Fallout: New Vegas

[Morberis]

As far as bugs in FO3, I didn’t notice any glaring bugs that significantly impacted my game play.

Regarding balance issues…
To be fair FO3 and Oblivion both had major balance issues. I was a demigod in Fallout 3 before level 10. At 20 I was a god. I wasn’t expecting FNV to be dramatically different.

Actually in fact the same issue comes up if you do a bit of googling, I don`t how the frequencies compare or whether the crashing was caused by memory issues but it was fixed by clearing your cache as well. In fact when I played Oblivion I did have to clear the cache because of caching.

So yeah definitely an engine issue. Which I guess is bad for me hoping I can get the game to stay up for more than a half hour.

[Equis]

Tom is playing on the Xbox yes? Are there similar issues with the PC version?

[Murbella]

Yes, i also experienced infrequent crashing playing through fallout3 even unmodded.

As for balance… Every fallout game has had balance problems and fallout 3 was no exception (small arms were way overpowered compared to other weapon types in the base game, especially compared to energy weapons).

[Lizard_King]

(small arms were way overpowered compared to other weapon types in the base game, especially compared to energy weapons).

I’m pretty sure turning Deathclaws into pudding with a single headshot was the exclusive province of energy weapons in unmodded F3. Why were energy weapons especially weak?

[tomchick]

Yes, i also experienced infrequent crashing playing through fallout3 even unmodded.

Note that I’m playing on the Xbox 360. Crashes on a PC aren’t that unusual given the number of different driver/hardware configurations people are going to be using. Crashes on a closed system like an Xbox 360 are another matter entirely. And one that I don’t recall being an issue with Fallout 3.

 -Tom

[Adree]

Note that I’m playing on the Xbox 360. Crashes on a PC aren’t that unusual given the number of different driver/hardware configurations people are going to be using. Crashes on a closed system like an Xbox 360 are another matter entirely. And one that I don’t recall being an issue with Fallout 3.

 -Tom

It must be nice having a magical xbox then because every Gamebryo game I’ve ever played on 360 was prone to occasional crashes/memory leaks. It certainly wasn’t Saint’s Row 2 level of crash regularity for me (and I’m sure you never experienced a single lockup playing that! I came close to double digits over my playthrough.) Save early and save often.

[MattKeil]

Yeah, Fallout 3 must have hard crashed on my at least a dozen times on the 360. Most recently on The Pitt DLC, in fact, so it hasn’t been fixed with patches. This is also spread across three or four different 360s. Granted this is spread out across 120 hours of play or so, but I’d still say stability was definitely an issue with Fallout 3.

[Alan_Dunkin]

You must all be mistaken, console games don’t have bugs.

— Alan

[honestgamer]

Note that I’m playing on the Xbox 360. Crashes on a PC aren’t that unusual given the number of different driver/hardware configurations people are going to be using. Crashes on a closed system like an Xbox 360 are another matter entirely. And one that I don’t recall being an issue with Fallout 3.

-Tom

I’m starting to think that Microsoft hardware and operating systems have an issue with the Bethesda logo. I’ve played two Bethesda games (on Xbox) and they both crashed in-game on multiple occasions. I haven’t played any other Bethesda games enough to give them opportunity to crash, but they ran awkwardly enough that it wouldn’t surprise me to see them do so. I like Bethesda’s games, mind you, but they do seem to be crash-prone.

[Adree]

It’s mostly loading huge amounts of stuff into memory and not properly purging the cache. It really should purge every single time you start the game up if not every time you go back to the main menu.

[serling]

If you love floating upsidedown Radscorpions, you’ll love this game.

[Mordrak]

My experience is that hardcore mode doesn’t have any meaningful impact on the power curve. As I said above, it’s more a matter of adding survival flavor than making the game more challenging.

-Tom

That may be good enough for me. The most difficult thing with FWE’s rebalancing of Fallout 3 is managing with limited fast travel, ammo stock (and related crafting), and medical supplies for triage.* The difficulty curve for me eventually flattened out, but started out much steeper than vanilla FO3. For a better player, they may shrug at the difference, especially if they build for combat but for me it really changed the feel of overall gameplay. The fiddly bits helped me enjoy the post apocalyptic flavor of the world FO3 presented.

*Of course, I played it at default FWE settings, you can make items, ammo, etc even more scarce as well as make enemies hit harder (default is 2x damage from base FO3).

If you love floating upsidedown Radscorpions, you’ll love this game.

Yay? :(

[Sarkus]

So this is set to release at midnight and not the noon the count down timer says?

That’s what they said on the official boards, and that was straight from the top in-house mod/Bethesda rep. Midnight Pacific time, anyway.

[Andytizer]

Couch is more comfortable than PC chair.
That said, best combination is obviously this
shinyhacks.com/2010/09/how-to-pc-gaming-on-your-couch-or-sofa.html

My couch and TV setup is pretty good for PC gaming! I have some pics on my blog (link above).

I encourage you all to try it and see if it’s right for you, it’s perfect for the right kinds of games.

