E3 Presentation stokes the anticipation for Fallout 4

• Posted by Paul June 15, 2015 - 602 views

  Well, you've got to hand it to Bethesda. They know how to fan the flames of anticipation for their major releases....

  From the minute that Todd Howard walked out onto the stage last evening for their pre-E3 Presentation in front of cheering and hollering fans and game hacks, the whole event had the vibe of a Steve Jobs era Apple Conference. Even if you're a Fallout hater, you couldn't help but be impressed by the slick presentational style. Heck, Howard even mimicked the legendary Steve Jobs 'And finally' schtick with his release date reveal at the end.

  Make no mistake this is BIG news in the gaming world. How can I make that claim? Well, consider this. I woke up this morning (E3 was 2.00 am my timezone, and even I am not so nerdy as to stay up watch it live). I grabbed my iPad to check what I'd missed. My wife asked me what I was looking at. When I mentioned Fallout 4, she said 'Yeah, its coming out on November 10th apparently'. WHAT!!! She'd read it on the BBC News website. The freaking BBC!! That doesn't happen every day in gaming...

  So, having - finally and belatedly - seen the full E3 Presentation, and having spent an hour or so trawling around the various game sites, what's my considered opinion?

  In a nutshell, I am TOTALLY STOKED for Fallout 4.

  I think I was probably somewhere around a 7.5/10 in the excitement stakes before today. What I've seen today has boosted me straight up to a 10 out of 10.

  Why? Here are my initial five reasons

  1. The game looks absolutely gorgeous. It's on the next-gen consoles, so it should look good. But the graphics we've seen really capture the mood and the vibe of a post-apocalyptic world.

  2. It sounds incredible. OK, we've only heard snippets, but the music, the sound effects and even the voices sound awesome

  3. Pretty well infinite weapon and armour customisation - which appeared to be intuitive, effective and seamlessly integrated.

  4. Crafting - being able to collect wreckage, debris and random crap from the world and use it to build stuff is genius, and fits so intuitively into the Fallout world that it simply seems like its gonna be fun, fun, fun.

  5. Our character speaks. Now I know that some people will 'hate' on this. Granted, its new departure for a Fallout (or Elder Scrolls) game - but its standard today, and so long as it is done well - and it looks like it is - then I'm cool with it.

  There's a lot more to say obviously, and these are just my first thoughts. Over the next days and weeks and months we will be drilling down into the detail of all this. If Bethesda follows their usual form, they'll be drip feeding us stuff over the next five months, so we'll have plenty to talk about here on the site.

  Are you excited about Fallout 4? You will have detected that I am. But I'm keen to hear how you feel now that you've found out a lot more than we knew just from the teaser trailer. So, there's a poll underway. Vote and add your comments here.