New "Fallout: New Vegas" details from OXM

OXM has released their latest issue, detailing Obsidian Entertainment's Fallout: New Vegas. The article sheds light on a number of new elements of the game that have previously been unknown, and Duck and Cover has a handy bullet-pointed list to keep track.

[Julie]

Sounds like fun fun! :)

[vhero]

Looks great and hopefully the engine wont have a bug built right into the core so they cannot patch it like with fallout 3. That game crashed on all systems constantly and was annoying.

[Tony P]

Shaping up. I want to see a lot of improvements to the franchise as it exists now.

But I don't really want to get my hopes up that it will be a return to the glory days of the original Fallouts.

[ebis]

Definitely looks good. Obsidian looks like they will be fixing a lot of the problems Bethesda made with Fallout 3.

[vhero]

I just hope it plays aswell I loved Fallout 3 and if it wasn't for the constant crashing I would play it all the damn time. The PC version is practically endless with mod support. I just wish they would add mod support to PS3 version like EPIC did with UT2008 now that would ROCK!

[ebis]

True VHero. The playstation community has definitely been screwed by Bethsoft. Their secret lover relationship with Microsoft has definitely interfered with ps3 people getting a good gaming experience. Luckily, Obisidian aren't sellouts like Bethesda.

[TheXgamerLive]

It did crash some though, I mean I put in over 260 saved game hours including all DLC amd maybe had 4 crashes so that's not bad and all I did was go back to my last saved game which I saved often so it was no problem.

[ebis]

You are one of the lucky ones XGamer. Most people have it crash quite frequently, even now after all the patches. The crashes aren't the biggest problem, though. Most people I've read complain about broken quests and things like that which directly effect gameplay. I think most people have given up complaining about things like clipping issues - they just learned to deal with that. But there are still game ruining bugs for Fallout 3.

[A Cupcake for Gabe]

seems like all this flood of info is spoiling the experience. other than a few demos, everyone who played fallout 3 had little to expect. thinking it was just oblivion with guns, when in fact it was an amazingly fresh game. and when it came out it blew us all away..ok it had glitches, but still was epic and amazing..

i don't want all the secrets and little details blown from the start. i wonder if the random sidequests will be marked like oblivion though, its easier to manage than looking through notes and wondering where the girl was you found the key from, and things like that.

[PrimordialSoupBase]

... New Vegas is definitely a direct sequel to Fallout 3 rather than a lightweight spin-off. Clearly, you have a responsibility to push the series forward, but there's also nothing worse than a misguided attempt to differentiate a follow-up that only ruins what everyone loved about the original. Throw in a new developer - New Vegas is being developed by Obsidian rather than Bethesda's in-house team - and there is no doubt that a fair few Fallout fans will be more than a little concerned that this could be a recipe for nuclear disaster.

Oh, the irony. That writer has no clue.

[reaferfore20]

Lol I thought you were saying that for a second there. I was gonna say, New Vegas is really more of a sequel to Fallout 2 than anything.

[Raz]

This is one of those moments when only Hugh Laurie can express my true sentiments.

[tintaipei]

This is definitely more of a sequel. Fallout "3" had nothing to do with the storylines and Bethesda just included things like the Brotherhood, super mutants, and even vaults for the gimmick factor.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Just like last year I will be buying Fable and Fallout back to back!
Fallout vegas is going to be a beast!

[mistajeff]

Man, I hate how so much of the journalism surrounding this game fails to realize that Fallout is only recently a Bethesda franchise, and that a lot of people making New Vegas were on the Fallout 2 team and were working on Black Isle's Fallout 3 until it was canceled. I mean, yeah, they say that in the article, but.. no connection to Fallout 1/2? Are you kidding me? I forgot what a significant role the NCR played in Fallout 3...

[thereapersson]

What's even more mindboggling is the fact that a lot of these journalists are allowed to get away with so much misinformation and skewed statements as if it's nothing.

[King of Creation]

I completely agree. There's a journalistic phenomena associated with this that the Fallout community calls "The Rybicki Maneuver," after 1up's Joe Rybicki who did this "maneuver" with Fallout 3. The basic premise:

"In short the maneuver means that as long as your opinion on the product actually matters towards the game's sales, don't be too critical. The moment criticism doesn't matter anymore or, even better, criticism can be used to say "they won't do this again", do a 180 and suddenly claim the flaws you didn't mention in your review should be obvious to anyone."

It's a sign of the "selling-out" of all these major gaming site and magazines to the PR departments of publishers.

[mrv321]

You say Van Buren (Black Isle's title) was cancelled, I wouldn't be too sure of that. While Van Buren was never released the people behind it are now working on Fallout: New Vagas.

I did some research into the matter and watched the trailer but this is all my speculation. In Fallout: New Vagas it is likely that you'll be play in Hoover Dam I say this for 1 of many reason.

1. In the trailer we see a city with lights and power, this implies great energy production, with minor adjustments and modification to the intact Hoover Damn one could easily produce a large amount of power

2. In the trailer we also see a NCR flag, it is rather well known that NCR batlted over Hoover Damn

3. Water is needed, Hoover Damn with some simple Fallout 3 tech could produce unlimited water which they could control and sell.

4. The name New Vagas, they probably had to move Vagas.

Van Buren was set in Hoover Damn amonst other places, it'd be silly not to use the setting and the premade story.

[tintaipei]

MRV, definitely think you're right about Van Buren stuff being in the game. I mean, it's pretty obvious seeing as how the guy that was lead on Van Buren (JE Sawyer) is also the lead on Fallout: New Vegas. Although the war between NCR and the Brotherhood that was a major part of Van buren doesn't appear to be in New Vegas at all (the article at Duck and Cover say that the Brotherhood only have a minor role in the game).

[reaferfore20]

It's probably going to be like how the Brotherhood wasn't really around in the second Fallout game. They still had outposts and stuff, but nothing as big and expansive as their base in the first game.

[thereapersson]

Does anyone notice that this website has a Christmas Island domain suffix attached to it?

Quite odd...

[King of Creation]

The .cx domain is sort of an inside joke at Duck and Cover. A long time ago, before it's rebirth, DAC was located at duckandcover.net. Then, a admin staged a coup and de-admin'ed everyone else. He then spammed everyone on the boards with the goatse.cx image. As a result, the website closed for a little while and the duckandcover.net domain was cybersquatted. Having no other real options, DAC decided to go for the .cx domain as an inside joke/homage to the terrible image that was spammed to its forum members. There were plans to try and get a more respectable domain, but everyone just got used to it. So yeah, that's a brief history of why it's a .cx domain.

[MK_Red]

Wow, OXM really effed up on this article. Aside from contradictions and many other errors, they show no awareness or understanding of who Obisidian is and what fans of true / original Fallout games (1-2) want. Also, they apperanlty don't know sh** about NCR.

I seriously hope this new game distances itself as far away as Fallout 3 and instead go somewhere closer to original Fallouts.

[tintaipei]

I think it might be a Microsoft/Bethesda partnership thing that's making the OXM article so pro-Bethesda and pro-Fallout 3. The PSM3 and PCGamer articles were MUCH more pro-Obsidian, pointing out the inherent flaws in both Bethesda and Fallout 3. Hah, the PSM3 article even went so far as to say that Bethesda has crappy writers.

[vhero]

It's MS publication mate they don't know anything they just throw money at all their problems instead of actually learning anything. It's like I always said they always give their so called exclusives stupidly high scores no matter how bad they are as it helps sales. The whole magazine is about money. They need real article writers..

[MK_Red]

I don't know. I always thought OXM was among more respected magazines but guess I was wrong. This article alone and their complete lack of journalism integrity is more than enough to make me never want to buy another issue again. The irony in some paragraphs is just sad. I mean, they have that "History Lessons" part about some ex-Black Isle guys being in Obsidian but then, in many other parts the article is written as if they did't even know there were Fallout games before the Bethesda one.

