Fallout: New Vegas - Review Flood #3

Dhruin

Dhruin

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Here's a short review flood to catch up a little on Fallout: New Vegas. This is cetainly a mixed batch and I'm going to start with some serious outliers. For those that put stock in such things, the current Metacritic ratings are 86, 84 and 81 for the PC, X360 and PS3 respectively.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Quinton Smith goes straight for a personal attack on Obsidian:
There’s a distant sound that can be heard throughout your time with New Vegas. Quieter than the cheery 1930s pop hits that warble from your radio, quieter even than the chirps of night-time insects, or the long gasps of wind blowing across the wasteland. It is the sound of Obsidian phoning this game in. I’m talking long distance, reversed charges, not-giving-a-fuck.
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Tom Chick writes for a new site called Gameroni and gives the game an 'F' for apparently being unplayable on his X360:
Furthermore, if New Vegas worked, I would also talk about how well the story unfolded, the new faction system, the generous range of activities and quests, and how well new elements of Fallout lore are explored. I would hope to have ultimately talked about whether there were any spectacular set pieces like the giant robot in Fallout 3, and whether it ended with something less contrived than Fallout 3's disappointing conclusion.

But I can't talk about those things, because Fallout New Vegas simply doesn't work. I'd estimate my Xbox 360 locked up maybe once every two hours. The problems started to progress from occasional freezes to recurring freezes in the same place. My last ten hours with New Vegas have been spent troubleshooting, or going back to replay from earlier saves in the hopes that I can somehow work around a crash. But my last problem has effectively brought the game to a screeching, inglorious halt. After investing forty hours in Fallout New Vegas, I've come to a point where there is no possible way to finish the game. Let me repeat that: There is no possible way for me to finish the game. The latest technical error locks up the game whenever I try to enter the Strip, which is not only where my companions are kept, but also where the story quest leads. This happens from more than ten separate saved games. Fallout New Vegas is dead.
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  • Edge, 6/10: "Creatively, New Vegas gets almost everything right. Mechanically and technically, it’s a tragedy. So, it’s a simultaneously rewarding and frustrating game, the gulf between what it is and what it could be a sizeable stretch indeed. Few games have built up a world like New Vegas, and even fewer have squandered such opportunities like this"
  • IGN UK, 9/10, "Fallout: New Vegas has strong, clever dialogue as well as good writing and quest design. Characters are duplicitous, foul-mouthed, desperate, broken, suave, or all of the above. The voice acting is much better, too, which really helps carry the game's hundreds of interlocking stories"
  • Hooked Gamers, 9/10, "No reservations"..."I think the best way to describe Fallout: New Vegas is to say it's Fallout 3 with a bit of Alpha Protocol, which makes sense"
  • Filefront, 91/100, "All in all, Fallout: New Vegas is a triumph for Obsidian"
  • Strategy Informer, 8.5/10, "Despite minor disappointments however, this is a very engaging title. Those who missed some of the more trademark Fallout elements in Fallout 3 should be somewhat satiated in this game, as Obsidian really bring that flair to the franchise once again"
  • 1Up, B, "However, if you have the patience to make your way through New Vegas in its current state, you'll find a diamond in the buggy rough"
  • RealGamer, 9.5/10, "Fallout: New Vegas, looks and plays exactly the same as Fallout 3. But the additions that Obsidian have made push the survival angle even further to provide a much more immersive and authentic experience, and just like its predecessor New Vegas proves to be a role-playing masterpiece."
More information.
 
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First of RPS review by new guy Quintin Smith was just shameful. And there were 500+ comments of outrage on RPS site. Dont know if the guy is just unprofessional or he has bone to pick with Obsidian. But everything he said is completely opposite of truth.

As for FO:NV

Wow! If you liked Fallout 1,2. This is like taking FO3 and returning it to the roots.
They took just about everything about fo3 and fixed it, changed it, made it more complex and rewarding. Its what FO3 was supposed to be and more.

On other hand many people find it unplayable due to crashes. I am really sorry for them :(
 
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Amazing how reviews and taste vary across the board. I have been lucky I think as I have not come across any bugs yet (on the PC and patched though).

