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In case you've been out of the loop, the newest addition to the Fallout franchise was announced yesterday: Fallout 76.
Teaser trailer:

Kotaku, which leaked the Fallout 4 intro script a year before the game was announced and was apparently correct in their prediction that this would be a brand new game rather than a port or remaster of an older game, has claimed that rather than Fallout 76 being a single-player action RPG like the previous releases, it will instead be an online survival game similar to DayZ or Rust.

What are everyone's thoughts? I actually like survival games, so I'm interested in seeing how this works out. I'm glad it's not an MMO and that they're not trying to rush out Fallout 5, though I actually would've appreciated a Fallout 3 or NV remaster.

And in case you're interested in the lore of Vault 76, Oxhorn has released a video going over everything that currently exists on it in Fallout canon:

I'm astonished they seemed to miss the detail that jumped out at me the most - the date on the pipboy, which says 22 Oct 2102, or one day before the 25 year anniversary of the Great War. Which implies that the 'Reclamation Day' party that the Vault appears to be celebrating is probably that night, and they will be reopening it the next day.
Which begs the question - why the 5-year gap between the scheduled opening date and...now, since Vault 76 was supposed to operate for twenty years before reopening (thanks, Fallout 3).
Something smells fishy...

Yeah, I've heard people say the same thing, but I actually think that it did open when it was supposed to (20 years after) and that this just takes place 5 years after that. Notice that nobody other than the one person was in the trailer -- the party looked like it came and went long ago and now the vault is essentially empty with trash littered about. The stuff on the person's bed looks old and dirty as well (especially the backpack, which doesn't really look Vault-Tec-issued), leading me to believe that he has already been outside the vault.

If it is online I will be unhappy. Not really my cup of tea.

Yeah, I can definitely understand that. Hopefully it doesn't grow a toxic community that makes the game just not fun to play.

I've finally read up on this, and the whole concept just seems borne of laziness. It was bad enough when they bought the IP from Interplay and turned it into a FPS with RPG elements, but now the next iteration of a once-great franchise is doomed to be a Rust or DayZ clone survival game. It sounds like RPG elements are going to be removed entirely, and so far I'm not seeing anything original or unique or innovative that makes me excited about this game.

Looks like we'll have to wait on Wasteland 3 for a shot at the next great post-apocalyptic RPG.

Yeah, it seems to me to be halfway between a DLC and an actual game. I think they're just dipping their toes in a multiplayer game, testing a new feature like how Skyrim's Hearthfire DLC was a test in settlement building, which led to Fallout 4's system, which I'm sure will lead to something better in a later game. But since the map is supposedly 4 times the size of Fallout 4's and less than 100 players will be on a server, it sounds like you might not even encounter other players that often, so it'll be more of a co-op game. As a multiplayer game, though, there is still the potential for griefers, but hopefully they'll come up with a way to reduce that.

But there's a reason why it's titled Fallout 76 rather than Fallout 5: it's just a side project, and there'll still be another traditional single-player action RPG in Fallout 5 eventually.

Where did you hear that it won't have any RPG elements?

It's hard to have a RPG without any NPCs, for one.

There's a difference between dipping your toes by making a cheap DLC for an established game and making a whole new game, and it still doesn't excuse the lack of originality in the concept. Survival games have been a thing for a few years now, and so far there's nothing about this one that makes me more interested in playing it than any of the other ones that are out there (I have Rust, but came to realize it's not very fun playing it by yourself). So far it comes across to me as a generic survival game with a Fallout theme.

I'm sure they'll be charging main project price for it, too.

It's hard to have a RPG without any NPCs, for one.

There's a difference between dipping your toes by making a cheap DLC for an established game and making a whole new game, and it still doesn't excuse the lack of originality in the concept. Survival games have been a thing for a few years now, and so far there's nothing about this one that makes me more interested in playing it than any of the other ones that are out there (I have Rust, but came to realize it's not very fun playing it by yourself). So far it comes across to me as a generic survival game with a Fallout theme.

I'm sure they'll be charging main project price for it, too.

Yeah, I'm sure they will.  If they can charge full price for a buggy vr version of an identical game on the exact same platforms, then they can do the same with a watered down online survival game.

Fair enough. I can understand you apprehension if it were to cost the same as a full-priced game, which I'm sure it will.

Just for the topic, I'm including a short documentary on the making of Fallout 76. Gameplay discussion starts at 18:00.

And for posterity, the official trailer shown at E3:

From a Todd interview with Gamespot:

"Nuke zones are not permanent. If you launch a nuke to strike any zone, the nuke kills anything in that zone (monsters and players). It damages all structures, but those structures (if player built) can be repaired. The fallout from the nuke then creates a temporary high-level zone with irradiated high-level flora and fauna unique to that zone. So each of the 6 zones of the world will create different irradiated zones once nuked. These zones are "end-game" zones, designed for high level players in power armor (to survive the radiation).

• CAMP: You can build a settlement/camp anywhere on the map, except in certain quest-specific locations (like the entrance to Vault 76). The camp disappears when you log off, and reappears when you log back on. After constructing a building, you can save the design as a blueprint. You can then store these blueprints in your CAMP. If you choose to move your settlement, you can rebuild it anywhere by replacing the stored blueprints in your camp. So there will be a bit of manual work in every move, replacing everything, but you don't have to rebuild structures you saved as blueprints.

• Events: There will be regional events in the world. While exploring, we will sometimes get notifications that an event is happening nearby. We can then choose to participate in it or not. Other nearby players will get the same notifications, and players will be able to work with or against each other during such events.

• Death: There is no penalty for death. "Death is already annoying enough", he said. You do not lose caps, experience, or items upon death. All you lose is a little time.

• Quests: There is one primary plot quest--the quest we get from the Vault 76 Overseer. There are "hosts" of side quests, each of which tells a story; some can be repeated. The story is not driven by players. While players can tell their own stories if they choose, there is an over-arching story to the game that we discover in all the same ways we are used to--quests, holotapes, notes, and terminals."

Oh yeah, Fallout 76 will be 60 dollars.

I'm sorry, I'm just not that interested. I do not have a whole lot of friends and none who play video games so this push towards multiplayer has always bugged me. Why can I not just play a game alone anymore. Suddenly its multiplayer in State of Decay, now Fallout, so in all likelyhood I'll give this a miss.

TE:6, though, I'm interested.

I'm sorry, I'm just not that interested. I do not have a whole lot of friends and none who play video games so this push towards multiplayer has always bugged me. Why can I not just play a game alone anymore. Suddenly its multiplayer in State of Decay, now Fallout, so in all likelyhood I'll give this a miss.

TE:6, though, I'm interested.

I think it's alright giving this a miss. Bethesda is just experimenting with new avenues, I doubt they'll convert to a multiplayer game company. At least, hopefully not.

TES:VI and Starfield should also hopefully indicate to Bethesda that they will always be known for single-player RPGs and only do multiplayer for side projects (how they did 76).