#why is it being V.A.T.S. targeted though

[noellevanious]

yall wanna read my 1000 word article about why "fallout new vegas 2" is exciting and wanna give any ccs? it's actually better if you know nothing about the fallout games - i'm trying to write in a way that's engaging and explanatory - and i'd love constructive criticism before i finalize it

(below the cut since i dont wanna upload it to any site yet)

With a rumoured sequel to “Fallout: New Vegas”, a 2011 Action RPG published by Bethesda, around the corner, let’s take a moment to discuss just why this news is so exciting for fans of the game.

Fallout is an RPG series that’s been around since the late 90’s. Fallout 1, originally developed by Interplay Studios, was based around an idea for adapting the GURPS Tabletop RPG system into a videogame, and to say the game and series has had a lasting impression is understating its impact.

Fallout 1, and its sequels, are about an America ravaged by the titular Nuclear fallouts. Basically, a ton of nukes were set off, and Fallout takes place decades after, in a society still trying to rebuild itself in the midst of heavy nuclear radiation. The world is mostly ruined, technology, for the most part, is now obsolete, and everybody is trying to find some way to continue living, now that they’re just as likely to die of radiation poisoning at 22, as they are killed by the mutated victims of the fallout, such as Super Mutants.

The intense, unique, and poignant atmosphere, combined with an excellently developed gameplay experience that feature such mainstays in the series as the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. character stat system, the Pip Boy (which serves as a diegetic User Interface) and the Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S., all mixed together and topped with unparalleled writing, has resulted in a franchise that is going strong to this day.

So why is Fallout: New Vegas 2 the big news? What makes it distinct from the latest 2 releases, Fallout 4 and 76?

Company Bethesda Softworks picked up the license to the series back around 2004, when it was in a lull of poor sidebar games compared to the 2 main releases, and, using the GameBryo Engine (the same engine that Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Morrowind, and Skyrim both run on), released the third main entry in the series in 2008, Fallout 3, to critical acclaim.

Reception was great, but I’m not the first to say that it mishandled the series. Gone was the poignant commentary on consumerism (epitomized by Nuka Cola and the Vault Boy), the deep writing and varied cast, and in were a focus on turning enemies into Giblets, the Rock-it Launcher, and an odd focus on the Brotherhood of Steel and the main character’s dad, which resulted in a story that was mainly following in one of their footsteps, depending on how far into the game you got.

Then, in 2011, Fallout: New Vegas was released. This entry, also using the GameBryo engine, was published by Bethesda, but developed by Obsidian Studios, which included staff that worked on the original 2 Fallout games.

What made this game stand out from Fallout 3, as well as other action RPGs at the time, was not only that its writing was (and still is) superb and deeply engaging, but also that it was developed in less than 11 months.

This resulted in the game having a sort of Beta feel to the experience, which, combined with the admittedly testy GameBryo engine, can be hard to deal with a decade later (though, thankfully, mods go about restoring functionality and what bits of gameplay were lost).

The story in New Vegas focuses on the main character, referred to as the Courier, a Mojave Express Delivery-person (basically a cooler mailman), being shot in the head by a man named Benny, and embarking on a journey to find out why, what’s so important about their delivery, to take revenge, and eventually, to change the New Vegas wastelands, participating in an all-out war for the titular New Vegas area, waged by 3 differing factions – the New California Republic, Ceasar’s Legion, and Mr. House, a surprisingly old millionaire that hired said main character for the delivery.

What Bethesda lost in translation in Fallout 3 was back in full force for New Vegas – a wonderfully fleshed out setting, complex and multi-faceted characters and factions, such as what remains of the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave Remnants, the Great Khans, and the Powder Gangers, and a game world that is designed to keep the player challenged and satisfied. Gone are the “every enemy is roughly the same level as you” ideology that made 3 feel like you were always just strong enough to get by, never feeling too challenged, and back is a more rigid, but still flexible world pathing that encourages you to move through certain areas before making the trek to the titular New Vegas, a large casino-laden city that lights up the sky at any time of day.

