looking for a good amount of new content and a real departure in setting. More dialogue-based resolutions are also welcome: I feel like I did more talking, and likewise more listening, than in Fallout 4 itself.

More.

TechRaptor's Robert Grosso gives us a quick guide to surviving the trials ad tribulations of Fallout 4's new Survival mode. Here are his tips and tricks in making it through the Commonwealth, including weapon and armor consideration, settlement ideas, and suggested perks to consider for your survival playthrough:

Surviving the Commonwealth:
A Guide To Fallout 4's Survival Mode

With the release of Fallout 4's new and improved survival mode, we have seen the game take on a whole new life and playstyle that is quickly catching the attention of Fallout fans. Survival mode is the hardcore, survivalist standard that only a series like Fallout can bring us; the implementation of hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas for example, was a great addition that added layers of complexity to a playthrough that changed the face of the entire game. The Fallout 4 survival mode tries to up the ante further, creating a simulation environment for the first time in the RPG series.

This is mostly achieved by eliminating all saving and fast travelling, something the New Vegas hardcore mode didn’t have. It is now a strategic challenge in Fallout 4, a chance to really show your abilities to survive the harsh conditions of the Commonwealth wasteland. With Far Harbor also being released, it is a chance for players to get into their groove before exploring a new zone, provided they have the skill and patience to contend with survival mode.

[...]

The first reviews for the Fallout 4: Far Harbor DLC are out:

Attack of the Fanboy:

All of this comes together to form a true expansion, not just a chunk of fresh DLC. Far Harbor takes what Fallout 4 did and does it a little bit better, with adjustments and additions tossed in to really shake things up. It is also a long experience, with tons of quests to work through, and plenty of new characters to interact with. If you enjoyed any part of your time with Fallout 4 then Far Harbor will surely please you, and those who were wanting a little bit more might just find it here.

Score: 4.5/5

VG24/7:

All in all, tip top. I smashed through Far Harbor in a couple of days, but although I’m reasonably confident I conquered the core story content, I’m aware that there’s loads more out there to discover. My Fallout 4 support group has alerted me to half a dozen delights I missed by sticking to the main quest, and there’s so much of The Island still to explore. I can’t wait to take my main through and dive into every nook and cranny, winkling out its secrets and expanding my settlement empire.

Gamesradar:

At this point in Fallout 4, if you don’t like what the game’s about, then no new content is really going to change your mind. If you’ve already spent 100s of hours camped out in the Wasteland, though, Far Harbor is a welcome change of scene.

The Far Harbor DLC for Fallout 4 is out now - it's Bethesda's biggest addon ever:

In Far Harbor, a new case from Valentine’s Detective Agency leads you on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths. Travel off the coast of Maine to the mysterious island of Far Harbor, where higher levels of radiation have created a more feral world.  Navigate through the growing conflict between the synths, the Children of Atom, and the local townspeople. Will you work towards bringing peace to Far Harbor, and at what cost?
 
Far Harbor features the largest landmass for an add-on that Bethesda Game Studios has ever created, filled with new faction quests, settlements, lethal creatures and dungeons. Become more powerful with new, higher-level armor and weapons. The choices are all yours.

The first user reviews are positive.

Far Harbor, Fallout 4's largest content update so far, releases tomorrow.

@PCGamesN The Far Harbor DLC for Fallout 4 was apparently leaked onto the Nexus in its entirety by a beta tester. This has been taken down but not before almost 800 people downloaded it.

Someone with access to Bethesda's closed beta for the upcoming Fallout 4 expansion, Far Harbor, leaked the entire DLC onto popular modding site Nexus Mods.

It has since been taken down, but for a while the DLC in its entirety was available to download on the modding site. A cached version of the page (via Kotaku) shows that the $24.99 DLC was downloaded for free almost 800 times.

Far Harbor is supposedly the biggest landmass Bethesda have ever made for a game's DLC, and it's heavily story-focused. It's a shame that so many people now have access and could potentially spoil it for others.

The DLC unlocks on May 19 and it kicks off in-game when a new case from Valentine's Detective Agency leads you on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths.

This hunt takes you off the coast of Maine to the mysterious island of Far Harbor, where you'll have to cope with higher levels of radiation and a "more feral world".

In case you can't get enough of Fallout 4, here is the Far Harbor trailer for the 3rd Fallout 4 DLC, that will be available in two weeks.

We've just released the official trailer for Fallout 4's third add-on, Far Harbor, which will be available worldwide on Thursday, May 19 across Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC for $24.99.

In Far Harbor, a new case from Valentine's Detective Agency leads you on a search for a young woman and a secret colony of synths. Travel off the coast of Maine to the mysterious island of Far Harbor, where higher levels of radiation have created a more feral world. Navigate through the growing conflict between the synths, the Children of Atom, and the local townspeople. Will you work towards bringing peace to Far Harbor, and at what cost?

Far Harbor features the largest landmass for an add-on that Bethesda Game Studios has ever created, filled with new faction quests, settlements, lethal creatures and dungeons. Become more powerful with new, higher-level armor and weapons. The choices are all yours.

Bethesda has announced details for Fallout 4 Modding and the Creation Kit, with the open beta now available for PC.

Mods and the players who create them have always been an important part of our games, going all the way back to Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls Construction Set. We believe that our games become something much more special, when we put the power of creation in your hands. New quests, environments, characters, dialogue, outfits, weapons and more – with Mods, the possibilities of what you can do are endless. You are creating new experiences that enhance and take our games into amazing and surprising new directions.

For Fallout 4, our goal was to make Mods easier and more accessible than ever before – for both the creators and the players. By building an all-new system with Bethesda.net we’ve made a huge leap forward in achieving that.

You can now browse and search for the latest and greatest Mods, choose your favorites, post feedback, and install them – all within the game. Simply select Mods from the main menu, and start browsing.

If you want to try making Mods (and we think everybody should), the Creation Kit – the same tool that we used to create Fallout 4 – is a free download via the Bethesda.net launcher. You can check out the Creation Kit Wiki, our online documentation and help file, for more details and tips on how to make them.

We plan to update and evolve Mods and the Creation Kit based on your experiences so be sure to leave feedback in our forums.

How to access the 1.5 Update in Steam Beta:

• Log into Steam
• Right Click on Fallout 4 in your Library
• Select Settings
• Select Betas
• A drop down menu will appear. Select beta
• Select OK
• Wait a few minutes and Fallout 4 should update
• When done, Fallout 4 should appear as Fallout 4 [Beta] in your Library

For console players, Mods will be coming to Xbox One in May and PlayStation 4 in June. We have a lot to do yet, but we hope it changes console gaming the way it has changed PC.

Finally, we’d like to thank all the Modders who volunteered to beta test the Creation Kit and Mods during our closed beta. Your feedback has been invaluable and we couldn’t have done it without you. For them and for all our players, we can’t wait to see what you create. 

In case you want to have it, the Fallout 4 Wasteland Workshop is available for dowload now.

Fallout 4’s second add-on, Wasteland Workshop, is available today for download worldwide on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC for $4.99! You can check out the trailer here.

 With the Wasteland Workshop, design and set cages to capture live creatures – from raiders to Deathclaws! Tame them or have them face off in battle, even against your fellow settlers. The Wasteland Workshop also includes a suite of new design options for your settlements like nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more!

 Expand the capabilities of settlements with Wasteland Workshop, then in May, travel beyond the Commonwealth to Maine for Far Harbor – the largest landmass Bethesda Game Studios has ever created for post-release content.

Stay tuned for more details on even more add-ons to be released in 2016 and on free updates like the Creation Kit, which will allow you to create mods on the PC and then share and play them across all platforms, including consoles.

The RPG Codexs 'Bubbles' has produced a comprehensive review of Fallout 4 titled '13 Shocking Facts about Fallout 4 That Will Forever Change the Way You Think about RPGs'

After you get to a certain stage of the kidnapping investigation, the main quest abruptly transitions to faction warfare. At the heart of the conflict is a group of synthetic humanoids, or "synths"; these lifeforms have been created by a group of mad scientists to infiltrate and manipulate human society in the Commonwealth. The nuanced and complex ethical issues surrounding artificial life have been reduced to utterly simplistic faction philosophies that can be understood even by Xbox One owners: the Brotherhood of Steel are racial supremacists who want to exterminate all non-human sentient life, the Railroad believe that synths are 100% equal to humans and must be freed of all shackles, the scientists from the Institute are abusive slave holders who treat the synths as mere objects, and the exceptionally dull Minutemen just sort of care about people, you know? You must align yourself with one of these factions to take control of the Commonwealth, and you may very well end up having to kill some of your former allies and companions to accomplish that goal.

"Wow, that's great!" you might think, "finally I get to engage in some dynamic, open world warfare powered by the legendary Radiant AI!" Unfortunately, Bethesda were either unwilling or unable to implement the kind of robust faction system that Obsidian already realized 5 years ago in New Vegas. There's very little actual warfare or conquest going on in Fallout 4, and the main quest makes a rapid transition from "all right, now it's war!" to the final mission and the annihilation of your faction's enemies. And yet, I found these rushed final missions far more interesting and engaging than all the "Where, oh where is my little baby boy?!" stuff of the preceding 85% of the main quest. In a better game, the inter-faction conflict could have been the centrepiece of the main storyline; the developers could have taken advantage of the inherent open world nature of warfare to integrate side quests and exploration gameplay with your character's personal objectives to create a much more coherent story experience. I do not understand why Bethesda's Fallout writers have become so enamoured with these insipid family-based storylines when there are far more interesting and entertaining options available.

VG247 have listed the winners of the 2016 British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA):

[...]

The winners for each categorie posted below are highlighted in bold.

Best Game

• Fallout 4
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Life is Strange
• Rocket League
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Game Design

• Bloodborne
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
• Rocket League
• Grow Home
• Her Story
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Multiplayer

• Rocket League
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Destiny: The Taken King
• World of Warships
• Splatoon

Story

• Life is Strange
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Until Dawn
• Undertale
• Her Story
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Sports

• Rocket League
• Forza Motorsport 6
• DiRT Rally
• Football Manager
• FIFA 16
• PES 2016

Persistent Game

• Prison Architect
• Destiny: The Taken King
• Final Fantasy XIV Online
• LEGO Dimensions
• Guitar Hero: Live
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Performer

• Merle Dandridge – Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (Kate Collins)
• Oliver Dimsdale – Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (Stephen Appleton)
• Mark Hamill – Batman: Arkham Knight (The Joker)
• Ashly Burch – Life is Strange (Chloe Price)
• Masasa Moyo – Broken Age: Act 2 (Vella)
• Doug Cockle – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Witcher)

Original Property

• Until Dawn
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Life is Strange
• Splatoon
• Her Story

Music

• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
• Halo V: Guardians
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Fallout 4

British Game

• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Prison Architect
• Tearaway Unfolded
• Until Dawn
• Her Story

Debut Game

• Her Story
• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
• Prune
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Mini Metro
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Family

• Rocket League
• Disney Infinity 3.0: Play Without Limits
• Guitar Hero: Live
• Super Mario Maker
• FIFA 16
• LEGO Dimensions

AMD eSports Audience Award

• Smite
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Hearthstone: Heroes Of Warcraft
• League Of Legends
• Dota 2
• Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3

Artistic Achievement

• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Audio Achievement

• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Star Wars Battlefront
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Mobile & Handheld

• Her Story
• Prune
• Fallout Shelter
• Lara Croft GO
• Alphabear
• The Room Three

Game Innovation

• Her Story
• Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
• Life is Strange
• Until Dawn
• Splatoon

Bethesda have launched a trailer for the second DLC for Fallout 4, Wasteland Workshop.

Watch the official trailer for Wasteland Workshop, the second game add-on for Fallout 4. Wasteland Workshop will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam on Tuesday, April 12.

With the Wasteland Workshop, design and set cages to capture live creatures – from raiders to Deathclaws! Tame them or have them face off in battle, even against your fellow settlers. The Wasteland Workshop also includes a suite of new design options for your settlements like nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy and more!

According to Gamerant Pete Hines revealed via Twitter that the Far Harbor DLC for Fallout 4
is much bigger than Oblivion's Shivering Isles:

As it happens, one gamer took to Twitter to ask the studio's Vice President of PR and Marketing, Pete Hines, about the magnitude of Fallout 4‘s Far Harbor content, which resulted in the executive saying "it's bigger in size than Shivering Isles," which was The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion‘s biggest DLC package.

VG 24/7 also broke the story. 

Automatron, the first DLC for Fallout 4, has been released and is available now for donwload.

Fallout 4's first add-on, Automatron, is available today for download worldwide on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC for $9.99!

In Automatron, the mysterious Mechanist has unleashed a horde of evil robots into the Commonwealth, including the devious Robobrain. Hunt them down and harvest their parts to build and mod your own custom robot companions. Choose from hundreds of mods; mixing limbs, armor, abilities, and weapons such as the all-new lightning chain gun. Even customize their paint schemes and choose their voices! (For characters level 15 or higher.)

Automatron marks the first add-on release for Fallout 4. In April, we're expanding the capabilities of settlements with Wasteland Workshop, and in May, travel beyond the Commonwealth to Maine for Far Harbor - the largest landmass Bethesda Game Studios has ever created for post-release content. And, that's just the beginning, with even more add-ons to be released in 2016. Stay tuned for more details on free updates like Survival Mode and the Creation Kit, which will allow you to create mods on the PC and then share and play them across all platforms, including consoles.

The first add-on for Fallout 4 - Automatron - will be released on March 22 - here's the trailer:

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In Automatron, the mysterious Mechanist has unleashed a horde of evil robots into the Commonwealth, including the devious Robobrain. Hunt them down and harvest their parts to build and mod your own custom robot companions. Choose from hundreds of mods; mixing limbs, armor, abilities, and weapons such as the all-new lightning chain gun. Even customize their paint schemes and choose their voices! (For characters level 15 or higher.)
 
Automatron marks the first add-on release for Fallout 4. In April, we’re expanding the capabilities of settlements with Wasteland Workshop, and in May, travel beyond the Commonwealth to Maine for Far Harbor – the largest landmass Bethesda Game Studios has ever created for post-release content. And, that’s just the beginning, with even more add-ons to be released in 2016. Stay tuned for more details on free updates like Survival Mode and the Creation Kit, which will allow you to create mods on the PC and then share and play them across all platforms, including consoles.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Jon Morcom (who managed to spend over 200 hours in the game) reflects about the Fallout 4 settlement features.

Fallout 4’s economy is fairly robust and I’ve not really struggled for caps which is why, more often than not, I’ve had Dogmeat burdened with telephones, microscopes, and fuel cans rather than higher yield items like guns and missile launchers – the crafting by-products of mundane items, like oil and copper wire, are quite rare but ultimately essential in building defences and lighting. Although the need to scrounge large quantities of copper wire has been patched out now, I liked that these elements were hard to find – it encouraged thorough exploration and made the unearthing of a sweet stash feel like a hard-won reward.

Where Bethesda has got it slightly wrong is with the emergent scenarios that flash up, alerting you to help defend this settlement or other. I appreciate that I’ve become a Minuteman and that my ilk have earned a reputation for rapid response and these prompts really do tend to prick my conscience, but then the more pragmatic me thinks “You can fuck right off, people of The Slog, I’m too busy looting this factory.” As far as annoyances go, these alerts are on a par with GTA IV’s Niko Bellic being randomly called by irritant extraordinaire cousin Roman and having him ask if you want to go bowling.

Thanks Couch.

@Techraptor they discuss how the upcoming survival mode will affect game balance and builds.

Perk choices are going to be much different than non-Survival gameplay

The changes to the perk system in Fallout 4 have been equally lauded and derided for different reasons. I'm largely a fan of it myself. I think it makes planning characters a bit easier, and there are several complementary perk choices that can provide for interesting builds.

For example, one of the combinations I personally use is Strong Back 4, Action Boy/Girl 2, and Moving Target 3. Strong Back 4 gives me extra carry weight, lets me jog while overburdened at the cost of AP as if I were sprinting, and allows me to Fast Travel while overburdened. Action Boy/Girl refreshes my Action Points at a faster rate, and Moving Target 3 makes sprinting (or jogging while overburdened) use less AP overall. This combination of perks allows me to stay constantly on the move without ever having to worry much about carry weight because I am a terrible person who likes to pick up absolutely everything that isn't nailed down.

However, these perks might not be as helpful in Survival Difficulty. For example, Strong Back 4 as it is would be rendered completely useless as you can't Fast Travel at all. You run the risk of losing health and suffering limb damage while overburdened as well. This particular build may not be viable in Survival Difficulty.

Aside from some perks just outright not working anymore, other perks will likely need to be changed in some fashion. For example, will Cannibalism increase your Fatigue? Can you counteract the downsides of it with higher levels of the perk? There's not really much detail in how some of the more game-changing perks are going to interact with the new mechanics and how they might be changed for Survival Difficulty.

In this post on Reddit the details of the Fallout 4 survival mode are given:

Is the struggle of this world merely a pleasant game for you? Do you long for a more brutal take on a life lived post apocalypse?

If you answered "Yes and yes!", then Survival difficulty is for you!

Survival upends many of the rules of life in the Commonwealth for maximum challenge. For a full list of these changes, see below.

To enable Survival, press [Pause], select "Settings," then "Gameplay" and choose "Survival" from the "Difficulty" options.

Saving

Manual and quicksaving are disabled. To save your game, you'll need to find a bed and sleep for at least an hour.

Combat

Combat is more lethal for everyone. You now deal, but also take, more damage. You can increase the damage you deal even further with "Adrenaline" (see below).

Fast Travel

Fast Travel is disabled. If you wish to be somewhere, you'll have to physically travel there.

Weighted Ammo

Bullets and shells now all have a small amount of weight, which varies by caliber. Heavier items such as fusion cores, rockets, and mini-nukes can really drag you down.

Compass

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled, as enemies will no longer appear on your compass. As well, the distance at which locations of interest will appear has been significantly shortened.

Adrenaline

Survival automatically grants the Adrenaline perk, which provides a bonus to your damage output. Unlike other perks, the only way to increase your rank of the Adrenaline perk is by getting kills (hostile or otherwise). The higher your Adrenaline rank, the higher the damage bonus. Sleeping for more than an hour, however, will cause your Adrenaline rank to lower. You can check your current Adrenaline rank at any time in the Perks section on the Stat tab in your Pip-Boy.

Wellness

You'll find it difficult to survive without taking proper care of yourself. You must stay hydrated, fed, and rested to remain combat-ready. Going for extended periods of time without food, water, or sleep will begin to adversely affect your health, hurting your SPECIAL stats, adding to your Fatigue (see "Fatigue" below), lowering your immunity (see "Sickness" below), and eventually even dealing physical damage to you.

Fatigue

Fatigue works like radiation but affects your Action Points (AP) rather than your Hit Points (HP). The more Fatigue you've built up, the less AP you'll have for other actions. The amount of Fatigue you've accumulated is displayed in red on your AP bar.

Sickness

A comprised immune system and a few questionable decisions can end up getting you killed. Eating uncooked meat, drinking unpurified water, taking damage from disease-ridden sources, such as ghouls and bugs, or using harmful Chems all put your body at increased risk for various ill effects. When you are afflicted with an illness, a message will appear onscreen. You can view specifics about your current illnesses by navigating to the Status section on your Pip-Boy's Data tab and pressing [RShoulder] to view your active effects.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics, which can be crafted at Chem Stations or purchased from doctors, heal the various effects of sickness.

Bed Types

The type of bed you're sleeping in determines the length of time you are able to stay asleep. A sleeping bag will save your game and may help save your life when you're desperate, but it will never allow for a full night's rest and the benefits that come with it.

Crippled Limbs

Crippled limbs will no longer auto-heal after combat and will remain crippled until healed by a Stimpak.

Carry Weight

Exceeding your carry weight reduces your Endurance and Agility stats and periodically damages your legs and health. Think of your back!

Companions

Companions will no longer automatically get back up if downed during combat and will return home if abandoned without being healed.

Enemy and Loot Repopulation

Locations you've cleared will now repopulate enemies and loot at a significantly slower rate.

Thanks Couch.

Todd Howard told Gameinformer that he likes the new survival mode for Fallout 4:

Todd Howard Discusses Fallout 4 DLC, Mods, & Survival Mode

[...]

You said you are going to beta test Survival Mode. How is that going to unfold?
That’s going to be something different than we usually do. Survival mode has a lot of changes that can be pretty dramatic. Once we get it honed where it’s working well enough, we’re going to put it on Steam beta for a while. ‘Here it is. Start playing it. Give us feedback.’ It’s far easier to update and iterate on [PC]. Once we settle on it, then we’ll release it for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We want to get it up soon on Steam beta. It’s not going to be months and months off. If it’s not really working, and we need to iterate on it, it may stay in beta for a month, depending on what we are changing. But we want to make it have the game feel different. The bits we’ve done, and me recently playing it, it’s absolutely some of the most fun I’ve had playing Fallout. I mean that honestly. It changes it in a good way for me, but it might not for everybody.

We’re doing things like you can’t save, it only saves your game when you sleep. You can’t fast travel. There’re all of these diseases. We’re trying it all. It’s a different experience. We’re not trying to make it a ton harder. It’s harder because you’re doing more things. We want the combat to feel different, as opposed to just being a bullet sponge.

[...]

Thanks Couch!

Todd Howard explains to Gamespot why he prefers shorter short announcement-to-release windows:

Fallout 4 Director on Why Bethesda Intentionally Held Back Info Before Launch

Todd Howard also teases that Bethesda's future games could have an even shorter announcement-to-release window.

[...]

The game industry veteran, who also directed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 3, went on to say that it can be problematic to talk about a game so long before its release. Game development is a fluid, ongoing process, and game mechanics and systems can change as development progresses.

"The other thing is, while you're making a game, you're figuring out, 'OK, what's really good about it?' 'What's this?' 'What's this?' If you're talking about that too early, people aren't getting excited, they're getting anxious."

"Tell me about this," a fan might ask. Howard would have to reply, "I can't." Another fan might ask, "How does this work?" and because the game isn't finished yet, Howard would say he's not sure.

"It's just a bad conversation to have," he explained. Instead, Howard would rather wait to announce a game until he's confident in what the team can deliver.

[...]

Thanks Couch!

@Ars Technica, they report that Beta Testers will get to keep the DLC. But you will have to sign up quickly if you want in.

In a first for a major Bethesda game, Fallout 4 will also allow its PC players to access its DLC content early and for free, provided they become approved beta testers. Bethesda doesn't mean a limited-time free access, where you get into a beta and then lose the content and your progress in it; the developer says that approved DLC beta testers will get to keep all content for free and retain both progress and achievements as the DLC content is patched and approved ahead of retail launch. You'll want to sign up quickly at bethesda.net.

Bethesda has announced the first 3 add-ons for Fallout 4 and indicate that more is coming.

Since Fallout 4 launched, we’ve been blown away by your support for the game. It stands as our most successful title ever and that couldn’t have happened without you. It’s been truly inspiring, the stories, images and experiences that you’ve created. And now it’s time to share with you some of what we’ve been creating – our first series of add-ons: Automatron, Wasteland Workshop and Far Harbor.

Automatron
Price: $9.99 USD | £7.99 GBP | $16.95 AUD
Release: March 2016

The mysterious Mechanist has unleashed a horde of evil robots into the Commonwealth, including the devious Robobrain. Hunt them down and harvest their parts to build and mod your own custom robot companions. Choose from hundreds of mods; mixing limbs, armor, abilities, and weapons like the all-new lightning chain gun. Even customize their paint schemes and choose their voices!

@Game Informer They announce that Fallout 4 DLC is incoming along with a reworked survival mode - akin to Fallout New Vegas perhaps?

You've explored the Commonwealth. You've picked a side. You've probably even dabbled (or completed) a second (or third or fourth) playthrough. Your wait for new adventures is almost at an end.

Bethesda isn't ready to delve into details, but the publisher is suggesting our wait for more gameplay is almost at an end. A pair of tweets this afternoon points to an imminent announcement about what's next.

We know you're ready to learn what's coming for Fallout 4 DLC. We're not far off, and we think you'll be excited.
- BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) February 11, 2016

We're also doing a complete overhaul of Fallout 4 Survival mode. Food, sleep, diseases, danger and more. Stay tuned.
- BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) February 11, 2016

Bethesda has promised that the $30 season pass will save purchasers at least $10. Beyond that, we're not entirely sure what's coming.

For more on Fallout 4, check out our review.

Our Take
The Fallout 4 season pass was short on information, leaving us to speculate based on previous Bethesda Game Studios titles. It seems like we're likely looking at two expansions given the price. However, it's unclear how meaty they will be or if they'll take us to new locations.

We're certainly eager to find out what's next. And we're quite interested to learn more about official mod support.

A (possibly controversial) Polygon op-ed argues that while Fallout 4 was a great game, it ultimately failed in the shadow of The Witcher 3.

Games are a medium just like film is a medium, although we never hear about something being criticized for not "being a movie," the same way that claim is held against certain games. A part of this may be due to the fact that violence is often seen as the default interaction for many big-name games, while everything else is seen as icing on a particularly bloody cake.

Which is why, looking back on 2015 with a bit of distance, I'm much more impressed with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt than I am with Fallout 4. They're both amazing games, and will long be remembered in the year's canon of games one should play to understand where the industry was. However, one game seems to relentlessly funnel you toward combat, while the other allows for a much more subtle form of storytelling.

To see what I mean, let me tell you about a race.

Full story.

There's a new mod that re-introduces traits back into Fallout 4, along with a host of new perks.

Traits, in the context of Fallout, are character modifiers that provide a significant advantage of one form or another, at the cost of a significant disadvantage. The “Heavy Handed” trait in Fallout: New Vegas, for instance, grants characters a 20 percent bonus on melee and unarmed damage, but also imposes a 60 percent penalty on critical damage. Character traits are are an optional, but for many players vital, part of character creation in Fallout, Fallout 2, and New Vegas—but Bethesda chose to omit them Fallout 3 and, more recently, Fallout 4. Now, thanks to the work of a modder by the name of Cirosan, it's possible to bring them back.

The “Traits and More Perks” mod that hit the Nexus over the weekend adds ten Traits, and a few new Perks, to Fallout 4. Many of them are inspired by traits from previous Fallout games—“Heavy Handed” is present, for instance (with slightly changed stats)—but others, like "Determined" (permanent bonus to damage, energy, and rad resistance, limbs are harder to cripple, but chems have no effect) are original creations.

More information.

Pixelgate, rather apocalyptically (no pun intended, honest), insists that Fallout 4 destroys everything the Fallout series was built on.  Ouch.

As a franchise, Fallout has tended to maintain a high standard. Aside from spin-offs, the experiences on offer have constantly been enjoyable. From the top down view, to the modern first person, the stories told have been memorable. Things changed with Fallout 4.

At its worst, Fallout still managed to create good stories. The latest entry into the franchise bucked the trend, and bucked it hard. No longer was the story directed by the player. With a new found focus on linear narrative, Fallout 4 pushed and nudged the player forward. Dialogue options stripped back to nods and shakes of the head. Player choice reduced to nothing but a lie.

...

Fallout 4 marked the end of my interest in the franchise. Not because it’s a bad game, but because it’s no longer the franchise I knew. The changes made clearly had the desired affect. Fallout 4 sales hit impressive numbers, brand recognition increased and critics love it.

No longer do I see Fallout as the franchise I can count on for quality RPG experiences. The last two games may have been departures from the originals, but they still had numerous core elements. Numerous dialogue options, deep side quests and builds that affected the whole game. All Fallout 4 had was Nick Valentine and a decent map.

More information.

Vice interviews Inon Zur on creating the acoustic world of Fallout 4, as well as his technique and work on earlier titles like Dragon's Dogma.

Thanks, Couch.

Fallout 4 features the kind of compelling landscape that could just as accurately be called a wonderland as it could a wasteland. It's a post-nuclear environment crawling with monsters and home to an arsenal of potential adventures; but the game's story wouldn't be nearly as compelling without its accompanying soundscape.

In addition to the delightfully sinister soundtrack of the in-game radio – check out "Atom Bomb Baby" for a flavour – Fallout 4 features a score that shifts with the player's actions, transforming the act of virtual exploration into an all-encompassing experience.

To find out how this music came to be, I spoke to the game's composer, the California-based Inon Zur, who's previously worked on titles including Crysis and Dragon's Dogma, as well as prior Fallouts. We discuss his source of inspiration, "alternate reality" instrumental techniques and the challenge of writing cinematic music only indirectly linked with on-screen action.

VICE: How do you begin the process of creating the score for a game like Fallout 4?
Inon Zur: I started by looking for the thematic material that would be the basis of the soundscape. My job is to build an organic, acoustic world. The Fallout story is reminiscent of the past, but it's also a world that has evolved and developed in ways that are really hard to imagine. So, the music needs to help sort of by describing what's going on there. At the same time, it has to be organic. It has to grow from the background noises and enhance them as well.

...

There are certainly similarities to Fallout 3 in terms of how the game feels and sounds. How tied in are you with branding, and connecting the two stories?
The situation is not the same, but there are a lot of connecting lines between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. Basically, where we're coming from and where we're going are very different things in each game, but the reality is that we're still struggling though the huge aftermath of a global holocaust. That's the connection, so even though it's a different hero, he or she is struggling with familiar problems in different ways. The music has to make some kind of connection, not only because of the brand, but also because of the situation in the game and the way it is evolving. Fallout 3's score was colder, more mechanical, and it enhanced more of the raw sort of elements. Fallout 4 is cultivating more of a human aspect. It's got much warmer sounds, more humane sounds, more intimate sounds. So, in some ways, it is a totally different approach.

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Some interesting content was deleted from the final release of Fallout 4, and Kotaku takes a look.

Thanks, Couch.

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Techreport has reviewed Fallout 4:

Fallout 4 amazes and annoys

Bethesda. Bethesda never changes.

Fallout 4. Few times over the years have I witnessed a such an insane amount of hype over a game. A good part of that buzz is warranted. After all, the Fallout series has a long pedigree of quality games, and its developer, Bethesda, is known for delivering on that promise (mostly). Read on to see whether it’s the ultimate hybrid of an RPG and an FPS, or nothing but smoke and mirrors.

[...]

Fallout 4 has a new beta patch, available on Steam.  They're trying out some new features, and so far, they haven't messed with mods.  So far.  Back up your saves before opting in.

Looking for something to do this weekend? It could be a perfect time to patch Fallout 4! A new beta patch is now live on Steam, taking the game to version 1.3, all without (based on the current lack of complaints in the comments) messing with mod support.

The patch doesn't bring anything super-exciting to the table, unless you get charged up by ambient occlusion settings or new status menus. And hey, I don't judge if you do, but this patch seems to be more about the tweaks and the fixes rather than the new hotness: General memory and stability improvements, improved performance when looking through a scope, MacReady's Killshot perk now calculating headshot percentages properly, that sort of thing. Important business to be sure, but not the sort of thing that really makes a headline pop.

Here's the full list of new features:

• New ambient occlusion setting, HBAO+
• New weapon debris effects (NVIDIA cards only)
• Added status menu for settlers in your settlements
• Added ability to rotate an object you are holding with left/right triggers and pressing down on left thumbstick lets you switch the rotating axis
• Improved "ESDF" keys remapping support while in Workshop mode

If you want to lay your hands on this patch right away, you'll need to be opted in to the beta update program, the process for which is explained in the update announcement. Generally speaking, Bethesda is pretty good at not pushing patches before they're ready, but it is a beta patch, so consider yourself warned and exercise whatever degree of caution you feel appropriate.

More information.

Pixel Dynamo's Chan Khee Hoon became a hoarder, thanks to Fallout 4.  She tells her sad tale here.

My love affair with junk starts here.

A conniving, smooth-talking scoundrel. A battle-weary marksman. A one-punch man skilled in unarmed attacks. These are the kind of characters I expect to become when I first embark on my Fallout 4 journey—but not an incorrigible hoarder of junk.

After the terrible nuclear explosion that wiped out most of humanity 200 years ago, post-apocalyptic Boston is brimming with junk of all sorts – coffee cups, silver spoons, cigarettes, rolls of duct tapes and even teddy bears. This is nothing new for the series, but unlike the totally unremarkable trinkets that litter the wasteland in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas this junk can be further broken down into useful raw components such as ceramics, silver, cloth, and adhesive, which in turn can be used to craft anything from weapons to buildings. It is astounding how the end of the world has provided us with so many resources to rebuild our lives with.

With that out of the way, I hope you can understand how my collection of 89 dinner spoons was absolutely essential for the construction of a power generator that can produce electricity to power my entire settlement. And yes, I am very sure I needed that plastic spoon too, Codsworth.

...

I have no idea if this is one of Fallout 4’s biggest flaws – the fact that something as inconsequential as picking up rubbish has consumed me so much that it has interfered with my enjoyment of the game – or if that is evident of how well-designed the game is. Think about it: how many games offer the same degree of freedom as Fallout 4? Not once have I been so absorbed in a game world before, and I’ve played Skyrim. And that is a game that allows me to catch butterflies.

For the first time in a very long while, the skies in a Fallout game are of a bright blue hue, filled with white wispy clouds that slowly waft over the desolate skyline of long-abandoned buildings. Get out of bed early, and you might even catch a glimpse of the morning sun peeking behind a distant hill. I wouldn’t know, though. I am still too busy staring down at the dark grimy ground, looking out for any spare parts I might have missed. Worry worry worry, woe is me.

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Extra content for Fallout 4 has been promised for "early 2016".  But VG 24/7 wonders exactly what that means.

Regular free updates, story DLC and mods have all been promised for “early” 2016. But what does that mean, what can we expect, and when?

Fallout 4’s November 10 release date seems a long way off whether you’ve completed the main quest line or are still putting the hours in exploring the Boston commonwealth. It’s a game that demands your commitment by tens of hours at a time, but time in Fallout 4 is also kind of irrelevant. Unlike Fallout 3 there’s no level cap or end once the main quest is completed. It’s a true open world, where pottering around adding bookshelves to your settlement can be as all-consuming as hunting down rampaging Death Claws or mapping out the Glowing Sea.

But as much as Fallout 4 offers, we want more. We’re expecting a whole chunk of content from Bethesda Game Studios this year, so let’s take a look in detail about what we know and what we can expect to keep Fallout 4 alive throughout 2016.

The official line from director Todd Howard and the Bethesda Game Studios gang is that DLC for the game is split into three types. The team has promised “regular updates”, single-player DLC and the release of the Creation Kit for modding.

The regular updates are what we should be expecting first although there’s only been one so far. “We’ll be doing regular free updates to the game, and like Skyrim, these will come with not just fixes, but new features,” promised Howard.

Apart from a few button remaps for PC, December’s release was purely about improved performance – a welcome move considering the state the game was in when it first dropped. It hasn’t fixed a lot of issues, but it was acknowledgement that the game needed a bandage or two.

“This process has worked well for us in the past and allows us to get more fixes out faster. Expect to see more updates, that are smaller and more frequent, than a few big ones,” said Howard in November.

That’s encouraging talk, but so far we’ve seen nothing of extra features, no matter how small. Bethesda has also promised to create content based on player feedback, although whether that’s from directly speaking to us or via combing player stats is yet to be seen. Some evidence of interaction with the players from Bethesda right now would be very encouraging.

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Why is there no official mod support for Fallout 4 yet?  Cheat Code Central examines the issue.

It's been about two months since Fallout 4 was released. We can safely and comfortably say it was a hit. People are even going crazy over related merchandise, like the tie-in Nuka Cola Quantum and clothing. There's even an active modding scene. It's just a shame that there's no official mod support.

Bethesda games are known for their longevity. This is due to their support of fan-made creations. Thanks to mods, the Steam Workshop and Nexus Mods keeps the titles fresh for years after their release. Even Fallout: New Vegas just received an amazing and comprehensive Autumn Leaves fan expansion. Yet, with Fallout 4, we have no official mod tools or support. The horizon is barren. People are forced to resort to ingenuity to make things happen.

Part of this is due to the complications that are bound to come from Fallout 4 mods. Bethesda is going to make this the first entry where fan creations for the Windows PC version will eventually be playable on the Xbox One, then the PlayStation 4. Compatibility takes time. But surely, something could have been released before 2015 ended. Mod tools can be based upon the programs the developers themselves use with the game. Getting consumer-friendly tools out should have been a priority.

Especially since other Bethesda games set a certain standard. Fallout: New Vegas was released on October 19, 2010. Its Garden of Eden Creation Kit was released two days later, on October 21. Yes, the Skyrim Creation Kit took about two months to arrive after its November 11, 2011 release, but at least we heard something. Aside from saying Fallout 4 mod support is coming, even to consoles, we haven't had any updates on when or how.

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Fallout 4 has been impacted by Windows 10's latest update...but there's a fix.

Fallout 4 is one of the few games released last year on PC that isn’t extremely demanding, allowing those without a high-end machine to enjoy the game fully. Some of those who are running the game under Windows 10, however, have been dealing with some performance issues following the latest update in the past few hours. A dedicated edit user, thankfully, has already managed to find a fix for this issue.

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At Gamerant, Rob Gordon has written an editorial about how he does not seem to have time play games like Fallout 4 now that's he's older and has a family:

This is the situation I found myself in over Christmas, with an extended break from work. Apart from some excellent time with the family, I found plenty of spare hours to play video games, much like when I was a kid. My game of choice was Fallout 4, where I had plenty of unfinished business (and side quests) to take care of. Exploring the dangerous wasteland of post-nuclear war Boston has been one of the highlights of video gaming this year, and having such a large portion of time proved incredibly satisfying. There was time to work through the ruins of the city, hunting for valuable items and new weaponry, completing missions for some of the other denizens of the Commonwealth. For once, there was time to get immersed in the game.

Unmute presents a feature on the music of Fallout 4, composed by the prolific Inon Zur.  Zur is also famous for the atmospheric score of Icewind Dale.

As 2015 comes to a close, Unmute will explore the music of two of the year's top games. In this episode, we'll have a conversation with Fallout 4's Inon Zur about his dynamic and thoughtful music for the game.

In the first episode of this series, we looked at the music of Fallout 3, a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game with a fantastic score by Inon Zur, who returned to create a score for Fallout 4, the sequel released on November 10, 2015. I sat down with Inon to talk about the differences between the scores for these games and what makes a video game's music truly original.

