Fallout: New Vegas

[ekimekim]

I'm willing to bet someone is right now working on modding NV to get that highwayman up and running again...

In related news, I know of one person who's writing their own post-ending game world complete with changes to faction powers and new quests, depending on who you sided with. Though currently all it does is lets you complete side quests you didn't do earlier.

 

[remmus]

still feel like Yatzi did nothing more then glance from cover to cover, I´m still not really buying the whole "it´s so much like fallout 3 the review be the same".

It´s like saying "oh I don´t need to look at the house down the street because the house across from me has the same foundation and frame work, maybe not the same furniture or room design, but the same foundation and frame" *nods*

 

[n00beffect]

"There's an overarching story and fixed events on the trail of the overall quest that the heroes are always going to be moving towards, but in between the major events come shorter, episodic adventures as the protagonists stumble upon distractions."

- So, basically, you mean fillers ? Yes, well, they might work in games, but in animes... pff, nothing worse than an f-ing filler =.= Anyways, moving on to the point:

You say, Mr Croshaw, that a key element that Fallout: New Vegas is missing is the abillity to expirience the enviroment through long-distance travelling. Yet, when Assassin's Creed did it, you described it as "Lenghty horse journeys". Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but from the Assassin's Creed 2 reviw I gathered that you didn't like that sort of "lenghty horse journey"-ing(or something)?

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I do think it's odd that there aren't more vehicles in games like Fallout (well actually I only wonder about it in Fallout)

When you look at some of the most classic apocalypse stories (I'm thinking Mad Max) part of the entire setup is that fuel is now scarce and you have to fight for it. An open world Apocalyptic future world that was so big you needed a vehicle to get around in, but fuel was hopelessly short and fuel-raiders were everywhere trying to steal it from you on the road would be really really rewarding. Simply making it to town would be an achievement, and it would really highlight how much society has fallen that even a trip to a big supermarket a few miles away has become a choice between a slog through open desert or a harrying empty-fuel trip.

You could include a little counter of how much fuel is left in the tank, and then have both roads and open-world travel. If you travel on roads you can get an exact estimate of how much fuel you'll need but all of the best goodies will be off-road. There could be options for taking a certain number of fuel cans with you, but at the expense of weighing down your car so you need more anyway, and taking weapons would always have to be a pick and mix between the light but fairly weak guns which wouldn't weigh down your car but wouldn't fight off anything larger than a lone motorbike raider, or the M60 which doubles your fuel consumption but could take on a tank.

I think I'm starting to just describe my ideal apocalypse game now. Does anyone else think it sounds like fun? And to bring it back on topic wouldn't it make the apocalypse feel just a bit more like the apocalypse? And the world a bit more open to exploration without just making us walk everywhere?

 

[Desert Tiger]

I do think it's odd that there aren't more vehicles in games like Fallout (well actually I only wonder about it in Fallout)

When you look at some of the most classic apocalypse stories (I'm thinking Mad Max) part of the entire setup is that fuel is now scarce and you have to fight for it. An open world Apocalyptic future world that was so big you needed a vehicle to get around in, but fuel was hopelessly short and fuel-raiders were everywhere trying to steal it from you on the road would be really really rewarding. Simply making it to town would be an achievement, and it would really highlight how much society has fallen that even a trip to a big supermarket a few miles away has become a choice between a slog through open desert or a harrying empty-fuel trip.

You could include a little counter of how much fuel is left in the tank, and then have both roads and open-world travel. If you travel on roads you can get an exact estimate of how much fuel you'll need but all of the best goodies will be off-road. There could be options for taking a certain number of fuel cans with you, but at the expense of weighing down your car so you need more anyway, and taking weapons would always have to be a pick and mix between the light but fairly weak guns which wouldn't weigh down your car but wouldn't fight off anything larger than a lone motorbike raider, or the M60 which doubles your fuel consumption but could take on a tank.

I think I'm starting to just describe my ideal apocalypse game now. Does anyone else think it sounds like fun? And to bring it back on topic wouldn't it make the apocalypse feel just a bit more like the apocalypse? And the world a bit more open to exploration without just making us walk everywhere?

Thing is, vehicles in the Fallout world work on batteries. Yaknow, those things that you get for your energy rifles that come in their millions?

So they really don't have an excuse beyond the limited engine.