Can’t wait to see whether New Vegas will be as bug riddled as the other Obsidian games…

[McCrank]

How do you know I’m playing? :)

I’m not sure I could even begin to give a thumbs up or thumbs down yet. I can certainly say this is a huge game. I’m about 25 hours in and still pretty overwhelmed by the breadth of stuff to do. It’s very Fallout 3.

I will say it’s got some really disappointing tech and balance issues. The Xbox 360 version has locked up on me several times and I’ve heard the same from a colleague who’s also playing. In addition, there seems to be some sort of memory leak. I was about ready to just throw in the towel, convinced that the geometry and effects in the actual New Vegas area were too much for the engine. But I cleared the memory cache (not sure if that actually does anything) and restarted my 360, and that made a world of difference. Now I’m making a point to quit out every few hours.

And although I love the hardcore mode in theory, in practice it hasn’t been the least bit challenging. :( Thanks in part to Fallout’s lack of a real economy, the hardcore mode just feels like an extra layer of futzing. It’s more flavor than difficulty, I’d say.

I’ll be doing a game diary series on Fidgit next week and a full review for Gameroni, Jason’s site, when I’m done.

 -Tom

Thanks Tom,

You sold me on it :)

-Chris

[Briosafreak]

How do you know I’m playing? :)

I’m not sure I could even begin to give a thumbs up or thumbs down yet. I can certainly say this is a huge game. I’m about 25 hours in and still pretty overwhelmed by the breadth of stuff to do. It’s very Fallout 3.

And although I love the hardcore mode in theory, in practice it hasn’t been the least bit challenging. :( Thanks in part to Fallout’s lack of a real economy, the hardcore mode just feels like an extra layer of futzing. It’s more flavor than difficulty, I’d say.

I’ll be doing a game diary series on Fidgit next week and a full review for Gameroni, Jason’s site, when I’m done.

 -Tom

I’m playing it for three days now, for review, articles and wiki stuff for Planet Fallout. Thumbs up so far, but only talk more after the embargo ends, tomorrow.

Edit:

And one that I don’t recall being an issue with Fallout 3.

Oh there was a memory leak problem on the XBox360 and the PC both in Fallout 3 and Oblivion, in Fallout 3 Beth even setup a topic on the boards teaching people how to clear their cache. Same issue this time.

[Paul_cze]

Dan Vávra (Mafia 1&2 lead writer) on twitter:

“Hated the story and quests of Fallout 3. Love the story and quests of New Vegas.”

[Cubit]

It must be nice having a magical xbox then because every Gamebryo game I’ve ever played on 360 was prone to occasional crashes/memory leaks. It certainly wasn’t Saint’s Row 2 level of crash regularity for me (and I’m sure you never experienced a single lockup playing that! I came close to double digits over my playthrough.) Save early and save often.

Yeah, Fallout 3 must have hard crashed on my at least a dozen times on the 360. Most recently on The Pitt DLC, in fact, so it hasn’t been fixed with patches. This is also spread across three or four different 360s. Granted this is spread out across 120 hours of play or so, but I’d still say stability was definitely an issue with Fallout 3.

Oh there was a memory leak problem on the XBox360 and the PC both in Fallout 3 and Oblivion, in Fallout 3 Beth even setup a topic on the boards teaching people how to clear their cache. Same issue this time.

Yeah, this is my experience as well. Crashes and memory leaks are due to that engine in general, not anything Obsidian did or didn’t do.

[Blackadar]

I couldn’t bring myself to pre-order FO:NV, so it doesn’t appear I’ll get it on release day. As much as I want to play the game, Obsidian’s track record of horrendously buggy releases gave me pause. And I’m not fond of any media blackouts - to me, that’s like not allowing critics to review your movie until it’s out. It generally means that there’s something wrong. Then the screenshot of the guy stuck in the floor and floating radscorpions…it all suggests that perhaps the game isn’t quite complete.

If the reviews after the blackout are superlative, I’ll run right out and get it (or just DL it via Steam) 'cause I’m a FO junkie and can’t wait to play it.

Though maybe some great strong impressions posted today will get me off the fence…

Go buy one from a local store and then return the still packaged amazon copy to the store. Free release day shipping, courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood Gamestop.

That’s about one step up from pirating the game outright. You’re still stealing, though this time from Gamestop rather than the publisher.

[tomchick]

Look, I played Fallout 3 on the Xbox 360. This isn’t like that. I hate to disappoint you guys, and I know what it’s like to hear bad things about a game you’re psyched to play, but what I’m experiencing with Fallout New Vegas is a whole other ballgame in terms of being a technical mess.

For instance, I’m at a part now trying to move through really close quarters dotted with monster closets (nicely explained in the in-game fiction, BTW). If I use my Incinerator, which is a flamethrower perfect for this situation and currently my weapon of choice, it locks the game up. Every single time. Without fail. This is repeatable. Clearing the system cache does diddly to address the problem. Therefore, my high science, high energy weapon dude gets to work his way through Vault 22 with a laser rifle he normally uses for longer range engagements. Yay. Great. Thanks. Can’t wait to see what other stuff is so thoroughly borked.

I don’t really care whose fault it is, but this is pretty damn frustrating and not the sort of thing I’d expect from a game that isn’t called, I dunno, Gothic.

 -Tom