Fallout: New Vegas

[Enoch]

I enjoyed the metro more than most areas of the game. But that's probably because I spend about an hour a day in the actual DC metro, and they nailed the look of the place, to a great degree. Also, I'd have probably hated them more if I didn't use the fast travel to skip through after I had explored a particular stretch fully.

 

It beat sneaking around the Yogis in the wasteland, anyway.

[Starwars]

I don't think the metros by themselves were all that bad, though I tend to dislike "dungeons" with loads of enemies in them outside of dungeon crawler games. But I learned to hate them because they were the only means of navigation in the DC area, especially because it often *looked* like you could do just fine navigating DC, just that they had a bunch of unconvincing "pile of rubble" placeables here and there with invisible walls on top of them to block you off.

 

Perhaps it was a design trick to make DC feel bigger than it really is (as in, maybe it'd feel really small if they removed the invisible walls and allowed you to go where you wish) but it came at a prize of incredible tediousness if you ask me.

[Gromnir]

and they nailed the look of the place, to a great degree.

 

from our pov, the strength o' fo3 were not its gameplay or story elements but rather the degree to which bethesda managed to capture the feel o' a Fallout washington dc. the quirky, retro-sci-fi freak show that is fallout were realized in a rather inspired choice o' Americana steeped locales... the best character in fo3 were the setting itself.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[WorstUsernameEver]

According to the news on The Vault the same russian preview mentions Small Guns being merged with Big Guns (Energy Weapons are still separated)... mmmh. Don't know what to think of it, on one part, big guns were incredibly rare and ultimately less useful than Small Guns in Fallout 3, on the other hand, there's the risk that a particular build will have access to the majority of the weapons in the game (though it seems that Josh & Co. are trying to take care of the Energy and melee crowd).

[Sannom]

According to the news on The Vault the same russian preview mentions Small Guns being merged with Big Guns (Energy Weapons are still separated)... mmmh. Don't know what to think of it, on one part, big guns were incredibly rare and ultimately less useful than Small Guns in Fallout 3, on the other hand, there's the risk that a particular build will have access to the majority of the weapons in the game (though it seems that Josh & Co. are trying to take care of the Energy and melee crowd).

 

Given that merging Small Guns and Big Guns was one of the big changes Josh wanted to bring in Van Buren, and that he has made clear his beliefs about "convoluted skill trees", this doesn't seem surprising at all

[WorstUsernameEver]

According to the news on The Vault the same russian preview mentions Small Guns being merged with Big Guns (Energy Weapons are still separated)... mmmh. Don't know what to think of it, on one part, big guns were incredibly rare and ultimately less useful than Small Guns in Fallout 3, on the other hand, there's the risk that a particular build will have access to the majority of the weapons in the game (though it seems that Josh & Co. are trying to take care of the Energy and melee crowd).

 

Given that merging Small Guns and Big Guns was one of the big changes Josh wanted to bring in Van Buren, and that he has made clear his beliefs about "convoluted skill trees", this doesn't seem surprising at all

 

The only thing that's surprising is that this hasn't been mentioned until now. I doubt it's a recent change (things like that are planned very soon in the development process, it was probably in the design from the beginning), so basically what this tells me is that journalist overlooked the skill list. Meh.

[Spider]

It's in line with what JE wanted to do for Van Buren, so it makes sense.

[Thorton_AP]

Sawyer was the one that wanted to merge throwing and melee too right?

[mkreku]

I liked the metro tunnels. They were the only place in the entire game that challenged your sense of orientation. I like that. The only place in the game where you didn't have little arrows pointing you the right way.

 

I find it funny that you guys whine about them so much.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I liked the metro tunnels. They were the only place in the entire game that challenged your sense of orientation. I like that. The only place in the game where you didn't have little arrows pointing you the right way.

 

I find it funny that you guys whine about them so much.

 

I wouldn't whine so much about them if I didn't lose a good chunk of time in them simply because of invisible walls placed in strategic points in DC. At least if you have to block my path do it convincingly dammit!

[Starwars]

Interesting about the skill merge if that indeed proves true. I wonder if there are more changes to the skills (seems doubtful, in that case I guess the preview would've mentioned them as they mention Survival and Firearms).

 

I hope it also means that they sorta balance the gameplay a bit so that having Firearms won't be super-overpowered in itself. And it will also be interesting to see how Survival will impact the gameplay. I have high hopes for that.

