Recent reviews by Captain Reily

James Kidd gave me gay thoughts and then cruelly ripped them away from me

10/10

Almost ten years old now, so I'm finally going to put my thoughts about this game into words. What really can be said about New Vegas that hasn't already been said by true RPG fans? You've clearly heard of the game if you're reading reviews, and yes, it is just as good as you heard. Seriously. I won't retread what everybody else has already said, so here's a short version: I love it because of the atmosphere and writing, and with mods, it's almost endlessly replayable. If you want to read more, here ya go.

This game has a reputation for being buggy, but can easily be fixed in 2020 on most hardware. Ask around, get some help if you need it, and download a few mods to stabilize the game for modern hardware. You probably won't need it if you're going vanilla, but if you're going to mod (which you really, really should), you at least need the Script Extender and the 4GB Patch (this allows your game to use 4 gigs of RAM). Any other mods are up to personal preference. I could suggest dozens, but I won't waste your time. Spend some time browsing the Nexus, you'll find some great stuff. But what of the game itself? It's a post apocalyptic western at it's core, with elements of retro sci fi throughout (all future installments went overboard on the "retro" aspect, making the whole experience feel far less like a gritty wasteland and more like a colorful cartoon). New Vegas builds upon what Fallout 3 achieved, bringing a true open world wasteland to gamers with freedom to do as you please. Many Fallout fans will say they prefer Fallout 3 due to it's more urban, dreary, apocalyptic tone, which is a fair point. Fallout 3 feels more akin to The Road, while New Vegas is more like Mad Max, or Book of Eli in it's tone. However I think what New Vegas does best is diversify the feel and tone throughout the world. As you play through dungeons, explore, finish quests and go through the fantastic DLCs, it never quite feels repetitive. You may be creeping through a bombed out building or sewer shooting rotting ghouls in the dark, giving it a dark, apocalyptic feel. You might have a shootout with bandits in the desert, giving you an almost western gunslinger feel as you drop them with a revolver one by one. You can go into Vegas itself and feel like you're in an early 1960s Vegas crime movie, go to Big Mountain and feel like you're in a satirical comedy. The variety is insane, which carries over to the weapon choices as well. Almost any weapon can be viable with the right perks, which allows you to play through the game in whatever style you want. A laser machine gun wielding cyborg in power armor? Sure. Trench coat wearing desperado with an oversized revolver? Duh. Sneaky, suit wearing gambler with a silenced pistol and endless charisma? Yep. Drugged up anarchistic outlaw with an axe to grind with civilized society? Go for it. Anything is possible, and if you really want to you can make whatever character you want to in this world, and the game will work around it. You can even beat this game without ever hurting anybody, if you really want to try. That's what really makes New Vegas my favorite game of all time. Flexibility. With or without mods, you can really do whatever you want, and once you get into modding, you can fine tune this game to make it however you want it to be. Add you own music playlist to walk the desert with, pick and choose your own guns to add, pick out the right armor and gear, and make whatever character you want. Between these options, the fantastic writing, atmosphere, characters and downright fantastic DLC expansions that all link together to form a whole new story line, Obsidian truly outdid themselves, and I don't see Bethesda ever coming close to this. New Vegas will probably remain the high water mark for Fallout as a game series, and I still keep coming back to play it ten years later because I can't get enough of it.

10/10, buy the Ultimate Edition if you haven't played it before and lose yourself in this game. If it's too clunky for you, get to modding, because with the right tweaks this game can honestly still feel modern.