art by TheOmegaRidley

I try to do a new blog nearly every week. I posted last week's blog -- a celebration of the amazing 100th episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- last night. Normally, I would wait at least the better part of a week, but the great news that Fallout fans have just been given cannot wait. So I'm putting up this next week's blog tonight!

Hours ago, Todd Howard (Game Director and Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios) gave a half-hour presentation at E3 that was packed with information about Fallout 4!

A few highlights:

Voiced protagonist? Yes. And done pretty much exactly as I had hoped.

Customizable character? Yes! Including gender choice (which I know some fans had worried about).

Playing a character who lived prior to the apocalypse? Confirmed!

Crafting? Luna's moaning moonheat, yes!

Collector's Edition? A must have!

Vehicles? No. But we do get to ride in a vertibird while hosing down enemies with a minigun.

Release date? Late this year, far sooner than I had expected!

art by Viwrastupr

The presentation was, of course, full of eye candy for those of us who have been waiting for this game for ages, starting with a showcase of concept art for the game and ending with a montage of combat gameplay. And every bit of it is calibrated to make us eager to dive into the wastelands of the east coast once again.

The crafting system got special attention during the presentation, and it's better than most of us have dreamed of. Every weapon is fully customizable. And so is your armor! Armor now comes in layers, and each section can be customized as you desire. (Power armor with a flaming paint job FTW! )

But what impressed me the most was that they integrated the concept of one of my favorite Fallout mods: Real Time Settler! Now, you will be able to leave your mark on the wasteland with more than just violence and destruction: you can build communities! You can forge your own settlements, build defenses and even establish trade routes between them. I spent hundreds of hours in Fallout 3 crafting my own communities. Now with Fallout 4, that becomes an optional part of the basic game. Words cannot express my excitement.

art by AviatorGriffin

Beyond just thrilling us with Fallout 4 design and gameplay goodness, Todd Howard revealed some extras that every Fallout fan will want to get ahold of. First, he showed off something from the Collector's Edition. Bethesda has officially created what Fallout fans have been making for themselves since cell phones became a thing:

Yep, definitely going for the collector's edition. I may have to buy a phone just to justify getting this.

In addition, while Fallout 4 is coming out in November ( ), some of us don't have to wait that long to get our Fallout fix. Bethesda has created a 2D game called Fallout Shelter which puts you in the Overseer's chair, micromanaging your own Vault. The game was inspired by games such as X-Com, SimCity and FTL. This game was released exclusively to iOS immediately after the presentation.

Sadly, there is currently no release date or expectations for this game on Android, much less the PC.

Below is a video of Bethesda's showcase at the beginning of E3. The segment on Fallout 4 is at the end, beginning forty-two and a half minutes into the video. But I suspect you will find something else worth watching the entire video for.