Tendo City - Fallout 3: New Vegas

Quote:At first glance it might be possible to look at Fallout: New Vegas and think of it as nothing more than an expansion to Fallout 3. It uses the same engine and the core gameplay has largely been kept intact, so it does share some resemblance with its uncle. But it only takes a second look to see that Obsidian Entertainment is placing its own unmistakable mark on the Fallout franchise. A new Hardcore mode, tweaked combat, weapon mods, gambling, and a game world as big as Fallout 3 are just a few of the things fans will be raving about up to and beyond the release of this next entrant into the much-loved game series. Obsidian, a development studio founded by some of the same people that created the original Fallout games, is back on the scene in a big way.

First, a little background info for those that perhaps don't follow Fallout as closely as others. These games take place in an alternate universe where Earth has gone through nuclear Armageddon, crushing society and splintering the survivors into warring factions desperate to scrape together an existence from the barren wasteland. The catch is that this alternate future is based upon the sci-fi comics of the '50s and '60s, filled with atomic cars and talking robots. Add in some dark humor, deep role-playing mechanics, and a wide open world to explore and you've got a recipe for Fallout.

New Vegas picks up three years after the events of Fallout 3, but don't expect the story to continue in a linear fashion. This is its own self-contained tale with its own original characters -- it stands alone. This time the setting is in the remnants of Las Vegas, aptly named New Vegas. The nuclear war didn't destroy everything out here in the desert, though there wasn't much to begin with. Things have held together relatively well all things considered, leaving plenty of places to explore from downtown New Vegas and the Hoover Dam to the towns and settlements of the surrounding Mojave Wasteland.

Fallout: New Vegas starts off with a bang. From a gun. Firing a bullet. Into your head. It seems that some people didn't want the package in your possession to make its scheduled delivery. These crooks leave you to die in the desert outside of New Vegas, but a strange robot with a cowboy personality who goes by Victor rescues you and brings you to a genial man named Doc Mitchell to get you all fixed up.

It's with Doc Mitchell that you'll go through the streamlined character creation and customization setup. Those who played Fallout 3 will be right at home here -- all of the same options exist for creating the look and feel of your character, plus a new age slider has been added -- but the entire process goes by much faster than the protracted childhood of the last game. In a break from tradition, the main character is not a vault dweller raised in a protective fallout shelter that many fled to as the war began. This allowed the developers to get you right into the action should you already be a veteran. After a few questions about your personality, adjustments to the SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) base stats, tagging a few skills, and receiving a new Pip-Boy 3000 arm mounted computer, you're set free to run off into the wild blue yonder.

Adjustments to the structure of the opening moments have been made for both newcomers and experts alike. Rookies might want to settle in for some Rorschach tests, word associations and grim humor at the hands of Doc Mitchell while the game decides how to craft your base stats before heading outside for a series of tutorial missions.

Pros, on the other hand, can blast through the opening, pick their own stats, and skip the tutorial quests. They can even select the brand new Hardcore mode for some added difficulty. Be warned: Hardcore mode lives up to its name. Taking that option will make the game much more realistic by -- among other things -- adding weight to even little things like bullets, forcing the player to regularly eat and drink water to stay alive, requiring a doctor visit to heal broken bones, and making Stimpaks heal over time instead of instantly. Not for the weak willed, but Obsidian is promising a treat for those that make it through to the end.

Like most role-playing games, New Vegas starts off with a relatively straightforward task -- find out who left you to die in the desert. Along the way, you'll run into various factions and groups vying for control of the region and it won't be long before you get sucked up into the biggest confrontation of them all. The bureaucratic New California Republic is looking to move in and take over the Hoover Dam, a miraculously operational facility. The slaver crew known as Caesar's Legions has other plans.

But before you can get caught up in that war, you'll have to take your first steps towards revenge. That adventure begins in a town called Goodsprings, which is where many of the new features of Fallout: New Vegas begin to show their faces. The biggest of these are related to combat.

New Vegas is still an open world role-playing game and the combination of real-time shooting and VATS (a targeting system that pauses the game and allows for a more classically RPG style of combat) has not changed. Newly added is the ability to find and equip weapon mods and specialty ammo, further tweaking and improving an arsenal that already contains twice as many weapons as Fallout 3. If that Grenade Machine Gun isn't good enough, you can always add an extra mod on it to make its rate of fire even faster. Scopes, extra clips, special ammo and more can be found for most weapons, and every change you make to the gun is reflected in its look in the game.

