Team Folon – the volunteer squad of developers who have released the ambitious Fallout 4 mod, Fallout London – is set to launch itself as a new indie studio.

Talking to the BBC (via PCGN), Folon's project lead, Dean Carter, admitted that "as much as I love the fact that this is a free project - that we can offer this thing for free for all the community - free doesn't pay our bills".

"What has been great for us is that a lot of people who have really enjoyed [Fallout London] have donated to us, and we're channelling that into Team Folon, which is what we're going to be moving into," Carter said.

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After years of anticipation mixed with a few unexpected delays, Team Folon's Fallout: London mod finally released last week.

The fan-made game-sized mod for Fallout 4 faced a number of challenges on launch, however. As our Ian discovered when he gave it a whirl last week, he couldn't explore very much of it because it kept hard crashing back to his desktop (he did get mauled to death by a fox, though, so still rates the whole experience very highly).

You can see Ian playing through some Fallout: London via the video below.

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Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've been playing over the past few days. This week we enjoy poking around spooky oil rigs, we object in dramatic court cases, and we discover what we love about a game series through a TV adaptation of it.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We've Been Playing archive.

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UPDATE: Now going live from 2:15pm BST (which is very soon!)

Pour yourselves a lovely hot cuppa, Fallout fans because the long awaited fan-made mod Fallout: London has finally arrived and I'll be attempting to stream the first couple of hours of the game from around 3pm BST today.

I say 'attempting' and 'around' as the download has just gone live and it's a beef(eater)y 33GB download. If I get it done earlier, I might go live earlier so keep an eye on the YouTube player below and I'll see you in post-apocalyptic London as soon as possible!

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Amazon's Fallout TV adaptation, which drew significant acclaim from critics and attention from audiences when it was broadcast back in April, has been nominated for 16 Emmy Awards, across categories including Outstanding Drama Series and Best Actor.

This year's 76th Emmy Awards, which are hosted by the US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to recognise excellence in American primetime television programming, will be held this September. They'll be the second Emmy Awards in 2024, after the last year's ceremony was delayed due to the writers' and actors' strikes.

With votes now tallied and nominations announced, it's clear Amazon's Fallout TV adaptation has made an impression among academy members, garnering 17 nominations across 16 award categories. It's an impressive number but notably still somewhere behind this year's biggest hitters; FX's Shogun leads with 25 nominations, followed by The Bear at 23, Only Murders in the Building with 21, and True Detective: Night Country at 19.

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As Fallout 4's massive Fallout: London mod nears its release, distributor GOG has moved to clear up some compatibility questions. The company has confirmed Fallout: London will work with versions of Fallout 4 bought on GOG and Steam, but not those purchased on the Epic Games Store, as the latter doesn't currently support a key feature needed to get it running.

If you're not up to date on its progress, Fallout: London - which, as its name suggests, enables players to quest around a post-apocalyptic open-world version of the UK's capital - has hit a few snags on the road to its release. Specifically, developer Team Folon has run into issues getting it to work with Fallout 4's recently released next-gen update.

Team Folon made the decision to delay Fallout: London back in April, anticipating the mod might run into "complications" when Bethesda's next-gen update arrived - and the decision proved wise. Last week, after some testing, the developer confirmed Fallout 4's next-gen update simply "isn't stable enough" to run Fallout: London right now, and that the mod would be shipping with a downgrader to revert Fallout 4 to an older version.

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By now, you've probably heard of massive Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London, given the struggles it's faced in the run-up to release. There's one last hurdle for players to overcome, however, with developer Team Folon having now confirmed it'll be necessary to downgrade Fallout 4's next-gen version to play it - a process thankfully being handled by its accompanying installer.

Fallout 4's long-promised next-gen update finally launched in April, but its arrival caused some major headaches for the Fallout: London team. The mod was originally due to launch on 23rd April, but it was delayed after Bethesda announced Fallout 4's next-gen update would arrive two days later - Team Folon admitting it was concerned about potential "complications". And with good reason, it turns out; Team Folon has now confirmed a downgrade from the next-gen version of Fallout 4 will be absolutely necessary to run Fallout: London.

A downgrader was briefly mentioned in a statement the developer shared over the weekend, but its inclusion wasn't really detailed at the time. However, in a follow-up message on Fallout: London's Discord (via Ars Technica), project lead Dean Carter explained, "At the 11th hour we've discovered that the next-gen [version of Fallout 4], even after updates, isn't stable enough and thus we are now going out on the old version - thus the need for a downgrader."

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The voluntary team behind Fallout: London, the DLC-sized mod for Fallout 4, says "the end is in sight".

The mod – which allows us to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London – is currently undergoing testing at GOG to ensure the mod and its installer "work on all supported machines".

"There has been a lot of speculation regarding our upcoming release, and we wanted to open up and clear the air for our core supporters," the Fallout: London team said.

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A little show called Fallout released back in April - you may have heard of it - which received scores of praise on its release, including in our own Fallout review that called it "a lovely, if blood-spattered, surprise". Fallout's original creator Tim Cain also had nothing but praise for the adaptation.

During its first 16 days on Amazon Prime, 65 million viewers tuned in to follow Lucy, Maximus and The Ghoul as they made their way through the Fallout wasteland. It ultimately came as no surprise when the series was quickly picked up for a second season.

But, what does season two have in store? The first series finished with an obvious story thread for the Fallout team to follow, and now the showrunners have confirmed one video game character that will definitely show up when season two hits the streaming service. Please note, there will be spoilers for the Fallout series (game and show) below.

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Fallout has seen a renewed spike in popularity following the release of Amazon's TV adaptation. However, despite this, Bethesda doesn't feel under pressure to rush a new game out to placate fans.

Speaking with YouTuber MrMattyPlays, Todd Howard acknowledged that the Fallout series is probably at its most popular, with the franchise boasting some record player numbers over recent months. Howard went on to state the studio gives "a lot of thought to franchise management" when questioned specifically about the future of Fallout as a whole.

"I spend a lot of time thinking about franchises I love... so, for us, it is sort of game planning out - number one, making sure Fallout is relevant in the world, and well, I think, clearly it is," the studio exec said.

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Fallout's showrunners say they want to get the second season of Amazon's adaptation out as soon as it is possible.

The first season of Fallout made its debut back in April, with all episodes releasing on Amazon Prime in one go. Soon after it was released, the show received scores of praise across the industry. Our own Fallout review called it "a lovely, if blood-spattered, surprise", while Fallout's original creator Tim Cain had nothing but praise for the adaptation.

It ultimately came as no surprise when the series was quickly picked up for a second season, but just when could we see the likes of Walton Goggins' Ghoul on the screen again? Well, according to showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, the Fallout team is "going to be pedal to the metal to get season two out as fast as humanly possible".

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Bethesda's Todd Howard has called Fallout's recent renaissance "beyond anything [he's] ever seen in [his] 30 years of doing this".

This renewed interest in the series all came about thanks to Amazon's Fallout adaptation. The show's success - which saw 65 million viewers tuning in in its first 16 days of release - led to droves of players venturing into one or many of Fallout's wastelands, to find out what delights were in store.

Fallout 4 actually became the best selling game in Europe at one point in April, despite having been out for almost a decade. Meanwhile, earlier today, it was announced that Fallout 76 has now welcomed 20 million total players, several years after its initial release.

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In news that should be of no surprise to anyone given Fortnite's all-consuming nature, post-apocalyptic RPG series Fallout will soon be making an appearance in the battle royale game.

Fallout is, of course, currently enjoying a bit of a renaissance thanks to Amazon's recent live-action TV adaptation, making it a prime target for the popularity vampire that is Fortnite.

Fortnite's impending Fallout collaboration was teased on its official X account, where a winky face and thumbs-up emoji (squint a bit and it could be Vault Boy) accompanied an image of someone in T-60 power armour staring pensively out of frame amid clouds of belching smoke.

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Fallout's next-gen upgrade came out of the starting blocks with serious issues on all platforms, but a patch for PlayStation and Xbox systems on May 13th promises to fix the most glaring problems. We've tested the game on PS5, Series X and Series S to see what's changed with the new update, and there is plenty to praise here - though some problems still remain. Crucially, Bethesda has at least provided a working graphics mode selector on Xbox Series X and S - a clearly labelled switch between 'visuals' mode and 'performance' mode that replaces the broken on/off performance toggle we saw before. These modes run with what the developer calls standard settings (on performance mode) or ultra settings (on visuals mode), and each deploys dynamic resolution scale to varying degrees too. That same visuals/performance labeling is applied to the PlayStation 5 version today as well, though these modes at least worked as intended in the previous patch.

