I very much enjoyed Fallout 3, and I’m sure that many of you did too. Having loved The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bethesda’s treatment of Fallout 3 was great fun for me. However, it did take a bit of flack from the original Fallout fanboys (Fallout 1 and 2 were developed by Interplay, but they ran out of money and sold the franchise to Bethesda) who said that it was ‘Oblivion, with guns’. In fairness, a Bethesda rep, when challenged with this, basically said: “Oblivion was a pretty good game. Fine by me.” Personally, I thought that this was a pretty good answer, but some people were still unhappy about it. You only have to look in any gaming forums to find people flaming and loving F3 in equal measure. In short, it’s the flag in a fanboy battle.

When it was announced, back in the hazy mists of 2009, that there would be a new Fallout game, many people were excited by the news: some hoping for a sequel to Fallout 3; others, a sequel to Fallout 2. In fact, what we are looking at, Fallout: New Vegas, isn’t really either. Yes, it takes place a few years after Fallout 3 and that game’s plot will be referred to, but you won’t meet anyone from it, and it will take place in the Vegas area, near where the early games were set. This isn’t surprising, since the game is only being produced by Bethesda – its developers are Obsidian, a company made of ex-Interplay employees. They’re pretty handy with RPGs – Knights of the Old Republic 2 for example – so I would think that we’re in safe hands. The game bears a startling similarity to ‘Van Buren’, the codename for Interplay’s Fallout 3. So, this game might be something that is all things to all men (and women).

What do we know about the game? Well, the first glimmer of information came from an unknown person on the Gamespot forums, and, coming from a ‘trusted source’, it seemed too good to be true. It suggested that there would be Origins stories, like in Dragon Age, that you could play as a heavily irradiated Ghoul, and that you’d get to have a vehicle in this game. One of the Origins stories was that of the Chinese Agent, in which you, with a bunch of saboteur chums, go to take out the Hoover Dam. You fail, and, while your buddies are ‘committing hari-kiri with cyanide’ the Great War, a nuclear apocalypse, happens. Damn. You wake up about 200 years later, horrendously irradiated. Voila. BUT, and it’s a big one, this ‘information appears to have been debunked. For those of you unfamiliar with samurai tradition, hari-kiri is a nasty ritual suicide involving pointy bits of metal, so that’s a bit of an error…unless the cyanide tablets were sword-shaped and…pointy? Anyway, the ‘leaker’ also claimed that this information would be the next cover story of February’s edition of ‘Gameinformer’. The editor explicitly saying that it wasn’t, and the proof that it wasn’t when it came out, suggests that the chance of this stuff being from an authentic source are lower than a chocolate digestive’s in a Florida Retirement Home. Bugger.

Luckily, previews of the game (all World-Exclusives, cleverly) from OXM, PS3M and PC Gamer have given us some confirmed information about the game, and it’s interesting, to say the least. Here is a compilation of the most interesting stuff, for your reading pleasure.

•  The game uses the Fallout 3 game engine, but obviously it will be tweaked by Obsidian. Those of you who loved F3’s core gameplay should be happy here.
•  For the proper roleplayers, out there, New Vegas will have a hardcore mode, that doesn’t play like F3: tougher in many ways. For example, you need to drink water regularly – if you don’t, you die.
•  The city of New Vegas is mostly intact, and its being supplied with electricity by the Hoover Dam. Bits of it are still being built, and it won’t be just like Las Vegas – remember that the Fallout world split from ours in the 1950s.
•  The supply of electricity becomes a theme of the game, specifically as to who gets control over it.
   
• The main conflict will be between the slavers, Caesar’s Legion, and the Post-apocalyptic democracy, the New California Republic. The Brotherhood of Steel are expected to appear as well.
•  You start as a courier, found by a junk robot, nearly dead. Your quest is to find the people who left you in such a condition. You get a Pipboy 300 from a doctor early on.
   
• Even though New Vegas is up and running, radiation will be a problem – there is an old nuclear test site that irradiates the surrounding area.
•  Your skills will affect many dialogue choices, and while everyone can see all options, some will only work if you have a high enough skill level.
•  The classic ratpack music is back.
• The game is meant to be genuinely funny, with lots of black humour.
•  Attribute levels will have descriptions: Charisma 10 is ‘cult leader’, Charisma 1 is ‘basically dead’.
•  Decisions made in quests will affect the whole world.
•  There will be an optional tutorial, allowing you to skip straight into the world if you want to.
•  VATS will return, will special moves for certain weapons – the golf club’s is ‘Fore!’ which involves a big swing and something low-hanging. Ouch
•  You will have a reputation for each town, instead of karma. People talk to you differently depending on what kind of person they think you are.
•  All platforms are meant to be equal – they’re finding different challenged with PC, PS3 and 360.
•  You’ll be able to beneficially mod many weapons.
•  Guns will get knock-back.

All in all, pretty interesting!
Finally, check out the teaser trailer if you haven’t already.