Hell, trucks are mentioned and at least two vehicles I remember are positioned as if they'd been parked - complete with supplies being sold out of the back of them.

 

[Aziraphael]

Ha I used to pretend I was in a spacepod when I was a kid and it was raining outside. I would run a heap of diagnostic tests on the environment before I knew it was safe to pull the cover down from over my head. I tried it again recently (I am 27 with a wife and a baby on the way) and it was still fun

 

[Mullahgrrl]

I do think it's odd that there aren't more vehicles in games like Fallout (well actually I only wonder about it in Fallout)

When you look at some of the most classic apocalypse stories (I'm thinking Mad Max) part of the entire setup is that fuel is now scarce and you have to fight for it. An open world Apocalyptic future world that was so big you needed a vehicle to get around in, but fuel was hopelessly short and fuel-raiders were everywhere trying to steal it from you on the road would be really really rewarding. Simply making it to town would be an achievement, and it would really highlight how much society has fallen that even a trip to a big supermarket a few miles away has become a choice between a slog through open desert or a harrying empty-fuel trip.

You could include a little counter of how much fuel is left in the tank, and then have both roads and open-world travel. If you travel on roads you can get an exact estimate of how much fuel you'll need but all of the best goodies will be off-road. There could be options for taking a certain number of fuel cans with you, but at the expense of weighing down your car so you need more anyway, and taking weapons would always have to be a pick and mix between the light but fairly weak guns which wouldn't weigh down your car but wouldn't fight off anything larger than a lone motorbike raider, or the M60 which doubles your fuel consumption but could take on a tank.

I think I'm starting to just describe my ideal apocalypse game now. Does anyone else think it sounds like fun? And to bring it back on topic wouldn't it make the apocalypse feel just a bit more like the apocalypse? And the world a bit more open to exploration without just making us walk everywhere?

Thing is, vehicles in the Fallout world work on batteries. Yaknow, those things that you get for your energy rifles that come in their millions?

So they really don't have an excuse beyond the limited engine.

Hell, trucks are mentioned and at least two vehicles I remember are positioned as if they'd been parked - complete with supplies being sold out of the back of them.

Maby they are difrent batteries? I mean, carbatteries are not AA batteries.


OT:
If Yahzee wanted to review something difrent, then why not Mount&Blade?
Its a geat little game that really deserves more reviews.

 

[Desert Tiger]

You could use Microfusion cells (the batteries your energy rifle uses) to power the car (the Highwayman) you get in Fallout 2.

 

[mizushinzui]

I liked Yahtzee's review of fallout: New Vegas.

It gave something interesting to watch instead of just the same thing all the time which can be a danger with the current release schedule of games being what it is.

I remember trying to role play a little in Fallout 3. It was alright but it was quite difficult with the immersion level so low. I still managed to create a character that acted like a cross between Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger

 

[unwesen]

To riff off your example, what if you could focus on crafting skills and unlock recipes that allowed you to make some of the best items in the game? Everyone talks about the guy wielding Excalibur, Durendal, Masamune--what if you could be the guy who forged it, renowned through the land as the greatest of smiths like Weyland or Hephaestus? Of course, to get the best materials, you'd need to brave dangerous places--or send other PCs after them.

You, sir, get my point!

 

[MajoraPersona]

Huh. I always thought the fast travel was more of a holdover from the original Fallout games, where there wasn't (really) a slow-travel option. Kinda like how VATS is more or less based on the turn-based nature of the games.

Oh well. At least the story was more interesting and involving than Fallout 3's was.

 

[The Cake Is Annoying]

As sick as I got of the slow motion killing in Fallout 3 before I even left the vault, I can see why it was made into a son-of-oblivion game. For all its generic FPS with missing details that criple the role playing, at least as a First Person Shooter it could sell to the ridiculously big first person shooter fanboys market.

Though I do think if they had taken more risks it could have paid off since Fallout had a well established world before Fallout 3 came out. I don't think it ever would have been damned to obscurity like say Beyond Good & Evil.

