Fallout 4: eight things we want to see

Game publisher Bethesda has teased the arrival of a new instalment in its hugely-successful post-apocalyptic role-playing series. Here's what we're hoping for

On Tuesday, Bethesda stuck a 24-hour countdown on its website, and Twitter blew up like a nuclear warhead. The ticker was, of course, leading us toward the official announcement of Fallout 4, which is set for release on PC, Xbox One and PS4. And that sound is my head exploding with excitement like a radroach blasted with a plasma rifle.

When it comes to post-apocalyptic open-world video games, the Fallout series is the genre's gruesomely mutated king. Heavily inspired by the Mad Max movies as well as end-of-the-world fiction like A Boy and His Dog, its combination of 1950s Americana and desolate, nuclear-grade violence, has struck a chord with millions of gamers. Desperately scavenging for irradiated Nuka Cola in a collapsed house before a robot with a flame thrower jumps you shouting "you ready to die for your country you commie son of bitch?!", is just one of the crazed moments these games throw at you with nihilistic abandon.