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GameBanshee reviews Fallout 4.

Overall, I enjoyed Fallout 4 a lot more than I was expecting.  Part of how I rate a game is whether I'm happy or sad when I have to move on to my next review, and with Fallout 4 I'm on the sad side of the ledger.  I ran through the game pretty easily on the "normal" difficulty setting -- I could tell I was too powerful when a suicide bomber sneaked up behind me and detonated a mini nuke... and only took off about half my health -- but my character playing on the "survival" setting is having a tougher time, and I'm curious if the game can maintain the challenge all the way through.

In any case, Fallout 4 is in pretty good shape now.  The game is stable, the locations are plentiful, and there are numerous interesting quests to complete -- and this is all without a lot of mods being available since Bethesda still hasn't released their construction kit (it's apparently waiting in a "to do" queue along with the manual).  So if you like open world RPGs in general, or Bethesda's offerings in particular, then Fallout 4 is a worthwhile game to pick up.

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Alec Meer says that you're missing out if you're not playing Fallout 4 as a survival game.

It makes more sense. It makes Fallout 4’s theme mean more. As a game played in terms of its storylines and its oddly comfortable towns, the post-society setting barely holds together. Hell, go far enough into The Institute side of the storyline and it’s hard not suspect that there were people involved in this project who were tired of wastelands and wanted to make an entirely different type of science fiction. But out there on the road, Fallout is all about the end of the world again.

Finding old food in cans matters. A small box of bullets in a bath tub is exciting, because for all I know I might never meet a trader. Firing one of those bullets is harrowing, because I can’t know for sure that I can ever replace it.

...

I can’t undo an error; hell, I can’t even go shopping. I’m just making do with whatever comes along. A side effect of this is that, whereas in my first play-through I was carrying an ever-growing sack’s worth of grenades, mines and irradiated food around with me, now almost everything gets used. I do feel as though I’m playing the game in the way it’s supposed to be played, even though I don’t believe this was how it was intended to be played.

When Michael Radiatin’s journey ends, as one day it will, very suddenly, [It now has. -Ed] I very much doubt I’ll go back to Fallout 4. It’s a silly game, and there’s nothing to it but fighting. But I do feel I understand it much more now. And I do feel that its world makes more sense when you treat as nothing more than a place to survive within. Ditch your storylines, ditch your companions, ditch your settlements, ditch your overpowered weapons and armour, and play it that way. It’s worth it.

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Pixel Dynamo is back with more mods for their "Best Mods" showcase.  This week, Fallout 4 gets Christmas trees, obscure American Christmas music, snow, armor slot modifications, and more!

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Fallout 4 has won PC Gamer's Best Setting award for 2015.

Fallout 4 wins our 2015 award for Best Setting, and Phil, Chris, and Samuel explain what the wasteland brought to the year below.

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Pixel Gate's Sean Halliday makes the argument that change is built into the Fallout universe, and that spinoffs have already been done.  Settlements are no different.

Fallout may no longer be the RPG series it once was, but that isn’t exactly a bad thing. It’s journey from pen and paper inspired RPG, to modern action shooter, is easy to plot. Franchises change, even more so when they’re reborn and retooled for a new generation. Fallout 4 represents the biggest departure from the classic build. The core RPG elements are gone, replaced with linear stories and reactive shooting action. It’s most curious addition is settlement building, which creates a wealth of opportunity.

Spin-Offs are not a unfamiliar concept within the Fallout franchise. Fallout Tactics saw the franchise flirt with real time strategy. The much forgotten (for good reason) PS2 title Brotherhood of Steel was a brief skirmish into a top down shooter. New Vegas is the most famous spin off, mostly due to the success of Fallout 3. The franchise has even appeared on mobile devices in the shape of Fallout Shelter.

The wastelands hold plenty of potential for a whole host of ideas and spin-offs. Personally, I’m still surprised there hasn’t been a card combat title popped out. Varying levels of success, both critically and financially, may no see huge departures in the style of Tactics and Brotherhood. Spin-offs more in line with the core game, much like New Vegas, feel much more likely.

Settlements may be a optional element to Fallout 4, but their addition has a profound affect on the whole game. Every item found in Fallout 4 has some level of use with the Settlements. Teddy bears, baseballs, mugs, it all has a use. This new found value gives Fallout 4 a whole new gameplay element, the element of resource gathering in order to create.

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Should Fallout 4 be the game of the year?  Twinfinite's Yamilia Avendano thinks so.  Here's what she has to say...

(Couch, as ever, thank you.  Your hard work is appreciated, sir.)

Fallout 4 features that same post-apocalyptic world we know and love from past games in the series. Except this time, it’s Boston. It’s an expansive world that’s filled to the brim with life and locations and creatures and humans and its own history and adventure. You’d struggle not to find something to do in this world. No two locations are alike and everywhere is filled with unique characters, enemies, and even items you can hoard.

2015 was a year  full of open worlds, but Fallout 4 managed to make a mark by thrusting players into the harsh reality of a nuclear Wasteland as soon as possible. The story grips you as soon as the nuke drops in the beginning and takes you for a ride over the course of its twenty hour main storyline and possible 100 hour game. You’ll meet countless characters that all have their backstory and personality traits, and you’ll feel like you’re actually a part of a greater picture in this vast universe.

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Courtenay Taylor discusses difficult moments in recording the protagonist's dialogue for Fallout 4.

Fallout 4 introduced a voiced protagonist to the series for the first time ever in an effort to provide more emotional depth to scenes. In a plot where a parent is on the hunt for their missing child, it’s a move that made sense, and Fallout 4 eventually went gold with over 13,000 lines of dialogue recorded for the main character.

Courtenay Jackson provides the voice for the female Sole Survivor in Fallout 4, and recently did a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread where fans could ask her, well, anything. Courtenay is a veteran voice actor with over 13 years of videogame industry experience, and fans had plenty of questions to ask her on the subject of her experience with Fallout 4.

When asked by fans why her vocal tones didn’t always match her male counterpart voiced by Brian Delaney, Courtenay revealed that she did several takes of each line, and actually had no input on which version was selected – this is fairly normal in the voice recording process for videogames, as higher-ups from the development studio would know best which type of line delivery would best fit the overall narrative.

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Did Fallout 4 fail to deliver the narrative interactivity it promised?  Gaming Rebellion's Matt Faherty thinks so.  Be advised: mild spoilers ahead.

I don’t hate most of Fallout 4’s main quest line. I actually think it’s the most interesting main quest Bethesda has produced since Morrowind, at least until the last quarter of its contents. F4 cleverly sets up a complicated political/military/economic struggle between multiple factions of varying shades of morality and competence, and then asks the player to navigate a route between them. If most players are like me, they did their best to maintain an uneasy neutrality between all the factions for as long as possible. After all, I really did like and dislike elements of all of them. I liked the Minutemen’s benevolence but was unsure of their ability to project power. I liked the Brotherhood’s efficiency but wondered how far removed they were from being especially intelligent raiders. I liked the Railroad’s goals but wondered if such a small organization could really accomplish much in the long term. Finally, I loved being reunited with my son in a technological marvel but many of the Institute’s practices were highly ethically questionable.

So I bounced between all of the factions for most of the middle of the plot, feeding them information and scoring minor victories for each when I could without damaging another faction too dearly. Every time I was offered an increasingly transgressive quest, I agonized over which path to take and talked to as many people as I could to explore every possible option. I actually thought Bethesda was doing a remarkable job of allowing me to maintain this balancing act for so long.

However, the game could not allow this quest structure to continue indefinitely. At a certain point, the player is required to make choices which permanently alienate each faction until his allegiance is only to a single one (not counting the Minutemen who are typically excluded from the late-game conflict). Unfortunately, it’s right around this point that both the player’s narrative control and the plot itself collapse. While it is difficult but possible for a game to allow a comfortable level of player agency throughout most of its story and then reign it in right near the end, the problem with F4 is that the plot doesn’t adequately justify why it takes away so much player agency. The result is a feeling of frustrating dissonance between what “is” and what “should be” for the player as a once intriguing plot based on conflicting loyalties and shifting sands gets railroaded into one of four unsatisfying conclusions free of legitimate narrative interactivity.

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Pixel Gate UK discusses what they feel are Fallout 4's five biggest flaws.

For everything Fallout 4 does well, there’s numerous elements that fall flat. It’s not that Fallout 4 is a bad game, far from it, but it’s certainly not a perfect game. Numerous sites and critics have seemingly overlooked some of Fallout 4′s biggest flaws. After over 100 hours put into the game, these are the five biggest faults of Fallout 4.

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Jez Cordon (Windows Central) has reviewed Fallout 4:

Review: Fallout 4, post-hype post-apocalypse

To preface, it's worth mentioning that Fallout 3 is probably my favourite game on the Xbox 360. I knew that the mere mention of Fallout at Bethesda's E3 presentation would steal the show, and like millions of other gamers, I spent the last few months beside myself with anticipation for Fallout 4.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Boston wasteland, Fallout 4 is an FPS/RPG hybrid with a ridiculous amount of customization, gameplay options, quests and open-world scale. 2015 has been an incredible year for blockbuster titles, from Battlefront to The Witcher 3 and Halo 5 - Fallout 4 seemed poised to overshadow them all, but does it deserve to?

As a huge fan of Fallout, and Bethesda's particular brand of open-world RPG, I find myself with mixed feelings about Fallout 4.

[...]

Conclusion

Fallout 4 is already a runaway success story, shipping millions of copies. Despite my disappointments with the capacity for roleplaying, I adore Fallout 4 and eagerly anticipate the DLC, season pass in hand.

Fallout 4 represents incredible value for money, granting the player tons of things to do across potentially hundreds of hours of play. The shooting mechanics have become refined, taking a place among this generation's FPS-first heavy hitters. The crafting systems are laudable, and the base building system is utterly addictive.

Pros:

• Vastly improved combat mechanics
• Well over a hundred hours of gameplay
• Settlement construction is a welcome addition

Cons:

• Shallow dialogue choices
• Engine quirks from Skyrim and Fallout 3 haven't been addressed
• This game will take over your life

Fallout 4 is a story of trade-offs. Bethesda trade cutting-edge visuals for interactive density, they trade roleplaying freedom for a story that's a little more focussed and cinematic, and they ditch some of the franchise's intricacies to broaden its appeal. Fallout 4 is an incredible open-world shooter, but I'm concerned that the series is beginning to stray from its roleplaying roots.

With that in mind, I'm off to start my third character.

It's week two of Pixel Dynamo's Best Mods series for Fallout 4. This week, we're given Daedric Power Armor, Doritos RadAway, and Steve Buscemi eyeglasses. Score?

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Techpipe asks "Was Fallout 4 Really Worth The Hype?" - They are critisizing the sandbox structure of the game and that it's very much like Fallout 3 all over again:

[...]

Note: Unintentional spoilers ahead.

Fallout 4 is a big and ambitious game with plenty of things to do, there are tons of side quests and settlements to liberate and create. However, amidst all of this, the game never really becomes what it should be. Its tediously long loading times even on most powerful PCs that exceed the recommended system requirements, and utterly poor frame-rates are somewhat unforgiving. But considering how those are just technical flaws, we can forgive them.

What we can’t forgive is Bethesda’s attempt of selling us the same game with a new coat of paint; don’t get me wrong, it worked really well up until the release of Fallout: New Vegas, but Fallout 4 doesn’t feel different at all. Yes, we finally have a protagonist who can speak but we also have a very monotonous feel to the game. For instance, if you are doing side quests for any faction, you will soon come to realisation that the only new thing these side quests will offer you is the location. Let’s assume if you are doing side quests for Preston from the Minutemen, all the given side quests will be getting rid of raiders at settlements or getting rid of super-mutants.

[...]

Learn more about Todd Howard - the man behind the Elder Scrolls series and the newer Fallout games:

[...]

“I think if someone has a gaming obsession, Ultima became mine,” says Howard. “I would say no other series ingrained itself in how I want to make games or what I want them to be more than Ultima did.”

And it wasn’t any one Ultima game, says Howard, but the way series creator Richard Garriott managed to keep the story and game concepts vibrant during the decade between 1983’s Ultima III: Exodus and 1993’s Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle. In Ultima VII, for instance, players could pick up virtually any object not nailed down, bake bread, milk cows, play music instruments, even change diapers—at the time, an unparalleled push for player agency.

[...]

Gameinformer has a lengthy article on the making of Fallout 4, which thay subtitle as 'The seven year journey behind the biggest game of the year'.

Coming off of the success of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda Game Studios began work on its most ambitious game yet for hardware that didn’t exist. The team’s plans were impressive, allowing players to build their own weapons and homes, and dictate their own fates in the wasteland through intertwining story arcs and relationships that could end in love or death. The development spanned seven years, delivering successes, failures, and unexpected detours like porting Skyrim to the Xbox One (keep reading). Just 25 days before Fallout 4 releases, the creators sound off on the lengthy development process as they brace for players to experience their game.