 

Man, I really hope they can create a good challenging game if we toggle Hardcore mode on and have the difficulty level at Hard (and hopefully they won't have that "more xp on higher difficulties" thing).

[Enoch]

and they nailed the look of the place, to a great degree.

 

from our pov, the strength o' fo3 were not its gameplay or story elements but rather the degree to which bethesda managed to capture the feel o' a Fallout washington dc. the quirky, retro-sci-fi freak show that is fallout were realized in a rather inspired choice o' Americana steeped locales... the best character in fo3 were the setting itself.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Agreed.

 

To me, the most compelling quest I went on in FO3 was the one I invented myself: "Find my house." (Sadly, there was nothing here but rocks. Although a little further to the NW I found one of those camper-trailers that I claimed as my own. It even has a little charcoal grill out front!)

 

I would've also tried "find my office," but the particular part of DC I work in wasn't modeled in the game.

 

 

Other locations that they nailed include Dupont Circle (including the car tunnel underneath it), the Capitol, the lobby of the Nat'l History Museum (a.k.a. Underworld), and the entrance to the Nat'l Archives. The re-imagining of the Pentagon was pretty freakin' cool, too.

[Gromnir]

merging big and small don't bother us in the least. however, am more concerned that energy is separate. given how previous fo games approached ranged weapons, energy weapons were a skill that became useful later in game but largely pointless at the beginning. am not a fan of having a Super-Skill that is worthless for 10-20 hours o' gameplay.

 

josh is unlikely to make energy weapons as overpowered as previous developers has been willing to do, but one wonders how the face o' fo will change if there is useful 'mounts o' energy weapons and ammo early in game. every third bandit gots a laser rifle?

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gorgon]

I liked the metro tunnels. They were the only place in the entire game that challenged your sense of orientation. I like that. The only place in the game where you didn't have little arrows pointing you the right way.

 

I find it funny that you guys whine about them so much.

The little green arrows point the wrong way in the DC metro, you can't just pick a direction either because of the garbage piles fencing you in. That just leaves wandering about aimlessly hoping to stumble on the mission. Me not like.

[WDeranged]

Sad as it sounds I spent so long playing without the quest compass I got to know the metro tunnels almost instinctively, can't say I 'know' them like the back of my hand but I was still far better at navigating them than you'd expect would be possible.

 

Too much time playing that damn game

[Oner]

I find it funny that you guys whine about them so much.

I find it funny how that's the only thing you can say, not caring if it's true or not.

[WorstUsernameEver]

josh is unlikely to make energy weapons as overpowered as previous developers has been willing to do, but one wonders how the face o' fo will change if there is useful 'mounts o' energy weapons and ammo early in game. every third bandit gots a laser rifle?

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Since factions are very important in this game, type of weapons could be distributed differently for different factions.

Like : normal raiders use melee weapons and small makeshift guns, NCR uses small guns and laser guns manufactured by them, the brotherhood and gun runners would be very well equipped, etc...

Now, IIRC Energy Weapons was merged in Firearms in the original Van Buren design.. so when you used your energy weapons it depended solely on Firearms or there were other factors like your science skill?

[Irrelevant]

I do not like the fact that small guns and big guns have been merged, I think it would be pretty easy(weapon distribution) to give the players a choice between ready available,cheap, weak, easy to use guns and scarce, expensive, speciallised weapons. I think the two skills should be Conventional and exotic weapons, along with energy weapons(which is something I think should be called something else essencially how much you know about plasma,electricity,ect. It would be like awareness: in addition to in improving how well you wield a weapon it would allow you notice and mention odd and strange things.(the higher this skill is, the faster one would get the Ion Cannon for example)

I think energy weapons could be usefull early as long as you get access to laser pistols/rifles in addition to standard weapons.

It would be cool be able to see a nuclear cannon () I do not know if this is mentioned in the current version of the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upshot-Knothole_Grable because of a site update.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Irrelevant

[jero cvmi]

I liked the metro tunnels. They were the only place in the entire game that challenged your sense of orientation. I like that. The only place in the game where you didn't have little arrows pointing you the right way.

 

I find it funny that you guys whine about them so much.

I find this an interesting point of view. I never saw them as a challenge, more like a chore. Then again, my sense of orientation sucks so much i hadn't thought it's worth challenging, that's why i prefer 3rd person/isometric over 1st person games: In 1st person, i always lose my direction and waste time wandering pointlessly trying to get back on track.

 

So, do you guys thnk this happens in general? Do people avoid challenging skills they totally suck at?

