Fallout 4

Fallout 4 is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth major installment in the Fallout series (7th overall), and was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 10th, 2015, except in Japan, where it was released on December 17, 2015, possibly due to the need to censor some footage and references to atomic war, while still keeping the plot intact.

Setting and story
The player is the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, who emerges 210 years to the day and time after the Great War. Prior to this, there is a brief period of gameplay during the pre-War era showing the player living with their spouse and child.

As revealed in the trailer on June 3, 2015, the setting takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. Famous local landmarks like the Paul Revere Monument, the USS Constitution, as well as the Massachusetts State House with its unique Golden Dome are included in the game world. Other notable present-day locations that make an appearance in the game are Scollay Square, Bunker Hill memorial, and Fenway Park, which is renamed Diamond City. The events of Fallout 4 occur in 2287; a decade after Fallout 3, and six years after Fallout: New Vegas.

Vault 111 is in the northwest corner of the game map. The Sole Survivor starts the post-war adventure wearing the Vault 111 jumpsuit. The trailer featured a player character carrying a laser musket, meeting the dog companion Dogmeat and starting on a road leading away from the camera, a motif seen in various previous Fallout installments.

Vault 111 is also near Sanctuary Hills, the residential area where the Sole Survivor lived before the war. This is most likely the first location that the player comes across after emerging from the Vault. The protagonist's household robot, Codsworth, still resides there. Sanctuary Hills is also one of the player-built settlement sites.

The setting also includes mountains, coastal regions, the outskirts of the city and the downtown Boston area. A large and still inhospitable nuclear blast site is to the southwest. The starting area in the northwest contains low level enemies and is relatively safe, but the enemies get progressively tougher towards the southeast area of the map.

The game features just over 111,000 lines of dialogue, more than all of the dialogue in Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim combined.

Gameplay
The gameplay is largely similar to that of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, with the ability to switch from first to third-person view. Additional features include a split-piece armor system (reminiscent of the armor system in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind), base-building, a dynamic dialogue system, an in-depth crafting system that makes use of every lootable object in the game as a source of raw material, and more. Enemies such as mole rats, mirelurks, raiders, super mutants, deathclaws, and ghouls return to the series.

The player character, the Sole Survivor, accesses the in-game menus through a Pip-Boy to manage statistics, maps, data, and items. Players can also find game cartridges with retro themed mini-games which can be played on the Pip-Boy. Another returning gameplay feature is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.), which can play an important part in combat. While using V.A.T.S, real-time combat is slowed down, and action is played out from varying camera angles in a computer graphics version of "bullet time." Attacking in V.A.T.S. costs action points, limiting the number of actions available at a time, and the player can target specific body areas for attacks to inflict specific injuries; headshots can be used for quick kills or blinding, legs can be targeted to slow enemies' movements, and opponents can be disarmed by shooting at their weapons.

A new equipment system allows a wide variety of upgrades and customization for weapons and armor. Unlike the previous two Fallout games, weapons and armor do not deteriorate with use and no longer require constant maintenance.

A new feature to the series is the ability to build settlements. Within the boundaries of a settlement, players can scrap objects and structures for resources and use them to build their own structures, including housing, vegetable gardens, defenses, stores, and crafting stations. Each settlement can also connect to others by Brahmin caravan, which then share resources. Towns can be powered with electricity, using a dynamic power line system, as well as equipped with water pumps and crops/gardens to keep a steady income of food and drink. Merchants and non-player characters can inhabit player towns and help keep the settlements running as a community. Players can build various defenses around their settlements, such as turrets, guard towers, and traps, to defend the settlements from raids and attacks.

Skills have been removed, replaced with a 7x10 perk chart. At each level-up, the player can acquire a new perk, each with prerequisites based on SPECIAL attributes and level, and most have multiple tiers. A consequence of the new advancement system is that there is no hard level cap, allowing players to experience a little more freedom when it comes to exploring and combat. The player may continue playing even after they have finished all of the main quests, a feature returning from Broken Steel, which allows players to experience the aftermath of their decisions. There are plenty of side quests to pursue, many of which can also be experienced after the main story ends.

Development
Initially, in 2004, Bethesda Softworks licensed from Interplay Entertainment the rights to create and publish three Fallout games (Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4). Later, in 2007, Bethesda purchased the entire franchise, and Interplay licensed back from Bethesda the rights to a Fallout MMORPG. The legal dispute is now over, with Bethesda Softworks and its in-house development studio retaining the rights to all of the Fallout franchise, including an MMO.

In 2009, Bethesda's Pete Hines said: "The whole reason we went out and acquired the license and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one." He also added: "This is not something we're going to do once and then go away and never do it again. When that will be or how long that will be God only knows, but we acquired it specifically because we wanted to own it and develop it and work on it like we do with The Elder Scrolls."