I am really enjoying the game which is saying a lot. The last non-fantasy based game I played was KOTOR 1 and 2. I played Fallout 1 but none of the others. Not a big gun (or shooter) fan nor into post-apocalyptic settings. Yet a bunch of my online friends kept telling me I should try it.

So I did and do find it a diamond in the rough. Certainly not perfect but there are so many things to do, places to visit, great characters, and lots of options. At least from my perspective - as the reviews show mileage really varies.

Still with my favorite developer having fallen of their pedestal (Bioware) I guess its time to look around into different styles more.
 
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I have to say I am pretty pleased playing it on PC. Perk system greatly improved. Melee made a viable and interesting option. Difficulty seems vastly improved (ie, challenging on very hard at least through first 10 levels). Hardcore option to make it more challenging.

Setting and factions also seem much more in tune with my memories of 1&2. Skill system still seems a bit wonked as it appears to be very easy to max every skill by endgame just like FO3.

But all in all, this seems like a much better game than FO3 for me. However, I have not encountered serious bugs like some others may have had.
 
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I've had exactly zero bugs since the first two patches (save game issue was bad), and find this to be the RPG of the year hands down. I'm 51 hours into the game and I have barely touched the main plot inside New Vegas. So much to do and see, good writing, and engaging sub plots.
 
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I have COD after 4-5 hours, but by then I want to take a break anyway. ;) Honestly, I'd RATHER a very buggy game that can be fixed but it amazingly deep/well written than a "polished turd" as one reviewer put it. This game is gold and it's definately my GOTY. I guess there's Civ 5... nah, FALLOUT!
 
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I'm making myself hold off until it's patched and modded up. Seems to me that as Oblivion and FO3 both had very substantial mod scenes based around the same engine, that a whole lot of fixes and improvements should be very quickly forthcoming. There are already established patterns for how to do everything, and for what kind of thing will be popular, so I'm hoping a couple of weeks should see some of the improvements that those other games saw. Kudos to Bethesda for making their games this moddable, and releasing the tools.
 
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So far I'm quite pleased with this game. I am comfortable enough from my modding experience to be able to enter scripts to fix or restart a glitched quest- and I have been lucky enough to have avoided any serious glitches so far. I probably just didn't run into one of the combinations of quest states that produces noticeable glitches until it was patched though.

The need to use the same exact 3rd party performance fixes as were required even in the final patched version of Fallout 3 are a little unexcuseable. That is to say that whoever was responsible for that portion of QA should have been grilled by their boss. Still, in terms of your ability to shape the world, this game does remind me a lot of the original 2 fallouts.

Very very low detail spoiler- if a spoiler at all.
Something it manages to actually do slightly better than the first two (this suprised me very much) is to interconnect the various end slides. Obviously they have to reflect Which of the 4 primary "big choices" you made in terms of control of the region- but they go much farther than that. How you treated the minor factions and wether you you got them on board with your "big choice" goes a long way in determining the overall tone of the entire ending sequence.

There's a huge difference between an NCR route ending where you got the Boomers, Brotherhood of Steel, Enclave Remants (don't worry- not what you probably think), etc. on board vs one where you didn't. Additionally those factions' end slides are also dependent on not only what actions you took towards them but also the actions you took towards factions they might be in conflict with or dependent on.

What's more is that getting them all to go along with your choice is not automatically going to produce good results for them. There are some factions whose cooperation with whatever you might chose may ultimately result in their dissolution. Sometimes, when it makes sense, it actually results in a better result for a particular group if you do not get them directly involved (though obviously helping them does tend to make things turn out better for them vs. ignoring or attacking them).

Also- I did love the effect of many of those choices on the final battle. In one of my runs I had the assistance of 5-geezer vertibird assault team (this was their atonement of sorts and last hurrah), an elite force of paladins, NCR black-armor ranger snipers, a b52 bomber, and some great khans,. That was the first time in any of the two gamebryo fallout games that I was really happy to a a vertibird deploying troops (in proper enclave power armor).
 
