GameBanshee previews Fallout: New Vegas

Post by **King of Creation** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:34 am

[ Game -> Preview ] - More info on <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/E3">Community: E3</a> | More info on <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout: New Vegas">Game: Fallout: New Vegas</a>

Here are the highlights:
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Obsidian has made some significant strides in improving New Vegas' gameplay over its predecessor, with the most important addition (in my Alpha Protocol-loving opinion) being the reputation system. There are a handful of different factions in the game, including the notorious New California Republic, the slavers of Caesar's Legion, the New Vegas families/gangs, and, I'd venture to guess, the Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave (though neither have been confirmed). Every deed you commit for or against a faction alters your reputation with them (or others), meaning that reprecussions aren't far behind. Where would any RPG worth its salt be without choice and consequence?
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You won't be able to earn an infinite amount of caps gambling, however, as Chris tells me that you can actually "break the bank" at each of the casinos if you're able to win enough. The team is also implementing some sort of "inconvenience" to curb players from simply saving their game before gambling and loading upon a loss, though Chris wouldn't provide specifics on what exactly this entailed.
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there are a total of nine such companions, by the way
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Some of the new weapons at my disposal were an Anti-Material Rifle, a Lever-Action Shotgun, some C-4 Plastic Explosives with Detonator, a 9 Iron golf club, a Bladed Gauntlet, a Multiplas Rifle, a Plasma Caster, a Trail Carbine, a Light Machine Gun, and the infamous Grenade Launcher. Chris also tells me that "named" weapons will be making a return in New Vegas, though they won't accept modifications like standard weapons will. Additionally, when you highlight each weapon, you're not only shown their damage and quality scores, but you're also provided with a rating for the weapon's damage per second (DPS). This made it an easy decision for me to equip the Plasma Caster for maximum carnage.
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Combat hasn't changed a whole lot from Fallout 3, though jumping in and out of VATS seems quicker and smoother than I remember it.
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Killing the Caesar's Legion soldiers brought me some definite satisfaction, but it quickly knocked my reputation with the faction down to "shunned" and, soon after, "hated". When there was nothing left but severed heads and dismembered eyeballs, I had the opportunity to search the bodies and various tents that made up the camp. What I found most interesting was not the ammunition and other loot that could be had, but the notes that I found and added to my Pip-Boy. Some notes were letters written to loved ones, while others were journal entries that NCR members had been writing just before being surrounded and subsequently killed by the Caesar's Legion. Avellone explained that the notes in Fallout: New Vegas are intended mostly for flavor, though there will obviously be some that yield useful information (such as codes to locked doors). As a fan of little lore-inducing elements like this, it was a welcome sight.
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Once I was finished at the camp, Chris had me check out another save game that they used at a previous press event in order to get a better look at the subtle dialogue changes. The first set of dialogue I was shown had a response with a "[Speech 35]" in front of it, and since the protagonist I was playing had 86 points in every skill, that particular response was a viable option. That same response would have shown up even if my Speech skill had been pathetically low, though choosing it with a score lower than 35 would have resulted in my character spitting out the line incoherently. Ultimately, the recipient wouldn't have been convinced, but the development team felt it was important to take the guessing out of skill allocation and just let players know exactly how many points are required to make a successful attempt. The game's new books that grant a temporary +10 bonus to a specific skill should prove to be pretty valuable, thanks to this mechanic. 
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