Fallout New Vegas

this game was supposed to have been released october 09, but obsidian have rescheduled it for this autum/fall, and we have heard very little about it.

Personally the very idea of obsidian developing a new fallout game is positiviley orgasmic, is anyone else anticipating this game? its had a pretty low press coverage

A lot of people give Obsidian a hard time but I am positively giddy over a new fallout.

Holy shit, it's not being made by Bethesda?

Thank God.

I actually don't know much about this.

Where's the love for Bethesda ? I thought the last game was great. Flawed in some ways perhaps, but definitely enjoyable. I played it all the way through and would've probably got some of the expansions if I was a member of Live. I liked the VATS system - though perhaps I'm in the minority there. Nice story, lots and lots of side-missions. I'd be happy to see something similar.

By no mean am I putting down Bethesda, Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games of all time. I just hope Obsidian can match that greatness.

Bethesda is fucking shit. :)

I'll ignore criticizing Oblivion because it's in a different series, but also because it's basically the same thing. FO3 is by no means an RPG, but rather a first person shooter, and a really poor one. There are just RPG elements on the side, and look how deep it is, with one or two dialogue choices and the rest being questions about people. There is barely any more roleplaying going on than in any of the STALKER games, all of which end up having far better gameplay and rewards for exploration rather than collecting tin cans to bleed salesmen dry of their money.
So you go around and shoot things. These things typically have Grade-A Artificial Stupidity, slowly listing from side to side and shooting in your general direction. This is made up for by the ridiculous amount of health both the people and animals have. You'd think that a shotgun blast, let alone a bullet, to the head would kill someone. Even if it didn't, you'd think that a message popping up on your monitor saying her head is crippled after loading off a shell would somehow be deleterious to her skills, such as cognition or aiming, or maybe crippling her voicebox so she can't spew out those constant taunts she gives off. As for the supermutants, the massive health is semi-excusable, but you cannot argue that it is impossible to aim a gun or even see where you are going if you are shot in the eyes. There is also VATS, used to balance out the game's difficulty even more, but it is simply too much of a cheat, and watching every single shot you make in slow motion that also shows off how poorly the sound effects are detailed when they turn extremely tinny is painful. Oh, and the entire main campaign is a two hour sewer subway level.
And I would also like to note the graphics, and I rarely note graphics. Every single animation in the game is absolutely stiff. All character models have the same exact male/female human base model, both of whom look like they have just a slight tint of Down syndrome. Copypasta is also present throughout the entire game world, where there are neighborhoods filled with the exact same two houses that were both destroyed in the exact same way, repeat ad nauseum. This is also extremely apparent in the sewer subway level where each station has exactly the same rubble, except it's placed in slightly different locations.

Dragons in Space wrote:

Bethesda is fucking shit. :)

So much anger !

Listen, I don't want to come off like a wounded fanboy, but I did like Fallout 3 AND finished it, so I think I should address a couple of your points :

1. It's a FPS and not an RPG

Sure, I half agree. Twitch reflexes definitely help, and if you're playing stealthy then it's all down to relfexes. However, the VATS does involve behind the scenes dice rolling and your stats heavily influence this. I felt like my character was improving and getting more powerful as the game went on, which is mostly what I'm looking for from an RPG. More so than Mass Effect 2, which I flet was even more action-oriented, but which I would also call an RPG. So, an action RPG then. I can live with that.
As for shallow 'good' vs 'bad' role playing. I agree with this too, but there are very few games which go beyond this. I guess just due to the amount of programming involved. 'Dragon Age' I guess is an example of something that goes for a wider scope. So I'm with you, but think this is more a symptom of games in general these days.

2. Stupid AI

Yup.

3. Headshots should crippple

Yup. They should've made headshots MUCH harder to make, and a lot more damaging. But again, I think this is another symptom of lots of games these days.

4. Sewer level / copypasta.

In defense of the game, it's kind of a victim of it's own setting. Yes, it's bleak, but comsidering the post-apocalyptic setting that's really the only way to go. The copypasta houses are silly, but again this is due to the setting. Any wide open / sandbox game needs to rely on copypasta. However, if it's something like GTA you notice it less because undamaged buildings are fairly unchracteristic. And hey, you see rows of very similar buildings in real life. So I hear you, but still think they did an OK job under the circumstances. It is a pretty big game world.


Not a perfect game, but then what is ? I enjoyed it enough. I was more let down by the level cap and the ending. Still I'd give it an Arbitrary nine out of ten, in the games review magazine inside my head.

Dragons in Space wrote:

All character models have the same exact male/female human base model, both of whom look like they have just a slight tint of Down syndrome.

Just pretend the radiation did it.

I'd argue Fallout 3 is an RPG wholesale.

There may be alot of FPS combat, but it's not standard COD corridor spraying, infact the game always opens up several avenues of completion for every scenario. Just like Fallout 1 and 2.

