Fallout New Vegas

[OBH]

So been playing that today, anyone else got it?
For anyone interested in getting it, heres my initial reaction

Bad Points
1) Opening sequence is shocking compared to your birth in the vault in fo3. No Liam Neeson :(
2) Scenery is near enough identical to fo3. suppose if youve seen one radiation stricken wasteland youve seen them all.
3) One of THE glitchiest games ever!! Broken textures, inconsistant frame rate, crashes, freezes, "broken" items (the gametrailers.com review shows a guy being totally stuck in one locked room because the game didnt recognise that he was holding the key) :( You have to have multiple save files just in case..... and i never remember to do so!

Good Points
1) HARDCORE MODE!!!! EXCELLENT!! Exactly what I wanted! I always said fo3 was too easy, now if you activate hardcore mode you have sleep deprivation, as well as needing to eat and drink. Each works same way to radiation - a bar represents had bad symptoms are getting, and stats reduce accordingly. Stimpacks heal over time and cannot heal broken limbs, ammunition has a weight, but my favourite bit is that if you do not have the adequate items to survive a certain journey, you are not allowed to fast travel!! :beer A great, great feature.
2) Weapon mods - scopes, silences, armour piercing bullets, extra mags etc etc
3) Can create custom weapons, but now disassemble many weapons for parts.
4) Far better control over your companions
5) Many more voice actors.
6) Much better Karma / reputation system, simple conversations can have a massive effect.

Still early days, but so far so good. I honestly dont think id be enjoying it as much without the hardcore mode though.

[infoxicated]

Fallout 3 was a mess until six weeks after launch, and I gave up buying the downloadable content after three packs because of the glitches and framerate issues.

It was still an amazing gaming experience, in spite of the bugs, so I'll get New Vegas when they patch it. However, I'm sick to death of Bethesda thinking they can publish buggy piles of crap and get my money.

[mdhay]

Wow, New Vegas is redundant, seeing as Weapon Mod Kits and Fallout Wanderer's Edition exist. Still am not getting this for a good while, need to save up for LBP2. :D

[infoxicated]

Maybe on the PC, but I do my gaming on PS3 and the GECK stuff isn't available for consoles.

I did think about getting it for PC this time around, but I find PC gaming to be such a pain in the ass - too much time wasted dicking around with patches and drivers and not enough of the pick-up-and-play experience.

New Vegas might well be more of the same, but in terms of gameplay and questing, Fallout 3 didn't do too many things wrong. :)

[stin]

I hate to say this!, my son loves it and it`s alot better than Halo Reach!!! but it`s an X-Box and he has no problems with FPS according to him but will let you know.

stevie:)

[Kyonshi]

I just picked it up on my new PC. I just can't not having it, even while im aware of the numerous bugs and glitches reports. I like the franchise too much! :P

So far, everything as been okay for me, didnt see anything unusual. I wanted to see the gorgeous graphics and visuals on PC. Since i got powerful hardware, i wanted to see what it can delivers and im totally amazed. Also, as i bought it 2 days after launch date, a patch was already available to correct the save game issues, along with some visual and texture bugs. This game and FO3 are fantastic ones, its such a shame that Bethesda have the same syndrome as Micro$oft: **** beta-testing and we'll launch something unfinished/borken, but its ok, we're going to make downloadable patches to fix everything...

On another side, i keep thinking that those massive open game worlds are so huge that it could be too long of a job to discover and report all the bugs and glitches that unfortunately happens and are not noticed, necessiting the game being constantly reported. That's not an excuse, im just trying to understand what's going on in the minds of Bethesda developers.

[Darkdrium777]

It's three times that they make this kind of game on the same engine and they still haven't figured it out.
Oblivion.
Fallout 3.
Fallout New Vegas.
This one had me laughing hard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKIkw3LIoQ).
Anyway, may get on PC, but most probably not because I haven't played Fallout 3. Depends on what the system requirements are, my stuff is pretty old in computer age.

[OBH]

With some of the Fallout old boys involved this time around, I expect to see some good comedy this time around.

Fallout 1 and 2 had some brilliant one liners, and some cool random encounters - exploded whale in middle of desert, and from Monty Python Quest for Holy Grail can bump into Arthur, and the bridge scene :)

"Whats your favourite colour?" "Red... no bluuuuuueeeeeeee"

Seems this time they've basically taken New Reno from Fallout 2 and made the place into its own game.

[mdhay]

Maybe on the PC, but I do my gaming on PS3 and the GECK stuff isn't available for consoles.


