I love that FO:NV is packed with quests and people and dialogue - however, it all feels fairly cramped together, and the "world" feels small - rarely do I feel "lost" within the wasteland or within a dungeon (building, vault etc.).

In FO3 I often felt I was lost and on my own out in the wastes or within a vast complex like the War Memorial or the sewers that led to Our Lady of Hope which in turn led to the hospital and then to a hotel (vast and huge all together).

However in FO3, I felt the factions were anemic with no quests, no background conversations and history - all things that FO:NV has in spades.

Yet, FO:NV has almost no vast places - except for the vaults. The world feels streamlined and small, pockets of world put in place for the story that takes place there - all crammed together.

I lust and drool for the large world/dungeons of FO3 combined with the faction quests/interaction of FO:NV......

Just my .02.

J

Though the game world is about the same size, I agree, mostly. New Vegas could do with some more dungeons. Still vastly prefer it.

Well, I'm not much of a dungeon crawler but to be honest I find the cave systems and passageways a bit disappointing in size.

Eh, this is not magical fantasy so I would like to stay away from the whole "adventurers and dungeons with loot and the end of them" theme. So pointless dungeons for thew sake of loot and grinding I would strongly disagree with. However more places that actually have an impact one various places and more Choices and consequences for doing those in different ways would be very good in my books.

Yes, indeed.

OP, you have nailed it on the head, my friend. I loooove the breadth and depth of stories in NV, and the random encounters, big interiors and interesting tidbits of stuff on computers in FO3. Open-world FPS/RPG is the best format evar, and would be even better with all these in one!

It seems like there are plenty of boarded up buildings and nooks and crannies in the rocks to install with goodies, and once you get into the north and west sides of the NV map the space would open up considerably. The random encounters and random spawns really did add a lot of interest to the FO3 map. I never paid that much attention to them, but now they're gone I can see the impact they had on replay value.

:fallout:

I agree that the Fallout New Vegas map is pretty small, 20 seconds I'm at Bonnie Springs, 20 seconds later, I'm at Red Rock Canyon, I travel 2 or 3 inches of the map in 20 seconds.
I also agree that Fallout 3 was bigger and the buildings (especially the hotel and the Lady Luck Hospital part, I got lost there!) were more confusing and the metros were confusing.
It also seems that enemies in Fallout 3 were weaker than Fallout New Vegas's enemies, probably because of the new DT system added to New Vegas. In Fallout 3, I kill a Deathclaw in 2 seconds with a Gatling Laser.

See thats what bothered me so much, after 200 years of scaving why are there so much goodies still laying right out side population centers? Why is there still food sitting on shelves in grocery stores? FO3 wasn't very believable or consistent with series. NV is much better with this. You aren't tripping over every two feet, more "abandoned" buildings full of loot that "no one in state ever found before you".

hmm, good point. There's still a lot of that in NV, too. Goes along with "why on earth would all these scavengers have left the boards up on these windows and doors?? Does anybody have some kind of a tire iron or a fire axe or something?"

I don't think New Vegas is small but I am a fan of the ideas of Beth and Obsidian working together on future fallouts for now on :fallout:

Eh, just think of it this way. Instead of spending time to make the interior and have nothing of interest in it. They just leave it closed off and you can imagine your character looking in and seeing nothing of interest.

Sometimes you have to sacrifice realism for simple game mechanics which make the game fun to play, Andaius. Honestly, your issue with food items and other loot existing in abandoned buildings and dungeons strikes me as nit picking. If you were to argue about the way towns and factions were set up in an unrealistic fashion for Fallout 3, then I'd have to agree with you. But complaining about loot? With that reasoning, why even bother placing items for the player to find throughout the map.

I agree whole heartedly, though I do believe that this is in the wrong location. It should be in fallout series discussion

I'm curious as to why the boarded up doors even exist. Did everyone decide to bored up their shops while the nukes were falling?

I only mentioned it because thats what he mentioned as "lacking" in FO:NV. The explore "dungeon" but find nothing of interest. Complaint that practically every one that argues "exploration" component is lacking in NV. What they really mean is the places you do explore lack "Phat lootz by the ton". I thought NV did a good job with handing out uniques and such, not perfect but much better then how in FO3 you where tripping over crap every 2 feet.

Bethesda should do the world design but they should not put so many dungeons in it. (More than Vegas but less than FO3)
And Obsidian should do the game mechanics and writing.

Yeah, with Beth in charge of tech and Obsidian writing.



The complaints aren't about "loot", they're about the fact that in NV most wilderness locations can be fully explored in less than ten minutes. A complaint I've never seen rendered in leet speak either.

Agreed, though I must add that Beth should put more point in their dungeons (with or without Obsidians help), give an actual incentive (a quest relevance) to the player to dive those dungeons. Pointless exploring is fine in decent doses, but too much of it just brings up the tedium and an unnecessary feeling of randomness and disconnectedness.