There's an extra bonus here. Every current-gen console also gains the ability to independently set their target frame-rate via a new in-game option. We have 30fps and 60fps modes available on standard 60Hz displays - while an additional 40fps display mode becomes available when running with a 120Hz screen connected. Essentially, you can now choose an arbitrary frame-rate target regardless of your graphics mode, and so, we can now even target visuals mode at 60fps. In effect this might make sense when running the game on future PlayStation or Xbox hardware, for example, or to maximise frame-rates in the game's least demanding areas at the expense of frame-rate stability elsewhere. With two graphics modes and three frame-rate options, then, we certainly have a lot more flexibility.

The big question remains though: beyond fixing the obviously broken graphics modes on Xbox, does the May 13th update solve the hitches and performance issues we identified with Fallout 4's current-gen console upgrade? How do all the consoles compare now with the top visuals mode selected? And finally, is it actually possible to run the visuals mode at 60fps, or is there still a need for those lower 40 and 30fps options to get a stable reading?

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Bethesda is known for its glitchy releases. In fact, in the run up to Amazon's TV adaptation of Fallout, showrunner Graham Wagner even reminisced about a bug he came across while playing The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall, stating that adding 'glitches' into a then-hypothetical second season of the show was "definitely on [his] mind as a concept".

But, even the studio's less recent-releases are still faced with the age-old Bethesda bug problem, and patches haven't been able to sort them. In fact, it seems they have sometimes made them worse

Case in point, we have Fallout 4, which is currently having a resurgence thanks to Amazon's show. A few weeks ago, Bethesda finally released its long-awaited 'next-gen' patch that included the promise of native applications for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, while those on higher-spec PCs would get widescreen and ultra-widescreen support. However, this patch was met with a mixed response, as it broke mods and only one of the game's two graphical options appeared to be working on Xbox Series X and S.

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Bethesda has released its previously promised update for Fallout 4 across platforms.

This update, Bethesda says, will allow players to "manage your control over the game's graphic fidelity or performance".

It has additionally sorted out a few other issues that had been left in the game following its hefty 'next-gen' upgrade patch a few weeks ago. This includes stability and sorting out crashes that could occur when players on PS5 returned to the Main Menu with queued mods still downloading.

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Fallout 4 will be getting another update next week, across all platforms.

While Bethesda hasn't been too specific about what this update will include, it has promised new options for graphics and performance settings, something many may still be looking forward to following the game's somewhat botched 'next-gen' patch earlier this year.

In addition, the studio has also promised general fixes and improvements across the board. We will update you when we get the full notes from the Fallout 4 team, so stay tuned for more.

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Recently, because I hate myself, I was browsing Twitter (I’m not calling it X) and I stumbled across an incredible conceptual video from an artist named DEVINK that shows what they imagine a potential Fortnite X Fallout crossover could look like.

This crossover seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me and I wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened in the future, but what about Fallout crossovers from the past? Well that's what I'm exploring in today's video (above) so please do give it a click and see if you remember any of the seven forgotten Fallout crossovers that feature within.

These crossovers range from an excellent and highly detailed Minecraft mash-up and some fairly fancy, but almost definitely forgotten cosmetics for Brink, through to what can only be described as one of the most haunting pieces of headwear for the Xbox 360 Avatars that I ever did see.

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In the wake of the massive success of the Fallout TV series, Fallout 4 has received a free next-gen upgrade for PC, PS5 and Series X/S that aims to bring the nine-year-old game up to modern standards. The prospect of native PS5 and Series games is tantalising but unfortunately the update arrives with a number of issues - and even at its best the result is somewhat underwhelming.

The patch notes mention two main graphics modes on console: a dynamic 4K 60fps performance mode running at 'standard' settings and a 4K 30fps quality mode running at PC's ultra preset. The game itself presents this as a performance mode on/off toggle in reality, where the off setting is effectively the quality mode referred to in the notes. Beyond these two basic options, Bethesda also adds additional modes for those outputting the game at 1440p and/or 120Hz from your console system menu. As well as these new options, the patch notes mention bug fixes, new quests, new weapons and, on PC, official 21:9 ultrawide support.

To summarise the PC situation in brief, it's a disappointment on a number of levels. For a start, the new ultrawide display support is seriously lacking polish, with select elements of the UI stretched from 16:9 rather than offering a native 21:9 presentation. Worse still, I've noticed visual bugs in the UI at points, such as while naming your character or setting your SPECIAL stats - it looks wrong and needs a fix.

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Power Armor in Fallout 4 can save your skin in tough fights, but there inevitably comes a time when you want to know how to get out of your Power Armor, either to do a little bit of exploration, or because your Fusion Core's run dry. Thankfully, getting out is easy, as all you need to do is hold one one of the face buttons on your controller. To find out how to exit your Power Armor on Xbox, PlayStation and PC, read on for our very quick walkthrough.

To exit your Power Armor in Fallout 4, simply hold down the following button that's appropriate to your platform:

That's all there is to it! Hold down these buttons for 1-2 seconds, and your survivor will swiflty exit their giant metal suit, leaving you free to wander around on foot.

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What is the best Fallout game? Choosing the best Fallout games to play can be a tricky business, especially if you've been bingeing the Fallout TV show but have never set foot in any of the series' virtual wastelands. Fallout games are generally demanding of your time, and although they share similar themes and mechanics, they differ in small but significant ways that can mean you might love one while bouncing off another.

When it comes to picking the best Fallout game for you, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that there are no bad Fallout games. Every mainline RPG in the series offers a sprawling adventure filled with weird and exciting tangents, while the various spin-offs explore their chosen genre in interesting ways. The bad news is the depth of each Fallout RPG is inversely proportional to its accessibility. If you want to play Fallout with the least amount of fuss, you may not see the full extent of what the series can do. On the other hand, if you want the richest RPG experience, you'll have to put up with more idiosyncrasies. In short, the best Fallout game may not be the best one to start with, per se.

We've approached this ranking as a best Fallout games of all-time list, so please bear that in mind when reading this list. Without further ado, then, here's our list of the best Fallout games from worst to best.

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Considering the huge success of the Fallout TV show, it may be surprising that Bethesda doesn't have a new game to coincide with its release.

Yet Bethesda boss Todd Howard believes the franchise is healthy and turns to the "sneaky popular" MMORPG Fallout 76 as a key indicator.

Howard was interviewed by Kinda Funny Games and was asked whether Bethesda wanted a new game in the series alongside the TV show, beyond the Fallout 4 new-gen patch.

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Amazon's Fallout TV adaptation is doing alright for itself; not only has it been a hit with the critics, it's been a hit with viewers too - to the tune of 65m people in its first 16 days of release, according to new figures shared by the streaming service.

As reported by Variety, Fallout's big 65m-strong success makes it the second most-watched show on Amazon, only losing out to 2022's The Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power - but as the publication notes, Amazon hasn't qualified what it considers a viewer in its figures, so it's unclear how much of the series any of those counted have actually watched.

Even so, it's clearly drawn the crowds, with Amazon adding the live-action Fallout adaptation is its most-watched show ever in the 18-34 age group - not bad considering the youngest of those would have been two when Bethesda's Fallout 3 came out.

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You could call this week's DF Direct an assemblage of patch tests as they arrived thick and fast for a range of titles, in varying degrees of scale. The addition of a 40fps 'favour quality' mode in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora strikes an excellent balance between resolution and visual features for Xbox Series X and PS5, while Lords of the Fallen's 1.5 update finally addressed the long-standing '0fps' problem we reported on back in the day. However, by far the highest profile addition is the 'next-gen' update for Fallout 4 - and it's swiftly unfolding into a bit of a saga.

A few weeks back in DF Direct, we outlined some of the existing issues in the PC version that really needed addressing - the ability to scale the game above 60fps and fixing the weapons debris option that crashes literally any RTX graphics card. Neither of those problems are tackled and plenty more issues are coming to light, calling into question what the point is for PC users. Even the much-vaunted ultra-wide support has problems.