The sprawling open-world adventures Bethesda Game Studios is known for were once made in the basement of a fairly ordinary office complex located in Rockville, Md. The floors above it that allowed sunlight were occupied by a wide variety of businesses and Bethesda’s publishing division. The enormous success of the studio’s in-house franchises, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, led to Bethesda taking over the entire building. The lobby, which was once a sea shared by business people in suits and game developers in T-shirts, is now a gaming shrine holding an enormous statue of the Panzerhund from Wolfenstein: The New Order, and various life-size statues of characters from Fallout and Elder Scrolls. The T-shirts of the game developers won out. Bethesda Game Studios’ office was moved from the basement to the building’s top floor, its walls littered with beautiful concept art from all of its projects.

Thanks Eye.

Patricia Hernandez (Kotaku): Fallout 4 Is Not The Fallout Fans Fell In Love With

[...]

Fallout fanatics might say that the franchise lost its way a long time ago, when Fallout was turned into a shooter with more “mainstream” appeal. But if you ask an average fan, they’d probably say that Fallout games are supposed to be rich, choice-driven games where you have the freedom to role-play as you wish. That description could more or less apply to Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. But that’s not what you’ll find in Fallout 4. The newest Fallout is more of an action game than even its immediate predecessors, and as such, Bethesda has streamlined many of the elements that used to define Fallout as an role-playing series.

Gone are the extra attributes known as skills, which players could use in novel ways while exploring the wasteland. In Fallout 3, for example, if you had a high enough explosives skill, you could defuse a bomb in the middle of a city, thus saving everyone. Or, you could choose to detonate it. The entire questline was only available to you if you built your character in a certain way, and while that’s a design that locks some players out from experiencing a rad thing, it did give a sense that how you built your character actually mattered. For a role-playing game, that’s pretty important. The combination of skills folding into perks, along with the lack of level cap in Fallout 4, means that your character build no longer matters in the way that it used to. You start out OK at most things, and eventually, you’ll be a god at everything. Especially combat-oriented things.

[...]

New Beta 1.2.37 is out on Steam.

Gamespot: A mystery structure can be found down by the sea.

As usual Maylander is one of the first of our forum members to have completed a new game. In this case Fallout 4, for which he posted a review on our forums, which we are now publishing here on RPGWatch.

In Fallout 4, it’s all about roaming the Wasteland, coming across interesting locations, finding loot and picking up junk along the way. Incredible amounts of junk. Horrendous amounts! Junk is actually useful now, as it can be broken down to basic items that are used both for settlements and crafting, so it’s not something to ignore this time around. As a proper hoarder, my inventory was constantly full, despite having doubled my weight capacity over the course of the game.

Unfortunately, the interface is, as we’ve become used to in recent years, completely designed for consoles. I’m sure it works well enough on consoles, as it’s hard to make anything better for a controller given the sheer amount of options and items, but as a PC gamer I find it frustrating. In the pip-boy, items have categories, which works out rather well, but during trading it’s just a giant list with a half-decent sort feature. If anyone finds a better way of doing this, please let me know, because scrolling through hundreds of items is incredibly frustrating.

...

I also enjoy the new power armor system. Power armors are now way more than just a suit of armor; they now consist of modable pieces, and will instantly turn the character into a walking, talking juggernaut of destruction. It’s very satisfying to run around in one, and you can really feel the weight and “umph!” of it. To balance it out, they now run on fusion cores, consumable items that will run out rather quickly. It’s actually not a major issue though, as there are more than enough cores to bring a power armor into most heavy fights. I was too concerned with that at the start personally, so I ended up with a very high number of cores by the end of the game.

Gamasutra features an article where three game developers, are talking about the crafting system in Fallout 4.

Freelance Designer Rick Ernst, who’s currently contracting at Riot Games, compares Fallout 4’s crafting to Bethesda's Skyrim, and says there’s an immediately visible shift in design that shows significant evolution from older modes of RPG thinking.

“The crafting system is much more interesting and useful than that of Skyrim, despite the superficial similarities and reuse of core mechanics," he says. “With Skyrim, early crafting was, with few exceptions, grinding out garbage to skill up. Low level enchanters couldn’t make anything worth a damn, but you still did these low-cost transactions because it was the only way to level up enchanting.”

By comparison, Fallout 4 begins by “demoing” skill trees that players may be interested in later. “For example, mods, chems, and structures you build early on are immediately useful power-wise, and don’t feel like grinding to build," says Ernst. "Though a small amount of XP is awarded with crafting, it isn’t a primary means of advancement. “

Thanks Eye.

Andy Kelly (PC Gamer) says: Fallout 4 is a good game, but a bad role playing game:

Fallout 4: good game, bad RPG

I’m loving Fallout 4. Wandering the wasteland, poking around in abandoned buildings, listening to chirpy ‘50s pop, fighting mutants. It’s a great game to lose yourself in on a cold winter’s evening. But as a role-playing experience I’m finding it disappointingly weak—to the point where I wouldn’t even call it an RPG. An open-world action game with role-playing elements would be a more accurate description.

The same could be applied to other Bethesda games, which are often described as being as broad as an ocean and as deep as a puddle. But Fallout 4 feels like their most restrictive game yet in terms of customisation, choice, and dialogue. The protagonist doesn’t feel like my character. The things I say don’t seem to matter. My high charisma is used to squeeze a few extra caps out of quest-givers and little else.

The term ‘RPG’ is pretty loose. We could argue for days about what is and what isn’t. But for me, an important part of any good RPG is being able to create and shape a character that’s unique to you. My Fallout 4 vault dweller, however, is vaguely the same as everyone else’s—he just wears a different hat. I mean, it’s a really nice hat. An ushanka I found in a bin. But it’s not enough. There’s no feeling of ownership.

The restrictions of the new dialogue wheel and the addition of a voiced protagonist have stripped away any chance to give your character a distinct personality. They’re either a good guy, or a sarcastic good guy. The single voice on offer is so obviously tailored to fit a generic-looking white guy—like the one they used in the E3 demo—that it sounds weird coming out of anyone else. These limitations feel out of place in a game that offers so much freedom elsewhere. I feel more attached to the rickety old shack I built in Sanctuary than the boring, unfunny dude I’m playing as. [...]

The beta update 1.2.23 for Fallout 4 is available now, for those who can't wait for the formal release.

New Features

• Number pad keys can now be used for remapping
• Remapping Activate now works on Quick Container

Fixes

• General memory and stability improvements
• Fixed issue where equipped weapons become locked after completing Reunions
• Fixed issue with When Freedom Calls where the quest would not complete
• During Confidence Man, fixed issue where player's health would continuously regenerate
• Fixed crash related to jumping into water and reloading saved games
• Fixed issue where Launcher would not save God Rays Quality setting properly

Thanks Eye.

Bethesda gives thanks to their fans:

Thanks and Updates for Fallout 4

Thank you! We can't say it enough- thank you for the amazing support you've given us. We're incredibly blessed to have so many incredible fans. You've made Fallout 4 not just our largest game launch ever, but one of the industry’s. It's beyond anything we hoped for.

Seeing and reading your stories have given our whole studio immense joy. It's amazing to see what you've done with the game, what you've discovered, and what you've built! We know there's even more to come; the game is full of hidden gems and ways it can be played.

For some, the freedom the game offers can be overwhelming. We know the game throws a lot on you at once, so take your time. There are many moments of “How does this work? What do I do to survive?” and that’s how your character should be feeling as well. Those that push through should be able to look back at who they were when they stepped out of the Vault and say, “I made it. I understand this world now and it’s mine.”

It's true that the freedom our games offer you can lead to unintentional consequences that are sometimes bad, when the game combines too many unexpected elements at once. Given the scale and complexity of the systems at work, especially when allowing you to build your own settlements, we're happy that Fallout 4 is our most robust and solid release ever, and we'd like to thank our amazing QA staff who worked as hard as anyone to break the game so we could fix it during development. But a hundred testers will never replicate the many millions playing the game now, and we're hard at work addressing the top issues.

Our process for updating the game will include releasing a beta patch on Steam, followed by full release on PC, then release on the consoles. This process has worked well for us in the past and allows us to get more fixes out faster. Expect to see more updates, that are smaller and more frequent, than a few big ones. This allows us to make sure each fix is working right, as any change can have unintentional side effects in a game this huge. We expect the first beta patch to be up next week.

If you have feedback or issues to let us know about, contact our support staff here.

Thanks again for everything. We look forward to our continued journeys together.

Bethesda Game Studios

Bethesda has published an article about the creation of the robot Codsworth, which can be your companion in Fallout 4.

“I never really think of him as a hunk of metal or a robot,” says actor Stephen Russell. “And I imagine he might say the same about himself.”

Russell is talking about his performance as Mister Handy, a role he reprises in Fallout 4. As players are now discovering, this iconic automaton has evolved quite a bit since Fallout 3. But, mind you, we’re not just referring to the utilitarian machines roaming the wasteland, which might seem somewhat similar to those in the previous games. Russell also voices a very special Mister Handy: Codsworth, the steadfast servant to the Lone Wanderer – both before and long after the bombs have dropped. It’s a star turn for the resourceful robot, who emerges as a key character in the player’s journey. And it’s a role that Russell cherishes because of the range of emotions it allows him to convey.

“I was best off voicing him if I would treat him as any other sentient being capable of joy and frustration, pleasure and pain, affection, anger, exhilaration, exhaustion,” Russell says. “He has a lot of heart.”

Thanks Eye.

Inquisitr compared the open world games Fallout 4 and the Witcher 3:

With the release of Fallout 4 last week, gamers have now seen two massively open world RPGs hit shelves this past year. Many people have met Fallout 4 with rave reviews, while others have panned Fallout 4 for not doing anything decisively new with the series.

However, how does Fallout 4 stack up against the other great RPG to release this year, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

Some would say you cannot compare the two; Fallout 4 is a different game and a different experience when compared to The Witcher 3. However, you can, and should compare the two games as benchmarks for what role-playing games should be in 2015.

Two Different Directions

Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 are reflective of two different studios going in two different directions. Both games were in development at the same time, and to Fallout 4’s detriment, Witcher released first. As a result, CD Projekt Red’s game sets a fantastically high bar, but it’s a bar that has to be discussed. However, as it’s been discussed before, where The Witcher emphasized everything from exemplary gameplay to stunning visuals, it’s been put on record that Fallout 4 sacrificed visuals for complex game systems that, in the end, are entirely ancillary.

[...]

All in all, both games are good in their own right. Yet, when compared — as they should be — you can see what a game should be in 2015. The Witcher 3, by direct comparison, is an achievement, and example, of a studio who’s emphasis on delivering the whole package can be seen across the board, rather than Fallout 4’s seemingly scattered focus. Fallout 4 is a good game, but it’s not a definitive RPG for 2015; rather, it’s a game that feels as though it could have been released a few years ago, and as a result, is disappointing on multiple fronts.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's John Walker is going through Fallout 4 by killing as many characters as he can. Unfortunately the game isn't designed well for such an evil approach.

My goal in setting forth on a murderous rampage through Fallout 4 was to see how the game would react to it. Would it adjust itself to my mercenary ways, start to reveal new pathways – perhaps something like Skyrim’s Dark Brotherhood recruiting me to their gang? Or would I simply shut down all the interesting routes, failing too many quests and closing off chains that would let my character properly develop? What I wasn’t expecting was for the game to simply not cope.

I don’t know if that’s an unfair expectation – I wouldn’t expect most games to cope with my deliberately trying to kill every major character, along with all the minors. It’s relatively ‘normal’ in games to have plot-critical characters either impervious to bullets, or not even let you fire at them. But this is Bethesda, and there’s something about the tone of FO4 that suggests a greater freedom – the issue is, that freedom is assigned in a strangely arbitrary manner.

Eurogamer has made an analysis of the Fallout 4 engine to ask themselves the question if it is Next-Gen or not.

The end product in Fallout 4 is an unusual mixture of old and new. It undoubtedly follows a familiar template underneath, but the new lighting model layered over the top gives it an often-times beautiful, current-gen veneer. Certain new effects already look dated, but regardless, it has a flexibility most games don't offer, with its wide scope for exploration, and a freedom granted by its dialogue options. It's not a knockout blow in technical terms, but it still impresses in its own way - and hopefully this marks the first step of many, as Bethesda continues to develop for PS4 and Xbox One.

And Eurogamer also shows this performance comparison between Xbox one and PS4.

For now though, evidence so far suggests those buying Fallout 4 on console should get an overall smoother experience from PS4. It's far from perfect, and we have a suspicion re-tests will be due once each machine receives new patches down the line. As ever, we'll update as new information comes in. Meanwhile, for those with PC as their platform of choice, all the signs look good for a smooth experience even on budget kit. We're currently putting together an in-depth guide to settings tweaks and recommended setups, so expect that in the next couple of days.

Thanks Eye.