Apparently, you could actually mod Fallout 3 on 360, but that itself is redundant. Shame, though. Could've had a proper hud that didn't take up the screen and conventional weapons that actually made sense (a PPSh has no chance of becoming a shotgun, ever). And a PDA replacing the armor ruining Pip-Boy. Did I mention the lack of pipboy? :g

But yeah, If I do pick this up, it will be on PC, and better be on a revised version of the engine (gamebryo?), else I'm not even going to bother. Source, Bethesda, Source!

[OBH]

Armor ruining Pip-Boy? I love the pip boy!! Best Interface ever.

AS for th HUD, why would you ever want a HUD? :) Crosshair off straight away for me, just a shame you cant turn the health meter off, but leave the compass on....

[mdhay]

in my opinion, it ruins the armour, there's just no point in wearing this big suit of power armour if you have a sleeve missing, is there? I have a PDA installed on Fallout 3, it essentially makes your character wear armour like any npc that doesn't have one. And I like the Darnified UI HUD more, as it's more fitting to a PC game by not taking up 24% of the screen. :P

You can use a compass by going onto the map screen then looking at where the arrow is pointing. :P

[OBH]

Totally agree with the HUD (except its hardly that big on console version).

As for the Pip Boy, I totally disagree :) I think its the best menu system ever, has been around since the original Fallout, and is probably one of my favourite things in the game :beer

Plus its a FPS game, you barely see your armour anyway. Granted i did play a large portion of fo3 in 3rd person, but with the new iron sights, i cant see why you'd want to do that now.

[mdhay]

The menu is exactly the same, it just replaces the mesh for the sleeve with the exact same one used for the other arm. :)

And by the way, I LIED! :g I has a copy, can't even touch it, seeing as Adam thinks he owns it, even though I put more towards it than he did. :/

[Aeroracer]

i played fallout 3 on xbox360 it was good and had no bugs and i played it till i got 100% completion

i played oblivion also made by bethusala i think (correct me if im wrong) and that was bug free.
i think the bugs on fallout could be ps3 which is a bit of a crap console..
its way to slow and dosnt seem to handle much.when i play wipeout and its loading a track and i go to message or chat the system slows down like it cant handle it like they never thought someone might want to text or read during a game..

But as for fallout las vegas i would be able to say as i have not played it..

[mdhay]

It did have bugs; you just never got them. Bethesda are terrible developers, If I was at Interplay at the time they were buying the franchise, I'd have told them to **** themselves. They cannot make a bug - free game, and I know that no game is bug free, but to the extent of BS's (a fitting acronym) games, that's just a lack of QA on their part.

[Darkdrium777]

There's bugs everywhere in Bethesda's game.
Fortunately the only ones I had when playing Oblivion on PC were the hilarious physics ones, but that's only because I was reading ahead in the wiki to avoid doing what would make a game breaking bug show up.

[omega329]

Bethesda's QA is called The Public (TM)

[OBH]

Finally watched that link you posted d777 :D thats some funny stuff!!!

Im seeing more and more bugs in this game now. Heres a view
1) Your own armour is visable i.ie i can see a black line across the screen which is my own hat :( or with some weapons when i aim down sight, a quarter of screen is black as its my large sleeve.
2) One character i had to talk to, instead of being where he should be, had his face stuck in the ceiling!!! i couldnt talk to him cos he was too high up!!!
3) When bringing up pip boy it isnt in the center of the screen
4) weapons are out of place (character holds them very high)

Im hugely enjoying the game, but its sooooooo buggy.

[mdhay]

When Fallout 3 was launched back in 2008, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to stores worldwide to get their hands on it, and for those PC gamers among them that couldn't even get past the intro sequence without the bloody thing crashing, the first few hours were hell. That was because of Bethesda, the developers that even though they are world-class, they do not have any idea of what Quality Assurance is. Of course, It's Fallout, it's still gonna kick ass, which it did.


Then, word gets sent around that Obsidian Entertainment, made of remnants of Fallout's original owners Interplay, are going to be working with Bethesda on a new Fallout title set in New Vegas. More hype ensues, and with good reason.


The intro sequence (pre -rendered to make it look nice and shiny, a stark contrast to the actual in game graphics) starts inside the Lucky 38's empty VIP lounge, showing the damage that vandalisn and neglect has caused, with Frank Sinatra's "Blue Moon" playing out of a speaker somewhere. The camera pans out to show the thriving Nevada Strip, only slightly damaged by the warheads that hit around 200 years earlier, with almost all the neon lights intact, with a literal blue moon in the night sky A parade of probably drunk New California Republic (making a welcome return from Fallout 2) troopers stumble by, waving their flag.


