After a long five year period with barely a whiff of a Fallout 4 announcement — we finally have one! Not that there was any doubt it was being made, but it sure seemed grim for a while there. Bethesda  kept a tight lid on the very existence of the popular series’ next iteration, not even commenting on the Fallout 4 website hoax back in December 2013. Don’t lie, it tricked you, too!

The trailer itself is chock-full of referential goodness. This next iteration is taking place in Boston, which you can glean from the multiple Boston landmarks displayed in the trailer. There appears to be a spiritual successor to Dogmeat (the iconic Fallout dog companion) making an appearance. The trailer also seems to reference a home base where you’ll be storing your gear, which isn’t a necessarily new thing to Fallout, but a dedicated home-base mechanic would be nice. There’s an abundance of additional in-depth analysis for the trailer on the internet already– if you’re interested, go here or here.

Online speculation regarding the trailer postulate this is the Mysterious Stranger

The Fallout games are some of my favorite RPGs out there. I have even gone so far as to play Fallout 1 and 2 not so long ago, and they still hold up well! The Fallout games are rich with lore, mystery, and even bizarre oddities that give Fallout its charm. The rich, evolving backstory about this world-gone-wrong becomes more and more intriguing with the addition of each installment.

The previous two Fallout games are not particular well-known for their great gunplay, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any Fallout fan that would laud the game for it. Aiming a weapon is an atrocious experience–the cross-hair stinks, and the VATs system is basically an easy button that doesn’t offer much besides fun action shots and gratuitous dismemberment. That’s why Fallout’s atmosphere and story are such a testament to the genre. Despite the awful combat mechanics, Fallout fans have completely overlooked the glaring gameplay issues for the sense of the world that Fallout creates. The exploration and the background story you discover on notes and terminals about the most obscure places– THAT’S what fans have come to love about the Fallout series–the sense of place.

This particular scene seems to infer a home-base of sorts

As far as my hopes for Fallout 4… First and most importantly, I want the shooting mechanics completely revamped. Add in iron sights on weapons, more weapon customization, more responsive shooting, and a cross-hair that isn’t some squiggly line (What was that!?).  Almost any improvement to the gunplay would be welcome at this point–there’s no way they could make it worse… right?

Improved inventory management is another facet that needs attention. For me, managing my inventory in the Fallout games was a personal hell. Navigating your home storage and pulling out what you needed was an exercise in eye strain and finger agility. It’s a post-apocalyptic world, so of course you’re going to hoard all the scrap and ammo you can find! Let’s get some meaningful filters slapped on there, and a more informative interface.

I’m very curious if a new take on traversal will exist in this installment. As game worlds have become larger, alternative methods of travel have been introduced. A pipe dream of mine is having the opportunity to work towards the building of your own ride, via collected scrap and parts.

No concrete information has been revealed for when the game is expected to release. There is  speculation that the game will release in December 2015 based off of dates on online stores. I personally believe that if they’re taking pre-orders, they can’t be too far out, but in a world where ten-year-old preorders exist, that may not mean anything. We will learn more next week at E3! But, for now, check out the trailer: