Fallout : New Vegas

Bethesda is prepping to unleash yet another installment from the much celebrated Fallout franchise, and the developer gave the world exclusive first look to PC Gamer Magazine.

 

An armada of info has been released, find all below.

 

“You were a nobody – just some poor schmuck minding your own business as you eked out a meager existence in the post nuclear Nevada wasteland of the year 2280,” the mag writes.

 

“That business: schlepping miscellaneous packages from point A to point B for a few caps. So it just isn’t very nice when an unknown assailant up and shoots you in the head, steals the mysterious package you were carrying and leaves you to die in a shallow desert grave (a Las Vegas tradition for 35 years).

 

“That traumatic brain injury must’ve triggered a Phineas Gage – style personality change, because days later you wake up in the town of Goodsprings as a somebody – the adventurous type, ready to take on a huge, dangerous world full of giant venomous scorpions, Gremlin-like geckos, roving slavers, heavily armed super mutants, monstrous deathclaws… and some jerk with a smoking gun in one hand and your package in the other.”

 

Obsidian Will Handle New Vegas

 

Obsidian is a seven-year-old studio with three RPGs (kotORII, Neverwinter Nights 2 and the soon-to-be-released Alpha Protocol) and two expansion packs under its belt, yet Bethesda allowed the studio to develop the follow-up to the award winning Fallout 3; but why? Urquhart explains:

 

“A number of years from the start of the company and Bethesda and Obsidian started talking about working on a game together,” he said. “After throwing a number of ideas back and fourth, we came to the same conclusion almost simultaneously: What about Obsidian creating a Fallout game? It took a while to get things figured out, but in the end it all clicked, and we were off developing New Vegas.

 

Keep in mind that Obsidian was founded by Black Isle Studios (developer of Fallout 1 and 2) head Feargus Urquhart, who, along with a gaggle of teammates, left Interplay to start his own studio in 2003. Included in the Fallout: New Vegas core team are Fallout 2 designer Chris Avellone, now Obsidian’s chief creative officer, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale and Van Buren (the codename for Interplay’s canceled version of Fallout 3) designer Josh Sawyer, now New Vegas’ project lead, and Fallout 1 and 2 concept artist Brian Menzie. In men are well versed in the Fallout universe.

 

Why New Vegas?

 

“We recognized that one of the strengths of Fallout 3 was that so much of the game revolved everything around Washington, D.C.,” Chris Avellone told the mag. “That’s your signature city. And to be honest, adventuring in post-apocalyptic D.C. is interesting.

 

“You’re like, OK, I get it, I know what D.C. is like in the real world, I’d like to see what it’s like in the real world, when mutants are running around in the streets.”

 

“So, if we have a western version of Fallout 3, what’s a key western city that people will immediately get when they hear the title. And also, what’s interesting to us? So individually, Vegas came up for a number of people without a community discussion about it. That kept coming. So we said, OK, if within this small sample group that city keeps coming up, and we understand why, that’s the city to use.”

 

Other Details

 

In Fallout: New Vegas, the ARCHIMEDES II solar generator/super-laser is a clean source of renewable mass destruction.

 

The ruined roads are reminiscent of the D.C area, but most everything else feels unique and western.

 

Around The Town

 

1. The Nevada even harder in the optional Hard Core mode, where dehydration becomes a factor, ammo has weight and stimpacks heal over time.

 

2. NCR Rangers are the roaming baddies of New Vegas. They wear modified LAPD riot gear as armor and pack some heavy fire power.

 

3. Sawyer credits mods with inspiring the weapon modification system, which allows you to strap on DIY additions to your guns to increase damage, ammo capacity, accuracy, rate of fire and more.

 

4. Raul the Ghoul is the first companion character revealed. With him in your party (which will now allow tow or three members) you’ll start to pick up clues that he’s more than just a simple mechanic.

Fallout: New Vegas Adds Hardcore Mode, Weapon Mods & More

If you've already spent hundreds of hours combing the wastelands of Washington D.C., Pittsburgh and Anchorage, Alaska in Fallout 3, what might convince you to revisit the post-nuclear version of Sin City in Fallout: New Vegas?

 

Developer Obsidian Entertainment is taking over for Bethesda Softworks for the follow-up to Fallout 3, set three years after the events of that game and thousands of miles westward, featuring an all-new cast of characters. What does Fallout: New Vegas have to offer the Vault dwelling veteran?

 

Specifically, for the serious Fallout fan, New Vegas introduces a Hardcore option from the get-go, allowing them to bypass early tutorials and live a more difficult post-nuclear life. Players opting to go hardcore will have to stave off hunger and dehydration, and will be required to visit doctors for more serious injuries. Hardcore also more harshly limits the amount of ammo one can carry, applying weight to bullets. Stimpacks won't heal instantly, but will heal over time.

 

Players can choose whether they want to go Hardcore during the game's opening, which doesn't begin in a Vault, but at the offices of New Vegas' medicine man Doc Mitchell. He'll patch you right up after your whole "I've got a bullet in my head" ordeal that starts off the next Fallout. Yes, finding out who was trying to blow your brains clean out and why they left you for dead will play some part in the story of Fallout: New Vegas.

 

Doc Mitchell will fix your face up the way you like and, through a series of tests, help you determine your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. abilities (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck). He'll set you up with a Pip Boy 3000 and get you on your way.

 

Obsidian's new take on Fallout introduces a few other changes, starting with the Companion Wheel. The pop-up radial menu lets players control their allies in battle, issuing simple command behaviors to AI-controlled compatriots.

 

The VATS combat system has also been tweaked, allowing for melee attack commands. Just don't expect a massive difference in the way the successful targeting system worked in Fallout 3. But do expect a greater variety of weapons, thanks to new weapon mods that let players customize their firearms with larger clips, scopes and specialized ammo. More outlandish weapons like the grenade machine gun and golf club will also add a little variety to your post-nuclear excursions.

 

During your journey across the desert lands of Fallout: New Vegas, you'll have to deal with the various factions who claim ownership of certain territories, like the New California Republic, the Brotherhood of Steel and Caesar's Legion. The notoriety system complements the karma system of Fallout 3. Depending on the actions you take—who you kill and who you befriend—various groups will either want you dead, want to be your best bud or attempt to pay tribute to your character.

Fallout: New Vegas - first screens of the Vegas Strip

Leaked Fallout: New Vegas Scans