In the world of consoles, there has been significantly more effort put into modernising Fallout 4 for today's hardware. Prior to last Thursday, the best you could get was the Xbox One X version running under back-compat for Series X, along with an FPS Boost 60fps variant that did indeed run at a higher frame-rate, but busted visual quality down to Xbox One S level. Not good. Meanwhile, a '720p60' mod that allowed for 4K60 on Series X appeared to have vanished. So, how do things fare with the new patch?

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With the success of the Fallout TV show, the recent release of the next-gen update for Fallout 4 and the fact that (in my humble opinion) Fallout 76 is well worth a go nowadays, there's a high chance that you are one of the millions of people who are currently jumping back into Bethesda's post-apocalyptic adventures, or indeed trying them out for the very first time.

Recently, I've noticed a massive uptick in views on Base Building video guides that I produced way back when both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 released, so in this little post I've pulled all three of my Fallout base building guides together so you can make the most of out what can be a fairly complex and confusing portion of the game.

The headline video above (or the YouTube link at the bottom of this article if you can't see the top one) is a great place to start if you are a newcomer to Fallout 4. This beginner's guide covers everything you need to know in order to make the process of creating a settlement as easy as possible. These include tips and explainers on things like clearing space for your buildings and gathering components through to simple construction methods and adding power sources to your creations. These tips should mean that you won't waste(land) a bunch of hours clipping together a bunch of clumsy structures that need to be torn down once you finally get to grips with the mechanics.

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Yesterday's long-awaited Fallout 4 "next-gen" update is now available to download on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S - but has so far received a mixed response from fans.

It was sadly to be expected that the update would break compatibility with a large number of Fallout 4 mods - and indeed, ahead of time, users of top modding site Nexus Mods offered advice on how to disable the patch from being automatically downloaded. The creators of Fallout 4's "DLC-sized" fan mod Fallout: London also had to delay the project's release.

Still, many players have reacted with dismay that, yes, a number of mods are currently broken, with the game's Fallout 4 Script Extender add-on not yet supported. ("I am working on an update and cannot currently offer a timeline for its availability, nor whether there will be any critical technical issues that would block an update," the mod's creator ianpatt wrote. "Do not email with questions.")

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UPDATE 11.40pm: Bethesda has taken to social media to address what it calls "confusion" around which versions of Fallout 4 on PlayStation are eligible for the free PS5 upgrade.

"We've seen some confusion regarding the free Fallout 4 next-gen update for PlayStation Plus Extra members," the developer wrote on Twitter/X. "The Fallout 4 next-gen update will be available to PlayStation Plus Extra members through the PlayStation Game Catalog. Your patience is appreciated while the teams work on this."

While that's certainly good news for PlayStation Plus subscribers that acquired Fallout 4 through the service's Extra tier catalogue, things are less certain for those that got their copy via the PS Plus Collection offered to new PlayStation 5 owners.

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What's the release time and date for the Fallout 4 Next Gen update? If you've been watching the Fallout TV show recently and felt the urge to revisit Fallout 4 on PS5 or Xbox Series X, then you'll be pleased to know the Next Gen update for Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG is just around the corner.

Below we'll tell you the Fallout 4 Next Gen update release date and time, as well what upgrades the Next Gen update brings, and its expected download size.

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I've watched the Fallout Prime series and, like so many others, I have been dragged back into Fallout 4. The only problem is, I've done three playthroughs now - and this makes it hard to enjoy the game when I know how all the quests turn out. Or do I?

Unbeknownst to me there were still some I just hadn't found, so this video is from me to you, for us folks who have played Fallout 4 to death but want to revisit it, as well as to those who are new to Fallout entirely. I've tracked down hidden, rewarding story-related content and missions that you may have missed in the Commonwealth so you can go forth and either enact the golden rule... or completely ignore it.

From helping robots trying to run their own shopping centre to the heebie-jeebies that'll crawl down your spine as you explore the Dunwich Borers Quarry, these are a mix of unmarked locations (ones which will not be found in your Pip-Boy map) and quests that are just plain difficult to begin, with a message-in-a-bottle PSA thrown in there for good luck.

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Amazon's Fallout adaptation was officially renewed for a second season last week, and now its showrunners have given us the briefest of teasers for what is in store next.

Please note, there will be major spoilers for the first season of Fallout below. If you are yet to finish the show, and want to keep as much under wraps as possible, please head elsewhere now.

Speaking with GQ, Fallout showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet addressed the final moments of season one.

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Fallout creator Tim Cain has plenty of praise for Amazon's recent TV adaptation.

In a YouTube video posted over the weekend, Cain said how much he liked the show, stating it was surreal to see something he had "worked on really hard" realised in real life.

"They had huge sets with amazing production values on them... Amazing props. The acting was phenomenal. It was just surreal to watch Fallout recreated in real life like that," Cain enthused. However, he said the main reason he liked the show so much was because of the way "everything feels like Fallout".

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UPDATE 23/4/24: Top modding site Nexus Mods has issued an update on its efforts to stay online amidst a deluge of Fallout fans fresh from watching Amazon's hit TV series.

"We are aware that over the last seven to nine days our website performance has been heavily degraded, with file download speeds being particularly slow," a blog post reads. "We know this has been incredibly frustrating for you and it's frustrating for us as well. We have spent two weekends battling to keep the site running as best we can and will continue to work at all hours to try and ensure as smooth an experience as possible."

Traffic graphs shared by Nexus Mods show a huge rise in downloads for mods related to Fallout 4 and to lesser (and more recent) extent, Fallout: New Vegas.

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In my humble opinion - or not so humble if you know me well enough - the Fallout series on Amazon Prime has struck an admirable balance between satire, absurdity, and ultra violence that epitomises its wasteland. Lucy, The Ghoul, and Maximus are the three archetypes of the characters you'll find in Fallout: the vault dweller, wasteland wanderer, and Brotherhood of Steel follower. So, if you'd rather be those characters rather than just meet them in your adventures, I am here. I've put together a character build for Lucy, the Ghoul, and Maximus so you can recreate the chaos of Amazon's Fallout in Fallout 4.

Please forgive my very poor excuses for these character's lookalikes in the character creator, as it leaves a lot to be desired. However, if you're like me and play Fallout 4 in first-person then you won't see the face that much - so you won't be haunted by these... mimics.

This is specifically for unmodded Fallout 4, we should note, but if you head over to Nexus Mods and have Fallout 4 on the PC I know you'll be able to find Fallout TV show-inspired mods that'll do wonders for these builds... Anyway, let's jingle jangle jingle on together.

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Bethesda really must be feeling very happy right now. Fallout 4 has pip (boyed) its way to the top to became Europe's best-selling game, per sales data from chart numbers company GSD.

As reported by Eurogamer's sister site GamesIndustry.biz, sales of the almost decade-old game rose over 7500 percent week-on-week across Europe. Most of these sales were on PC, which accounted for 69 percent (nice).

The remaining 31 percent was made up across PlayStation and Xbox, although it is worth noting that the game is also on these consoles' subscription services.

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There is this little TV show currently making headlines. You may have heard of it. It's called Fallout and it has been met with scores of praise across the board (we awarded it four stars).

Following the show's debut earlier this month, the Fallout games soon saw a boost in player numbers. And, those numbers remain up. At the time of writing, there are 53,650 players making their way around Fallout 4's wasteland. Not bad for a game that came out almost a decade ago.

In addition to boosting player numbers, the show has also inspired a number of new PC mods for Fallout 4. So, I have rounded up some of the best ones to share with you here. Please note, there may be some minor Fallout spoilers included below.

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If you're picking up Fallout 4 for the first time thanks to the TV show, or just want to revisit a classic, we've got all sorts of cheats and console commands to make your Fallout playthrough a breeze, or maybe just a bit more chaotic. There are a lot of Fallout 4 console commands to choose from so we've chosen some of the best commands, and some of our favourite.

It's important to note that using cheats in Fallout 4 requires access to the developer console, which means you can only cheat your way through the Commonwealth if you are on a PC. Further to this, it's important to note that messing with the console can break your playthrough, so use these with caution.

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Todd Howard has assured Fallout fans that the franchise's recently-released TV show does not contradict the games' pre-established lore.

Please note, there will be Fallout spoilers below. If you are still to finish the show and want to keep as much a surprise as possible, this is your cue to head elsewhere.

Earlier this month, questions were raised about Fallout's Shady Sands and the settlement's demise. The show's sixth episode dates this event to the 2280s, which made fans scratch their heads - as they felt this date contradicted mentions of Shady Sands in the video game series set later on.

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As the dust settles on Fallout's first TV season, which appears to have been as universally beloved as any piece of media can be in today's world, the line that sticks with me most radiates from early in the show. As Ella Purnell's Vault Dweller Lucy sleeps beside her Scout badge-perfect campfire, she awakes to find Michael Emerson's fugitive scientist sitting nearby. All-too familiar with the perils of the Wasteland, Emerson's character urges her to return to the Vault from whence she came. This goes down with Lucy about as well as two litres of irradiated water, so instead the scientist posits a question. "Will you still want the same things, when you become a different animal altogether?"

It's an interesting question to ask in the context of Fallout itself, a series which is at once so recognisable and yet so different from its original form. On the one hand, you can trace Fallout's aesthetic all the way back to the opening cinematic of the first game, which juxtaposes a kitsch 1950s-style commercial with the blasted moonscape of post-nuclear America, all to the lilting vocals of the Ink Spots' "Maybe". It's interesting to return to now. Rare is it that a series' audiovisual identity emerges so fully formed, yet it's there in Fallout from Defcon one.

Yet the games beneath the Vault Boy iconography have changed dramatically in the last quarter-century, to the point where it remains a bone of contention within the Fallout community. There is something, the argument goes, that Interplay's isometric RPGs have which Bethesda's 3D, real-time open world games lack. Certainly, the more recent games have had their flaws. Fallout 3 arguably dialled back the colour of Fallout too much, while Fallout 4 leans heavily toward being a shooter at the cost of broader role-playing options. But these remain distinctly Fallout games in other ways, replete with that familiar visual identity, and in quests like the Gary-filled Vault 108 - as perfectly strange as the wasteland demands.

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After the release of the Fallout TV series on Amazon Prime Video, gamers have been flooding back to play Fallout games again, immersing themselves in the brutal and bizarre nuclear wasteland that first appeared in 1997.

If you've been watching the TV show and want play a Fallout game you've not played already, or perhaps you haven't played or watched anything about Fallout and want to see what the fuss is about, we've put together a list of where to get each of the main Fallout Games for PC and consoles for the cheapest price around.

Before you get into the lists, all of the Fallout games are included with an Xbox Game Pass subscription, so if you're on PC or Xbox it's easiest to play them with Game Pass. If you're on PlayStation, then Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 are included with a PlayStation Plus Extra subscription. If you want to get either of these subscriptions for less, you can check out our best Xbox Game Pass deals guide and our best PlayStation Plus deals guide to see how to get the subscriptions on a discount.

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Fallout, you might have noticed, is having a bit of moment thanks to Amazon's acclaimed new live-action TV series; and one of its many easter eggs - an on-screen phone number that also happens to work if you dial it in the real world - has fans a-chatter as they ponder the significance of a curious message and a specific timeframe relayed within.

The phone number in question - 213-25-VAULT - makes an appearance during a Vault-themed infomercial, hosted by Walter Goggins' Cooper Howard, during the Fallout TV show's sixth episode. As Goggins does his thing, an on-screen message encourages viewers to "Call now!", and attentive fans have, as you might imagine, now done precisely that.

Ringing the number (thanks IGN) greets callers with the wails and cries of a man seemingly mid-torture before the line goes dead. More noteworthy, however, is the discovery that texting the number results in an entirely different response. "Thank you for texting Vault-Tec," the reply reads. "The next available appointment is 33 weeks from now, please stand by!". Additionally, there's an option to receive follow-up marketing material, eliciting the reply, "Congratulations! We may or may not be in touch if an appointment becomes available".

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Amazon's Fallout TV show released in its entirety last week, and answered one of the series' longest-running mysteries in the process.

Please note, there will be major spoilers for Fallout's first season below. If you are yet to finish the series, this is your chance to head elsewhere.

The Fallout TV show answers the mystery of who dropped the first bomb, beginning the great war which sets off the series' alternate history. While the Fallout games never implicitly state who dropped the first bomb, it was always suggested to be either China or the US.

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Fallout: London, the DLC-sized mod for Fallout 4, has been delayed.

The mod – which allows us to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London – was slated to drop on 23rd April 2024, but Dean Carter – team lead of the voluntary dev team – confirmed over the weekend that the arrival of the long-awaited next-gen update for Fallout 4, which drops just two days after London's scheduled release, means "the past four years of [Team Folon's] work stands to simply break".

"As you can imagine, this will impact us and will cause complications for our release," Carter explained in an update video (see above).

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Fallout has "more than doubled its concurrent players" on Steam following the release of Amazon Prime's blockbuster TV series.

Despite approaching almost a decade old, Fallout 4 is currently sitting in SteamDB's top 20 games by concurrent numbers, making it one of the most popular games on Steam this weekend.

But it's not just Fallout 4 that's seen a resurgence in players; Fallout 76 and Fallout New Vegas have similarly seen their concurrent player base increase since the TV series debuted on the streaming channel last week.

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When Fallout 4 came out with a full-scale Pip-Boy model, back in 2015, I'm deeply ashamed to remind you that we made Johnny Chiodini spend a week wearing it. How did it go? Oh my. Let's just say this: over the course of that week the Pip-Boy got mould and also broke, but Johnny still had the worst half of the bargain.

What I'm even more ashamed to say is that, somehow, while my colleague was going through all that for our enjoyment and education, I had thoroughly missed the point that the Pip-Boy is just another piece of pointed satire in a game series that is full of the stuff. Anyway, this week I finally made the obvious connection - and not because of the fact that Fallout just became a TV series.

The thing that finally tipped me off was a review in the Verge of the new AI pin from Humane. It's an AI-powered device that you clip to your top where, according to the Verge, it gets really hot and burns through battery while not doing very much. I love the Verge's write-up because, like me, the writer is sort of besotted with wearables, even though wearables have so far turned out to be useless and silly. The idea is so brilliant and zany - a computer that you snap onto your clothes or your face! - that I dearly want it to work.

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Amazon is expanding April's previously announced Prime Gaming subscription games with two additional Fallout titles, both available now via its Luna game streaming service, to celebrate the launch of its live-action Fallout TV show.

First up is Bethesda's classic post-apocalyptic open-world action-RPG, Fallout 3, which is available in its Game of the Year Edition guise, meaning players can settle in for a whole pile of stuff, seeing as it includes all five post-launch DLC expansions.

Also available on Luna for Prime Gaming members is Obsidian Entertainment's much-loved Fallout 3 follow-up, Fallout: New Vegas - which (as its name very much implies) shifts the post-apocalyptic action away from Washington, D.C. for an adventure spanning parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona. Eurogamer named New Vegas one of our games of the decade back in 2019, so it's well worth taking it for a turn.

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Yes, it is happening. Fallout 4 is finally getting that promised next-gen update, bringing the wasteland experience up to a silky smooth 60fps with increased resolutions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

This update, which is free, includes native applications for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/ S, Performance mode and Quality mode settings, as well as stability improvements and fixes.

Those playing Fallout 4 on PS4 and Xbox One, meanwhile, will be greeted with improved stability as well as login and quest fixes.

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From Castlevania to Arcane, Halo to The Last of Us, we've been treated to plenty of video game TV adaptations over the past few years - and it's always interesting to see how their worlds translate into another medium.

Now, we have Amazon's Fallout adaptation, from Westworld's Jonathan Nolan and Bethesda itself - and we've already been watching.

You can find Eurogamer's Fallout TV series review online already if you want to know whether the show is worth your time - but for fans, we wanted to call out a few particular moments and Fallout Easter eggs worthy of a bit more discussion from the first two episodes. Please note, there will be Fallout spoilers ahead.

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Despite Amazon's Fallout adaptation getting a very positive reception so far, it doesn't seem likely that other Bethesda properties will be getting the same treatment. At least, not on Todd Howard's watch.

During the Fallout premiere in Los Angeles, IGN asked Howard - who served as an executive producer on the Fallout series - if fans could expect TV adaptations from other Bethesda franchises, such as Elder Scrolls. But, for now, it isn't looking likely.

"There's nothing in the works," Howard told the publication, before adding: "Everybody asks, like, about Elder Scrolls, and I keep saying no also. And I would approach those - I'll probably say no."

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Amazon's upcoming Fallout TV adaptation has had a surprise release date change.

Originally, the series was set to make its debut on 12th April. This was then moved to 11th. Now, the date has been bumped forward yet another day, and will be available on the Prime Video from 10th April, 6pm PT. That's 2am on the 11th, for those of us here in the UK.

