Top 10 Fallout 4 Features from the Bethesda E3 Presser

03. Fully Customizable Armor and Power Armor

The first very important difference in the armor system that is in Fallout 4 is so basic an element that hearing that it was built into the game made us wonder why it wasn't in the previous games. What are we talking about? Armor Laying.

One of the most interesting reveals in the press conference was the inclusion of armor laying in Fallout 4. Why is that important? For a number of reasons.

If we may digress for a moment, having a suit of powered armor was one of the milestones in both Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Basically that armor turned the player into a walking tank in terms of armor protection and, with the right weapon, practically a real tank,

That said, one of the core weaknesses of the power armor was that any significant amount of damage to a specific part of the armor would leave that part of your body unprotected. Too close to a bomb or a landmine detonation meant that you only had whatever protection the power armor bottoms contained.

With layered armor that no longer stands true. A carefully constructed armor scheme means that the player will be able to custom match their armor protection levels based on the combat they are anticipating. That is actually far more important than you might think.

For example one of the benefits of layered armor is that you can augment just the parts of the body you know will be at risk without having to augment the entire body. Why is that important? Because mates, all armor has weight, and you are only allowed to carry a specific and limited amount of weight.

So beefing up your chest armor level in a layered system can be accomplished without having to increase the armor level - and thus overall weight - for the rest of your body. Strategically and tactically that is major.

The demo showed that we can not only layer up, but that we can mix and match armor pieces from different sets AND types. That was something you could not do in the previou games.

With power armor, to put this in perspective for you, looking at the construct screen it actually feels like you really ARE wearing a walking tank, where in the previou games? Not so much. The best comparison that we can make is that the armor now is big and clunky and makes you 8-feet tall -- while in the previous games your height did not change and it did not feel as substantial as it looks in the demo.

And then there is the whole realistic mechanics -- rather than slipping into your armor, in Fallout 4 you actually climb in with an effect that is totally reminiscent of the Mech Armor class that it clearly is intended to represent.

All in all, the fully customizable armor scheme that we were shown is certainly reason enough to get excited.

02. Fully Customizable Weapons

Considering the premise of the game and game series, the weapons that have been traditionally part of game play are important elements due to the world full of dangers and threats that exist in the Wasteland.

Those dangers are not just down to the gangs of thugs who make the Wastelands their home and who think nothing of taking what they want. There are also organized groups like the Brotherhood of Steel who play by their own rules, and a wide assortment of wildlife that has been mutated by the bombs and its fallout over the past 200 years, creating horrific and deadly creatures of all sizes and types.

Being able to defend yourself from attack by armed and dangerous humans may be the least of your problems when you consider that the vast majority of the wildlife in the world think of you as dinner.

To address that Fallout 4 offers over 50 base weapons with more than 700 modifications available to customize them and add to their capabilities.

The basic premise is that the game will reward you for looting and for obtaining the rarest parts by allowing you to build increasingly more powerful and effective weapons.

That covers every spectrum of weapons too - not just laser or firearm types, but melee and improvised as well! Our favorite among the many is the Junk Jet - a hand-created special weapon that allows you to use junk as its ammunition!

A lot of the weapons that were revealed are familiar ones to any gamer who has played the previous games in the series. These include (but this is just a sampling):

10mm Pistol

Automatic Plasma Rifle

Bladed Aluminum Baseball Bat

Compensated Automatic Assault Rifle

Fat Man

Glow-Sighted Cryolater Pistol

Laser Pistol

Laser Rifle

Pipe Pistol

Plasma Pistol

Scoped .44 Pistol

Tactical Junk Jet

The list goes on and on! Once you have your weapon, and assuming you have scrapped the right parts from the loot you have found, you can make modifications -- examples of which include:

Ammunition

Barrels

Stocks

Sights

Power

Electrification Modules

When you are finished creating your unique and possibly one-of-a-kind weapon you can then give it a custom name!

If you find yourself wanting a different weapon or have obtained a better base weapon to modify, all of your previous efforts are not for naught - as you can Scrap any weapon as well to recover its core components.