Fallout 4

Fallout 4 brought Bethesda Game Studios' series into a sprawling post-war Boston, where the player, cast as a lone parent, sets out to find a kidnapped child across a parched wasteland full of factions, mutants, and morally ambiguous choices. The game combines open-world exploration with the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. RPG system and extensive crafting and settlement building, letting players build their own bases, manage resources, and defend them against raids. The dialogue system was simplified compared to previous entries, which split fans, but the depth of quests and side stories remained characteristic of the whole series, whether it's a decision between warring factions or the small personal stories of wandering wasteland dwellers.

The next-gen update for Xbox Series X and S from 2023 brought native support for both consoles, including a choice between a performance mode with a higher frame rate and a quality mode with 4K resolution, shorter load times, and a number of minor fixes. The sprawling, densely detailed wasteland now finally runs more smoothly, letting players enjoy the atmosphere of a decaying Massachusetts even years after release, underscored by period radio broadcasts and an unmistakable soundtrack that accompanies the journey across the ruins of pre-war America. The settlement-building system, though initially criticized as an add-on to the main game, has over the years become one of the most engaging ways to spend free time within the Fallout universe.

At its original release in 2015, Fallout 4 became one of the best-selling titles of its generation and defined what a modern post-apocalyptic RPG with base building looks like. Critics praised its freedom and atmosphere, though less so its simplified dialogue writing compared to New Vegas. On Xbox Series, the game today serves as a comfortable entry point into the whole universe, and thanks to a huge amount of expansions (Far Harbor, Nuka-World) it offers dozens of hours of content even to those who already played it before and want to return to the devastated Boston in its smoothest form yet.

Why play it: Thanks to a huge amount of expansions like Far Harbor and Nuka-World, it offers dozens of hours of content even to those who want to return to the devastated Boston in its smoothest form to date.