It's no secret that Bethesda games are huge. The studio has crafted some of the largest, most intricately-detailed worlds in gaming history, and each one has been better than the last.
Fallout 4 is no different: the wastelands of the Commonwealth are a huge step up from the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3, with a seemingly infinite number of settlements to explore and camps to raid.
That being said, a number of fans have expressed concerns over the size of the map. Thanks to numerous leaks and unauthorized videos, gamers have started to piece together exactly how big the Commonwealth really is.
Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland was absolutely immense — how does Fallout 4 measure up?
From a purely numerical standpoint, Fallout 4 is quite a bit larger than its predecessor. Exact measurements are hard to come by, but it's estimated that the Commonwealth is roughly twice the size of Fallout 3′s map.
Truth be told, it's hard to make any concrete statements without more precise statistics, but one user scaled the maps in both games together, and the results may be surprising:
While it's impressive that Fallout 4 is so much bigger than Fallout 3, the differences don't stop there. Bethesda's latest is jam-packed with a ton of different locations to discover, and the density of Fallout 4′s map is far greater than that of the previous game's. For comparison's sake, Fallout 3 featured 163 locations (not including DLC areas), while Fallout 4 features roughly 235 — though that may change as more people play the game and discover hidden areas.
Then, there's actual traversal time. The actual amount of time it'll take players to cross from one side of the map to the other will vary wildly, depending on which route is taken and how many enemies stand in their way, but running straight from outside Vault 111 to the opposite corner of the map took us just under 20 minutes. You can see the entire run (minus enemy encounters) at 500 percent speed in the video below:
Long story short: anyone who was worried about the size of the world in Fallout 4 really doesn't have much to worry about at all. Plus, how many people are actually going to try and sprint from one side of the map to the other?
For more on Fallout 4, check out our hands-on impressions and the latest news on the game's Day One patch.
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