Combat in Fallout 4 will be "more dynamic," says Bethesda's Todd Howard.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Howard explained that the blend between first-person shooting and RPG-style hit probabilities will be improved from Fallout 3, making it "feel great as an action game".

VATS has also been tweaked, now going into a slow-motion view instead of a total action freeze.

"It’s very, very slow and you’ll see the percentages change because the person is moving behind or coming out of a wall. So queuing up the shot at the right time matters," said Howard.

Criticals will be player-selected for the first time. "You assign which shot is the critical one and you load up that bar. So it’s a little bit more under your control, not a lot, but just enough to make it feel better."

Howard also clarified that the pre-war sequence of the game is only a prologue, and that the game is set "mostly after Fallout 3."

Fallout 4 launches November 10th on new-gen consoles and PC.