With the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo going on all this week in Hollywood, many gamers have been excited to see what we’ll get a closer look at and very few games have more hype right now than Bethesda’s Fallout 4. With the trailer dropping earlier this month and confirmation that the company would have a showcase at the event, gameplay footage was all but guaranteed, and fortunately for all of us they have delivered.
While the earlier trailer left us with a lot of questions and a few predictions, the majority of what we saw was pretty familiar to fans of the Fallout franchise. Dog meat, deathclaws, robots, power armor, raiders, and ghouls were all present and accounted for. The thirty minutes of gameplay that have now been shown off though finally give us a good look at what’s going to be different this time around. One of the most radical departures now is that your playable character is fully voiced. In the past we’ve always played kind of a blank slate, but this approach seems to be more in-line with Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series. A playable pre-apocalypse has also been confirmed, as well as an updated Pip-Boy that allows you to play mini games. The biggest addition this time is the crafting system, which instead of just allowing you to make minor changes, like adding a scope to your rifle now allows you to change everything. You can customize your weapons and armor, and you also have the option to build an entire settlement. Not only that, but you can build secondary settlements and set up Brahmin caravans to travel between them. This is all totally optional and not important to the main story (which hasn’t been revealed yet), but I, for one, am incredibly excited.
Outside of game mechanics we have a number of other reveals as well. We know that the Collector’s Edition of the game will come with a Pip-Boy styled smartphone case that you can wear like a real Pip-Boy, and on top of that they have created a downloadable Pip-Boy app that will sync up with your actual game. The app will be available regardless of whether you bought the Collector’s Edition. Speaking of smartphones, a free to play game called Fallout Shelter has been revealed, where you build and maintain your own Vault-Tech vault in a style similar to X-Com. This game is available immediately. For a full half an hour of gameplay, check out the video in the player below. Fallout 4 is set to release November 10th, 2015.
