Please Stand By - Bethesda to Announce Fallout 4 on June 3rd

About 1% of me is worried this is going to be an MMO, but I hope Bethesda has learned a lesson from Elder Scrolls Online and won't go down that disastrous path again.

GET READY FOR THE FALLOUT HD COLLECTION

Hopefully we'll get a double-ended Fallout 4 so we can share.

Ok I think this might be the game that will make me skip the consoles and buy a gaming pc

@fredchuckdave said:

Fuck yes, it is.

But that's mostly because of storyline and setting. Oblivion may have been way more mainstream (even changing the environment of Tamriel to be more like LotR) but it's tech and gameplay was a step above Morrowind, just like Skyrim was to Oblivion.

@twolines:

While I wouldn't use such an extreme tone, I agree that New Vegas was better than Fallout 3 in pretty much every single way.

There a lots of small details that separated the two titles but the biggest one was...

Obsidian made a flushed out world where as Bethesda just made a playground.

@viking_funeral: Skyrim is certainly a more accessible game and plenty of those accessibility improvements are actual objective improvements to the formula, but I think the Witcher 2/3 prove that you don't really have to do that to make your game better. If anything the Witcher 3 actually feels less accessible in some ways than the Witcher 2 did. Now if Fallout manages to get some serious Mad Max: Fury Road shit in there then I'm all for it; but chances are it'll just look nicer/be bigger (which in the case of Bethesda games is probably good enough).

Skyrim is a wonderful mod playground at any rate.

As much as I love the original game, and I love the idea of VATS, it's also something that didn't translate well at all to a first person perspective. I thought it was easily the worst part of Fallout 3. For one, it slowed the pace of the game down to a crawl, which was fine in the original turn-based game but obnoxious in a first person one. It's inclusion also meant that they went back to the Morrowind system of hit probability - rather than being an "if it's in your crosshairs you hit it" system, if your skill is too low you bullet will literally seem to take a right angle turn out of the barrel and you'll miss, forcing you to interact with VATS. And don't even get me started on the overuse of the slow-mo kill cam thing.

If they want to put VATS in (and I'm not saying they should take it out, it is sort of a big piece of those games), they need to change how it works in a big way. Maybe have it work more like F.E.A.R. - make it a bullet time mode that allows you to manually aim more precisely, perhaps with the system highlighting the enemy weak point or something. I can also do without the kill cam, or at least give us the option of turning it off. Anything to keep the pace of the game moving.

Or maybe Bethesda will surprise us all and make it an isometric throwback, which personally I think would be awesome. It won't happen, but it would be awesome.

Fallout 3 was pretty good. Fallout: New Vegas is one of my favorite games of all time. This is beautiful.

If they announced Dishonored 2 at E3 then Bethesda will just be pandering to me.

@dudeglove: Are you nuts? That's the appeal man, a necessity one might say. Impossible that it wouldn't be buggy.

You know most people on this website voted for Fallout 3 over NV in the best game of generation contest. These people are insane, I know.

It's going to be a huge bummer going from New Vegas to this game if Bethesda has the same writers they did for Fallout 3/Skyrim.

Absolutely can not wait for this Fallout: Online announcement!

...... Am I right guys? >_>

I enjoyed both F3 and New Vegas, but the latter was comfortably better.

A better integrated companion (or two) would be an interesting improvement for Fallout I think. I'm thinking along the lines of eg. Mass Effect's basic on-the-fly squad commands.

I just hope it's not cross-gen

That's crazy.

Also- I used the word "hated," but in reality I found Fallout 3 bland, boring and forgettable. Nothing really to hate there, just... meh.

I often use a hyperbole when commenting on dumb things, I need to stop doing that.

I saw somewhere that it is.

Regardless it's gonna be the same Bethesda crap that they always shovel out and people are gonna eat it right up like always so whatever.

They must be doing something right since people get real excited about their games.

A new Fallout is just about one of the few things to get me super pumped now a days. While I would prefer another Fallout game headed by Obsidian, since that game was close as it could possibly get to the older games, save making it in an isometric view again.

Still, I enjoyed a lot of things about Fallout 3, it was a fun world to explore and VATS was pretty fun to use. The only thing I can really hope for is that they up their writing game. Fallout 3 did have some good writing in spots, but there was also a lot of instances of poor writing or missing the mark and the entire opening story sequences of Broken Steel still rubs me the wrong way. The Pitt and Point Lookout DLC's did give me hope on Bethesda reaching a good tone for the series, or at least leaving a mark of their own. I'd rather they try to carve out new story elements in the series in places we haven't been too instead of emulating past factions or story elements from the older games and not quite reaching the mark.

