Why I Love Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas those three little words when spoken to a fan of RPG games is likely to be met with a myriad of responses in my experience they're all positive ones at that as someone who almost exclusively plays RPG games a lot of people I meet and interact with tend to also play a lot of RPG games and there are very few in my life that have garnered such esteem Prestige and truthfully a semi mythical reputation as Fallout New Vegas I have been playing a lot of Starfield recently and let me stop you right there before you write an angry comment condemning me for naming these two games in the same sentence but playing Starfield lately has made me a bit nostalgic something about the aesthetic and feel of the freest star Collective primarily Akila City and neon it's gotten me thinking about Fallout New Vegas something about Aila reminded me of good Springs Prim and the Mojave Outpost and the bright lights of neon reminded me of the new Vegas strip and freeside I don't exactly know why it stirred these feelings in me but I had an overwhelming urge to return to the Mojave Wasteland and find out exactly what it is that I and so many others loved about this game while I can never play this game for the first time again it has been a few years since I dove into it so join me as I replay this Gem and find out why I love Fallout New Vegas war war never changes Fallout as most of us know it here in the Modern Age spawned from Fallout 3 which itself came around due to Bethesda purchasing the rights when interplay went bankrupt in 2004 based on my research the original agreement was for Bethesda to make Fallout 3 and possibly two sequels but due to financial stress interplay sold the entire Fallout IP to Bethesda in 2007 as a result on October 28th 2008 Fallout 3 was released to critical Acclaim this game pretty much took up my entire life when I was a freshman in high school I played this game at every opportunity I had and reveled in its World fighting super mutants feral ghouls exploring DC in the Capitol Wasteland and learning about the universe in which this series took place as a long time Elder Scrolls fans starting with morrowwind in 2004 and later Oblivion in 2006 this was a game that felt familiar mechanically and yet so very different from anything I had ever played before the only real gripe I had at the the time was the lack of paths in the story while sure you had some evil karma options for your character like blowing up Megaton or helping Mr Crowley I felt more often than not the main story kind of railroaded you into making morally good choices while I generally tend to play good characters in games that didn't actually affect my gameplay style it did take away a lot of extra replayability I feel it could have had with an enclave storyline or even a third power in the capital vying for project Purity but this isn't a Fallout 3 video this is a Fallout New Vegas video so let me get back on track for a little context here let's start with my initial discovery of this [Applause] game now let's fast forward a little bit to 2010 I'm a sophomore in high school now at this time in my life I did not have internet the only real access to the internet I had was at school or leeching off my neighbor's Wi-Fi via my PSP primarily in my computer class where instead of doing my homework I was reading uesp and learning Elder Scrolls lore to discuss with my brother Brian on the phone or going to the Fallout website to look at screenshots pictures and read the little short stories that were on the website from what I could see those stories are no longer there but if anyone knows what I'm talking about please let me know in the comments they were really special to me at the time and I'd like to know how many more of you enjoyed them as well one day seemingly no different to any other I'm sitting in class my teacher giving his lecture one of my best friends Angel who I wasn't really friends with at the time was sitting next to me and intently listening to the lecture like the great student he was and there I am sitting on the computer scrolling through ues articles and looking for a conversation topic for my upcoming phone call with my brother I decided to look at the fall outside and reread those same short stories I had read a million times before but this time I was greeted with something I did not expect the normal drab Tans Grays and greens of the Fallout 3 banners and color scheme on the site were gone and its place where blacks Reds and vibrant neon colors then I saw it a figure with a gas mask and helmet combo a big Western revolver glowing red eyes and in the background a singular Tower the Lucky 38 at the time I didn't know what this was I thought it was the Seattle Space Needle and my smooth brain at the time couldn't comprehend that what I was seeing was actually an original structure created for the Fallout Universe now it didn't take long for me to begin consuming whatever media and information I could about this game which was very little I got on the Internet Train late despite being so young at the time so researching games and finding information was very difficult for me I just didn't know much about the internet or how it worked or how to properly look things up I was too nervous