New Vegas!?

[coltraz]

Well?!? What do we think!?

[kennyinbmore]

I only got to play it for about 20 minutes last night, but so far so good in my opinion. I'll make a more in depth post when I play it more tonight

[HystericalParoxysm]

Hell. Yes.

[paksetti]

Awesome, but it would be 30 times more awesome had they named it New New York.

[kustirider2]

Argh. I am so jealous of you guys. We get it Friday here, but I'm really excited :D

[ElPresidente]

Been lucky enough to have this sitting on my PC for the past weeks and a bit. 30 hours in and still loving it. This is much closer to what I had originally wanted Fallout 3 to be - but you should expect that when so many of the original Fallout team were present to work on New Vegas.

Oh and everyone do yourself a favour. Play with hardcore mode ON.

[ElementMK]

I hear it's buggy out the wazoo. As an offline 360 player, what can I expect?

[HystericalParoxysm]

Element Leaf - Lots of strange random glitches - nothing game breaking for me yet. On PC I'm getting -loads- of graphics issues (though they seem to have died down a bit with new drivers) and a bit of lag. On xbox (yes I have both - obsessive Fallout fan is me!) it's not as pretty, but there's weird stuff like NPC routing being a little strange (they'll run back and forth or get stuck in the landscape a bit) and the, um, hand-with-gun thing in first person view sometimes flaps around a bit strangely (like, you raise your gun and lower it a bit as you move around and it's kind of distracting). There's apparently a LOT of glitches: http://kotaku.com/5668552/fallout-new-vegas-has-bug-issues?skyline=true&s=i

ElPresidente - For once, you and I agree on a game! I'm SHOCKED. :lol: I'm really pleasantly surprised about how good it is. It seems somehow more gritty than FO3 - I think I'd become a bit desensitized to the gore piles and super mutants and whatnot but there's been several times in New Vegas I've just jawdropped going "OMG that is GRUESOME!" They also seem to swear a lot more. And I'm -very- pleased with the quality of the writing. I actually -care- about the storyline. The factions and their conflicts seem interesting, and I actually let the voiced dialog complete without just clicking through at their blahblahblah and letting the quest markers guide me.

[coltraz]

Sounds awesome. I haven't actually got a chance to play it yet, my PC has been "in the shop" - installing New Vegas as soon as I get it back!

Pres, why do you recommend playing the game on hard core exactly?

[kittielickie]

I've put in about 14 hours and it's awesome. It takes a little getting used to the healing process. It's slower if you use food and water. It doesn't instantly heal, it slowly builds up, but besides that, it's just as good, if not better than fallout 3. The world is HUGE and every decision you make effects one group or another. It's a great balancing act.

[HystericalParoxysm]

One thing I'm finding that BUGS THE SHIT OUT OF ME is the invisible walls. There are a lot of rocky/rubbly areas that you cannot jump onto because of invisible walls. I hate it - it's lazy and unnecessary. If an area needs to be inaccessible, it's not difficult to stack up stuff in the way so that you just can't find a way up. FO3 didn't seem to do this nearly so much - but I've run into several times in NV that I just can't go somewhere, for no apparent reason. Once, I tried to go over a large hill and was quite pleased at finding a way -almost- all the way up, but then couldn't actually make it over the ridge. Noticed a strange dome not too far away that it appeared the invisible walls must be preventing me from getting to - but no visible reason I couldn't go there. Eventually I figured out it was a quest-related thing and was blocked off so it could do a dramatic cinematic thing - but still, stack up rocks, seriously.

Another time was even dumber - wanted to climb the rubble of a bombed-out building to get a higher vantage point on some Fiends and the rubble was just unclimbable - an invisible wall prevented me from hopping up at all.

There've been a couple of quests that are completely unintuitive, too (Vault 34 can seriously go fuck itself).

Um, also, random monochrome. No idea what it's supposed to indicate, and it's just -annoying-.

I love the companion control system and have had minimal issues with my companion since I got him - mostly him getting stuck on the landscape or not being able to jump over things to follow me (I leap around a lot) but the pie menu thing is great. Can't wait until there are mods where I can recruit any NPC. I want Ghost as a companion.

Overall, I'm really loving it, and want to start a petition to Bethesda to sell replicas of the in-game art. I desperately need the painting of Mr. House in front of the robot legs hanging in my living room.

[Rawra]

It's the best Fallout game so far, not counting the first ones, because of their graphics. Compared only to FO3. I like the fact that not everything is destroyed, you know. FO 3's landscapes are really depressing.
And, of course, the ability to play poker. I'm a poker freak!

[Marie.M]

How is the voice acting? I thought it was awful in FO3 (Except James. I actually got attached to him.).

[ElementMK]

:!: Although spoilers should be assumed, here's your warning.
There've been a couple of quests that are completely unintuitive, too (Vault 34 can seriously go fuck itself).Yeah, I've avoided most of the lap dog quests. Mr. House lost his appeal pretty early on. I've been having great fun working for the NCR, though. It's half diplomacy and half kicking ass.

