STACK #169 Nov 2018

GAMES

FEATURE

You probably wouldn’t recognise the name Stanislav Petrov, but as the commanding officer on duty at a bunker near Moscow on September 26, 1983, he was responsible for averting what could have been a monumental military blunder. At that time, relations between the Soviet Union and the US were at breaking point following the downing of a Korean Air passenger jet, on which a US Congressman was among the 269 fatalities.

Just after midnight, Petrov received a warning that a US intercontinental ballistic missile had been launched and was heading towards Russia. This was followed by four more launch warnings. The Soviet Union’s detection strategy demanded an immediate retaliatory strike, and all Petrov needed to do was pick up the phone to facilitate a response. But he quickly deduced that if the US were going to strike the Soviet Union, the attack would involve hundreds of missiles. So – cool as a cucumber – he watched and waited, knowing

that if he’d made the wrong decision it would be too late to correct his mistake. He hung tight until, as he suspected (and undoubtedly hoped), no strike came. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the reflection of sunlight off the top of clouds had caused the satellite to relay the incorrect information to Soviet radars. Petrov, and his ability to think logically while remaining incredibly calm under pressure, had single-handedly prevented World War III.

Worried about the lethal potential of other players on your server? Be not afraid of PvP. You might get lucky and find a friendly fellow wanderer out in the Wasteland, and decide to venture out into the unknown together. If you do cross an adversary, the enemy player firing at you will not rack up the damage unless you elect to engage and fire back at them – then it’s an even playing field. An enemy player that sees you choose not to return fire and continues attacking you anyway will eventually be able to kill you, but will then appear as a wanted murderer on the map, and have a bounty placed on his/her head. Being killed doesn’t mean you lose all your stuff, either. You simply spawn back at your last checkpoint with your gear, minus your junk (building/crafting materials). It’s not the end of the world – that's already happened. In the game world, you’ll be able to pick up everything from med packs to new guns Five Facts About Nuclear Weapons That Will (Probably) Make You Stay Awake At Night 1 There are purportedly over 15,000 nuclear missiles in the world. 2 Eight countries are known to have them: the US, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom, India, Pakistan and North Korea. 3 You need just eight kilograms of plutonium to create a nuclear weapon. Add 25 kilograms of uranium, and bingo – you’re ready to go. 4 The US has lost 11 nuclear weapons that have never been recovered. 5 The US president would have around 12 minutes to decide whether to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against an attack by an aggressor.

and armour, and you can use your C.A.M.P. (Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform) to set up a base anywhere you like, with the added bonus of being able to simply pack it up and move it to another location if you want to. You can also work with other players to construct huge C.A.M.P.s. Think of it as a big, radioactive slumber party. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. perk system returns for Fallout 76 , but with a slight change. Your perks are now chosen by cards for each specific skillset, which you can gain in a number of different ways. In certain circumstances you can even share perks with your teammates, but you can’t share actual perk cards. Of course, what’s a game about nukes without actually ever getting to launch any yourself? Thankfully, Fallout 76 is letting us live our lifelong dreams of turning those keys and pushing those buttons to let the bombs fall. They’re not easy to obtain; you first have to gather launch codes and then find a launch

facility. You can only target areas of the map to hit, not specific people, and anyone in the zone will be notified that they are in danger. Once the bombs have fallen, the affected areas become full of radiation, high-level monsters and loot for a limited time – you could almost look at nukes like public events. There’s a great risk and reward to the system, but you wouldn’t want to be under one of those shells when they drop. Fallout 76 serves as a prequel to all other games in the already massively populated Fallout universe, and as such will have both creatures you are familiar with as well as a host of new baddies (and goodies) for you to discover. While it's certain to attract fans of Bethesda’s already beloved series who want to see what the Wasteland is like with friends, fans of multiplayer games will likely also be drawn to this new venture for the studio. In Vault 76, our future begins.

• Fallout 76 is out Nov 14

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