Game Review: Welcome to Fallout 4 (By: Ryan Miranda)

Welcome to the wastelands of the post-apocalyptic Boston sole survivor. Fallout 4 is the latest entry of the Fallout series made by Bethesda Game Studios that’s known for role-playing games like The Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim) and the Fallout series.

Story

The game takes place in the year 2287, years after the events of Fallout 3 and after the 210 years of Resource War which ended a nuclear post-apocalyptic retro-futures. The game takes place at Boston, Massachusetts before and after the bombs drops. The story starts at the home of the player with his/her family as they are enjoying a normal morning until a T.V. broadcast announced that nuclear attacks are on their way. The player and his/her family must go to “Vault 111” which is a safe place made by Vault-Tec. While on the vault, the player and his/her family is tricked into partaking in a cryogenic stasis. As years go by, the pods suddenly re-activated and two strangers appear on the pod where the player’s spouse and son are. You will witness your spouse being murdered and your son being kidnapped. In the end, the player is put back on cryogenic sleep and after a few years, a system malfunctions and you are set free. Now as you escape Vault 111, you’ll see that the world has changed and now you must be prepared to venture into the wastelands of Boston as you find your way to survive and rescue your kidnapped son.

Fallout 4 Gameplay (Ytimg.com Photo)

Gameplay

As the sole-survivor, you must prepare and gather resources around you as you craft items such as weapons, clothing, power armors, ammo, and mods. The game is vast and full of items and NPCs which are unique in every way. There are factions such as The Brotherhood of Steel, The Railroad, The Minute Men, and The Institute which are spread throughout the wasteland. Dangerous enemies such as ghouls, radroaches, raiders, and the ever so dangerous Deathclaws are present too. You must make use of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L perks and V.A.T.S (which stands for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) as you combat your way to the wasteland and survive.

Deathclaws from Fallout 4 (GameSpot.com Photo)

My Personal Review

As a fan of Bethesda Game Studios, The rating that I could give for Fallout 4 is 8.9/10; this is because the game is very well made; the gameplay and story are very enjoyable.

As for the new improvements of its game engine, it has provided me a very good experience. There were a lot of new features such as building your own settlements as well as customizing your weapons with a lot of mods. The story is well scripted, although some of the quests are tedious especially side missions which require you to defend your settlement from raiders that might get annoying at a certain point. Overall, the gameplay is excellent. For a good 156 hours on which I have spent completing all the missions from all different factions as well as just exploring the post-apocalyptic Boston and with the DLC expansion’s recent release, I played for even more hours as the new contents are very stimulating with a whole new story behind it. The only downfall of the game is the abundance of bugs which could get irritating although sometimes, this translates to a good and funny experience.

Fallout 4 Gameplay (Kinja-img.com Photo)

Fallout 4 is out now on PS4, Xbox One console, and for PC uses along with its new DLCs which are Fallout 4: Automatron, Wasteland Workshop, Far Harbor, and Nuka-World.

Featured Image Credit: (WCCFTech.com Photo)

Facebook Aquila’s Successful Test Flight (By: Muhammad Nazim)

Facebook Aquila completed its first flight on June 28^th; this is a solar -powered plane that aims to deliver internet access to the remote parts of the world and eventually break the world record of unmanned aircraft with longest flight.

The test flight took place in Yuma, Arizona. The mission was to fly the aircraft for 30 minutes but when it started flying effortlessly, it was kept for 96 minutes in the air. After two years of researching on its model and working hard on its design, Aquila aircraft is finally ready to fly.

“But as big as this milestone is, we still have a lot of work to do. Eventually, our goal is to have a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying aloft for months at a time – something that’s never been done before.”, commented Mark Zuckerberg.

Here are some of the fascinating features of this aircraft:

The construction of Aquila (DroneVibes.com Photo)

Weight

Engineers have worked hard to improve the weight of the aircraft as it plays an essential role in the overall performance of the plane. Aquila is made by carbon fiber composites; these are widely used in the aviation industry due to its eye-opening features. The weight of the aircraft is less than 1,000 pounds.

Mark Zuckerberg (Billboard.com Photo)

Power

The Aquila aircraft is fitted with efficient solar panels which are capable of collecting enough amount of energy to keep its system running even when it’s dark. It consumes 5,000 W of power at cruising speed which is almost equal to three hairdryers. Engineers are doing their best to trim down the amount of power input and improve efficiency.

Aquila’s Wingspan (IndianExpress.com Photo)

Control

The aircraft requires a lot of skilled ground crew members including engineers, pilots and technicians who are skilled and trained enough to maintain and monitor the aircraft. The technicians monitor the aircraft through a certain software which helps them in keeping track of the altitude and airspeed and can be useful when sending the aircraft on a GPS-based route.

Mark Zuckerberg inspecting the Aquila (WonderfulEngineering.com Photo)

Speed

Aquila is a slow aircraft; its speed is purposely kept at such a level in order to conserve energy. However, at a higher altitude, the aircraft will need to go faster – about 80mph as the air gets thinner.

 Altitude

Engineers are still experimenting on Aquila to check and improve its performance at colder altitudes where its density will be 10 times more. They’re also trying to reduce its power consumption.

 Load

Understanding the load is really crucial; a big portion of it comes from high energy batteries. Engineers are looking for more flights to interpret in-flight dynamics and predict whether there are any setbacks.

Communications

Using communications payload, which uses lasers to transfer data 10 times faster and laser beams hitting a dime 11 miles away in an accurate motion, is a great achievement yet to be made.

“Over the next year we’re going to keep testing Aquila — flying higher and longer, and adding more planes and payloads. It’s all part of our mission to connect the world and help more of the 4 billion people who are not online access all the opportunities of the internet.” – Mark Zuckerberg

(Sources used: Mark Zuckerberg, 2016 “The Technology Behind Aquila”; TheGuardian.com; Billboard.com)

Featured Image Credit: (NetworkedIndia.com Photo)