Fallout: New Vegas

[Verhaden]

Only a few hours into the game and I'm loving every second of it. No real bugs or performance issues on my end, though that doesn't appear to be standard across the board.

Playing Hardcore on Normal difficulty and it's fairly easy. I might bump it up a few notches. I think I've used VATS maybe twice so far, a distinct turn around from Fallout 3. So long as you stay hidden, you can notch one/two shot kills at long distance on Powder Gangers with the varmint rifle at the beginning (these shots have like 0-3% success in VATS...).

Dialogue is much improved, as is the ambient music. Characters don't look like complete ass this time around, either.

[SMELLY OLD MAN]

Now hold on one second, how much of an improvement on dialogue is "much improved" to you? Cause we were starting pretty goddamn low weren't we, what with the amazingly stupid HAVE YOU SEEN MY FATHER? HE'S SOME KIND OF A MIDDLE AGED DUDE lines and whatever else I couldn't care to read, I literally had to stay as far away from civilization in that game to avoid the terrible writing but that kind of failed when I had stupid kids run up to me complaining about goddamn ants or aliens or something and asking me to save them and their aunt, and if that weren't enough Bethesda decided at that point it would be best not to give me the option of releaving me of my frustration by killing the stupid kid because someone else decided that might make me want to do that in real life, though they failed to realize that no child in reality is more annoying and provoking of homocidal tendancies than one conjured up by Bethesda, err, etc.

Also the writing is really bad.

Esentially how is the writing in Vegas?

[Verhaden]

Game was developed by Obsidian and was designed by the likes of Chris Avellone and Josh Sawyer. So far, the characters have depth and I haven't heard a single person complain about mud crabs.

See also: Wasteland, Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and Knights of the Old Republic 2.

The writing's been improved, to say the least, and the same goes for the voice acting.

Also, you can kill all plot vital NPCs if you want to.

[SMELLY OLD MAN]

Not to mention Vampire Masquerade, some of the Fallout guys worked on that too didn't they? I like what you said of mud crabs, it's nice to hear Bethesda's moving away from that peculiar obsession. Can I kill kids? Bethesda kids I mean. Bethesda's virtual representation of children that is, not their actual children. I hope that's clear. Do the NPC buddies now not have an infinite amount of ammo and magically regenerating hit points in between battles? And what's your meaning of playing hardcore?

[Verhaden]

I do believe some former Troika staff members are working at Obsidian now.

Hardcore is a game mode. Dehydration, sleep exhaustion, starvation, etc. Stim-packs and Rad-X impact you over time as opposed to instantly. You can only heal crippled limbs from NPCs or by using doctor's bags. And in hardcore mode, if your companion dies--it's dead forever.

No idea if you can kill children. Haven't met one in-game. I don't particularly care one way or another, though.

"He's about as useful as tits on a radscorpion."

[SMELLY OLD MAN]

Hahah is that a line? Goddamn I'm playing this game. Seems like Hardcore mode is essentially Original Fallout mode, isn't it?

[Bob The Third]

Hahah is that a line? Goddamn I'm playing this game. Seems like Hardcore mode is essentially Original Fallout mode, isn't it?

From what I've tried of Vegas and what I remember of the old games... Definitely like original Fallout!

[Zao]

Could you post some screenshots perhaps? All I seem to be able to find on Google images is the standard pre-release stuff. It looks interesting, but I make it a point never to buy a game having only viewed the box art.

[MeleeMe?]

I LOVED Fallout 3 and for whatever reason I haven't been excited about this one at all. From what ive seen it looks like just an expansion pack. Is it actually worth $50 or what?

[Zyn]

CLEANSE IT WITH FIRE!