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I am enjoying New Vegas much more than I thought I would. I got bored with Fallout 3 really fast.

The writing is much better. The humor puts me in the mind of FO 1 and 2, as opposed to the forced and largely unsuccessful gags of FO 3. Character development is more significant. I now feel like my stats actually make a difference in the game. (Three cheers for Speech and Barter skill checks in dialogues, and one more cheer for Melee and Unarmed getting at least a little bit of love.)

And, while not normally a big one for hardcore modes in games, this one, as I've read some mention, should be called a survivalist mode. I simply dig it. I like how important and scare water is. (I have often been ready, and occasionally have, killed in cold blood for purified water.) I can almost feel how harsh and brutal the desert is, hardening it's inhabitants as it sucks the water, and life, out of them. I like that it's harder to heal. I like being forced to visit a doctor if I can't find a doc's bag. I loved my bloody prison breakout melee, limping out beyond the razor wire with Primm's future sheriff and crippled limbs, vision blurring under the relentless sun, dehydrated and wondering if I'll make it through the merciless Mojave to find a doctor.

Good stuff.

I'm playing on PC, beginning the Friday after release, so with two patches, I think. I've only seen a couple graphical glitches and one crash to desktop. I think Obsidian is taking a bad rap on this one, at least on the PC. I think they should be proud of their work, and I am finally enjoying my return to the reimagined world of Fallout.
 
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I'm enjoying it immensely. It's much better than FO3 in my opinion. A little buggy but now it seems better. Had some crashes and bugs but reinstalled it and now it's working much better. Played for 4 hours today without a crash.
 
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Thanks for the heads up on the new game-specific driver, HiddenX. I was having some slowdown while looking into the distance with draw distances maxed and dust devils and light effects and what not on the screen. Seems to be running all smooth as glass now. =)
 
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Definately game of the year for me. In fact I'm even tempted to say it topples Gothic2+NOTR as my favourite game ever! The world is simply so much fun to explore, and in hardcore mode, on very hard (with a slower levelling mod) it really is a challenging, 'proper' RPG. The vibe I'm getting is a bit like Fallout 3 crossed with Vampire: Bloodlines.

I really hope that Bethesda take note, and from now on include a hardcore mode with no level scaling in all of their games - imagine how much of the bitching and arguing over Oblivion would have been bypassed by including this!

Got to say, I feel really sorry for Obsidian. Yes the game is fairly buggy - but no more so than Fallout 3 or Oblivion, or (whisper it quietly) Grand Theft Auto 4. Or the new F1 2010 game - got heavily praised in all reviews but is actually totally unplayable due to numerous game-breaking bugs!

The CTDs are annoying but nothing is game breaking. Somehow Obsidian seem to end up being the whipping boys for buggy games whenever they release something!
 
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I'm trying to understand how Tom Chick could still have his review up. Obviously his experience wasn't anywhere close to the norm (a crash every 2 hours? That's well beyond what most people are reporting).

I'm all for having an outlier opinion and, for all I know, New Vegas might be a horrible play experience for a host of reasons. However, I'm an ever larger fan of journalistic integrity. If you look around and see that your experience was perhaps a technical aberration, the only reason to keep it up is ego.
 
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I don't see why Tom Chick has any obligation to take down his review if it is indeed what he experienced while playing the game. The experiences of other players and reviewers do not invalidate his own.

I had very few problems with Alpha Protocol, for example. For others that game was a complete technical mess.

In any case, having not finished the original Fallout 3 yet, I'm holding out on picking this one up until I do. Perhaps by the the time I've finished Fallout 3, New Vegas game will be mostly bug free.
 
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I don't care how good this game is.

Releasing a game that isn't stable on a closed platform is simply unacceptable. I don't think gamers should let that slide, no matter who is behind it.

Tom Chick (who I consider an ignorant "look-at-me-person" in terms of gaming) might have had a particularly bad experience, but there are many Xbox gamers reporting serious crash issues with the release version.

That's basically 100% certain proof that they're testing this with a half-assed attitude, and we need to respond properly.