If this was a new Elder Scrolls I don't think I would give a single shit, because I don't believe Bethesda would be capable of topping The Witcher 3 in open-world fantasy RPG-ness at this point. But Fallout is just different enough, and I've always liked the world of Fallout more, that I feel like I can get excited.

Then again, New Vegas was way better than Fallout 3. With Bethesda at the reigns again it could all fall apart.

I'll just say I'm cautiously optimistic. If they learned from their mistakes and make meaningful advancements this could be great. If this just a prettied up rehash of last gen then meh. (I say that knowing I'll probably play it regardless, but it could be the difference between day 1 or bargain bin.)

First that Dark Souls 3 thing and now this.

I'm in, but yeah, I also hope they make some serious improvements to the combat system (even though it's way better than anything that ever happened in a TES game).

Fallout 4 will be an open world first person character based shooter that closely follows the story of our protagonist, Brother Adam. It will incorporate RPG elements, such as perks and traits that you can take to enhance the synergy of Adam's skills.

Take the fight online. Co-op missions let you take on hordes of mutants, and an online progression system gives Fallout 4 even more role playing elements as you level up your Brother of Steel Paladin online. Our iOS Pipboy companion app will let you track hidden supply caches of fresh water. By placing transmitters on towers in the world, the iOS Pipboy companion app will allow you to tune in to Three Dog, everyone's favorite radio DJ from Fallout 3.

Our first of four DLCs for the first season of Fallout 4 will follow the story of Scribe Eve.

If you preorder the game, you'll receive not one, but two armor packs for Dogmeat, and a gold pipboy in Rage 2.

It'd be really awesome if the new Fallout was more like New Vegas, but I really doubt it. People just want to shoot mutants in the face.

They've got a tough road ahead of them if they show it this close to TW3 and haven't drastically improved a lot of things from Skyrim. Things like robotic facial animation and gesture animations will be immediatly noticable to even the average person and things like quest design will need to be shown to be drastically improved too.

However, I'm a major sucker for Fallout setting and it's quirky features so I'm excited regardless. Here's to hoping they've got Obsidians writers on deck or something and maybe get people from Arkane or something to make not shit gameplay. Bethesda I love you but you really need to pick up your game.

Wait, what if this is just a remaster of Fallout 3?

Just thought the exact same thing! That would be a troll in the fashion of Square-Enix.

I think it will be a very very very very short teaser. I'm thinking some dust flying around and an old building, then just a 'more at E3!'.

I hope the game takes place in a new environment, and the time line of the universe has progressed to the point that where the whole world isn't a barren wasteland. I do enjoy the barren areas because finding locations to explore feels like a rare treat, but at a certain point the lack of infrastructure doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like, it's been a while, humanity sshould get its shit together. And hopefully this game debuts a new engine.

@lawgamer: I totally get where you are coming from but my feelings are pretty opposite. Fallout now being a first person shooter doesn't mean to me that it needs to a precision shooter. I'm happy that it was still an RPG at heart and I don't mind if it continues to use dice rolls for shooting (and why yes, I do prefer Mass Effect 1 to 2!) - that's what I want, to be honest, not a point and click shooter. I want Fallout to a be a slow, thoughtful game, and that's why I really like VATS. I love pausing, going between all the enemies, then deciding what to do. I played Fallout 3 as much as possible within VATS and I hope I can do the same in Fallout 4.

I hope it's possible that they can give both of us what we want, but I'm not sure that's realistic. It's not really very straightforward to build a game which can be a fast-paced precision shooter and have the spirit of turn-based tactics. One place I do agree with you 100% is the overuse of the killcam. That needs a slider/toggle, if it is to be in the game.

If it were an isometric game I would die of happiness. NEVER GONNA HAPPEN though.

Personally I liked the slower pace VATS provided. It was a nice change of pace from the usual first person shooter design. Same goes for bullet time. It's way overused in shooters, I don't want it in Fallout. (There's actually a combat overhaul mod for Fallout 3 that turns VATS into a bullet time mode, and I thought it was super lame.)