In a short video featuring Walton Goggins - who plays The Ghoul in Fallout - the actor said this was a thank you to fans of the series. In addition, the Amazon Prime Fallout account released a 'sick note' of sorts, asking employers to excuse their staff from work that day for an "important personal matter" which had nothing to do with this timing change. No, sir.

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Before its first season has aired, Amazon's Fallout series has been set up for a second run.

Variety reports that the California Film Commission has awarded $152m in tax incentives to a number of TV shows, with the second season of Fallout included on this list.

"Fallout has the largest budget of any of the shows, at $153m in qualified expenditures for the season," Variety said.

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With a little over a month until Amazon's Fallout TV adaptation airs, Prime Video has released another trailer for the series.

It provides our best look yet at the show, with three minutes of footage for us to pore over. And dare I say, it actually looks… decent? To my surprise, I quite liked it?

I've rewatched the trailer several times now to see if there's any new information we can glean hidden in the details, and there are a few things worth pointing out (as well as some references to my all-time favourite in the series, Fallout: New Vegas).

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Four years after a live-action Fallout TV adaptation was officially announced, the show is almost upon us. And ahead of its Amazon Video debut on 12th April - and following years of official images, unofficial behind-the-scenes shots, and even a sizeable teaser - we've got our best look yet at the adaptation, courtesy of a new three-minute series trailer.

Going by the trailer below, the adaptation makes a positive first impression, convicingly capturing the Fallout games' ever-shifting tone - blending gee-whizz '50s Americana with grubby post-apocalyptic mayhem as Ella Purnell's Vault Dweller protagonist Jean leaves her lifelong underground home to venture out into the Los Angeles Wasteland.

Speaking during a press panel ahead of today's trailer reveal, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet explained that while the adaptation is set in the world of Fallout, it's also a "new story that comes after the events we've seen" in the games. "The show is built on 25 years of creativity and thinking and building," co-showrunner Graham Wagner added, "and we sort of thought the best thing to do is to continue that versus retread it. Because that's sort of what has worked with Fallout over the years. It's traded hands... it's a living thing... and we felt like we ought to take a swing at trying to build a new piece on top of all of that."

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Amazon Prime's original Fallout show is "almost like Fallout 5".

That's according to showrunner Jonathan Nolan, who told Total Film that it was the idea of telling an original story set in the Fallout universe that got Bethesda and the team "most excited" about the idea of a TV Show.

"From the first conversation with Todd [Howard], we were most excited about an original story," Nolan said.

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Fallout: London - the upcoming fan made DLC-sized mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4 - has added Neil Newbon to its cast.

The actor is known for many roles across the video game industry, including Karl Heisenberg in Resident Evil Village. More recently, he played Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3, for which he won the award for Best Performance at last year's Game Awards.

Newbon's role in Fallout: London is still largely underwraps, with the mod's developer simply stating he is part of the voice acting team, as an in-game screenshot is shared (see below).

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Fallout London – the highly-anticipated independent mod for Fallout 4 – is set to release on St. George’s Day, April 23 2024.

Despite being "content-complete", the team says that as some members "come from a region affected by conflict", timescales have slipped and the mod has not been tested as thoroughly as hoped. Consequently, the release has been pushed back to allow for more testing time.

"Despite being content-complete as planned, upon careful consideration, we've recognised that our testing process may not be as robust as we desire," the team said in a statement posted to social media.

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If you were wondering where Fallout 4's "next-gen" update had got to, there's a bit of bad news; Bethesda has officially pushed its release out of 2023 and into next year.

Bethesda initially revealed it was working on a "next-gen" update for Fallout 4 back in October last year, as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations for the series. It promised Performance and Resolution mode options, enabling players to choose between high frame rates or 4K resolution gameplay, as well as miscellaneous bug fixes and "bonus" Creation Club content.

The update was originally planned to arrive for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC at some unspecified point this year, but Bethesda has now shunted the whole thing into 2024, saying it needs "a bit more time" to get things in order for release.

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Amazon has dropped a new meaty teaser to get us in the mood for the upcoming Fallout TV show.

From the creators of Westworld, executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and starring Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Chris Parnell, Lost's Michael Emerson, and Walton Goggins, Fallout is set to arrive on Prime Video on 12th April 12, 2024. And the teaser has got a lot of us very excited, not least because Dogmeat is now all but confirmed.

You can check out the full two-and-a-half-minutes-long video below:

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A modder has created a tool which takes assets from Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas and makes them compatible with Fallout 4's Creation Engine.

Yes, I'm one of those Fallout: New Vegas fans who wishes we could get a shinier, updated version of the game. And I'm one step closer to that dream thanks to bololo11's FNV to FO4 mod.

The script can convert most models and plugins from both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as the base game of New Vegas, from their native game engine of Gamebryo. bololo11 states the mod can't convert NPCs and creatures, quests or scripts "yet", and converted weapons and armour can't be equipped, but it's a great start.

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Starfield might be hogging the spotlight right now, but that doesn't mean Bethesda has forgotten about its other babies; Fallout - or more specifically its upcoming live-action TV adaptation - is, for instance, having a bit of a moment right now following a brief Gamescom showing and confirmation from Amazon that it's launching in 2024.

Amazon first announced it was adapting Fallout for its Prime Video streaming service back in the summer of 2020, and since then, we've had ample casting news, on-set photos (official and otherwise), but nothing in the way of a trailer.

That's now (sort of) changed courtesy of a Starfield presentation held at Gamescom today. Amid the space RPG's strictly hands-off showing, designer Todd Howard slipped in what he called a "sneak peek" at Amazon's upcoming Fallout show.

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Hot off the heels of his turn as Bowser in the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Jack Black has given his likeness to a host of other video game characters, and the results are everything I could have wanted and more.

This eclectic menagerie of characters all come from Tenacious D's latest music video, for a song aptly named "Video Games". Animated versions of Black and Kyle Gass begin the promo in a fairly normal way. The duo are in a studio, with Black singing into his mic while Gass strums on his animated guitar. Soon, however, things become chaoticly brilliant.

It starts with Gass getting squashed by God of War's Dauði Kaupmaðr, and Black fleeing the scene only to find himself in the middle of Fallout 4 (as one does). The rest of the video then sees the duo becoming Sonic and Tails, Red Dead cowboys and more. As I have said, it is brilliant, as you can see for yourself below.

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The team behind Fallout: London, the upcoming fan made DLC-sized mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4, has shared another progress update.

The latest development video shows off two new weapons coming to Fallout: London - the Viper Mark One and the Laser Lewis gun. Both of these guns look like they can do some serious damage, with the Laser Lewis being described as the ideal weapon to "Goo-ify your enemies in style".

In addition to weaponry, the team has also given another look at some of the items being inserted into the mod to really give it that British feel: phone boxes, bins and roadworks, all of which are instantly recognisable from the capital.

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It is widely accepted that if a nuclear blast were to unleash over us, we would not live to tell the tale (unless you are Indiana Jones and you happen upon a surprisingly sturdy fridge. Yeah, I didn't buy that either).

However, somehow, the couple at the start of Fallout 4 manage to survive the game's opening nuclear blast, and remain unscathed by the heat flash that would have hit them (not to mention, those looking right at the blast would likely be blinded at the very least).

So, while Fallout 4's introduction is certainly an impactful one, it is not exactly known for its realism. Well, that is, until now. Thanks to modders, we can now start a new game of Fallout 4... and not survive the introduction.

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Fresh images have emerged of the Fallout TV series set, revealing the iconic Red Rocket gas stations for the first time.

These aren't official images, but have been taken from the set that's still under construction and shared online by Twitter user J Carson (thanks PC Gamer).

The images show the rundown gas station surrounded by rusting vehicles. The signage may be wrapped up but is still clearly recognisable, even without the typical giant red rocket on top.

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Obsidian was at one point in talks to create an Avatar 2 game.

In an interview with Game Pressure, the studio's CEO Feargus Urquhart discussed the future of the Fallout series and admitted Obsidian had spoken to James Cameron's team.

"Avatar 2 just came out and James Cameron spent 10 or 15 years making it. Back then, we were talking with them about making an Avatar 2 game... I don't even know how long ago. Eight, six years, something like that," said Urquhart.

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The brains behind the upcoming Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London have shared another update on its progress.