 

[ishist]

Disabling Fast Travel. There's a Mod for that. Unless your playing on a console, in which case your doing it wrong.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Problem with f3, oblivion and new vegas

the FIRST time you travel somewhere is new and interesting, the 1+Nth time isn't because you already saw everything

these games necessarily require a stash and a "home base" and you need to move back and forth frequently, particularly in hardcore mode

now to make hardcore mode even more hardcore they need to disable fast travel with any crippled limbs

I'll go you one better: they should do away with the concept of a stash entirely. Make it so that any items you leave behind are vulnerable to theft or decay. Don't go giving the player access to a "house" right away. Then you'd really have to make tough decisions about what you can carry, and stats like "strength" might actually take on some importance in gun-heavy settings like Fallout.

 

[Paulrus_Keaton]

I remember having to walk a lot in Morrowind. Got boring at times, but it did allow me to put my ADD to good use and explore places instead of doing any quests.

I remember being on one quest, then jumping to another when some guy attacked me in my sleep. Next thing you know I'm catching the next boat to werewolf land. Then NEXT thing you know I'm trying to pick locks in some town because some crazy woman was killing people in her home.

As for role-playing, I role played as a serial killer/abolitionist. Went into slave owner's homes and murdered them to death. Then wondered why the slaves never took off.

 

[Doomcat]

Seeing as i have played DnD since i was 4 with my parents and my sister (my parents are nerds, they raise nerds) i have grown up really liking RolePlaying.

The problem is, i always find it hard to roleplay when all my statements in conversations are 'set' and the other persons reactions are as well. I'm just used to doing it with other people, on online games etc, though not those things like WoW, people tend to revert to power mongers there, RP or not.

Really though, since i started playing Fallout 3 again, i've been getting into it strangely. I've specialized my character a little more gone for more "intelligent" skills and "agile" skills instead of just doing EVERYTHING. I think that FO3 could be a perfect RPing engine. the one thing that would need to change though would be that interaction character to character.

turning FO3 into an Online RPG (no not a Mass Multi, just Online) where you can have 2 or 3 people playing at the same time...could probably be just a great RPing experience. have a house rule not to fast-travel, and simply go out and adventure. sure it would be tedious in the wasteland wandering sometimes, but thats why i suggest making it multiplayer, because just navigating the terrain of fallout myself is boring at times. a Merchant/Bodyguard relationship could be a interesting one for example, scavving for good items to sell at the next town or settlement but ending up ambushed by super mutants...

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Problem with f3, oblivion and new vegas

the FIRST time you travel somewhere is new and interesting, the 1+Nth time isn't because you already saw everything

these games necessarily require a stash and a "home base" and you need to move back and forth frequently, particularly in hardcore mode

now to make hardcore mode even more hardcore they need to disable fast travel with any crippled limbs

I'll go you one better: they should do away with the concept of a stash entirely. Make it so that any items you leave behind are vulnerable to theft or decay. Don't go giving the player access to a "house" right away. Then you'd really have to make tough decisions about what you can carry, and stats like "strength" might actually take on some importance in gun-heavy settings like Fallout.

Strength does matter...you need 5 to get the "strong back" perk which is really good.

And you need str to use a bunch of guns or else your accuracy blows so really 4 or 5 is about the minimum you want to go.

But not being able to stash everything would make adventure game OCD people like me have fits....though a "chance" of your stash being raided based on how close to civilization you put it would be cool

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I know that to a newcomer the flying wyverns and griffons of WoW are impressive, but after the first year or so, at least for me, a big consideration while levelling and doing random minutiae in the endgame was travel. Blizzard has made it easier and easier (reducing hearthstone cooldowns, scrolls of teleportation) to move around the World o.w. instantly.

4 classes can flat out teleport. The others can exploit currently allowed systems such as the battleground portals or dungeon summon stones. And if all that fails, you can usually get on your flying mount, point yourself towards your destination, and turn on autorun while you go eat a sandwich.

And of course mage portals are constantly for sale. So the epic feeling of travel in WoW hasn't been there for a number of years as I see it. But I agree that it takes away from the magnitude of a world if you never actually see large spans of it.

 

[delanofilms]

I really like the idea of a large RPG being more like an episodic TV series. Imagine if in Pokemon, you'd had to handle the weird and wonderful problems each gym leader has, before finally fighting and getting the badge? Instead of just grinding your way to the door and using the same move for every opponent 'mon.

Thank GOD I wasn't the only one to think this. If the Pokemon games actually played out like this i would never be able to put them down.

 

[Venereus]

Civ5 is freaking awful. However, it'd be awesome to see a ZP review tearing it apart.