Fallout: New Vegas

[flameboy]

Some of those technical issues sound terrible, I think I'll pass.

 

what techinical issues?!!! reviews embargo ends today right?

[jayseven]

The IGN UK review plays down teh tech difficulties, and gives a good idea of the 'hardcore' system. The idea, I think, is that the mapis smaller, there are more 'pit-stops' and "mattresses at teh side of the road" that you can crash on, and having to drink toilet-bowl rad-ifested water will be far less optional.

 

Joystiq's reviewer (closed the page so don't have a url for you) clearly felt pissed off by the constant and lengthy loading times, and perhaps a bit bewildered by the larger choice that the game has, as it's less clear about its morality this time.

 

They both agreed that teh script is way better this time, and the atmosphere is more immersive. I'm still undecided whether to pick this up straight away, but pretty decided on playing hardcore mode from the off, as I think this game was designed with it in mind.

[Mundi]

Definitely picking this up on day one, hardcore mode all the way.

Really liked that all the reviews I have read have praised the voice acting.

 

Am a bit disheartened that is supposed to be smaller than Fallout 3, hope it is not noticeably smaller.

[Caris]

what techinical issues?!!! reviews embargo ends today right?

 

Giant Bomb review, I wasn't that bothered about the game anyways.

[flameboy]

The IGN UK review plays down teh tech difficulties, and gives a good idea of the 'hardcore' system. The idea, I think, is that the mapis smaller, there are more 'pit-stops' and "mattresses at teh side of the road" that you can crash on, and having to drink toilet-bowl rad-ifested water will be far less optional.

 

Joystiq's reviewer (closed the page so don't have a url for you) clearly felt pissed off by the constant and lengthy loading times, and perhaps a bit bewildered by the larger choice that the game has, as it's less clear about its morality this time.

They both agreed that teh script is way better this time, and the atmosphere is more immersive. I'm still undecided whether to pick this up straight away, but pretty decided on playing hardcore mode from the off, as I think this game was designed with it in mind.

 

I like the sound of that!!!! I prefer to be able to be grey as such.

[dwarf]

I ain't readin no reviews, but I'm interested in scores. Am metacriticking now.

 

Only want to see positive stuff. I'm blind to anyone who says this won't live up to expectations.

[Emasher]

 

When I first finished the tutorial (Which aside from character creation is almost entirely skippable) and entered the world, I got almost the same feeling that I did when I first emerged from vault 101. While for obvious reasons, the game shares many resources with its predecessor, most of the scenery is new and more varied. The same goes for the weapons. I've found a ton of weapons, and the only familiar ones were the 10mm pistol, the laser pistol, and the plasma pistol. Even most of the Ammo is different this time around. The Karma system has been changed for the better as well. Rather than having Good, bad, or Neutral karma in general, in New Vegas, you have a reputation with each faction. So, if you want to steal from the "bad guys", you won't loose karma with the "good guys". The true iron sights feature is useful, but can be turned off if you don't want to use it. I've already felt the impact of hardcore mode, when I kept getting into firefights and then waiting until my health was too low before using healing items. Just a note, you can't turn on hardcore mode until you've finished the tutorial, so don't worry if you can't change it from the main menu.

 

 

 

[dwarf]

Can you give impressions without spoilz pleaze?

 

Bear in mind only positive things must be said.

[Emasher]

There aren't really any spoilers in there. Nothing story related anyway. I just spoilered it for the sake of anyone who doesn't want to hear anything at all about the game that wasn't in pre-release material.

 

However, I will say, Its more Fallout 3, but its been improved a lot, and has its own unique feel to it. It feels like a new game.

[dwarf]

Yeah, but I just want to know 0 more about it. As soon as I saw 'tutorial' I crushed my monitor with a gigat0n iron fist tournament 3.2 megaboom.

 

Just glad to know the reception has been good.

 

I swear to god if Play don't deliver for Friday, I'll ask Andrew Lloyd Webber to team up with Tom & Jerry and stabilise them with their lettuce dispenser.

[flameboy]

I ain't readin no reviews, but I'm interested in scores. Am metacriticking now.

 

Only want to see positive stuff. I'm blind to anyone who says this won't live up to expectations.

 

I've only just starting reading stuff now I'm getting the game now and the thing that I love the most is setting just seems different enough yet still the same. Thats something the reviews are defintely highlighting. A few things have been slightly spoilish though so gonna refrain from reading any more.

 

I like how the morality is grey. I don't like games where its red vs blue, bad vs good if you do more good than bad things your good no matter what the magnitude of the decisions. I prefer to perhaps not be told if I've done the good or bad and for the game to just work it out with minimal info. Likewise I don't wanna do 20 defintely good things and 20 defintely bad things and end up in the middle as neutral. I want 20 good things to be outweighed if I do 1 absolutely horrendous thing.

 

I'm not specifically talking about fallout in terms of this just observations.

 

I intend to differ from my usual with this and not play good. I'm gonna weigh up each thing and see what I possibly gain from being bad or good, who stands to lose, whether they deserve what they've got or not etc...see how I end up at the end.

[dwarf]

I agree, and I think most non-brain-dead people do too. As long as they make the morality thing seem organic, I'm happy. Even if it's actually superficial, it wouldn't bother me as long as I were oblivious.

 

Though clearly, decisions in this are more plentiful and have a greater variety of consequences, showing it has been thought about.