Christopher Byrd (The Washington Post) has reviewed Fallout 4:

Fallout 4 is a game that can swallow you whole. Just give it time.

Bethesda Game Studios makes games that can swallow you whole. I once traded in their fantasy epic The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (2002) because I was too engrossed in it. For almost a month, I played it like it was my job, averaging at least eight hours a day. It was the first game I ever dreamt about regularly. I had never had to sever myself from a game before so I felt spiritually dirty the day I left it at GameStop.

[...]

The more you become involved in the game’s political factions whose interests lie in opposing directions, the more compelling it becomes. Fallout 4 didn’t click for me until close to 30 hours in when the perks I unlocked for my character started to powerfully gel. I began to sink into the cozy logistics of devising micro and macro goals for my character such as thinking about what unexplored area to visit next or speculating on how far I might carry an allegiance before I betray it.

[...]

Fallout 4 is best appreciated over time. Play it for ten hours and the game will likely feel underwhelming. Play it for fifty then see if you can stop yourself from playing it for fifty more.

In a press release Bethesda announced: The Fallout 4 lauch was successful:

Record Sales for the Most Anticipated Game of 2015 See the Launch Trailer for Fallout® 4 Here

November 13, 2015 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced that its award-winning game, Fallout® 4, is generating record sales at retail outlets and via digital download for Xbox One, PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system and PC. Bethesda launched with approximately 12 million units worldwide to meet day one demand, representing sales in excess of $750 million. The collector’s edition, the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy™ Edition, sold out within hours of its announced availability.

Major retailers have informed Bethesda of the tremendous consumer interest in Fallout 4, with some noting it was the most pre-ordered game this year. In addition, the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition was the fastest-selling collector’s edition of any game in history at leading retailers. Following the release, Bethesda was advised that launch day sales at some of the leading retail chains were the largest of any game released this year. Bethesda is now shipping more Fallout 4 units to retailers to meet ongoing market demand.

Digital sales of Fallout 4 are also breaking records. On Steam, Fallout 4 became the number one game played, surpassing the previous record for concurrent play with over 470,000 Fallout players. The companion app, Fallout Pip-Boy, became the number one game on the iTunes App Store. Fallout 4 also set the record as the most viewed game launch of all 2015 games, according to Twitch.

“We’re extremely proud of Todd Howard, Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, and his experienced team of developers for their talent and dedication in creating this extraordinary game,” said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks. “Fallout 4 is a masterpiece in game development and storytelling, providing fans hundreds of hours of fun as they explore and are challenged by this fascinating, beautifully crafted world.” [...]

Shoddycast with some hints:

8 Quick Tips for FALLOUT 4 Beginners (Spoiler Free Guide)

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The Storyteller has already traveled all over the Commonwealth. Here are some quick tips and tricks he thinks you should know on your first day. Eight pointers for a beginner starting in Fallout 4.

Thanks Eye!

Eye found a bunch of reviews:

Mashable:

[...] That's not a knock on Fallout 4. The story's big ending isn't supposed to leave you happy. The choices you make determine the winner, but this isn't a case of good vs. evil. Whoever wins in Fallout 4, someone loses. And it's always going to be someone close to you. You have no idea how powerful that is until you're making those final choices yourself. [...]

The Good

Huge, dynamic world to lose yourself in • Impactful story • Great writing across the board

The Bad

New gameplay mechanics feel half-baked • Technical issues abound

The Bottom Line

Fallout 4 is another Fallout game, but it's not the better one we were hoping for.

The Daily Dot:

[...] Bethesda games, however, are the most obvious demonstration of the fact that the more you love a game, the less any bugs and technical issues are capable of marring your overall experience.

I have spent more than 60 hours in the Xbox One version of the game and don’t feel anywhere close to having tackled most of the content. Fallout 4 could be the only game you buy for the next six months, and you might never get bored. It’s everything that Fallout fans were hoping for. When it comes to game releases in 2015, the best was truly saved for last.

Wired:

[...] Playing Fallout 4 is an engrossing, but sobering, experience. It thrills and excites while it points and criticizes. The fun belied an ever-present sense of dread that, from time to time, bubbled to the surface and crippled me emotionally. Fallout 4 wields its narrative tools with remarkable skill—softening you with absurdism before dragging you down into tragedy.

Teamcoco - Conan O'Brien: The Clueless Gamer

CONAN Highlight: To really get into the nuclear spirit of "Fallout 4," Conan dons a skin-tight Vault Suit. Look out ladies of the post-apocalypse!

PCGamerN:

[...] But while the overfamiliar flavour may mean Fallout 4 doesn’t quite stand tall, it does mean you can guarantee what you’re getting and that’s a damn fine game. Its combat is the best Bethesda have ever produced: involving, kinetic, and exciting. The collection of weapons at your disposal are destructive and inventive, and strapping on power armour makes you feel like an absolute killing machine. Plenty of the missions are rote, but the narrative is the best Fallout has seen, and the factions you interact with seem more complex and multi-layered than ever. There’s enough choice to make at least two playthroughs worth it, meaning this is a game with over 100 guaranteed hours of compelling play in it. With a menu like that, chances are you won’t care about the blemishes and deja-vu. You’ve been happily drinking classic Nuka-Cola for years, so why would you want a changed recipe now?

Score: 8/10

Forbes: Fallout 4 Review Roundup

Eye forwarded us this article on Fallout 4 from GamesTM, who claim to bring us the truth about the game and what made the series a success:

Much like the series as a whole, Fallout 4 is a game that straddles the past and future, which may go some way to explain the mixed reaction it seems to be getting from some quarters. It’s a game that’s bridging the gap between one of the experiences of the last generation, and a new era of hardware that has yet to fully establish its identity. And it is somewhat ironic that a series that has always warned of the repetitious nature of history when it says ‘War, war never changes’, should find itself once again having to convince fans that it has what it takes to deliver the Fallout experience the hardcore expect.

Looking back now, it seems ludicrous that anyone would have doubted Fallout 3, but that was the situation Bethesda was in as it took over the franchise for the first time, and it’s worth remembering that this is only the studio’s second game in the franchise. Fallout 4 should represent Bethesda establishing its vision, cementing its hold on the licence having done so well with Fallout 3. It will continue to recognise the heritage of the past and make a space for what this series can be in the future.

Gamesradar with some tips and hints for playing Fallout 4:

9 things I wish I'd known before I started Fallout 4

[-> Spoiler Alert]

Eye spotted even more articles on Fallout 4:

Polygon: The Fallout timeline

History ... never changes

One of the things that makes the Fallout games so special is the way they encourage players to carve their own path through the story. They’re incredibly dense, so filled with obscure quest lines that it's unlikely players will ever personally experience them all. Yet Fallout has a history, and that history … never changes. [...]

Gamespot: How Fallout4 stacks up on PC/PS4/Xbox One

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Major Nelson: Fallout 4 launch interview with Pete Hines

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Fallout 4 is set for its worldwide release on 10 November and is already receiving some great review scores. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of the series, so it was a real treat to travel to the Wasteland to interview Pete Hines, the VP of PR and Marketing at Bethesda Softworks, to talk about the launch of one of the year’s most anticipated titles.

AngryCentaurGaming recommends Fallout 4:

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None spoiler Fallout 4 review

The first reviews are coming in:

PC Gamer:

As a whole, though, it's a loving production. It's filled with care and attention to detail—like the expanded set of radio stations, or the way flash radiation storms bathe the world in a sickly, ominous green hue. It's a pleasure to pick through the world, to discover new sights, and to pick through the perks and customisation option to conceive the perfect character build, however bizarre. In short, many of Fallout 4's problems, like every Bethesda RPG before it, are a consequence of what makes them unforgettable. That might not be the neatest conclusion, but it explains why, 50 hours in, I'm still having fun. It also explains why, now that I've finished this review, I'm going to play it for many hours more.

Score: 88/100

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

52 hours in, would I go back for more? Yes, absolutely. I lived and breathed Fallout 4 for the vast majority of last week and the fact I was mostly having a damn good time meant I did it willingly. It’s glitchy, a little repetitive and over-familiar, and far too heavy on unconvincing combat, but the improved technology (or the budget) means it’s able to realise the dense, detailed, beautiful decay that Fallout 3 did not, and its dramatically better-presented and performed characters means it’s not shooting itself in the foot in the way Oblivion and Skyrim did. The personality gulf between Bethesda games and BioWare games feels a whole lot narrower now. I won’t for one second pretend that it’s what devotees of Fallout 1 and 2 want, but it does feel like the game Fallout 3 tried and, to my mind, failed to be.

Vibrant and characterful as well as immense, Fallout 4 is the giant leap forwards Bethesda’s RPGs sorely needed in terms of presentation, though the unrelenting focus on routine, lightweight combat sees it fall just short of triumph status.

Eurogamer:

More troubling still, I've suffered an appalling frame rate that plummets to what appear to be single figures during moments of intense action, and lengthy pauses while the game hangs and decides if it wants to continue or not. I've only suffered one fatal crash in over 50 hours of play, but that's not really a record worth celebrating. Experience tells me that with any Bethesda RPG, such issues tend to get worse over time, as your save file balloons, rather than better.

However, fans - and I count myself among that number - will likely shrug and accept that this is simply how things are in a Bethesda RPG, and it's true that the highs do outweigh the lows. Fallout 4 has given me some of my best gaming memories of 2015, along with some of my most frustrating. These are legacy problems that aren't going away any time soon, and as fun as the settlement crafting is here, I'd gladly do without it for a game engine that offers a more dependable foundation for future adventures. Fallout 4 is a great game. It's also kind of a mess. Caveat emptor.

Score: Recommended

IGN:

The Verdict

The world, exploration, crafting, atmosphere, and story of Fallout 4 are all key parts of this hugely successful sandbox role-playing game. Great new reasons to obsessively gather and hoard relics of happier times, strong companions, and sympathetic villains driving tough decisions make it an adventure I’ll definitely replay and revisit. Even the technical shakiness that crops up here and there can’t even begin to slow down its momentum.

Score: 9.5/10 Awesome

Game Informer tells the story of the 7-year development of the upcoming game Fallout 4:

The seven year journey behind the biggest game of the year

Coming off of the success of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda Game Studios began work on its most ambitious game yet for hardware that didn’t exist. The team’s plans were impressive, allowing players to build their own weapons and homes, and dictate their own fates in the wasteland through intertwining story arcs and relationships that could end in love or death. The development spanned seven years, delivering successes, failures, and unexpected detours like porting Skyrim to the Xbox One (keep reading). Just 25 days before Fallout 4 releases, the creators sound off on the lengthy development process as they brace for players to experience their game.

The sprawling open-world adventures Bethesda Game Studios is known for were once made in the basement of a fairly ordinary office complex located in Rockville, Md. The floors above it that allowed sunlight were occupied by a wide variety of businesses and Bethesda’s publishing division. The enormous success of the studio’s in-house franchises, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, led to Bethesda taking over the entire building. The lobby, which was once a sea shared by business people in suits and game developers in T-shirts, is now a gaming shrine holding an enormous statue of the Panzerhund from Wolfenstein: The New Order, and various life-size statues of characters from Fallout and Elder Scrolls. The T-shirts of the game developers won out. Bethesda Game Studios’ office was moved from the basement to the building’s top floor, its walls littered with beautiful concept art from all of its projects.

[...]

You never knew you needed one, but according to Bethesda it is an enhancement to playing Fallout 4: A Pip-Boy on your mobile device.

From Vault-Tec and RobCo Industries comes the Pip-Boy - America's finest, easiest-to-use personal information processor - now available for free on iOS and Android with and will be available for Windows mobile devices later today.

CREATING AN ELECTRONIC BOND!

This app lets your portable device interact with Fallout 4 on your Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or PC.  Away from your game system?  No problem!  Pip-Boy will remember your status and allow you to access your data while on the go.

Not only does it allow to interact with the game, but apparently it is also a life changer.

SYNCRONIZED TO YOUR TERMINAL!

Improve your life by integrating completely with Fallout 4.  Check your Stats, Inventory, Map, Radio and even play your holotape games all from the convenience of your Pip-Boy application.

What would we do without Bethesda to help us improving our lives. No more wasting our time by watching the Pip-Boy on the screen that we are using to actually play the game. We can now look at a separate screen with that info!  Perhaps even a small separate screen, for those who don't own a tablet or phablet.

MINI GAME MANIA!

Thanks to revolutionary advances in emulation technology, you can now play holotape games on your Pip-Boy.  Atomic Command included free!

MADE JUST FOR YOU!

Designed for both new Vault Dwellers and those already familiar with the dangers of the Wasteland!

How much better would the previous Fallout games have been if we had this feature at the time?

FALLOUT 4 PIP-BOY EDITION COMPATIBILITY!

Did you purchase the Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition for your favorite game system? Make sure to snap in your phone device for the complete Pip-Boy experience!

App Store Link, Google Play Link

Don't you feel your life has just been improved?

A new gameplay trailer for Fallout 4 has just been released.

