Fallout: New Vegas

I have been playing Fallout: New Vegas quite a bit, and enjoying it. It feels like an expansion for Bethesda's popular Fallout 3, sharing art assets and, well, just about everything else. However, the feel of the game is a bit different, and I have enjoyed the "find your killer" plot line much more than the "follow your father" quest of the earlier game.

I am about 20 hours in, toting around NPCs Boone and the ever-buzzing ED-E (wish he had a "silent" mode). I am currently in New Vegas, picking apart the sins of the three families that run the big casinos. I have decided to halt the main quest while I build my character up a bit. It was a whirlwind getting to New Vegas, and I blew through lots of terrain without a second thought. I plan to go back to the areas I skirted and explore them in full.

So far the sub-quests have been interesting and relatively unique. The voice acting and dialogue has been improved a bit, and has been generally more consistent throughout my short time with the game. I've investigated kidnappings, confronted a con man, saved a boy from the meat locker of some cannibals, cleared giant fire ants from a heavily travelled crossroads, and investigated seemingly abandoned buildings for loot and experience points.

It is a very engaging game, with most of its charm coming from the world it portrays. It is desolate, you feel alone. Even more so in this one than the earlier Fallout 3. But the world feels more refined and alive. The new crafting system may have something to do with that. Plants of various kinds appear dotted across the landscape. You can pick the fruit or leaves of these plants to create medicines, drugs, and augmentations that quickly restock your chem supply. It's a great, involved system which extends into animal pelts and meat. It also makes wandering the wasteland more of a moment-by-moment scavenger hunt. This functionality appears to be a derivative of the game's distant cousin, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, for which the primary game engine was built.

The engine is in need of a graphical overhaul, and the next Elder Scrolls game seems a likely candidate for new technology. As an aside, I was surprised to hear music from the 2006 Elder Scrolls while cresting a hill overlooking New Vegas. It was a pleasant surprise, but a reminder of how much has been recycled.

Excellent game, though. Worth working through the (many) bugs, which Bethesda claims will be fixed soon in an upcoming "comprehensive" patch.