First Impressions: Fallout New Vegas

It's been quite a busy weekend with work problems among other things but I did still find a little time to play some Fallout: New Vegas. I've been really enjoying it so far. There have been one or two minor issues but nothing totally game breaking. Overall the game feels very similar to Fallout 3. It's the same graphics engine powering it and many of the basic assets have been recycled. However there is enough new to it make feel like a new chapter. Looking at a basic level it's really just a giant mod for Fallout 3, but considering how much I enjoyed Fallout 3 that's not a bad thing. The term doesn't seem to be used as much these days but if it was still the late nineties this would probably have been called a Total Conversion rather than a separate game as it's built on the base of another project rather than from scratch. (click the screenshots for larger versions)


The play style is much the same as Fallout 3 with just a few minor tweaks. The first choice I had to deal with was whether I should play in the new Hardcore mode or not. This mode takes the roleplaying realism to another level requiring you to actually eat, drink and sleep in order to stay alive, something which is usually completely overlooked in computer games. I considered saving it for my eventual second play though but in the end decided not to wait and to dive right in to the new mode. There are also new weapon mods and crafting options as well as some new companion controls but they're the only major changes I have noticed.


Despite using a lot of similar assets Obsidian have managed to make the Mojave Wasteland look very different from the Capital Wasteland of Washington DC. There are a lot more critters in the Mojave compared to Washington. While exploring DC you'd come a across a few Radscorpians, Bloatflys or Molerats but the majority of dangers were Raiders and Slavers. In the Mojave there's a lot more dangerous wildlife if you wander off the main roads. This makes the exploration feel a lot more dangerous than in Fallout 3. The biggest problem with the graphics for me is there seems to be an awful lot of pop-ins. That's where an item or a texture has a lower detail level when it's in the distance and then switches to a higher detail when you get closer to it. It the same in most games which have to render large open area, you can nearly always see it if you know where to look. However this is one of the most pronounced examples I remember seeing. I don't think it was anywhere near as bad in Fallout 3. It's possible I've got a graphics setting set differently, but I've not fully investigated that yet.


One thing that's a bit crazy is that even though I've played for some hours and am now level 10, I've still not actually been to The Strip and done any gambling yet.

I've had a few crashing issues but Fallout 3 was the same when it was first released. So long as you remember to quicksave regularly it's fine. Luckily the biggest issue seems to have been with the Steam Cloud syncing the wrong save games but that was patched by the time the UK release took place so I didn't have to deal with that one. Obsidian have done a fine job with this game. It's not perfect but it's their strongest release yet and it has all the charm of the Fallout franchise and fits in nicely. Over the next year as we get patches and DLC it will only get better.