Game News FNV: Dead Money Release & MCA on Drugs

[Jason]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p><a title="Steam deletes your porn" href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/72730/" target="_blank"><strong>Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money</strong></a> had its PC release today.</p>
<blockquote>New DLC is available for Fallout: New Vegas! In Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money, your life hangs in the balance as you face new terrain, foes, and choices.<br /><br />Welcome to the Sierra Madre Casino! The casino&rsquo;s mythical contents are lusted after by desperate wasteland scavengers, who tell stories of intact treasure of the old world buried deep within its vault.</blockquote>
<p>And Chris Avellone took the opportunity to discuss some of the <a href="http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?automodule=blog&amp;blogid=1&amp;showentry=144" target="_blank">design decisions</a> behind the DLC.</p>
<blockquote>As for Horror: Things get scarier and tense when you can't escape, no one's coming to help you, and your resources are limited, and Dead Money was built around this. Watching the YouTube playthrough footage where players started re-appreciating chems and Stimpaks made me happy - these things are miracles of medicine, and they should be viewed as such and appreciated for that in the world of Fallout. One issue I've always had with Fallout is it's really easy to amass a lot of chems and stims, so much so you lose the sense of wonder and relief when you get these items, and I feel situations like in Dead Money can give you a new appreciation for food, crafting (we put a higher priority on crafting and supplies to make crafting worth more in the DLC), unconventional water sources, and the joy at finding an otherwise common chem in the Mojave takes on a new level of preciousness when you're in hostile territory. One YouTube video showed someone finding Buffout - and to hear them say, "thank god" and hear genuine appreciation for finding something so rare is exactly the kind of value I want people to attach to these items... usually people seem to care less when they find Buffout, but it all depends on the environment context. I want players to attach value to them again rather than, "oh, more Buffout." It's BUFFOUT. It's a STIMPAK. Your character should be OVERJOYED to find these things, each and every time.</blockquote>
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[Excidium]

What about the dozens of chems the player will be carrying in his inventory? While I agree pre-war chems should be more rare it's sort of pointless to change it if it's only to affect the new zone.

 

[Peter]

Always neat to read about the design decisions and ideas behind games. Can't really judge how well the DLC worked, since I haven't played it, but I appreciate Obsidian putting their ideas out there for us to read. I'd never expect something like that from most other major studios.

 

[Ogg]

What about the dozens of chems the player will be carrying in his inventory? While I agree pre-war chems should be more rare it's sort of pointless to change it if it's only to affect the new zone.

i think that at the beginning of Dead Money, all your inventory is locked away and you'll only get it back at the end of the DLC.

I didn't see many reactions about Dead money on the Codex. Did some of you play it? Is it worth 9.99€ ? Seems quite expensive for a DLC.

 

[bonescraper]

Fucking Cenega and their Extra Retarded Potato Version :/ I expect to play this thing next year then...

 

[Xor]

A few people who played the xbox version had good things to say about it, IIRC.

 

[Metro]

What about the dozens of chems the player will be carrying in his inventory? While I agree pre-war chems should be more rare it's sort of pointless to change it if it's only to affect the new zone.

Exactly. It was one of the (many) problems of FO3 -- too easy to amass supplies. I'm guessing eventually there will be a mod (if there isn't one already) that applies the new scarcity level of the DLC retroactive to the entire game.

i think that at the beginning of Dead Money, all your inventory is locked away and you'll only get it back at the end of the DLC.

Oh God... I hate mechanics like that. Just a cheap, artificial, and lazy way to balance things/incorporate DLC into the main game.

 

[Excidium]

What about the dozens of chems the player will be carrying in his inventory? While I agree pre-war chems should be more rare it's sort of pointless to change it if it's only to affect the new zone.

i think that at the beginning of Dead Money, all your inventory is locked away and you'll only get it back at the end of the DLC.

Oh, that's better I guess.

 

[Elwro]

The fuckers still haven't put it up on Steam for us Polish customers of the English version of the title. I bet when they do it will cost as much as it does the rest of the world...

 

[Jaesun]

To be honest personally, as much as I liked NV, the fact it is trapped within the horrible fucking Fallout 3 engine keeps me from even being excited about this.

Maybe I'll check it out next year.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'm guessing eventually there will be a mod (if there isn't one already) that applies the new scarcity level of the DLC retroactive to the entire game.

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/ ... p?id=37979 (Simple Scarcity)

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/ ... p?id=38987 (Wasteland Unlocked.esp)


Additional mods related to Dead Money

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/ ... p?id=40500 (Junk Rounds tweak)

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/ ... p?id=40499 (Weapon Fixes)

 

[J_C]

I just finished New Vegas the day before yesterday. Although at first I didn't like it too much, I started to enjoy it more and more as I played. All in all, I had a great time with it. Having said that, I won't purchase any DLC to it. It is time to put the game to rest, there are so many good games I have to play.

 

[jiujitsu]

It sounds pretty BA. Mayhaps I'll give it a whirl.

 

[denizsi]

If only Hardcore mode in vanilla game was anything like that.

 

[Silellak]

To be honest personally, as much as I liked NV, the fact it is trapped within the horrible fucking Fallout 3 engine keeps me from even being excited about this.

Maybe I'll check it out next year.

My problem is more that holy fucking shit New Vegas is already a huge game, and I don't see the need to add even more content to it. Especially not content that doesn't flesh out any of the existing factions.

