Fallout: New Vegas

[PrometheanFlame]

I couldn't agree more. I remember having a lot of fun in Oblivion just getting from point A to B, and it was so frustrating to walk by what looked like a perfectly intact motorcycle on my way into just about every single town in Fallout (3/NV). Would it really have been so hard for them to add vehicles into the game? Shit, even regular HORSES would've made sense.

Of course, there DOES come a point where the journey becomes tedious because the game doesn't add anything new as you progress, and then you're back to fast-traveling. Sure, it might add in an encounter here and there, but by and large these are unique and quest-related. As far as I'm concerned, if I spend the whole day walking the road between the NCR mojave outpost outside Nipton and the New Vegas Strip, it should never be quite the same as any other time I do it. Granted, I'm not expecting Godzilla to come stomping out of the desert, but there should be SOMETHING. Maybe that's just expecting too much from the technology? Maybe that would add another five years to the development time? I dunno. It's just a pity for a world to feel so full as you stand at a crossroad and know that there's something interesting in every possible direction, yet simultaneously feel so empty and alone as you go there.

I think that New Vegas was better than Fallout 3 in this regard with little touches like roving bands of ants that seemed utterly disinterested in you until you kicked one over and scathing sandstorms that would sweep across ancient lakebeds, but it just wasn't enough. I dunno. Chalk this up as just one more entitled complaint, because I honestly can't wait to see what the new engine makes possible in The Elder Scrolls 5. Attractive people, hopefully, because my bare-titty mod is wasted on the blue-tinted moonfaces of Oblivion and Fallout.

 

[Richioso]

Bollox, Yahtzee you've done it again.

Give us a review or an original thought please, not your new word of the day.

It's been said before and I'll say it again "if you don't want to fast travel don't"

Also the industry is built on sequels, it's been that way since you and I were little boys.

 

[Netrigan]

It's strange how often I watch one of his videos after playing a game I mostly enjoyed and find myself agreeing with his complaints. I just watched the Fallout 3 one, a game I'm currently enjoying, and I find myself thinking that there's far too much content to explore in relation to its story content. While I've finished the main game (only two of the add-ons and three side-missions to go), I've still got a third of the Wasteland to explore and most of Downtown DC. I'm quite literally playing several hours a day just to say I saw it all... and it is starting to wear thin.

And I agree with his complaint about the lack of a fast exploration option. The fast travel system is all well and good, but I think the best fast-travel system is one that you don't want to use 90% of the time. I'm glad I have the indestructible Fawkes & Dogmeat, because fighting those damn Albino Radscorpions every two minutes gets real fucking old, real fucking fast. Running away should always be an option, but some of these enemies move too fast to make that practical.

 

[Netrigan]

And the karma system needs some serious work.

Definitely. I was of the mind to pick every lock and hack every computer (and early on, steal absolutely everything to sell), but when it came to story missions, I picked the good path every single time. I didn't go around shooting unfriendly NPCs to steal their loot. I actually felt bad when I opted to kill Dashwood in Tenpenny Tower, but only because I was opting to help the Ghouls to get the mask so I didn't have to fight my way through every damn subway tunnel in the game.

I think they should introduce a more two dimensional system. The X-axis being about evil acts like killing good people are selling people into slavery, while the y-axis is about honesty and generosity. Lock-pick, hack, and steal your way through the game, and your reputation will suffer... perhaps resulting in higher prices at shops to off-set your obvious thieving ways. Also think the consequences for getting caught stealing are a bit too high. Having everyone try to kill you for a failed pick-pocket just leads to save-scumming. Have successful thefts gradually affect your bad reputation (that their store is noticeably lighter after one of your visits should be noted), while getting caught results in a bigger hit. Higher prices in shops or making it harder to succeed on a speech challenge because you're considered dishonest would make more sense then everyone in town trying to kill you.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Ok, I wanted to post something on this game, and looked for ages for a thread to do it in.

I think "Fallout: New Vegas" may be one of my favorite games ever. It's like they took all of my criticisms of "Fallout 3" (STOP ATTACKING ME WITH RADSCORPIONS FOR NO REASON, I JUST WANT TO SEE WHAT INTERESTING STUFF YOUR WORLD HAS GODDAMMIT!) and improved everything that was wrong about it.

- Vastly reduced random encounters, instead replacing them with "scripted" ones where the tough enemies are in hard-to-reach areas with bigger and better loot as a reward; you can avoid those areas at the start of the game when you're a feeble, underpowered novice, and seek them out when you've levelled up and want a decent challenge.

- It's entirely possible to play as a character with almost no levelling of combat skills at the start and not suffer a huge disadvantage. I know, I've done it - poured all my points into stealth, speech, lockpick and survival. And it works.

- Much better story. (Yeah, I know "New Vegas" gets stick for the fact that its character doesn't have an "identity" at the start. But seriously, is that really worse than the horrible vault opening of "Fallout 3"? Yeah, starting with the character's birth was plain awesome, but the vault escape was incredibly badly managed. The overseer could die and you'd get blamed, no matter whether you had anything to do with it or not, for example.) It just feels as though you have more control over what happens.

- The landscape is genuinely varied, more so than "Fallout 3", although I think Washington DC is better portrayed than Las Vegas. Now you have desert mixed with greenery, even snowy hilltops.

- The different "factions" work incredibly well. Why doesn't every role-playing game have this? Seriously? This is how the character encounters in "Fallout 3" SHOULD have worked. I love that you can play two games, and in one game you are friends with a particular faction, in the other you're mortal enemies with them.

- The skills are better balanced from "Fallout 3". Barter, speech, energy weapons and explosives are no longer useless; guns and stealth have been toned down. I love the new "survival" skill.

- The soundtrack incorporates elements of the previous "Fallout" games, but this has always been a weak point in the series. Now, in Fallout: New Vegas, for the first time EVER, it's not.

The sheer variety of the experience reminds me of the first time I played the original "System Shock". Yeah, it's that good. Definitely the best game I've played over the last three or four years.

But the main thing is the random encounters, the soundtrack, and the factions.

All sandbox role-playing games should learn by example of just how good these aspects of Fallout: New Vegas are. It just goes to show that you don't have to stand for being attacked by a f--king RAT every sixty seconds like clockwork because the game deems that you haven't had a "random encounter" for too long.

 

[rocker1600]

Thankfully, FO4 does try to deal with this by letting you ride a Vertibird while using the machine gun like your some retro futuristic Huey gunner from Vietnam.