This update (spotted by PC Gamer) includes catchy renditions of Rule Britannia, working trains, and - checks notes - murderous mail worker bots known as Post Boxers that will "stamp you out" if you do them wrong. Huh.

This latest update video is truly a sight to behold. Along with the Post Boxers, it also introduces us to another bot out for our blood - the Naval Walker. This is a sentient (in so much as it walks around at its own free will) mine that will chase you down. There are different types of these walkers throughout the mod, with the paint on each denoting which kind you are dealing with.

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Modders have been adding weapons from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 into Fallout 4, ensuring the guns feel the same down to every detail.

As well as the weapon model itself, sounds, animations, and customisability have all been ported over from MW2. The end result is a group of weapons that feel incredibly realistic in a game where weapon feel isn't a strong point.

Current weapons available to download are the M4 assault rifle and Signal 50 sniper rifle, with plans to add more down the line.

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With Halloween behind us, the spooky season is now winding down as we enter November.

To celebrate, developers and fans alike joined in the annual festivity of pumpkin carving.

Here's some of the delightfully devilish designs we've seen over the weekend!

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One dedicated Fallout fan has created their own, playable, version of Bethesda's games out of Lego.

Made by ThrillDaWill (via PCGamesN), this project, known as L3go Fallout, is truly a sight to behold. It comes with its own character creator and, of course, a wasteland to explore.

In ThrillDaWill's words: "This fan-made project combines two of the best things! Stepping on legos with your bare feet, and endless bugs and glitches!!"

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UPDATE 27/10/22: The latest of Bethesda's Fallout anniversary videos included some more background information about the Amazon TV adapation.

Todd Howard said Bethesda had been approached by several producers for "10 years plus" who wanted to make a screen adaptation of the series, but the company turned down offers as they felt they weren't suitable. "One of the people I've always wanted to do it was Jonathan Nolan," Howard continued, stating his love of Nolan's and Lisa Joy's work.

Once Howard managed to connect with Nolan, he asked Nolan if a Fallout adaptation would interest him. "Turned out, he's a big fan."

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Fallout 4 will receive a free update in 2023 to improve visuals and more across Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.

The news was shared in a new Bethesda blog post that details the company's 25th anniversary celebration of the series.

The update will include "performance mode features for high frame rates, quality features for 4K resolution gameplay, bug fixes and even bonus Creation Club content!"

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In light of the Queen's passing, the team behind the upcoming Fallout: London mod for Fallout 4 has chosen to remove her 'likeness', and that of King Charles', from development.

In a new progress video for the mod, project lead Dean Carter stated: "We have always maintained that if [The Queen] was to pass away before the mod was complete, we would change it. As such, here is the official announcement to notify you all that, we are changing it" (thanks, PC Gamer).

Carter did not elaborate on what the Fallout London team was going to change this all to, instead saying fans would have to hold tight and be patient on this front. He was quite adamant, however, the team would not bring back its ghoulish Royal Family members in the future.

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This month marks 25 years since the release of Bethesda's much-loved post-apocalyptic RPG series Fallout, and the studio has now detailed its celebratory plans to mark the occassion, which include making online spin-off Fallout 76 free to play for a week.

Fallout 76's Free Play week kicks off tomorrow, 4th October, giving players on all platforms the chance to explore post-nuclear Appalachia without making a purchase until 11th October. Prime Gaming subscribers, meanwhile, can get the PC version of Fallout 76 for nowt as part of their membership, starting today, 3rd October, until 1st November.

Evidentally, the vast majority of Bethesda's Fallout celebrations will be focused on Fallout 76, with the studio also set to give Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers a month of Fallout 1st - the paid membership service that includes access to the likes of private servers - via Xbox Game Pass Perks until 24th October.

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Set photos from Amazon's upcoming TV adaption of Fallout have begun to circulate online.

Yesterday, Collider published photos taken by a reader from Staten Island in New York.

The photos show the exterior set of a Super Duper Mart with some sleek, round-bodied cars ripped straight from the 1950s parked outside, rusted all over. The building itself isn't doing much better, sporting the grime and abandoned wear you would expect to see roaming around Fallout 4's post-apocalyptic Boston.

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Two developers that had been working on a Fallout mod have been offered jobs by Bethesda.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the lead technical adviser and project manager of Fallout: London, a "DLC-sized" mod for Fallout 4, have both been offered jobs; the former as an associate level designer, and the latter a chance to work on Fallout 76.

Ryan Johnson took up the new job as an associate level designer, albeit only after ensuring his "expected level design tasks" for the mod were complete and succession planning was in place. Dean Carter, however, decided not to take the Fallout 76 position as they wanted to "continue working [on] Fallout: London until the end".

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A new trio of actors has been announced for Amazon's upcoming Fallout TV adaptation - Kyle MacLachlan, Xelia Mendes-Jones and Aaron Moten.

However, at the time of writing, no further details have been given about what role any of the actors will play on the show's release (via Variety).

MacLachlan is probably best known for his role of Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, as well as Trey MacDougal in Sex and the City and Orson Hodge in Desperate Housewives. For the fellow parents among us, he is also the voice of Riley's father in the very good (and more than just a little bit emotional) Inside Out.

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A new announcement trailer for Fallout: London is now here, revealing it will release sometime in 2023.

"Fallout: London is a DLC-sized mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4. As a continuation of the base game, the mod will allow the player to visit the previously unexplored post-apocalyptic environment of London," the description explains.

This mod will be a change from the rest of the Fallout series, as it will not take place in America. The developer hopes this will allow for users to explore "new cultures which have not homogenised with their American counterparts". It will also mean that players can dive on into "pre-war European history, and the effects the Resource Wars had on the class structured society of pre-war Britain."

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When last we heard of Fallout 5, it was little more than a "one-pager" idea at Bethesda that may or may not come to fruition; however, studio director Todd Howard has now confirmed a new mainline entry in the beloved Fallout series is definitely happening, but won't release until after The Elder Scrolls 6.

In conversation with IGN, Howard revealed The Elder Scrolls 6 is currently in pre-production (confirming previous rumours around the project's progress), before adding, "And, you know, we’re going to be doing Fallout 5 after that, so our slate's pretty full going forward for a while. We have some other projects that we look at from time to time as well."

In other words, with Bethesda's next big title, sci-fi RPG Starfield, delayed until next year, and still no word on a potential release window for The Elder Scrolls 6 - despite the game having received its first official tease back in 2018 - it sounds like there'll be an extremely long wait until Fallout 5 finally sees the light of day.

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Today it's all about cookbooks. More specifically: it's about cookbooks themed around games, which are all the rage these days. Do you have one? Maybe you've got the Destiny cookbook, or perhaps you've got the Fallout cookbook. The Final Fantasy 14 cookbook? Or maybe you're saving yourself for the Halo cookbook in August.

My guest today wrote all of those and she's currently writing three more. She actually finished writing the Halo cookbook a year ago, though how she pulled recipes from a world like that I don't know. What does Master Chief even eat? Can he eat? It can't be easy going to the toilet in that suit.

My guest immerses herself in these worlds to create a kind of extension of them. Check out our piece on the Destiny cookbook to see what I mean. These books include characters and lore from the games as well as something like 70 recipes to cook. They're more than just food.

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Today brings a look at gameplay for Fallout: London, the upcoming Fallout 4 PC mod that lets you explore the UK's post-apocalyptic capital.

It's planned to be about the size of the base game's Commonwealth map, making this a hugely ambitious piece of DLC.

"The mod encapsulates the gritty, adventurous nature of the Fallout games with a new world, factions, storylines, NPCs, weapons, creatures, and much more! This all comes together in a package tied with a uniquely British bow," reads the press release.

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As one of Bethesda's biggest and most beloved series, it's not much of a revelation to hear the company is already mulling over a new Fallout instalment, but studio director Todd Howard has now talked a little about a potential new series entry, confirming that while an idea exists, Fallout 5 is still a long way off.

Speaking to IGN as part of a Skyrim 10th anniversary retrospective, Howard explained that currently the studio has a "one-pager" for Fallout 5, outlining what it wants to do with the series. However, sci-fi adventure Starfield, due to release next year, and The Elder Scrolls 6 - which was still in its design phase as of June this year - remain the studio's priority, meaning it could be years before work on the next Fallout begins in earnest.

When asked about the possibility of shifting responsibility for a new Fallout over to another studio - after all, Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is now also within the Xbox Game Studios family - Howard only offered that "Fallout's really part of our DNA here".

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Ever felt like Fallout 4 could stand to be a little more, well, Blair Witch? If you fancy stumbling around in the dark while being chased by unseen forces, this might be the mod for you.

The Wilderness is a chunky Fallout 4 PC mod by El Ha that offers a worldspace "at least as big" as Nuka World, with a bunch of abandoned buildings and a spooky main quest. It's a map that often feels deliberately barren, with the player encouraged to traverse vast distances in search of shelter and supplies. Thanks to the gloomy atmosphere created through a combination of bad weather and a synth-heavy soundtrack, it's easy to get jumpy - and you'll probably find yourself getting creeped out by the landscape as much as the actual jumpscares. Any good horror is about tension, after all.

On installing the mod, players are presented with a fast travel option north of Sanctuary called "The Wilderness". Travelling there (and walking forwards a little bit) will transport you to The Wilderness itself, a vast wasteland that feels a lot more abandoned than anything in the Commonwealth. You can explore the area in your own time if you fancy, but to start the main quest, you'll need to rummage around in the skeleton near the start area. This will give you your first map and a rather ominous quest message about avoiding "whatever is following you".

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River, the real-life dog who inspired Dogmeat from Fallout 4, has passed away.

Joel Burgess, studio director at Capybara Games and former developer on Fallout 3, 4 and 76 at Bethesda, took to Twitter to look back at her impact on Fallout 4.

Dogmeat is a recurring dog non-player character in the Fallout series who acts as a possible companion to the player. Dogmeat is one of the most popular companions in the series, and was even a part of trailers made to promote Fallout 4.

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You've thought it, I've thought it, but the question of what London would look like in the Fallout universe has never truly been answered... until now.

A Fallout mod team is working on a huge project called Fallout: London, which is described as a "DLC-sized mod for Bethesda's Fallout 4". Although the team has been issuing updates on progress for some time, yesterday the group released a full reveal trailer, and the work done so far looks extremely impressive. Many of London's most iconic landmarks have been given a Fallout makeover - including Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral and even the BT Tower. Oh, and there's some extremely hammy commentary over the whole thing.

There are some really nice touches throughout the trailer: you can spot plenty of London buses, murky tube stations and even a classic London pub. I'm also a big fan of the Beefeater who's embraced a more Raider-inspired look. It feels like there are some nods to Britain's WWI and WWII past, with barrage balloons seen in the sky and soldiers camping out in trenches.

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We've run the ruler over Microsoft's first wave of FPS Boost titles and came away impressed, while our thoughts for the Arkane-developed duo of Prey and Dishonored Definitive Edition were perhaps even more gushing. Our coverage continues with a look at the Bethesda Games Studio titles running on the Creation Engine and impressions are a little more mixed this time. Skyrim lands exactly where we expected and works beautifully overall, but the Fallout titles are a little more puzzling. Despite a wide gap in their respective graphics capabilities, both Xbox Series S and X consoles run these titles at 1080p in order to achieve 60 frames per second, even though Xbox One X targeted native 4K.

The Fallout titles are somewhat contentious then, but it was great to return to Skyrim at least. In this case we have a true 4K60 and it's great to see that the user mod experience we previously tested at Digital Foundry is now made fully official with FPS Boost - though it's worth stressing these use two different techniques to hit this target. The mod essentially works by removing the 30fps frame-rate cap and disabling v-sync for good measure, allowing Skyrim to tap into the extra horsepower of Series S and X consoles (where back-compat forces v-sync back on).

The end result is a very tight lock on 60fps for Series S at 1080p resolution, whether you're using FPS Boost or the mod, while Series X runs at native 4K and looks stunning - the price to pay being a drop to performance whenever volumetrics or full resolution alpha effects are in play. By and large, it's 60fps on both and it adds an extra layer of sheen to what remains an excellent RPG. Yes, the visuals are dated, but the gameplay is golden. And of course, now PlayStation 5 users have access to the same experience via their own mod.

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UPDATE 15TH MARCH 2021: Microsoft has confirmed FPS boosts for a handful of old Bethesda games on Xbox Series X and S - and they're out now.

Five games from Bethesda - all freshly available with Xbox Game Pass - just got an FPS boost:

Microsoft said to expect to see an increase from 30fps to nearly60 fps with FPS Boost for the above games. To experience FPS Boost, make sure your console has the latest update installed and the FPS Boost function is turned on in Compatibility Options under the Manage Game section.

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Rescue operations seem to be rather popular across gaming communities at the moment, as along with Valheim's very own unit of body recovery specialists, a modder has brought Fallout 76's Responders faction to Fallout 4.

The Commonwealth Responders mod, made by TU3SD4Y, adds a total of 28 new quests, 27 new outfits, 30 buildable items and 52 buildable signs to Fallout 4 - all themed around the Responders faction, of course.

The story focuses on the last surviving member of the Commonwealth Responders, who needs your help to rebuild the Responders from the ground up. (The Responders is a volunteer relief organisation introduced in Fallout 76, if you need a refresh.) The mod even comes with a snazzy trailer, which you can watch below:

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Word emerged last week that with a simple mod, owners of the Xbox Series X console were able to revisit The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and to play it at full 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. The evidence looked compelling and I wanted to try it out - and once confirmed, I had a whole bunch of further questions I wanted answers to. Would the mod work on Xbox Series S? What about PlayStation 5? And as Fallout 4 also supports mods on consoles, I had to wonder whether there was any way to run the game at 60fps there, ahead of Microsoft's official patch set to do the same thing?

The news of a working Skyrim 60fps mod first emerged on Reddit, courtesy of user annathetravelbanana, and looking into it, the story behind the mod doing what it does on Series X is intriguing. The original mod - known as Uncap FPS by Smudgey5000 - seems to be very old, and was actually designed for the original Xbox One. The way it works is to enable a higher frame-rate by disabling v-sync and removing the hard-set 30fps cap. On last-gen hardware, its effects and its overall usefulness are limited. On the intro cart ride, Xbox One X's locked 30fps becomes 33-43fps with a lot of judder and tearing. I imagine it's used in combination with other mods designed to improve frame-rate to push overall output higher. Regardless, on its own, it's not particularly impressive.

The outlook is transformed on Series X thanks to the console's backwards compatibility features. First of all, it's worth stressing that once installed, Skyrim needs to be shut down and rebooted for the mod to kick in - and the improvement is transformative. Most of the game plays out locked at 60fps and the tearing brought about by the mod is completely gone. In effect, the Uncap FPS mod removes the 30fps limit, while the back-compat features in Series X enforce v-sync, giving a mostly flawless presentation. Yes, Achievements are disabled because you're using a mod. However, this can be circumvented simply by disabling the mod and starting the game. Remember, the mod needs a reboot to engage - and it's the same when disabling it.

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Following Microsoft's $7.5bn acquisition of ZeniMax Media - the parent company of Bethesda, id Software, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks and more - back in September, many were eager to learn how competing platforms would be impacted. Now Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart has offered additional clues on Microsoft's future strategy, suggesting Bethesda's games will be "either first or better or best" on its platforms.

Speaking at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment Virtual Conference (as transcribed by Seeking Alpha), Stuart offered assurances that Microsoft has no intention of "just pulling all of Bethesda content out of Sony or Nintendo or otherwise". Instead, he explained, "When we think about Bethesda, [we'll] continue to sell their games on the platforms that they exist today, and we'll determine what that looks over time and will change over time. I'm not making any announcements about exclusivity or something like that. But that model will change."

As to how that may change, Stuart suggested Microsoft would "want that content, in the long run, to be either first or better or best or pick your differentiated experience, on our platforms."

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Look, I know there's been some big news about Mass Effect recently, but you're going to have to wait a while for that remaster and new game anyway - so why not try out this Fallout 4 mod with voice acting by Commander Shepard in the meantime? Oh, and it's also pretty great if you're into your Fallout lore.

Made by a group of modders including members of YouTube channel ShoddyCast, Fallout: Brotherhood is an "interactive movie mod" for PC and Xbox telling the origin story of Fallout's famous Brotherhood of Steel faction. Released at the end of October, the mod stars voice actor Mark Meer (male Shepard in Mass Effect) as Roger Maxson, military man and first high elder of the Brotherhood of Steel. The story is set in pre-war America and explores the origins of the Brotherhood in the Mariposa Rebellion, and reveals the horrific results of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) tests that prompted Maxson to rebel. There's even an introductory trailer to set the scene, which explains how the narrator acquired all his information.

