Fallout: New Vegas previews

[sydney_roo]

Is there an option to turn off VATS or at least make it decent? Glad Beth didn't remove Hardcore mode. So far, so good.

 

[DemonNick]

I doubt such things can be really expected in Fallout Vegas. But maybe they will surprise us.

Interesting how so many game devs which model and code weapons for their game never ever tried shooting some and have so few experience with it (ask Sua he will sure tell stories about it ...)

The only time I heard about it was with Vietcong. Some of the devs have been using Aks and M16s I think. And yeah, it didnt feelt that bad in the game at all. It even had colision detection for the weapon in first person which is awesome !

Sawyer's allegedly an IRL hobby shooter, so I think he knows what guns feel like. The problem, IIRC, has more to do with RPG mechanics and how they're implemented. Apparently the code used to implement ballistics, especially in VATS, is extremely complicated and unintuitive. That said, if I'm reading the Escapist preview right they've tweaked it some.

Personally I don't really care. Fallout's an RPG, not a shooter, so realistic and engaging gunplay isn't high on my priority list for what I'd like to see in it.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

I have a feeling that NV will be a major let down, namely because the masters of the "franchise" won’t allow any potentially creative and interesting development to occur if it affects the direction they want their franchise to head towards (such as Mc Donald’s – Fallout toys with every burger).

They had four requests that Feargus remembered cut, one of them was a location (which Beth wants to use) and the other was setting the game between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 (Beth only wants to move forward in timelines).

Is there an option to turn off VATS or at least make it decent?

I've been looking for something stating that the slow-mo can be turned off but nothing yet.

Personally I don't really care. Fallout's an RPG, not a shooter, so realistic and engaging gunplay isn't high on my priority list for what I'd like to see in it.

Realistic gunplay is unimportant, engaging gunplay is extremely important, especially given the amount of combat in Fallout 3 and inevitably (random encounters at least) in NV.

 

[jero cvmi]

Things get trickier yet when you add in the new armored defense some elite enemies can present. When targeting some of the stronger units in New Vegas, you might see a red shield appear on the screen. That would be your indication to switch weapons to something more effective. Perhaps a Plasma Caster would be called for.

and now we know that red shield is a Damage Threshold-ometer:

Hey so it's red shield discussion tyme.

*~

Imagine that there is an amount of damage that armor directly subtracts from damage... a "threshold" of damage, if you will. While a small percentage of damage may get through even the thickest armor, damage threshold can effectively neutralize a lot of small arms. Fallout 1 and 2 used numerical feedback to let the player know when their weapons weren't doing any damage. In F3 and F:NV, the player only sees enemy health meters that represent a percentage of total health rather than an exact value. This makes it difficult to tell how effective an enemy's armor is (as opposed to the target simply having a ton of health). In F:NV, the red shield appears next to a target's health meter when you hit it for damage that is equal to or less than the target's damage threshold. A HUD-colored shield appears next to the player's health meter when the player is hit for damage equal to or less than the player's damage threshold.

pretty cool huh?

 

[Crni Vuk]

Personally I don't really care. Fallout's an RPG, not a shooter, so realistic and engaging gunplay isn't high on my priority list for what I'd like to see in it.

Realistic gunplay is unimportant, engaging gunplay is extremely important, especially given the amount of combat in Fallout 3 and inevitably (random encounters at least) in NV.

I would not necessarily talk about realism but a realistic representation of guns and combat. Both are not the always the same. One are realistic characteristics like balistics, rate of fire, penetration etc. The physical details behind weapons and combat which can be collected and calculated. But the other side of it are realistic behaviour. How believable is it to have the AI storm at you in the midle of the fight while you are armed with some assault rifle ? Maybe for some Supermutant armed with a sledgehammer. Not for a raider armed with some assault rifle or sniper.

The other part are a believable feeling of weapons. They feelt in Fallout 3 not like "guns" but like "toys". Part of it had to do with the way how damage was calculated (extremly simple ...) in Fallout 3. I would like to see for example more effects in the visuals and gameplay. So if you shoot a target that has only its chest area protected it should do a lot of damage if you aim for the parts that have no protection like the arms or head for example. A serious issue in my eyes when walking around in Fallout 3 have been those targets that could take a hell lot of shoots to the head cauz your character was "so weak" in his stats.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIEqcRtVVpk[/youtube]

I know this is a bit extrem and yeah, yeah, weapon conditions low stats etc. all play a role. But still. Its just to show the point.

And here I doubt Vegas will be that much different. But I cant know it. Letz wait and see.