I disagree. If some time is before 3 and most of time played is after. Mostly would be a fine word to use. On top of that my first instinct when reading it is just that. Mostly means after you are out of the vault.

Eh... It's more than character creation. It's like the Vault 101 in FO3. It's the intro, the tutorial. So you do play pre-war. Is it so hard to understand? You don't count it but the devs do so most likely.

Todd's statement was 'It's mostly after FO3'. This means 'a small part is not after FO3'. And this small part is the pre-war section.

There's also the possibility of 'flashbacks' to pre-war life, possibly via visiting the Memory Den.

that or Todd is trying to get the NMA purists to go rabid on him again but I don't think there gonna bite anymore because they realize he played them for publicity last time.

that or hes just messing with everyones mind

although technicaly untill your charactgers spends at least 2.35 years he will not even have spent 1% of his "life" living in post-apocolyptia.

I don't see how you're having trouble with it.

If the events of the game are like this:

Game opens 2077 ->Bombs fall-------------------200+year period of whatever causes you to survive-----------> Game resumes in 2283 (my guess for the year the game is set), then most of the game takes place after Fallout 3.

The exact line in the article is:

Fallout 4 is set ‘mostly after Fallout 3 and, while remaining tight-lipped on story details, Howard says that the goings on in Boston and the mysterious Commonwealth Institute were hinted at in the previous game. Boston itself has 'the right mix of American history, Americana and hi-tech' that make for the ideal Fallout location.

I will say that there's a lack of closing quotation mark in the actual article that I assume is supposed to go after "Fallout 3," but I don't see how the scenario I've outlined above fails given what Todd Howard said. The only thing that would preclude the Pre-War segments is your failure to include them, to which I would ask if you think that Unbound isn't part of Skyrim.

Thure93's initial post made it sound as if they were applying the "mostly" to the pre-war segment, which obviously would go counter to this, but I think it was just poor wording on their part. The actual article makes it clear that the story takes place mostly after Fallout 3.

I'm not struggling with it.I just see a strong sense of parallelism between plot of F3 and F4. And think there will be some sort of time overlap.

Mind if you elaborate on that?

Im not exactly seeing the paralels either other than Daddy or mommy sending there kid to be safe in the vualt but SUPRISEPLOTTWIST This time Daddys or mommy is the one stuck in the vault because aparently your son got out before you woke up...

It is obvious that no matter what Bethesda says or how they spell it out, You and a lot of other people are going to be floating down the Nile for the next four months.

I think it is fair to say that a young advlt searching for their father because he has mysteriously left vault 101 without a word, while similar, is not the same as a parent searching for a missing child.

And a deathclaw pharaoh will adopt them?

On the topic, though, I do really hope that the game is really set after FO3. I'm really keen on seeing some characters (e.g. Dr. Li and maybe Moira) to return. When I see Marcus in FO:NV, I was really surprised, because I got a sense that "oh, so that is that Marcus they're talking about." kind of feeling from seeing recurring characters from previous games. It's also likewise when I met Harold in FO3. Even though I didn't play the older Fallout games, seeing characters returning from those series really fascinates me. As such, new players who just touched the Fallout series (and I bet there'll be a lot of them) will likely to feel the same way after seeing characters from the old game, especially unique ones...

That is one reason why it's better for the game to set after FO3.

If they 100% deny New Vegas by going ''back'' into the timeline, I would be really deceived. New Vegas is one of my 2 favorite games of all times, and is greatly appreciated by the majority of Fallout fans.

If that is the case, I hope that at least, there will be some kind of sequel to New Vegas, or a Spin-off settled on the west coast. Imagine how nice would be New Reno on the current-gen systems?

How is taking place a continent away at a previous time period "denying" New Vegas?
No one has heard of what's going on over there, and I doubt Boston cares.

Again...

Jet has made its way to the east, energy weapons, ammo. Deathclaws...

There are also references to the events of FO3 in NV, and even the wasteland survival guide from Moira.

You seem to think that because there was a war, man is back to stone-age where writing ceased to exist.

Do not forget that there is still radios, caravans, word of mouth to communicate across vast distances. This can relate to the early 1900's, where news did travel, even without satellites or internet.

FNV didn't even acknowledge Fo3 outside of two extremely subtle references. They're just keeping the two coasts distinct and separate...

*To elaborate, they might have plans with letting Obsidian dive back into Fallout and make another spin off, therefore they are leaving the characters and events mostly untouched. FNV did much of the same thing with respect to Fo3.

Okay, so explain to me how the events of the War for Hoover Dam impacts the Commonwealth.

If they show something in game that gives the exact date, that will be the end of it. But "200 years" is a general enough term to me to have some wiggle room. If someone were to ask me when Fallout 3 and New Vegas took place in relation to the Great War, I would say 200 years, rather than 199 years and a few months or 204 years.

If I was in their position, and Bethesda is doing something related to colonial/revolutionary America, then I certainly wouldn't reveal the year in pre-release stuff. Especially if I'm right and the game is set during the 500th anniversary of the Revolutionary War ending. Giving the exact year can give some story elements away that they may not want revealed just yet.

I'm genuinely surprised that people are still committed to mental gymnastics despite the info that Pete Hines has reiterated numerous times. I like to think that had they been harping on about 201 years instead of 200, that the discussion revolving around it would not even be happening.

