I still only play New Vegas, this time I’m exploring other ways to play the game. I created a different character (not primarily a fighter, but a talker, hacker and lock picker, I wanted to get into all the closed areas, and I am, nothing has stopped me so far), and I do a lot things I didn’t the first time around. Great fun, this game is way more fun the second time around than most games are the first time.

Can’t wait for Fallout 4, whenever it’s coming.

Second update is I’ve pre-ordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Not that I don’t already have a big stack of games waiting, but sometimes it’s fun to get something right at release. This one I’ve been waiting for for a long time, and I’ve done some self-hyping — that is, I’ve deliberately hyped myself about this game by watching trailers, previews, interviews etc.

So I’ve played about 50 hours so far, but there is a lot left to do. A lot. It’s a huge game. And moreover, it’s great great fun to play. The immersion factor is off the charts. No doubt one of the best games I’ve played. The complaints are minor, save for the bugs. The bugs are annoying though, occasionally very annoying, but at this point in the patching process the game is playable, or it was for me anyway, but it did get worse toward the end so maybe going beyond 50 hours (on Playstation) is pushing it (for now, latest patch is 1.06). After that it’s safest to start a new game to play more.

Okay, so just like Fallout 3 it’s a first-person post-apocalyptic RPG. You wander the world, find interesting places, talk with people, help them do things (quests), and in the process you change the world in noticeable, interesting and permanent ways. There is also a lot of killing, but exactly how much depends on type of character and playing style.

Like in the other Fallouts, some of the people (and non-people) you meet will want to join you, which makes things a lot easier and less lonely. The companions in New Vegas are more fun than in those in Fallout 3, and there are more ways to manage them with instructions. This is great, a simple but very effective way to enhance the gameplay.

That’s one of the many improvement tweaks in New Vegas. Many of the differences are small, but they add up and the end result is a noticeably better game, and I’m saying that as a huge Fallout 3 fan.

Fallout 3 ha a nice and solid story (especially by computer games standards, this is an often lacking area I’m afraid), but the story and storytelling in New Vegas is better, IMO. It’s a really excellent and vital part of the game. More interesting characters, factions and conflicts, better dialog, and overall more mature in the sense of being more complex, subtle and morally gray. In Fallout 3 too you could choose your path, good or evil, but it was usually clear exactly what was what. Not always in New Vegas. It’s also less epic in scope (though depending little on what ending you go for, whether preserving the status quo or shake up the world a little more), but I like that. Epic games can easily feel contrived, like the world is basically created specifically for enhancing the players adolescent dreams of being important and “the chosen one”. Those are good feelings, but it’s hard to experience them when the world  so obviously is being set up that way. You don’t want to see the puppeteer pulling your strings.

New Vegas is not like that; you don’t feel like the center of the world or the chosen one. You’re more like a minor player trying to survive in a harsh world. Sure you do some pretty awesome things by most reasonable standards, but by computer game standard, where saving the galaxy is an ordinary Tuesday, they’re pretty minor. This is especially true in how the game feels. And it’s great, it helps making the world feel authentic.

The fact that there are a lot of meaningless objects and information in the world contributes to this feeling as well. The buildings are full of garbage like old cups the like. In a contrived player-centric world all objects have some sort of meaning and value, like they’re specifically put there by the creator just for you (which they are), but how authentic is that? Same with information, you read a lot of data in the in-game computers that aren’t mission critical by any means, but sometimes provide very interesting information on what exactly happened to a certain place, say an underground vault where everyone’s dead.

Then there is the difference in setting. There is a lot of city ruins in Fallout 3, not as much in New Vegas. It’s more of a desert with settlements here and there, sometimes it feels pretty wild western-ish, especially in the beginning. No underground tunnel system and generally a more open environment, and more sun. But rest assured, there are some nice apocalyptic ruins in NV, like a pretty cool old industrial area.

They made New Vegas a little harder than Fallout 3, especially in that it isn’t as easy to create a super character. Less skill points are awarded at each level, you only get a park every other level rather than every, you found less stimpacks, and so on. This is most welcome, Fallout 3 was a little on the easy side. There were a lot of things in New Vegas during my 50 hours I wanted but couldn’t afford to buy, which is great also. Feeling too empowered definitely makes things less interesting. And of course, there is the option to play the game in hardcore mode.

The music is great, there’s a lot of reuse of old hits from Fallout 1 och 2, which are some of the best game soundtracks ever.

The hostility in the environment is more dynamic. It’s easier to avoid confrontation in New Vegas (by sticking to the roads), making it more feasible to play a more peaceful character, especially with the help of companions, but it also quickly gets tougher than Fallout 3 should you venture off the roads and into the wild. Fallout 3 on the other hand had a lot of unavoidable hostiles (especially in the underground tunnel system), but they were generally easier.

Well, that’s it for now.