Fallout: New Vegas Preview

Play.tm took advantage of a free Saturday to publish a fairly detailed preview of Fallout: New Vegas, courtesy of a hands-off demonstration given to them by Obsidian Entertainment’s Chris Avellone.

Avellone proceeds to show us a pistol he’s augmented with a scope, barrel and larger magazine, and cosmetically it looks far meaner than its vanilla counterpart and packs a mightier punch too. This all leads up to the first main mission, which is to protect an odd vagrant named Ringo, who inexplicably lurks in the ladies saloon toilets. With a fellow called Joe Cobb kicking up trouble in the town with a vicious band of so-called ‘powder gangers’, the bar’s owner, Trudy, calls upon you to round up a posse to go out and take down Cobb and his cronies.

After a brief talk with Ringo, Sunny, Chet from the general store and Easy Pete (who also gives us a few sticks of dynamite thanks to a dialogue option unlocked due to our canny foresight to add a 25 point explosive skill augmentation), we’re well-armed and more than ready to tackle the hostile powder gangers. During the battle, our hero manages to get hold of the game’s new 9-iron and enters the ever-reliable VATs mode, which now shows a new face button option that activates a weapon-specific strike designed to add “spice” to melee combat. This one is called ‘Fore!’ and is a swift golf swing to the cajones of your targeted victim. Fore, indeed.

And when Cobb’s head pirouettes through the air gracefully in classic VATs style following a headshot, but outside of VATs, we realise that we’re seeing the new dynamic kill cam for the first time, which now randomly occurs to highlight brutal kills. With Cobb dispatched, the mission for the people of Goodsprings is completed, earning us the acceptance and trust of the simple townsfolk. This is part and parcel of the new reputation system that has overarching consequences that encompass many of the actions you perform while traversing New Vegas, so incurring the wrath of one faction will appease another and vice-versa.