Of course, with a description like that I couldn't just leave it there - so I downloaded the mod to have a poke around, and got in touch with some of the modding team behind the project.

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I still can't quite believe it's now been a decade since the release of Fallout: New Vegas, but yesterday Obsidian's much-beloved RPG turned 10, and Fallout fans (including ourselves) took a moment to look back and remember why the title was so great. One mod team decided to mark the occasion in particularly spectacular fashion by releasing a new trailer to show off progress so far. And I have to say, it really does look excellent.

Fallout 4: New Vegas, as the name may suggest, is a mod project seeking to remake Fallout: New Vegas in the Fallout 4 Creation Engine on PC. The team has been working on the mod for some time, having initially shared gameplay footage back in 2018, but the new trailer gives us a better idea of what the Mojave will look like when complete. There's also a lot of shooting. I think I spotted a bit of famous beginner area Quarry Junction in there - I can't wait to head in as soon as the mod becomes available.

Speaking of which, while it looks like significant progress has been made on the mod, there is still no set release date. "Progress is not linear, and we'd rather release the best possible F4NV, not a 'good enough' F4NV," the team explained in a FAQ section on Discord.

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Microsoft has revealed some of the benefits of running backwards compatible games on Xbox Series X and S, including Fallout 4 at 60 frames per second on the S.

Bethesda's post-apocalyptic open world role-playing game shot for 30fps on Xbox One. On the Xbox Series S, it runs at a solid 60, according to Microsoft.

"... the backward compatibility team has developed new methods for effectively doubling the framerate on select titles," Xbox compatibility program lead Peggy Lo said in a blog post.

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Amazon is teaming up with the creators of hit sci-fi show Westworld to adapt Bethesda's long-running post-apocalyptic RPG series Fallout for television.

A tease for the new series was posted on Amazon Studios' Twitter feed earlier today, and more substantial details have since been reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the website, Westworld series creators Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan will oversee the project (Amazon signed a five-year deal with the duo's Kilter Films to produce new shows for its Prime Video streaming service last year), although no writer is currently attached.

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By early January, I'd noticed something strange was happening to me. Grimes, La Roux and synthwave groups like Magic Sword had entered my music playlists. I'd finally watched Blade Runner for the first time, and was scrolling through galleries of the late Syd Mead's brilliant cityscapes. I'd even bought Neuromancer and added it to my pile of books I will definitely get around to reading.

It was all in anticipation of one game originally due to arrive in April: CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077. Yet as we all know, that release date is no longer happening, and Cyberpunk 2077 has been shunted back to September. So what was I to do with all that leftover cyberpunk energy?

I could have continued my media binge, but that's hard to maintain for eight months - and I was eager for some gameplay. As my editor later mentioned, I could have just bought Deus Ex. Yet something far more radical had already entered my mind.

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Glitch speedruns can provide incredible insights into the way games are made - and more importantly, how they can be broken. Awesome Games Done Quick, the speedrunning charity event, is in full swing this week - and one of the most amusing runs I've seen so far is by the ever-entertaining speedrunner tomatoangus, best known for his Fallout anthology runs - including sex% speedruns. Yes, you read that correctly.

Having recently changed his name from tomatoanus to the more family-friendly tomatoangus ("the g is silent," he says), yesterday tomatoangus took the floor to show everyone his Fallout anthology speedrunning skills. Although he ran overtime, finishing at 2:16:21 instead of the 2:05:00 estimate (thanks in part to missing the Radaway right in front of him), the run was incredibly entertaining and informative - with tomatoangus sprinkling in fun facts to keep viewers engaged. This is a hole you'll want to go down.

One of the biggest revelations for me (aside from learning you can push Liam Neeson into dialogue triggers with a Nuka-Cola truck) was that Fallout New Vegas' end slides aren't actually a cutscene: instead, the player is placed in a small room facing a projector screen. After enabling player controls in the command console, tomatoangus walked behind this to display Ron the Narrator standing behind the slides, talking through the script. "You can kill him and drag him off, but then he just slides in from the other side - he doesn't want to leave," tomatoangus said. Now that is dedication to the job.

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Last year, I wrote one of my favourite articles of all time: a news piece on speedrunner tomatoanus, who'd set a particularly unusual record. He'd managed to set a "sex%" world record in the Fallout series - an unofficial speedrunning category involving having sex in each of the main games as fast as possible. (He's also done an equally impressive Fallout series world record speedrun).

In any case, that unusual username has become a bit of an issue when trying to register for charity speedrunning event Games Done Quick, with the organisers (understandably) taking issue with the "anus" in his username. I guess it wasn't wholesome enough for the family-friendly event. Or rather, too holesome.

According to tomatoanus' statement, GDQ had refused to list his name in three of the six previous events in which he had submitted runs. After contacting the organisers, a compromise was reached: tomatoanus could change his name to tomatoangus, and his submissions would be publicly listed.

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"One of my boring, pointless hobbies is making lists, recently these lists have been timelines," Connor Rawlings begins a reddit post by stating.

"Thus I present perhaps the most in-depth timeline of the whole canon Fallout series."

That's a huge claim, but one which - somewhat incredibly - seems to be true.

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The recently-released Just Cause 4 is now available via Xbox Game Pass, so anyone with a subscription can download it free.

In Eurogamer's Just Cause 4 review, Chris Donlan slapped Square Enix's capable open world with a recommendation and deemed it "likeably scrappy". It's worth a look.

Then, next week, Xbox Game Pass welcomes back Fallout 4 on 14th March. It's been part of the subcription service before, but disappeared at the end of last year presumably to make way for the release of Fallout 76. It's good to see it back.

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Sex. Speedrunning. Not two things you expect to hear in the same sentence - and yet here I am, writing an article about it.

Speedrunner tomatoanus, who you may remember from his world record Fallout anthology speedrun (and his rather colourful username), has returned with yet another wacky video. Not content with whizzing through Fallout 1, 2, 3, New Vegas and 4 in under 90 minutes, tomatoanus' latest speedrun is all about sex. Specifically, getting it as fast as possible. Like a night out in Magaluf.

Similar to his other world record speedruns, tomatoanus played through the games considered by the community to be the "main" titles in the Fallout series, with the goal being to have sex in each game as quickly as possible. This apparently has its own unofficial category, called a "sex%" run, and has already been attempted by a number of speedrunners in Fallout 4 (check out these ones by Jinjenia and Duchys).

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There's been plenty of negativity surrounding the Fallout series as of late - so today it's time to focus on something rather more hopeful. Following in the footsteps of other remake mods like Fallout New California, one modding team is using Fallout 4 to give Fallout 2 a rad-ical makeover.

Fallout 4: Project Arroyo, named after the tribal village in Fallout 2, was publicly announced on Reddit back in December. Some commenters were sceptical as to whether the project would get off the ground - but earlier today the team shared more information and several screenshots to give us our first look.

"Fallout 2 became my favourite Fallout game when I began playing it," team member DoctWhite stated on Reddit. "The branching questlines, dynamic stories, and the immersive universe all called my name, however there was one problem for me. That is the game's isometric and outdated gameplay.

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Barren wastelands. Decrepit and abandoned towns. Desolate landscapes ravaged by time and trauma. Recognisable landmarks slowly but surely reclaimed by nature after our demise. Games have consistently embraced the post-apocalyptic setting. It invites excitement, apprehension and a deep curiosity, and plays on the thought-provoking hypothetical, the 'what if?'. And when these post-apocalyptic environments and landscapes are incredibly detailed, they can result in great efficacy and power.

Of course, all games use artistic license to a degree to ensure their pacing, setting and characters are primed for our experience and, as a result we give them a healthy amount of leeway when it comes to their landscapes. But just how much artistic license is an interesting area to investigate. Have the developers ruthlessly stuck to an accepted setting or set of circumstances? Or have they created their own unique setting from scratch? Or, have they landed somewhere in the middle? Overall, how 'accurate' is the representation of their chosen hypothetical landscape?

Games' post-apocalypses give us a window into what might happen should everything go down the tubes for humanity, but also the earth. There are people who are experts or who have written about such scenarios, and one of them is writer Alan Weisman. Some fans of The Last of Us may know his book, The World Without Us, which helped inspire Naughty Dog and its portrayal of a post-apocalyptic, or human-less, USA. His book details how the world would change immediately after a sudden disappearance or decrease in human intervention.

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