I guarantee that time is spent marketing and drinking fallout beer.

What do the programmers and artists have to do with marketing?

Not a lot, but I'll bet they have everything to do with drinking beer!

Ugh.... You're killing me here, Bethesda. You're KILLING me.

Playing the game I've been waiting years for, just sitting back and LAUGHING sadisically as we wait for it, like kings mocking the starving peasantry with their decadent feasts.

At least that's what it looks like in MY world.

Mutter mutter...

I think the word you're looking for is...

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

*strokes cat whilst looking around evil lair

I would bet those are review copies. Bethesda games are pretty large and they do tend to let reviewers play it for a relatively extensive time.

http://i.imgur.com/IM5T4.png

This is how i imagine Pete Hines playing Fallout 4 lol

Pete, if you're listening... I HOPE YOU CAN LIVE WITH THE GUILT.

LOL! Pete is probably the most awesome human being in existence based SOLEY on his tweets lol

God: @DCDEACON And so it came to pass that on the sixth day I made this, this, and then this

Pete: @GOD Go and relax, it's Saturday

God: @DCDEACON No, you don't understand. That's tomorrow

What I'm about to write may be very off topic and somewhat random, but is it strange that when I read your comments I read them with the voice of Liam Neeson?

Lots of people have said that, and I even do it myself sometimes!

Well I hate to dis-illusion anyone who happens to think everyone at BGS leaned back with a sigh of relief to take a little break the moment it was announced the game went gold...

But this is actually the period that you can think of as Crunch Time for a game developer and it wouldn't surprise me if most of the programmers are actually sleeping on the floor by their desk if they sleep at all, with a supervisor walking around sniffing people and occasionally tapping a shoulder to indicate to someone that its time for them to go home long enough to grab a shower.

You can always tell when a software company goes into Crunch Time because almost immediately a small mountain of fast food delivery box's will begin showing up out by the dumpster that pretty much you need a front end loader to get off site.

In the midst of all this will be one poor soul whose popping Xanex like tic-tacs and staring at a Bug Sheet that looks like it could be the reference section list for the Library of Congress.

Killing bugs in a new piece of software goes on till usually around 24 to 36 hours before the doors are thrown open for distribution to the public so they can get as many as they can, but they know they can't get them all.

One product I can think of, in the week after it went gold, had around 25,000 software corrections scratched off the Bug Sheet, none of them really being game breakers.

People who do reviews for their respective game magazines (PcGamer/OPM/OXM) get a review code/copy about a month before the game comes out. When the game is released after the magazine is published. It's basically getting people hyped enough to buy the game.

I doubt we will see any spoilers before release. If reviewers already had a copy than I would imagine Bethesda would have made them sign a contract.

I honestly wonder what crunch time is like at Bethesda Game Studios. I know it's endemic in the gaming industry for the devs to go into overdrive as their deadlines loom, and have to spend countless hours like you're describing trying to accomplish as much as they can. But Bethesda's an unorthodox studio; they're only about a hundred strong in size and their development cycles last for years. Are they desperately crunching as much time as they can to prepare for release, or are they in a good enough place with the game where they can just put in a regular workday? ... probably closer to crunching, but not as desperately I guess.

Reviewers are the most likely reason, although I thought I'd read somewhere that there was going to be an early release to a select few modders as well, I could be wrong though.

Yup, last week on the boards for me. As soon as I see anything like reviews or gameplay I'm off. Feels weird after all this speculation, huh? =)

Well for one thing I doubt there are very many fast food boxes around Bethesda. They have a professional chef on staff and a full cafeteria. It would also not be impossible that they have showers on facility. Many companies do these days.

As far as crunch time - that was the last 5 months. I would be willing to bet that they are probably doing a game jam or something of that nature this week or the next and breathing a collective sigh of relief.

As has been said, reviewers. This is why you see reviews on launch day. It's not like reviewers played a BGS game in a couple of hours plus wrote the review, after all. Bethesda wants their hype to encourage everyone to buy their game.

Oh no. 2 people playing right now. I want to play Fallout 4 so bad.

And knowing that they're probably some reviewers who gave some new Call of Duty game a 10/10 last week...

https://media.giphy.com/media/7VHV66bRjGRSo/giphy.gif

Personally, I may have to stay on here for the duration. Somebody has to keep the troops entertained!

Well, you already know what's gonna happen, so there won't be any spoilers for you =)

Well, maybe some of it. Or at least I hope so lol!!

Either way, I'll be here to face the music when the real story details start to emerge. It would be nice if I end up being at least partially right though

It was me, guys, I've been playing the game. Let me take a moment to tell you all about it...

First of all, that protagonist they keep showing? You know, the father of that baby? Yeah, you only play him for about 10 minutes. After that you play the baby. No, not an older person who was the baby, you play THAT baby.

You guys have no idea how long it takes to drag around a flamer, and the dialogue options...ugh...

A) Goo.
GAH!
C) WHAAA
D) poop in pants

...and that's pretty much it. There is a time you get to ride around on Dogmeat's back, which is cool, and also hearing raiders yell, "Oh, man, it's that ****ing baby again!", but pretty much the rest of the game is just looking for places to takea nap.