» Sat Jan 02, 2010 7:17 am I feel the need to thank you for this brilliance of a game. I really was afraid as how it turns out to be, but you outright outdone yourself this time. Count one more person to be very happy with the product you've delivered. The game runs smooth as silk even in highest settings and me not having the latest hardware. I remember the bad experiences I had with booth, Oblivion and FO3 when I've buyed them at release. They where a crash- and stutter-fest, but New Vegas runs just as smooth as Morrowind did. Not even a single stutter, nothing alike. Some rocks are popping up sometimes, but that's usual and is in no way immersive breaking.
A thing I really wanna praise is the level of crafting and general RPG elements, and at the same time, the level of improved FPS-Elements you've brought into the game. The hardcoe Mode, while it's far from being "hardcoe", is an absolutely awesome addition to the game and better implemented as in any crafting or needs mod I've seen in FO3. You really did good in implying theese things, without forcing people to fiddle around with complicated settings. It's really intuitive and usefull for the game experience. Thank you specially for that.
And for sure, the game is also closer to any Fallout experience I've made with the first two episodes...much closer then FO3. FO3, after finally got it working, had it's own charme, but was much to buggy and stutter susceptible to ever let a good game feeling emerge. FO3 was a good solid piece of 3D Fallout, but New Vegas is pure lust. What I also really appreciate is the fact, that I won't have to implie tons of mods, to improve the game experience, because everythings already in the game. Crafting, Ironsights, Needs, Karma, Traits, Harvesting, Cooking...hell man the opportunities are just infinite. And this is what the true spirit of a good RPG game is. Unlimited and infinite possibilitys without borders. I remember the places in FO3 that I simply couldn't go to, because they where blocked. Using the subways to travel was really boring and repetitive.
But as in every good game experience, there also are flaws, which I wouldn't name flaws per se, because they are a pure matter of taste. If there wouldn't be flaws, then the game was perfect, but as we all know, nothing in the world is perfect. Perfection undermines our will to improve things. I really dislike the music that gets played in the radio. It's even worther as in FO3, hearing President Edens voice. Whenever I stumble across a radio, I just don't want to turn it off only, but shoot it to million pieces. I simply can't stand this hillbillish country music. I know it's part of this region in the U.S, but I simply don't like it. God thanks I can turn it off any time I want. Another thing is the colour sheme. Either I have to get used to it, or it really svcks. I know a lot of people complaint about the enviromental look in FO3, but I really liked it. It expressed a very creepy and post nuclear feeling, with it's greenish tint. You could really feel the air was full of atoms and raditation. I think that the colours in New Vegas let everything look much to "clean". Why is the air dense and tinted in radiated green in one part of the world and not in another part? The radiation would be spread in the whole atmosphere, not only above DC.
I also would have like to see more stuff being implemented into the hardcoe mode, like timescale lowered to 5, 3 ore even 1/1, simply because it's very immersion breaking that a usual day in vanilla Bethesda games lasts around 50 minutes. Did the atomic war made the Earth spin faster or what? Also the UI is much to overscaled in my opinion, it's simply to huge and clutters up the whole screen. In a real hardcoe mode, I would have expected no HUD UI at all. Being forced to use a compass to actually know where you have to go would be awesome. It's still to easy to find your mission objectives, even with mods that turn off the markers for quests, NPCs and POI. Other things would include no zomming in ironsight mode (it simply isn't realisitic and eases up the game), the possibility to rebind all keys, including the hotkeys and thoose you use in the crafting menues, slower XP gain and much more limited loot in boxes and chests etc. I still think you get oversatturated with stuff you can either use for crafting/cooking or simply sell at the next merchant. It turns the hardcoe mode into a "defused" hardcoe mode. MAkes things simply to easy...at least for me. It's a post apocalyptic wasteland you life in and sometimes you feel like being Rockefeller.
But as I already said, the flaws are a matter of personal taste and is nothing that can't be fixed with mods. As I said at the start of this post, you've really outdone yourself this time...I'm really a devoted fan to this game from the very beginning, kudos and best wishes to all of you at Obisidian and Bethesda, you really made a dream come true.