 

[denizsi]

 

[Ogg]

To be honest personally, as much as I liked NV, the fact it is trapped within the horrible fucking Fallout 3 engine keeps me from even being excited about this.

Maybe I'll check it out next year.

My problem is more that holy fucking shit New Vegas is already a huge game, and I don't see the need to add even more content to it. Especially not content that doesn't flesh out any of the existing factions.

Same here. I'm more interested by the burned man story. hope it will give some flesh to the not so thrilling Caesar Legion. I've read that a future DLC could also explain the graffiti on the wreckage near the starting location. You know, all the "Go home courier 6" and such threatening messages. That seems more interesting. And maybe it won't cost 10€ this time.

 

[Metro]

The DLC will always be priced at ten dollars/euros. Just hold out for a GOTY edition like me.

 

[Elhoim]

A few last minor things that make me happy that doing a DLC gave a chance to experiment with - I got to finally try to write a Torment "they communicate everything via text" character for a modern-day role-playing game with Christine to see how that would be received (mixed reaction, some people thought we were lazy or cheap, and they're partly right, even if that wasn't the intention - voice acting is expensive, and if we can get more story with less voiced words, I'm fine with that).

 

[Vault Dweller]

To be honest personally, as much as I liked NV, the fact it is trapped within the horrible fucking Fallout 3 engine keeps me from even being excited about this.

Maybe I'll check it out next year.

My problem is more that holy fucking shit New Vegas is already a huge game, and I don't see the need to add even more content to it. Especially not content that doesn't flesh out any of the existing factions.

If Dead Money merely added another location for you to explore (with all your weapons, armor, and items), you'd be right, but when you're taken to Sierra Madre, you lose all items and start from scratch. For all intents and purposes, it's a stand alone adventure for lvl20+ characters.

I played it for 20 min last night and liked what I saw. Basically, you need to break inside. The problem is the place has defenses, holo-guards that can't be killed with weapons but can be disabled apparently, the transmitters inside can blow up your collar accidentally so you'd have to watch it and find ways to deal with them, and it has people who survived but couldn't get out. So, you'd have to watch for traps, scavenge what you can for survival (it does look like survival is the focus here), and fight the residents. Kinda like a prison.

I think these are good reasons to try it if you liked NV, but if not, wait until I post some impressions.

Edit: From Starwars' post on our forums:

"The first DLC, Dead Money, is out for PC now. I've just played about an hour or so. It's certainly different than the main game, I can tell that already. Filled with traps and environmental dangers, you need to survey your surroundings a lot more and be vigilant. It's very atmospheric to boot.

Also, you can certainly tell it was Chris Avellone who's written the thing, haha. There is no shortage of words here. When you first arrive, there is a very lengthy (of course you can ignore it if you wish) conversation. I've also met one of the companions and he seems extremely interesting, and again... Very Avellonian.

Looks fun so far."

 

[Xor]

I may have to revise my "no DLC ever" stance for this.

 

[Pegultagol]

It's good that they now have established a solid game setting, so they can experiment with different gameplay elements and explore story possibilities with episodic DLCs. I hope at least one DLC extend the main plot past the endgame, but I'm not optimistic on its chances. Looks like Obsidian already had a plan in place for DLCs even before they entered development of NV, which is only sensible given their track record.

Hopefully, the DLCs can be bundled together and released as an add on compilation, which to me will be far more palatable.

 

[Nostradumbass]

I will be trying this out.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Been playing it, it's pretty good. The story and setting are very interesting, as ar the characters, especially the completely batshit insane super mutant Dog/God. There's also a mute girl, she's a well-written character but doesn't really work for this kind of game. It's really awkward to be reading descriptions of her trying to communicate with you using body language but when you look at the screen she's just staring straight at you with a blank look. This sort of char is better used in isometric games.

The survival aspects work well near the beginning, but about an hour in you're rolling in money. You find chips laying around everywhere in fountains and inside containers, and you also can find codes that allow you to take pairs of shitty clothes or packs of cigs to a vending machine and exchange them for more money. After an hour I had around 500 chips to use. Most things at the vending machines (food, chems, ammo) only cost around 10-30 chips.

Exploration is pretty tough though. There are these thick red clouds of poison surrounding certain areas and when you walk into them begin draining your hp like a motherfucker, so you either have to run through them blindly and hope you find the way out quickly, or try to find another way around usually by stumbling around through abandoned apartments and climbing along the rooftops (you also have to do this if you come across radios you can't reach and destroy because their signals can trigger your bomb collar). You also slowly lose hp no matter where you're at while outside due to the polluted air if playing in hardcore mode, but it does it so slowly and only takes such a tiny amount from you it's not even worth worrying about.

New enemies can be hard at times. They like to rush you with spears and throw large explosives or spears at you and often attack in groups of 3. And you have to decapitate them to kill them or they'll get back up. So you have to shoot them up, then spend time hacking them up on the ground which is a pain if there's another right behind you. That's how these guys can be challenging, Obsidian thankfully avoided just giving them a shitload of hps and calling it a day. There are also hologram security guards that can't be hurt with any weapons, but if you're good at sneaking or with computers aren't much trouble to avoid.

Also, on hardcore mode if a party member dies then its game over, their death also activates your own bomb collar.

Still haven't finished it yet, but it's been pretty good so far, lots of atmosphere. It can be a little easy at times but not too bad, and the story is really interesting. It seems like MCA was going for a bit of a System Shock 2 vibe, but sadly pussed out on the difficulty.

 

[Havoc]

My money is on Dead Money.