The "Fallout 76 Wastelanders" update promises to do big things for Bethesda's multiplayer survival sim through the addition of NPCs and companions, new story quests, dialogue options, and other options, and hopefully Hopefully, it will be more Fallout-like; it was revealed at E3 2019 and was supposed to launch near the end of last year, but that plan took a power fist in the face when Bethesda changed it to Q1 2020 in October.

The "small" number of "Fallout 76" players will soon get a chance to see what the big update will bring, thanks to a private test server that will be released later this week. The test will be PC-only and appears to be quite restrictive: players invited to participate will have to sign an NDA and will not be allowed to stream, record, or even discuss the test session. The test will be conducted on a development build specifically for "Westlanders," and Bethesda warns that "problems are expected to arise during gameplay."

Testing will begin with only "a few hundred" players. Bethesda did not say whether it will expand that number as the test progresses, but plans to keep the PTS online full-time rather than running scheduled sessions. Wipes may or may not occur during testing (the goal is to maintain progress throughout, but these things happen), and in any case, PTS progress will not be carried over to the live game during the rollout of Wastelanders.

"Aside from occasional downtime for maintenance, invited players can access the Wastelanders Private Test Server at any time after January 17 until the PTS is taken offline at a later date," Bethesda said. " Based on your feedback and bug reports, we will evaluate what tweaks and fixes can be implemented for the Wastelanders update and what fixes will need to wait for subsequent patches."

To sign up for the Fallout 76 Wastelands PTS, visit bethesda.net by January 14 at 6 p.m. ET.