Alas, to each his own. I've been pretty adamant on the subject and even then people insist on, "no it's a generality."

Ever since Pete Hines told me that Skyrim on the PS3 had achieved a level of parity with the 360 and PC versions of the game, I've taken his words with a grain of salt. A grain large enough to make slugs a thing of the past.

I don't really have a stake in when the game takes place, and I'm by no means doing "mental gymnastics." I see a year that seems like a likely candidate for when the game will take place given that it would be an anniversary of importance to the location the game is set in as well as some of the factions of the game, and would be a few years after both Fallout 3 and New Vegas, thus meeting Bethesda's little mantra about the timeline only moving forward. That's it. I'm not combing through concept art or anolyzing every word that comes out of Bethesda's mouth to come up with some "evidence." I don't want the game to be immediately after Fallout 3 because that seems like a lame way to avoid actually giving a canonical answer to their game, but I'm not losing sleep over it one way or the other.

Agreed 100%. I'll be pissed if Betheada pull that cop-out just because of their strange phobia of all things canon. But I figured that the Brotherhood with vertibirds and an airship with a name that hints at it being Lyons is evidence enough that this game cannot possibly take place within a year of Fallout 3.

It's worth pointing out that a simple date confirmation is less harmful than information (like the PS3's poor state upon release) that could negatively affect the sales of a game at release. Crappy thing to do? Definitely, and I don't blame you for feeling scorned. I felt the same way with Peter Molyneux's over-embellishment of Fable beginning from Project Ego up until Fable 3.

Other people are doing the legwork as far as reading and documenting the little information that we are given, and quite frankly that's all we have to go on. I'll continue to build off of what we do know rather than attempt to deflect it as a generality.

Sleep tight.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that the post-war part of the game will be set during one of two years: either 2283 as you stated here, which is also the 500th anniversary of the end of the Revolutionary War, or 2285, which is the year I predicted in my timeline thread.

The main reasons for having the game set during one of the above years are consistency and storyline. The entire series has progressively moved forwards, and I believe that this trend will always continue. The gaps between earlier games was quite considerable, but as we have moved into a full 3D engine, this has slowed down, and has become more focused. As for story, if the game is set in 2285 as I have suggested, then Arthur Maxson would be 18 years old, and would therefore be old enough to participate in Fallout 4's story as a full 'combat ready' individual.

Also, for those who doubt the relevance of NV in all of this, there are many factors that could have an impact, including whichever ending the devs regard as being canon. Robert House, for example, is very likely to have funded the early development of the Institute as an organisation, and therefore he will be very strongly linked to the storyline. And so setting Fallout 4 after the ending of NV would make perfect sense. In addition to this, we have many different factions from previous games, who may end up being involved in the story.

And finally we have Project Purity. 6-8 years after the events of Fallout 3 would be more than enough time to allow the project to progress in a way that benefits other areas, including the Commonwealth. We already know that Dr Li made her way here after the end of FO3, and I have a feeling that this will actually be very important to the story in Fallout 4.

It's not mental gymnastics when Pete Hines says 200 years on one occasion and Fallout 4 is a sequel to Fallout 3 on another to think that there is some generalizations going on somewhere, likely all over the place. I won't be sure until someone at Bethesda gives a date or I play the game.

True, but it doesn't change the fact that his reliability as a source is damaged by that. And I think that's the big thing. People can quote Todd Howard and Pete Hines all they want, and I can counter with things that sabotaging wood mills and Skyrim's realistic economy and Skyrim's performance on the PS3 to show that not everything they mentioned turned out to be representative of the actual product.

What developers say in order to drum up hype and make people buy their product isn't the most reliable source in my opinion, especially when we live in a universe that Peter Molyneux exists in. Actual game footage is, and even that isn't always to be trusted (Hello, Watch_Dogs and Alien: Colonial Marines!). So while I'll continue to read/watch interviews with Bethesda about Fallout 4, it is the elements that are actually shown in the trailers and demos themselves that I look at as the most trustworthy source.

I'm expecting it to be Lyons' group for a couple reasons. The first is the name on the ship, but the other is a general "We want to play with our toys, not yours" mentality I'm kind of expecting from Bethesda. I want it to be the MWBoS, because that seems more interesting to me than simply throwing Lyons back into the mix, especially when that could set the stage for both factions to meet up in the same location.

As for the whole phobia regarding canon, I'd be astonished if the Good Karma decisions for the main quest were not made canon. If only because none of the Evil Karma decisions actually made any damn sense from a narrative perspective.

I doubt the relevance of FNV for many reasons, particularly because I feel that Emil has enough respect to leave the characters of FNV to the devices of the original writers, who developed their backstory to begin with. What purpose would Robert House serve beyond FNV to begin with. He makes zero mention of the institute when talking to the player in FNV. I find it extremely strange for him to suddenly have this keen interest on what's been going on in Boston when he is/was in the midst of a power struggle in the Mojave (this also completely ignores the players multi-faceted decision in the storyline /// House, Legion, NCR, Yes Man).

I have no idea what you mean by the first sentence - please elaborate.

Fallout 4's timeline (October 2277) still puts it after the events of Fallout 3 (August 2277).

That's fine; time will tell.