» Fri May 27, 2011 6:31 am -You can upgrade the weapons. Ex: Minigun with reduced speed up
* It shows the command wheel for followers, with 8 commands: toggle melee/ranged, open inventory, toggle stay close/keep distance, back up, toggle aggressive/passive AI, use stimpack, toggle wait here/follow me, return to normal dialogue.
* Scripting is wittier, characters more distinct. Example from vigour test word association: mother-human shield.
* Opening inventory consists of a kit from the doc, adapted to your starting stats (like Fallout 1).
* The Nevada area is less affected by the nuclear war, so it has plant life, relatively unspoiled houses, and in visual presentation has saturated colours and a bright sky.
* There's a tutorial (led by a character named Sunny who looks a lot like Moira Brown), but unlike Fallout 3, it's optional, so you can hit the open game in 5 minutes from starting.
* NCR and Caesar's Legion are the confirmed faction, article assumes Brotherhood of Steel will be in but they weren't mentioned in the presentation.
* "In New Vegas it's all about the player examining the ideologies of the various groups that are controlling the area and supporting one over the others," explains Sawyer. "Each of the ideologies will have something good that you can relate to, but will also have massive flaws."
* When asked about PS3's Fallout 3 being inferior to the others and if New Vegas will do better, Obsidian devs make no promises but indicate it was a learning process and they're working with all 3 platforms and all have problems.
* The New Vegas strip is still in construction but will have gambling, variety shows and concerts.
* Electrical power is key in the faction struggle.
* Radiation is still a problem, there's a nuclear test site to explore north of New Vegas.
* The soundtrack will blend "Rat Pack style tunes with more Western numbers".
* New Vegas doesn't tell a single-player story, but weaves decision into the gameworld and gives you greater power to influence things than Fallout 3 did.
* On top of adding back in geckos, New Vegas has a whole new type of animal: mutated mountain rams called Big Horners.
*Sawyer says that FNV is to Fallout 3 what Vice City is to GTA3
# There is an optional hardcoe mode, the character needs to drink water, ammo has weight, healing isn't instant etc.
# Normal mode is more similar to Fallout 3 gameplay.
# The storyline is focused on the New California Republic vs. Caesar's Legion (slavers from the east) vs. New Vegas residents (Possibly the denizens of Vault 21).
# You are not a vault dweller but are given a Pip-Boy by someone who is one.
# There is a screenshot of a vault suit as well.
# There is an assault rifle looking like the M4, as well as a new big gun with a backpack, held like a minigun.
# There are special moves for melee weapons in VATS - specifically a move for a golf club called "Fore" which seems to be a groin shot.
# The Hoover Dam is in the game and is supplying electricity to the city.
# There is a quest to rescue a ghoul from some super mutants. The ghoul can then become your companion
# The Geckos are back.
# There are both dumb and intelligent super mutants, including the elite Nightkin. On at least one occasion you can convince them to fight amongst themselves.
# Some super mutants look similar to the ones in Fallout 3, while others are new. There is e.g. a female super mutant with a 1950s hairstyle who apparently is one of their leaders.
# Screenshots include a guy with a beard and straw hat, a ghoul and an NCR Ranger.
# The only picture of New Vegas itself is concept art and not a screenshot.
# Some location screenshots include a huge model dinosaur advertising a hotel, some satellite dishes, an array of solar panels
# A character generation shot showing a "vigour machine" instead of the skill book
# NCR base is the McCarran Airport, Caesar's Legion is based in the Vegas Strip, while super mutants are based in a place called Black Mountain.
# There is also a town called Fremont and another called Primm. A topless reuve is mentioned as being in the latter. Area 51 also appears.
# NCR Ranger armor is similar to a brown combat armor with sleeves, there are concept arts of a Ranger.
# Skils have a bigger effect on conversation choices. E.g. someone with a high Explosives skill may be able to have a coversation about explosives where appropriate.
# There is a Reputation system in addition to Karma.
# First-person action RPG with the same engine as Fallout 3.
# Set in the Mojave wastelands. Vegas didn't get many nukes. More intact buildings, as well as desert vegetation. Vegas itself is mostly intact.
# Vegas itself is mostly intact
# Both karma and reputation are tracked. If I'm reading it right there's separate reputations for each of the settlements, as in 1 and 2.
# All dialogue options are shown to all players, regardless of whether you have the stats to succeed or not, though there's no punishment for failure.
# Bartering is not just lower prices but negotiating for better rewards.
# Weapons also now have knock-back upon death, with shotguns sending people flying.
# Followers can be managed through a context-sensitive menu, with orders like "follow", "stay" or "attack".
# You're a courier, wounded and left for dead in a shallow grave. A friendly robot, Victor, digs you out, and his doctor owner Mitchell patches you up. You take a "vigour test", which is some sort of electric parlour game. This decides who you are and sets up SPECIAL. You can also take some Rorschach tests, but the mag says this is for fun. The Doc then gives you a Pipboy as he was once a Vault dweller.
