It’s almost time, my friends. Time to put your social life on hold for a few months in order to scour a fictional, post-apocalyptic landscape for precious loot. Time to relinquish your DIY tools and start crafting items that you really need to survive. It’s time to put real world relationships on hold in favour of chatting away with Boston’s wacky vendors, and time to exchange your real world currency for bottle-tops. Yes, fellow vault dwellers, Fallout 4 is almost here!
With the worldwide release date of November 10 looming, fans of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic, role-playing game are chewing at the bit to spend what could amount to 400 hours plus in Fallout 4’s massive game world. During this joyous time for gamers, others aren’t going to be so happy. If you’re living with a non-gaming partner like mine, then you need to make sure they’re not neglected, that they too can experience some of the thrills of Fallout 4 without even picking up a DualShock controller.
Here’s 15 ways to ensure your non-gaming partner feels included while you play Fallout 4.
1. Experience what it’s like to scavenge and hunt for precious items by going on a shopping trip together to the real world, post-apocalyptic city of Southampton with a list of ten £1 value items to buy.
Watch out for snipers on the top on the roof
2. Forage the desolate wastelands together (like Boscombe or Scarbrough) for precious bottle caps. When you have accrued enough, barter with a local retail outlet to use them as payment for a new telly.
3. Drive around your local area rummaging through skips and rubbish tips in search of salvageable materials. In the New Year, or whenever you’ve finished playing Fallout 4, work together to build your own settlement in the back garden.
Recommended materials – Rubber, wood, steel and concrete
4. Give your partner a flavour of Fallout 4’s deep conversation system by answering the same question in four different ways.
Caution – Doing this too frequently, could become extremely annoying
5. Show your partner the hilarity of sneakily putting grenades or mines in an NPC’s inventory by sneaking a roman candle into their best friend’s back pocket.
6. Whilst out walking the dog together, let your significant other marvel at your dog-handling skills by unleashing it on an unsuspecting passer-by. To be fair, he did look a bit like a Feral Ghoul, so he totally deserved it.
7. Having likely failed the bartering for a telly earlier, show your partner how it’s done by arguing with charity shop staff because they don’t want to buy the contents of your recycling bin.
8. Dabble in recreational drugs together. If your partner seems wary, tell them it’ll make them temporarily smart enough to finish that Sudoku puzzle.
Warning: drugs should be taken with precaution, and withdrawal effects may decrease morale
9. Buy your partner a Nintendo DS and a copy of Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training. Tell them that each time they complete a challenge their intelligence will rise by +1. They should feel a rich sense of reward.
10. Become house burglars and attempt to steal cheese from people’s kitchens. Be wary of getting caught because real-life does have a karma system, but at least you shouldn’t break any lockpicks.
11. Start a fight with someone whilst enjoying a pub lunch together, and then insist your partner throws the first punch because ‘you’re my companion so you’re practically invincible’.
Combat tip – Before attacking, examine weak spots and target them for a quick put-down
12. Get both of you into the spirit of eating radiation-coated food in Fallout by existing on a diet of McDonalds, Pot Noodle and Monster Munch.
Also, microwave banana’s are a good source of time-travel experimentation.
13. Experience the restrictions of Fallout 4’s inventory system, by not agreeing to the 5p charge for a plastic bag at the supermarket. Carry as much as you can home between you, leaving the stuff that you can’t carry behind. Go back and get the stuff you left another time.
Never leave the Monster Munch behind (see number 12)
14. Instead of spending a weekend away in the Cotswolds, go explore the local sewers together. Counter your partners apocalyptic rage by saying ”there will likely be a Vault down there, so we’ll have a place to sleep!”
Don’t ruin the romantic trip by revealing that there may be gangs of fiends prowling
15. Get into that winning Fallout amorous mood by laying down a dirty old mattress in an abandoned drug rehab house and lighting it with glow-sticks. A sure-fire night to remember.
Got any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments below.