VD's New Vegas review is up at NMA

[Silellak]

If you're into that sort of thing.

Fallout 3: New Vegas is a faithful sequel to Fallout 2: New Reno. Much like its predecessor, the game features a desert, gangsters, casinos, guns, surprisingly good role-playing, and Chris Avellone.

Obsidian has brought to the table some much-needed brains. The moronic writing in Bethesda’s Fallout 3 made everything involving NPCs (other than shooting them in the face) almost intolerable and often incredibly painful. The writing (and the difference it creates) in New Vegas will be the first thing you’ll notice. It’s like a breath of fresh air that adds a surprising amount to the atmosphere and setting.

...

New Vegas is a huge game. I can probably write another 6 pages examining New Vegas’s various aspects, but I’d rather play the game some more. Like any other game, it’s far from being perfect and has many flaws. If you share my opinion that quest design is the most important aspect of an RPG, then you’ll like New Vegas a lot. If you think that RPGs are all about character system and/or combat, your opinion will depend not so much on New Vegas, but on whether or not you liked Fallout 3.

I think it’s an excellent RPG and when it comes to shaping your story and making decisions, instead of following a pre-determined path, New Vegas can easily compete with the original games and is definitely top 10 material. If the combat was more challenging, and surviving in the wasteland wasn’t so disappointingly easy, the game could actually have competed for the #1 spot.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=57162

 

[LameNinja]

So NV is officially the next good mainstream cRPG after MotB?
Btw did VD stop posting here?

 

[Havoc]

I'm honored that VD used a link I found on the internet... that makes me famous, right?

 

[Lockkaliber]

Great review! It sums up pretty much everything I have to say about the game.

 

[ghostdog]

He forgot to mention that obsidian took a crappy engine and made it even crappier. Unfortunately, I can't experience all that good stuff VD mentions, because of the technical clusterfuck NV is. What started as frequent crashes, evolved into computer locking up and resetting after the awesome 2nd update/patch. "Your system has recovered from a serious error" ...I haven't had this kind of shit for ages and thankfully NV came to remind me of it.

 

[Havoc]

Maybe there's something wrong with your PC?

 

[Vault Dweller]

He forgot to mention that obsidian took a crappy engine and made it even crappier. Unfortunately, I can't experience all that good stuff VD mentions, because of the technical clusterfuck NV is. What started as frequent crashes, evolved into computer locking up and resetting after the awesome 2nd update/patch. "Your system has recovered from a serious error" ...I haven't had this kind of shit for ages and thankfully NV came to remind me of it.

The game was barely playable on my computer, freezing every 15-20 min (had to do full restart every time which is loads of fun). So, I raged like a newfag at first, then tweaked the ini files and didn't have a single issue ever since.

http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... ezing.html
^ very good guide.

 

[Serious_Business]

Fucking fanboy! Bullshit review! Sellout! Vault Dweller? More like Vault Turder! Get the fuck back to your shitty forums!

 

[Jaesun]

I did not encounter many problems playing NV (except for 2 lock ups). That's it (and after 60+ hours of playing).

 

[CreamySpinach]

No offense VD. But to the rest of you, don't you feel he made it sound very boring? I think I will continue to mod my own location into New Vegas but i rather wait till Fallout 4 before I have an incentive to play it.

"So NV is officially the next good mainstream cRPG after MotB? "

MotB = Mouth of the Breath? Breath of the mouth? Fire breath? Breath of fire?

Breath of fire was pretty good.

 

[Jaesun]

Prosper stop posting shit posts.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

New Vegas can easily compete with the original games and is definitely top 10 material. If the combat was more challenging, and surviving in the wasteland wasn’t so disappointingly easy, the game could actually have competed for the #1 spot.

wat

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I did not encounter many problems playing NV (except for 2 lock ups). That's it (and after 60+ hours of playing).

Same. It crashed maybe three times in thirty hours, which is pretty manageable, and I had to use a console command off the Vault wiki once to fix a bugged quest. Considering said quest outcome depended on a very specific set of circumstances following two different routes at once and doing things in one particular order - and that there's a shitload of quests with at least that many variables - this didn't bother me much.

