Fallout 4 announced by Bethesda at E3 2015, release date and features revealed

Game will be released in November 2015, and will bring playable female characters and a special companion app

Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard speaks as he provides a glimpse into a hotly-anticipated 'Fallout 4' video game, showing off the character designer (GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Bethesda has finally, officially announced Fallout 4, showing off a new setting, game mechanics and detailed graphics and gameplay at its first big E3 event.

The company has been teasing the release for the last week, following rumours since late last year that Bethesda was reviving the game. But it finally said at its E3 event that the game will come out on November 10, 2015.

The game will be set in a Boston which, like the rest of the locations in the series, has been ravaged by a nuclear apocalypse. But it will start in the world of Fallout “before the bombs fell”, as it was described in the launch event, showing more detail of the faux-retro, 1950s-inspired world before it was destroyed by a nuclear blast.

After that blast, the game’s character — who can be male or female, and will be called by their real name — will make their way into a nuclear shelter and come out 200 years later, ready to explore the now-familiar Wasteland.

As with other games in the series, Fallout 4’s world will be entirely free to explore. Much of the mechanics and gameplay while doing so were shown off in the nearly 30 minutes of demo time that Bethesda gave to the game at its event.

As well as the new setting and graphics, the company revealed a new crafting system, letting players build weapons, armour, and even shelter. And it will also feature the game’s well-loved Pip-Boy wrist-mounted computer — a real version of which will ship with some editions of the game, allowing people to strap their phone to their wrist and control the game from there.

Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard (L) is pictured on a large video screen (top R) as he provides a glimpse into a hotly-anticipated 'Fallout 4' video game, a version of which will include a real-world version of in-game Pip-Boy wrist wear (GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

The company is releasing the game on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It won’t be coming to last-gen consoles Xbox 360 or PS3.

The game has been in development since 2009, shortly after the release of the last game, according to Bethesda. But concrete rumours only started to fly last year, and the company started hosting a special countdown on its site last week.

The company also announced a companion iPhone and iPad game, called Fallout Shelter. That lets people play in the game’s nuclear vaults — simulating life underground — and is created in a cartoon version of the look of the game.

The game is being released on iOS only — where it is already available — and it is not clear whether it will get an Android release.

Bethesda’s big E3 event kicked off a week of gaming announcements, which will also feature Microsoft and Sony’s big reveals for their plans for Xbox and PS4 next year. At Bethesda’s event, it also announced Dishonored 2 and a new version of Doom.