The Vault previews Fallout: New Vegas, #1

[Brother None]

We've been mixing our QuakeCon with GamesCom recently, but should be headed into full-on GamesCom now. Lots of hands-off previews, but also public hands-on time, which the Vault's Ausir gladly used, and will use even more in the near future! The Good: it's Ausir. The Bad: you can tell he's been running the Vault for too long because the preview is basically a long string of in-game names of stuff. Fascinating if you wish to start The Vault wikia article, less so fascinating if you're interested in the actual game. Ausir's opinion is withheld for a future article.<blockquote>The Vegas office of the Crimson Caravan is headed by Alice McLafferty, who was also in charge of the company's operations in Hoover Dam in the canceled Van Buren. She is normally in charge of the Hub HQ of the company, but the New Vegas branch has been underperforming lately, and she came to clean it up. She also mentions that the New Canaan Mormons (another Van Buren reference here) are in charge of most northern trade routes, while the Gun Runners control most of the gun trade in the area. She gives you a quest called You Can Depend on Me to deliver an invoice to doctor Hildern at Camp McCarran. There are also lots of brahmin in the Crimson Caravan camp, which confirms that the big horners are not the only domesticated animals in the area.

Other characters in the camp, aside from the generic caravaners, are Blake (who comes from a town in the NCR called Oak Creek), who can sell you various wares, and Don Hostetler, who doesn't really talk much (at least for now) aside from telling you to go talk to McLafferty instead.</blockquote>

 

[Briosafreak]

Link?

 

[Brother None]

Still wondering if I should've gone to GamesCom. Plenty of RPGs to cover for GameBanshee, press credentials are easy to get, all expenses paid and shit.

At the end of the day I decided I just couldn't be arsed to. Plus I kind of hate gaming conventions. True story. Sorry guys.

Good thing at least one Fallout fan is in there. Less wiki-material more actual previewing next time, please.

 

[WorstUsernameEver]

The Good: it's Ausir. The Bad: you can tell he's been running the Vault for too long because the preview is basically a long string of in-game names of stuff. Fascinating if you wish to start The Vault wikia article, less so fascinating if you're interested in the actual game.

Actually, what can you expect from him?

 

[Lexx]

Few days ago, I wondered if I should go to the GamesCom as well. Would need me 170 Euro for going there + going back on one day. But the only title that would have been interesting for me is New Vegas... So I last-minute figured, it's not worth it, also it's full there on non-press-only day. :>

 

[Brother None]

NMA really should have had a staffer in one of these cons, as has come up in internal discussions. Sign of the times that we didn't. We need staffers who can still afford to waste time on this kind of stuff. I think our current staff kind of outgrew it.

Except for me. I have no excuses.

 

[Ausir]

Well, I'll hopefully be playing New Vegas more this week (I have a press pass, so I'll try to come early in the morning tomorrow before they let the regular visitors), so I decided to just post all info I managed to find out about for now, and write generally about my own impressions later (well, it was either that or posting all of it later).

 

[KING SHIT]

Just outside the Crimson Caravan camp, you can find the New Vegas Medical Clinic, which is run by Doctor Usanagi. She has some high-tech equipment there, and so she's able to upgrade your stats with implants (which are a bit more plausible than the Fallout 3 bobbleheads). There's an implant for each of the main statistics, even for Luck (called Probability Calculator). Of course, the implants aren't cheap. Other implants include sub-dermal armor and one that makes your health regenerate.

Much better way of going about increasing SPECIAL. Let's hope they cut intense training too.

 

[Lexx]

Don't forget to check out all possible weapons, to see what's coming back from Fallout 1 / 2. *Still hoping for a combat shotgun return*

 

[jero cvmi]

the skill indicator next to the line was [Science 18/80] and the line itself something akin to "Robot! Let me in!

ahaha sigged!

also, good job sniffing out the Mormons, Gun Runners, and, of course, the medical implants Ausir.

 

[Blackened]

you can tell he's been running the Vault for too long because the preview is basically a long string of in-game names of stuff. Fascinating if you wish to start The Vault wikia article, less so fascinating if you're interested in the actual game.

Just some facts about the game here, I'll also post my personal impressions later. For now, here's just a random collection of facts and names.

He just tried to give as accurate information as possible. Also, it's intentional that he gave his information in this way.

I haven't read it, because of the spoilers. I'll read the next part, if it doesn't contain spoilers.

Another interesting bit of info is that the armors I've seen don't have both Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold, but each has only one of the two.

Interesting. Can't say whether I like it or not.

@Ausir: Was it quick travel, or map travel? I mean, was it like Fallout 1/2/tactics, or was it like Fallout 3/Oblivion?

 

[Ausir]

Quick travel like in FO3. Did anyone expect it to be otherwise?

 

[Blackened]

I just hoped it'd be different - I think there was a mod that changes this (so it's possible). I really hated that part of Fallout 3. Oh, well. At least, I hope they have .223 Pistol. I've even wrote to J. E. Sawyer to remind him to add one, because that would be awesome to Fallout fans, and nobody would mind it.

 

[Khan FurSainty]

Quick travel like in FO3. Did anyone expect it to be otherwise?

Ah, well, no biggie. There are more important things to be fixed anyway.

 

[OakTable]

I just hoped it'd be different - I think there was a mod that changes this (so it's possible). I really hated that part of Fallout 3. Oh, well. At least, I hope they have .223 Pistol. I've even wrote to J. E. Sawyer to remind him to add one, because that would be awesome to Fallout fans, and nobody would mind it.

I think he subtly confirmed it with a Something Awful post in reply to a Goon that liked the .223. Didn't say it outright though, but he likes doing that because Sawyer is almost as cool as Gave Newell.

 

[Lexx]

To be honest, I would be happy if the .223 EASTEREGG pistol would be taken out of the game. Also if Bethesda is too scared to add a *real* 10mm pistol, because of possible legal battle, they for sure wouldn't add a .223 pistol.. bleh.

What I more want to see is the winchester city-killer. And I will not stop posting that all around, until I see it ingame.

 

[SharkClub]

To be honest, I would be happy if the .223 EASTEREGG pistol would be taken out of the game.

Hm?

I know it's basically a reference to Deckard's gun in Blade Runner, but in the description it says it's a "sawed off and modified hunting rifle", which isn't too farfetched. It may be an Easter Egg but it still makes sense in that context, in my opinion.

 

[Guiltyofbeingtrite]

Quick travel like in FO3. Did anyone expect it to be otherwise?

I think there has to be in a game like this. I loved Morrowind and the silt striders but there's no way they'd expect players to walk across the map, and having buses or something would be absurd.

 

[Starwars]

Josh also confirmed somewhere (either the Beth forums or somethingawful) that fast travel will have an impact on the Hardcore mode settings. Since time passes, all your dehydration and crap like that goes down. Which means that it might not be in your best interest to fast travel to town when you're out in the wasteland if you don't have a good supply of water.

I'd rather not have them take out fast travelling all-together because I really don't want to walk everywhere manually but I think that's a good compromise. Making it so that it's not always the ultra-safe way to get back to base so to speak.

 

[SharkClub]

Quick travel like in FO3. Did anyone expect it to be otherwise?

I think there has to be in a game like this. I loved Morrowind and the silt striders but there's no way they'd expect players to walk across the map, and having buses or something would be absurd.

Well, I thought about New Vegas using the same "fast travel system" from Fallout 3 but modified so it uses the "Survival" skill so you actually travel across the map and bump into encounters instead of just randomly teleporting all over the place.

What I'm thinking of is basically the Outdoorsman skill and world map from Fallout 1/2/Tactics except you can activate it from any place in the overworld.