Let's get the bad news out of the way for the seven of you who haven't yet booted up Fallout 4. And for a guy who built a following reviewing high-end graphics hardware and touting the benefits of PC gaming, believe me that's quite a statement.

But the more I slipped into the stark beauty of the Commonwealth and watched my life get swallowed up by another sprawling Bethesda wasteland, the more I realized the graphics just don't matter. My original intent was to have some sort of comparative graphics analysis ready to publish as the game's embargo lifted. Last week I spent a few hours on Fallout 4 to take similar screenshots across the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions.