Fallout: New Vegas first impressions from the DAC community

Post by **King of Creation** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:34 pm

[ Game -> Review ] - More info on <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout: New Vegas">Game: Fallout: New Vegas</a>

A lot of people are giving their impressions and reviews of Fallout: New Vegas all over the internet. 95% of those opinions are rubbish. The only real opinions that matter are those of the good people of DAC. This is what we have to say:
Aonaran:
<blockquote>
-The dialog is the first thing that stands out, both in writing and performance.

-Wayne Newton beats Three Dog up and down the block as a DJ. 

-Once ole Wayne and the music tracks start repeating themselves, turn off your pipboy radio as the ambient music is fantastic. The news post on the layered soundtrack was no bullshit, also there is more Mark Morgan than you'd expect. 

-So far the most important "new feature" of Fallout: New Vegas is nuance. They finessed the Holy Guacamole out of this game in terms of writing and level design. 

-You die MUCH easier, even in VATS. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I'm playing a "sneak or die" Melee character with 1 Endurance in Hardcore mode and don't have enough points in Sneak yet to accommodate, but I've died quite a bit thus far and most of those times were in VATS. 

-Overall there is substantially less hand holding. I didn't encounter an NPC that could repair items til about 6 hours into the game, forcing me to scavenge and alternate weapons a lot early on. Also, if you kill Doc Mitchell, guess what? He was THE doctor for quite awhile, and healing limbs is a bitch. 

-You will be crippled a lot. You will be radiated a lot (RadAway and Rad X are scarce). 

-Hardcore mode is genuinely fun and makes it feel like a proper Fallout game. 

-This game has a feel unique to the series. It feels "more like Fallout, but at the same time it is ballsy enough to carve out it's own niche. 

-Just because an animal detects you, does not mean it will charge you. I've had several "aggressive" animals detect me, but would not attack until I encroached too closely on their territory.
</blockquote>
Briosafreak:
So far a big thumbs up. Nice sequel to Fallout 2
Retlaw83:
<blockquote>
- The opening cinematics look a lot better in the final product than they do on Youtube.

- Ron Perlman's opening narration is fantastic, and this is the first taste of how well the game is written. In Fallout 3, his script couldn't have been more simplistic. 

- First thing that struck me is I'm running the game on the same settings that I ran Fallout 3, but it runs faster. 

- All the animations are better, especially for the brand new critters. 

- Though you can tell it's still the Morrowind/Fallout 3 base facial stuff, it's vastly improved. Women look like women now, both in face and body. 

- The annoying karma lowering for covert stealing is back, but the noise it makes to inform you of low karma isn't as whiny. 

- While combat in Fallout 3 was awful, if first-person shooting needs to be in a Fallout game it needs to be done right. It's pretty good here, and I've had a lot of fun bobbing and weaving while stopping to dump off rounds through the iron sights. Accuracy also seems to be based on your weapon skills, but I haven't raised it high enough/been exposed to enough weapons to confirm that. 

- Armor has a point now, and when an enemy's armor blocks your shots a shield icon pops up next to their health bar. Radscorpions are a bitch to kill on account of it. 

- It re-uses a lot of resources for decorations and objects from Fallout 3, which in itself isn't a bad thing; it seems there's more original work than there is recycled. 

-The voice acting has been nothing but terrific so far. Even the one Fallout 3 voice actor I've come across (the hispanic sounding guy) seems to be putting on a performance instead of reading from a script. 

- The writing is engaging, backed up by the voice acting. I haven't skipped dialog once to get to the point. 

- The slow downs and stuff caused by using the PiPboy radio is gone. Wayne Newton is pretty awesome - look for his Nuclear Winter Christmas Song Collection coming this holiday on holotape. 

- The ambient music is southern twangy guitar based on the theme from Fallout 3, and it sounds fantastic. This is usually overlaid softly on ambient music that sounds like its the sound files from Fallout 2. 

- Grave robbing is back, but I found myself without a shovel.
On bugs
- I haven't encountered a single one in the PC version, yet. Word on the street is the 360 version had slowdowns and memory leak issues. </blockquote>
What do you have to say about the game? Let me know in the comments and I'll continuously update this post with your opinions.

UndercoverDoctor · Post by **UndercoverDoctor** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:35 pm

I was cringing at all of these praises of the game. It's ridiculous.

Post by **King of Creation** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:59 pm

Having not played New Vegas yet, I cannot comment. But Bethesda set the bar pretty low with Fallout 3...it wouldn't be hard to vastly improve on it.

Yonmanc · Post by **Yonmanc** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:09 pm

Gonna be a while before I can play it

Username · Post by **Username** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:21 pm

Good to hear guys.

What about NPC reactions?
Do they still remember what you did and do they react to it?

