Subm.: Fallout: New Vegas

Akratus

Bleep bloop.
500px-Ranger_at_New_Vegas_entrance.jpg

Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition
Released in the year 2010
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment
Purchasable in certain retail stores, and on the steam online store.



"Bull and Bear over the Dam, at each other's throats... but a light from Vegas? Ball spinning on the wheel, more than two at the table. Placing bets. All lose in different ways. A dam of corpses, towns of corpses, scattered across the sand. But whose in what shares? Even the dealer doesn't know. Forecast: A rain of blood will flood the desert and not purify it."

Fallout: New Vegas is a spin off of the fallout series, but many fans consider it the sequel to Fallout 2 moreso than any other fallout game, as it followed it's spirit. It takes place in the mojave wasteland, with what used to be las vegas in the middle. It's the crown jewel of the Mojave, only one of it's kind. Power, water, shelter, luxury, gambling, it's all there. And there's a storm coming which will decide who will walk away with it.

Coming in from California, the NCR is trying to annex New Vegas and it's surrounding areas. Hoover Dam is a resource this nation can not ignore. But they arrived in this land forcefully, and their grip on the area is slipping.

On the other side of the colorado river stands the legion of a man named Caesar, consisting of slavers and hardened warriors as loyal as they come. They've tried to take the dam before and they are readying their second attack. Caesar has his eye on the damn as well.

But an enigmatic third would-be ruler exists. High in the lucky 38 tower, casino and hotel both, lies the home of a mysterious person named Mr. House. He, trough his robotic servants, is in control of New Vegas and only a fool would say he does not wish for more.

And these are but the three major powers, other smaller factions are trying to make a living or throw their lot in with the major players.

The deck has been shuffled, and all are about to receive their hand.

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Showing Bethesda how it's done.

It came as a nice surprise, when Bethesda originally announced that they were lending their rights to the fallout franchise out to Obsidian for them to make their own spin-off. And Obsidian have certainly leaped at the chance. In just about a year of development they've added more features and content to the game than anyone could have expected. Crafting received a large overhaul. Food, ammunition and other gear all have their own crafting stations with many designs/recipes.

Any side quest that isn't too small or just a simple errand (or sometimes even then) has multiple outcomes. This alone would be a great improvement over Fallout 3's lackluster quests, but not only have the amount of choices and consequences improved, there's nearly 3 times the amount of quests compared to Fallout 3.

Also the skills and stats have received an overhaul. The effect of s.p.e.c.i.a.l. stats are more noticeable and skills are more useful and balanced. And there are a considerably larger amount of skill checks in dialogue, allowing you to deepen your character much more.

The main quest is the real meat of the game and it allows for some hefty decisions, resulting in many different endings. With the classic Fallout ending slides returning.

All these things combined result in an instantly classic rpg. If that isn't the case for some, adding the amazing DLC on top might tip the scales.

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Obsidian's curse.

It is astounding to consider that all this work was completed in just about a year's worth of development time. That is a tight deadline indeed. Obsidian mostly delivered, but one of the factions, the one that stands out the most, is quite underdeveloped. Caesar's legion has barely 1/3 the content the other three have and even less in-game areas. That is certainly annoying for anyone who chooses this particular path.

And besides that, the engine has not seen any big changes in it's inner workings compared to this game's predecessor. Bugs were hugely common after release, and the game remains a little unstable. Also, the tech in the engine is not the best around when it comes to delivering satisfying shooter game play compared to pure shooters. But that is to be expected and was certainly not a problem for me. Still, the graphics and polish of many things are behind many games released in the same time.

Some of these problems and many others you might have can be resolved with the user created content available on the internet.
 
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Nice job Mjolnir. New Vegas is definitely one of my favorite RPG's in recent memory. A few grammatical errors and typos in there, but nothing that can't be fixed. Keep up the good work!
 
TorontRayne said:
Nice job Mjolnir. New Vegas is definitely one of my favorite RPG's in recent memory. A few grammatical errors and typos in there, but nothing that can't be fixed. Keep up the good work!

Did a spell-check, and changed some words and sentences.
 
Nice. Very short, but nice. Still a few errors, but they're the grammatical kind, the sort you don't pick up with spell-checks. I'm more preoccupied that you address FONV from the perspective of "following in FO3's footsteps", rather than its own, stand-alone title. I'd also consider it a full sequel to FO2, rather than a spin-off. But that's all more or less a matter of personal perspective, I suppose...
 
SnapSlav said:
Nice. Very short, but nice. Still a few errors, but they're the grammatical kind, the sort you don't pick up with spell-checks. I'm more preoccupied that you address FONV from the perspective of "following in FO3's footsteps", rather than its own, stand-alone title. I'd also consider it a full sequel to FO2, rather than a spin-off. But that's all more or less a matter of personal perspective, I suppose...


Agreed. Although it did follow in F3's footsteps, it makes it seem less...good, just by relation. I would consider it a spiritual sequel to F2 though honestly.
 
FONV followed in FO3's footsteps only with regard to the engine the game used and the FO3 assets in the code. This game was made by people that created the original Fallout games. I'm sure several people at Obsidian had ideas floating in the back of their minds for years of things they would have done with their own Fallout sequel. Bethesda gave them that chance and they delivered quickly.

I think bugs in the game at release had more to do with the Bethesda's engine than Obsidian's efforts. They seem to be pretty well cleaned up now, though. I can play New Vegas for days at a time without a crash. Heck, FO3 crashes when I quit the game.
 
That's exactly my point. The game DESERVES to be treated as its own title, with its magnificence attributed strictly to it, and not treated as if it's standing in Big Daddy's Shadow, because it's not. Chronologically, obviously it followed after FO3, and mechanically, obviously it utilized FO3's core programming. But it's not some series spin-off with no attachments to previous Fallout titles; it's not a title that NEEDS comparison to the one immediately preceding it; it's its own damn fine terrific game. I didn't like that the submission seemed to imply otherwise.

But I got the PC Collector's Edition of the game on its midnight release, and despite having work the coming morning, began playing it within the hour. I remember the first glitches. That shit was fixed WITHIN DAYS! The last time I played it, the only glitches I encountered were highly infrequent crashes, which were instantly remedied by rebooting the game, a process that took a minute, no more.
 
SnapSlav said:
That's exactly my point. The game DESERVES to be treated as its own title, with its magnificence attributed strictly to it, and not treated as if it's standing in Big Daddy's Shadow, because it's not. Chronologically, obviously it followed after FO3, and mechanically, obviously it utilized FO3's core programming. But it's not some series spin-off with no attachments to previous Fallout titles; it's not a title that NEEDS comparison to the one immediately preceding it; it's its own damn fine terrific game. I didn't like that the submission seemed to imply otherwise.

But I got the PC Collector's Edition of the game on its midnight release, and despite having work the coming morning, began playing it within the hour. I remember the first glitches. That shit was fixed WITHIN DAYS! The last time I played it, the only glitches I encountered were highly infrequent crashes, which were instantly remedied by rebooting the game, a process that took a minute, no more.

I don't know where you got it from that I seem to imply that it's mostly more fallout 3. I certainly don't believe that and wasn't implying that in my submission. Also, I think I did say that the bugs were mostly only there shortly after release. Still, I do see some things I would like to add here and there. And I always manage not to quite say what I mean.
 
Mjolnir said:
SnapSlav said:
That's exactly my point. The game DESERVES to be treated as its own title, with its magnificence attributed strictly to it, and not treated as if it's standing in Big Daddy's Shadow, because it's not. Chronologically, obviously it followed after FO3, and mechanically, obviously it utilized FO3's core programming. But it's not some series spin-off with no attachments to previous Fallout titles; it's not a title that NEEDS comparison to the one immediately preceding it; it's its own damn fine terrific game. I didn't like that the submission seemed to imply otherwise.

But I got the PC Collector's Edition of the game on its midnight release, and despite having work the coming morning, began playing it within the hour. I remember the first glitches. That shit was fixed WITHIN DAYS! The last time I played it, the only glitches I encountered were highly infrequent crashes, which were instantly remedied by rebooting the game, a process that took a minute, no more.

I don't know where you got it from that I seem to imply that it's mostly more fallout 3. I certainly don't believe that and wasn't implying that in my submission. Also, I think I did say that the bugs were mostly only there shortly after release. Still, I do see some things I would like to add here and there. And I always manage not to quite say what I mean.


Don't worry about it bro. I edited my Earthbound submission like twenty something times. Add bits and pieces as they come along if you like, if not, no big deal. As for what Snap said about it deserving to be treated as it's own title, "Deserves got nothing to do with it.", it was treated as a spin off, but true Fallout fans know it could be a sequel to Fallout 2. It doesn't matter much tbh. It is what it is regardless on what you call it, right? Maybe not but it sounds good. :)


Edit: Was that punctuated right? I want people to start correcting me on that type of stuff. Where is Mikey when you need him? I'm self conscious on my comma usage and not too sure on the optimal usage of ; as opposed to - . That's random but what the hell. Whose going to stop me? Is anyone even reading this sub-forum? I kid. I know no one reads it. :lol:
 
TorontRayne said:
Good deal. Any ideas on what you might do next?

I was waiting for someone to do the Fallout 1 submission. I'm very surprised no one as made it yet. Maybe it will fall to me, as I seem to have the most under my belt thus far.

I'm keen on doing Mass Effect 1 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution still. But then I've run out of any games I can really submit based on my experiences alone.
 
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