Fallout: New Vegas Details, Collector’s Edition

Last week there were a whole lot of Fallout: New Vegas previews and “first looks” that it was hard to sift through them all. All in all it was nothing we’d not heard of before.

Fallout: New Vegas will take place on the West coast of the former United States, or Capital Wasteland, rather than the Eastern Coast like in Fallout 3. It will however use the same engine as Bethesda’s title, but with a of of improvements. The player character will start off in Goodsprings Nevada. The character ends up getting shot in the head, and is later rescued by Vegas Vic, a robot who acts as an assistant to Doctor Mitchell. He heals you, and after that you can start with the character creation process. Unlike before, where you started off as a baby, child, and then progressed on as the tenacious teenager, this time you can choose your age.

Not to mention that there’s a hardcore mode which will make your life more miserable and probably more realistic in the game.

Here’s some more new screenshots by the way:

Other interesting, and probably unsurprising, news is that Fallout: New Vegas will receive a Collector’s Edition. Obvious since the game is set around what was formerly known as Las Vegas, the pack will offer “Lucky 7” poker chips, a "Lucky 38" platinum chip, a deck of cards with illustrations of characters in the game, "The Making of Fallout: New Vegas" DVD – a documentary with some behind the scenes stuff, and a hardcover graphic novel called "All Roads", which basically tells the story leading up to that of the game.

The price of this Edition has been set for the PC as $69.99. By the way, there are some folk who are confident that this will outsell Fallout 3, if that’s possible.

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Sources:

- Fallout: New Vegas Collector's Edition Announced [Shacknews]
- A Sinful First Look At Fallout: New Vegas [Giant Bomb]

Fallout: New Vegas Details, Collector’s Edition

Remastered Fallout 1 and 2 Soundtracks Available for Free

I’m quite a big fan of listening to video game soundtracks, and while reading through my news feeds the other night I saw something that perked my interest. The composer for the original Fallout titles, Mark Morgan, has remastered  all the songs he composed for Fallout 1 and 2, in a project of his called the “Vault Archives”.

And the best thing about it, and I would expect no less, is that it’s a free download. You can get all 24 tracks, which are remixed and remastered. You can download them over on Aural Network. There are four streaming sample tracks that you can play to listen to as well. There’s also a mirror on NMA, in case it doesn’t work on the former site.

I don’t know if I’ll download them all. I have heard the originals, most recently when someone made a mod which incorporated the songs from the original two games into Fallout 3. You can bet that I’ll be adding it to the queue for the NAG DVD though.

There were some jabs over on NMA, with some posters saying that you better hurry up and get it before Bethesda issues a Cease& Desist order.

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Sources:

Fallout Remastered OST available for free [No Mutants Allowed]
Fallout 1 & 2 soundtracks remastered, free to download [D’toid]

Remastered Fallout 1 and 2 Soundtracks Available for Free

Fallout: New Vegas - Details, Features, Vegas, Baby

 

Fallout: New Vegas details were given in issues of various magazines lately, one of them none other that PC Gamer. I used to read that magazine a lot, but it costs a lot to buy here, I think, and the availability is also a problem seeing as Paperweight in Tygervalley Centre closed down.

Anyway, about those details. Everyone else is doing these lists, so I thought I would too. They’re not exactly the same as other blogs though. I did take the time to read through most of them, reword them, and add in my own little comments, as well as exclude all the fluff. Fun!

• It's a first-person RPG. Fallout 3 had third person view as well, so whether they will opt to incorporate this or not will become apparent as time goes by.
• It uses the same engine as Fallout 3: Gamebryo.
• A new "Hardcore mode" will be available, in which stimpacks heal over time instead of instantly, ammo has weight (Fallout 3’s ammo didn’t), and players can suffer from dehydration, unless they drink something.
• The story focuses on a conflict between three factions: the New California Republic, supposedly from Fallout 2, and located at McCarran Airport, Caesar's Legions, located on the Vegas strip, and the residents of New Vegas. The Super mutants are at Black Mountain.
• Instead of the Capital Wasteland, like in Fallout 3, this wasteland is referred to as the “Mojave wastelands”.
• The city of Las Vegas is mostly still intact, but it’s probably not in the same condition as it was hundreds of years ago.
• There are new super mutants, as well as ones from Fallout 2 and 3 with different attributes, including the elite Nightkin.
• Locations in the game include Fremont, Primm, the Hoover Dam, and Area 51 (Yeah!).
• The player is not a Vault Dweller like in Fallout 3 but a courier who is rescued by a friendly robot.
• You will have a Pip-Boy, but it’s given to you by a vault dweller.
• New weapons will be available. Apparently one that looks like an M4 assault rifle (part of the M16 family. Come on, you’ve played Modern Warfare!). Wonder if the H&K 33A2 (or G3A3) model and the Chinese assault rifle will come back?
• Followers can be managed via a context-sensitive menu. Thank you. No more having to keep going back and forth and talking to them all the time.
• There are special moves for melee weapons in VATS.
• Skills have a bigger effect on conversation choices.
• There is a Reputation system in addition to Karma, like in the Elder Scrolls games such as Morrowind.

In related and covered news, a trailer was released for New Vegas recently, and the release date was given as Fall 2010.

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Source: Duck and Cover

Fallout: New Vegas - Details, Features, Vegas, Baby

Apocalypse Then: Obsidian Entertainment Founded

On this day, in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment was founded.

Obsidian was born out of the demise of Black Isle Studios, the team responsible for the original Fallout games, Fallout and Fallout 2, as well as the Baldur's Gate series.

Current projects in development at Obsidian include Aliens: Crucible (on hold), Alpha Protocol, as well as Fallout: New Vegas.

Apocalypse Then: Obsidian Entertainment Founded

What's on GOG- Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire

Another title on GOG.com is Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire, a fan made mod or add-on for Jagged Alliance 2, a contemporary title of the Fallout Series. 







http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/

What's on GOG- Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire

It's Fallout Week on GOG

GOG.com has a promotion on Fallout games until April 27th. 

You can complete the Fallout collection, including Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics, on GOG.com with a 20% discount. If you have one of the Fallout games you can get the other two for $9.58, if you have two Fallout games you can grab the remaining one for only $4.79 and if you don't have any Fallout games on GOG.com you can get the whole pack for $14.37! To receive the discount you have to complete the pack of all three Fallout games. 

http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/

It's Fallout Week on GOG

Apocalypse Then- Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

On this day, in 2001, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel was released. 

It wasn't considered as a true Fallout game by some, as they claimed it was just a spin-off of the series. In fact, even the creators of the the original series claim that the game only took place in the same universe, and didn't continue the story of either Fallout or Fallout 2, and is considered non-canon.

Apocalypse Then- Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

What is it with all the post-apocalyptic themed games nowadays?

It seems that since the late 90s, we’ve been getting these post-apocalyptic themed games.

Think Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and upcoming titles like the rumoured S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 3: Apocalyptic and id’s Rage- and there are probably others I’m missing. 

Don’t get me wrong, I like these games. They’re usually very immersive and they have great stories and settings, and most of them have an RPG type gameplay to them that works well.
But think of this, why do some games have goals of building an empire, and others of destroying it? Is it because it’s a popular issue nowadays what with war raging all over, especially between Palestine and Israel, or Darfur, and Iraq? Is it because so many rave about it being the ‘end times’ and that we’re all doomed to a future of nothingness? 

Perhaps this is the only possible outcome for us, humankind destroying itself, wasting away into nothing after all the pain and misery it has wreaked upon this earth that some say it was bound to protect, but we were cursed, and damned right from the beginning.

What is it with all the post-apocalyptic themed games nowadays?