We kinda let the reviews pile up. So here's the first of two roundups. Game Gavel, impression piece.<blockquote>But here's the thing that struck a chord with me the most. If you live in California right now, you are privy to one of the dirtiest, and nastiest political cycles in the history of the state. Clean energy, and the economy are the reasons for what has become the nastiest bout of mudslinging since Gray Davis was thrown out of office, so that we could elect Conan the Barbarian to run our state. The landscape is almost eerie, when you compare the problems of the New California Republic to the very real state of California, as both the fictional and the real struggle to come to grips with the crippling problems facing their uncertain futures. However, what may be the more depressing truth is that unlike the world of Fallout New Vegas, we can't play as large a part in the evolution of our own future. </blockquote>Kotaku, no score.<blockquote>And what flaws are those? This engine, despite being capable of some amazing vistas, is also busted at a fundamental level. Plastic-faced people, archaic character animation, dodgy AI path-finding, unreliable mission structures, misplaced map markings, these things - which let you down in Oblivion and in Fallout 3 - will let you down in this game as well. You'll even run into game-breaking glitches like becoming stuck in the terrain. When you have to hard-save a game every five minutes for fear of it crashing or trapping you, there is a serious problem.</blockquote>Team Xbox, 8.5/10.<blockquote>The graphics of New Vegas provide some beautiful expansive vistas across the Mohave Wasteland. Throughout adventures in the wastes the player will come across cliffs, rocks and various forms of wildlife. The wildlife comes in varying forms including giant ones and each model is very detailed with complicated geometry and varying textures. Unfortunately the terrain and rocks are very bland. Their textures and formations can repeat causing a sense of Déjà vu regardless of which side of the wastes the player is on. Every NPC in the game world is unique generated through a similar process used to create the player character. This means there are a limited number of hair styles, colors and skin types available. This means that there may be some duplicate NPCs walking around but given the scope of the game this is to be expected. </blockquote>1up, B.<blockquote>New Vegas starts with great writing and scripted quests that dress up the game as more than just "more of the same with a shiny new coat of paint." Some of my favorite side quests involved adventures likes swimming down to the bottom of the Colorado River to raise a B-29 aircraft to the surface, uncovering plant experiments gone array at Vault 22, and helping (or sabotaging) a group of ghoul cultists who are about to board rockets headed for the moon. The quests feel fully realized and reward you well for completing them.</blockquote>Games Radar, 9/10.<blockquote>The cast of voice actors in Fallout: New Vegas is also mighty impressive. Ron Perlman reprises his role as the narrator, voicing the intro and outro scenes in the game. We still get goose bumps when he says, "War never changes." Fallout 2 players will also welcome the return of Marcus, the super mutant, played by Star Trek: The Next Generation's Michael Dorn. Wayne Newton also does an excellent job voicing Mister New Vegas, DJ for the Radio New Vegas channel. We'll take his old-timey voice over the howling Three Dog from Fallout 3 any day.
Fans of Felicia Day will be pleased that the star of The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog voices a companion character named Veronica. She's a scribe for The Brotherhood of Steel and has several awesome side quests. Also on the celebrity list is Hollywood goon-for-hire Danny Trejo, who voices companion character Raul the Ghoul. The zombified bandito voiced by the star of Machete also seems destined to be a favorite companion amongst fans.</blockquote>Video Game Talk, 4.5/5, who think reputations are new to the series.<blockquote>Another new addition to the series is the inclusion of group thinking toward your character; factions. For instance, if you protect a town from a pack of enemies, they are going to love you and offer you benefits in the form of information and loot. Adversely, if the enemies that were attacking the town were part of another faction, they will attack you on sight. You can also disguise yourself as a faction member by stripping a fallen enemy of their clothing. This will allow you to infiltrate groups, but also paints a target on your back for rival factions. Your reputation in factions also determines what quests are going to be available to you. Depending on the way you play, good or evil, you could have two entirely different experiences with the game based solely off the faction quests open to you.</blockquote>Edge Online, 6/10.<blockquote>New Vegas’ technical shoddiness bears heavily on the game, and outright malfunctions aren’t rare occurrences. Walking through the wasteland, texture and object popping presents near-constant distraction. Elsewhere, the jerky framerate clunks and grinds in a bid to spoil your enjoyment of the artistry on offer all around. On four occasions during our playthrough, the game simply crashed. Then there’s a scorpion embedded in the road, its exposed stinger waving lamely; a coyote jogging on the spot; a Deathclaw forever foxed by a miniscule rock. Enter a room and crowds will often spawn in the centre and jerk around a particular point before settling down like good NPCs. An outfit will change in a blink when the day-night cycle switches. These aren’t exceptional instances - they’re ingrained in your journey.</blockquote>Gameroni, no score.<blockquote>Furthermore, if New Vegas worked, I would also talk about how well the story unfolded, the new faction system, the generous range of activities and quests, and how well new elements of Fallout lore are explored. I would hope to have ultimately talked about whether there were any spectacular set pieces like the giant robot in Fallout 3, and whether it ended with something less contrived than Fallout 3's disappointing conclusion.