[Irrelevant]

Early access to energy weapons*

In the article it has some dude talking about how they would give you an instruction manual on how to to build the weapon in which the instructions were purposely given in the incorrect order, so that if you tried to follow it you would blow yourself up.

I do not think it matter how much experience I get depending on the difficulty level since I can just grind for EXP, a good way to get around this is to make powerfull weapons harder to use, or to have some algorithm which decreases EXP given depending on how much you've killed a particular enemy.

I was also wondering how meelee characters play in fallout(I do not have access to the games now) but I never picked that type of character because trying to approach an enemy with a gun would be pretty suicidal(A high AP char who can get up close to the enemy before he can react?) Huh, speaking of that, being able to run at someone durring V.A.T.S. would work. In RTC being able to roll in concert with your enemies attacks be the (=).

[Oner]

I find this an interesting point of view. I never saw them as a challenge, more like a chore. Then again, my sense of orientation sucks so much i hadn't thought it's worth challenging, that's why i prefer 3rd person/isometric over 1st person games: In 1st person, i always lose my direction and waste time wandering pointlessly trying to get back on track.

 

So, do you guys thnk this happens in general? Do people avoid challenging skills they totally suck at?

I rarely play adventure games because I suck at them.

 

IMO: Is the maze an integral part of gameplay? As in, are you supposed to get lost? In FO3, I don't think they were intentionally going for it, since you can mark stuff on your map/radar. Does "solving" the maze give you a reward? Nope. At least I don't consider "This metro stops wasting my time...until I have to get to the other side again" a reward (and there's usually more than one between you and your objective).

That's not a challenge, that's a chore.

 

And filler.

 

 

And part of the issue is that they still look alike.

Now if they weren't mandatory or would look more diverse (for example, the metro under a park collapses and the radioactive plants overgrow the place) to get around in DC, that would be a different story.

[WorstUsernameEver]

New info courtesy of our No Mutants Allowed friends (taken from the GameStar german preview).

 

Be warned of some spoilers:

 

- Vault 21 is an underground vault and lies under New Vegas.

- The NCR has lost contact to the west and is underserved due to the fights with Caesar's Legion.

- Caesar's Legion dominates New Vegas.

- The NCR was fighting hard against the Brotherhood of Steel for Hoover Dam. The NCR has won this battle, barely.

- The NCR troops at McCarren Airport lost the contact to Hoover Dam as well.

- The main task of the courier has been to deliver a package to Primm. Then he got ambushed...

- The small and big weapons skills are merged into one weapon skill.

- Every weapon that made some asplozions before (like the rocket launcher or FatMan), are now in the skill category Explosives.

- Repcon, a former rocket factory, is supposedly inhabited by ghouls. As of late, explosions can be heard from there all the time.

- Craig Boon, one of the possible companions, will attack the player, if he sides with the Caesar's Legion.

- The orbital laser Archimedes 2 can only be used once a day.

- New monster: Cacadores, they look like bloatflies with shiny / colourful wings.

- Something like Bobbleheads will be in New Vegas as well and it will boost players stats. What it will be exactly isn't known yet.

[Guest Slinky]

- Something like Bobbleheads will be in New Vegas as well and it will boost players stats. What it will be exactly isn't known yet.

Meh. I'd prefer stat increases through dialog/quests instead, like in FO1&2. Hopefully they are at least more like memory chips than bobbleheads.

[WorstUsernameEver]

- Something like Bobbleheads will be in New Vegas as well and it will boost players stats. What it will be exactly isn't known yet.

Meh. I'd prefer stat increases through dialog/quests instead, like in FO1&2. Hopefully they are at least more like memory chips than bobbleheads.

 

Personally I'll wait until I see what it is exactly. Considering it's a translation of a bullet point summary of a german preview, and that the sentence is incredibly vague, I'm not even sure if it means there will be other 'collectable items' for raising SPECIAL or if you'll do it through specific situations/quests (e.g. the zeta scan in Fallout 2).

 

I personally am much more interested in the Firearms/Explosive dichotomy. Sounds like this time explosive may be a worthy skill, and I can see myself doing a melee/explosives/survival though I doubt I'll try a similar build in my first playthrough.

[Spider]

- Something like Bobbleheads will be in New Vegas as well and it will boost players stats. What it will be exactly isn't known yet.

Meh. I'd prefer stat increases through dialog/quests instead, like in FO1&2. Hopefully they are at least more like memory chips than bobbleheads.

 

you mean like the books and memory modules? Oh, wait...