The camera continues to pan backwards, showing how one of the smallest places in the Mojave Wasteland has been rebuilt, with more NCR troopers getting bladdered. Then sirens can be heard as some of Mr House's Securitrons roll in to a casino. demontrating some sort of control. Then, a view of the dark perimeter fence is seen, with crickets chirping in the background, making the strip stand out like a sore thumb. Then, an NCR Veteran Ranger (the soldier on the front cover) stands up from below camera, switches some sort of targeting system on, making the helmet lenses glow in a pleasing predator - esque fashion, and takes aim with an Anti-Materiél Rifle from atop the famous Welcome to "Fabulous Las Vegas" Sign. The next few seconds are in slow motion, showing the muzzle flash and bullet leaving the barrel. (think Matrix but over 9,000 times more badass) to meet a raider standing a fair distance away. Raider head goes boom, leaving blood spatter on the camera lens.


It then shows the Leader of Caesar's Legion (guess who?) and a some legionaries looking on towards the Lucky 38 from a distance. What happens next is probably the best part of this intro in terms of animation and storytelling. A hillside is shown, with a man in a patterned suit (vioced very well by Matthew Perry) with some Great Khans (a running gang from the old Fallout games), lighting a cigarette whilst another Khan digs a grave (your character can be seen tied up on the floor at this point), with an atmosphere set by lamplight. It fades out and Ron Pearlman speaks his famous line:


War. War never changes.


By this time, I was hooked.


Gameplay wise, not much strays from Fallout 3, except that the developers have been apying attention to the mdos that were released for Fallout 3, and have added Ironsights. Most people will have jumped when they pressed their zoom button and saw this, who wouldn't? The weapons are changed, as most people know, and there are actually some conventional ones that make sense (A PPSh-41 cannot be a shotgun, no matter what you're told). However, the gameplay bugs are still there, as well - if you see a mesh fence, you can't shoot through it. If you see a broken window, you cannot shoot through it. Third person still sucks ass for gunplay too, so don't expect much out of it this time around.


The creatures/ mutants in New Vegas have been overhauled, with more of them, and more of a variety. Nightkin (the stealth using mutants from the previous PC - only Fallouts) are back, and take just as much to kill off as they did before. Deathclaws now come in blind (but still deadly) and young flavours, and radscorpion poison starts a party in your head should you get stung.


As always, the Brotherhoos of Steel are present, but at a much smaller role, as they don't even need to be bothered outside of one or two quests when you need to talk to them. There's no Enclave now, as they lost all hope thanks to the Lone Wanderer in DC a few years before NV takes place (regardless of wether you worked for Eden or not, Then losing is canon). You can still get Enclave PA, though, albeit rarer this time around.


Hardcore mode is what most people will be interested in, which makes you have to eat, drink and sleep to survive, and stims heal over time, and you cannot fast travel if you don't have enough supplies.


Sound Effects/ Music/ Voice Acting has been massively improved over the previous, with more than four generic actors in this one. Matthew Perry stars as the guy who "kills" you at the start of the game, Wayne Newton, also known as Mr Las Vegas, voices the DJ Ai for the Strip, and Zach Levi (The Lead actor from Chuck), voices a companion from The Followers of the Apocolypse (a bad but also good organization, for reasons you might discover when playing). Sounds are more crisp and realistic; walking in power armour no longer sounds like you have too much loose change, the crap Assault Rifle Dinner Bell sound effect from Fallout 3 has been trashed, and other changes add to the experience even more.


Graphically, there's not much difference from Fallout 3, except that not everything is tinted green, like a child with photoshop's had a field day. Textures could do with improvement, but it's standards expected from this past decade, so it's not that bad.


You should get it, was worth the £30 I paid for it.

That's what I think. :D

[Aeroracer]

i liked fallout 3 on xbox ..i didnt play it so much as a challenge. i just liked the atmosphere and experience they created with the nuclear wasteland mixed in with old laurel and hardy music..it was so new and fresh never seen anything like that before.
since you say vegas is good i will try and play it as well.:)

@mdhay..nice review very detailed..:clap

[OBH]

For atmosphere and experience go hardcore anyway :)

I truly love not being able to heal limbs with Stimpacks. Suffering from a concussion / head injury / poisonous bite and watching the screen go fuzzy in various was is quality :) especially when in a fight. Fallout 3 had this feature, but due to simply being able to click a button and be healed, many players never even knew it existed.

Main thing that impresses me; the further I get through Vegas, the more impressed I am with the varying dialogue & attitude / faction quests available to you depending on your reputation with them.

The glitches are still a problem, having to unequip armour because its visable on the screen as you wear it isnt cool :bomb

[mdhay]

I asked Yes Man if he didn't mind me shooting him in the face. He didn't say no. ;)

[OBH]

If you do get Vegas; when you visit a town, remember to take off the armour of their arch nemesis you could possibly still be wearing :beer

People dont take too kindly to that one.

[mdhay]

Especially near the brotherhood; Tri-Beam Laser Rifles hurt.

btw, did you guys know that NV has some stuff from Fallout 3's DLC in it? I won't spoil what, apart fropm the Tri-Beam Laser Rifles, but you'll love it. :D

[mdhay]

Is anybody else having constant CTD's after playing this for five minutes? I mailed Bethesda about it two weeks ago, and it would seem that they have acted like I never did. Pathetic, really.

[OBH]

Nope.
Been playing this on 360, and strangely since the new (ridiculous) kinnect dashboard update, fallouts been running better.

[mdhay]

It's been running better since I turned off VSync. But if you think that armour clipping is bad, wait until you get the stealth armor, hold a handgun and look down whilst moving. I can't believe they haven't fixed it since O:A, then again, I'm not suprised.... :/

[rdmx]

Unless you're pushing 60frames and over, never enable vsync

[Darkdrium777]

True that.

I've watched a few videos of the game and... Well it's understandable but I can never figure out what is going on, what is the goal of the current mission.
Plus, and unless what I'm watching is DVR'd from consoles, the areas look so fragmented up and there's a bunch of loadings everywhere.
The impression I'm getting is it's not open world at all. D:

Maybe I'm watching the wrong videos, but I'm not convinced I would like it (And I sort of liked Oblivion once I had mods installed, but it runs like **** on my computer bizarrely.)

[OBH]

Oh it definitely is an open world :)
Been playing for a number of hours now and i havnt even entered the strip yet.

[infoxicated]

If you do get Vegas; when you visit a town, remember to take off the armour of their arch nemesis you could possibly still be wearing :beer

People dont take too kindly to that one.
Seems daft, that. Technically you could be wearing the armour of their arch nemesis because you killed them to get it. Wouldn't that make you an allie instead?

As much as I want to play a Fallout game again, I'm not getting New Vegas for the PS3 until they've patched & fixed it. There's just no excuse for releasing a game in the state it's in. Hope some Americans club together and sue them for it! ;)

[mdhay]

Zing! :g

A lawsuit won't do any good, as apparently (can't find the source anymore, which is a shame) they attempted to pay a man $100 to put an end to a lawsuit regarding their faulty development skills (the lack of Quality Assurance, neglegent tech support, crap game engine choice, etc), giving evidence of Fallout 3 Crashing To Desktop on about 50 or so (maybe more) different PC's, all of which had no mods and more than met the minimum requirements.

They know what's causing it, they know how to fix it, they just refuse to. Dicks.

[OBH]

@infoxicated
In some ways your right definitely. Though if i was trusted to spot hostile targets for my beloved town in a hostile worls, and I see someone wearing the armour of my enemies heading towards me, I reckon id shoot first, ask questions later :)

Didnt realise FO crashes to desktop on the PC. Me respect for Bethesda has dropped somewhat.

[mdhay]

Yep. I put up nemerous statuses about it on Facebook, but it does. Including, but not limited to:

Throwing a grenade;
Saving;
Entering a new cell (building);
Walking;
Using the sprint Mod with Predator Vision active (shame, it was badass)
looking at the game;
In the case of New Vegas, starting the launcher.

Pathetic, no?

[mdhay]

Is there anyone besides me who hasn't touched this for weeks? I have had no inclination to play this game, and have actually gone back to Fallout 3, and even then, Stalker has had its way with me now (Why couldn't the Xray engine be used? It seems to be much more stable).

I suppose that it doesn't have the redemption value that Fallout 3 has now, especially when the crap it churns out demands more processing power that it frankly, doesn't deserve. Sure, I love the attention they paid to what modders were doing, like having a non-stupid running animation, but they still look like they're not running on the floor like they seemed to be, and they have not fixed the simplest of issues such as the Chinese Stealth Armour clipping strangely when you are wielding a one handed weapon.

Meh, really.