Fallout: New Vegas

[NathanAjax]

Fallout: New Vegas is a new game in the Fallout series that is coming in half a year. It is being developed by Obsidian, a developer that houses a lot of the old makers of Fallout. Fallout: New Vegas takes the engine and core gameplay of Fallout 3 and sets it in Las Vegas.
While F3 was one of my favorite games of all time, it wasn't perfect. So I though I could list some things that should be improved or changed in New Vegas:

Things that should be improved:

The graphics F3's characters look too much alike and the textures could be a lot better.

The combat If you don't use VATS in F3 you're fucked. Because of the health bar (more on that further on) you have to kill people ASAP or it will cost you a valuable stimpack. But the shooting doesn't feel right IMHO. It lacks the smooth controls of a COD or Halo. The melee doesn't work great either, you get shot before you can get near enough, so after each fight you'll have to heal. They should make the bullets have more impact too. In F3 the enemies will soak up the bullets and suddenly fall. They should also improve the sniper rifles since they were very weak.

The health bar OK some people will hate me for this, but I think a health bar in a shooter is a bad idea. Only sneaking, VATS and sniping (which is shit thanks to the crappy snipers in F3)are a good idea, because you won't have to heal, which would lose you money.
Another problem is that near the end of the game you'll have so many stimpacks that you'll be practically invincible. This isn't helped by the fact that you can pause and heal at any time. A better system would be one like Far Cry 2, where you have multiple bars which regenerate. When you lose one you can use a stimpack to regain the ones you lost. You heal in real time, so it doesn't endanger the difficulty. Thanks to the regenerating you can soak up a amount of damage before it will cost you a stimpack. This will enable melee and shooting without VATS.
edit I think this makes it clearer what I mean, I wrote the other things about my ideas for health at 1 Am, so I wasn't that clear.

Sounds to me like OP just kept getting his ass kicked in the game. I had no problem without using VATS. I actually forgot it existed for quite some time. The health bar system is way more realistic than waiting for time to heal you, and if you're that picky about the graphics, QQ more. For what it was, Fallout was great.

Health Bar FTW: Regenerating health is fucking stupid. there is a fundamental difference between, "Oh shit I'm down to one HP I'd better duck behind here and..1..2..3..4...5.. woot full health," and, "Oh shit I'm down to one health what do I do what do I do. Huh that's a stim pack over there ok I'll try to use sneak to get it without being shot." the main difference one requires you to actually think

I haven't said it should be like regenerating in COD. I said a system like Far Cry 2, where you have 5 serperate bars -----, every time you get shot you lose a portion of a bar, if the full bar is gone you lose it, if you don't get hit for some time you will regenerate the bar. To recover lost bars you have to use a stimpack (in real time, not a menu!). This is a compromise between regenerating like COD, which is shit for RPG's, and F3, which sucks for shooters/action games.

Make choices have impact Now you just have a tab that says if your evil or good. They did a better job in the DLC where your choice made all the water poisonous or healthy. Make people talk about what you've done, not just one radio presenter.

Additions:

Customize weapons How come I can make a weapon from two Twinkie wrappers and a sock, but I can't customize weapons.

Retain:

Keep the amount of locations One of the best things of F3 was the many locations. They could've made them a bit more varied, but the sheer number of buildings, each with it's unique item or story, was great.

Keep the humor and easter eggs Self explanatory

Keep the interesting story and the great immersion With F3 it felt like I was in a real nuclear wasteland, please keep that in New Vegas.

 

[Hippobatman]

Well... I did ok without VATS in Fallout 3, even on the higher difficulties. Maybe it was because I pooled all my points into sneak and small guns and snuck up behind anything that moved while giving them the "classic shotgun diplomacy" up their arses.

Anyway, I'm not very excited for New Vegas. I'll wait for the reviews and then make my decision.

I don't have any suggestions for improvements, though, sorry.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Considering Fallout is an RPG and not a full-blown FPS, I have no problems with the combat. And why do you complain about taking damage because it will waste your "valuable stimpaks", when later you say that you will have tons of them in the end? And who has heard of a game with guns where you don't get shot before you get near someone to melee them?

Final point: Snipers probably suck because you aren't focused on them. Since Fallout is an RPG, you have to focus a lot on what kind of weapon you want to use. In Halo for example, a sniper round to the face will kill you instantly, just like in real life. But in Fallout, where you choose what skills to have in what, the skills would be useless if the enemies died as easily as in Halo. Defeats the purpose of having to choose your skills, which you are supposed to in an RPG.

I'm' being awfully nitpicky, I'm sorry. Fanboyism shining through I guess. I'm not trying to be an asshole, just debate with you on the subjects. Don't take any offense.

 

[Hiphophippo]

rpg =/= fps

 

[SonicKoala]

Yeah, you have to use stimpacks a lot, but like you said, you have so many of them it doesn't really matter all that much. I think you're trying to treat Fallout far too much like an FPS, while ignoring the RPG elements of the game. I'd go on but my main ideas were already summarized by the guy above me (hubilub), so there's no need to be redundant.

 

[Spongeguardian]

Honestly, I couldn't care less about what is in New Vegas, as long as it has full mod capabilities like Fo3 and Oblivion. That, and it better be optimized for PCs (like Fallout 3, but definitely not Oblivion. Hell, Oblivion wasn't even optimized for consoles).

Though honestly, I'm kinda happy that the new Fo3 isn't coming from Bethesda. Maybe it'll get the polish it deserves.

