New details about Fallout: New Vegas hit the jackpot

You can bet your noodle that I’ve already seen some of the leaked magazine scans containing pertinent details about Fallout: New Vegas. I’m not interested in linking to places hosting these scans, but I’m sure your Google-fu is good enough to get you going if you are that curious. I suspect over the next few weeks we’ll get official screenshots and stuff to publicly drool over. Just gotta be patient.

Anyways, here’s some tidbits that raised my eyebrows:

• There’s an optional hardcore diffuclty mode, wherein the character will need to drink water to survive the Mojave desert, ammo has weight, and healing with stimpacks isn’t instant.
• There are now special moves for melee weapons in VATS. For example, the golf club has a move called “Fore!” which is more or less a groin shot.
• Mutant geckos!
• Skills will have a bigger effect on conversation choices. Someone with a high Explosives skill may be able to have a coversation about explosives where using them would be 100% appropriate. This makes sense, and I’m amazed it wasn’t implemented before.
• There is a Reputation system in addition to Karma.
• All dialogue options will beshown to players regardless of whether you have the stats to succeed or not, and there’s no punishment for failure.
• Followers can be managed through a context-sensitive menu, with orders like “follow,” “stay,” or “attack.”

Yeah, it’s gonna be good, and from what I’ve gathered…funny. Now, Fallout 3 had it’s moment or two of dark, dark humor, but this time around it seems like there might even be a glimmer of silly or, dare I say, slapstick. Evidently there’s a female Super Mutant rocking some wicked shades and a stripper wig. Can’t beat that for guffaws.

But what I’m most pleased to see is that Fallout: New Vegas is using the same engine as Fallout 3. Some folks might take this as a disappointment, that the series isn’t going forward but rather standing still, but the Capital Wasteland was huge and open and completely explorable without having to drop into numerous (and/or obvious) loading zones. If the same can be done for the Mojave Desert then we’re in for a treat: another ginormous game with tons of locations and quests to suck away more hours of our lives. Ultimately, we should consider ourselves lucky.

First details about Fallout: New Vegas surface

There’s a great write-up of some information that will soon be revealed in the next issue of Game Informer pertaining to the rather mysterious Fallout: New Vegas over at That VideoGame Blog. It all sounds pretty legit though so I’m going to start getting excited this very second.

Fallout: New Vegas, from what was divulged, seems to be keeping in with some Fallout 3 traditions while also exploring new ways to tell a story via means like Dragon Age: Origins.

Looks like you’ll be playing as a number of different characters in the beginning, which would unlock specific perks. One such character would be a Crimson Dragoon on a mission to destroy the Hoover Dam who ultimately becomes a ghoul. Or you can go blank slate and be a Lone Wanderer type. Either way, with or without a moral system, this should up the replay value.

Also, it sounds like there will be much more strategy needed into distributing your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points. One of the silly things in Fallout 3 was the fact that you could get a 100 in every focus, or, if not 100, very high up there. I spent all my time focusing on laser weapons and lock-picking that once I filled them to capacity I just started completing other skills. Wasn’t hard to do at all. I’d like a tougher challenge, and this seems to be it.

The leaked details claim that the size of the Vegas wasteland will greatly dwarf the Capital wasteland, which now gives reason to having accessible vehicles. Would love to hop in a car and go cruising across the desert. That said…dwarfing the Capital wasteland? We’ll just have to wait and see.

And, as expected, there’ll be a bit of gambling going on. C’mon Lucky 7s…ka-ching! Wonder if bottle caps will still be the currency used in the West Coast or if traditional money will still play a part.

In summary, mmmmmmmm. I need this now!