You keep saying its zomfgultrahuge as well without having played it so...

Fallout 3's map was small, but large portions of the map were unnavigatibale - due to concrete blocks blocking the streets off, so you had to enter sewers. Such as trying to travel to Rivet City which is a pain. Which made the map seem bigger than it was. If you thought the map was too small for you (how is that possible) why don''t you go and design your own game with a bigger map lol ..

FO4 map triple size of FO3, that'll do me nicely.

Skyrim was too small for me. Took away my enjoyment. I couldn't immerse myself properly. Dungeons and mountains you can't pass through appearing every few seconds and then hitting the other side of the map. No, that was tiny and I was put off by how dense it was. Oblivion felt big and open, which was the best thing about it for me. Fallout 3 felt like a good amount of space, too, just not as much in that space.

But then you can discuss gaming with them.

All three of my daughters are gamers and will likely be playing Fallout 4.

They think it's a bit odd that I always play a female protagonist,

but dad, dad never changes....

Sorry, getting a bit off-topic...

Because this is something that has been stated by the team who actually created the game, rather than by some random person on the internet looking for exploits and attention. It's also common sense to anyone who's been paying attention to the officially released footage. At the end of the day, you're free to believe what you like, but I for one am really looking forward to exploring the wastes, rather than wasting my time stressing about things like this before the game has even been released.

Its not the size anyway, its the content.

See, that's subjective. Subjectivity tends to get lost on forums. A game world where you see a dungeon every few seconds and can walk the map in five minutes would not be immersive for me, regardless of content. And besides, shouldn't the world size and the beauty of it be considered as part of the content?

The thing is, any map can feel small when one's goal is to simply run across the map in a straight line to determine its size. There is more to measuring a map than just figuring out how many minutes one can go from one end to another. Density, verticality, and horizontality all play a role in how large an area is.

Even if a player can run across the map in around 11 minutes, that alone does not specify how much content is in the area. If players focus on completing quests, scouring buildings and caves, engaging in dialogue with NPCs, and learning the stories of all the locations, then the map will feel enormous if there is plenty of content. Not to mention that the playable space is of more abundance than what Skyrim offered, which means there is more space to add locations and other types of content.

Also, there is the topic of traversing inside areas that are above and below ground. From what I have heard, there are buildings with multiple floors on them filled with enemies, items, quests, and so on. There are most likely multiple opportunities to explore parts of the world that are underground as well. Accounting for the playable space on the surface, underground, and above ground will definitely increase the amount of time it takes to explore every part of the world.

We must remember that while bigger can be better, it does not mean that physical size should always be the most improtant factor in creating a map. Bethesda felt the map size was adequate for the amount of content they are offering. If one truly can invest hundreds of hours into the game while finding new content each hour, does the size of the map truly matter that much?

that's what i was thinking. now for the record, I'll be happy (even if a little disappointing) if the map is the same size as FO3. i don't need a massive map. but I do have a hard time understanding how anybody who hasn't played the game can know the difference running in 4 is exactly 1.5X faster than in 3. seems a bit specious to me. admittedly, I'm on a black out and haven't even looked at the leaked footage out there.

Hey, Ive been meaning to ask you... What is the gif you're using from?

Is from the opening of Nintendo's E3 Direct last year.

wth micro-transactions...

As I understand it, it's the same size as skyrim. Plus there's nothing saying the dlcs won't add onto the map. Now, you may not be able to walk from core game map to dlc map (though would be great though), but it may add on like the dragon born dlc did to skyrim.

Wow, just wow. Complaining about map size. I wonder why he is comparing to Skyrim. After all Skyrim is SMALLER than Oblivion. So if anything instead of maps getting bigger like the OP said it should, in fact they are getting smaller. So comparing to Skyrim which is smaller than it's predecessor really makes no sense.

Good thing as was said Fallout 4 map is bigger.

What I would like to know, who is playing the game to say you can go from one end to the other in 9 minutes. How can anyone be playing the game right now?

Someone who had a copy by some illicit means posted a run, using 'god mode' and sprinted from the top to the bottom in 11 minutes.

(though I haven't seen it)

As has been established, you can do the same 11 minute time across much of Skyrim and you can cross the DC Wasteland in that time without sprinting.

Thank you, I didn't know that. So going in "god mode" where nobody can hurt you and now we have an option to "sprint" to go even faster and being in "god mode" most likely makes the sprint unlimited of course we can do it in 11 minutes. 11 minutes is a long time if you really think of it.

I have no idea why the OP is making a big deal out of nothing. 11 minutes going from one end to another end in "god mode" and sprinting should tell you that the map is HUGE.

To be honest some of the gaming sites (that didn't know any better) were reporting yesterday:

'It takes 2 hours to cross Skyrim but Fallout 4 takes 11 minutes, doesn't that svck'

type of discussions.

At the moment, in the absence of any 'Fallout 4 news' it seems to be allowed to make stuff up

Actually the Fallout 4 map is vastly larger than Fallout 3 and roughly about the same size as skyrim's when you consider all the places on that map inaccessible to the player....here's to scale comparisons:

http://i.imgur.com/WvQZJdB.png

http://i.imgur.com/2zGiA61.gifv

Bethesda games have never lacked for content, I think. They pack these places with locations right up until the cut-off point, usually. A larger map would just mean the same amount of content spread more sparsely. In recent interviews, Bethesda has people on their team that specifically go out and explore the game, making sure areas feel neither too sparse nor too dense - trying to find the right balance.

I highly doubt at any point they cut content because they ran out of map space - the map is as big as it needs to be for their purposes.

You believed this tripe?

You can't even walk from corner-to-corner in Fallout 3 in 11 minutes, so my guess is someone's pulling some pranks to get ad dollars.

Judging by the official video, it's looking as though the map isn't small. Just watching the background and noticing how buildings disappear from view gives me confidence this map is either the same size as Fallout 3 or larger. I had no problems with the size of Fallout 3.

I'm more curious to know where we'll be allowed to create custom buildings.

Oh and to quote myself here....I almost forgot....all the water space on the Fallout 4 map is water but it can be explored and there are locations and stuff you can find there. That's what the aquaboy perk is for....a perk that eliminates rads from water and makes you undetectable while submerged...because you'll be in water A LOT.

To scale comparisons here: http://i.imgur.com/2zGiA61.gifv

I saw something similar before.

I'm weird when I play games as I actually enjoy walking from area to area.

In Skyrim, and sticking strictly to the road, it takes an hour and 15 minutes to walk from Solitude to Riften.

In Fallout 3, again sticking to the roads (well, when they're about), it takes 36 minutes from Rivet City to Raven Rock.

"Walking" is the speed at which a character can move without sprinting, though not the same speed as NPCs walk. Whatever "speed" pushing up on the joystick allows is "walking".

Curious how all the water exploration will go....a lot of verticality there and the swim speed is likely to be different too. The aquaboy perk which eliminated rads from water and drowning makes it abundantly clear we'll be underwater a very, very long time and the map sure isn't lacking water portions that's for sure.

I've been thinking we'll probably come across a lot of sea caves and things along them line's. See a lot of free diving happening.