 

[Hiphophippo]

well informed snip

Quoted for truth my good man. However I will contribute my own 2 cents.

I think that graphics should be improved certainly, although if they put art direction changes over graphical upgrades, thats cool too.

They should make the game less like Oblivion and more like the classic Fallouts. Sorry to alienate people new to the series, but they really should up the difficulty more, and make it so that its not so favorable towards the player in VATS.

And finally, they should up the gore even more.

If it turns out to be like actual fallout games and not oblivion brix will be shat.

 

[TheLefty]

The health bar OK some people will hate me for this, but I think a health bar in a shooter is a bad idea.

more tomorrow

It's slightly more realistic than the whole "Ok now the screens turning red so let's hide in a corner and wait for magic to heal my wounds. Personally I liked the health bar. It let me know pretty precisely how much I could take rather that a vague guess. Though I would have liked regenerating health as a perk or something along those mines I personally would keep the health bar system.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The ability to fast travel to and from indoor locations would greatly ease the pain of fetch quests.

 

[Cherry Cola]

well informed snip

Quoted for truth my good man. However I will contribute my own 2 cents.

I think that graphics should be improved certainly, although if they put art direction changes over graphical upgrades, thats cool too.

They should make the game less like Oblivion and more like the classic Fallouts. Sorry to alienate people new to the series, but they really should up the difficulty more, and make it so that its not so favorable towards the player in VATS.

And finally, they should up the gore even more.

More gore? I don't know if there is anything on the human body that can explode more than what the bloody mess brings...

And yes, up the difficulty! I want to dread every battle in fear of loosing my stimpaks, that is how you play! Not fun if you're invincible. [sub]seriously, they made such a huge thing about having to look for health everywhere in the developer diaries, and then you just get tons of stimpaks.[/sub]

 

[walls of cetepedes]

In regards to Graphics, there won't be any difference, as they're using exactly the same tools as FO3 used.

 

[annil8tion]

I think they should just add many more weapons and make the snipers not total crap. I mean look at any of the call of duty modern warfare and CS and any other FPS and take some gun ideas from them. Also, the snipers should be alot better, they were practically, if not totally, useless, and I for one like snipers, so I'd like for my use of them to not be completely pointless.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Regenerating health would kill the survival feel. And that was what kept me playing.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[

And yes, up the difficulty! I want to dread every battle in fear of loosing my stimpaks, that is how you play! Not fun if you're invincible. [sub]seriously, they made such a huge thing about having to look for health everywhere in the developer diaries, and then you just get tons of stimpaks.[/sub]

The best 10 hours I had in Fallout 3 were the first 10, when I was getting to know the way the world worked and was constantly near death, desperately scavenging or stealing every Stimpak I could find.

It does lose a little of the challenge when you're level 30 with 700 stimpaks, 100 in all skills and 90 000 bottle caps...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

In regards to Graphics, there won't be any difference, as they're using exactly the same tools as FO3 used.

'The exact same tools as FO3 used'... I read that and thought you were referring to the character animation staff... hehe

 

[Octorok]

In regards to Graphics, there won't be any difference, as they're using exactly the same tools as FO3 used.

'The exact same tools as FO3 used'... I read that and thought you were referring to the character animation staff... hehe

Heehee. I chortled.

However, just because they're using the same tools doesn't mean they can't beef up the textures/character models/models in general a bit. You can put different textures and better prefabs into the GECK now, why not in six months?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

In regards to Graphics, there won't be any difference, as they're using exactly the same tools as FO3 used.

'The exact same tools as FO3 used'... I read that and thought you were referring to the character animation staff... hehe

Heehee. I chortled.

However, just because they're using the same tools doesn't mean they can't beef up the textures/character models/models in general a bit. You can put different textures and better prefabs into the GECK now, why not in six months?

I hope they do. It tends to break immersion when the characters flop and glide around like broken Thunderbirds puppets.

 

[Octorok]

In regards to Graphics, there won't be any difference, as they're using exactly the same tools as FO3 used.

'The exact same tools as FO3 used'... I read that and thought you were referring to the character animation staff... hehe

Heehee. I chortled.

However, just because they're using the same tools doesn't mean they can't beef up the textures/character models/models in general a bit. You can put different textures and better prefabs into the GECK now, why not in six months?

I hope they do. It tends to break immersion when the characters flop and glide around like broken Thunderbirds puppets.

That's more physics than graphics though.

 

[walls of cetepedes]

'The exact same tools as FO3 used'... I read that and thought you were referring to the character animation staff... hehe

I see what you did there...

Heehee. I chortled.

However, just because they're using the same tools doesn't mean they can't beef up the textures/character models/models in general a bit. You can put different textures and better prefabs into the GECK now, why not in six months?

Now that you mention it, that is pretty reasonable.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

In regards to Graphics, there won't be any difference, as they're using exactly the same tools as FO3 used.

'The exact same tools as FO3 used'... I read that and thought you were referring to the character animation staff... hehe

Heehee. I chortled.

However, just because they're using the same tools doesn't mean they can't beef up the textures/character models/models in general a bit. You can put different textures and better prefabs into the GECK now, why not in six months?

I hope they do. It tends to break immersion when the characters flop and glide around like broken Thunderbirds puppets.

That's more physics than graphics though.

I wouldn't know which it is, just that it looks hilarious when characters are running and thier legs glide along the ground like they're ice skating...