Also curious to know how PA will be when deep water is involved.

Listen, I have the utmost respect for that team and bethesda and their content and play hours you get from their games can't compare to any other game on the market, at least for me.

But on the other hand it's not very wise to always take what they say for granted, they kind of exaggerate in their statements (infinite quests etc), a whole meme came was created by their tendency to exaggerate.

That's a good point....I imagine that power armor will either a: not be able to go underwater or b: just sort of walk on the bottom as it would normally in places where there is no water.

It's much more important how much is in each area than how big the overall map is. How long does one building take to explore. How much content in in one place. How many layers are within each square mile of the map.

For instance, how long does it take to explore MIT? It may take up a small area on the map but that small area may be packed with stuff to do.

Well the game has over 300 locations and the map is something like 2.5-3 times larger than Fallout 3 and that's before you consider that places like the MIT have higher levels and there will also be a lot of underground areas as well. Not to mention that all the underwater portion of the map has a lot of verticality to it as well.

I hear what you're saying. In fact, I was probably one of the first people on here to openly challenge the "200 years" claim made by Todd at E3. But with regards to the map size, I have always made my own judgement based on the footage we have been shown, including concept art as well as any in-game scenes. There is no way we would be given anything that could be considered small based on the sheer amount of content. This is then backed up by Todd, rather than being based solely on his word as a developer. The evidence is there even without his comments about the map!

But ultimately, even if the map were small (which it isn't), it's the content that's most important. A huge empty map would be near useless, but a smaller map full of things to do is something that will keep us all occupied for the foreseeable future. It does look though that we have a 'best of both' situation similar to Skyrim, with a large map full of things to do. And I'm sure it will be an amazing place to explore for all of us

Also this. The current list of named locations in Fallout 4 is at 311...

For me, at least half of the time I spend on Bethesda games is chilling out and exploring the landscape. I avoid dungeons when like this and if I run out of things to explore and different types of lands to look at I get bored. So Skyrim bored me when exploring. To me, a dense map with loads of dungeons and literally everything being important would be over the top, unrealistic and boring.

If it's bigger than Skyrim, I'm fine, but people should stop thinking there should only be one mindset, and that's that the amount of content is the only thing that matters and world size is of little importance.

Same here. I like to just wander the landscape, see the sites, explore the occasional ruins. Too much of it and the joy of discovery dies, at least in my opinion. "Wow, look, Abandoned Settlement #237. Yaaaay..."

The map is huge and full with stuff to explore. Plus many buildings go up or below the surface.

Dont listen to the trolls with that non sense 11 minute video. This is another awesome fallout game and there is more than enough to do and to explore. And the new shooting mechanic is just amazing!

@Darts Treason.
I can't help but picture a big daddy out of Bioshock, just casually walking along the seabed.

Darth Trethon. Sorry dude, auto correct on my phone decided to mess with your name.

Read the other posts, it is substantially bigger than 3. Not too worry.

That would be the best approach I think......it would be a bit silly to see a dude just casually swimming as normal in that tank. Though they might say "no going in the water with power armor".

even the water areas will be interesting, docks, piers, settlements, islands and who knows under the water

I don't give a crap about how much time it takes some random internet moron to walk straight across the map of an open world game. UNLESS that is the entire point of the game. If this were, oh, say: Fallout: Walk Across Boston, Do Nothing Else, maybe I'd sing a different tune.

i just had a vision of giant sea monsters in the deep. chilling. possible.

Exaggerate just for making good advertisment for your game? I can't follow that logic. So they should just denigrate it so that anyone can say:"I said it, the map is smaller then any other Beth title before".

Using common sense it does make sense to expect the map having the same size as any FO/TES title before, minus modern hardware specs on a medium range high end computer?

I'm more curious about how they restricted access to areas outside the map. I foresee a lot of invisible border troll threads.

Given that Boston is not contained within a mountainous valley,

'don't go that way' is surely inevitable.