Game News Fallout: New Vegas gets the Old World Blues

[Jason]

Tags: Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p><strong>Fallout: New Vegas</strong>, a game that recently stopped working for me after a recent Windows and/or Steam update, has a new bit of DLC available: <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/72750/" target="_blank"><strong>Old World Blues</strong></a>.</p>
<blockquote>The residents of the Mojave have long assumed the trackless wastes of the &lsquo;Big Empty&rsquo; are a no-man's-land, a desolate stretch where no living thing can survive. In Old World Blues, you discover that it is anything but...<br /><br />After being transported to the Big MT research crater, you find you're the only hope of saving the Think Tank &ndash; the strange group of post-human researchers who inhabit the facility. They enlist your aid to save them from their own experiments - experiments that have gone horribly out of control. As you explore the huge stretch of the Big MT crater and its many underground labs, you&rsquo;ll confront strange mutated animals, battle terrifying new atomic robots, and discover a new home base to call your own. Recover all the weapons, armor, and tech of the Pre-War era and use them to help save all of Science!<br /><br />KEY FEATURES:
<ul>
<li>New Terrain: Explore the expanse of the &lsquo;Big Empty&rsquo; and its huge variety of research centers, arboretums, canyons, and scientific labs. Even better, find and upgrade your own home base, the Sink, within the Big Empty's central dome!</li>
<li>New Enemies: Confront the surgically-altered Lobotomites, bizarre robot scorpions, the dead occupants of the Y-17 Trauma Harnesses as well as the terrifying disembodied brain, Dr. Mobius. Look out for other strange and terrifying creations of the Think Tank!</li>
<li>New Perks and Weapons: Old World Blues increases the level cap by 5 and introduces a range of new weapons including the Sonic Emitter, K9000 Cyberdog Gun, Proton Axe, and several varieties of Mad Scientist Gloves such as the Sterilizer Glove and Corrosive Fist. You&rsquo;ll also find new armors such as the Sneak Suit and Mad Scientist Scrubs to make your life in the Mojave easier. Look out for implants that can switch your body parts in and out for new effects and defenses to aid you in the Big Empty and the Mojave wasteland!</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Every skill maxed to 100 here we go!

Wasn't this one supposed to have a new trait that would reduce the max level to lv30?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You’ll also find new armors such as the Sneak Suit

Sounds like they succumbed to the constant whining about the Chinese Stealth Suit not being godmode anymore.

edit: or they figured out they could get some extra bucks from it by putting it on a DLC

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

NOW IT'S HOLDING UP AN ARRAY OF FULLY-ERECT HAND PENISES. IF IT TRIES TO INSERT THEM, ACTIVATE VIVISECTORS.

Also, RUSTY VENTURE!

 

[Bahamut]

New Enemies: Confront the surgically-altered Lobotomites

Sounds like Beth crowd to me

 

[baronjohn]

So is this the last DLC?

This looks kind of interesting but I don't see the point of playing NV again before the last DLC is out.

 

[Cup]

So is this the last DLC?

This looks kind of interesting but I don't see the point of playing NV again before the last DLC is out.

There's one more: "Lonesome road" i think it's about the other courier

 

[commie]

Yeah, with Cryrim around the corner Beth would want the Obsidian 'crap' out of the way so it's legions can concentrate on that instead.

 

[Micmu]

No samurai and aliens, yet? What the fuck are they waiting.

 

[sea]

I played through the first half. It's lulzy, but in the best possible way, and at least to me is pretty fucking hilarious. It's definitely got a lot of the Fallout 2 vibe going on, especially in some of the art design and humour, though it goes even farther than that, almost never letting up in providing some sort of wit, innuendo, etc. It's a matter of preference, but honestly, I have not had a game make me laugh so much in... well, ever. Excellent voice performances all around really sell it, too, and they nail the cheesy 1950s sci-fi style perfectly.

I guess gameplay is the same old, same old, but that's to be expected - that said, there are a good number of additions in that department, there seem to be a lot of skill checks etc. in dialogue, more so than the other DLCs, and several (minor) quests that you open up only by passing said skill checks. The world itself is also pretty big and surprisingly varied, more so than Honest Hearts at least. Nothing much as far as choice and consequence goes so far, but as a DLC it offers a lot more than I expected. Overall, definitely the best of the add-ons so far, though Dead Money is still better as far as story stuff goes.

 

[Ion Flux]

NOW IT'S HOLDING UP AN ARRAY OF FULLY-ERECT HAND PENISES. IF IT TRIES TO INSERT THEM, ACTIVATE VIVISECTORS.

Also, RUSTY VENTURE!

So what exactly is a "Rusty Venture" anyway?

 

[Mister Arkham]

It's pretty fun so far. Gameplay hasn't changed, but it's heavily front-loaded with a ton of dialogue and skill-checks. The area designs are all pretty good/interesting so far, and most of what I've encountered has been pretty funny in a nicely warped kind of way. Just playing it and listening to the dialogue you can tell that MCA has been rubbing his dirty little fingers all over it.

It has crashed a couple of times though, which New Vegas hasn't done to me since three or four patches ago. Also, I suspect that one of the opening slides may be missing or loading improperly. I got a very long span towards the end with the narration running over a black screen. Don't know if anyone else has had that problem, though.

 

[Drakron]

Sounds like they succumbed to the constant whining about the Chinese Stealth Suit not being godmode anymore.

Its just a retexturing of the Assassin Suit, it gives +15 Sneak (Assassin Suit was +10) it have the same DT but the Stealth Suit is 5 pounds heavier.

Edit:
It seems you can further upgrade it for a additional 10 sneak, +1 Perception, +1 Agility and 20% sneak speed bonus.

Also it comes with a built-in medical system like FO3 MP-47/A power armor with Med-X and Stimpacks.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Its just a retexturing of the Assassin Suit [...]

Jason Bergman made a statement on the Bethesda forums in response to a question about the armor: "That's not a modified assassin's suit".

Maybe that's his way of saying it's a re-meshed Medic power armor.

 

[ortucis]

The residents of the Mojave have long assumed the trackless wastes of the ‘Big Empty’ are a no-man's-land, a desolate stretch where no living thing can survive.

No living thing except all of the residents of the Mojave.. and the fiends.. and the mutants.. and..

 

[Unkillable Cat]

K9000 Cyberdog Gun

Proton Axe

 

[Drakron]

Maybe that's his way of saying it's a re-meshed Medic power armor.

Well I guess he is either a idiot of thinks we are idiots (or both), the Assassin Suit was originally Christine's armor and we know she was in Big Mountain, in fact there is a "Christine's COS recon armor" in Old World Blues that is standard recon armor with just higher DT.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Looking forward to playing this.

Proton Axe

Yay.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I'm currently playing New Vegas right now, I'm level 22, and I have to wonder...won't every skill be maxed out at level 40 anyway? I have a 10 Intelligence, granted, but still. WHY didn't they bring the old system back?

 

[Xor]

Bethesda.

 

[Forest Dweller]

And that's ingrained in the engine? All it would take is some simple algorithms to put in place.

 

[Surf Solar]

They significantly decreased the chance to be a jack of all trades compared to FO3, but I agree, it's still way too much. I've level 34 now and I have practically almost everything at 100, only explosives, unarmed and melee are somewhat lower. If you have all the DLC, the levelcap will be at 50.

 

[Gord]

Basically with all the DLC the best way is to either
1) install a mod that reduces leveling speed (the completionist option)
2) limit the stuff you do on each playthrough (the LARPing option)

 

[Xor]

Or
3) Just max everything (powergamer option)

 

[commie]

Or
3) Just max everything (powergamer option)

Exactly. The hypocrisy is stunning here when people rage at being able to max all skills and become gods yet in virtually every thread where someone asks for help with a character build for one game or another the majority of answers are full of ways to take advantage of the system in order to max as much as possible.

I'm down with the 'max everything' option in NV. At least it takes a bit of time unlike in FO3 where even with the FWE advancement set to very low and no respawns I still managed to reach level 29. In vanilla I would have reached level 30 after barely seeing half the game! To make things worse, even with FWE you were mostly indestructible at level 12 until the very late game where the MMM creatures became reasonably formidable. In vanilla, you were a god still many levels earlier than even this!

NV really did a lot to avoid such an imbalance from the get go, even if all the DLC is having a negative effect. I'm hoping that eventually a patch or mod is released that balances things again.