In addition Eye spotted an article about the graphics technology of the game on the Bethesda site.

The first thing we did after Skyrim was to enhance the Creation Engine’s graphical core by adding a physically based deferred renderer. This new renderer allows us to add many more dynamic lights to every scene, and paint our surfaces with realistic materials. We want objects and characters in the world to feel tactile and grounded, and a big part of that is ensuring that these materials are distinct – that metal reflects light in a distinct manner from wood, for example.

As always, our world features fully dynamic time of day and weather. To create that volumetric light spilling across the scene (sometimes called “god rays”) we worked with our friends at NVIDIA, who’ve we worked with dating back to Morrowind’s cutting-edge water. The technique used here runs on the GPU and leverages hardware tessellation. It’s beautiful in motion, and it adds atmospheric depth to the irradiated air of the Wasteland. Like all the other features here, we’ve made it work great regardless of your platform.

Here’s a sampling of what we’ve added to the latest version of the Creation Engine:

• Tiled Deferred Lighting
• Temporal Anti-Aliasing
• Screen Space Reflections
• Bokeh Depth of Field
• Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
• Height Fog
• Motion Blur
• Filmic Tonemapping
• Custom Skin and Hair Shading
• Dynamic Dismemberment using Hardware Tessellation
• Volumetric Lighting
• Gamma Correct Physically Based Shading

Bethesda have published an article about the music in Fallout 4 of which the article states there is three times more of than in Fallout 3.

As for what makes up this larger and more eclectic mix, Audio Director Mark Lampert likes to think of the music as divided into thirds. A third of the music is instantly recognizable – stuff like Bing Crosby’s big hits. “We almost had too much Bing early on,” Lampert laughs. “You could pack the whole list with Bing Crosby if you wanted to.” The next third would be lesser-known tracks from well-known artists; “Orange Colored Sky” by Nat King Cole, for example. And the final third? That’s where it gets really fun. These are often obscure tracks from long-forgotten bands, with ludicrous lyrics and a distinctive sound. “I’d be curious to know if anyone related to those bands hears this stuff,” Lampert says. “Who knows when it was last on a radio?”

...

But with so many more tracks – and this being the biggest world yet for Bethesda Game Studios – how did the team ensure the licensed tracks would not only set the right tone but also feel fresh after countless hours of playing the game? Some of it came down to internal testing. Once they settled on a working selection of songs, Howard made a playlist. “I listened to it all day at work for three or four days,” he says. “Just the music, without the DJ.” A few songs quickly got annoying. Others were too melancholy. Some were too long, interrupting the flow of the game. These were all tossed aside, and through this iterative process of listening, listening, and listening some more, the team honed in on a mix of songs that felt fresh and fit the mood no matter what you’re doing.

For Lampert, the music in Fallout 4 has an almost eerie way of matching up to what he happens to be doing in the game. “There were times when I was getting ready to launch a big battle and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ happened to come on,” he says. “And then there are much more mellow, downbeat pieces that just seem to fit the picture at night, when you’re not in the midst of something.” Regardless of whether a player hears the right song at the right time, there’s such a wide range of music that players can switch around to suit their moods, bouncing between the Diamond City Radio station and the classical music station – or simply letting the original score set the tone.

Thanks Eye.

Eye spotted a whole range of news about Fallout 4. Spoilers ahead!!

To start with there are some leaked screens (also reported by Joxer on our forums) on Kotaku, imgur and VG247 (to name a few).

The leak also revealed the perks.

Links to four leaked videos.

On non-leaked news there is this article, showing a preview of the art book.

And IGN has a video that summarizes Fallout in 5 minutes.

For those interested in the details: Here is the release schedule for Fallout 4:

Thanks Eye.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the world of Fallout:

A Beginner's Guide to the world of Fallout

War, war never changes.

With Fallout 4 due out in a couple of weeks, millions of people are set to leap into the post-apocalyptic open world Bethesda has spent the last few years crafting.

Not all will have played Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios' previous entry in the series. Nor will all have played Fallout: New Vegas, the follow-up made by Obsidian. Nor will all have played Interplay's Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, the now old-school role-playing games that sparked the franchise into life in the late nineties.

If Fallout is alien to you, if, when you hear of "the Wasteland", you think not of post-nuclear California but current day Croydon, then you're in the right place! Welcome to our beginner's guide to the world of Fallout.

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[...]

For those who are interested in the PS4 trophies list for Fallout 4, Eye spotted that Gamebanshee found a list with over 50 trophies on Exophase (contains spoilers).

Curse Entertainment with a nice video about the history of the Fallout Power Amor:

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Find out about the tension and war that led to the development of Fallout Power Armor just in time for Fallout 4.

I noticed at RPS that Pete Hines mentioned Fallout 4 can be preloaded a few days before its release, so that you are almost ready to go and play the game at the moment it is released (as there probably still needs to be downloaded something upon release).

Pete Hines ‏@DCDeacon

We will offer preloading for Fallout 4 on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Exact day/time TBA. All should be available a few days before launch day

Here is the last one of the videos about the SPECIAL system used in Fallout 4, which is about luck.

Two new trailers from Bethesda:

The Wanderer trailer for Fallout 4:

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Fallout Shelter trailer:

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Bethesda continues the Fallout 4 video series about attributes. This time A like Agility:

Thanks Eye!

Here's an additional youtube video from Many A True Nerd which speculates on what precisely each individual perk from Bethesda's Vault-Tech chart actually does. Note that it also mentions at the end of the video what perks appear to be no longer in the game due to the revamped skill system. Could provide some further discussion:

The Fallout 4 system requirements were released today together with the exact time of release.

PC Systems Requirements (Requires Internet Connection and Free Steam Account to Activate)

Minimum:

• Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
• Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
• 8 GB RAM
• 30 GB free HDD space
• NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended:

• Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
• Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
• 8 GB RAM
• 30 GB free HDD space
• NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent

Release Time

Want to know exactly when you can start playing Fallout 4? Digitally the game will become available on November 10, 2015, at 12:01 am (local time) in all territories (In North America, the unlock time will be 12:01 am EST), except Asia (available at 12 am on Wednesday, November 11th) and Japan (available at 12 am on Thursday, December 17th).

Next up in the Fallout 4 video series on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. series is the I for Intelligence.

C stands for Charisma in Fallout's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and is the next video in the series.

In today's chapter we focus on Charisma to help you better understand how to negotiate your way out of danger with unsavory characters and earn the trust of your fellow Wasteland inhabitants.

Pete Hinds tweets that Fallout 4 will not have platform exclusive DLC. If you are after DLC for the game look for it early next year. You can get it now for $30 via the season pass.

A closer look at Fallout 4's character system: S.P.E.C.I.A.L.:

Bethesda has released a new video providing an in-depth look at Fallout 4's character development system.

The video, which is narrated by executive producer Todd Howard, goes through the various S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes and also the Perks. We're also given a look at the rather impressive Perk tree, which you can see in full below.

The chart is organised by the seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L. options and, according to Howard, "there is a Perk for each S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and each rank from one to ten."

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"If you have the value, you can choose it. So if you come out of the Vault with ten charisma, you can pick the intimidation perk that let's you manipulate and control other people."

A total of 70 base perks will be available in Fallout 4, each with multiple ranks that alter the functionality of the perk. Bethesda goes into depth about the character upgrading mechanics on its official website. [...]

Thanks Eye!

The E in S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stands for Endurance and for those new to this sytem as it is used in Fallout 4, this video is supposed to give you some information about it.

In today’s chapter we focus on Endurance to help you better understand how to resist the harmful effects of radiation and other dangers of the Wasteland.

Furthermore Eye spotted a bunch of other Fallout 4 news.

About the music in Fallout 4 with Inon Zur, including two music scores.

Judging from the strange sounds coming from the yard next door, Inon Zur’s neighbors would be forgiven for thinking their neighbor’s half-mad.

“I walk in my garden and basically hammer on things,” Zur says. He’s also been known to use a cello bow on a garden chair – which, he tells us, produces a sound that’s “shrill as hell.” And if those same neighbors happen to peek into Zur’s house, they might even catch the composer at the piano… but it won’t be like any recital they’ve ever seen. “I cruelly exploit the piano by hitting the strings with open hands and even biting the strings,” Zur laughs.

A behind the scenes video with Dogmeat

And an interview with Todd Howard at Twinfinite.

The release of Skyrim exposed a flaw in the system that created an enormous amount of bugs and glitches within the game, and Bethesda was unable to get a handle on them until well after launch. So many bugs, from dragons flying backwards to players losing save files to the game unable to load, that it was a good 2 months before they were mostly corrected.

The process was a slow one that happened while Skyrim was already released. This time, Todd says that the process was one they went through was a learning experience that helped them be better prepared for Fallout 4 because it was “essentially done” when announced in June. The time from then until launch is focused on ensuring those same issues are ironed out ahead of time because as Todd says “the players saved game is number one, if the game crashes, that’s bad, but it is nowhere near as bad as someone’s saved game being hosed. That’s the scenario we will do anything and everything to avoid.” With at least 6 months of testing, this launch should be smoother than Skyrim.

Fallout 4 may be a better Shooter than Fallout 3, because Bethesda called for help:

Bethesda called in id to help with Fallout 4’s gunplay

Fallout 4 combat is more like a modern FPS than previous games, and partial credit must be laid at the feet of Bethesda stablemate id Software.

In a new Fallout 4 video, director Todd Howard acknowledged Bethesda’s ambition to deliver better gunplay with this latest journey into the wasteland.

“I won’t say anything bad about Fallout 3, but we wanted this not to make any excuses for the fact that it’s a role-playing game, for how the action felt,” he said.

“Because we feel we can layer all the role playing and stats on top. Let’s have our cake and our ice cream.”

Bethesda’s background is in fantasy RPGs, but it has a respected pool of veteran shooter talent to call on: the team behind DOOM, Wolfenstein and Quake (oh, and that other one I suppose).

“Since id Software is part of our company, that’s the first thing we did, we call them,” Howard added.

“Like ‘alright, we’re gonna do this from scratch, give us some tips.'”

Pretty cool. The rest of the video includes some discussion on player freedom in Bethesda games; you may watch below. I’ll allow it.

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Fallout 4 arrives on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on November 10.

Good news for modders: The mod tool for Fallout 4 will be released in early 2016:

Publisher Bethesda is preparing to release Fallout 4's mod tools in "early 2016," according to the game's executive producer.

In a newly published video from Bethesda, Todd Howard explained that Fallout 4's mod creation kit (which allows players to extensively edit and modify the game code) "will come out early 2016" on PC. However, he said that the timetable was still "fuzzy."

He explained: "We're doing it [mods] on the PC in a similar manner to what we did with Skyrim. You'll have all the PC mods, but what's really exciting is we are finally bringing it to console."

Such is the complex nature of creating mods, it is likely that Howard is not suggesting here that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Fallout 4 will give users creative mod controls. What is more likely, and has been previously understood, is that the console versions will be able to play modified PC code.

"Once we get the creation kit out on PC, it's then going to come to Xbox One," Howard added.

At E3 in June, Bethesda revealed that Fallout 4's mods would ship on Xbox One before PlayStation 4, as part of a wider deal arranged with Microsoft.

"There's a lot of back-end things we need to do, and once that's done the plan is to talk with Sony and get them on board. But the timetable is kind of fuzzy right now."

Thanks Eye!

The second video about Fallout's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system is about perception.

Todd Howard discusses customisation, crafting and modding options in Fallout 4.

Bethesda shares a video about the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system and it is about strength. I guess the series will cover about 7 videos....

Following total atomic annihilation, the rebuilding of this great nation of ours may fall to you. That’s why we at Vault-Tec have prepared this educational video series for you to better understand the seven defining attributes that make you S.P.E.C.I.A.L.!

Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck – all of these attributes will impact how you survive and thrive aboveground.

Today we’ve released the first video in the series, starting, of course, with Strength. If you would like to share this video with your fellow citizens, we’ve included a YouTube embed below.  Study these materials carefully to ensure your survival and to discover what makes you S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Set to release worldwide on November 10, 2015 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, Fallout 4 is the next generation of open-world gaming where every second is a fight for survival, and every choice is yours.

Lostforever pointed us to the Bethesda announcement of the Fallout 4 season pass, which will be available for $30 and the Creation Kit.

The most important thing in our games is the freedom you have to create your own experience, and modding is a big part of that. Like all our previous games, we’ve made sure to keep Fallout 4 open and moddable at every step in development. Early next year we’ll release for free the new Creation Kit for the PC. This is the same tool we use in the studio. You'll be able to create your own mods and share them with others. We’re especially excited these same mods will then be coming to Xbox One, and then PlayStation 4.

And:

We've always done a lot of DLC for our games. We love making them and you always ask us for more. To reward our most loyal fans, this time we’ll be offering a Season Pass that will get you all of the Fallout 4 DLC we ever do for just $30. Since we’re still hard at work on the game, we don’t know what the actual DLC will be yet, but it will start coming early next year. Based on what we did for Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim, we know that it will be worth at least $40, and if we do more, you'll get it all with the Season Pass.