But I can't talk about those things, because Fallout New Vegas simply doesn't work. I'd estimate my Xbox 360 locked up maybe once every two hours. The problems started to progress from occasional freezes to recurring freezes in the same place. My last ten hours with New Vegas have been spent troubleshooting, or going back to replay from earlier saves in the hopes that I can somehow work around a crash. But my last problem has effectively brought the game to a screeching, inglorious halt. After investing forty hours in Fallout New Vegas, I've come to a point where there is no possible way to finish the game. Let me repeat that: There is no possible way for me to finish the game. The latest technical error locks up the game whenever I try to enter the Strip, which is not only where my companions are kept, but also where the story quest leads. This happens from more than ten separate saved games. Fallout New Vegas is dead.</blockquote>Canoe, 8.5/10.<blockquote>In typical Fallout fashion the aesthetic is a trippy blend of post-apocalypse and retro-futurism, scored by big band music—Fallout games take place in an alternate future, a “what-if” scenario where kitschy 50s-styled ‘Nuka Cola’ machines, computer terminals, gas pumps, typewriters and telephones (and of course bomb shelters) existed alongside helper robots and fission-powered cars. Until the bombs fell. Now, it all sits among the rubble. Not surprisingly, salvaging pre-war tools and equipment is among the major industries… along with slaving and thieving.</blockquote>The Star, 4/4.<blockquote>This merciless philosophy of Mad Max scrounging is eloquently stated through gameplay in the new “hardcore mode,” an optional set of rules I heartily recommend playing under. In this mode, the kid gloves (or, I guess, the rat-fur gauntlets) are off. Players must eat, drink and sleep to avoid dehydration, starvation and collapse. Healing items, rather than taking effect instantly, do their work over time — no more eating 10 servings of mashed potatoes between shots in a gunfight. Ammunition now has mass, requiring constant guns-or-butter survival calculations as you scour the wastes. It all adds up to a more intensely felt role-playing experience.</blockquote>USA Today, 3/4.<blockquote>As a whole, the adventure in Fallout: New Vegas is hard to put down, if you're lucky enough to avoid the multiple bugs and glitches that creep up. For example, while visiting the faction Caesar's Legion in the southeastern Mojave, my Pip-Boy screen washed out in bright neon green, making it impossible to check my map or inventory. Luckily, I had a very recent save I could reload to restore the device.
On top of that, I experienced some significant lag while exploring which almost locked up the game entirely. While my game didn't freeze and force me to restart my Xbox 360, don't be surprised if this happens. The glitches are major enough that Bethesda has confirmed patches are in the works to multiple outlets. There are also too many load screens players must sit through that can take them out of the flow of the game.</blockquote>EGM is a digizine with a 9/10 review.
Some thanks to The Vault.
