

The major factions have their stories so you can understand their motivations and actions, and aren't just "there". A lot more of exploration is now sight-seeing, which is nice because those tend to be more varied and provide a nice mix between sight-seeing and combat.Īt the same time, the addition of factions to the game gives rise to stuff just happening and interconnecting events. Of course there are still caves to find - I found 3 in about 30 explored locations, so the frequency is much reduced and you're not thinking "Gee, *another* cave!". all the outposts were completely disconnected and had nothing to do with each other and I just never felt like there was anything actually *happening* that wasn't caused by me. Obsidian, on the other hand, seems to have paid attention to the atmosphere of the game. The world in Fallout 3 didn't really feel alive. In both Oblivion and Fallout 3, there were countless caves and such that served little purpose other than getting xp and loot. Bethesda, in my opinion, has been good at crafting massive worlds, but not so good at making them feel real. the world textures will come pretty soon, I imagine. There are a couple misc high-res weapon reskins, I saw a blood texture, and a couple armors. The high-res texture pack is not out yet, but you can count on it coming. There are already good lighting and shader mods (I tried them last night and the difference is quite considerable, the mods add a lot of atmosphere). This of course means that PC users with good rigs will have to wait for mods to pretty the game up a bit. There are new weapons and new clothing/armors and the world looks a bit different due to the different setting for the game, but by and large it's Fallout 3 in the visual department. The graphical engine is basically unchanged. Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way - Yes, it is basically a re-skin of Fallout 3.


In case anyone is on the fence, I'll attempt to round out the similarities and differences between the two games. However, after spending about 15-16 hours with New Vegas so far, I will admit I'm pleasantly surprised. I was a little hesitant about New Vegas because it looked just like a re-skin of Fallout 3. I'm a fan of Fallout 3 (not necessarily as a sequel to FO2, but as a standalone Fallout game).
