Wish you were here – bring ammo.

Perhaps it is a matter of being less willing to be drawn in by what is promised by MMOs (both in development and in play) at some point in the near or distant future.  After all, as Paul Barnett pointed out when he was a guest on the show, if you tell a player something “is in development” they will take it to me that it is promised for “next Thursday”, when in fact it might not ever be delivered at all.  Part of it, I am sure, is more of a willingness to “clean house” as some of our guests have done (especially in face of Internet providers that seem to feel they have both us and the FCC over a barrel.  Perhaps it is even that I too find myself saying “one more turn” as I play Civilization Four.   Whatever the reason, I find myself turning more toward some of the stand alone games that are soon to hit the shelves…

Fallout: New Vegas is, of course, one of them.

It isn’t the fact that members of Obsidian (Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone) worked on Fallout and Fallout 2 that I find promising (in fact that might give me pause more than anything else).   This time around Bethesda Softworks is the publisher rather than the developer.   What is promising, and even thrilling, is that these are the same devs that brought us Neverwinter Nights 2, which “gave great story.”   Yes I will admit to being a Fallout 3 fan girl.  Once Bethesda released the “GECK” tool  for modding the game, I have been modding it and playing it ever since.

But it isn’t the sandbox nature of the game that is so interesting, although that is certainly a large part of it.  While I do appreciate getting away from swords and sorcery now and then it isn’t the big guns that I find to be a drawing card – more than anything else it is the great story.  Fallout 3 has character that I enjoyed interacting with and even (at least on some level) cared about what happened to them in the game (like Moira).  My best hope for Obsidian’s version of the next addition to the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas, is that it will have great story and characters that are just as engrossing as I found in Fallout 3.

Recently a couple of question and answer sessions came across our news feed via Bethesda. Here is an excerpt. You can find the complete sessions here. 

Will each faction have a radio station?

Josh Sawyer: Not every faction has a radio station, but I hope people are happy with the radio stations, DJs, and music selection we have.

Will the PC retail game be able to be activated via Steam?

 

Jason Bergman, Senior Producer at Bethesda Softworks: Yes. Fallout:

New Vegas will fully utilize the Steamworks SDK. This means that

retail PC copies will activate via Steam. We are also using Steam for

achievements and other features (but not multiplayer, of course. FNV

remains a single player only game).

Will the Fallout: New Vegas Version of the GECK ship with the game, or

be downloadable on release?

 

JS: Yes. In addition to the normal GECK functionality F3 modders have

come to expect, the F:NV GECK will allow modification of ammo lists,

ammo subtypes, the hardcore “basic needs” rates, and a lot of the

other new bits of data we have added. It will also contain the F:NV

dialogue editor, which can be used with or without the standard F3

dialogue editor.

Will there be any sort of party involved? A few companions to tag along?

JS: Yes. The player may have one humanoid and one non-humanoid

companion at any given time.

These answers alone are reason to cheer – with the biggest reason is that those modding skills I have learned in GECK will be put to good use in Fallout New Vegas. I foresee many, many hours of modding New Vegas in my future, starting with an undead Frank Sinatra.  And no disk in the drive or always on DRM? More good news.  Companions in the game?  A positive answer to that one is important; I hate to travel alone.  And I have got to tell you that I just love the radio stations in Fallout 3 and I am glad they have returned to this game.   So until October 19, 2010 (the current release date) I will have to satisfy myself with Fallout 3, a postcard from New Vegas and the trailer below.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Update

One of our favorite subjects to discuss around here lately (as I am sure you have noticed) is net neutrality. Well it seems that in other countries the net is very, very far from neutral.

Onlive:  By now most of you have heard of the service meant to make hardware restrictions a thing of the past by streaming your favorite games – today the service went live. We will see who well it fares.  For those of you who haven’t heard of it there is E3 coverage here.

 (posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster)

E3 Trailer