Giantbomb.com Fallout New Vegas Review - 4/5 Stars

[PottedMeat]

I've put the game down for the time being. Once I reached New Vegas it became unstable for some reason. Nothing like quest glitches, just random CTDs that have become more frequent.

I have to reboot after each crash before running it again.

1. Cold boot
2. Run Steam
3. Run FNV
4. Play for ~1-2 Hours <CRASH>
5. Reboot

If I try running the game after a crash it will crash within ~5 minutes.

 

[DefDC]

I have to reboot after each crash before running it again.

1. Cold boot
2. Run Steam
3. Run FNV
4. Play for ~1-2 Hours <CRASH>
5. Reboot

If I try running the game after a crash it will crash within ~5 minutes.

I've noticed it's either rock solid for hours, or completely crash happy... No particular rhyme or reason. Hell, they might as well put in a timed autosave...

 

[blastingcap]

New Vegas has rocked for me so far. >25 hours and I'm barely past the first two stages of the main storyline, thanks to getting sidetracked by other quests and stuff. Infrequent crashes, though I've encountered a glitch here or there, like one tonight where an NPC started shooting at me for no reason. I haven't seen that many gamebreaking glitches yet, especially since I'm playing as an Evil character, which inherently gives me more ways to complete missions acceptably.

Edit: I should add that I'm playing on Very Hard + Hardcore, which makes it Fallout the way it was meant to be played, imho. Fallout 3 was way too easy, and I never bothered using stuff like Med-X and went half the game using crappy weapons just to save my good stuff from wear and tear. Boring. VH+Harcore in NV has forced me to do things like load up on Med-X, stims, and eat a bunch of food before playing hit-and-run with Nightkin. It's a lot more fun to barely win with 19 hit points left and to Sneak away to heal up before ambushing the next Nightkin.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I'm constantly amazed how so many people have problems with this engine. I've never really had an issue with either Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, and now Dragon Knight Saga.

I think I had one crash in about 60 hours of playing New Vegas, and possibly none at all with Fallout 3 and Oblivion. I've had no issues with Dragon Knight Saga either.

And this is over three different hardware setups with a 7600gt, 8800gt, and a 5850, so it's not like I just got lucky or anything.

 

[sandorski]

I'm constantly amazed how so many people have problems with this engine. I've never really had an issue with either Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, and now Dragon Knight Saga.

I think I had one crash in about 60 hours of playing New Vegas, and possibly none at all with Fallout 3 and Oblivion. I've had no issues with Dragon Knight Saga either.

And this is over three different hardware setups with a 7600gt, 8800gt, and a 5850, so it's not like I just got lucky or anything.

Wish I didn't have a problem with NV, but alas it won't play for more than a couple minutes tops.

 

[PottedMeat]

Wish I didn't have a problem with NV, but alas it won't play for more than a couple minutes tops.

Right now mine will die between 68-71 minutes in - from the time you click 'Play' to when it crashes to the desktop, at least that's what Steam says. Then I must reboot for it to do that again, otherwise random crashes from the start. When it does play though, it's rock solid. There's gotta be some memory leak or cache that's rewritten somewhere that isn't cleared, I dunno.

 

[sandorski]

Right now mine will die between 68-71 minutes in - from the time you click 'Play' to when it crashes to the desktop, at least that's what Steam says. Then I must reboot for it to do that again, otherwise random crashes from the start. When it does play though, it's rock solid. There's gotta be some memory leak or cache that's rewritten somewhere that isn't cleared, I dunno.

I Verified Cache twice, both times it Re-Downloaded a File or 2. Didn't fix anything.

I'm thinking I might try to restart the game from the beginning. Heard others mention problems introduced by other Bug Fixes, just wondering if something in my Old Save doesn't match up with latest version of the Game.

 

[Imp]

I've noticed it's either rock solid for hours, or completely crash happy... No particular rhyme or reason. Hell, they might as well put in a timed autosave...

Same experience. I went today with only 1 crash over a couple hours. For a few days though, I got one crash every 10 minutes, or immediately after rebooting. Freaking unstable. Most were CTD (thanks Win 7), only one or two BSODs.