Some additions have been made to the flow of combat as well, making New Vegas a much more flexible and fluid looking experience. During real-time combat, new camera options have been added and the mechanics have been tweaked. You can now aim down the sights like most standard first-person shooters, and the game options can be tweaked to add in the cinematic, slow-mo kill cam previously only available through VATS. If you do bring up VATS, you'll find new options for melee targeting including special moves. No matter your battle preferences, prepare for a similar gore fest to Fallout 3. During the demo I watched as the player took an uppercut swing with a 9 Iron golf club to the face of an enemy. His head flew off in a stream of blood.

Another major addition to the flow of combat is the new companion wheel. This is a single-player RPG and you directly control only one main character, but along the way you will come across numerous companions who might be persuaded to join up and help you out. With the companion wheel, you'll be able to quickly dish out basic commands to let your helper know whether to fight or flee. You'll also be able to much more easily manage their health and equipment. And if you make a dumb decision by giving a trained sniper a shotgun, the companion will let you know it.

There's lots of new firepower, for sure. But you'll need it when facing off against some of monsters that inhabit the area around New Vegas. As Obsidian has a history with the Fallout franchise, it is making sure that the longtime fans see things that make them get all nostalgic. New beasts like the mutant Big Horner are joined by some old foes. The Gecko (normal, Fire, and Golden variants) and the elite Supter Mutant Nightkin are back, the latter of which can switch on some active camo to make things extra tricky. While the Nightkin is invisible, you won't be able to target them in VATS.

Things get trickier yet when you add in the new armored defense some elite enemies can present. When targeting some of the stronger units in New Vegas, you might see a red shield appear on the screen. That would be your indication to switch weapons to something more effective. Perhaps a Plasma Caster would be called for.

If you haven't figured it out by now, my first look at Fallout: New Vegas was rather extensive, and it did a great job of showing off just how massive the game is. In addition to the opening town of Goodsprings, I also got a look at Primm (a real-life town that includes a roller-coaster), Novak, Black Mountain and the Helios 1 Power Plant. Along the way I got a look at several quests that ranged in complexity from simple Gecko hunts, to sniper defenses inside the mouth of a huge Dinky the Dinosaur statue, to giant set pieces that involved turning solar plants into massive solar weapons.

The most interesting part of the watching the quests play out came in the explanation of the extended system of notoriety and karma. Once again, you're free to be as nice or nasty as you please and your overall karma level will reflect it. At the same time, each faction or town you come across will react to your reputation you have with it. Help out the Brotherhood of the Steel and they might give you some protection or let you inside a locked down training camp. Piss off Caesar's Legion and they might send a hitman your way. Smaller towns might simply give you discounts…or tribute. With this system you're free to be both good and evil, shaping the way the world reacts to you along the way and ultimately affecting the outcome of your game.

I'm quite impressed with all that has been added and tweaked – Obsidian clearly did its homework and thought long and hard about what aspects of Fallout 3 could be improved upon without changing the formula too drastically. I've listed a lot of the new features here, but still haven't even gotten to all of them. Even the conversation system has been tweaked to better integrate all skills and better let you know the odds of succeeding in a persuasion option. And I didn't get to see the main strip in New Vegas at all – a place promised to hold surprises for those that can survive the treacherous road in.

If there was any disappointment with my first look at Fallout: New Vegas, it came with the look. Though work has been done on the engine to improve the flow of combat and conversations, little if any was done to make it more visually appealing. It will have been two years since Fallout 3 came out by the time New Vegas hits store shelves and the animations and character models are beginning to show their age.

For me, that's a small concession. All of the additions to the gameplay sound exciting and the core of what made Fallout 3 so fantastic is completely intact. Want more of a great thing with plenty of new additions to make it feel fresh all over again? New Vegas has your back.

Keep an eye out for Fallout: New Vegas this fall on Xbox 360, PS3 and Games for Windows PC. And stay tuned to IGN for much more leading up to then.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1086462p1.html

Fallout 3 was a really great game and all the changes so far sound like changes for the better, so I'm definitely hypes up for New Vegas. Hopefully this and Alpha Protocol are hits so that Obsidian can keep making new RPGs.

It'll be interesting to play a Fallout game located inside a large functional city.

Reno had rebuilt quite a bit in Fallout 2 and there was also Vault City [based around a vault that had a working Garden of Eden Creation Kit].

True, but nothing on this scale, and certainly not a city that was untouched by nuclear holocaust.

Fair enough.

I just mean that most of the wandering will mainly take place in city limits, at least according to what I've read, which is certainly a change of pace. I think there's still going to be SOME wasteland to explore though, considering that's where your character wakes up.

I think I'll play this in "hardcore mode". It sounds like fun.

Yeah, I think there's still going to be a lot of wasteland to wander through. There's just a big hub city this time around.

E3 trailer:

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Ya know, I hate those "banner ads" that pop up at little markers through Youtube these days. I know they need ads to support themselves, that's basically the one direct source of income Google has, but can't they stick the ad banners as images that only show before you hit play and after the video is done? That'd be perfectly acceptable to me, and really I don't need that "single frame" randomly taken from somewhere in the video anyway so it's no big loss.

That game does look like it'll be good. The 1950's music is a nice touch. One thing I've noticed about these types of RPGs is the glitchiness of them though. I mean, it's not Bioware levels of glitchy, but generally walking around Elderscrolls or Fallout feels like I'm in a fragile universe, like if I don't really think about exactly what I'm doing I'll break my save file forever by accidently knocking the wrong NPC off a cliff or picking the wrong conversation option or killing the wrong person. I'm not talking basic in-game consequences, I'm talking weird game-killing glitches from those sorts of things. It's annoying. I wish they'd take as much time in their quality control as Japanese developers do. I'll still get it mind you, these are fun games, but there's a clear difference here. I don't recall nearly as many insane glitches popping up around every corner in a game like Final Fantasy 6. Oh it's got glitches, sure, but they're rare, tucked out of the way and hard to accidentally stumble upon.

You can't kill anyone who will impede the story, they have a "protected" status. You can knock them over when their HP hits zero but they won't die. I don't honestly find myself knocking NPC's off of cliffs too often. Unless you're leaving a trail of blood in your wake as you leave Megaton or Cheydinhal, it's not a huge concern.

It's easier than you think. I play "good side" more often in these games, so it's not like I'm trying to glitch the game, but glitches still happen. Most common glitch? Killing an enemy in such a way that they land somewhere where it's impossible to loot them, or accidentally saving in a "dead end" like this is some early King's Quest game.

PC Gamer article about New Vegas:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/06/chuggi...new-vegas/

Here's the important bits:

Quote:Obsidian are re-introducing a shade of darkness to the fabric of Fallout that sticks the knife in far deeper than Bethesda did.

Quote:For me, however, it’s hardcore mode that remains the stand-out champion of Fallout: New Vegas, engendering a fresh appreciation of roleplaying systems and combat that I would previously only sleepwalk through.

Quote:However, there’s a level of storytelling and characterisation here that goes beyond many of the incidental plots in Fallout 3.

A Josh Sawyer-designed game is actually going to release, wow! Fallout 3, Baldur's Gate III, and the Aliens RPG were all cancelled, of course, so I was starting to wonder if anything he designed would ever actually release... :)

He was lead designer on Neverwinter Nights 2.

You're right, he was. Still, he has a pretty unfortunate track record of cancelled games, none of which is his fault...

New Vegas is so close now. It's gonna be great!!

Game is out now and so far, an hour in, it's pretty awesome.

Also about an hour or two in. So far so good :)

4.5 hours in right now, game rocks big time. Best RPG since Planescape: Torment!

Crashed already. Good old Bethesda engine Rolleyes

Haven't had it crash yet. You playing on PC or Xbox360?

EdenMaster Wrote:Crashed already. Good old Bethesda engine

The Bethesda engine is glitchy, but in all their games, those glitches were all internally confined. I never had their games actually lock my system up. I think it's more likely the issue lies somewhere else on your computer.

I intend to get this game soon enough. It seems like good fun, and I intend to make it unnecessarily hard on myself by playing on "Hardcore Mode".

Best RPG ever made
Scariest game ever made

Obsidian am GODS.

Scariest? It doesn't look scary. Dark maybe, but it's a western more or less as near as I can tell.

I can't figure out what post to make in response to that. Most either come across as me being a jerkbag or dryly explaining the joke. I mean, I'm not above coming across as a jerkbag, for the purpose of humor, but I've done that a lot lately and don't want to wear out my shtick.

Well I still don't get it :D.

Are you sure you have a sense of humor? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

I just didn't get it. Were you being sarcastic about the dark thing, or a response to someone's post I missed, or what?

It was response to the post directly above it.

The glitch video? Okay.

Well, the little indicator on Steam says that I've been playing this game for 22.3 hours. That's 22.3 hours in about 64 hours total since I opened up Steam and started playing on Tuesday morning, so I've been spending more time playing Fallout New Vegas than I have sleeping. It gives a good idea of just how much I'm obsessed with this game. I should probably do something productive...

Anyway, as to what Eel said earlier about the game feeling as thought it lacks those little stories you find in nearly every abandoned location and the lack of that ominous feeling of there being powerful forces out there that are watching your every move, I probably agree with that. He's definitely got a point there. BUT, I think New Vegas is better in other regards. For one thing, there are just so many interesting and unique locations out there and lots of different groups all with their own agendas and their moralities. It feels like a world that went to hell, but is now slowly trying to achieve some level or normalcy amidst a massive power struggle where no one group has any kind of clear advantage. You're not even sure who's really the good guys or if there even ARE any good guys. Everything feels far more gray than F3.

The world also feels more natural, there's a lot of different natural formations that block your path and need to be traversed around and not every spot on the map looks like a green, rocky plain. There's canyons, forests, icy mountain passes, wind-swept dunes, wide rivers, and so on. There's also the bright lights of the big city, the run down streets of the slums, isolated villages hunkering down under threat of attack, the imposing Hoover Dam, massive air force bases, and all that. As much as I loved Fallout 3, I always thought there just weren't enough towns. Oh, there were a few towns, but mostly you would only ever stumble across a few small houses with a couple of NPCs and maybe a quest or two to finish. The towns are bigger here, there are more of them, and each usually has several quests to take part in or partners to find. I think the world and the locations are New Vegas's strong suit.

On the topic of writing, it's pretty good throughout though, on average, not mind-blowing. However, I've seen some pretty great examples scattered around, like the REPCON museum, No-Bark Noonan, Yes Man, and other random examples. The writing's better than F3 I'd say, but it doesn't completely crush it. F3's biggest problem in this regard was more the lack of voice actors than sub-par writing.

The game runs pretty good on my computer, framerate is pretty steady most of the time except when there are a lot of NPCs on screen and dips occasionally. As for bugs, I know a lot of people have been plagued by them, but I honestly haven't come across too many myself. I think the game has crashed twice in the 22.3 hours that I've been playing, so I can't really complain there. Overall, I suppose I've been lucky on this front, but we'll see what the future holds as I am sure that I will spend at least another 22.3 hours playing.

So, do I love this game? A resounding yes. It's better than F3 and it's one of my all-time favorite games.

Beat the game after about 40 hours, although I had to go back a couple of times to older saves to do some things differently so it was probably closer to 35 hours. Really great game, really fun. As of right now, I'd probably put it over F3 and ME2, but it's a really close battle and I could see myself changing my mind and sliding ME2 up to the top sometime.

It is weird how Fallout 3 used "Games for Windows Live" but New Vegas is a Steam system game... It's a great, if buggy, game. My biggest complaint is those special addons you get based on the store you buy it from. You basically only get the whole game if you buy the game 4 times, and that's just unacceptable. I wish they'd stop with this nonsense. At least give me the option to buy all 4 from an online store for, say, $5. Of note is one of those packs, not the one I got, includes a "trusty Vault 13 water canteen" that never runs out.

Pushing that out of my mind though, it's been a great ride so far.

GFWL is awful. Downloading and installing DLC took a dozen different steps if you installed the game on a different harddrive other than the main one, which you have to look on Google to figure out. It also made you download each update one at a time, instead of just all at once. As far as features go, it's really barebones except for the friend's list and achievements. Good riddance.

Isn't the game just called Fallout: New Vegas, not Fallout 3: New Vegas?

I never really had a bad experience with GFWL. It did what I needed it to do for Fallout 3 at the time, and I installed it on drive C anyway. But, you're right, it's a lot worse than Steam in pretty much every way (which itself is a shame, considering how amazing XBox Live is). That said, Steam doesn't let you change drive letters at all for games you install using it, so in that respect, Steam actually does worse.

Yes, it's Fallout: New Vegas.

Quote:That said, Steam doesn't let you change drive letters at all for games you install using it, so in that respect, Steam actually does worse.

Yeah, that's about the only thing it does better. All games go into the Steam folder, nowhere else. I'm not entirely sure why it forces you to do that, could be some kind of anti-piracy measure or have something to do with the way Steam is setup.

That's my #1 complaint about Steam, of course, but I've said that many times now...

The solution I finally found was a system extension called linkshell which allows you to move a folder to a different place, but have the system think that it's still somewhere else.

A Black Falcon Wrote:That's my #1 complaint about Steam, of course, but I've said that many times now...

The solution I finally found was a system extension called linkshell which allows you to move a folder to a different place, but have the system think that it's still somewhere else.

You didn't pay for that did you? If you did you got had.. Big time!
Windows has a thing called folder redirect that does that natively on XP / Vista / 7 pro or higher.

Pay? For a free extension? Why would I do that?

And no, Vista 32-bit Home Premium doesn't have that built in.

Interesting.. The Wikipedia article seems to indicate that it is available on all versions of XP / Vista / and 7.. However the home versions require a more invasive procedure to modify the settings.. Generally it is applied via group policy in a domain environment.. However regedit, the computer management MMC snapin, and tweekUI can also be used to set it up.