Obsidian would go on to develop and release two other games since then, the Outer Worlds, another action RPG that, while reviewing favorably, didn’t garner as much press, and Pentiment, their most recently released game, released late 2022, a more classical RPG with a distinct 16th Century European artist artstyle, playing more to their strengths of great writing.

Which brings up the question – will Fallout: New Vegas 2, if a real game, be developed by Obsidian? Interest has been focused more on a remake of New Vegas in the version of the Gamebryo engine used for Fallout 4, which had massive improvements, and adding back content that was cut because of the tight development schedule. The appeal of New Vegas, for most players at least, was Obsidian bringing back unparalleled writing and a gripping narrative that’s absolutely flooded with great quests, characters, and morality decisions, to a series that hadn’t seen a peak in that area since the Fallout 2, 11 years prior.

To this day, Tom Sawyer (one of the head developers for Obsidian) has been talking to fans about New Vegas’s lore, and decisions made throughout the development process, on his personal tumblr page. This attention to detail, care, and appreciation for the world he and the rest of the team crafted, is what makes the game so special, as it would go on to inspire other notable RPGs, such as the critically acclaimed Disco Elysium, and still sees a massive fan community, tinkering with the game and adding mods that improve the experience, tell new stories, or even stich the worlds of Fallout 3 and New Vegas together (Tale of Two Wastelands).

If you’re interested in the game after this long diatribe, definitely look into “Viva New Vegas”! It’s a community-sourced project that gives players the most optimal and enjoyable method of playing the game through modern hardware.

[vrheadsets]

Preview: Fallout 4 VR – Good News! The Apocalypse Is Looking Great

One of the highlights of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Los Angeles, back in June, Fallout 4 VR has become one of the most highly anticipated titles not just for the HTC Vive, but in the whole of the virtual reality (VR) community. The latest demonstration of the videogame, at Gamescom 2017, Cologne, has done nothing to dampen this eagerness.

The build available for hands-on play at Gamescom 2017 is largely the same as that which was shown at E3 earlier in the year, however given more time with the videogame there were many of its nuances that revealed themselves through further play. The unrestrained locomotion will still cause issues for some, but with the teleportation option available also it’s unlikely that many early adopters of modern VR will find cause for concern in the basic functionality of Fallout 4 VR.

The menu system, as an area which had previously called for significant improvement, appears to have been streamlined. Now positioned in line with your controllers – opposed to being fixed to the player’s view – the menus for searching objects and fallen enemies are bold and clear, though sadly navigation of them still requires using the HTC Vive motion controller discs to represent a d-pad, rather than simply pointing with the motion control.

Indeed, this minor issue is still prevalent throughout Fallout 4 VR; no matter how much we play it’s impossible to fathom why the Pip-Boy isn’t presented as a virtual touchscreen (lift left arm to activate, select options with the right motion controller), instead asking you to click a specific area of the motion controller’s disc to select options.

Elsewhere we were able to further dive into Fallout 4 VR’s mission design which, unsurprisingly, remains exactly the same as the original Fallout 4. The on-screen information and signposting is relative to default head position opposed to the direction the player is looking, though it’s rarely presented outside of your field-of-view. Whether this is a conscious decision to pull the player’s focus or simply an easy option isn’t clear at this point, however it does feel a little cumbersome when a mission objective is updated in the middle of heated combat.

Wholly successful however is Fallout 4 VR’s V.A.T.S. implementation. Here the mode simply slows time while the player can still move in real-time, with the area targeted by the player highlighted in the colour that signifies their chances to hit: green, orange or red. Having now spent a not insignificant amount of time playing Fallout 4 VR it was easy for VRFocus to storm through three enemies, injuring two with leg shots to prevent returned fire before attacking the third, most heavily armed, with all-out headshots. As in the E3 hands-on, V.A.T.S. is exhilarating in VR.

The fact that Fallout 4 VR won’t include any of the original Fallout 4 downloadable content (DLC) may be disappointing to many, but it remains true that the videogame already provides a wealth of content – perhaps more than any VR title to date – and for that it could be argued that repaying the premium price for entry is wholly worth it. With Fallout 4 VR due out on HTC Vive later this year, we’ll soon see if the commercial audience agrees with this sentiment.

from VRFocus http://ift.tt/2x92qSX