If anything I want to see them expand on VATS and integrate VATS more meaningfully. For me, the real problem with VATS was that the implementation was far too one dimensional. You could target other body parts, but there was hardly ever a reason to target anything but the head to kill them quicker. The idea of being able to directly target a leg to slow them down or their arm to stop them from attacking you as easily is a cool idea, but it was rarely effective, and more often than not you could have killed them already if you had shot them in the head. It's true that VATS was designed for a turn based combat system and that makes it hard to effectively implement into a real time FPS, but I think there are ways they could make it more interesting and relevant. One thing I would like to see is some in-combat dismemberment, not just from death animations. If I shoot a guy's leg health to zero it should come off and force him to the ground, instead of just making them hobble at you at a ridiculous pace.

They do need to improve the actual gunplay to a reasonable degree though. New Vegas more or less moved away from any stat based aiming, but it could still use some work.

Btw, there has always been the option to turn off the slow-mo cam.

@chu52: Oh, God. Despite loving the Fallout series; despite loving video games in general; despite loving things which are generally good-natured and joyful; despite considering myself a relatively well-adjusted human being without the urge to seek out suffering and contempt...

That would be some funny shit.

I still play New Vegas from time to time, so I'm pumped, but like Jeff said I don't expect this until late 2016. Should be enough time for the open-world fatigue to abate. It'll be interesting to see where they go with the setting. Can't go snow because they just did Skyrim, can't go desert because New Vegas—how else do you portray a wasteland?

It will probably be the setting ''reveal''

@excast: In some of the code it specifically mentions Fallout 4. It definitely won't be a MMO.

institute.js

Boston confirmed

Man, I am so ready. I've spent more time with FO3 than any other game by far, and I think it was a fantastic game, warts and all. I love RPGs but I cant really stand fantasy settings, and Fallouts very specific brand of dark humour and future 50s really stands out I think.

I'm calling it now, release holiday of 2015. Bethesda has stated (somewhere?) that they wish to shorten the window between announcement - release, and it's been a really long time since Skyrim. Maybe it's just wishful thinking though!

*boring cutscene incoming

Color me excited, hopefully release this year.

Fallout 4, XCOM 2, there goes my life again, shit.

I don't really like Bethesdas writing, I think they hold themselves back by being far too generic and cliche.
But I sunk so much time into Fallout 3 because it was just fun wandering around an encountering random events. And the mod community created so much fantastic content for that game it doubled the amount of enjoyment I could get out of it. So I'm excited.

Besides that, as lazy as their writing can be, they have pockets of greatness here and there, usually the best story or character moments happen outside of the main story, just find some NPC somewhere doing something weird and getting involved can be good.

So fingers crossed they up their writing game, but even if they don't, I know I'll still have fun.

Given it really is Fallout 4, but, I mean, c'mon, of course it is.

*creams pants*

I wonder if this means the rumor about a sizable gameplay demo at their E3 conference is true.

Duders.... DUDERS! This is Bethesda we are talking about. There will be no announcement tomorrow. They will announce they are making an announcement! At E3 I'm sure. These are the folks who gave us the 9 second Doom trailer. This is hype for E3. Mark me words!

I hope this is a reboot of sorts. I cannot say I really like the tone of the past few Fallouts. I know it was sharing some goofy over the top elements for the game's historic past...but it was sort of annoying to me. But, hey, that's just me. I understand that other feel different, but I would just enjoy it to be a few notches less goofy and less 1950s throwback.

Honestly, I could take it or leave it. If it stays the same tone? Well more power to'um in taht case, but just not a game for me.

I am excited.

Really didn't love Fallout 3 (New Vegas was a bit more fun, though not by much, since I thought it was much more interesting narratively), but I'm excited to see what Bethesda does with new consoles and HOPEFULLY a new engine.

That really wouldn't be Fallout anymore then. That's just a generic post-apocolyptic setting. The surreal mix of seriousness and dark humor in a post-apocolyptic wasteland alongside the psuedo 1950's aesthetic is pretty much the definition of Fallout. The pip-boy guy is the Fallout mascot for a reason.

Somebody on the bombcast (think it was Jeff) mentioned that they thought Bethseda would reveal the game a little bit early in order to show an extended gameplay demo during their conference. Seems like that is what is happening, great call to whoever that was.

I hope they have put some serious thought into UI design after Skyrim. It's the biggest thing that turned me off that game.

Can't wait. Been looking forward to a better-engine Fallout game since Skyrim came out.

Mass Effect 2 was not nearly as good as 1.

With that out of the way, I'm excited. I'm just really in the mood for another Bethesda RPG. Gaming is so over saturated with Ubisoft open-world games atm.