Bethesda’s big news at the Xbox showcase this weekend was Fallout 76’s imminent update, Skyline Valley, dropping on June 12.
However, the news was almost overshadowed by the announcement that players will be able to play as a Ghoul by 2025.
Skyline Valley arrives on PC, Xbox and PlayStation on Wednesday. The expansion is the game’s first major foray into new Wasteland territory, and will see players cross the Savage Divide and travel to the southern reaches of Appalachia.
This picturesque new region, says Bethesda, introduces new locations to explore among the woodlands once known as real world Shenandoah National Park.
Meanwhile, Fallout 76’s creative director Jonathan Rush teases that a future update will see players being able to play as a ghoul. The move is a judicious nod to the popularity of Walter Goggins’ character in Prime Video’s Fallout series, which is currently in production on Season 2.
Speaking to IGN over the weekend Rush commented on the special abilities of this unique level 50 requirement player type. “You get hurt and you get some radiation, go drink some dirty water, you’ll heal. Radiation will also be positioned to have other very striking benefits, punctuated a bit more by the dozens of ghoul-specific perk cards that we’re going to be adding. A player who doesn’t wear Power Armor has just freed up a ton of perk points they can use in a whole bunch of different other ways, which is a whole different play style in itself. And you layer on all the perk cards and it’s going to be cool.”
See the full trailer debuted at the Xbox showcase below.