Fallout: New Vegas previews

Another pair of previews for Fallout: New Vegas are available, based on hands-on time at E3. Digital Trends.

The playable demo offered a look at a few aspects of the game. The first was the combat, which is similar in gameplay to its predecessor, but there is a much greater emphasis on factions. While there is an overall plot to the game, the choice of factions is entirely up to you, and it will affect, but not hamper, your progress through the game regardless of who you side with. There is no good or bad side in New Vegas, just different groups. When you side with one, you alienate another, and vice-versa. Each rival faction has its own branching storylines, and your decisions will affect the ending you receive when you beat the game- and there are apparently a LOT of endings, based on your karma, your actions, your affiliations, etc.

Kombo.com.

Loading up another pre-made save, I was dropped into a sparsely vegetated, daytime desert environment. Surrounded by soldiers of Caesar’s Legion, considered the New Vegas’s evil faction, my character was given little choice but to follow them around a ridge and into a camp full of New California Republic guards. One choice that was present, however, was whether to attack the camp from the North or the East; I was instructed that a high sneak skill would, in the full game, allow players to scope out the camp and choose the best route. Likewise, in the final game, players’ choices leading up to that moment will have determined which side they’re fighting for.