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It’s official, folks, Fallout 4 has been announced by Bethesda Game Studios on the official Fallout site:

It’s time for the hype train to officially depart station Skepticism and head for station Release. What do we know about it thus far?

The entire trailer appears to be shot using in-engine assets.

The theme music is The Ink Spots’ It’s All Over But the Crying

The game is set in the Commonwealth, around the former city of Boston. The Paul Revere statue from North End is a dead giveaway.

Diamond City, which appears to be built around Boston’s largest stadium, appears to be a major location and faction in the game.

Other locations in the trailer include Bunker Hill, Scollay Square Olympia Theater, the Memory Den club and the Massachussetts State House.

A separate mention goes to the USS Constitution, which appears to have wound up in a bank after a rocket-boosted voyage. Thanks to Will van Horn for pointing this out!

The inclusion of pre-War sequences indicates a playable tutorial sequence set before the Great War. This may also indicate that the game may be set shortly after the war.

The protagonist is an inhabitant of Vault 111 - and appears to be fully voiced. The PIP-Boy 3000 will once again be the UI for the game. The jumpsuit is much less loose and more form fitting, like the original Fallout jumpsuits.

There will be a canine companion.

New Vertibird variants appear, including a transport version with an open cargo hold. The player will use it at one point or another in the story.

Giant armored zeppelins will appear, allied with whomever operates the new Vertibirds.

The T-45d in the garage indicates that power armor customization and/or repairs may be included. Note that the soldier in the Vertibird has mismatched power armor components - arm from the T-45d, but pauldron from the T-51b.

Of course, there will be new weapons added. Among these, it seems there’s a makeshift rifle.

The T-45d power armor definitely returns, together with what looks like the AER9 laser rifle and the pneumatic power fist.

Pre-War troops wear T-45d power armor and carry miniguns with ammunition belts.

Deathclaws return, alongside protectrons. Super mutants, or mutants similar to them, appear in one scene of the trailer. So do feral ghouls.

It will be released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms, indicating a development that focused on next-gen platforms.

The game is already available for pre-orders.

Some of the unusual sentences

During heavy blizzards, he ordered defendants to clear snow at a retirement home.

A man caught with a loaded gun was sent to a morgue to see corpses.

A man who shot a dog was sentenced to donating 40 lbs of dog food on every holiday to the Lake County Animal Shelter.

Two teenagers who scrawled 666 on a nativity figure had to lead a donkey through the streets, with a sign saying: “Sorry for the jackass offense

Teenagers who flattened tires on school buses were ordered to throw a picnic for the primary school children whose outing was cancelled due to the prank.

A man who shouted "pigs” at police officers was made to stand on a street corner with a 350-pound pig and a sign that said “This is not a police officer.”

An 18 year old male who stole pornography from an adult book store was ordered to sit outside the store wearing a blindfold and holding a sign that read “See no evil.”

A woman who skipped out on a cab fare was ordered to walk 30 miles in 48 hours. Thirty miles was the length the cab had driven her before she skipped out on the fare.

December 12, 2013 - Photo by John Pennell