Fallout New Vegas is the best Obsidian game ever

[Trashos]

Is the combat of F1/2 any better though?
No real depth and takes too much time because of the slow turn based style.

No matter how simple FO1/2 combat is, it is still much more tactical than NV's. Yes, it is better for me, I don't find much joy in FPS. In FO1/2, at least I have to make decisions and roughly calculate odds.

Mind you, I am not saying that FO1/2 combat is exciting or anything. But it is serviceable, and I like the genre better.

 

[ilitarist]

Fallout 1/2 combat has an advantage of making you feel like it's all decided by your stats and strategy. There are more possibilities in FNV but a lot of those feel like an obvious mindless reflex when you play it in first-person realtime style.

Running away and shooting at approaching enemy melee enemy feels like a strategic choice in top-down turn-based style. In FPS it feels more like an exploit of systems and obvious behavior.

 

[Micormic]

I'd agree and even add 'by far'.


Out of the Obsidian games I've played;

Kotor 2: below average, not quite 'shit' but not a game I finished or ever thought about playing again.
NWN 2: shit, because of how bad this one was I couldn't get into MOTB, never played SOZ
Alpha protocol, don't even get me started on this, one of the worst games I've ever played
POE 1: Super dull and boring, no need to go further into it. Didn't get far into it myself, last Obsidian game I plan on playing.



Never played dungeon siege 3 for obvious reasons. So with competition like that I'd say New Vegas was by far their best game, at least in my opinion.

 

[Sykar]

Is the combat of F1/2 any better though?
No real depth and takes too much time because of the slow turn based style.

No matter how simple FO1/2 combat is, it is still much more tactical than NV's. Yes, it is better for me, I don't find much joy in FPS. In FO1/2, at least I have to make decisions and roughly calculate odds.

Mind you, I am not saying that FO1/2 combat is exciting or anything. But it is serviceable, and I like the genre better.

The combat is hardly comparable. FO 1/2 is isometric "tactical" combat while NV is a 1st person shooter. Both have the same problem that they are incredibly shallow and do not offer much but at least you can use cover in NV and grenades are acutally useful as well as a few meds so there is a bit more variety there at least.

Of course the biggest problem is that NV is crippled by that god awful engine...

 

[Parabalus]

Is the combat of F1/2 any better though?
No real depth and takes too much time because of the slow turn based style.

No matter how simple FO1/2 combat is, it is still much more tactical than NV's. Yes, it is better for me, I don't find much joy in FPS. In FO1/2, at least I have to make decisions and roughly calculate odds.

Mind you, I am not saying that FO1/2 combat is exciting or anything. But it is serviceable, and I like the genre better.

I understand liking the "genre" better, but within it F1/2 combat is still garbage? Compared to a "real" tactical combat game like BB or w/e. If it's so shallow I'd rather not be bothered, at least Arcanum had real time.

What odds are you calculating in FO1/2 in the combat? Do you calculate the full crit tables by hand for every shot or is there a mod which does it? Impressive if you can math it out on the fly in your head, since you also need to know the table for the target.
I don't remember doing much else other than comparing eyes/head vs body THC, weighted by armor pen of attack.

 

[Ocelot]

It's been almost 8 years, enough with the NV praising. We get it, it's very good. There are other games out there too, you know.

 

[Lilura]

Keeping up to par with Black Isle who only ever made the Fallout engine followed by heavy use of licensing Bioware's engine and multiple aborted attempts to create their own.

I'll pay that. Fallout origin is Interplay.

 

[Sigourn]

New Vegas is a fantastic RPG, but like others have said, the combat brings it down. Especifically, the combat and the difficulty: there aren't any situations in the game that require you to be actually good at your combat skills, because it's just so easy. Agility doesn't affect your combat prowess anywhere as much as FO and FO2 either.

I really, really wish modders didn't care so much about all these huge retarded "expansion-sized" mods. Then again, I'm guessing 95% of these modders grew up on Bethesda games, so they don't really care about classic Fallout and an isometric New Vegas remake. It's a shame, because it has the potential to be the best Fallout game ever made, by far. Just add finished Legion content (optional add-on), proper low Int runs, spice up the Mojave with tiny locations (which clutter an open world 3D map, but not the traditional satellite map), and so on.

 

[Loostreaks]

MOTB: Best storyline
KOTOR II: their best characters ( and dialogue)
Alpha Protocol: best C&C ( and faction system)
NV: Best rpg mechanics

The rest were mostly average, or below it. ( excluding Stick of Truth)

PoE should have been Obsidian at it's best, but it's pretty obvious they've lost a lot of their writing talent, unable to satisfy either old or modern audience.

That Cain/Boyarsky project could be their last chance to pull themselves together.

 

[Wunderbar]

Keeping up to par with Black Isle who only ever made the Fallout engine followed by heavy use of licensing Bioware's engine and multiple aborted attempts to create their own.

At least Fallout engine was used on three games.

 

[Egosphere]

FNV was easily better than kotor2. Only part of kotor I remember is when snow white demanded to take off her clothes before wrestling with me. I was just too strong so it ended like
for her. But then Krea started acting like a total bitch in the next city. I guess she saw us and grew jealous

 

[ScrotumBroth]

New Vegas had the soothing advantage of coming after FO3, but it's not FO1/2 level of greatness, which is more prudent than just Obsidian catalogue.

 

[Sykar]

Is the combat of F1/2 any better though?
No real depth and takes too much time because of the slow turn based style.

No matter how simple FO1/2 combat is, it is still much more tactical than NV's. Yes, it is better for me, I don't find much joy in FPS. In FO1/2, at least I have to make decisions and roughly calculate odds.

