Fallout 4 is set for official release on Tuesday, November 10th. Gamers have found that by using a VPN for gaming they can beat the release date by nearly a day. The key is differences in time zones. For example, parts of Australia are 19 hours ahead of the US. That means Fallout 4 fans in the United States are able to play the game well before the official release. They are doing so by connecting to a VPNs in countries like Australia and New Zealand where the game has already been released.
This is far from the first time that gamers have used privacy tools to access popular titles ahead of their release date. This time around the Washington Post took notice with a post which is sure to draw lots of extra attention. There are several reasons to use a VPN and gaming is certainly one of them. You can protect your privacy, defend against DDoS attacks, and reduce lag with the right VPN. I would specifically recommend IPVanish and VyprVPN for those looking for faster game speeds. Both providers manage tier-1 networks which gives them a leg up in terms of performance. They also have servers located in key locations like Australia to give you early access to games like Fallout 4.
How does a VPN give you early access to games?
The answer is in your IP address. In the case of Fallout 4, Steam looks at your IP address to determine your location. If you connect to their servers from an IP address in the PST time zone of the United States then they look at the time there and block accordingly if it isn’t time for the game to be available there. In contrast, the same user can connect to a VPN server in Australia to play Fallout 4 nearly a full day before it’s available in California. That may not seem like a lot of time but for diehard gamers who have been waiting for the release date it’s huge.
How to use a VPN for gaming
I’ll use IPVanish for the example of how to use a VPN service to play Fallout 4 and other games before they are officially released in your location. First you’ll want to download the VPN client. IPVanish offers free client software for Windows, Mac and Linux. In addition to free apps for iOS and Android.
Now that you’ve had a chance to download and install the software it’s time to connect. Launch the IPVanish client and select a server location. We’ll walk you through step by step using their Windows client.
- Select a server location. We chose Atlanta but IPVanish has a large network of servers located around the world.
- We recommend you select OpenVPN (TCP) or (UDP). For streaming videos from sites like Netflix we use OpenVPN (UDP). They also support PPTP and L2TP. We still recommend OpenVPN for the best privacy protection.
- Click connect. After a few seconds you’ll see the button at the top change to green and show “Disconnect”. You’ll also notice the server location and IP address show up at the top of the client.
- We’re now located in Australia as far as anyone can tell online. As such we can reach any site as if sitting in Sydney. The same would be true if we connected to a server in the UK or anywhere else in the world.
That’s all there is to it. Now that you have an IP address from the IPVanish server in Australia you can browse the Internet and play online games as if you were actually there. The same is true from any country. Connect to a server in the United Kingdom to watch BBC iPlayer or another country to watch Netflix content in that region.
As you can probably tell by now a good VPN opens access to content around the world. If you live outside the United States the service can help you access popular services like Netflix, Hulu and Pandora. You still need an account for services like Netflix but the VPN will help you watch US television shows and movies on Netflix as if you were sitting in the United States or any other region you would like to access.
Enjoy all the excitement as you play Fallout 4 before the official release date. Please share this post with your friends so they can enjoy early access to games from anywhere in the world with a VPN. Follow us @VPNFan for the latest deals and guides.