Fallout New Vegas trailer

Fallout New Vegas trailer

Here’s the delicious New Vegas game trailer/ plot preview for Fallout 3 junkies, and the skinny on why you should fall in love with a cynical-cute vision of 1950s apocalyptic America for everyone else.

Fallout 3 was an action RPG that had a premise so original (not counting Fallout 1 and the other one) that its unique qualities actually made me distrust it. I overcame my trust issues to find a gamer’s treasure box, and spent many happy hours of gameplay trying out different hairstyles ranging from 1950’s house wives to cyber/steampunk spiky ensembles. Very recently, I caught wind of the Fallout: New Vegas trailer and… Well, it certainly looks good but will it be able to match Eidos’ new voyage into Deus Ex territory? Only time will tell. My spidey senses are tingling… so let us see if I will overcome my Fallout trust issues once more.

Background / Plot for Fallout 3

In the 2050s, in an alternate timeline, America is just ambling along, being a secure superpower, and all that. It’s doing little more than idly thumbing through 1950s style magazines and listening to The Inkspots and Frank Sinatra. American technology is far more advanced than it is in our own timeline: they have flying cars, laser pistols and all the things the Jetsons had. However, yanks take exception to being invaded by China and retaliate; bombs fall and America is reduced to a post-apocalyptic Wasteland (hence the name “Fallout”). Luckily, America had built several hundred underground “Vaults” to protect some of its citizens in the event of a nuclear war, with all the horrid innocence of Protect and Survive. Throughout the post-nuclear apocalyptic American Wasteland, incredibly fashionable raiders fight grotesque mutants. Macho manly men and women in armour rampage around telling everyone they’re the heroes. Okay, okay… the whole history of Fallout would require several textbooks, so at least the games had the courtesy to keep their stories simple.

Background / Plot for Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 3 had a simple premise. Child and daddy live in vault; daddy leaves to live in the wasteland; child goes off to find daddy. Fallout: New Vegas continues this theme: You were carrying a package through the Wasteland near Las Vegas and some meanie shot you and left you for dead; so go and find out who did it, why, and then slowly build a power base and take over the Strip while you’re at it. It’s a rocky premise at best but it should work. Simple ideas often do when handled deftly. When I first heard it I was worried your character would have amnesia (a plot device that makes me fall asleep, purely in the hope that I myself will get amnesia, merely so I can forget about the sense of tedium brought on by such a hackneyed plot set-up).

Here’s a little more from the makers of Fallout, Bethesda:

“Experience all the sights and sounds of fabulous New Vegas, brought to you by Vault-Tec, America’s First Choice in Post Nuclear Simulation. Explore the treacherous wastes of the Great Southwest from the safety and comfort of your very own vault: Meet new people, confront terrifying creatures, and arm yourself with the latest high-tech weaponry as you make a name for yourself on a thrilling new journey across the Mojave wasteland. A word of warning, however – while Vault-Tec engineers have prepared for every contingency, in Vegas, fortunes can change in an instant. Enjoy your stay.”

So we won’t just be visiting New Vegas…

Gameplay for Fallout: New Vegas

Similar to Deus Exs’ beautiful formula, Fallout uses an action RPG format. The good thing about Fallout 3’s RPG element was that none of the skills that you could upgrade were useless and they all had a purpose.

What I have gleaned from our most trusted of internet sources is that New Vegas will build upon Fallout 3’s already stellar gameplay. New special attacks will be implemented in-game. As well as this they are improving “VATS”. For those of you not touched by Fallout’s glorious radiation, VATS (Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System) is a feature that pauses the game and allows you to take pot shots by selecting the limbs you wish to hit. The bonus? You get a cool animation, which could be made awesome if you, say, take off a Super Mutant’s head with your improvised ‘fire-hydrant-on-a-stick’ sledgehammer. Just so you know, there is something quintessentially brilliant about a 50’s housewife look-a-like making pools of blood and guts out of misshappen, toxic locals.

Fallout Design – Brown is the new Black

The retro, faded, kippled aesthetic of Fallout has always stuck in my mind. It’s strange that what should be a boring and brown Wasteland actually has so much colour and richness to it. The set and setting of Fallout is a delightful mix of retro 1950s fashion, cyber/steam punk wildness and the sad rusty scraps of a superpower brought to ruin. And the best part: it has ALL the campness of those B-Movies where aliens come from Mars.

Fallout: New Vegas has a similar landscape, but even more beautifully rendered. It seems as though the game starts in the Nevada desert with ruined buildings nearby (so there’ll be more Wasteland to play in). It also seems that Las Vegas has been fairly untouched by the fallout – at least when seen from a distance – so we get all the glitz and glam of the infamous Sin City to explore!

The final word – for now

Girls and Boys, Fallout 3 had it all. Superbly enriching landscape and setting; wide range of characters and all the nitty gritty things we expect from an action RPG. It had some great writing (New Vegas is by the same people so I think we can expect more of the same) for all you lovers of fables. And if you are a brute who likes nothing more than seeing an anarchist raider’s head fly off in a completely different direction to his eyes then you will be satisfied! Diversity has always been Fallout’s strong point so I think we can expect more of the same.

It’s a weird mix of cowboy-cyber/steampunk-retro that breathed new life into the radioactive lungs of the Fallout franchise. Remember to pack your water though; gets mighty hot out there…

Sam’s Recommendation: Definitely play Fallout 3. I hope the best of New Vegas… I wish I could be more optimistic but ever since my favourite franchise (Total War) decided to do a re-hash of its first game I have been immensely apathetic about new ones until I play them and (fingers crossed) find myself pleasantly surprised.

Author’s final note on the matter of writing a preview of Fallout: New Vegas for Mookychick… (1) How is it that Cyberpunk is fine according to Microsoft Word but Steampunk isn’t? I demand justice. (2) I just added it to the dictionary. Take that, Microsoft. Take that, society.

Fallout links

Fallout – the website (get a taste of the Fallout world here with Fallout art, pre-order info, developer diaries and more).

Fallout New Vegas