Fallout: New VegasFollow

I should stop reading this, it makes me jealous. Can't wait til I get around to upgrading my laptop again. Then I can get a machine that will be able to play Fallout 3 at least. I tried to play it before but everything was just a little bit jumpy, meant I had no choice but to use VATS all the time which took some of the fun away.
I still remember the first time I ran into a Super Mutant while I was still a pitifully low level. Pistol to the face wasnt as effective as I had hoped.

Circle strafing around a pillar works wonders.

I have chosen to satisfy my Fallout cravings with the next best thing I have available. Oblivion, which is always fun. Ive discovered the joy of being a Ranger, I have always played this sort of game as melee.

Todays CAD comic is surprisingly suited to the recent Fallout conversation. It explains how pistols can decapitate people.

As usual, as with Fallout 3 and Oblivion, Bethesda have done a great introduction to the game. Very cinematic, flashy, sets the mood well.

Then I start playing... and it's exactly the same as Fallout 3? Are you kidding me?

I can understand them using the same engine. Don't fix what isn't broken and all that. But seriously, the character creator is EXACTLY the same. We don't even have any new hairstyles. The sliders are the same. Even the preset faces are the same. And F3's character creator was poor, and that's 4-5 years old. It's lazy and it's sloppy.

Aesthetically, for a late 2010 HD RPG, it's pretty bad. You can't get around that. Compare it to Mass Effect (1 or 2), FFXIII... even going back to games like Lost Odyssey - this game already looks outdated.

Gameplay-wise? Well, as I mentioned, and as others have mentioned, it's the same engine. Which means the same controls, same types of buildings, same physics engine, same items, same same same same oh my god is anything different?

The answer?

Well, no. Not really. There's a few new items, the new crafting system (which really doesn't add that much to the game, the new faction system (basically karma rating per city or per military group. It isn't groundbreaking in the slightest) and a couple of mini games (including some card game called Caravan which is confusing the hell out of me. Obsidian, I liked Pazaak... why did you have to make it more complex?!)

Fallout: New Vegas is a rather expensive expansion pack in a shiny new box. If you liked Fallout 3, you'll love this. If you thought it was ok, but nothing special, then you're going to be disappointed.

Overall? I'd give it 6/10 so far. Mainly because the game's F3 with a new skin. But... F3 was good. It grabbed you from the start. From the insane overseer to the even more insane Mr Burke, or the working man's hero Lucas Simms... you had strong identifiable characters from the beginning.

FNV has a really, really strong opening scene... but going by what I've seen it takes longer to actually get going into the story.

If you don't have a LOT of time to dump into this game, I'd say don't buy it. I can see people racking up hundreds of hours of playtime and not even seeing everything there is to see...

Actually, the story starts off in a rather intriguing way. The problem is that if you didn't buy the collector's edition, you missed it. There is a short graphic novel that introduces a few of the characters and explains a bit about why the main character is attacked, and fleshes out the Benny character. I think it was a mistake to not have included it in the basic game.

As a side note, if you're playing the game, find Pepcomm and get the Q38 Matter reorganizer. I've been using it almost exclusively since I found it six levels ago.

Edited, Oct 25th 2010 1:37am by Turin

Its like they really want you too. Minimal difficulty to get, massive dps, and there is like 800 ammo for it in the building in difficult to miss locations.

I don't really follow things like that, but even if they said it, it doesn't mean it's right.

Five years on and we get the exact same game in a different setting?

Star Wars KOTOR 2 kinda did that, and it upset a hell of a lot of people. And it was also released too early. You'd think they'd have learned from that.

I'll probably really like it when I get going. Obsidian do make damn good games.

(On a side note - with the new fan made patch, KOTOR 2 is freakin awesome. It's like playing a completely different game.)

How so? A company offers a product, with disclosure about what to expect, and it's "not right"? The only things I have an issue with are the glitches/freeze-ups that should have been noticeable to any test team. The game itself is everything you'd expect if you'd read anything about the game pre-release. It's not the developer/publisher's fault that you're an uninformed consumer.

Seriously? Wow, my bad. I take it back then.

I just figured it was that old because it looks that old...

To be entirely fair, FO3 used a modified version of Oblivion's engine. It is definitely capable of putting out more, but I guess Bethesda doesn't want to spend the money to create higher resolution textures (something modders have been doing for a while, btw. A bit of work, but totally doable without changing the core engine at all) for the engine they keep recycling.

For the people ******** about Fallout 3.5...

Take the five add-on scenarios for FO3 at release for each. What were they, $10 each? Add each of those up, what do you get? $10 less than the cost of FO:NV. Which am I more appreciative for spending my money on? If you guess wrong, you're a ******* moron.

You should have seen her face when he tried to pay her in caps.