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Another great romp through the Fallout universe, at least when it decides to work.

Fallout: New Vegas is pretty much everything you'd want it to be coming off of Fallout 3. Brand new area, gigantic map, tons of quests both optional and story based, a bigger emphasis on recruited companions, and in my opinion a better story coupled with better dialogue. It's a shame some of the technical stuff couldn't have been cleaned up, because while it's certainly a fun experience, it's a far cry from flawless.

I'll get my gripes out of the way first. New Vegas is buggy, sometimes ridiculously so. I've been stuck on objects, forcing me to reload my save (which thankfully Fallout 3 taught me to do frequently), I've had random things happen to NPC's around the game world, from flying off into space, to running in horror as if I had just shot them. I've come to quest markers only to not find the promised NPC present, and I've seen numerous people stuck halfway inside the ground (but thankfully still able to respond to my character). I've even had a quest bugged to the point where I can't finish it still, which certainly annoys me to no end. So yeah, Fallout: New Vegas is in need of a little more work, a few more patches, or whatever the developers at Obsidian need to do to iron out the kinks. In a lesser game I'd probably have given up by now, and just hope for an eventual fix, but I'm having a hell of time putting the damn controller down.

Combat largely plays out the same as it did in Fallout 3. The VATS system comes back here, and once again is tied into the action points your character has available. Combat outside of VATS works in a similar fashion to Fallout 3 as well, but this time you've got a few new things like weapon upgrades that can be equipped, and different bullet types that'll allow you to do things like push damage thresholds and what not. Along with that you'll have a crafting system to make use of as well, which is handy for breaking down parts and weapons into components you can use to create more ammo or other items.

Character interactions still works out by approaching characters, pressing A, and then cycling through the dialogue options. It feels like the dialogue offers up more options for people that pour points into Speech and Barter for their skills, which was nice to see (I love manipulating quests through Speech). Another big change for New Vegas comes in the form of the reputation system, something that's probably a bit more familiar to old school Fallout fans. There are a number of different factions in New Vegas, none of which are completely clear cut as just being "the good guys", which you can do quests for and build up your reputation. Some factions will pit you against others, and there's some definite risk and reward involved depending on who you side with. Most of these faction associations come into play during the end game, so it makes it worthwhile to see how different scenarios can play out.

Finally, New Vegas also offers up a much hyped Hardcore mode, which essentially takes the training wheels off of the post-apocalyptic experience and really forces some immersion on the player. With Hardcore mode turned on, you not only need to worry about your Health and Radiation levels, but you also need to track sleep, food and water levels as well. To be honest, while Hardcore more is going to definitely appeal to a particular set of player, I didn't find a great deal of enjoyment in it. I'm more in love with the world, characters, and stories behind the different quests than I am in the whole survival aspect of the game, so this just seemed like a larger distraction for me. That said I'm still happy to see it included, and I think it does really drive home the experience of traveling across a massive wasteland.

So, while the game can often feel like a buggy mess, I'm more than willing to forgive its shortcomings based on the actual fun it delivers. I'm sure it'll be even more enjoyable once everything stables out a bit, but as it currently stands, I definitely plan on putting in quite a few more hours before I'd consider myself totally finished with the game. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you missed out on Fallout 3 to begin with.