Maybe I'm misremembering but I feel like the map is a lot smaller than Skyrim or Oblivion or even Fallout 3. Like, I could run across the entire map in just a few minutes. Am I wrong?

skyrim is different, i am not sure how big in comparison. but skyrim is much more spread out. normally one dungeon is far away from another dungeon. in F4 each building is right next to each other. from what i feel if u really visit everything they are pretty much the same.

Fallout 4 - Each raider base, super mutant pretty much are next to each other. probably i will encounter another group of enemy just 10 steps walk. In comparison with other games, this game have more vertical (building levels, roof, ground, bridge...etc) Exploration often involve stairs climbing

Fallout 3 - Everything sort of close to each other for main city but it is more underground tunnel exploration.

Skyrim - Big map with everything far away from each other.pretty much is like Fallout but put 10x walking distance between each dungeon

Oblivion - Kinda same as Skyrim except everything are automatic generated instead of handcraft one by one like Skyrim and Fallout 4

Yeah, the map is smaller, but so many places to explore, it takes more time to explore it all.

The map FEELS smaller on the surface. One corner to the other does seem smaller than previous titles. That said the amount of locations there are to explore means I actually spend much more time inside buildings or tunnels doing stuff. The world design in Fallout 4 is phenomenal. I could spend hours and hours just exploring Cambridge, or Lexington, let only Downtown Boston itself.

yeah, its not the size, its what you do with it

you could make this map 10x bigger by spreading stuff out more, but... walking is an effort (especially in power armour) and is pointless. It's supposed to be a city, you're fighting street-to-street, house to house. Not like skyrim where you have to explore the tomb way over on those misty mountains. And thanks the gods, if this map was more spread out it would be more like New Vegas, a city then a whole lot of nothing until you get to the next town. I hated that tbh

--add: and yeah, this map is multi-levelled too. I didn't know there was a big sewer/dungeon under Concord until my third playthough (SPOILER! LOL!). If you're running from one side to the other really quick you're not stopping and smelling the hubflowers and are probably missing 50% of the game

Personally I found Skyrim smaller then it seemed to be. It "looked" big, but "felt" small. Probably because of the mountain borders that can't be explored unless it's a cave/dungeon in the side (not counting indoor areas here).

In any event, 4 probably feels smaller in terms of the city itself. As for beyond that... It seems to me it feels more "pointless" to go beyond the city because it's mostly farms and randon places with the same old "Oh look, enemies/loot here" unless it's quest specific, which seems to be getting rarer for some reason. In addition to that, all the places are closer together, most likely to compensate for the glowing sea. So perhaps the civilized area is the same size as 3/skyrim but with the glowing sea added on, making the "whole" bigger, yet the civilized area the same.

Also, unlike in Skyrim and such, you don't have to go all around the mountain just because you can't go over like you can in this. As for 3, that had more linear paths. Especially when it came to that radio station. So 3 might "feel" smaller because it leads you down a certain path, giving the illusion that you're "coming across" that brotherhood/super mutant fight, which can actually be hard to avoid if you're trying while not leaving the city itself and not yet familiar with the place.

FO3 would have been a bigger map if most of the downtown locations weren't separate "worlds" that you had to travel to via the subway. PC limitations back then I guess.

Also, the sheer amount of stuff packed into this map is mind-blowing, all props to the world designers. If it had been twice as large it would have probably (no, definitely) pushed back game release for another year or so.

I don't know, the map seems quite big to me.

I'm sitting at about 50-60 hours in, and I've only really explored the north, north-west an central sections. Maybe that's just because there's so many places and so much to do?

It's not smaller. However once you get into the city it is so jam packed it feels that way.

This is the first Bethesda game that I don't fast travel in. (Sure, Morrowind didn't have 'fast travel' but I silt stridered everywhere that I could).

The reason i do not fast travel is because it takes less time to run most places than it does for FT to load individual areas.

I don't know if it's smaller than Skyrim, but as mentioned, it's definitely denser. So far I've clocked 153 hours and I've only explored like maybe 1/3-ish of the map.

fallout 3 is 289 grid squares and fallout 4 is 729 grid squares, its not a small map, its double the playable area as skyrim, most of skyrims map was mountains and you were funneled in between the mountain ranges, here's a link to the overlay comparing the maps... http://images-cdn.moviepilot.com/images/c_limit,h_758,w_960/t_mp_quality/qaebc7dbzhob35pfw0jm/fallout-4-s-complete-map-leaks-early-and-it-seems-a-lot-smaller-than-expected-697723.jpg

It feels small at first but the map is more dense and at the same time detailed and expertly crafted. I'm 25 hours in and only explored the northern part of the map. This is the first Bethesda game where I really take my time and explore every nook and cranny.

people only say this because of the video of the guy running across the map, but you can run across all the maps fast, and he was sprinting which is very fast in fallout 4, you couldn't move that fast in fallout 3 or skyrim, fallout 4 sprinting speed is fast, even if you have to catch your breath every so often its fast moving, in fallout 3 you just kind slow jogged, the map is 2.5 times bigger area than fallout 3

thanks for that, brill

The map feels about the size or bigger then fo3. It didn`t take long to run from one end to the other in fo3 either. I know there is ALOT more explorable areas in fo4 compared to any other elder scrolls or fo games. So many icons on my map I cant click on one without hitting another.

it should feel bigger than fallout 3 its 2.5 times the area and with 300 locations which is almost double and its jam packed, its dense, this idea that map is small is nonsense, its just cause that guy who ran across the map ,but running at fallout 4 sprinting speed you can get across a lot of maps fast

• Fallout 3's world map is 17 x 17 square miles or 289 square miles.
• Fallout: New Vegas's map is 19 x 19 square miles or 361 square miles.
• Fallout 4's map is 30 x 30 square miles or 900 square miles.
• In Fallout 3 there is total of 163 locations.
• In Fallout: New Vegas there is a total of 187 locations.
• In Fallout 4 there is a total of 300+ locations (pre DLC's).

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/World_map

FO4 is not small, at least when comparing with other FO maps

There was a lot made of the map size just prior to launch after that video.

I don't see anything to complain about. It's quite big with lots to see and do. Not too much open barren space like there was with NV.

I think the DLC will open the map wider, otherwise why show us on screen the area outside the hatched border?

exactly

OP, is it just you?

No.

But the objective data is clear.

FO4 is a good bit bigger than FO3 & NV.

Slightly smaller than Skyrim's footprint, but more dense.

If you're finding it small, you haven't explored enough.

Yeah Fo4 map is just a little bit more smaller that Skyrim, And bigger that Fallout 3 and NV.

U maybe feel it smaller bc there are alot to explore, but remember is the setting, we are close to a city zone so places are going to be close by, isnt like Skyrim where the setting allow to have more "forest" or what i like to call emptiness w/o compromising the setting.

Plus on Skyrim it feel bigger bc u normally need to make a huge circle to mvoe around bc that [censored] huge mountain in the middle how much i hate that mountain till i got my dragon mount.

I doubt we going to see map bigger that Skyrim from now on Todd said on a interview he think Skyrim size is a perfect size for a game.

So I realize you're just quoting the wiki here, but those numbers are all completely wrong.

It's 30 square miles. Not "30 x 30 square miles" which makes no sense as it would return a 4-dimensional value.

I think it might be the run speed which is making the map feel smaller, it's way too fast for my tastes.

how large or small it feels depends on how closely you are exploring, don't run every where so fast. A lot of buildings have a crap ton of stuff hidden about them. I spent an hour in the fallon department store and parking garage next too it.