On the other hand, my first feeling was that the game was - for all its great new aspects and writing and so on - a mod, and that stuck with me to the end. A pretty polished, professional mod, The Nameless Mod to Fallout 3's Deus Ex 2 if... er, if the Nameless Mod had been made on the Deus Ex 2 engine. And was just the same other than that. You know what I mean. But a mod nonetheless. Combat's still boring, Bethesda's mutant version of Gamebryo's still shit - the former a bit better than before, the latter a bit worse - character models and hideously-zoomed dialogue and such are still stunningly awkward. Stuff you knew would be the case as soon as the game was announced.

But with that out of the way, and despite being someone who generally values good combat and character development above choices and quest design, I can agree with VD's opinion entirely. Best RPG that's been released in years, and probably the best we're going to get for years to come. In some ways, it really does even put the originals to shame; the faction interplay and (sometimes) quest design are done better than I've seen in almost any game I can name. Buy it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

In some ways, it really does even put the originals to shame; the faction interplay and (sometimes) quest design are done better than I've seen in almost any game I can name. Buy it.

What the admiral says.

 

[Lumpy]

So NV is officially the next good mainstream cRPG after MotB?

Except MotB's combat was reasonably fun and challenging.
New Vegas sounds like another KotOR 2/VtMB - is it? From the reviews the non-combat interactions sounds like it's mostly about avoiding combat - so it includes little gameplay - and since the combat is so easy anyway, what's the point?

 

[Vault Dweller]

So NV is officially the next good mainstream cRPG after MotB?

Except MotB's combat was reasonably fun and challenging.

Was it?

New Vegas sounds like another KotOR 2/VtMB - is it?

In the role-playing department, it's much better than Knights 2 and Bloodlines combined.

From the reviews the non-combat interactions sounds like it's mostly about avoiding combat...

It's not. It's about dealing with factions.

 

[314159]

As if 2d Fallouts were challenging.

 

[Gragt]

In some ways, it really does even put the originals to shame

"Shame" isn't the word I'd use when you consider that the first two Fallout games came out more than 10 years ago. It is normal, and even anticipated, that subsequent games would improve on them and surpass them. The games NV puts the shame however are those mediocrities that came out recently, like its own predecessor Fallout 3.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

In some ways, it really does even put the originals to shame

"Shame" isn't the word I'd use when you consider that the first two Fallout games came out more than 10 years ago. It is normal, and even anticipated, that subsequent games would improve on them and surpass them.

What other games since have managed to surpass the design of the original Fallouts? It should be normal, but it's anything but.
The best we seem to have been able to hope for over the last decade or so has been for something to come close to matching the greatness of what came before without being poisoned too much by the new shit. When, every now and again, something does, it's pretty commendable. When the best of what came before is actually surpassed, it's pretty much time for declaring a holy day and keeping an eye out for monkeys flying out of the sun.

 

[Lumpy]

So NV is officially the next good mainstream cRPG after MotB?

Except MotB's combat was reasonably fun and challenging.

Was it?

It was.

Thing is, as you probably know, KotOR 2 and VtMB were shitty games for the following reasons: the combat was extremely easy and a complete waste of time, and at the same time, it was the only "gameplay" available. There were plenty of choices in dialogue, but they didn't matter much - even though they had cosmetic consequences, you could pick choices completely at random, and you wouldn't be any worse off.
Hey, I think I've just invented an empirical method for measuring "true" Choice&Consequence.

So, to what degree does this also apply to New Vegas?

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

When the best of what came before is actually surpassed

Well my dear Admiral...opinions differ on whether Fallout was the best to have come before. It wasn't for me, but that is probably a generation thing.

It is amusing actually. I thought the same thing as you do when Fallout 1 came out. When playing it on its release in '97 I thought 'This is a nice change to the rubbish that has been delivered of late. It doesn't quite satisfy me to the level Wasteland did, but honestly, it is just about there'.

I never shook this thought, and it is still my opinion. Fallout was a watered down Wasteland, but still a very good game.

