Wasteland 3 video showcases psychos, Gippers, and consequences of bad decisions

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I thought Wasteland 3 looked very promising when I checked out a preview build back in March, but it was a very small slice of the overall game. It revealed how and why I ended up in Colorado, and introduced the Patriarch and the basics of city politics, but the focus was primarily mechanical: combat, character creation, NPC interactions, and that sort of thing.

A new behind-the-scenes video released today digs deeper into what I think are the more important aspects of the game, which is to say the story and some of the characters you'll experience as you roam through the snowy mountains of the Centennial State.

Mother Nancy Reliance, for instance, is the leader of the Gippers, who worship Ronald Reagan as a "God-President" and control all the oil in the state, which means you're going to have to deal with them if you want access to oil. (And it's very likely that you will.) Sergeant Quan actually appeared in the preview build but seemed like a very straight-laced guy to me, and Vic Buchanan seems like an interesting option but maybe not the most practical addition to your Ranger lineup.

"Wasteland 2 was very episodic. So you would go to a town and there would be a story here, and you would sort of go through that story, and you'd go to another town, there would be a story here and you'd go through that. The connections between 'this story' and 'this story' were kind of tenuous," senior writer Nathan Long says in the video.

"Wasteland 3 is a much more cohesive, much more structured story. Wasteland 2, you sort of discover the conflict as you go along. In Wasteland 3, it is presented to you at the beginning, and you don't know if the people that are telling you what you need to do are telling the truth. And that's part of the fun of the game, discovering, am I being lied to, what is the real truth here—digging down to find who is really my friend and who is really my enemy."

Wasteland 3 was recently delayed to August 28. Find out more at inxile-entertainment.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.