Just finished it to finish it, I still have a lot of stuff left to explore; I'll go back to an older save once I have time. Very damn good, excellent weapon variety. Weapon wear is still a bit heavy though, especially since I use the minigun and LMG actively; speaking of, the LMG's accuracy sucks ass. I get the balance thing, but machine guns should have a tighter grouping (arm-chair gaming knowledge).


By the way, for people who pre-ordered, did you get your bonus items? I completely forgot about it for the first 2 weeks, and haven't had time to check. I preordered the CE from Best Buy.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I got them, but I pre-ordered from Steam. Makes it pretty much impossible to not get them.

 

[AlgaeEater]

I'm constantly amazed how so many people have problems with this engine. I've never really had an issue with either Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, and now Dragon Knight Saga.

I think I had one crash in about 60 hours of playing New Vegas, and possibly none at all with Fallout 3 and Oblivion. I've had no issues with Dragon Knight Saga either.

And this is over three different hardware setups with a 7600gt, 8800gt, and a 5850, so it's not like I just got lucky or anything.

I was in the same boat as you - befuddled on how people could have issues with Oblivion or Fallout 3 (I ran those flawlessly) Then...

New Vegas kicked my ass, my rig's ass, and every troubleshooting trick I've learned up until this point in my electronic career. It's not that it runs slow; it just has a temperment that gives me a random CTD when it wants to. 15 minutes - 6 hours. Doesn't matter where I'm at or what I'm doing, it just does what it wants to do.

The only positive side effect of New Vegas is that my rig is flawless and optimized as it can get. All other games and things I do on this computer is as snappy as can be. I was even able to squeeze a few more FPS on other games magically - things I attribute to the laundry list New Vegas put me through.

 

[KillerCharlie]

I didn't really have problems with New Vegas, at least not bad ones. I had to turn down the graphics a little bit from the auto settings. It did crash maybe 20+ times (over 60 hours of playing), but I just restarted the game and it worked fine.

Do you guys like it more than Fallout 3? I played it on xbox way back and am thinking about buying it to play on the PC again. I never played any of the expansions. Are they any good? I just don't want to restart a huge epic game like fall out 3 and get bored of it after a few hours.

I thought the Fallout 3 missions were way better. I wish I could combine 3's missions with Vegas's gameplay. It seemed like all the side mission in Vegas comprised of talking to this person, then talking to that person, with little combat. I had to go around killing people for fun.

 

[NYHoustonman]

I didn't really have problems with New Vegas, at least not bad ones. I had to turn down the graphics a little bit from the auto settings. It did crash maybe 20+ times (over 60 hours of playing), but I just restarted the game and it worked fine.

Do you guys like it more than Fallout 3? I played it on xbox way back and am thinking about buying it to play on the PC again. I never played any of the expansions. Are they any good? I just don't want to restart a huge epic game like fall out 3 and get bored of it after a few hours.

I thought the Fallout 3 missions were way better. I wish I could combine 3's missions with Vegas's gameplay. It seemed like all the side mission in Vegas comprised of talking to this person, then talking to that person, with little combat. I had to go around killing people for fun.

I enjoyed New Vegas quite a bit more, but it was for (it seems) the opposite reasons - plot development, involvement in the story, etc. Fallout 3's DLC was decent, but I'm not sure if I'd play though the base game itself again just to reach them (granted, I've been through the game twice). Reviews were generally representative of the relative quality of each DLC - not all of it is worth playing.

 

[Childs]

The funniest thing happened in Primm. I walked into the bar with ED-E and Veronica to finish the Sheriff mission when ED-E started started making war sounds and began zapping everyone in sight. Then Veronica started knocking fools out with her ballistic fist. It was like an old west bar fight. Freaked me the hell out, as I didnt know what consequences this would have so I loaded up my previous save while everyone was getting killed. Not sure what the deal was, as I am a hero with the NCR. I went to NCR outposts before and there was no trouble. But I must say...having companions is pretty awesome. They start a lot fights though. Stuff I would avoid they rush in. I dont think I could have done Vault 34 without them. Just wish I could also get a dog.

 

[StinkyPinky]

The funniest thing happened in Primm. I walked into the bar with ED-E and Veronica to finish the Sheriff mission when ED-E started started making war sounds and began zapping everyone in sight. Then Veronica started knocking fools out with her ballistic fist. It was like an old west bar fight. Freaked me the hell out, as I didnt know what consequences this would have so I loaded up my previous save while everyone was getting killed. Not sure what the deal was, as I am a hero with the NCR. I went to NCR outposts before and there was no trouble. But I must say...having companions is pretty awesome. They start a lot fights though. Stuff I would avoid they rush in. I dont think I could have done Vault 34 without them. Just wish I could also get a dog.