The Brotherhood of Steel quests were pretty simple but still intriguing. I hope I wasn't the only one to WTF when they stormed out and threatened to shoot me on the spot if I didn't give them everything I had. I guess the Outcasts were serious.

Um, also, random monochrome. No idea what it's supposed to indicate, and it's just -annoying-.I think that's the "sunset". I'm guessing it's because of an unchanged lighting set-up being put against a more colorful palette (for Fallout, anyway).

I love the companion control system and have had minimal issues with my companion since I got him - mostly him getting stuck on the landscape or not being able to jump over things to follow me (I leap around a lot) but the pie menu thing is great. Can't wait until there are mods where I can recruit any NPC. I want Ghost as a companion.ED-E and Veronica have been my favorite pairing. ED-E is silent, obedient, and out of the way, and I felt almost relieved to find that Veronica wasn't the cookie-cut "I <3 u cuz ur mah leedr" character. It was interesting to see how little of a deal her being a lesbian was; I don't see that sort of maturity in most games. I'm still keeping my eyes peeled for a nice dress, though.

[SimJymm]

How is the voice acting? I thought it was awful in FO3 (Except James. I actually got attached to him.).


Felicia Day of "The Guild" does a great job as the voice actor for the Veronica companion. :)

[HystericalParoxysm]

Apparently Arcade Gannon (voiced by Zachary Levi from Chuck) is gay. Strange (but kind of neat) that they have two homosexual companions to choose from. I only ran into Arcade last night and talked to him for a few minutes, but he seems cool. Speaks Latin and stuff.

[Synthesis]

I would normally be very excited about it...but as it stands, I've barely delved into the original FO3, and it's primarily for the same reason I'm still playing Oblivion: Mods, mods, mods, and more mods.

New Vegas lacks those at the moment, so it's not as attractive. Once the mod scene grows, that will change. Likewise, I wasn't really into FO1 and FO2, so that doesn't fact in.

[SimJymm]

I would normally be very excited about it...but as it stands, I've barely delved into the original FO3, and it's primarily for the same reason I'm still playing Oblivion: Mods, mods, mods, and more mods.

New Vegas lacks those at the moment, so it's not as attractive. Once the mod scene grows, that will change. Likewise, I wasn't really into FO1 and FO2, so that doesn't fact in.

Au contraire, there's 600+ files available for New Vegas over at http://www.newvegasnexus.com/

Quite a few of the mods made for Fallout 3 are easily converted to New Vegas. As of today Fallout 3 has 10,755 files at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/ So the number of NV mods will be increasing dramatically in the near future.

[Synthesis]

Au contraire, there's 600+ files available for New Vegas over at http://www.newvegasnexus.com/

Quite a few of the mods made for Fallout 3 are easily converted to New Vegas. As of today Fallout 3 has 10,755 files at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/ So the number of NV mods will be increasing dramatically in the near future.

As you said yourself, six hundred really doesn't compare to +10 thousand. Especially when some of my favorite mods aren't yet converted over--I am looking forward to them being converted over though. :)

[SimJymm]

I agree with you Synthesis, I'm waiting for some more mods to be converted to FalloutNV. :)
I know what you mean by Oblivion and mods, mods, mods and more mods. Mods for a lot of games add to the continued playability of a games that might otherwise be shelved. What mods I'd like to see for FalloutNV are ones that add new content, sort of like what "Lost Spires" did for Oblivion and what "Fall from Heaven II" did for Civ4.

[ElementMK]

Has anyone else discovered how to utilize the ARCHIMEDES II orbital strike? That was the greatest discovery ever.

I'd be horrified to have rerouted power to ARCHIMEDES II before I bought the gun, though. It wasn't exactly in ... responsible hands.

[coltraz]

Finally started playing and love it.

Not sure how I feel about hardcore mode. I like the dehydration concern and the fact that you need doctor bags or to visit a doctor in order to repair your crippled limbs. However I am not liking how ammo takes up much needed inventory space. I am constantly having to drop things I'd rather keep and having to pass up collecting scraps for manufacturing because my guy keeps getting bogged down by too much weight. Kind of getting to be irritating...I've taken to collecting things and then dropping it in a huge pile back in the Goodsprings doc's house. I'm hoping the game doesn't end up purging it...

Aside form that I really like how this game makes you nervous about what paths you take. Didn't get that sense so much in FO3. I am now a villain to the powder gangers and Ceaser's Legion. I had quite the time deciding if I wanted to waste the powder ganger at the front door of their complex in the "find a sheriff for Primm" quest... and I was also pretty nervous when I decided to kill that guy with the dog pelt on his head who tortured that little town and crucified people. But the way I see it is those kind of people I don't want as friends anyway! Might as well declare them enemies. Plus, the dog-pelt guy challenged me to try to kill them. Well I showed them!