to click most links on Google because I was terrified of viruses I know this may seem silly now but at the time between my PSP and my school computer I was trying to play as safe as I could so I didn't lose what little and I mean very little access to the internet I had for reference as well my computer class was my first class of the day so I couldn't watch videos in there for fear of drawing attention to myself so I had to wait until lunch to go to the computer lab and do some research on this game meaning I had to spend my entire morning in agony wondering who that figure was and what this Fallout New Vegas thing was an expansion a new game I did not know and it was killing me to find out that said I did manage to survive until lunch again All Odds and made it to the computer lab I came across a YouTube video posted by IGN The Fallout New Vegas teaser trailer opening with a robot picking up sand and revealing that he's clearing the sand off of a dead person half buried in the earth then as the trailer reaches its end you see a flapping trench coat in the wind a flag and that same figure I saw earlier in my day with the glowing red eyes more than that I saw a vibrant City on the horizon of a Barren landscape enticing me forward a horizon that promised yet more Adventure in this post-apocalypse I had come to love a horizon that spoke of dangers and darkness yet to be explored a horizon that told of new characters to meet and a mysterious figure in the foreground which exuded an aura of danger that baade me come test it for days this video was all I had to go on and my conversations with everyone from that moment were just me overjoyed and talking about Fallout New Vegas and one day in my history class A friend of mine named Michael had asked me if I had seen the E3 trailer of it which I hadn't but he showed me the video to look up so of course I got home waited all night dreaming of what this video May entail then slogging through my morning at school just waiting for lunch again I managed to survive my morning enough to see this video video and I was blown away while I won't break down the trailer frame by frame I will point out some of the things that really stood out to me seeing a scoped laser rifle a gray Super Mutant appearing out of thin air the New Vegas strip powering down and of course a large explosion at the end but even more than all of that I saw a glimpse of the factions I saw a player character in Legion armor NCR armor and an armored Vault suit while I knew nothing of the NCR or Caesar's Legion at the time and I knew even less of Mr house and the families that control New Vegas that scene told me that I would have something Fallout 3 never really offered me branching paths and multiple factions to join at this point I had thrown caution to the wind I was clicking every article and reading every bit of lore and game information I could find I was dining on the finest news and engorging myself on the hopes and dreams promised by the screenshots and gameplay I was seeing I even managed to find clips of footage from G4 on my Comcast On Demand at least I think it was from that Source I I know it was Comcast On Demand and I just watched the battle for Nelson where you can join up with the NCR Troopers and assault the legion encampment there I remember learning that Quest had a legion path where you assault the NCR Camp instead forlorn hope and that confirmed my suspicions from the trailer this game would have multiple paths as well as minor factions that could impact the story as well this reminded me of morn's major and minor faction system in all the right ways and it took me back to being a little kid in 2004 taking my first steps in the world of tamrial by way of the island of venell and it sent my mind [Music] spinning now at the time of recording and playing this game it has actually been at least for me a long time since I sat down and did a run of Fallout New Vegas to put it in perspective I'm not a guy who really branches out and plays a ton of new games I mean I do but I generally stick to a rotation of a few games that I play over and over beating one moving on to the next and while it does happen it just doesn't happen often that a new game is added to my rotation now this may sound like sacrilege but after 12 years years of playing New Vegas I was getting bored I was just plain getting bored I had played each storyline I don't know how many times and done every side quest DLC unmarked Quest faction Quest both major and minor made alliances been a strong armed brute gone at it alone made friends made enemies shot stabbed and vaporized my way across the Mojave Wasteland more times than I can count and I just couldn't justify pouring another 100 plus hours into the game part of this I blame on Co due to lockdowns I wasn't working as much so with shorter work days and sometimes non-existent work days I had a lot of time to game I Revisited the all the games in my rotation from Dragon Age to the Mass Effect series all of our beloved Elder Scrolls games Total War Warhammer 2 at the time Fallout 3 and four and of course New Vegas the game I and so many others consider the cream of the Fallout crop played it beat it did another rotation of games and I just couldn't find the energy to play New Vegas again nor the desire