That Fallout countdown site was a big fat hoax, one that cost its creator $990

Remember that mysterious countdown site that seemed to be building up down to some exciting Fallout-related announcement? Turns out it was a well-made hoax . thesurvivor2299.com is currently displaying a video of someone playing 'sad violin' music above a brief acknowledgement of the "hoax/rickroll" - offended parties are being directed to the snotty, sweary missive on this page . To sum up: while there still might be a Fallout 4 on the horizon, it ain't being announced any time soon.

In an Reddit AMA , the site's creator fessed up and revealed that, in total, the prank cost him $990 . But can you put a price on the angry tears of Fallout fans?

As to why he made the site, his reasons where slightly more altruistic naive. "I wanted to force Bethesda to reveal something during VGX/ on 12/11, and bring /r/Fallout community together (for at least 3 weeks) Unfortunately, this plan Failed."

But what of the recently registered Fallout 4 trademark ? As with the Half-Life 3 trademark , it's also a fake. Back to your underground vaults, Fallout watchers, because there's nothing to see across these barren wastelands.

In other, less jerky news, the Fallout-inspired Underrail is pretty good .

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.