Development began right after Fallout 3 's release, in 2008. The game had minor development due to Skyrim being developed at the same time. After Skyrim was released in 2011, Fallout 4 became the primary project for Bethesda.

Release date
In August 2010, Todd Howard revealed in an interview with Eurogamer that Bethesda was working on two projects; one had been in development for two years (beginning after Fallout 3 was released), and the other was still in pre-production. It is now known that the title farther along in development was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Fallout 4 is now known to be the second title.

On January 9, 2013, the voice actor behind Three Dog (Erik Todd Dellums) was given permission by Bethesda to hint towards his appearance soon. On his Twitter account, he stated, "To all my #Fallout3 and #ThreeDog fans: There may be more of the Dog coming! Fingers crossed!" However, in July of the same year, Dellums tweeted that the game he is working on is not being produced by Bethesda Softworks, therefore it was not the anticipated new Fallout title.

On April 15, 2013, Bethesda Game Studios announced on Bethblog that they had completed all new content for Skyrim and were moving the studio's attention to an as of yet unknown title that had previously been in pre-production since 2010. Although Bethesda Softworks did announce The Evil Within during the same week, this is being developed by another studio and will have no direct impact on whatever project Bethesda Game Studios is currently working on.

On February 18 2014 Todd Howard was interviewed on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and said that a new game announcement would be very far away. "We don’t [have a timeframe for our next game announcement]," he said, "but I think it’s gonna be a while." He is forever positive and says "PC is resurgent," enthused Howard. "Skyrim did better than we've ever done on PC by a large, large number. And that's where the mods are. That feeds the game for a long time. And it's exciting that the new consoles are very PC-like. That opens up avenues for us going forward to do things that we've wanted to do in the past. There are kind of random ideas we're working on right now, and it's like, "Wow, I think there's potential here to do some really cool stuff."

On June 2, 2015, a countdown timer was set on Bethesda's Fallout website expiring on June 3 at 10:00 AM EDT.

On June 3, 2015, seconds before 10:00 AM EDT, the Fallout 4 trailer was released on YouTube. The Fallout website, seconds after 10:00 AM EDT also debuted in full Fallout 4 style including a working teaser phone number, previously used during the Fallout 3 release.

Bethesda's first ever E3 showcase took place on June 14, 2015, at 7 PM PST. The E3 showcase was streamed on YouTube and Twitch. Bethesda revealed gameplay footage including combat, a refined VATS system, a new crafting system, concept art, and a release date, which was confirmed to be November 10, 2015. A major new feature shown during the press conference was the ability to craft and deconstruct settlements.

Fallout 4 was successfully released on November 10, 2015, having been shipped 12 million copies to meet day one demand.

Pip-Boy Edition
The Pip-Boy edition of Fallout 4 features: a wearable Pip-Boy that can, according to a Forbes article, hold the iPhone 6, iPhone 5/5s, iPhone 4/4s, Samsung Galaxy S4, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and many other smartphones using foam inserts. a Pip-Boy pocket guide, a Vault-Tec perk poster, a RobCo Industries stand (for your Pip-Boy), a capsule case, and the game in a collectible metal case.

Fallout 4 Nuke Pack
The Fallout 4 Nuke Pack features: a Fallout 4 lunchbox, a 37x10" Fallout 4 Print, a Vault Boy mini bobblehead, and the game in a collectible metal case. The Nuke Pack is sold exclusively in Australia and New Zealand, distributed by EB Games.

Fallout 4 Mighty Bundle
The Fallout 4 Mighty Bundle features: a 100-page hardcover Fallout 4 Franchise Book "...detailing in words and hi-res imagery the history of Fallout over the years", a Fallout Vault Boy Pop! Vinyl figure, and a copy of the game.

Mod support
Fallout 4 is the first Fallout game to have native mod support for consoles. During the E3 2015, at the Xbox Conference, Todd Howard went on stage to tell the audience that Xbox One will offer mod support following the release of the Creation Kit for PC, which is available for download as of April 26, 2016. The Xbox One is expected to support mods in May, with support for PlayStation 4 arriving sometime in June.

Downloadable content
Bethesda has confirmed there is DLC coming starting early 2016, as well as smaller updates along the same lines as Skyrim has seen. A season pass for all add-ons to come can be bought at a price of $30 USD, €29.99 Euro, which will allow you to download the DLC free of charge, if the season pass was purchased before March 1st 2016. If it was purchased after this date, the price on Steam is €49,99 Euro. The confirmed DLC so far includes Automatron, Wasteland Workshop and Far Harbor.

Far Harbor
Bethesda has also revealed that they are planning on releasing "More than $60 worth of new Fallout adventures and features throughout 2016."