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FNV review

Shitposter
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Aug 31, 2008
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The Simulation
8.5/10

CONS
  • some bugs such as the loading screen error, strange NPC behavior, etc... (-0.5)

  • pip-boy UI and layout + inventory is pretty messy and unintuitive. i usually love organizing my items in RPG's, in FNV it's such a mess that i struggle to want to do it (-0.25)

  • one of the DLC's starts you off with a bunch of OP items, specifically the grenade launcher. the launcher allowed me to easily kill that group of Legion in that town in the south. they are portrayed as ruthless and intimidating killers and that was all great, until i pulled out the 'nade launcher and destroyed them when i was like level 2 or 3. DLC shouldn't give you a bunch of cheat items right off the bat (-0.25)

  • the Legion headquarters being RIGHT ON TOP OF the bunker that Mr. House needs you to get into is very strange. took me out of the story a little bit. up until this point in the game i was very impressed with how FNV had presented an old school handling of factions. i had killed the Legion capo who had sacked that small town in the south, so i was hated by the Legion and had to fight off various ambushes from them. then all of a sudden this ISIS-esque faction welcomes me into their HQ because my dick is just that big? nah. this was a low point in the story. a bit of modernity creeping in - you HAVE to meet Caesar and get a taste of every faction on every playthrough. no. i was at war with the Legion at this point. what should have happened here is the Legion kills Benny and uses the chip to destroy Mr. House's bunker and progress the story from there. (-0.5)

  • con not worth removing points over: that stupid bethesda style chargen where i can finetune the exact measurements of my guy's distance between his ears and upper jawline, whether his eyebrows point upwards at 45 degrees or 50 degrees, if he has a mole on his ass etc - stupid. skin color, age, hair style - that's all you need. when it's too complex the guy always ends up looking stupid.

PROS
  • the strip is great. it could have used 2-4 more towers or casinos to really knock the "shimmering oasis in the middle of chaos" aesthetic out of the park but still, it's very impressive and one of the parts of the game that transcends into art

  • the world seems alive and active outside of the immediate existence of whatever the PC is up to. sandbox done right. various side quests all make sense in the context of what's going on in the world of the game. the plethora of quests and the variety of what you do in these quests is great. very old school stuff.

  • i'm only on my first playthrough but it's obvious the game has some decent replayability. not only with main quest choices but also different skills. probably 2-3 good playthroughs in this one and that's not something i say lightly, ie: i wouldn't say this for a lot of other games that allegedly have high replayability. barring what i said about one specific point in the main quest earlier, i feel like the game has decent C&C.

  • solid dialog, writing, voice acting.
Overall great game, definitely one of the newer ones that are actually worth playing.
 

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
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  • one of the DLC's starts you off with a bunch of OP items, specifically the grenade launcher. the launcher allowed me to easily kill that group of Legion in that town in the south. they are portrayed as ruthless and intimidating killers and that was all great, until i pulled out the 'nade launcher and destroyed them when i was like level 2 or 3. DLC shouldn't give you a bunch of cheat items right off the bat (-0.25)
Yeah, fortunately Sawyer fixed that with his mod by distributing those items throughout the world. I would generally argue that with all the dlc the game goes totally out of balance in favor of the player. Which I guess is why Sawyer decided to make his mod.
 

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
pip-boy UI and layout + inventory is pretty messy and unintuitive. i usually love organizing my items in RPG's, in FNV it's such a mess that i struggle to want to do it (-0.25)

Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general—which is quite odd, since grid-based UIs work fine with console controllers. Must have something to do with information density while playing games on a television screen.

the strip is great. it could have used 2-4 more towers or casinos to really knock the "shimmering oasis in the middle of chaos" aesthetic out of the park but still, it's very impressive and one of the parts of the game that transcends into art

The Strip was originally designed to be contiguous and more densely structured and populated, but console hardware limitations forced them to trim it down and split it up into several loading zones.

Consoles were and are the #1 force in the decline after cross-platform releases became de rigeur.
 

Funposter

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so i was hated by the Legion and had to fight off various ambushes from them. then all of a sudden this ISIS-esque faction welcomes me into their HQ because my dick is just that big? nah. this was a low point in the story. a bit of modernity creeping in - you HAVE to meet Caesar and get a taste of every faction on every playthrough. no. i was at war with the Legion at this point

so just walk in and murder everyone, pussy. take boone with you.
 

