Lots and lots and lots of hours vanished into this world. Bethesda came back from the, in my opinion, middling world of Skyrim to offer a sandbox into which I could truly lose myself. Let's start from the top.

Elder Scrolls 8, more commonly known as Fallout 4, is a perfect intersection of the next partial-step of technology in Bethesda's ever-expanding arsenal of bug generators and physics enigmas. The game is beautiful on the surface, and the gameplay is exactly what you expect from Bethesda, with just a little more. Exploration is infinitely rewarding, combat is harried but workable, and for the first time ever in a Bethesda game, random junk has a serious purpose.

On the other shoe, expect more of the same problems, as well. Enemies that spawn in walls. Items that rattle in water. Physics that offer you the giant middle finger, not because you did anything wrong, but because they're in a particularly bad mood and really don't want to talk about it. As well, dialogue doesn't feel like well-written choices that offer branching narrative paths, but different ways of saying the same thing, meaning inhabiting the world as your storyline character is tougher than previous entries.

Overall, it's a great game by a well-known publisher who's got a pretty good handle on exactly what they can get away with. Definitely recommend.