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There are approximately 25 core storyline quests and 70 sidequests in F:NV, + however many untagged tasks you can do. Fallout 3 had, at least according to the strategy guide, 11 core storyline quests and 17 sidequests. It's Fallout 1 -> Fallout 2 all over again.

Also according to some gossip blog, the F:NV launch party happened last night and Vampire Weekend performed for some reason. Various television actors were in attendance. Couple of little things that are apparently confirmed by streams and the like: There will be different fighting styles that will augment unarmed combat (no idea if this changes animations or the like) and when you reload a game, gambling is disabled for 60 seconds. Powergamers are gonna have to work for their bread.

Given that the reviewer references "other people on the forum" who have played the game, it stands to reason that the reviewer is not an official reviewer, but a pirate. Somebody should kick that off to Zenimax - Every forum I've ever been on has had explicit rules about open admission of piracy, and if the guy is able to publish official blog posts for the site he's probably important enough that getting him in trouble is going to create a lot of entertaining drama. The one thing this does for us is foretell the reaction the Bethboard masses are going to have towards NV. It's going to be a funhouse reflection of the reaction we had to Bethsoft's F3, pretty much.

It's not an open world game, so chances are people won't actually notice it.

Gauss rifles fire projectiles, just very small ones propelled at high speeds. Given that, they seem more Guns than Energy Weapons.

Man, Josh looks ****in' bored right now.

Huh, well all things considered a CEO position is quite an opportunity (to put it mildly). Good luck to him!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Review copies are out, apparently.

WHAT THEY DO

The game is Gold at this point. Short of some unforeseen manufacturing ****up it will be out on time.

Where do you live?

Publicity Stunt?

It may not have been their intention, but it sort of pokes the entire "achievement" fad (which is laughable) in the eye with a big rod in a satirical way. Wow you give these guys way, way too much credit.

No. Redemption was, for what it's worth. Bloodlines is up on Steam.

Oh Patrick, you were always a scrapper.

I don't think it's that big of a stretch. Both Vault-Tec and Poseidon were heavily involved in gov't. affairs pre-war, and Poseidon bigwigs were the progenitors of the Enclave. It's not obvious in Fallout 1, but Fallout 2 introduced a heavy corporatist element into the nightmarish pre-war political scenario. What Fallout 3 introduced was the idea of Vault-Tec as being intimately involved in FEV research, which is a leap, but not as big of a leap as one might assume, given the depth of military-industrial incest that was apparent when the bombs fell. It's just a matter of establishing that Vault-Tec and Poseidon and the Military were all connected.

It's nice that they've included unique perks when having a companion on your team - that was an aspect of KOTOR2 I really liked. MotB's were all about stat checks from what I recall, so it was less cool. By the by, do we know if CHA will affect the number of companions you can have, ala Fallout 2?

Won't be set in stone 'til it goes Gold. But Oct. 19 is the date for the States, 22 Europe.

Thoughts on the content of the cinematic? If I were to hazard a guess I'd say that the platinum chip is a "magic key" to New Vegas and its potential. It's something everybody wants and something that Benny is more than willing to murder you to get, to further his own power / save his skin / whatever reason. More than likely, possessing it is the only way to gain an audience with Mr. House. Thus it's the classic Fallout Macguffin - you chase it around, get it, meet Mr. House, and through him learn what your real problem is, thus setting the table for the second half of the game. That's just a guess, though.

It certainly doesn't make sense to consider that the PC would survive for a month in the Mojave desert buried in a shallow grave, with several bullet wounds in the face area. It's definitely more likely that the PC's body is recovered and he/she takes a month to regain normal function. Why the video is the way it is, it's hard to say.

Given how odd the font looks and the fact that it "fades out" at the end instead of settling on the NCR ranger like in the teaser, I'm guessing the video was doctored to some extent.

Running animation is much improved. Too bad there's nothing to be done about the gliding.

Depends on what the people want. I've never done an evil embark or sky fortress, but as long as we can keep the fort going for a few years anything's good.

It's actually quite surprising (and cool) how much they've nudged the look of F3 super mutants closer to the F1/F2 look without doing anything particularly drastic - a little more green to the skin color, a little more prominence in the jaw.