Games Radar has placed online a preview of Fallout: New Vegas from one of its many affiliate magazines.<blockquote>Well, in some respects anyway. With New Vegas, Bethesda (and new developer Obsidian) are walking a very smart, if safe, path. It’s obvious from our first look at the game that, although the new Mojave Desert wasteland is clearly a brighter place to be than the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3, the core game has remained very much intact. You still navigate through menus via a PipBoy, you still level up and add perks to your abilities, and you still use VATS to blow the limbs off anyone dumb enough to mess with you. Sure, your PipBoy now has a pleasing rusty orange glow instead of a low-fi green, but everything else is as it was.
For us, this is the right move. Obsidian have kept Fallout 3’s game mechanics intact because, aside from the complaints of a vocal minority, they worked beautifully well. This also means that, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the new developer is free to focus on what they do best – telling a story with style and panache.
(...)
There are three main groups here: the New California Republic, Caesar’s Legion and (although not yet confirmed) the Brotherhood of Steel. During one part of our demo, we visited an NCR power-plant/research lab called Helios One. It’s run by a chancer called ‘Fantastic’ who seems to have blagged his way up the New California food-chain. After some amusing dialogue (something painfully missing from the po-faced Fallout 3) you agree to help Fantastic increase the output of the factory (currently running at 3% efficiency under his leadership) and divert the power to the NCR’s interests in New Vegas. Well, that’s what you tell him.
Once into the central control room you have a number of options that will either cement your relationship with the NCR, or damage it. We go for damage. Big damage. Our man reroutes the power to an orbital laser, which he then uses to incinerate the NCR troops stationed outside the power plant. It’s spectacular as the giant beam sweeps over the baked floor, evaporating the opposition. Later on in the game, we’re told, that orbital laser can become part of your arsenal as you develop a portable control device for it. Like the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War, only far more powerful.</blockquote>Edit: It seems the article was taken down. Feel free to view a mirror here.
For us, this is the right move. Obsidian have kept Fallout 3’s game mechanics intact because, aside from the complaints of a vocal minority, they worked beautifully well. This also means that, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the new developer is free to focus on what they do best – telling a story with style and panache.
(...)
There are three main groups here: the New California Republic, Caesar’s Legion and (although not yet confirmed) the Brotherhood of Steel. During one part of our demo, we visited an NCR power-plant/research lab called Helios One. It’s run by a chancer called ‘Fantastic’ who seems to have blagged his way up the New California food-chain. After some amusing dialogue (something painfully missing from the po-faced Fallout 3) you agree to help Fantastic increase the output of the factory (currently running at 3% efficiency under his leadership) and divert the power to the NCR’s interests in New Vegas. Well, that’s what you tell him.
Once into the central control room you have a number of options that will either cement your relationship with the NCR, or damage it. We go for damage. Big damage. Our man reroutes the power to an orbital laser, which he then uses to incinerate the NCR troops stationed outside the power plant. It’s spectacular as the giant beam sweeps over the baked floor, evaporating the opposition. Later on in the game, we’re told, that orbital laser can become part of your arsenal as you develop a portable control device for it. Like the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War, only far more powerful.</blockquote>Edit: It seems the article was taken down. Feel free to view a mirror here.