One of the few times I actually agree with Chick.
 
HiddenX said:
These drivers are optimized for New Vegas.
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Why do there have to be optimized drivers for single games anyway ?

Why can't they fix it in the first place ?
 
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Twotricks said:
First of RPS review by new guy Quintin Smith was just shameful. And there were 500+ comments of outrage on RPS site. Dont know if the guy is just unprofessional or he has bone to pick with Obsidian. But everything he said is completely opposite of truth.

As for FO:NV

Wow! If you liked Fallout 1,2. This is like taking FO3 and returning it to the roots.
They took just about everything about fo3 and fixed it, changed it, made it more complex and rewarding. Its what FO3 was supposed to be and more.

On other hand many people find it unplayable due to crashes. I am really sorry for them :(
Click to expand...

Smith is not new to RPS at all. Kieron Gillen just announced that he would leave RPS a few weeks ago, and Smith would become the new "main man" of RPS, so you'll just be seeing him a lot more.

But I agree that he wrote a terrible review, not what I'm used to seeing from him at all.

Personally I no longer care about reviewers stating that games are "unplayable", "ridiculously buggy" and whatnot. Every time I pick up these so-called bugfests I play through them just fine, and every time I pick up a triple-A game I find it riddled with bugs (*Cough* Dragon Age *Cough*). So I'm just going to pick it up in the coming month or two and see for myself. As long as Obsidian got the gameplay right (which seems to be the case) I don't really care about the bugs. After all, I DID play through Fallout 1, 2 AND 3, and all three of them were bugfests. Did I mind? Not really. Is it a shame? I suppose. Did I enjoy those games? Hell yeah (At least 1 and 2. I didn't enjoy FO3 that much, but it was still pretty good)!
 
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DArtagnan said:
I don't care how good this game is.

Releasing a game that isn't stable on a closed platform is simply unacceptable. I don't think gamers should let that slide, no matter who is behind it.

Tom Chick (who I consider an ignorant "look-at-me-person" in terms of gaming) might have had a particularly bad experience, but there are many Xbox gamers reporting serious crash issues with the release version.

That's basically 100% certain proof that they're testing this with a half-assed attitude, and we need to respond properly.

One of the few times I actually agree with Chick.
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I used to read a lot of Tom Chick's articles, but I've come to really dislike him over time as well. I agree that he's become to greedy for attention.

Also, I may be totally on my own here, but is experiencing a crash every 2 hours really that bad? I mean seriously, I've barely got the time to play a game two hours straight. And what if it crashes? "Whoops, let's reboot that Xbox." Wait 20 seconds for your Xbox to restart and you're good to go. It's a minor annoyance. Or perhaps I've become to tolerant towards bugs over the years?

Game-stopper bugs are more serious though. I've heard reports of people being unable to progress any further in the game's main storyline. Not sure if any of that is actually true, though.
 
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EvilKoala said:
I used to read a lot of Tom Chick's articles, but I've come to really dislike him over time as well. I agree that he's become to greedy for attention.

Also, I may be totally on my own here, but is experiencing a crash every 2 hours really that bad? I mean seriously, I've barely got the time to play a game two hours straight. And what if it crashes? "Whoops, let's reboot that Xbox." Wait 20 seconds for your Xbox to restart and you're good to go. It's a minor annoyance. Or perhaps I've become to tolerant towards bugs over the years?

Game-stopper bugs are more serious though. I've heard reports of people being unable to progress any further in the game's main storyline. Not sure if any of that is actually true, though.
Click to expand...

The problem with crashes is that you lose progress, which I find completely unacceptable. Also, being a closed platform - the testers have access to the exact same hardware as the end-user. This means that when the majority of users are experiencing crashes frequently, you can be certain they released the game FULLY aware of this.

I know they can have patches out quickly - but there are users without internet connection out there, and there's simply no reason not to wait an extra week or so. It's downright lazy and greedy.

Now, whether that's on Obsidian or the publisher - I can't say, but I think it's something that really needs to be changed in the industry.

It's not ok.
 
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