Do people like in Megaton remember that you fixed their water plant and don't tell you about the broken waterplant 20 years later. Do they still ask you who you are after you fix their nuke or kill their relatives?

Things like this.

Also what about the bugs? Are they still plenty?

Post by **Retlaw83** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:27 pm

Username wrote:Good to hear guys.

What about NPC reactions?
Do they still remember what you did and do they react to it?

I've only played for two hours, and I haven't accomplished enough to tell. The game isn't slow, just huge, and I dicked around for about an hour trying to get to New Vegas past a lot of hostile animals who thought I looked delicious.

Also what about the bugs? Are they still plenty?

I haven't encountered a single one in the PC version, yet. Word on the street is the 360 version had slowdowns and memory leak issues.

Only thing that seemed close to a bug is I saw a dog walking about two inches above the ground, but that sorted itself. I'm also pleasantly surprised that the ragdolls of dudes you kill at a distance don't spaz the fuck out and go sailing through the air with stretchy limbs.

Post by **Manoil** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:41 pm

Excellent to hear, Ret. Yet encountered any areas with the glitch that makes a strange spectrum of color appear if you are facing a specific direction?

Post by **Retlaw83** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:01 pm

I don't think I've ever encountered that one in Fallout 3 and definitely not in NV.

Post by **Manoil** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:27 pm

Retlaw83 wrote:I don't think I've ever encountered that one in Fallout 3 and definitely not in NV.

Really? I ran into it at least a dozen or so times, definitely in the same range as the spazzing, stretching corpses.

Post by **Retlaw83** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:16 am

Yeah, but you play it on the Sexbox, which isn't made for games like this.

Username · Post by **Username** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 7:18 am

Not sure if it's only on the Xbox Retlaw.

I've encountered it on F3 on the PC. Happens when a fatal crash also crashes your graphics drivers.

It was ok though. The first time it happend I was high on jet. So I started roleplaying I was an addict =)

Luckily it hasn't happend ever since I got "clean".
(And nop I'm not talking about "withdrawl, but this weird spectrum of colours, the sky usually is in like pink, gray, yellow and a lil blue I think).

Anyway thanks for keeping us updated. Might get pleasantly surprised by this one.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 11:49 am

I can offer odd comments as I go through if you'd like, a review is pending game completion.

Doc Hill · Post by **Doc Hill** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:14 pm

At the very least the vaults of I've gone through are actually interesting and fairly challenging.I'm looking at you vaults 34 and 11.

Machiavelli · Post by **Machiavelli** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 2:20 pm

Great game so far. Easily better than F3 (though that's not hard) and while the gameplay isn't TRUE fallout, it still manages to be much more engaging than the third piece of crap. I like the crafting system. It's nice to be able to make your own chems, bullets ect. I REALLY like how you can break down ammo you don't need to make the raw components to make what you do need.

Don't know how I feel about the repair system though. At first level you can repair items to 100% though it takes a lot of matching equipment. All in all though I'm loving it. I love the script and voice acting and how much your reputation affects your dealings with the different factions. It's is it's own game while still feeling more like fallout.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:09 pm

Manoil wrote:
Retlaw83 wrote:I don't think I've ever encountered that one in Fallout 3 and definitely not in NV.
Really? I ran into it at least a dozen or so times, definitely in the same range as the spazzing, stretching corpses.

I've encountered that once in FO3, I think I only got it after I installed the disc to the hard drive for some reason. Either way your xbox will probably die soon

Unsung · Post by **Unsung** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:25 pm

love the game played it as soon as i got home from midnight relese
love the new factions
wepon mods are awsome
music SUCKS!
a lot harder now, you cant go rambo into a group of 10 ppl and kill em all without being hurt badly and spending about 20 stems
a bit glitchy from now and then but patches will fix... i hope
The map is alot bigger
And my fav ;D the sky is blue and the water is clean
Enjoy the hardcore mode (havent played on it yet whant to beat the game first)

rad resistance · Post by **rad resistance** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 6:27 pm

My fuckbox died out on me yesterday. I'm gonna get NV for windows.

Frater Perdurabo · Post by **Frater Perdurabo** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 8:27 pm

Unsung wrote:love the game played it as soon as i got home from midnight relese
love the new factions
wepon mods are awsome
music SUCKS!
a lot harder now, you cant go rambo into a group of 10 ppl and kill em all without being hurt badly and spending about 20 stems
a bit glitchy from now and then but patches will fix... i hope
The map is alot bigger
And my fav ;D the sky is blue and the water is clean
Enjoy the hardcore mode (havent played on it yet whant to beat the game first)

Seriously, what the fuck is your problem? Brain tumor?

rad resistance · Post by **rad resistance** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:21 pm

No, he is what you call autistic.

Yonmanc · Post by **Yonmanc** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:01 pm

rad resistance wrote:No, he is what you call autistic.

Cakerster have you set up another profile?