GAMES: Gamble on Gunfire! Fallout: New Vegas for XBOX 360

I'm a little slow on this one. I moved across the country and don't have the internet either. Jeez. But Texas is warm, so I'm dealing with it. :D

The big plus, videogame-wise, is I'm in a town where I don't know anyone, so I work and go home and play video games. It's sad, I know.

Anyway. Fallout New Vegas.

I've loved Fallout since the very first one. I'd kind of like to see the world where everyone is forced to abandon their technological dependencies and return to a simpler way of life. The strong few trying to salvage a living off the decaying husk of the world that once sheltered the masses of the weak.

Maybe not if that world is full of giant mutants that try to crush my head with a chunk of cement at the end of rods of rebar...but who knows.


If you played Fallout 3 then New Vegas isn't going to surprise you a lot, from what I've seen so far.

The biggest change is there are more possibilities for crafting in this one. Which fits well in a post-apocalyptic scavenger paradise.

You would be constantly trying to keep what you had working and making new things to survive the harsh brutality of the world around you.

The Reload Bench has been added, usually near the Work Bench (which has also received some changes).

The Reload Bench allows you to create or breakdown ammo. So those that have a favorite weapon that has rare ammo, can now breakdown all the worthless 9mm bullets and get the powder and lead to make .357 rounds. Provided you have all the other pieces to make that ammo.

For the Work Bench there are many, many more recipes in New Vegas. Pieces of plants can be picked to be combined to make healing balms, snacks and a foliage ferris wheel. Not really on the ferris wheel.

And now your wanderer can also utilize Campfires as tools to create food and items for your continued survival.

You can kill a dog and eat the meat raw, sure...any savage bastard can do that. It's the sophisticated bastard that waits and cooks the meat before jamming it down his gullet.

These changes now give you a TON more stuff to carry.

In standard play, ammo doesn't have any weight but in the new HARDCORE mode it does. HARDCORE must be capitalized, cause that's how HARDCORE it is.

If you want to know how you would behave after a global pandemic or nuclear war situation, play on HARDCORE.

Instead of just monitoring your health and equipment condition you also have to deal with your character's water and food intake, as well as the amount of sleep you get.

It's not for the faint of heart.

I try to be a morally upstanding character in the vast confusion and chaos presented in the Fallout scenario.

Yes, I will help the old couple with their livestock being killed every night.

But you better be damn sure I'm going to rob their house of anything I need at the very first moment they turn their backs on me. I'm playing to LIVE, dammit!



Basically, the game is similar to F:3, with some good tweaks.

Which is in no way a bad thing. It's more awesome story, but set in an entirely new location. So you get to play the good story AND explore the new land.




Fallout: New Vegas

Rented once, likely will buy as soon as I get money.

5 out of 5 as a sequel. Improves on the original, but leaves the good stuff alone.
5 out of 5 as a game. Just plain awesome.