Spot an enemy patrol? well you could go in guns blazing if your a small guns character, but you could also hack a nearby control panel to turn thier turrets against them - or even acsess a hidden door and bypass the encounter entirley. Stealth character? activate the Pip Boy and sneak past them, perhaps even reverse pickpocketing a grenade onto one of them for a bit of fun. If you're a melle character you could equip your followers with rippers, and run in for a huge brawl, if your a big guns expert, then take out your minigun, secure a defensive position and hail down bullets onto your enemies.

Fallout 3 is definatley not an FPS.

Can someone clear up something for me? I noticed you guys arguing about wether it is a FPS or a RPG, but is it anything like Oblivion? I absolutely hated Oblivion and I was scared that Fallout 3 would be very similar so I skipped it and I keep hearing about how awesome it is. So guys, is it anything like Oblivion?

It's basically Oblivion, brown edition with guns and more but implausible gore.

When you summarize the gameplay, basically, apart from the combat, both games are the same. You emerge from a dungeon/vault in which a large amount of melee/ranged combat happened after an apparently major character died/left. You then go around a large landscape full of samey environments drenched with a saturated shade of the color green/brown performing tasks for people who sit around all day looking for someone to fetch or kill some stuff. There are also dreadfully boring dungeon/subway sewer levels.

ignore Dragons in Space. He's a self-involved child with Xbox Kid taste in video games.

Bethesda is a great company. Fallout 3 is a great game. The only reason people THINK bethesda is bad is because they believe people that diss it constantly.

Also, the new Fallout game will be made by Bethesda. They bought the rights and everything to Fallout. They own it now. They are, however, working IN PARTNERSHIP with Obsidion. So both of the companies will work on it.

Dude, XBox kids are the kids who mainly like FO3. I'm sorry that I didn't find the roleplaying immersive, or the shooting smart, or the environments unique.

Umm thanks guys.

Yes, I hope that clears everything up for you, Infant Shaker.

In truth, no one really knows as it's early days and not much news has been made available. But the quote is, "The same kind of game as Fallout 3". So, I guess another RPG / FPS hybrid kind of thing.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/100/1002811p1.html

I guess they didn't read my many, many e-mails asking them to turn Fallout into a match 3 / hidden object game.

I can easily say Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games now, I really can't wait for New Vegas.

Uberman wrote:

In defense of the game, it's kind of a victim of it's own setting. Yes, it's bleak, but comsidering the post-apocalyptic setting that's really the only way to go. The copypasta houses are silly, but again this is due to the setting. Any wide open / sandbox game needs to rely on copypasta. However, if it's something like GTA you notice it less because undamaged buildings are fairly unchracteristic. And hey, you see rows of very similar buildings in real life. So I hear you, but still think they did an OK job under the circumstances. It is a pretty big game world.

I'm not sure I buy this excuse. Red Dead Redemption (which, admittedly, was released two years later) is quite huge, yet there's virtually no recycled buildings or landmarks. And, considering that Fallout 3 actually looked worse than Oblivion, you'd think they could've at least added more buildings.

If you've ever been to a suburban area then you'd notice that every house looks the same. Why can't Fallout 3 be that way?

Thing is, basically everything in the game is the same. You see a row of destroyed houses. There aren't two bits of variation in how they are all destroyed. You just see these cloned rows of skeletons and it's just pathetic.

one great cup of coffee wrote:

Thing is, basically everything in the game is the same. You see a row of destroyed houses. There aren't two bits of variation in how they are all destroyed. You just see these cloned rows of skeletons and it's just pathetic.

The game gave up some of its style in order to have technical grace. Its mechanics work very well.

I never closely expected houses but they look OK to me. A lot of them have the same layout and whatnot, but it doesn't take anything away from the game.

I do agree that the destruction is a bit odd. I find it incredibly odd that all the houses are destroyed in the same way, with the destruction all facing the same direction and being the same amount.

If they wanted it to look like a bomb had hit, wouldn't the destruction face a central point (where the bomb went off) and then houses would have larger amounts of destruction as that center point was approached?

art wrote:

I do agree that the destruction is a bit odd. I find it incredibly odd that all the houses are destroyed in the same way, with the destruction all facing the same direction and being the same amount.

If they wanted it to look like a bomb had hit, wouldn't the destruction face a central point (where the bomb went off) and then houses would have larger amounts of destruction as that center point was approached?

If they wanted to make it look like a bomb actually hit then their job would have been a lot easier, in that there'd be a lot less to render. Whatever bomb hit the capital wasteland would have had to be pretty weak, considering most of the city is still standing, even if it isn't in good shape.

I was looking at some New Vegas screenshots when I noticed a very familiar looking mutant:

"Note: Clicking this *will* fuck up the page width":

Is it just me, or does this guy look a helluva lot like (or rather, exactly the same as) Marcus from Fallout 2?



PS: I'm not finished Fallout 2, so please, no spoilers relating to Marcus.