Fans of Felicia Day will be pleased that the star of The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog voices a companion character named Veronica. She's a scribe for The Brotherhood of Steel and has several awesome side quests. Also on the celebrity list is Hollywood goon-for-hire Danny Trejo, who voices companion character Raul the Ghoul. The zombified bandito voiced by the star of Machete also seems destined to be a favorite companion amongst fans.</blockquote>Video Game Talk, 4.5/5, who think reputations are new to the series.<blockquote>Another new addition to the series is the inclusion of group thinking toward your character; factions. For instance, if you protect a town from a pack of enemies, they are going to love you and offer you benefits in the form of information and loot. Adversely, if the enemies that were attacking the town were part of another faction, they will attack you on sight. You can also disguise yourself as a faction member by stripping a fallen enemy of their clothing. This will allow you to infiltrate groups, but also paints a target on your back for rival factions. Your reputation in factions also determines what quests are going to be available to you. Depending on the way you play, good or evil, you could have two entirely different experiences with the game based solely off the faction quests open to you.</blockquote>Edge Online, 6/10.<blockquote>New Vegas’ technical shoddiness bears heavily on the game, and outright malfunctions aren’t rare occurrences. Walking through the wasteland, texture and object popping presents near-constant distraction. Elsewhere, the jerky framerate clunks and grinds in a bid to spoil your enjoyment of the artistry on offer all around. On four occasions during our playthrough, the game simply crashed. Then there’s a scorpion embedded in the road, its exposed stinger waving lamely; a coyote jogging on the spot; a Deathclaw forever foxed by a miniscule rock. Enter a room and crowds will often spawn in the centre and jerk around a particular point before settling down like good NPCs. An outfit will change in a blink when the day-night cycle switches. These aren’t exceptional instances - they’re ingrained in your journey.</blockquote>Gameroni, no score.<blockquote>Furthermore, if New Vegas worked, I would also talk about how well the story unfolded, the new faction system, the generous range of activities and quests, and how well new elements of Fallout lore are explored. I would hope to have ultimately talked about whether there were any spectacular set pieces like the giant robot in Fallout 3, and whether it ended with something less contrived than Fallout 3's disappointing conclusion.
But I can't talk about those things, because Fallout New Vegas simply doesn't work. I'd estimate my Xbox 360 locked up maybe once every two hours. The problems started to progress from occasional freezes to recurring freezes in the same place. My last ten hours with New Vegas have been spent troubleshooting, or going back to replay from earlier saves in the hopes that I can somehow work around a crash. But my last problem has effectively brought the game to a screeching, inglorious halt. After investing forty hours in Fallout New Vegas, I've come to a point where there is no possible way to finish the game. Let me repeat that: There is no possible way for me to finish the game. The latest technical error locks up the game whenever I try to enter the Strip, which is not only where my companions are kept, but also where the story quest leads. This happens from more than ten separate saved games. Fallout New Vegas is dead.</blockquote>Canoe, 8.5/10.<blockquote>In typical Fallout fashion the aesthetic is a trippy blend of post-apocalypse and retro-futurism, scored by big band music—Fallout games take place in an alternate future, a “what-if” scenario where kitschy 50s-styled ‘Nuka Cola’ machines, computer terminals, gas pumps, typewriters and telephones (and of course bomb shelters) existed alongside helper robots and fission-powered cars. Until the bombs fell. Now, it all sits among the rubble. Not surprisingly, salvaging pre-war tools and equipment is among the major industries… along with slaving and thieving.</blockquote>The Star, 4/4.<blockquote>This merciless philosophy of Mad Max scrounging is eloquently stated through gameplay in the new “hardcore mode,” an optional set of rules I heartily recommend playing under. In this mode, the kid gloves (or, I guess, the rat-fur gauntlets) are off. Players must eat, drink and sleep to avoid dehydration, starvation and collapse. Healing items, rather than taking effect instantly, do their work over time — no more eating 10 servings of mashed potatoes between shots in a gunfight. Ammunition now has mass, requiring constant guns-or-butter survival calculations as you scour the wastes. It all adds up to a more intensely felt role-playing experience.</blockquote>USA Today, 3/4.<blockquote>As a whole, the adventure in Fallout: New Vegas is hard to put down, if you're lucky enough to avoid the multiple bugs and glitches that creep up. For example, while visiting the faction Caesar's Legion in the southeastern Mojave, my Pip-Boy screen washed out in bright neon green, making it impossible to check my map or inventory. Luckily, I had a very recent save I could reload to restore the device.
On top of that, I experienced some significant lag while exploring which almost locked up the game entirely. While my game didn't freeze and force me to restart my Xbox 360, don't be surprised if this happens. The glitches are major enough that Bethesda has confirmed patches are in the works to multiple outlets. There are also too many load screens players must sit through that can take them out of the flow of the game.</blockquote>EGM is a digizine with a 9/10 review.
Some thanks to The Vault.
