14 DAY TRIAL // When Bethesda announced that it was working on Fallout 4 already a few days before the start of E3 2015, a lot of gamers and analysts questioned the company's decisions to reveal the long-awaited title via trailer rather than on stage at the major event.
The publisher held its own big press conference this year, and the new post-apocalyptic open-world game was in the final slot, with the company delivering a very long and detailed presentation that put director Todd Howard at the center of the action.
Fans of the series were able to take a look at the intro of the new title and get some details about the story, even if the game creator was relatively coy when it came to actual details, but the biggest surprise came when he talked about crafting and buildings.
Basically, Fallout 4 offers a classic single-player adventure set in an open world, with gamers able to move around and explore quests even as they head towards an ultimate goal, but it actively encourages players to wander the world and work on their own goals.
I loved moving all across the map in Fallout 3 and in New Vegas to discover the weird locations that Bethesda put there but the new installment is raising the stakes.
Player-created content is a huge addition to the open-world concept
Using resources harvested from the post-apocalyptic landscape, gamers can create their buildings, which is cool enough on its own.
But they can also set settlements up, and there are new characters that will move in, including traders who have unique equipment to offer and artisans who will benefit from trade between settlements.
Fallout 4 will also ask gamers to put up defenses to make sure that their creations will be protected from the raiders that move across the game world.
Bethesda is also introducing more than 50 core weapon types and 700 modifications for them, allowing players to create their own unique arsenal and to even tweak the capabilities of a personal suit of power armor.
The possibilities seem almost endless, as long as Bethesda implements the idea without any major technical hiccups, especially given the fact that Fallout 4 will offer extensive supports for the community-created mods.
A solid gameplay demo can create excitement and sales
Bethesda had a smaller number of titles to talk about during its press conference as compared to Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts or Ubisoft.
But the way Fallout 4 was demoed, with the running Todd Howard commentary and clear focus on gameplay, is a great way to show how far along in the development process the title is and gives players confidence in its shape when it arrives on November 10.
Sony had a glitch with its own Uncharted 4 demo and offered only a small slice of gameplay.
Ubisoft revealed the new Ghost Recon with a big gameplay moment, but the series might not be well-known enough to attract gamers.
Microsoft talked about the new Gears of War, but only a very limited amount of gameplay was shown, with only a few details about the way the series is evolving.
Electronic Arts ended its own press conference with Star Wars Battlefront and showed a solid chunk of action from Hoth, but a lot of details about that title were already known, and nothing was extremely innovative.
Fallout 4 is the video game that won E3 2015 for me, mainly because the developers at Bethesda were willing to show it as is to the community and trust them to respond with positive feelings.
The first result is that the special Pip-Boy edition for the title, with extra content, has sold out at Amazon and that the Shelter app for iOS managed to become one of the more successful ones for the OS.