War…War Never Changes. Or so goes the tagline for the post-apocalyptic video game series Fallout. I started in with the series about 5 years ago with Fallout 3, which was something of a new direction for the franchise. That sort of went over my head though, as I completely missed the first 2 games. However, Fallout 3 had me hooked, and some of the scenes and set-pieces from that game will be with me for a while. So naturally, I jumped in to Fallout 4 with both feet; this was a rare Day 1 purchase for me. Lately, I’ve been waiting months or even a year or more before buying big games to save a little money (not to mention to allow me to play all the games I’m way behind in!), but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it in this case. Awesome trailers like this one didn’t help:
Over the course of the last month, I’ve managed to put in about 30 hours into Fallout 4; the big differences from the previous game include a change in venue from the Washington DC area to the Boston area (referred to as the “Commonwealth” in the game). I’ve been playing off my character’s pre-apocalypse military background, turning him into some sort of Mad Max-like commando bad ass. Behold! 
So far, I’ve been working around the periphery of the game’s main quests, instead letting myself be pulled into a lot of side quests to help the folks in the Commonwealth area. I’m honestly quite astounded at all the stuff there is to do in this game. I’ve been spending a lot of my time working on custom modifications to my gear, especially my guns. It is oddly rewarding to roam the wasteland in order to come up with all the bits you need to create an extra-large drum magazine for that Tommy Gun in your inventory! A neat new feature is that the game allows the player to create settlements, safe havens for survivors to flock to and create a small pocket of civilization in the chaos of the game’s world. This aspect of the game is amazingly free-form; players can create farms, build structures, construct defenses like turrets and guard towers, and even employ settlers as shop keepers and supply runners between settlements! This feels very satisfying; its as if you are setting out to bring some order to the Commonwealth again. If it wasn’t clear already, this game is absolutely enormous. Despite the dozens of hours I’ve managed to log in so far, I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what there is to do and see. I’ve already had some memorable moments, like (minor spoiler) finding an abandoned diner staffed by robots who have literally interpreted their directive to “Serve the Customer” to mean not that they serve their customers dinner, but that they must serve their customers as dinner. Fortunately, I was able to talk my way out of being sliced and diced by a friendly robot waiter with an English accent! Given that, I’m well an truly hooked; I’m sure I will be re-visiting Fallout 4 again on the blog at some point. Now if you excuse me, I’ve got to instal a new scope on my rifle so that I can run some quests for the Minutemen. Oh, and one of my settlements needs a new water purifier. The wasteland beckons…