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
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Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general—which is quite odd, since grid-based UIs work fine with console controllers. Must have something to do with information density while playing games on a television screen.
It's not. Consolized DE:HR/MD have grid interface and look just fine on a TV. It's just bethesda not being good at UI and Obsidian having to roll with it.
The Strip was originally designed to be contiguous and more densely structured and populated, but console hardware limitations forced them to trim it down and split it up into several loading zones.
One console - PS3. E3 demos with open Strip were running on X360, not on PC. Or more like, bethesda's engine not being properly written for PS3.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
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Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general—which is quite odd, since grid-based UIs work fine with console controllers. Must have something to do with information density while playing games on a television screen.
It's not. Consolized DE:HR/MD have grid interface and look just fine on a TV. It's just bethesda not being good at UI and Obsidian having to roll with it.

Morrowind's user interface menus courtesy of Mobygames:

26818-the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-windows-screenshot-inventory.jpg


Oblivion, unlike Morrowind, was developed with console limitations in mind, and therefore Bethesda created a consolized interface that was quite clunky contrasted with Morrowind's elegant menus, with Fallout 3 following Oblivion in this regard. This was a conscious decision made by Bethesda, which could otherwise have simply replicated the existing Morrowind design.
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
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You couldn't just post this in one of the gazillion existing FNV threads?

Give him at least some credit, it is a very tame post for a "Shitposter".
 
Shitposter
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Messages
5,605
Location
The Simulation
  • one of the DLC's starts you off with a bunch of OP items, specifically the grenade launcher. the launcher allowed me to easily kill that group of Legion in that town in the south. they are portrayed as ruthless and intimidating killers and that was all great, until i pulled out the 'nade launcher and destroyed them when i was like level 2 or 3. DLC shouldn't give you a bunch of cheat items right off the bat (-0.25)
Yeah, fortunately Sawyer fixed that with his mod by distributing those items throughout the world. I would generally argue that with all the dlc the game goes totally out of balance in favor of the player. Which I guess is why Sawyer decided to make his mod.

anyone able to shoot me a link to this?

pip-boy UI and layout + inventory is pretty messy and unintuitive. i usually love organizing my items in RPG's, in FNV it's such a mess that i struggle to want to do it (-0.25)

Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general—which is quite odd, since grid-based UIs work fine with console controllers. Must have something to do with information density while playing games on a television screen.

the strip is great. it could have used 2-4 more towers or casinos to really knock the "shimmering oasis in the middle of chaos" aesthetic out of the park but still, it's very impressive and one of the parts of the game that transcends into art

The Strip was originally designed to be contiguous and more densely structured and populated, but console hardware limitations forced them to trim it down and split it up into several loading zones.

Consoles were and are the #1 force in the decline after cross-platform releases became de rigeur.

damn i did not know this, that's sad

so i was hated by the Legion and had to fight off various ambushes from them. then all of a sudden this ISIS-esque faction welcomes me into their HQ because my dick is just that big? nah. this was a low point in the story. a bit of modernity creeping in - you HAVE to meet Caesar and get a taste of every faction on every playthrough. no. i was at war with the Legion at this point

so just walk in and murder everyone, pussy. take boone with you.

honestly with that grenade launcher and cheesing with save game i probably could, but that would have destroyed the immershun.

The review we were all waiting for!

Why don't you actually be useful and review VNV?

i will do video let's play soon
 

Blaine

Cis-Het Oppressor
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Grab the Codex by the pussy
>the world seems alive and active outside of the immediate existence of whatever the PC is up to.

It felt dead and uninhabited.

Name a game that you feel is a good example of presenting a living world.

Zed Duke of Banville I'd considered mentioning Morrowind myself, but opted for brevity instead. Yes indeed, XBox Morrowind had a grid-based inventory, just like the PC version. However—standard display resolutions are much higher nowadays, on both consoles and PCs. Therefore, UI elements tend to take up less proportional screen space, so that enlarging a PC-centric interface for consoles becomes increasingly problematic without making sacrifices.
 

TheHeroOfTime

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S-pain
New vegas is so good as an RPG. It's a shame it is build in such a garbage engine, in PC there are some mods that can improve the gameplay a little bit.
 

Funposter

Arcane
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Reminder that Bethesda could have made PC-exclusive UIs for Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc. but chose not to for the sake of exact console parity. Todd actually admits to using UI mods for Oblivion when testing DLCs.

16. What mods, if any, do you personally use? And why?

The BT interface mod of the PC. That's really the only one I use. I dabble in the others, but when I play Oblivion, I'm usually testing a new DLC or Shivering Isles, so running other stuff can really screw with them. Why BT mod? I can see more stuff on my giant PC monitor of course! That's something we messed with internally, but never had a nice solution for having the game switch between different menu configurations, so we went with the larger font for safety.
Source
 

Blaine

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Reminder that Bethesda could have made PC-exclusive UIs for Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc. but chose not to for the sake of exact console parity. Todd actually admits to using UI mods for Oblivion when testing DLCs.

