Tuesday 5 October 2010

Gambling with your life. Fallout: New Vegas

In the beginning of time, man used fire to scare his opponents and steal food, clothing and shelter from his fellow man. As millenia past, man decided to build nuclear bombs and in an alternate timeline we all nuked the shit out of each other. This brings us to the post apocalyptic wasteland and a cheerful series known as Fallout.

Most people reading this will be familiar with that smash hit of 2008, Fallout 3. A move which took a godlike game, heralding from the golden era of games from a 3D isometric affair into a first/third person RPG. As with all classic games there was an outcry from the old Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 players suggesting that this abomination should not be created and blah blah blah. Change happens and in this case, I believe the change was an extremely good one even if there were some issues.

Fallout 3 brought about a complete change of perspective for old Fallout players, changing their dark and gritty viewpoint and thrust them right into the middle of that universe. The atmosphere was pulled off perfectly with the desolate wastelands abound, buildings ruined, many lifeforms mutated into hideous monsters... the harsh reality of what we had done to our planet and the dangerous conditions people lived in outside of the Vault system.

                   

Some of us would have pondered over some of the ethical issues facing certain individuals in the game or the treatment that many of the other vault dwellers had to endure, most of which could have been the centre of their own horror movie. Others would have just walked around the landscape, power armour on, ammo out of the wazoo and the biggest gun you could find then proceeded to blow stuff up for the sheer enjoyment of making thngs go boom.

New Vegas... using the same game engine as Fallout 3 with some tweaks here and there, the latest installment of the Fallout series is introducing such as a Companion Wheel that streamlines directing your companions, a Reputation System that tracks the consequences of your actions, and the aptly titled Hardcore Mode to separate the meek from the mighty. Special melee combat moves have been added to bring new meaning to the phrase “up close and personal”. Use V.A.T.S. to pause time in combat, target specific enemy body parts and queue up attacks, or get right to the action using the finely-tuned real-time combat mechanics.

                  

All in all, I feel rather compelled to pick up my Mr Fisto, find the nearest Brotherhood of Steel goon and squish him like a nukacola can! I don't like the Enclave either but I dislike the BoS a little bit more than them. This is going to be a day one purchase for me, I hope you like it too.

Fallout: New Vegas is due out on the 22nd October 2010 for Playstation 3, XBox 360 and PC platforms!

Check out my other previews and reviews here

No comments:

Post a Comment