What to Expect from Fallout: New Vegas
As of late, Obsidian has started showing off a demo of the latest Fallout game, Fallout: New Vegas, as well as going into interviews for specific information on what's new. Fallout: New Vegas's gameplay is based primarily on Fallout 3, with a first person perspective, and combat with a shooter slant. The main concern for Obsidian is to fix the problems of it's predecessor, and to give Fallout fans a whole heap of new content. Obsidian has tweaked the combat to feel more responsive, and to make the relation between player movement and accuracy make more sense. There's now a new aim-down-the-sight feature, which was absent from Fallout 3. The transition between VATS and real time combat is smoother now, with less disconnect between the player's actions and the result. The third person camera has been tweaked to make it look less awkward, as well as play less awkwardly. According to Josh Sawyer, the lead designer for Fallout: New Vegas, there's a greater focus on weapons only being used in specific situations, with greater weapon variety. For example, the Varmint Rifle is not powerful in the slightest, but it can shoot over long ranges as well as have a silencer and scope later in the game. The exact opposite of that would be the .357 revolver, which is powerful and slow, meant to be used at close ranges. Obsidian is also working on making the weapons more satisfying to use, "So we do want people, when they pick something up, we want the weapon to feel good to use, but we also want it to feel like it has a very specific role, and that the player should have to make a tactical choice about which weapon they want to use in any given circumstance."
The companion system from Fallout 3 has been ditched in favor of a new UI called "the companion wheel", which is used to manage all of your friends throughout the game. Josh Sawyer said that each companion will have their own miniature plot-line, and the player can choose to help them work through these issues or not. Companions will play a similar role to weapons, with different combat strengths and weaknesses that are good for specific situations. Companions will have their own perks that aid the player, and the AI is stated to not be incompetent. This doesn't mean Obsidian is completely overhauling the Fallout 3 formula, though. The combat still plays the same, except with new weapon, camera, and movement tweaks, which is a good thing. Other pieces of Fallout 3 remain intact like the inventory and the menu, except for the companion wheel. Josh Sawyer stated that Obsidian's main goal is to give Fallout fans a lot of new content and that is clear from how much of the game has been shown. Fallout: New Vegas is set to release Q4 2010 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.
