During the Fallout 4 presentation at Quakecon, Todd Howard revealed that, in addition to Dogmeat, players will have their choice of about a dozen different companions to accompany them through the game (only one at a time, however). In some new gameplay footage, we saw more of Preston Garvey (pictured above), leader of a faction called The Commonwealth of Minutemen," one of your potential companions. We were also introduced to another companion, a woman named Piper, who runs a local newspaper from the ruins of Boston's Fenway Park, now called Diamond City.
Howard also announced that players will be able to romance their companions, regardless of gender. Specific details of how romance will work in Fallout 4 were not revealed, but considering Skyrim allowed players to get married and move in together, it's not hard to imagine Fallout 4 including nuptials and domestic bliss. Howard also said there will be a special perk for those who want to play without companions, stalking the ruins of Boston as a lone wolf, but did not elaborate on what that perk might be.
A clip reel of Mr. Handy saying player names aloud was also shown. While Bethesda recorded over a thousand common names for use in the game, Mr. Handy can also say joke names such as "McFly," "Boobies," and "Fart Face," which will no doubt lead to players experimenting to uncover any other rude names that may have been recorded.
We also got a bit of news about Fallout 4's Perks, which are tied to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. Each time you level you get to pick a perk, and there are new perks for each level of S.P.E.C.I.A.L. you gain. There are 70 base perks, and each Perk has multiple ranks, which should give players a lot of options to build their characters.
I wouldn't expect the the video footage associated with this news to be released soon, so you'll have to use your imagination about Fallout 4's companions and perks for now. But we'll have more stories about everything happening at Quakecon today and through this weekend.