[flameboy]

Giant Bomb review, I wasn't that bothered about the game anyways.

 

ok...................

[dwarf]

What's strange is that you wouldn't dodge a game you were highly considering on the basis that there were reports about bugs. Especially from GiantBomb, who are obviously looking for those kinds of stories.

 

I'm not denying issues exist, but I just find Matthew Caris' behaviour highly childish and uhm... Volatile, even.

[Oxigen_Waste]

In the US the CE is just another $20 onto the regular price so it's not as bad. I'd be very put off if it was double, but I'd still probably get it as it really appeals to me.

 

I'll be picking this up approx. 4 tomorrow after work and possibly playing, but likely waiting until Saturday.

 

Let us know if the graphic novel is worth a damn, then, will you?

[Emasher]

I haven't seen any glitches yet, Aside from shoddy collision detection on limbs of corpses, the worst thing has been a few one second freezes, but they aren't that common.

 

The karma system has been improved, as I mentioned in the spoilered bit. Basically, rather than having one general karma level, you have one for each faction.

 

Edit: Never mind, the game just froze on me.

Edited October 19, 2010 by Emasher

[Mundi]

What's strange is that you wouldn't dodge a game you were highly considering on the basis that there were reports about bugs. Especially from GiantBomb, who are obviously looking for those kinds of stories.

 

How are they obviously looking for these stories?

They gave it a glowing review (4/5) saying that it is better in most aspects from Fallout 3 and that it is a must have game if you can look past the bugs.

[flameboy]

Meh the glitches don't sound like anything that wasn't in Fallout 3 I think its a problem of the engines and perhaps in some ways unavoidable its an old engine that they just keep cramping more stuff into and on top of.

 

I had some massive game bugs on fallout 3 one was when there was a stand off between some people at the water purification device and its just wouldn't work with all the characters just stood still staying blankly. Also had another one when I went to Megaton and it was all white with the characters all still going about their business. Word from the wise just always remember to save!

[Nolan]

Let us know if the graphic novel is worth a damn, then, will you?

 

Aye aye captain.

 

I may read it tonight, but no promises. After a quick look at it though it's much smaller than I expected a quarter inch thick including the cover. The artwork is nice, and it's penned by Chris Avellone so it has a good chance of being well written.

 

As for the rest of the CE, that Lucky 38 chip, it's about 2" in diameter completely metal and heavy. The 7 poker chips are all pretty neat looking as well. Everything is is probably as you expect.

 

I haven't played yet.

[flameboy]

urgh I just realised my shopto account is still set to my old address and I can't change it now...

[dwarf]

I am somehow looking forward to crawling through similar half copy and pasted areas again. Just because it makes the whoe adventure a bit grander and gruesome, and padding in Fallout 3 is awesome, because even if there's just the odd stash of hidden ammo and a weird note, the crawl is well worth it. Just killing enemies period is worth it.

 

VATS OMG!!!! The best thing ever.

 

Whoever invented VATS needs to adopt me.

 

Is ADS any good in this, i.e. does real time combat actually pay off a bit more? I enjoyed the faulty, primitive real-time sniping sneak attacks of 3.

 

The old engine just gives it charm.

 

SyntaX HAx.

[Emasher]

Real time combat is made more fun by the Iron sights mostly.

[dwarf]

Kl.

 

I think I'll just wait now tbh. I like how it'll be a good few weeks before people can really make a proper comparison between it and 3.

[Oxigen_Waste]

I had some massive game bugs on fallout 3 one was when there was a stand off between some people at the water purification device and its just wouldn't work with all the characters just stood still staying blankly. Also had another one when I went to Megaton and it was all white with the characters all still going about their business. Word from the wise just always remember to save!

 

I had that one were Galaxy News Radio building becomes locked and you can't proceed with the quest... so I had to grind like 6 levels to get my lockpick up to 100 so I could get in... took me forever.

[Emasher]

I've come across some incredibly powerful enemies. The most annoying being what appears to be a mutated bee. You can't outrun them, they're bullet sponges, and have incredibly powerful attacks.

 

 

Aside from having separate Karma with each major faction, you can now also wear the clothing of that faction as a disguise, the enemies of that faction will attack you when you're wearing the disguise though.

 

Keep in mind that I've only explored the South West Quadrant. I found that the Capitol Wasteland compared to the Mojave wasteland felt a lot more empty. In Fallout 3, it was like you were in this world full of small civilizations just hanging onto life in a large world that was almost completely unexplored. It felt like you were uncovering what was left of the last moments of a civilization that was long gone. New Vegas isn't quite like that. Although there's a war going on between the two biggest factions, the Mojave wasteland feels like its recovering. It turns out it wasn't really hit by the bombs. A lot of the pre-war infrastructure was ruined during the time that everyone was in the Vaults, but most of the people live in houses in pre-war towns rather than in makeshift buildings. The major factions seem to have a lot more control of the world. While I haven't actually been to it yet, Vegas itself is apparently still functional as a proper city, While in Fallout 3, the brotherhood of steel and the Eastern Enclave were just beginning to set up fire bases, and start securing the place. In the Capitol Wasteland it felt like you were in the most desolate place on Earth, and it would always be a wasteland, the Mojave Wasteland feels more like Red Dead Redemption almost, like something is really just beginning. Also, no dungeons so far.