First, let me say that I am not a fan of Mark Morgan. I think Inon Zur's music was much more engaging and easy on the ears in Fallout 3 than Mark Morgan's was in Fallout: New Vegas. Just throwing that out there, that's a preference to be argued between F 1/2 and F3 fans probably. I'm not really here to talk about the ambient music though.

What I want to talk about is the radio. I was really disappointed with the radio implementation in New Vegas. I thought they really would have learned a lot from Fallout 3, but this doesn't appear to have been the case. What you will spend 80% of the game listening to is not the voice acting. It's not the ambient soundtracks. It's the radio. In Fallout 3, the radio was your companion. You had the tunes of Bob Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, the Ink Spots, etc. Wonderful '50s music. Three-dog actually sounded like a radio DJ and Malcolm McDowell's voice was a soothing vehicle for Pro-American/Enclave propaganda.

My complaints about the radio in point form:

• There are three radio stations, but they all seem to play from the exact same pool of music. There should have been a segregation of genres. A channel for country, a channel for Rat Pack/Vegas-y tunes. I shouldn't have to listen to "Blue Moon" and "Big Iron" right next to each other. (F3 had '50s music, American Band and Classical violin on three separate channels).
  
• Wayne Newton is an awesome guy with a wonderful personality IRL, but does not have what I would call a soothing voice. Every word that comes out of his mouth sounds painful and strained. As a DJ he's an impersonal character that seems to do more talking at you than to you.
  
• The radio seems bugged and does not properly 'shuffle' songs, so you can listen to "Big Iron" and "Johnny Guitar" repeatedly.

Probably my biggest complaint:

• There are not enough songs. Between Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I just started to assume that getting those licensed tracks must be incredibly expensive and so that was all they were able to squeeze in there... that was until I looked at the soundtrack for Mafia 2. It has 123 licensed songs in addition the 62 other in-game tracks: http://www.game-ost.com/albums/1704/mafia_ii/

Most of this music would have been fitting for New Vegas. I feel like the radio was really down played in this release and an opportunity was missed. Some of my fondest moments in Fallout 3 were exploring the wasteland while listening to GNR, while in New Vegas I have a tendency be really frustrated when Big Iron comes on again and I shut it off only to hear another dreary Mark Morgan track. It deprives the experience a great deal, to be so limited in what should be one of the best parts in the game.

Suggestions to fix this now and in the future:

• Release a radio DLC. I know some might view this as tantamount to horse armor, but give me another radio station with 10 songs and I'll pay the 10-15 bucks.
  
• Double, at a minimum, the number of songs available on the radio. A minimum.
  
• Expand the GUI to allow certain songs to be disabled.
  
• Segregate the music. Keep the genres separate.
  
• Hire people you want to listen to for a couple hours at a time. Hire Morgan Freeman and you will have me forever.

I'm just going to point out that Inon Zur did the background music for New Vegas. He just took bits and pieces from Morgan's music and combined it with his own.

Another complaint about Wayne Newton's charcter: quit trying to make love to me over the radio!

It's only in certian places, It seems about 20-30% new background music and 70-80% Fallout/2 and Fallout 3 music. Point is, there are some mixing of the two artists, alot of F3 recycling and a very slight new tracks update. I havent heard and mixed tracks. Usually its F/F2 music or Fallout 3 with the occasional new track.

meh...didn't buy it for the sound track

Ya.... I noticed that the shuffle function of the radio is not random at all.......I get annoyed by hearing the same 2 songs over and over.

I actually think his Mr. New Vegas character is pretty funny. The first time he told me I was looking exceptionally beautiful "right now" I laughed out loud. Mojave, mo' problems. Amiright?

I agree that the radio doesn't seem to shuffle the music correctly. I do love the selections they made for the somewhat-limited soundtrack, though. I think they're really fitting of the setting. If you're on the PC there will probably be mods like More Where That Came From for FO3 that add hundreds of public domain tunes to the radio. That mod was a godsend...I got to a point that if I heard "he's hackin' and whackin' and smackin'" one more time I was going to kill my speakers.

I'm an xbox gamer, so an unfortunate downside to the console is that I can't get these. I've seen a lot of the Fallout 3 radio mods and they were just great. PC can't run Fallout that well though, plus I'd rather be on a couch... it's the price console gamers pay

but Fallout is a console port aint it?

Yeah, the couch is nice. I went so far as to put a gaming video card in my HTPC in my living room so I could play from there if I wanted to.

love me as though there were no tomoroooooooooooow oh my darling love meeeee don't ever let meee gooooo
lol yeah i love the radio in Nv

I love all the songs so it does not really bother me.

I don't care much for country or old country. My grandmother used to play old country on her record player so some of these songs are familiar. I would have preferred to hear more from the Rat Pack,

Three Dog > Mr Vegas or whatever he goes by
Fallout 3 Track List > New Vegas Track List.

Between the creepy drunk DJ and that fecking Johnny Guitar track over and over, I'd have to say F3 radio was much better.

But both can be improved with mods, thank you PC version!

For those of you who play on the PC and have fixed your radios, how did you do it? I downloaded the Radio New Vegas Balancer (I believe the name was something like that, anyway), but it hasn't actually changed much. The "big ticket" songs still get played one after the other, and occasionally repeat within 10-15 minutes of each other.

I think the music is great, but then I'm biased, hearing Marty Robins in the game was a pleaseure, but I agree it needs more tracks, smiles all round, I'm on pc and an extended track mod is no problem.

dunno why they resigned from Louis Armstrong, he made enough songs for 10 games >>

That's my take on it

Me feelings are the exact opposite of this. I hated Three Dog with a passion and wanted him to die.

I wish there were more songs but I love the ones they have. It really sells the southwest setting.

It seems like they let Wayne ad lib half of his lines. He comes off sounding like a drunk Joe Namath when he was hitting on Suzy Kolber during Monday Night Football.

"Who lov-hiccup-es you, I lov-hiccup-e you...wheres my Sambuca dammit?"

Sadly, I agree.

They have some great songs. Nothing beats chasing a certain casino owner through the halls of his own casino firing after him with a plasma pistol while Dean Martin's "Kick in the Head" blares in the background.

Also love the track about the Texas Ranger fighting the outlaw in Agua Fria (don't know the name, sure you know what I'm talking about). I'm pretty sure I heard a Johnny Cash version I liked better though, but it doesn't fit the "era" right.

On the other hand there just aren't enough songs and FO3 had more fast-paced songs, the songs in NV are by far slower tempo and softer mood. They don't have many songs like "Mighty Mighty Man," "Anything Goes" or my all-time favorite Fallout song "Butcher Pete" that really fit the mood of a frenetic firefight.

As a side note, I'd never heard "Why don't you do right? (get me some money too!)" sung by anyone but Jessica Rabbit...

One of my favorite parts about the game is the new better music :blink:

Interestingly three of the western swing songs; Lone star, In The Shadow Of The Valley and Lets Ride Into The Sunset Together, are all performed by a band named Lost Weekend, which was founded in 1985, a far cry from the 40s or 50s. All of those aforementioned songs come from a CD that was made exclusively for the use in television, radio, games and commercials. I think that with all the voice actors, they didn't have the money to acquire the same amount of song licences. Hence the use of Lost Weekend, oppose to the original recordings.