Mind you, I am not saying that FO1/2 combat is exciting or anything. But it is serviceable, and I like the genre better.

I understand liking the "genre" better, but within it F1/2 combat is still garbage? Compared to a "real" tactical combat game like BB or w/e. If it's so shallow I'd rather not be bothered, at least Arcanum had real time.

What odds are you calculating in FO1/2 in the combat? Do you calculate the full crit tables by hand for every shot or is there a mod which does it? Impressive if you can math it out on the fly in your head, since you also need to know the table for the target.
I don't remember doing much else other than comparing eyes/head vs body THC, weighted by armor pen of attack.

Stuff like DR/DT is only in so far useful as to know that laser weapons got shafted.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It's been almost 8 years, enough with the NV praising. We get it, it's very good. There are other games out there too, you know.

Yes, there are other good games out there, and many of them better than Fallout: New Vegas. However, there aren't any other good games made by Obsidian. Despite having survived for 15 years in a turbulent industry, Obsidian's best game was made with Bethesda's Gamebryo-derived engine (and a version of it that had declined substantially since its first appearance in Morrowind). They never managed to create a capable game engine of their own or to establish their own successful IPs. Instead, Obsidian has been a sink of talent, largely wasting the capabilities of Chris Avellone and many others, who likely would have accomplished far more over the years if they had pursued opportunities at other game companies (or even freelance).

 

[Lahey]

Good: NV, KotOR2, MotB
Bad: PoE, NWN2, SoZ, AP
Ugly: DS3, Tyranny, SP

 

[Alex]

I agree that New Vegas is the best game from Obsidian. But I really don't think they can stand up to the original.

 

[Mexi]

I wonder if people hating on PoE played 3.0 or White March. I'm pretty sure most are the ones that played it after release and didn't look back.

 

[Ocelot]

I wonder if people hating on PoE played 3.0 or White March. I'm pretty sure most are the ones that played it after release and didn't look back.

So this is why everyone hates PoE.

I played it way after it's release and it was great.

 

[FreeKaner]

I wouldn't say PoE was great but white march is entertaining and at 3.0 it was an okay game with great bits (mostly DLC content).

 

[Saxon1974]

I agree with this, New Vegas is a good maybe even great game. I sort of liked Fallout 3 until I realized everywhere I went it ended up in just another shootout. NV is much more interesting to explore IMHO.

 

[KK1001]

POE and FNV are polar opposites of one another: the former has a solid enough (after years of patching + expansions and only on POTD) combat and encounter system, but generally only competent area design, faction interactivity, and companion writing; the latter has great quests, top notch interactivity and world design, but the combat and the engine are clunky making the entire thing a bit of a chore to play without mods. The main storyline in PoE is pretty fucking bunk compared to FNV too.

New Vegas is the only Obsidian game that feels like it underwent any sort of real quality control, or was even finished. If it were on a superior engine it might have been a masterpiece, but it's amazing what they did with such shit Bethesda handed them.

 

[Mexi]

I agree with this, New Vegas is a good maybe even great game. I sort of liked Fallout 3 until I realized everywhere I went it ended up in just another shootout. NV is much more interesting to explore IMHO.

No maybe about it. It's a great game. Even the Cuckdex has it in their top 10.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

You are absolutely correct:

Knights of the Old Republic 2 - Good start but quickly devolves into an angsty typical post-PS:T Avellone nonsensical emo journey through some PMS take on Star Wars that the defenders call "deconstruction" of the setting. Remove the "con" part for this con of a game, and you would be about right. And that's before we even get to crappy combat, biowarean hub structure, unfinished parts, and so on.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - A long slog of a mediocre RPG with arguably some of the worst maps ever. When your forest of open field looks like a room, something is very wrong.

Mask of the Betrayer - Quality writing, and some other stuff, but it's a 20 hour expansion pack. Not to mention crappy high level DnD combat, NWN2 engine, etc.

Alpha Protocol - Horrible game. Random maps around the world, time limited dialogue (WTF), cringy action and stealth gameplay, broken balance, story that makes you want to drink alcohol. How is this #29 on the list?

South Park - Enough said.

Pillars of Eternity - Vastly inferior version of 20 year old games.

So yeah, New Vegas is the clear winner, and it's not even close. Not that it's a great game, but with some combat mods, you can turn it into a decent combat system, and the story/writing/lore are very solid. Open world lends itself well to exploration, and plenty fo C&C. So all the bases are covered.

 

[FreshCorpse]

The trouble with this comparision is that no one plays NV without mods and they haven't for maybe 5 years. Between all of the unofficial patches, 4GB hacks, anti-crash protection, project nevada, etc, contemporary players don't really get a sense of what it was like when Obsidian stopped patching it (or even at release...).

I feel uncomfortable giving Obsidian the credit for creating a great game when it seem like without modders it would be a lot less unenjoyable. If I had experienced the crashes that people had at launch I might have given up on NV before making it to the strip.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

The trouble with this comparision is that no one plays NV without mods and they haven't for maybe 5 years. Between all of the unofficial patches, 4GB hacks, anti-crash protection, project nevada, etc, contemporary players don't really get a sense of what it was like when Obsidian stopped patching it (or even at release...).

I feel uncomfortable giving Obsidian the credit for creating a great game when it seem like without modders it would be a lot less unenjoyable. If I had experienced the crashes that people had at launch I might have given up on NV before making it to the strip.

I sat down and played it for the first time in late 2015 with no mods on my initial run, not even Josh's mod, and I still loved it. I wish I'd played more than fifteen minutes of it on release but I just assumed it was more Bethesda tier garbage. That and at the time my gf would pull out her castrating knife whenever I booted up a game.

Vanilla F:NV is a great but janky RPG; modded it's a fucking masterpiece.