@ tintaipei, I haven't read PSM3's article but good call on Beth's writers.
@ vhero, lets hope other magazines show more respect and awareness.

[reaferfore20]

To most people Fallout 3 is the only one they've played. Which is understandable; the Fallout games weren't anywhere near as popular as the 3rd one is and most people don't wanna go back and play a dated game(graphically at least, the storytelling is FO1&2 is amazing!).

These guys are game journalists though. They should at least know wtf they're talking about if they're getting paid to "inform" people about stuff like this.

[MK_Red]

reaferfore20, that's exactly the point. I'm not expecting a gamer whose first Fallout experience was with part 3 to ever know or even acknowledge the originals (Specially some of LULZ crowd) but as you said, they are game journalists.
Some of the stuff on that article seems to be written by LULZ crowd more than anything and definitly not a journalist or even a normal gamer. And to think they got paid to write this "preview".

[Akagi]

Sweet, it has devs from the first 2 Fallouts working on it.

[tintaipei]

Yeah, definitely great that some of the Fallout 2 devs are on it. The studio is also headed by Fallout vets Chris Avellone and Feargus Urquhart, to name a couple. And Josh Sawyer, the lead on the cancelled Fallout 3 "Van Buren" is the lead on New Vegas. Can't wait!

[Rashonality]

meh....enough with the expansions already....

in the matter of fact enough with bethesda's engine...

the animation is stiff...graphics are ugly this time around...

yes i know it's huge but that does not mean it gotta be that ugly...

bethesda you bastards...

stop publishing crappy games and start improving your engine...you are a developer long before you're a publisher...

[King of Creation]

It's not an expansion at all. This game is more of a direct sequel to Fallout 2 than Bethesda's Fallout 3 was.

Fallout: New Vegas is already shaping up to be 10x the roleplaying game that Fallout 3 was.

[Rashonality]

so....

i'm talking about the engine....they did not do anything to improve it...

fallout 3 felt more like an expansion for oblivion....

it looks the same it felt the same....so yeah enough with the "expansions"...

do something really different or don't do anything...

[Letros]

I would think they have their new engine for the Elder Scrolls MMO that recently leaked out.

[vhero]

Expansion?? WTF?? This is by far NOT an expansion for starters its a completely new developer from Fallout 3. But obviously not new to the franchise which is great. I am just glad they are keeping the same feel but I guess they are using the same engine which they probably purchased the rights for? I'm glad it is looking very much the same though in terms of the GUI as you can jump straight in and get going without having to get used to it all over again.

[King of Creation]

I can see what you mean when you talk about the engine. The Fallout community was up in arms in the beginning of development of Fallout 3, calling is Elder Scrolls: Fallout, or Fallout with Guns, and variations on that. The engine is fundamentally flawed, and Bethesda really screwed up with Fallout 3. Obsidian has been making quite a few behind the scenes changes to the engine, but there is only so much they can do visually. They would have been better off using the Unreal engine, Source, or something like that.

[Rashonality]

@King of Creation

THANK YOU...

[peeps]

lol @ the no connection to the original fallout games

[ebis]

I know! What were OXM thinking? Maybe they weren't...

[King of Creation]

I wonder if OXM actually researched what the NCR is...

It's really a shame that OXM treats Fallout 3 like it's some majestic gift from the heaves while ignoring Fallout 1 and 2. RPGs are in a sad state of affairs in general, morphing more and more into action adventure games. You really didn't have any "choice" in Fallout 3 at all...no more so than a game like Sanitarium. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Sanitarium was a better RPG than Fallout 3.

It's really sad that the current major game journalist definition of a role playing game is "leveling up" :(

[ASSASSYN 36o]

I love how nothing critical to game play is changing. All controls are intact.

[Tony P]

I love that too, in a very sarcastic fashion.

They could really stand to change quite a few critical areas.

[reaferfore20]

OH! My balls just puckered up a little bit! :D