Now I'm a HUGE Fallout 3 fan. One of my favorite things about it is the overall depressing, hopeless feel of the wasteland. It's a game like no other in how you can simply marvel at the world and appreciate the derelict, unstructured, abandoned look of it. Now my concern is that New Vegas is going to have a different, more lighthearted feel. While this is not necessarily worse, I would rather have a feel more similar to FO3, in that it is bleak and depressing. So anyway, basically voice your opinions, whether you would prefer a lighthearted feel or depressing feel, what you think the overall feel of New Vegas will actually be, etc.

So you like that FPS' are shades of brown and gray?
I thought that was one of the bad things about the current FPS structure.

I'm glad that New Vegas will have more vibrant colors but from what I've seen I wouldn't hold my breath.
It's still going to be pretty brown excluding the Strip and some interiors.

I wouldn't say lighthearted. From what I hear the feeling of despair and depression is going to be stronger, not through the scenery but otherwise. There was some talk about it few months ago, and IIRC it was compared to the grittiness of Fallout 2 (which - when barring the humor - was much more depressing in it's atmosphere than Fallout 3).

If they can create that, and leave the over the top humor for lesser attention, it will be good. Though even a bit lesser would suffice.

I'm looking forward to not such a depressing area like the D.C. it makes sense for them since they all got bombed to hell, New Vegas and the Mojave didn't get hit with nearly as many nukes. (New Vegas didn't get hit at all)

The West Coast is much more organized (With the NCR at least) and on the path towards true recovery after the Great War hence the change of tempo from depressing D.C., but since D.C. is still in shambles for the most part its a hopeless part of the country. :tops:

Have you played FO1 and FO2? and Tactics. Those games have areas that are pretty dark and hopeless. Those games make me feel that things are more of a wasteland then FO3. FO3 was also to Black and White which the others are not. I am looking forward to the return of dark humor and advlt/mature humor in New Vegas. I am sure there will be dark and depressing areas but I want the progress feeling as well. That things will improve if I help. I don't get that in FO3. My actions mean nothing. The Ending svcked and then the ending was taken away. With New Vegas I will learn what happens to the people and places.

Aye Fallout 2 had a very depressing atmosphere. Even New Reno, the most colourful settlement, had that dirty, uneasy, not friendly feel about it. What did help were the numerous prosttutes and their pimps and the dozens of drug sellers and drug addicts wandering aimlessly, saying nonsense. The Den was a pretty horrible place to wander into. The children helped a LOT there, as they were poor bastards working for those drug addicts and criminals. They looked dirty, had clearly no education from how they talked and made me look in pity about them, despite playing a pretty evil character.

What will probably help in New Vegas is how grim gambling can be. Add in drug Addicts, prosttutes and gang members and you can have a pretty grim, dark atmosphere for a city with so many lively colors. That should be depressing enough.

Fallout 3 got that atmosphere through its visuals, but not enough with the characters that lived there. Children and citizens were too "clean", everyone spoke well except the raiders and gang members are non existent. Prostitution is also almost non existent, with no brothels. Everyone seemed to be having a good time except some of them. Mr. Lopez in Rivet City, despite not having alot of dialogue, is one of my favourite NPCs because he's the representation of despair and hopelesness in the Wasteland.

Hopefully, New Vegas' soundtrack will be closer to the originals, with less "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuYwAB9p8Lk"-type songs and more "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It4GRG7JdFI&p=93027A5CEC1D2949&playnext=1&index=17" types of music.

Edit: Just found this in the comments section of New Reno's song. Very cool comment by a user who played Fallout 2:

This music = I can smell liquor, gunpowder and death. I just arrived to New Reno. The torn-out buildings are filled with fliers, post-war ads and graffiti. The cracked tarmac road hurts my feet. A man named Jules comes to me and offers drugs. Junkies, dealers, lowlifes,? garbage and broken bottles everywhere. I can hear loud moaning at the near-by [censored]house. Also numerous gunshots in the alleys. I check that my revolver is loaded...just in case.

Exactly how I feel when I listen to the song. The soundtrack always helps a lot in setting the mood of the areas you visit.

I think if your character stays away from heavily populated areas the bleak desert surroundings and sparse settlements will carry that barren, yet beautiful bleakness FO3 did so well, and with the radio pumping out music that contrasts very heavily with what you're actually seeing everywhere, it should carry that eerie feeling of jocular gloom, lol. "The plant's the fruitiest, the stars the shootiest..."

Mind you The Pitt had a fairly hearty population and that probably more than any other expansion added more brown (I like brown), grey, and suffering to the Fallout 3 canvas. Those heavy smog-filled skies and the wretched looking NPCs everywhere, all on a backdrop of mutation, slavery, and the weirdest damn baby I’ve ever seen. Depends on the vibe you get from the characters populating the place I guess. However bright and lively it is intended to be - The Pitt did the heavy gloom well.

If being in Vegas proper and on or around the Strip feels anything like being in Tenpenny Tower it’ll fall on its butt IMO. :cryvaultboy:

I have played FO1 and FO2, and yes the areas were depressing (at least, some of them). But FO3 (to me) is much more depressing, as you can look at the landmarks and realize that you are in DC. The seat of America's power, reduced to ruins. FO and FO2 were limited by their isometric perspective, so while the scenarios were bleak and desperate, you didn't get the same sense of visual hopelessness that you do in FO3.

YES. THIS is exactly how I feel. The screenshots make New Vegas itself look very bright, garish and put-together, similar to Tenpenny Tower. I feel like there won't be enough derelict, abandoned settlements (i.e. Minefield, Grayditch). Even the most prosperous areas in FO3 (Rivet City, Megaton) have that desperate feel. Megaton is composed of scavenged plane parts, while Rivet City is no more than a broken aircraft carrier. It feels like these people have no choice but to scavenge the remains of the prosperous civilization preceding them to survive. Meanwhile, New Vegas seems like it's been up and running perfectly well since the war. It feels very composed, without much chaos. That is one of my problems with it.

I see your point. The other Fallout's show things getting better while DC and the other areas don't seem to be. For me I don't like that. After 200 years something should have improved. I still feel my actions did nothing. The endings of the other fallouts as you know say what happens to the people and places based on are actions. FO3 did not. I was so looking forward to the end during my first play through. I did all the quests and I was getting ready for a good show. I was so angry at the ending. Anyways I don't want everything to be wallowing and stagnant like FO3. I like the Strip and the Casinos of New Vegas and from what I have seen the humor is coming back in full force. :fallout:

All that I can really come up with is that it's going to much much better. It's going to be more alive and at the same time more depressing.

I have a feeling it'll be a whole new world in the town of Vegas itself. There'll be mobsters and mafia-gangmen, as well as heaps of poor drunkies who have spent too much time gambling. You'll try and build yourself a name in the big city, among the billionaires and the shady characters.
But then, when you walk out of Vegas and into the Mojave, you'll sigh and realise how crap the world is again.
I think the Mojave will be just like the Capital Wasteland, with people struggling to live, raiders [censored] and pillaging and creatures at every turn, as if in ignorance of Vegas. Then, when you get into the big city, the whole mood and atmosphere will change.

the world is still depressing. Vegas just seems to be an isolated oasis. yet just cause vegas is shiny doesnt mean its any less depressing. there will be drug addicts,starving homeless and women forced to go into prostitution. "all that glitters is not gold"

First I like how you talk about the City of Vegas, I hope it's like that. Second I don't think the Mojave wasteland will be just like the DC wasteland. NCR has control of the Hoover Dam and other locations. Ceaser's Legion has control of other locations. I am sure there will be alot of people caught in the middle. Some trying to hold onto what they have other being forced to join one of the Two big factions. A war is brewing and I want that feel to it. With DC every town and settlement was on their own. With Vegas we should be seeing towns and settlment taking up sides and uniting whether they want to or not.

Yeah Tenpenny was far removed not only from the Wasteland but also the design that governed the other settlements in FO3. Tenpenny's failing wasn't the location so much as the people populating it, and yeah maybe that annoying elevator music. People strutting about assured of their next meal and glass of water, with no hint as to where these resources might come from, and no worries, either. There wasn't even a greatly depressed society living in there, just deluded people, most of whom you couldn't imagine where they had gotten their wealth, or if they had ever SEEN the Wasteland! They are all non-characters with no backgrounds, history, or appeal.

If the characters in the light parts of Vegas fit nicely into it, and are interesting, and don't shunt you the player out of the reality that is the death and desperation beyond the safe streets... then cool. If it's populated by non-characters as with Tenpenny, seemingly plucked from thin air and dumped down just to add bodies to a location... it'll svck. :laugh:

Yes, that would be awesome.
In FO3, when I think about it, the people didn't really get too badly affected by the warring factions.
For some reason I've also imagined a fight between the wastelanders and the Vegas citizens would be sick, although it wouldn't really make sense because there isn't a real motive there. But who knows, maybe a Roy v Tenpenny type battle? It'd create a real dilemma for me, as I'd be more inclined to help out the battlers in the wastes, but I don't want the only real safe haven to be hating me and almost shooting me on sight.

I don't know about a war but there should be some resentment between those outside the walls of the Strip and those inside. I would think Mr.House has alot of firepower to keep those outside of the walls from even thinking about attacking. I would love to see people wanting food and money from people as they leave the walls. For me to get a title and become a target for people that think I am rich.

I think at some point NCR will want total control of Vegas. They seem to have a good understanding with Mr.House. He knows NCR controls the power so he must treat NCR's troops real nice. The Strip should have people wanting to side with NCR and others wanting to remove Mr.House.

Agreed.

I agree with you but it makes sense that the whole world isn't destroyed. Its all about the story & I heard that the story of New Vegas will be much better then of FO3. So I'm good.

Didn't have to see it, it was implied; when done right (and IMO it was ~many times, in those games), this can be far more effective (and even be uncensor-able).

I would say that depressing, bleak or hopeless didn't describe the feeling of any title previous to F3. If the Vault Dweller would have found the world the overseer was telling people about, that would have been it. What was outside was a world that was challenging, filled with both the kind and the brutal people you would expect in a post-post-apocalyptic wasteland.
It was dark, it was mean, it had only shades of grey and no true big evil. Even the Master's plans, had they not failed, would just have been another case of history being written by the victorious - just listen to Marcus.
It's not hopeless, it's just struggle everywhere and then getting stuff done when you've finished struggling. And I don't see what changed about that in NV - the Legion, House and the NCR all struggle and try to get their stuff done, while the people of the wasteland are caught between them. Small fish, big fish, one post-post-apocalyptic barrel.

Agreed :thumbsup:

I loved Fo3. I loved how depressing it seemed. True, the overseer's world would have been worse, but NV seems to be going back to Fo1&2 design. More life. I guess the Capital Wasteland was hit hard. VERY hard. But NV looks to have taken more or less of Fo1&2's damage. I think right now it looks a bit kinder of a wasteland, but I'm sure it is hiding a dark and depressing storyline like all the other Fallouts.

I don't know why, but I've never found anything in the desert to be very scary. The desert is just so bright and open that there's not much to really be afraid of. There's just a different feel to it all. Apparently you should be afraid to go out in the middle of nowhere in the game since there are very powerful enemies out there, but I don't think the Mojave Wasteland can pull off the same fear factor that was in the Capitol Wasteland. Especially since it's so bright and prettiful.

It would make sense though if people are still around after the nuclear apocalypse life will be able to come back and adapt to the new conditions, Its as they say life always finds a way. :tops: