Fallout: New Vegas Wish List

After spending “over a hundred hours” with Fallout 3, the editors at Blend Games have put together a list of improvements they’d like to see included in Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas. I think these two are givens:

For me, the Fallout 3 companions never really felt like, well, companions. They just don’t really have much personality. Open a dialogue with one and the only options you’ll see are commands: “Follow me,” “Stay here,” and so on. It’s a stark contrast to BioWare role-playing games where you can spend hours chatting up your party members. It’s even a step backward from Fallout 2, which gave NPC’s at least a cursory backstory. You could argue that fleshing out these characters is unnecessary because they can’t be resurrected when killed in battle. Why not just have them fall unconscious for the remainder of the battle when they hit zero hit points, then? If the developers insisted on NPC death, though, giving these characters distinct personalities would make their passing all the more impactful on the player. I lean toward the “fall unconscious” option, though, because players would probably just reload their games and replay the battle rather than let their dear friend bite the dust.

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Fallout: New Vegas is set in the same general area as Fallout and Fallout 2 and is being developed by people who worked on those two games. Still, it’s worth reiterating how awesome it would be to see some of the characters from the old Fallout games return. Plus, it would be interesting to see how the former southwestern United States has come along since the end of Fallout 2. One of the best parts of Fallout 3 was Harold’s cameo. That’s one of the few bits of nostalgia from that game, though.