so I didn't want to burn myself out of the game and begin to resent it so I took a break and now 2 years later I'm back with a fresh enthusiasm to play you are a courier hired by the Mojave Express to deliver a package to the New Vegas strip taking those first few steps out of Doc Mitchell's house and into good Springs felt a lot like a home coming the Mojave Wasteland was a place of comfort for me as a teenager a place to explore a place to have fun and a place to live out a life of adventure with complex characters dark humor scary mutants and a wacky 50s Vegas charm and it was uncompromisingly fall out now this is my first time playing this game on PC so if in any of this footage you see me missing easy shots or just general janky gameplay that's just me trying to break 12 years of Xbox controls in favor of a keyboard and mouse that aside I decided this run would be my classic run as vanilla and Bland as it may be I enjoy playing an NCR character I like getting myself some Ranger armor traveling with Boon and hunting anyone wearing Legion Crimson I mean the NCR is the most stable faction and government in the Wasteland nothing bad's going to happen to them it's not like anyone will detonate a nuke and Shady Sands or something like that and totally stress me out about the Cannon of the game right right now moving past that after a brief tutorial where I hunted geckos with Sunny Smiles I found myself embroiled in a conflict surrounding the town of good Springs between the locals who were hiding a caravaner named Ringo from the powder gangers and nearly instantly it hit me again I love this game right off the cuff you are making a lasting decision is it the most important in the grand scheme of the Mojave no but it is important to the people here you have a chance to totally ruin or exterminate their way of life and help a ruthless group of Escape convicts take over their town I am choosing the morally good playthrough so I'm choosing to help them it required a lot of talking with the towns folk and using all the skills I had at my disposal sometimes successfully and other times not so much but I was able to Rally a militia to protect Ringo and send the gangers a message good Springs Won't Back Down naturally after looting the dead and selling their gear and taking a quick nap I moved on I said goodbye to good Springs and trudged forward further into the Mojave Wasteland now I won't Bore You by rehearsing every choice I made in this game so let's move on Guess Who's waking up over here time to cash out like I alluded to in our last section the story of New Vegas is no pun intended a wild card of Adventure it comes out of left field and hits you with Incredible moment after incredible moment from its Stellar opening sequence to the first steps of the character into the wider world of the Mojave after settling issues with good Springs you wander forward into the town of Prim and it seems like each step you take on the path to finding who originally tried Tri to kill you in the beginning of the game raises the stakes but each area is a microcosm of the greater conflicts of the Mojave it's a story between three great Powers rising in the Wasteland of the American southwest one being Mr House a pre-war Captain of industry and now CEO and sole proprietor of the New Vegas strip another being Caesar's Legion a totalitarian nation of slavers that occupies areas in Colorado Arizona and now parts of Nevada where they're living out the male fantasy of resurrecting Rome and last but not least is the new California republic or the NCR a nation dedicated to the values of the old world government rule of law and apparently their Manifest Destiny to push locals off their land and claim the resources these three major powers are locked in a struggle for two things in particular Hoover Dam and the City of New Vegas itself Mr House wants to maintain the sovereignty of Vegas the NCR wants to grow their land resources and their taxpayer base and the legion wants the resources and to enslave the population in hopes of funding further Conquest Westward into California proper before the Story begins a few years prior the NCR had won the first battle of Hoover Dam but it wasn't a great and triumphant Victory it was the kind of victory that nobody is particularly thrilled with essentially they won the battle but not by enough to win the war the legion gave them one one hell of a Shiner and they're winding up another right hook that's where you come in you are a courier hired by a company known as the Mojave Express to deliver a package to the New Vegas strip an oversized Platinum poker chip and in the midst of your delivery Matthew Perry decides to Ambush you and kill you with the help of the great cons a down on their luck tribe of Raiders and chem dealers making their home in the Mojave Wasteland from the moment you wake up you will explore and learn more of these fact factions both great and small that occupy the Mojave and you have the ability For Better or Worse to engage with these factions as much or as little as you see fit and all of your choices will have consequences not only for those factions but all of the people occupying this portion of the Wasteland there are so many branching paths and stories to explore each bursting at the seams with exciting characters quality writing humor and Incredibly human stories I won't wait waste your time giving a summary of the entire story because it branches off into so many directions maybe one day I'll make a video on that but not [Music] today now for this part I want to focus specifically on the city of New Vegas because each of new Vegas's communities are distinctly different and represent the diversity of the Mojave Wasteland pretty well you may not think so thinking about it initially but hear me out they are North Vegas Westside East Vegas South Vegas the sewers freeside and the strip I know that's uh a lot of that sounds like hip-hop beef but hear me out please North Vegas is home of rugged and independent people who thrive on trade and have a surprisingly strong sense of justice but not Law and Order NCR Justice with courts and trial this is definitely Street Justice Crandon and jeweles are more the types to kick your teeth in rather than ask what the issue is Westside is a mix of urban and agrarian communities the community of Westside is home to outcasts from other parts of Vegas and the Mojave who have B handed together and formed a walled off settlement where everyone pitches in to work at the Westside Co-op the co-op is a community Farm in the city that they use to feed themselves and trade one interesting thing about Westside is they have their own civilian militia they may not be the best equipped or trained but that's what mean son of a [ __ ] is for a local Super Mutant remnant of the Master's Army who patrols and keeps a watch out for the fiends west side is also home to The Thorn and underground Arena where people gamble Caps or their lives fighting different threats across the Wasteland red Lucy the proprietor has her own Wasteland beasts in captivity that she releases for the pleasure of roaring crowds she also makes enough to employ a sizable force of guards so Westside is probably one of the safer communities in New Vegas East Vegas is an agrarian or at least Suburban desert community that's home to two distinct types of people Fierce and in dependent locals who resent the NCR for moving in on their land and trying to Annex them and on the opposing side is an NCR sharecropping Community with Farmers from California who've come to grow food for the troops and make money as well as experience the Splendor of New Vegas in this area there's also a u Refugee facility that's home to squatters and other people fleeing the war down on their luck South Vegas is fiend territory story The fiends are a massive vicious chem addled and brutal band of Raiders operating out of Vault 3 in the South Vegas ruins they are one of the better fleshed out Raider groups in the Fallout Universe in my opinion and I'm not discrediting the cons new cons great cons vipers or Jackal now they get their chem from the great cons and they engage in the slave trade common banditry and raiding and even torture they have four leaders motor run Runner driver Nephi Violet and cook cook watch out for cook cook if you find yourself wandering too far the sewers of New Vegas are a bit of an anomaly to me I may have missed or forgotten some lore here but people live in the sewers NPCs called New Vegas residents who have unique dialogue about living in the sewers sucking but being better than living under the boot of the NCR they still have normal concerns like any wastelander finding food water and dealing with fiends trying to use the sewers to conduct raids and get slaves like north and east Vegas they are a rugged albeit less organized group of survivors freeside has to be my favorite community in the city of New Vegas they sit right outside the strip and are more directly in its shadow than any other neighborhood they have all the charms and vices of the strip but also all of the problems of the outer communities I'm not so sure that freeside has to deal with raids from from the fiend specifically but it is an impoverished Community NCR squatters who come to New Vegas to find their fortunes have been left destitute and stuck quarreling with locals who don't want them there freeside is split into two distinct Parts one side has junkies drunkies and squatters Milling about trying to rob gamblers and travelers trying to make their way to the strip so temporary bodyguards make a good living in this part of town it's home to the old Mormon fort currently occupied by the Followers of the Apocalypse who appear to be the most steady group in this part of town the other part of free side is home to quite a few distinct characters the Garrett twins operate the atomic Wrangler a casino Distillery whouse and overall disreputable establishment but they seem to have a monopoly on all the liquor production and gambling in freeside this naturally makes them targets so they have a sizable force of guards to secure the building and protect their gamblers and workers as well as their own in-house Bounty Hunter who hunts down or puts down people who owe the Garrett's money across the street is the silver Rush casino but this is no den of gambling and drinking this is home to the van graphs a Cutthroat Merchant family from out west who took over the casino forcefully and have a near Monopoly on energy weapons production in the area they are brutal cunning and utterly ruthless to competitors but they sell some of the most advanced and highquality weapons around just don't upset Jean Baptist cutting lastly on our tour of freeside and down the street from our two groups previously mentioned is the King's School of impersonation the Beating Heart of freeside a building where music is always blasting a pre-war Elvis impersonator school and now home to a gang known as the Kings the Kings operate in kind of a weird situation there're a group of Elvis impersonators that act into a gang and get into tussles and scraps as much as anyone else in New Vegas but they also work as bodyguards and even act as neighborhood watch they don't tolerate junkies and Killers trying to stick up locals for a few caps their tribal roots are no secret but they've carved out their own piece of New Vegas and they will defend it as hard as any other community and finally the strip the strip is New Vegas it's exactly where we all want wanted to make it to when we first started up the game and saw it on the horizon from the good Springs Cemetery the strip is home to four casinos three of which are still active they are Gamora the tops and the ultral Lux they are home to The Three Families of the strip the omeras who operate Gamora are a mafioso style 50s Vegas crime family who specialize in booze chems and prostitution they push every Vice you can imagine they keep a tight reain on their family business and aren't keen on much other than maintaining their power on the strip and keeping the business coming back the chairman run the Topps Casino the Topps is a lot like the chairman themselves easygoing and relaxing this hotel is about taking in a show having a nice meal and playing some games the chairman are the quote unquote cool guys of the strip they are wealthy powerful well-dressed but they aren't as outwardly vicious as the omeras or nearly as uptight as the white glove Society but still they have their own secrets and power plays the previously mentioned White Glove Society operate the ultralux the fanciest and possibly largest casino on the Strip they're a highclass community trying to cultivate an atmosphere of luxury and high society in their Casino they have the most expensive food drinks and the highest limit on winnings you can have before being banned they Pride themselves on being elegant polite and expensive it's a place in group unlike anything else in the Mojave there is so much detail and life packed into this relatively small area of the map all these places are distinct full of life adventure story personality and history just imagine what else is waiting for you out there if you haven't played this game Prim jacobst toown the prospector's den Mojave Outpost Hidden Valley quarry function the fort Hoover Dam Camp McCarron and so many other amazing locations absolutely overflowing with characters humor and [Music] Humanity the characters of New Vegas are an amazing cast for this section I'm focusing only on the companions though New Vegas has a wonderful array of Companions and friends you can make in your travels you have arcade Israel Ganon Craig aboon Lily Bowen R Alonso Tada Rose of Sharon Cassidy Veronica sent Angelo Edy the iBot and Rex the Mark III cyberhound to keep it spoiler-free as much as I can I'll give you a brief overview of the companions arcade is a doctor who works for the Followers of the Apocalypse and freeside he's an idealist he supports the idea of an independent New Vegas free of Mr House Caesar's lead and the NCR he wants to see the region become a self- sustaining place where people can live and care for one another not where one of the major powers or personalities has sway over everything Boon is a former NCR first Recon Sharpshooter when you meet him he's working as a Sentry and guard and sniper and Novak he is stationed inide dinky the dinosaur the town's mascot Boon takes the night shift and his friend Manny Vargas takes the day shift Boon is troubled by loss by his past and he doesn't know who to trust or where to turn when you recruit him expect that anyone wearing Legion armor will be in his crosshairs and dead as quickly as he can manage Lily Bowen is a nightkin a special kind of Super Mutant created by the master before becoming a Super Mutant she was kind of a sweet old lady and grandmother time has dulled her memories and now she is on antis psychotic medic ation sadly for Lily though she takes it in half doses because Lily has a horrible Alter Ego Leo Leo is a murderous dangerous and utterly destructive entity in Lily's mind a ravening beast the sad part of taking the antis psychotics is gradual and long-term memory loss which is why she takes it in half doses she doesn't want to forget her beloved grandchildren Becky and Jimmy when you meet her she is confused with moments of clarity Lily tends to the big horners in Jacob's town a peaceful community of super mutants living in the mountains at a former Resort Raul is a ghoul an old ghoul a pre-war ghoul Raul is from outside Mexico City in his youth in Mexico he was quite the mechanic and Gunslinger growing up in aural environment makes one quite handy with a gun Raul Survived the Great War with a lot of traumas and damage when you meet him he is a prisoner of Tabitha an insane nightkin that took over Black Mountain a hostile community of super mutants that stands perpendicular to the ideals of Jacob's Town Cass or Rose of Sharon Cassity is a caravaner the lifeblood of the NCR the people who move goods between cities and settlements she's also the daughter of John Cassidy from Fallout 2 she is a foulmouthed hard drinking troublemaker when you encounter Cass she is trapped at Mojave Outpost waiting for her clearance papers to range North to be processed her Caravan was destroyed like so many others she supports the NCR but hates the bureaucracy behind it all and she believes it stops real progress being made despite it all she is capable of being quite a dark and menacing individual when crossed Veronica is a scribe with the Brotherhood of Steel while in theory and in her heart she loves the Brotherhood and in many ways agrees with its Mission but she's a bit of a Rabel Rouser this is why you meet her at the 188 Trading Post she has been assigned to procurement Duty considering the Brotherhood as enemies with the NCR this post is beneficial but it's also Exile she needs to travel in secret to procure supplies for her brothers and sisters still in the base she struggles with seeing what the Brotherhood can be she wants to save them but in many ways they don't want to be saved this situation is of great distress to Veronica Edy is an iBot from Adams Air Force Base in the capital Wasteland developed by the researcher Whitley an enclave researcher Edy has a role to play in The Lonesome Road DLC but vanilla Edy also has quite a fun tale you can uncover as time goes on when you first find Edy in Prim he is damaged and inoperable you'll need to find some parts to repair him and lastly Rex Rex is an old cyber dog in companion to the king when you meet Rex in freeside he's dying his brain is degrading and he needs a new one which is a really weird Adventure all on its [Music] own Fallout games in the modern day all have a great selection of music on the radio we all know that and I hate to say this for fear of drumming up hate comments but I'm not one for ambient music and games I have no issue with it but when I'm playing an open world game like one of these I keep the environmental music off not because it's bad but because I just prefer to listen to the sounds of the environment in the world that's personally what gets me immersed but the New Vegas soundtrack is one I listen to and have listened to pretty much regularly for many years I listen to it while painting miniatures I listen to it on long drives hell it's even one of my ambient soundtracks for when I'm editing while I never listen to it in game just that soundtrack alone I I swear is it's fantastic one of my favorite I don't think anyone is surprised that enan Zur delivered another set of bangers but it's the same music you've been hearing this entire video from this Wasteland they say you are going we will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile now this script is already 10 pages long as I write this I swear I could write another 20 if I went into more specific details if that's something you want to see one day let me know in the comments below but I hope this has gone some way into conveying just how much I love this game bethesda's release of Fallout 3 showed me what Fallout was it brought me into the Wasteland I love but it was Fallout New Vegas that showed me what a Fallout game could be not just good versus evil silver armor guys vers black armor guys slugging it out in a black and white conflict but a gray muddy and murky conflict with characters who are equally complex a place where Shady business is conducted in the brightest settings a place where being good doesn't always mean doing good a place where an evil act could save your life a place for fun adventure pleasure and vice if you find yourself back in the Mojave Wasteland say hi to all of our friends for me oh he's ugly I know I know now this was a bit of a long one this was a hard video for me to make and I appreciate you sticking with me all this way more than just tightly scripted videos like this I also have another series I do on this channel it's called gaming with a friend because I know sometimes playing a lot of these single player RPG games can be lonely or isolating so you can always put on that series of videos and consider yourself to be Gaming With a Friend currently I'm playing Starfield on there but I'm so very grateful that you took time out of your day to watch this video with me today because it was a hard one for me to do I've I'm not a skilled editor so putting together all these you know hundreds of little teeny tiny shots and whatnot took a long time for me to do so thank you for watching please consider liking and consider subscribing I'd love to make more videos like this in the future but just know that is going to take time and in the meantime if you are for some reason wanting to see more of this I do have um uh so far over 30 videos in my Starfield Gaming With a Friend series The Ballot of Wyatt holiday so thank you so much and I will see you in the next video

Channel: Rated J Entertainment

Views: 9,671

Keywords: Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, Gaming, RPG, RPG Games, Bethesda Games

Id: hY7HfXBfYCw

Length: 35min 33sec (2133 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024