You can.

 

[Childs]

I just looked on the wiki and that dog looks jacked up. I wanted a road warrior like dog. Heck, even a Corgi or Shepard would be cool. Like in Fable 2. Besides, I'm keeping ED-E for as long as I can.

 

[Rakewell]

I just looked on the wiki and that dog looks jacked up. I wanted a road warrior like dog. Heck, even a Corgi or Shepard would be cool. Like in Fable 2. Besides, I'm keeping ED-E for as long as I can.

ED-E, in my opinion, is better than the dog.

If you're set on having a normal looking dog, though, try this mod:

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37327

It'll also renames him as "dogmeat", which I kind of like. :thumbsup:

 

[Childs]

Man, Dogmeat looks cool. Haven't played Fallout 3 yet. I think I was reading once I get a suite I can store companions, so maybe I can alternate between them. Since you walk like, everywhere, it would be cool to see a dog running around sniffing things and what not. ED-E saved my butt and did the heavy lifting when fighting the Cazadors around Foxtrot last night. In fact, he's probably killed more things than I have. Badass robot!

 

[sandorski]

Man, Dogmeat looks cool. Haven't played Fallout 3 yet. I think I was reading once I get a suite I can store companions, so maybe I can alternate between them. Since you walk like, everywhere, it would be cool to see a dog running around sniffing things and what not. ED-E saved my butt and did the heavy lifting when fighting the Cazadors around Foxtrot last night. In fact, he's probably killed more things than I have. Badass robot!

It doesn't work that way. You have to Fire companions you want to replace, then they go off to some predetermined location that you would have to return to if you want to rehire them again.

 

[Childs]

It doesn't work that way. You have to Fire companions you want to replace, then they go off to some predetermined location that you would have to return to if you want to rehire them again.

So this:" Should you tell your companion to wait for you at The Lucky 38 they will be waiting in your presidential suite ready to be rehired. Note that you have to tell them you want to split up through the talk menu for them to go and wait for you. Just selecting the wait here option in the Lucky 38 will not work. In both Casual and Hardcore mode, companions sent to wait in the Lucky 38 will take consumable items left out and can possibly even take items stored in containers (they will take and consume items from containers." is not accurate?

 

[Rakewell]

So this:" Should you tell your companion to wait for you at The Lucky 38 they will be waiting in your presidential suite ready to be rehired. Note that you have to tell them you want to split up through the talk menu for them to go and wait for you. Just selecting the wait here option in the Lucky 38 will not work. In both Casual and Hardcore mode, companions sent to wait in the Lucky 38 will take consumable items left out and can possibly even take items stored in containers (they will take and consume items from containers." is not accurate?

Heh. I didn't know you could do that. All this time I've been firing and rehiring with all that travel time.

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[sandorski]

So this:" Should you tell your companion to wait for you at The Lucky 38 they will be waiting in your presidential suite ready to be rehired. Note that you have to tell them you want to split up through the talk menu for them to go and wait for you. Just selecting the wait here option in the Lucky 38 will not work. In both Casual and Hardcore mode, companions sent to wait in the Lucky 38 will take consumable items left out and can possibly even take items stored in containers (they will take and consume items from containers." is not accurate?

Ah ok, FO 3 did not have this.

 

[Childs]

I haven't tried it myself as I've been everywhere except New Vegas, but when I read this I figured I should check it out. Eventually...

 

[Gunslinger08]

Just finished the game. I somehow backed myself into a corner where I could only figure out how to finish the game via Yes Man.

 

[spaceman]

this is GOTY imo
~110hours in
75% acheivements
awesome story
so much game for the $

 

[PottedMeat]

I never want to hear "Johnny Guitar" or "Mad about the boy" ever again.

I can't get enough of "Jingle Jangle Jinge" or "Blue Moon" for some reason though. Looking through the nvradio folder there are some songs I've never heard in the game.


I've done the NCR & Independent New Vegas endings, still working on the Caesar's Legion ending.