Even though we are waving our flags, proclaiming that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will be the Game of the Year, this will all change when Fallout 4 reaches us later this year (yeah, we often change our minds). Everything in the world aside, the new Fallout is currently what we have set our sights upon at this time.

With the release of the new Fallout not so far away, lots of details and features of the game are slowly being unearthed, either via data mining or being revealed officially by the company.

Bethesda game director Todd Howard has come out into the open with details of Fallout 4's release, improved perks, and what they've learned from the mistakes of the past – notably Skyrim, as revealed via his recent interview with Game Informer.

Skyrim had lots of flaws, that created copious amounts of bugs and glitches within the game, with Bethesda unable to handle most of them until much after the initial launch. For Fallout 4, however, Howard doesn't want the same mistakes to be repeated, tagging the entire ordeal a learning experience.

The plan this time is to deal with those issues ahead of time – and as Howard says "The players saved game is number one, if the game crashes, that's bad, but it is nowhere near as bad as someone's saved game being hosed. That's the scenario we will do anything and everything to avoid."

Aside that, Howard also got into details on the newly-revamped S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system. "We really wanted to bring this to the forefront of the game" Todd says. "This is how you define your character. We have a whole bunch of perks, and those are tied to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. Every time you level up, you get to pick a perk."

"Each perk, except for a few exceptions, has multiple ranks. If there are 70 base perks and you add all of those ranks, you're getting around 275 of those. We've found that this gets us some really cool different play styles. It's very cool and fun leveling system in the game," Howard went on to add.

This is also the first time in a Fallout game that the romantic option will be available. The option, as you may have guessed, will only be limited to human companions, regardless of gender (so yeah, no romancing Dogmeat or Mr. Handy, ye pervs).

There will be as many as 12 companions in total, although it isn't mandatory that you absolutely have to play with a companion. According to Howard, there are plenty of perks on offer if one chooses to be a "Lone Wanderer" kind of a guy.

But that's not all. Apparently, lock picking and computer hacking have also been confirmed for the game, similar to the style of Fallout 3. While lock picking will see players use bobby pins, computer hacking, again like Fallout 3, will be related to deciphering scrambled numbers, letters and various character symbols.

In case you were wondering, Fat-Man is also returning in Fallout 4. It was previously shown off in the demo at Quakecon. Apart from that, V.A.T.S has also undergone some slight changes as well. For example, instead of freezing enemies in place, time slows down and will require fast reactions, provided an enemy is running for cover.

Fallout 4 is currently set for a 10 November, 2015 release for all major consoles and PC.

Stay tuned for more updates!

[Source: Twinfinite]

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