Henriquejr spotted this important information for German gamers:

Fallout 4 will be uncensored in Germany

Here's a spot of good news for German Fallout fans who like their gore as nature intended: Your edition of Fallout 4 will be entirely uncut and uncensored at release. The news comes from German site PC Games, which revealed, "Fallout 4 erscheint uncut in Deutschland," complete with excited exclamation mark.

You probably get the point, but here's the Google Translate breakdown, with a few additional details, just in case: "Fallout 4 will appear uncut in Germany!" it says. "As the manufacturer Bethesda tells the apocalyptic RPG appear uncut in Germany. This gives German players with the USK offshoot an identical version in comparison to the versions for the British or American market." The site also provided a link to an image on the Fallout 4 Facebook page of the box, with a "USK 18" sticker [USK, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, is the German equivalent of the ESRB] and a "100% Uncut" stamp. [...]

H.A.M Radio Podcast with a voice actor and a voice director of Fallout 4:

FALLOUT 4 Interview with Female Protagonist Courtenay Taylor and Voice Director Kal-El Bogdanove

Danny of Gamespot witnessed Fallout 4 behind closed doors and gives us new details on its large scale battles, improved interface, enhanced shooting mechanics and much more:

Bethesda Game Studios tweeted this:

To our fans who’ve asked: Fallout 4 doesn’t end when the main story is over and there is no level cap. You can keep playing and leveling.

Gamespot asked Pete Hines about base customization in Fallout 4:

Fallout 4 Base Customization Will Have More Options Than Skyrim

Want to build a spaceship? You can do that.

At E3, developer Bethesda announced that Fallout 4 would have places in its world for players to build bases. Now, Marketing VP Pete Hines has revealed to GameSpot a little more about the extent of this creator and a level of customization available to players.

In an interview at Quakecon, Hines told us that the base creator isn't limited to pre-determined frameworks for buildings. Rather, players will be given the ability to decide many different aspects of their buildings. Hines specifically referenced the homes players can own in Skyrim - although there are small choices in customization, most of the buildings were set and unchangeable. Hines explained that Fallout 4 gives you much more control over your base than Skyrim does.

"It's not just, 'Hey, here's Breezehome [one of the houses in Skyrim],' where we just picked a house, and you can buy it, and you can go to somebody and say, 'Here's this much gold, and put this thing into my house.' [In Fallout 4] it's, 'Now I'm building it, I'm actually building the house, I'm building the wall, I'm placing the door, I made the table, I made the mattress.' It's that sense of making your own way in the world and defining, 'Who am I and where do I live and what's my story in this world?'"

He went on to say that building locations are limited, but there are a lot of options for building within those spaces. "There are preset locations around the world where you can [build]," Hines explained. "You can definitely build up... [In one demo] there's a radio tower, and the developer that built it just kept going up and incorporating the tower into their structure."

He continued: "Much like a game like Minecraft, you can be a noob and just build a simple little thing. And you can also get the guys who go crazy and [can say], 'I rebuilt the spaceship from this game... [or] I rebuilt the Tardis from Doctor Who using the lights and stuff and it looks exactly like it.' Like, holy s**t that's incredible."

YongYea tells us about new companions and the new leveling system of Fallout 4:

Bethesda Softworks released an E3-video, that shows the gameplay of Fallout 4 at the beginning of the game:

Shown at the Xbox E3 Briefing, see early exploration outside of Vault 111 – including introductions to characters like Codsworth, Preston Garvey, and Dogmeat. Additionally, see V.A.T.S. gameplay in action, how Power Armor changes your experience, and much more.

Bethesda made a couple of small modifications to the combat system in Fallout 4, Todd Howard told The Telegraph. All for the better, of course.

By his own admission, Howard has said that the gunplay in Fallout 3 was not as good as it could have been. One of the main criticisms of that game’s action was that its blend of first-person shooting and behind the scenes stat-crunching that characterises RPGs leant too heavily on the latter. You would line up what looked to be a clean headshot, only for the game to decide you had missed because your abilities were not high enough. 

Fallout 4 doesn’t shy away from statistics and dice-rolling —it remains an RPG first and foremost, says Howard— but one of Bethesda’s goals was to “make it feel great as an action game.” If you’re good at aiming, says Howard, you can compensate somewhat for lower stats. But not entirely, as Fallout’s myriad systems are layered on top of the improved action.

VATS has been tweaked. In Fallout 3, when you entered VATS the game would pause as you lined up shots to specific body parts, with the percentage chance of a clean hit displayed on each limb. In 4, VATS allows the action to continue at a very slow pace. “We found some ways to make it a bit, not a ton, but a bit more dynamic,” says Howard.

“It’s very, very slow and you’ll see the percentages change because the person is moving behind or coming out of a wall. So queuing up the shot at the right time matters. And while the playback is happening, the criticals are not random, you assign which shot is the critical one and you load up that bar. So it’s a little bit more under your control, not a lot, but just enough to make it feel better.”

Bethesda's Pete Hines posted on his Twitter account that Bethesda has the intention to release an uncut German Fallout 4.

I hope they're more successful in this endeavor than before. So far all Fallouts except for the New Vegas Ultimate Edition were 'low violence versions' in Germany.

Don Parsons of TechRaptor wants to cool down the Fallout 4 hype a bit:

So this is probably going to get me killed. But alas I hold it as my sacred duty to tell the truth even when I suspect that truth is not wanted—even if others may disagree. I think Fallout 4 right now is being massively overhyped and there are a lot of points to look at as to why. (...)

Looking at Bethesda's game series, Don analyzes some negative trends in:

• Past Promises
• The Engine and Combat
• Removing RPG Elements
• That Crafting System
• Radiant Systems
• Large Areas of Nothingness
• Dialogue, Writing and Story

You'll be happy to know that the Pip-Boy, we know from the Fallout games, can be bought again. The first supply did not last long, soa new batch is available now in various stores. It also comes with the Fallout 4 game and interacts with your smartphone. So, this is something for our Fallout and gadget lovers out there.

It can be bought for $120 and only on the USA and Canada. For those in Europe who would like to have one, you can't just yet. No word on plans of it being sold anywhere else at this point in time.

Digital Spy talked to Todd Howard about Fallout 4 at the E3. Here's what he said about frame rate and resolution:

"It is 1080p on everything," he said, before confirming that it would run at 30fps and not 60fps.

On everything ?!

Regarding mod support:

"But, you know, it will come out on PC first. So early 2016, the creation mod for the PC, and then we're going to make that work on the Xbox One, and then we're going to do the PS4 version."

Unless Sony shoots mod support down. They have the last word.

Update:
Bethesda confirmed what most members suspected in the comments

Bethesda Softworks @Bethblog 
Fallout 4 is 1080p & 30fps on Xbox One and PS4. Resolution and FPS are not limited in any way on the PC.

Presentation of Fallout 4 (Gameslice TV):

Interview with Gameslice TV:

Details on Fallout 4:

00:17 How Does it feel to Bring Fallout Back?
00:55 What does the new trailer tell us about Fallout 4?
01:45 How will current gen. systems/PCs take advantage of graphics?
03:00 How does the new weather/water and lighting affects the look?
04:18 Fallout 4's new color theme
04:45 Where do the bombs fall in Boston?
06:45 Todd discusses the main story of Fallout 4
07:54 Can Dogmeat Die?

Fallout 4 will feature the possibility to have mods created for PC to be transfered to Xbox One.

Bethesa boss Todd Howard dropped a bombshell during the Fallout 4 demo at Microsoft’s E3 press conference.

Referring to the importance of mods to Bethesda’s titles, Howard revealed that content created by users will be made compatible with Xbox One.

The exec said this was a feature the publisher has been pushing for since the original Morrowind arrived on Xbox fifteen years ago.

While he didn’t go into specifics, he did promise that all mod content created on PC can ben downloaded and transferred to Xbox One for use in the console version of Fallout 4 for free.

There’s no word on whether or not this is exclusive to Microsoft’s console, but don’t be surprised if mods crop up on the PS4 version as well.

Couch reported some new E3 2015 videos as well:

Fallout 4 - Concept Art Trailer

Fallout 4 - Gameplay

Fallout 4 - Weapons Customization

Fallout 4 - Crafting System Gameplay

Fallout 4 - Pip-Boy Gameplay

Fallout 4 - Gameplay Trailer (E3 2015):

IGN's Nic Rowen has penned an editorial over at IGN. In it, he discusses what he wants to see in Fallout 4. Better stealth is one of these things:

What I will beg for though, is better stealth design. Some of the best moments in Bethesda's games have emerged from the shadows..... I know I personally spent a huge chunk of my time in Fallout 3 trying to skulk through super-mutant camps, silently seeding the area with mines and booby traps before pulling down on some mutant and watching the chaos pop off as his buddies came running. When done well, the tension and power dynamics of stealth can provide some of the best gameplay around. Bethesda seems to know this. 

The PreWar-Hub-team analyses the Fallout 4 trailer:

Nerds rule!

From Gaming Bolt comes news that Bethesda has revealed that Fallout 4 will not be available on PS3 and Xbox 360.

For those who are still looking to the play the game on last gen consoles, as a previous rumor suggested, be ready to get disappointed as Pete Hines and Bethesda's community lead have denied that the game is coming on PS3 and Xbox 360. "Well you feel free to wait for those other platforms and be sure to let me know when they show up," Pete Hines responded with a sarcastic statement.

In other news, Pete Hines confirmed on Twitter that there will be an E3 event on the 
14th of June:

Not answering questions folks. Watch the trailer. Explore the 4K screenshot on http://fallout4.com . Tune into our E3 Showcase on 6/14

If you want to find out more about which plans Bethesday has for E3, please go here.

You might be interested in this:

TUESDAY, JUNE 16

2:30 pm | Fallout 4

Todd Howard, Game Director at Bethesda Game Studios, sits down for an exclusive interview about Fallout 4.

Gamespot's Andy and Danny has done a breakdown, frame for frame, of Bethesda's announcement trailer. You can view it here.

Turns out the old rumor of a Boston setting for Fallout 4 was right all along. Polygon has posted a series of comparison shots of the city's landmarks with the way they appear in today's trailer.

The pic above of the USS Constitution is my screenshot -- at the source, Polygon has a fun slider set up so you can flip back and forth between a photo of the real Boston and the recreation in-game.

Here it is, the official announcement of Bethesda for Fallout 4.

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS ANNOUNCES FALLOUT 4

World's Most Anticipated Game in Development at Bethesda Game Studios

Full Details to be Unveiled on June 14th at Bethesda's E3 Showcase

June 3, 2015 (Rockville, MD) - Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today confirmed the upcoming global release of Fallout® 4, the next generation of open-world gaming. The world premiere of the game will take place during Bethesda's E3 Showcase being held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on June 14th beginning at 7pm PST, and streamed live around the world via Twitch and YouTube.

Fallout 4 is being developed for Xbox One, PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system and PC by award-winning Bethesda Game Studios® under the direction of Todd Howard. This eagerly-awaited game is the follow up to the 2008 ‘Game of the Year', Fallout® 3, and the first title from the world-renowned studio since the release of their global phenomenon and 2011 ‘Game of the Year', The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim®.

"We know what this game means to everyone," said Game Director, Todd Howard, "The time and technology have allowed us to be more ambitious than ever. We've never been more excited about a game, and we can't wait to share it."

The game's official trailer, created in-game at Bethesda Game Studios, can be viewed at: www.fallout4.com.

Fallout 4 has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

PC Gamer has written an editorial about what they want to see in Fallout 4. A quote, then:

Bethesda's Design, Obsidian's Characters. There I was, wandering beneath a line-up of broken satellite dishes, looking for things to do when I spied a door. What could be behind it? A gang of gangers? A terrified NPC? A few steps towards it, a glance around to make sure there was nothing sneaking up. I popped the door. Behind it was a wall with "Fuck You" written on it. Bethesda's worlds tend to be packed with detail, big and small. They're places to live in and enjoy, and just brilliant places to explore. Their characters, however, are a lot less engaging. Obsidian's take on New Vegas was packed with morally dubious Wastelanders with dark stories. 

Bethesda sent out a message on Twitter, that can only mean the announcement of Fallout 4 is imminent.

Thanks jhwisner.

A CG artist who is apparently working on Fallout 4, added the creation of a cinematic trailer on his LinkedIn profile, which is now removed from it, but not before videogamer.com could secure a screenshot.

The artist's CV states that he was hired by California-based Mirada Studios between December 2014-March 2015 to create a "Fallout 4 cinematic trailer", although no further details are provided.

Thanks lostforever.

According to German site PC Games, Fallout 4 will be shown at E3. They have their info from an anonynous source, so it might or might not be true. The video presentation would have a 20-30 minute length and will not be released this year.

Bethesda has not responded to this rumour.