When I say that I have been anticipating Fallout 4, I want y'all to understand that is a huge understatement.

I have been imagining what this game might be like for years. I have theorized and brainstormed with friends for hours at a time. I have, occasionally, told myself it'll never happen, and that the Fallout franchise is dead, and we'll never get another one.

For once, I'm very happy to be wrong. :D

There are a lot of folks on my Twitter timeline worrying that this is a "gritty" and "grimdark" version of Fallout--I'd like to remind those people that Fallout trailers are always gritty and grimdark, but the actual games are different. Fallout 3 shows us an abandoned, crumbling city full of regret and carnage. Fallout: New Vegas literally opens with a Fiend being shot in the head. Ron Perlman always talks about how war never changes, which is about as gritty as it gets. It'll be fine.

No joke, I don't care what this game is like. I don't care if it's not perfect. I don't care if it's literally just Fallout 3 again but with brighter colors and better textures. I kid you not, I would play the hell out of that. The only thing I don't want it to be is a prequel. I got a little worried with the flashes of pre-bomb America(?) we see in the trailer, because I don't want to experience that turmoil. I don't want to see those people frightened and dying, even if they're just pixels. The terror of nuclear war is actually my least favorite part of the franchise, and yes I know how silly that sounds. (I'm still upset about those text files you find in Honest Hearts detailing the life of that ranger.) But I don't care if it's silly; I don't want an entire game with that kind of emotional gut-punch.

Naturally, of course, I also don't want things like gratuitous amounts of hurtful isms, or unnecessary rape plots, or fridged women, or other shitty stuff like that. But I'm not too worried. Fallout has been pretty good at avoiding most of those, (at least as much as any video game ever does these days, while we wait for our dev groups to diversify) and what has cropped up usually doesn't feel like it's crammed in there just to be "edgy" or whatever. I was also pretty disappointed to see a white guy at the end of the trailer-- surely the devs could have left the identity of the Wanderer an enigma as they've done so well in previous games? Failing that, it would have been quite simple to put in a person of color or even a woman. (Or both!) It's a missed opportunity, and incongruous with a franchise that prides itself on you getting to play and create whatever kind of Wanderer you can imagine.

Otherwise, though? I don't care. I just don't. If that makes me a bad gamer or a fool or whatever--so be it. I'd rather have few to no expectations and have a blast with this game than become a cynic and hate on every little thing.

I just want Fallout.