FALLOUT NEW VEGAS - A BETHESDA SOFTWORKS / OBSIDIAN GAME

FALLOUT NEW VEGAS - A BETHESDA SOFTWORKS / OBSIDIAN GAME

When Fallout New Vegas was first announced there was a lot of confusion as to the direction that original Fallout developers, now working at Obsidian, were going to take the series after the massive success of Fallout 3. Not a direct sequel to Fallout 3 and not just the equivalent of a massive amount of DLC for said title it seems that between them, and publishers Bethesda they had decided that there was still a massive amount of storytelling left in the fallout universe. So we ended up with Fallout New Vegas the “follow up 2008’s game of the year” as the tagline reads. A game with a story set on the West coast of the USA compared to Fallout 3’s Washington D.C setting.

The story starts with you as a courier transporting the mysterious Platinum 38 poker chip, attacked and left for dead in the desert. Once you have been rescued and nursed back to health the game begins and your quest to find out why you were attacked and your desire to gain revenge on your attackers forms the beginning of the story of Fallout New Vegas.

As soon as you start this game, if you have played Fallout 3 before, you will instantly feel like you are back in that game. The game guides you through character creation with the allocation of skill and ability points and with the minimal in way of items and equipment, sets you on your way into the Fallout world. Navigate the menus and you will find everything is pretty much identical to Fallout 3 in terms of menu navigation and even your trusty Pip Boy 3000.

Once you start exploring the world around you it is initially very overwhelming. You will find you are massively under powered against most enemies. Also equipment, items and bottle caps (the in game currency) are very sparse. As with most RPGs you have the choice between rigidly following the story and in game map to a series of waypoints or you can just head off in any direction you want exploring, finding new locations and discovering side quests to complete for various people and factions.

Probably the first thing you will notice is that the world around you looks pretty much the same to that of Fallout 3, Obsidian have opted to use the same game engine that was used for Fallout 3 and in turn was used for Oblivion, and it shows its age badly. This game looks and feels like it would have just been a triple A title two years ago, not a game that has been released at the end of 2010. The graphical glitches also begin almost immediately as you start this game. Very jerky background pop ups really show the age of the game engine and prepare to be amused by some random graphical glitches like floating people and spinning objects. The technical flaws of this game also extend to complete Xbox 360 system freezing up type crashes and ridiculous loading time of anything up to a minute every time you go through a door or move location. I understand that this is a massive game and requires patience when loading but when you are on a quest that requires you to change locations every two or three minutes the loading times really get annoying.

What Obsidian seem to be hoping that this all goes unnoticed as you get emerged in the Fallout universe and I can testify that this policy works after just a few hours of playing this game. The world of Fallout New Vegas seems massive, interesting and quite intimidating all at the same time. Although the main story is very engrossing it’s the strength of the side quests and sub plots that will really hook you into this game. While you are walking from point A to point B it is so easy just to think “look at that building over there, lets check it out” and five hours later you will have completed the most intricate side quest you have ever found in a game, leading you to a dozen new locations and encounters with dozens of new NPC’s and enemies. It can get to the point where you can completely forget you were on a main story related quest for five to ten hours easily.


The people and locations that you encounter are amazing well filled out and detailed and you will find yourself having long conversations with random characters and spending hours searching every room of that hotel you just found in the middle of the desert. There clearly has been a lot of effort put in to bring as much life to the desert wasteland you are exploring as possible.

There are a few new elements that have been introduced to the game so that Obsidian can say “look it’s not really the same as Fallout 3”. The main new element is probably the companion system. Like Fallout 3 you can find individuals throughout the game that can choose to accompany you on you quest. However, in this game you have a companion wheel that allows you to manage their actions in a more direct way and issue orders. Quite why this is needed I couldn’t work out as whenever I had a companion with me they seemed to be some sort of super soldier, taking down enemies I had not even seen yet. There is also the ability to craft items and upgrade your weapons at a series of different work stations. Again I found this a bit unnecessary as if I could earn some more bottle caps you can usually buy a better weapon than you can make. Finally there is the card game Caravan that you can challenge people to play for money across the world but if you want to play be prepared to be doing a lot of searching on Google as it is the most confusing thing I have ever encountered in my life. Although these new elements all add to the game in their own way they all also seem unnecessary and non essential additions.

Overall Fallout New Vegas is a RPG that is well above the average level churned out on the Xbox 360. Its story, characters and side quests are engrossing, lively and interesting. It just does not do anything in a new and original way when compared to Fallout 3. This is a game that could easily take a hundred hours of your life without you even noticing and its life will be extended over the next year or so with a massive amount of DLC. It is just with the level of technical flaws to the game, which surely cannot be considered the finished product by any stretch of the imagination, it simply cannot touch the quality of the RPGs that Bioware is putting out on the 360.

7.5 / 10

good review bud have some rep really must getting cracking with this damn you fable 3

Very nice review dude

nice to have you back, sack and crack!

Good honest review, the sort GSA prides itself on, well done mate!

Very good review mate, been waiting for one for a few days now.

I want it! lol

Rep given

Great review mate

Wasn't too impressed by Fallout 3 so will probably give this a miss.

Good review all the same though!

good review and ur right u do get pulled in by whats this over and u find yourself wondering some things have been fixed since it release when i got it it done an update but there are still some problems ive found lets hope they fix them soon....

they could keep bringing the exact same game out jus in different cities and id still buy em

nice review Nite sir