Fallout: New Vegas

[WorstUsernameEver]

IGN previews New Vegas:

 

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1086462p1.html

I've got a new wallpaper (happens once every year, savor the moment mr/s concept artist).

 

The arm of this guy seems a bit off.

 

Fallout 3 standard animations. Unfortunately it seems that Obsidian doesn't have/didn't think they sucked enough to change them.

I play in 1st person though, so I don't think it'll bother me much.

[Oner]

Fallout 3 standard animations. Unfortunately it seems that Obsidian doesn't have/didn't think they sucked enough to change them.

I play in 1st person though, so I don't think it'll bother me much.

That too, but the length of that arm is suspicious too.

 

BTW, Fallout dice would be cool. The one with the atomic mark, with movie countdown numbers and/or that indian head.

[Starwars]

Thank the lord for A) being able to get into the game quickly, skipping tutorial stuff and B) the addition of iron sights.

 

Really don't like this though:

When targeting some of the stronger units in New Vegas, you might see a red shield appear on the screen. That would be your indication to switch weapons to something more effective. Perhaps a Plasma Caster would be called for.

 

Hope that can be turned off. I wonder what they mean by that there are new camera modes during combat, or if that is just referring to being able to use the iron sights.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Thank the lord for A) being able to get into the game quickly, skipping tutorial stuff and B) the addition of iron sights.

 

Really don't like this though:

When targeting some of the stronger units in New Vegas, you might see a red shield appear on the screen. That would be your indication to switch weapons to something more effective. Perhaps a Plasma Caster would be called for.

 

Hope that can be turned off. I wonder what they mean by that there are new camera modes during combat, or if that is just referring to being able to use the iron sights.

 

I wouldn't worry much about that, as long as you play the game on the PC, they'll be probably mods out that eliminate that effect.

Though I hope it's off at least in hardcore mode.

[Enoch]

Really don't like this though:

When targeting some of the stronger units in New Vegas, you might see a red shield appear on the screen. That would be your indication to switch weapons to something more effective. Perhaps a Plasma Caster would be called for.

Hope that can be turned off. I wonder what they mean by that there are new camera modes during combat, or if that is just referring to being able to use the iron sights.

If Sawyer's past wonkishness on armor damage reduction is any indicator, the PC and enemies are going to have different resistances to different attack types. So, I suspect that this is a way of communicating enemy damage resistance to the player. You generally need to communicate that to the player in some way-- the days when developers can simply trust the player to figure out why their assault rifle's hollow-point rounds aren't doing much of anything against that giant mutant armadillo are long since over.

 

The traditional RPG way to communicate this was in text ("3 damage (15 resisted)" or whatever), but shooter-influenced ARPGs don't want to do that. Ideally, animations would provide this kind of feedback (seeing ricochets off the creature's carapace, etc.), but that would be very resource-intensive. Instead you get systems like ME2's separate Armor/Shield/Barrier bar. Presumably, the "red shield" will serve a similar function for F:NV-- tell the player when the weapon they're currently equipped with isn't going to work all that well against a particular opponent's defenses. I don't see it as any more distracting or verisimilitude-endangering than an on-screen representation of opponent hit points.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Enoch

[J.E. Sawyer]

Fallout 3 standard animations. Unfortunately it seems that Obsidian doesn't have/didn't think they sucked enough to change them.

I play in 1st person though, so I don't think it'll bother me much.

That's actually a modified animation, but due to how the foregrips are positioned on most rifles in the game, it's difficult to change the position of the left hand without changing all of the corresponding weapon assets and/or other animations like move cycles, etc. The right hand and wrist were adjusted in the aim and fire.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Fallout 3 standard animations. Unfortunately it seems that Obsidian doesn't have/didn't think they sucked enough to change them.

I play in 1st person though, so I don't think it'll bother me much.

That's actually a modified animation, but due to how the foregrips are positioned on most rifles in the game, it's difficult to change the position of the left hand without changing all of the corresponding weapon assets and/or other animations like move cycles, etc. The right hand and wrist were adjusted in the aim and fire.

 

Interesting to know.

[Slowtrain]

Is there a functional difference from using the iron sights in NV vs aiming (but with no iron sights) in FO3.

 

Or is it simply a cosmetic change?

[Gromnir]

So we have a 50+ orc impersonator and a "tr00 fan" arguing over Fallout semantics now?

 

This thread is going places!

 

am suspecting that Gromnir is the 50+ orc impersonator?

 

*chuckle*

 

throw in a self-important and delusional swede and we gots the trifecta, no?

 

"If Sawyer's past wonkishness on armor damage reduction is any indicator, the PC and enemies are going to have different resistances to different attack types. So, I suspect that this is a way of communicating enemy damage resistance to the player. You generally need to communicate that to the player in some way-- the days when developers can simply trust the player to figure out why their assault rifle's hollow-point rounds aren't doing much of anything against that giant mutant armadillo are long since over. "

 

would be nice if enoch informed bioware o' this sea change for crpgs that occurred at some indefinite point in the past. am recalling what a pain in the arse it were trying to figure out what Dragon Age critters had applicable resistances. many previous bio and obsidian d&d titles presumed that players had access to d&d rules; assumed player knowledge regarding resistances. as for bethesda, there seemed to be very little rationality in fo3 combat rules, but we recall that there were damage resistances in that title as well... as exemplified by robots being weak v. energy, but resistant to our chemical projectiles.

