Starwars

Gotta say, this game just keeps on growing. While I fear they may be a number of "filler-quests", the game really feels packed with content. Getting close to New Vegas was a pretty awesome thing on its own, they way you start seeing more and more ruined houses just outside. It really changes the atmosphere around from the desert wastelands outside. Then I just made it into Freeside which really surpassed my expectations of how they'd succeed in creating the more urban areas. The sound-design here does a lot for the atmosphere. It really feels like some of the slummier areas we could see in Fallout 2. No big bugs yet for me. Might be a quest that's stuck in Camp Golf. I'm supposed to teach some troopers on handling guns but can't seem to figure out how to progress it. The NPC the quest arrow points to just stands there and spouts one-liners.

Marcus isn't recruitable. Also, I got ED-E up and running only to have it die almost immediately to a bunch of Raiders. For some reason, they bumrushed the little guy (ignored me) and stabbed it to death while I was frantically trying to save it. That felt a bit lame but I didn't mind too much since that whirring noise he does when following you, well... I can tell it would've annoyed the hell out of me.

Note to self: Don't shoot at Giant Radscorpions at low level on a character with no focus on combat. It stabbed/crippled me right in the head and I died. Also, <3 Cass.

I've done a bit of the main quest and a sidequest or two so far. It's pretty much what I'd expected so far. Improved version of Fallout 3 mechanics but with some things/mechanics taken from the old games mixed into it. I think writing and general atmosphere are vastly improved in particular. The writing especially does a lot. Fallout was never a series with amazing writing if you ask me, it's mainly there to serve the player with info (and empower him with skill choices) with very little "emotional" stuff. New Vegas does that very well so far at least. Atmosphere is also great. From the moment I walked out into Goodsprings, it already felt a 100 times more credible than anything in F3. Plus, the music offers a nice feel to it all. Hardcore mode doesn't things *that* hard so far but it's a nice additional layer. And while combat itself seems fairly easy (on the main path and connecting areas at least), handling crippled limbs and healing over time adds a very welcome "bite" to the combat. The Iron Sights makes shooting feel so much better though I find it too easy to pick off targets at range, even with very low weapon skill (which was a problem in F3 as well). Only bug I've run into so far is a NCR trooper being stuck in the terrain and moving forward in a chopping way (made him look like a sorta submarine or something) which was very amusing. I also get occasional white "flashes" or blips in the terrain, not sure what causes it. Might be that Nvidia will fix it in a driver or something. Greatly enjoying it all in all so far.

I've actually managed to avoid the media blitz so far, as well as spoilers on the forums. Hope the CE arrives tomorrow or Friday, then I'll be prepared for the weekend. Should be nice!

Briosafreak on the NMA forums is reviewing the game for some site (can't remember what it's called atm). He's got a review copy but he says he feels he won't be even close to releasing a review by the release date (end of embargo) because of how much stuff there is to do and replay.

If I don't get my CE copy on the release date or before (22nd), then there will be some serious raging. Especially since it looks like I'll have that weekend off...

Feh, I know about 4 of those 5 things! More like... USA Yesterday amirite?! Been watching a stream going through the early parts of the game. Plan to stop watching once he goes further. Goodsprings looks like a great location, feels much more like an actual settlement than any I can remember in F3.

I'm totally saying "screw all combat skills" for my first New Vegas playthrough. Tagging Barter, Speech and Science. CHR and INT will be the main stats upped. No clue on what companion(s) I'll bring along for some protection though. It's gonna be an awesome and probably death-filled (on hardcore mode) playthrough.

Nice diary there. Wow, I think I could listen to Kris Kristofersson reading the phone book, very good voice on him. Kinda wonder sometimes how Perlman feels about his role in the series. Everyone who's into Fallout obviously feels he is so incredibly iconic for it. But I mean, he "just" narrates a few bits and pieces here and there. EDIT: Where did you order your copy mkreku? I ordered the Collector's Edition from webhallen. I hope it gets here for the release date, webhallen are usually pretty good about that.

It does a bit yeah. Some of the visuals do remind me of MotB's visual style though still definitely looks like its own thing. MotB is IMO Obsidian's best visually so far but DS3 looks like it might change that.

While I won't disagree with you that the tutorial is drab and boring I think the rest of the game is very good and features a design that I would want more games to go for. So far it's my third fav game this year (behind Civ V and SC2).

The Forest Bear creature in the panel looks sweet.

Watched the bet buy presentation. Aside from this technical issues, I rather liked this. Josh was good about talking about the game and Tess was good at not rushing around like a maniac, and actually showing things off instead. Was very impressed with the Vault interior. It looks *really* good, has some nice gameplay hooks and the whole "take an elevator to different levels" always reminds me of the older games. And yay, you can repair the elevator! Pretty impressed overall. Also, anyone else wanna bet that Gomorrah will be the target of a certain group of modders?

The article on the music is a very interesting read and I'm glad to see them pushing the envelope in terms of the role of music and how it can be applied in different types of games. It sounds like audio overall in New Vegas was given serious thought and I really can't wait to hear the results of that. I didn't like the radio too much in F3 (at least not after it started repeating itself too much) so the regular soundtrack is a pretty huge deal for me. EDIT: Also, in the Avault Podcast featuring Chris, he mentions that Obsidian dev teams are now divided between Dungeon Siege 3 and two unannounced projects.

Breaking news! JE Sawyer almost dies on while out hiking. http://baby-goat.livejournal.com/314370.html Good to see you made it out OK Josh. Some magnificent pictures there!

Yes, it's awful.

Pretty cool though I doubt the game has succeeded in making the Strip feel "crowded", judging from footage we've seen at least. Just seems to be a problem with 3d RPGs in making cities feel like cities (Vizima in the Witcher is about the only one that I think have managed it). In terms of the Strip, I think part of it might be that in post-apocalyptia, there are no cars driving around and so there is more open space. The sound pollution is always significantly less I assume. But I think the most important thing will be whether it feels like there is a wealth of things to do, quests and all that, and just NPCs to talk to. I'm pretty hopeful in that regard. In terms of looks, I think they've done extremely well in capturing Vegas (coming from someone who's never been there or never really looked up 50s Vegas and how it looks).

Think he means stuff like when you run for example and then stop, it immediately transitions into the standing idle animations without any real... transition to it (like the character moving his body into the new stance). This makes movement look a bit "choppy".

I have no idea if people still play it online or not but I Battlefield 1942 is still my favorite of the bunch.

Replaying the game has aggressive Mike is kinda funny when you encounter Heck. Poor Mike just doesn't have the patience for it... "Are you clinically unable to get to the point?"

True. If fast travel actually carries some sort of risk in HC mode, that would be great. It will calculate the distance/time and all that still, so stuff like dehydration is still a factor. You won't be able to fast travel if the time spent is enough that you would die if I remember correctly.

Better view there on how good the game looks. I bet it made Alvin sweat when the other guy managed to... well, whatever he did to break the level for a few seconds there. "How.. did you do that?" Haha. Looking good though. Really like how colorful it looks, and the lighting makes it all look pretty vibrant.

South African sexpo with adult stars?! Hell yeah! Oh wait, that was just an advertisement and not in the game...? Awwww.

If there is one thing I can't accept in my games it's floating women.