It feels as though the world could turn into a desolate, irradiated wasteland any day now, so what better way to prepare for the worst than with Fallout 4 recreated in virtual reality? From today on, anyone who stumps up the dollar for an HTC Vive headset will get a copy of Bethesda's Fallout 4 VR for free.

Fallout 4 VR is, simply, Fallout 4 in virtual reality. No corners have been cut - this is the full game carefully rebuilt for headset life, complete with all the vault-armored targeting, bandits, and weapons from the original. The game will be released on December 12 and is priced at $60.

As someone who's dipped their heavily power-armored toe into how Fallout 4 feels in VR, the (virtual) reality is massive and a little disorientating. While some things feel totally natural - glancing at your Pip Boy on your wrist, for example - nothing quite prepares for you for trying to take on a super mutant while you're literally face-to-face. Push through the initial discomfort, though, and you quickly adjust and lose all sense of time as your explore the familiar, defeated landscape from an entirely new perspective.

The HTC Vive is a serious toy - costing $600 for the headset, controllers, base stations, and assorted wires - but it's also the most impressive when it comes to delivering the room-scale VR of your nerdy dreams. Your Fallout 4 VR will come in the form of a redemption code, which you'll need to keep handy for when the game launches in a few months.