Fallout: New Vegas, First thoughts from the Fellows

Aug 24, 2010

Well hello everybody, Steve Wood here along with Tom Mackenzie, you know Tom? I think it was safe to say that us two were pretty much together for the entirety of Gamescom. Eating, Gaming, Walking, Laughing and Queuing but not sleeping, I sorted that out right away by throwing his bed over the other side of our Deluxe Hotel Suite on a very masculine diagonal next to the window. What I’m trying to say is that pretty much every game we played we experienced at the same time, so here is the first of our “First thoughts from the Fellows” articles.

Steve’s thoughts:
This was the first game I really wanted to play and I think it was the first game we actually got in the queue for that didn’t end with us exiting with an annoyed face and aching legs.
Thankfully Bethesda are legends so the line went down fast and we entered a Retro Casino with Xbox 360s built into the Roulette tables.

After waiting 450 years for some guy to get off of the game, Vixx finally snagged me a controller and I was away… Okay not going to lie, I had a slightly shaky start. The shoot button wasn’t working so the bolt action rifle I was holding just fired a shot randomly whenever it felt like it, one bullet hitting some guy who then punched the EFF out of me until I used VATS and slowly disappeared off the screen… Yeah. Once the bloke fixed my problem by equipping a different gun *displeased face*I really was away!

I loved every second of my gaming time on New Vegas, the first thing I did was test out the new weapons that this title had to offer such as the “Silenced Submachine Gun” and the “Boxing Gloves”. The SMG was mind blowing and it mowed down the miserable faced Security Bots in seconds, even with my arms and legs being crippled by explosions brought forth by them. Just a note to anyone who plays this game, if you don’t want to be shunned from a community, don’t hit people with golf clubs, they didn’t appreciate me doing that. This is one of the new features I am excited to see in action, although I’m a right little goody goody when I play RPGs so I expect I shall be a welcomed member of society.

The Pip Boy is as easy to use as ever and it now has 3 Radio stations already built in! So if you get tired of listening to the main music station, you don’t have to switch over to an ear piercing Violin station that you unlocked on the fly. Now you have two other stations with actual marvellous music on them, I am over the moon… seriously! *Bongo bongo bongo I don’t wanna leave the Congo, oh no no no no no*

It seems that you can talk to pretty much everyone and everything in New Vegas, at least from what I saw. I didn’t talk to a Security Bot myself because I was too busy trying to Boxing Glove them to death with no avail, but I saw someone talk to one while playing it before I had a go – See above for afore mentioned guy playing for 450 years. It looked to me like he was using the conversation options to whittle his way out of bother, not sure if he was paying off a bounty on his head or just sweet talking his way out of jail but I definitely saw his Caps decrease and his XP go up. Can’t wait for this if I’m correct about it, I know from the last game that I would love a chance to redeem myself after I accidentally launch a missile into a wedding procession – Yes it happened, sorry Rivet City newlyweds.

So anyway, I am thrilled to have had the chance to play some of my most eagerly awaited game and I can’t wait for its release so I can play more when I DEFINITELY buy it.

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Tom’s thoughts:
I was incredibly excited to get the chance to play one of the most anticipated sequels this year. My primary goal was to get as much out of the demo as possible, which pretty much meant killing everything I saw with whatever I could get my hands on. On first inspection the game seems a lot like its predecessor, Fallout 3. Graphically it is incredibly similar, as is the gameplay, but I suppose if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. It’s these familiarities that make the game seem comfortable and not a step in the wrong direction, meaning players of Fallout 3 will feel very at home in the wastelands of New Vegas.

As I approached the gates to the Las Vegas strip I encountered one of the games new bots (and possible enemies). These hulking security bots are as tough as they come (well I couldn’t kill them), obviously acting as a sort of Police force trying to keep everyone in line. Hopefully these will be but one of a large roster of new and intriguing enemies and friendlies. Although it was impossible to actually enter the strip in the demo we played the environment looked and certainly felt more alive, with characters strolling about casually with the sights and sounds of the impressive New Vegas all around them.

After I annihilated the guy I was actually meant to speak to and putting on his fancy suit as some sort of sick trophy I had a little pop up appear on my screen. This pop up cheerily informed me that I was now ‘Hated’ by the community, thus making them hostile to me and limiting my speech options. The more people I eradicated, the deeper shit I got into with the community. This whole escapade made me realise how much the population and faction of New Vegas will affect the game. It certainly seems that taking sides and making friends (and enemies) will be a fundamental part of the new game, a feature which I greatly look forward to.

Another subtle difference that I should mention is the aiming. As you may remember in Fallout 3 the aiming was rather shoddy, with the left trigger only really zooming in while the gun stayed stationary by your side. Now your character aims down the sights. As I said before, a very subtle change, but one that I personally feel makes a huge difference to the game, almost encouraging the use of normal shooting over the VATS system. The Pip Boy and VATS system are unchanged, once again meaning players of the predecessor feel very comfortable working these systems. Overall Fallout: New Vegas was incredibly impressive. Much of the same but in a positive way, seasoned RPG players and newcomers alike will feel comfortable picking up and playing it. I rate this will be the single player game of the year, with a no doubt brilliant story and wonderful game mechanics, it sure seems likely.