ETA: Here's the other weird thing. When I first played the game I had anti aliasing shut off. Things were ugly and jagged. And my game was quite laggy. I thought, "Uh oh..." because you'd think turning off AA would make the game less laggy. I put it on and not only did things look way better but the lag was virtually gone. EH!?! Anyone have an explanation for that?

[ElPresidente]

How old is your graphics card? By switching on Anti-Aliasing you may be disabling HDR (Older cards can't render both at once) which can be a great drain on your system resources depending on your resolution.

[coltraz]

Nope, both HDR and Anti-Aliasing are on. I have everything maxed out. The card is only a few weeks old. I just thought it was really weird how "lowering" the graphics settings by switching AA off actually made the game not only LOOK worse, but run worse, and then putting AA back on it runs 10x better. It's backwards!

[Synthesis]

I'm actually slightly less anxious to buy New Vegas in light of some considerations.

NV is a Steamworks game...how is the stability? FO3 is already rather unstable as it is, adding steam into the mix isn't too confidence inspiring.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Synthesis - I've had zero issues with crashing with NV. I've had a few interesting glitches and bugs in-game, but nothing game-breaking, just weird visuals.

[Synthesis]

Interesting. The general consensus I've heard is that it's actually less stable than FO3, unfortunately.

[ElPresidente]

It has more bugs (enemies clipping through the environment, quests failing to complete, etc) but stability on PC is on par with FO3.

Consoles are a completely different story. Apparently the PS3 and 360 version suffer way more issues.

To put in context for you - I put in approx 50 hours on my review and it only crashed three times in that period.

[Rawra]

I think I'm the only one here who has NO bugs? Oh, well... New Vegas is the best BEST Fallout so far. It never crashed either, BTW. I like everything at it. Well, except the absolutely horrible insects (not that they're not designed well, but they're so disgusting, I have to close my speakers because of those awful noises they make).

I love the V.A.T.S., as I also did in FO3. Blowing up heads and feet and hands and everything is PHun, people!

Also, the graphics are awesome if set on HQ.

I'm not sure if in FO3 you could upgrade your weapons, but that's another thing I love! Especially with Veronica, who could build stuff on the road.

Speaking of Veronica, I like the companions more than in FO 3. Especially the Nightkin (was it Lucy?) and Veronica. They're so funny and sympathetic, I sometimes kick them from my team just so they won't die (I blew up Veronica's head when I was trying to kill a Feral Ghoul with V.A.T.S. once. I was like :| ).

My conclusion is that New Vegas is just sublime. And, well, that I'm very lucky to have no bugs, nor crashes in it. Did I mention how awesome V.A.T.S. is?

[Synthesis]

It's good to hear some good news stability wise, but I'm also hearing a lot in the area of it being less stable.

As it stands, I already have some problems in FO3...about one in every six or so startups, the game was just hang on on "Please Stand By"--the time when it checks the mods. No idea why it would crash every sixth or so time, but it does.

I expect to have similar problems with NV whenever I get it. I have no doubt the mods are a large cause of this (though I've also heard people complain about instability without mods--and as ElPrez said, the console versions have their own problems), but I play these games because of the fantastic mod support.

[Rawra]

Mods are also a part of the crashing problem, I'm sure. I never downloaded any especially for this reason.

[Synthesis]

Yeah, I can't imagine playing FO3 or NV without the mods. I've never really been a fan of the Fallout mythos.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Can someone tell me what the frack it's supposed to mean when the screen goes black and white/monochrome? I've had it go kind of black and green sometimes, or black and white and it's clearly meant to do that because there's sort of a blurring effect when it begins and ends. I can't tell why it happens, and it is bugging the crap out of me. If I know what it's called, maybe I have a chance of finding a mod to stop it - it stays for a good 5 minutes at a time and makes it REALLY hard to fight stuff when everything's the same colour.

[Rawra]

I think I spoke too early about the "no bugs" thing. When I guard the Van Graff or Van Graaf or whatever, and that letter guy comes, the game resets and it's like I never talked to him. So, I talk to him again, continue the quest and finish this part. At the following point, where I have to deliver the package, after I do it, it says "quest failed". And if I go back to the damn Van Graff girl, she sends me to the French-named guy, and he says "Get the fuck away from me" or so. I was like "OK"...

[Synthesis]

Well, having finished the main quest of FO3, I will likely be picking this up. Funny enough, it's $10 cheaper on Amazon.com than off Steam, so I'll listen to my wallet.

[Rawra]

I can tell you that (at least with mine) FO3 had waaay more bugs that NV has.

[itsnotozzyitsozzy]

Pretty good, I got it for pc and I played for a few hours but I still enjoy fallout 3 a bit more but I already beat it so I put most of my time into New Vegas and the sims 2...