‘Fallout’ franchise wins big with trip to ‘New Vegas’ - Military Video Games, computer games, games, gaming - Navy Times

‘Fallout’ franchise wins big with trip to ‘New Vegas’

The lights of Las Vegas have always been a draw, but for a wasteland traveler trudging around a post-apocalyptic desert, a night’s rest in a luxury penthouse suite never seemed so appealing.

Fortunately, that’s in the cards in “Fallout: New Vegas.”

“Fallout” titles capture an idyllic 1950s vision of the future, but the Vegas setting brings the series into the Rat Pack era. The dichotomy between the vast desolation and the walled-off glitz motivates the player to find a way into the city.

Your character is a courier sent to deliver a package in New Vegas, and you’re shot and left for dead in a shallow grave. You awake in the town of Goodsprings to a doctor who patches you up, helps you customize your look and strengths, and sends you out into the unfriendly world to face raiders, death claws and geckos.

It’s been a couple of hundred years since nukes destroyed most of the world, but they apparently spared New Vegas.

Unfortunately, the gate to the city is patrolled by large security robots that demand a passport or want you to submit to a credit check to show you have at least 2,000 bottle caps (“Fallout” currency) to spend in the casinos.

The game features three main factions — the New California Republic, Caesar’s Legion and Mr. House — and there are competing smaller gangs that have various allegiances. A much-improved companion rotary menu offering eight commands made it much easier to take on quests with a partner.

For “Fallout” veterans looking for a tougher challenge, the game offers a hard-core mode in which food and water become more important and ammunition adds to your weight load.

“Fallout: New Vegas” offers players a vast new wasteland to explore, plenty of humorous character interactions, and enough new creatures and weapons to continue the fun.

Bottom line: It’s a blast.