 

to be fair, the traditional pnp rpgs that most developers has cut their teeth upon does not explicitly inform players o' critter defenses. players typical learn the hard way (or they has access to meta-knowledge.) dm or gm introduces a custom Monstrous Hell-Wombat into game... players gotta learn for themselves that edged weapons only does half damage. is part o' the fun.

 

admittedly, is less fun in a crpg to "trial and error" your way to enlightenment... especially when some o' the combat numbers is hidden from the player. is many in-game methods for educating the ignorant player: inform player through codex/journal entries following initial encounter, books, conversations with local experts o' fauna (hunters, mercs, etc.). am agreeing that added animations is resource-heavy and probable not worthy o' implementation, but a simple color coding o' damage feedback numbers would be sufficient... 'course, this assumes that damage feedback numbers would be available to player.

 

dunno, is many ways to appropriate inform player o' critter/foe dr w/o being ham-fisted 'bout it. am in agreement that developer should make some effort to inform, rather than depending on player recognition that it took 8x as long to kill a Monstrous Hell-Wombat with a plasma rifle as opposed to a baseball bat.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited April 30, 2010 by Gromnir

[Ausir]

The Escapist also has a preview:

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/v...llout-New-Vegas

 

And an interview with Feargus:

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/v...hart-Comes-Home

[Enoch]

would be nice if enoch informed bioware o' this sea change for crpgs that occurred at some indefinite point in the past. am recalling what a pain in the arse it were trying to figure out what Dragon Age critters had applicable resistances. many previous bio and obsidian d&d titles presumed that players had access to d&d rules; assumed player knowledge regarding resistances. as for bethesda, there seemed to be very little rationality in fo3 combat rules, but we recall that there were damage resistances in that title as well... as exemplified by robots being weak v. energy, but resistant to our chemical projectiles.

 

to be fair, the traditional pnp rpgs that most developers has cut their teeth upon does not explicitly inform players o' critter defenses. players typical learn the hard way (or they has access to meta-knowledge.) dm or gm introduces a custom Monstrous Hell-Wombat into game... players gotta learn for themselves that edged weapons only does half damage. is part o' the fun.

 

admittedly, is less fun in a crpg to "trial and error" your way to enlightenment... especially when some o' the combat numbers is hidden from the player. is many in-game methods for educating the ignorant player: inform player through codex/journal entries following initial encounter, books, conversations with local experts o' fauna (hunters, mercs, etc.). am agreeing that added animations is resource-heavy and probable not worthy o' implementation, but a simple color coding o' damage feedback numbers would be sufficient... 'course, this assumes that damage feedback numbers would be available to player.

 

dunno, is many ways to appropriate inform player o' critter/foe dr w/o being ham-fisted 'bout it. am in agreement that developer should make some effort to inform, rather than depending on player recognition that it took 8x as long to kill a Monstrous Hell-Wombat with a plasma rifle as opposed to a baseball bat.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I should clarify-- I don't think that developers should spell out the strengths and weaknesses of every opponent to the player. (And, yes, I did overstate the, erm, universal adoption of player feedback ideals.) Rather, it'd be nice to at least give the player feedback that says "that didn't work as well as it could have." In a "realistic" situation, you'd get that feedback from watching the opponent. That's not going to happen in a game unless your animation and sound design do this for you (as I said, ideal, but a huge resource-sink), so some kind of abstract representation in the GUI is needed. FO3 already does this to some degree by putting an enemy HP bar on the screen. Still, in an ARPG without hard data feedback (like the damage numbers that more traditional RPGs give the player in dialog windows or float-text), the first step of experimentation-- the initial figuring out that what you're using isn't working very well-- can be rather difficult for the player. If the game has a way to communicate that to the player, then all the other methods you mention for players to learn about their opponents come into the next "what else can I try?" step in combat experimentation. (The efforts that both KotOR games made to inform the player about how personal shields work come to mind.)

 

I do, of course, hope that the graphical representation Obsidz is using in FNV isn't, as you say, "ham fisted."

[Enoch]

And an interview with Feargus:

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/v...hart-Comes-Home

I think I've mentioned this before, but Feargus really needs to stop doing interviews where they transcribe what he says in-person without little-to-no editing afterwards. Some of the sentences in that interview only make sense if you speak them out loud at a very fast pace.