Ironic that I see a young fellow voicing similar thoughts years later, about yet another spiritual sequel of the same franchise (yes, I know Wasteland isn't official, but only a semantic idiot would press the point on that).

 

[Clockwork Knight]

In some ways, it really does even put the originals to shame

"Shame" isn't the word I'd use when you consider that the first two Fallout games came out more than 10 years ago. It is normal, and even anticipated, that subsequent games would improve on them and surpass them. The games NV puts the shame however are those mediocrities that came out recently, like its own predecessor Fallout 3.

Games aren't made just of technological advances; ideas, design choices and the like also matter, and that's not something that naturally pops up as time goes by. You don't expect movies to come after, say, Predator to be more awesome just because they came recently and therefore the special effects are better. Like Jimbob said, Fallout is considered awesome for a reason; it stands out. If it was just a stepping stone you expected to be surpassed in some years, you would probably be revising your personal Holy Trinity at the same intervals.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thing is, as you probably know, KotOR 2 and VtMB were shitty games for the following reasons: the combat was extremely easy and a complete waste of time, and at the same time, it was the only "gameplay" available. There were plenty of choices in dialogue, but they didn't matter much - even though they had cosmetic consequences, you could pick choices completely at random, and you wouldn't be any worse off.

I beg to differ.

The choices didn't matter much in KOTOR 2 because the game was linear. Bloodlines was a better game, with great atmosphere and well done multiple solutions, but it too was linear and you had very few choices and even fewer consequences.

So, to what degree does this also apply to New Vegas?

Unlike these games, New Vegas is a very, very non-linear game where you shape the story pretty much the way you see fit. Hard to believe, I know. I didn't expect it either.

 

[20 Eyes]

Great review, pretty much sums up my thoughts on the game. Despite the shitty engine, it's really a fantastic RPG. On my second run, I'll probably look for some mods that increase universal damage and reduce the amount of ammo in the world.

As if 2d Fallouts were challenging.

True, enough. Aim for the eyes, gigantic critical 9 times out of 10 if that is how you wanna play.

But I appreciate the efforts of a game that lets you hit a guy in the balls with a baseball bat, and then allows you to soccer kick him in the head while he's collapsed on the floor in agony... in glorious turn-based combat.

 

[torpid]

I did not encounter many problems playing NV (except for 2 lock ups). That's it (and after 60+ hours of playing).

On the other hand, my first feeling was that the game was - for all its great new aspects and writing and so on - a mod, and that stuck with me to the end. A pretty polished, professional mod, The Nameless Mod to Fallout 3's Deus Ex 2 if... er, if the Nameless Mod had been made on the Deus Ex 2 engine. And was just the same other than that. You know what I mean. But a mod nonetheless. Combat's still boring, Bethesda's mutant version of Gamebryo's still shit - the former a bit better than before, the latter a bit worse - character models and hideously-zoomed dialogue and such are still stunningly awkward. Stuff you knew would be the case as soon as the game was announced.

I agree -- the game is good, but Obsidian still comes off as a glorified modding team. They need to hire competent programmers and stake out their own place, instead of making improved reruns of other companies' franchises.

But with that out of the way, and despite being someone who generally values good combat and character development above choices and quest design, I can agree with VD's opinion entirely. Best RPG that's been released in years, and probably the best we're going to get for years to come. In some ways, it really does even put the originals to shame; the faction interplay and (sometimes) quest design are done better than I've seen in almost any game I can name. Buy it.

The setting is also much more consistent than FO2's. Although the Wild West theme is annoying, the game is at least consistent within that setting. The world makes logical sense (mostly), the overarching importance of trading along the I-15 and I-95 is constantly emphasized, the stakes in the conflict between the NCR and the Legion are made clear. Even the silly Roman Legion ends up seeming pretty plausible. Obsidian avoided throwing random shit together à la Bethesda or FO2, and so the "immersion" factor of a sandbox, open-world engine worked well in my opinion, as you progressed along the trading routes towards Vegas, or encountered Legion raiding parties as you went east, closer to the frontlines.