# "Hoover Dam", and "Helios" (a solar plant, confirmed by the mag to have been built by Poseidon) are fought into and then you can direct the power to wherever you choose. In the case of Helios you can also keep the plant for your self, use the energy to call down a powerful laser, or even try to distribute to all equally, however there is a risk of overloading the reactors.
# There is a "reputation system", in which all three factions (NCR, Ceasar's Legion and the locals) will either see you as good or bad toward them individually.
# There is a screenshot of three Capital Wasteland mutants running toward the player, who is wielding what *looks* to be a heavy incinerator, but has a TV screen and no flamer fuel tanks. He's also wearing NCR combat armour, which is in gold/mustard colours.
# There are two separate screens of supermutants that look to be more local, grey skin, and the two are wearing very different clothes. One is Tabitha, who is hearing a blonde wig and love heart glasses. The mag implies she's "not all there".
# On that quest, you rescue Raul, a ghoul who Tabitha kept alive to fix her favourite robot. He appears to be a follower, as the mag says you can give him items, and also commands, such as "stay, follow or attack", and also tell him to switch to melee, in which case he'll mutter "sure, I'll put away my rather effective gun, and switch to this piece of um, metal tubing here".
# From what I read, the "all dialog" thing seems to imply there will be failures for skill checks as well as speech checks, though, as the mag states, there is no penalty for failing a skill check. In fact, the mag gives an example: A woman who the player tried a Sneak skill attempt on in conversation failed when convincing her an ambush would help the town be rid of a gang of raiders. She simply says "Good luck with your, uh, ambush"
# Regardin dialog (J.E.Sawyer): This is how it works. Each skill-based dialogue option has two different texts: one for high skill (which will result in success) and one for low skill (which will result in failure). If you do not meet the required threshold, you see the latter.
There are a few reasons for including this:
* In the same way that a locked safe beyond your Lockpicking skill indicates, it lets the player know that there's an option here.
* Some of the NPC responses to low skill checks can be pretty entertaining.
I also do want to clarify what is meant by "no penalty for failure". All it means is that you won't wind up in a worse position than you were before selecting it. If a dude bursts in and is intent on killing you, he's still going to want to kill you if you fail the Speech check to talk him out of it.
# A Vault 21 suit spotted (possibly the inhabitants of New Vegas - speculation)
# About Area 51 (Jason Bergman, Bethsda): The Area 51 thing was pure speculation on PC Gamer's part. We did not show it or confirm whether or not it's in there. PC Gamer put it in because it's Nevada, and they think that means it will be in there.
I'm not saying it is or isn't, just that we haven't said either way.
# The engine is clearly the same, although the colors look more vibrant.
# Animations seem to be very similar to the ones in F3;
# The models also look very similar, not only the mutants, but pretty much all of the models and enough assets look almost exactly like the ones in Fallout 3 (of course, this doesn't say much about the final quality of the game, just mentioning).
# Looks like dynamite might be in as a weapon.
# Doctor Mitchell, the one that revives the PC at the start of the game, lives in a town called Goodsprings (described about as "a few shacks with some mutated sheep"). He might also be a ghoul since he says he lived in a vault before the war. He might also own Victor the robot, aparently the one that is digging up the sand in the teaser trailer - and, very probably, the game's intro.
# And it seems that the body in the sand is the Player Character.
# It might be that we'll have many more options in dialogue based on skills, although this is not clearly explained in the article. (I'm mentioning this because you can't really tell what exactly they say about this: is it more evolved than what Fallout 3 brought or exactly like that, since there are enough skill, stat, perk and karma checks in F3)
# A new minor faction is in, the Powder Gangers, which will give some trouble to the player, at least at the start of the game.
# The action takes place 3 years after the events in Fallout 3.
# One of first quests seems to involve dealling with some geckos - probably the standard "kill the rats" quest.
# A new weapon is in until now - Varmint rifle.
# Along books, magazines seem to be back.
# It seems radio stations are back and one of them is the mutant radio station at Black Mountain, run by their leader, Tabitha. She took control of the place two years before. Every day, on air, she threatens to kill the ghoul - Raul - mentioned somewhere above but stops when he promises he will fix her favorite robot. This probably leads to the quest about helping Raul and making him a follower.
# Vegas is under construction.
# A grenade machinegun is mentioned.
# Helios One is an abandoned solar energy plant built by Poseidon and is currently owned by the NCR. A little description says: "a refractor mirror that could power the Strip and a giant frickin' laser". The NCR want the secrets and weapons (and energy for their base at McCarran Airport) of HO so they hired a screw-up scientist named Fantastic for the job. This leads to a quest and the PC can choose what to do with the energy. It seems if he chooses to keep it for himself he gains acces to Helios' secret weapon, Archimedes II - a "Giant Frickin' Laser". As long as the sun is up, he can call down lasers for an attack.
) 