[Pop]

I'll probably love New Vegas, but at the same time I'm starting to realize how much I enjoy the idea of a horror RPG, and that's a large part of what made Van Buren such an enticing prospect to me. All the nightmare scenarios - another nuclear apocalypse, the virus, the deserted dog-infested Denver, but especially the Reservation experiments and the claustrophobic, Andromeda Strain-y Boulder Dome - were what was so enticing about the game. Invariably my favorite parts of Fallout 1 and 2 were the creepy parts, invariably having to do with exploring old abandoned facilities and learning what happened there. And naturally I was crushed when the Aliens game got canned. I'm pessimistic about my chances of ever playing a true horror RPG again. If Double Bear's zombie apocalypse game ever comes out it will be years past when I can really enjoy games (I graduate from college in a year).

 

So I am disappointed to hear that New Vegas is going to really be upping the camp factor. Didn't think I'd be one of those guys who jeered at the idea of more Fallout 2-type stuff, but Ferg makes it sound like that's what we're going to expect. Like I said, I'll probably enjoy the game immensely, but the B-horror aspects of the Fallout setting are the most important aspects to me, when you get down to it.

 

Alternatively, it could be that there's some misrepresentation going on here.

Edited May 1, 2010 by Pop

[Slowtrain]

hmmm.

 

 

Is it really possible to up the camp factor from a game that had a softdrink that "made you pee glow" and a gun that fired teddy bears?

 

Apparently so.

[Enoch]

To me, the 'creepy' locations in the Fallout games (V15, the Glow, Sierra AD, etc.) were fun not because they were creepy but because they were mysterious. If anything, I dislike horror elements in games-- if a game seriously scares me, my first reaction is to resent it rather than enjoy it. But give me a good mystery to uncover or figure out, and I get pulled in.

 

 

Anyhow, I don't see FNV's representations of kitschy Americana to be all that comparable to F2's lengthy procession of lame Monty Python jokes.

[Slowtrain]

Fallout 2 was the worst.

 

Weird how the developers of Fallout 2 took a fringe element of Fallout 1 and made it so dominant. Not so weird that Bethsoft would do the same. Originality has never been Bethie's strong suit.

[Oner]

To me, the 'creepy' locations in the Fallout games (V15, the Glow, Sierra AD, etc.) were fun not because they were creepy but because they were mysterious. If anything, I dislike horror elements in games-- if a game seriously scares me, my first reaction is to resent it rather than enjoy it. But give me a good mystery to uncover or figure out, and I get pulled in.

 

 

Anyhow, I don't see FNV's representations of kitschy Americana to be all that comparable to F2's lengthy procession of lame Monty Python jokes.

I liked the Military Base in FO 2. "Oooh, a military base" says I. Then I enter the location and see what? Abandoned tents around a military facility, and a crapload of wolves.

 

 

Fallout 2 was the worst.

 

Weird how the developers of Fallout 2 took a fringe element of Fallout 1 and made it so dominant. Not so weird that Bethsoft would do the same. Originality has never been Bethie's strong suit.

Humor wasn't dominant but hardly fringe. Hell, a lot of people completed the game with two Mad Max references.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Much of the grimness of Fallout 3 came from the art direction really, which while mostly faithful to FO1/2 pushed it a bit with the post-apocalyptic, with green skies, people who didn't bother to clean the floor, places inhabited by people but still full of skeletons on the floor etc.

I also must admit, I've never seen the horror aspect in Fallout. The Glow? The only horror was not having enough Rad-X and RadAway.

Vault 15? It was just a common dungeon with different tiles than in other games.

As from what I've seen from the previews, the humor is actually more similar to the one present in Fallout, I mean, Tabitha isn't really much more ridiculous than Harry, the TV Robots are just another robot in the vein of the Robobrains and Protectrons, etc.

I mean, I quite know that Fallout 2 was excessive in his humor, but I don't see any proof that leads me to the conclusion that New Vegas has the same 4th-wall-breaking/parodic tone.

 

EDIT : ****, is there a gallery on the Escapist's site? I wanted to see that supermutant screenshot (in the Feargus' interview) in high-res but I can't find a way. Meh.

Edited May 1, 2010 by WorstUsernameEver

[Calax]

*sigh* Game looks phenominal (particularly with the overhauls being done with things like weapon modification etc) but one of my bosses just won't let up that as soon as he can he's gonna put a grenade in my pants... several times...

[GreasyDogMeat]

It seems to be shaping up really nice.

 

M1 Garand!

[Morgoth]

Fallout NV video interview with Josh Eric Sawyer: Click

[WorstUsernameEver]

Fallout NV video interview with Josh Eric Sawyer: Click

 

Followers of the Apocalypse confirmed.

Though they weren't particularly interesting (basically your whole good samaritans) there are potentials for development.

[Ausir]

Did you know that (at least in Van Buren) Caesar (the founder of Caesar's Legion) was a former Follower of the Apocalypse?

[Syraxis]

Yes.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Did you know that (at least in Van Buren) Caesar (the founder of Caesar's Legion) was a former Follower of the Apocalypse?

 

Yeah, but Van Buren wasn't finished unfortunately (no ****, Cap Obvious!), and the only finished product that featured FotA is Fallout.