16. What mods, if any, do you personally use? And why?

The BT interface mod of the PC. That's really the only one I use. I dabble in the others, but when I play Oblivion, I'm usually testing a new DLC or Shivering Isles, so running other stuff can really screw with them. Why BT mod? I can see more stuff on my giant PC monitor of course! That's something we messed with internally, but never had a nice solution for having the game switch between different menu configurations, so we went with the larger font for safety.
Source

As ever, Todd lies.

They just couldn't be bothered to spend one iota of manpower on a PC-appropriate UI—especially when a modder was bound to do it for them for free.

Todd is actually on record, somewhere, petulantly proclaiming that they couldn't be bothered to fine-tune their games for PC anymore because of piracy. Even this is essentially a lie; consoles' market share was the real reason.
 

Justicar

Dead game
Glory to Ukraine
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My review:

Good Rpg
Bad gameplay
Trash engine
Final battle for Hoover dam is pathetic

7/10

Good enough but not worth wanking over like codex does and this can be said about all obsidian "classics". Face it niggers obsidian was always just poor mans Bioware and Alpha brotocol was just Mass effect imitation with 10x times the jank and some better reactivity.
 
Joined
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut
Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general—which is quite odd, since grid-based UIs work fine with console controllers. Must have something to do with information density while playing games on a television screen.
luv list based inventories, especially when you have multiple category tabs and multiple ways to sort the items
icon-based inventories are worthless to me, I have to mouse over each item to see information that is shown implicitly in a list-based inventory
 
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Blaine

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luv list based inventories, especially when you have multiple category tabs and multiple ways to sort the items
icon-based inventories are worthless to me, I have to mouse over each item to see information that is shown implicitly in a list-based inventory

Grid-based inventories can also feature sorting options, categorized tabs, flags ("mark as favorite" et al.), and so on.

In a list-based inventory system, you still have to highlight or select (mouse over, tilt the analog stick, etc.) each list item in order to display expanded information about that item. Preference of text vs. icons is highly subjective, and grid-based (or cell-based, ex. MS Excel) systems can actually utilize text rather than icons—or both.

Finally (and perhaps most importantly), I specified single column-based UI systems, an important qualifier that you've failed to take into account.

You have failed to make your case on every conceivable level. Yours is the most braindead rebuttal I've encountered so far this year, and I really enjoyed demolishing it.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
In a list-based inventory system, you still have to highlight or select (mouse over, tilt the analog stick, etc.) each list item in order to display expanded information about that item
this is fake news

roguelikes did fine without console kiddy icons for decades, the idea that list-based is consolization is lol.
 

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
roguelikes did fine without console kiddy icons for decades, the idea that list-based is consolization is lol.

I didn't even use the term "list-based" in my original post, you absolute orangutan.

Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general....

No, a game doesn't instantly become consolized because it has something that can be described as a "list" somewhere in its user interface. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri—the game that I tend to praise above all others—is full of lists, many of which happen to be single-column.

But single columns are not the fundamental basis of SMAC's UI and interactivity. If you can't understand why this is an important distinction, then you will always be an orangutan.
 
Joined
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Codex Year of the Donut
roguelikes did fine without console kiddy icons for decades, the idea that list-based is consolization is lol.

I didn't even use the term "list-based" in my original post, you absolute orangutan.

Single column-based UIs are a dead giveaway of consolized RPGs and console games in general....

No, a game doesn't instantly become consolized because it has something that can be described as a "list" somewhere in its user interface. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri—the game that I tend to praise above all others—is full of lists, many of which happen to be single-column.

But single columns are not the fundamental basis of SMAC's UI and interactivity. If you can't understand why this is an important distinction, then you will always be an orangutan.
wtf orangutans are based you stupid chimp
 

Zer0wing

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Morrowind's user interface menus courtesy of Mobygames:
Contrary to popular opinions inside and outside of the inside of RPG Codex, this interface would look great on PS4 Pro in 4K, DS4's touchpad makes cursor navigation much easier than tugging and twisting a nipple on an xbox controller. And 2160P on 2D elements makes it possible to place all four windows at the same time without quality loss.
Grid-based inventories can also feature sorting options, categorized tabs, flags ("mark as favorite" et al.), and so on.
For all shit CP2077 UI gets (because it's shit, who knew), at least the inventory screen is done better than many bethesda games (not that it's such a high bar). Inventory grid covers the whole screen, there's category tabs, sorting by characteristics. At least something!
 
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