Fallout: New Vegas
Game » consists of 25 releases. Released Oct 19, 2010
The post-apocalyptic Fallout universe expands into Nevada in this new title in the franchise. As a courier once left for dead by a mysterious man in a striped suit, the player must now set out to find their assailant and uncover the secrets of the enigmatic ruler of New Vegas.
Welp, there go 20 hours I won't be getting back.
For years I have been valiantly crusading against the aloofness gamers and gaming journalists all seem to embody when discussing games made by Obsidian Entertainment. Every game they release is a broken, buggy mess and rarely does anyone hold them accountable. I fully acknowledge Kotor 2 was rushed by LucasArts - but even that doesn't excuse the broken nature of many aspects of the game, though I don't fault Obsidian for the missing content or the ending. I still love Kotor 2 and when it came out I thought Obsidian would deliver me many years of quality games, oh man was I mistaken.
The first obvious chink in the armor was how easy it was for amateur programmers to fix most of the problems Obsidian and LA left in Kotor 2, concerning but not really alarming, there are obviously some really talented and dedicated people out there. Since then, though, we've had the absolutely unplayable Neverwinter Nights 2, the steaming pile that is Alpha Protocol (in development for over four years) and, most recently, Fallout: New Vegas.
I was actually surprised, no, amazed with how relatively stable and bug free NV was the first couple of days I played it. There was some AI wonkiness, some clipping issues, my male player character having a female voice for some reason, but nothing game breaking like in every other Obsidian game - until I was about twenty hours into the game. Little did I know my fate had already been sealed days earlier when I completed a seemingly benign request involving killing someone over a debt on the New Vegas Strip - seems like a pretty standard quest for a game about post apocalyptic Las Vegas. Or modern day Las Vegas for that matter. Attempting to reenter The Strip after killing this deadbeat cowboy left me with a black screen of death and a corrupted autosave. Upon further investigation it appeared everyone who had killed the guy in that location (instead of luring him to another zone) experienced the issue and some had success fixing it by dismissing companions. Not being terribly attached to mine I sent them on their way and journeyed further alone, content I had averted what seemed like a very serious bug.
How wrong I was.
After checking out the Lucky 38 casino I find myself with the same error attempting to leave the lobby of the building to walk back out onto The Strip - this time with no companions to dismiss. I've since learned this issue is related to the dead guy outside's cowboy hat, picked up and delivered to the creditor to complete the quest. If there is no "Old Cowboy Hat" outside on The Strip the area will black screen of death you ever time (unless you dismiss an NPC follower apparently). Some fans have figured out you can avoid any issue by getting another "Old Cowboy Hat" from a vendor or building and wearing it when entering or exiting The Strup, which is pretty clever. Unfortunately it doesn't help me since all my saves are in this damn Lucky 38. Yep I'm an idiot, oh well.
Here's hoping the next patch fixes it - and a PROTIP for Bethesda/Obsidian: a patch that requires people who've already experienced the glitch to retart or reload anyway is no patch at all. Get off your asses and stop releasing broken games. I am not your bug testing department - unless you want to start paying me; instead of the current arrangement where I pay retail price for games then throw them against the wall in rage because you just don't care.
For years I have been valiantly crusading against the aloofness gamers and gaming journalists all seem to embody when discussing games made by Obsidian Entertainment. Every game they release is a broken, buggy mess and rarely does anyone hold them accountable. I fully acknowledge Kotor 2 was rushed by LucasArts - but even that doesn't excuse the broken nature of many aspects of the game, though I don't fault Obsidian for the missing content or the ending. I still love Kotor 2 and when it came out I thought Obsidian would deliver me many years of quality games, oh man was I mistaken.
The first obvious chink in the armor was how easy it was for amateur programmers to fix most of the problems Obsidian and LA left in Kotor 2, concerning but not really alarming, there are obviously some really talented and dedicated people out there. Since then, though, we've had the absolutely unplayable Neverwinter Nights 2, the steaming pile that is Alpha Protocol (in development for over four years) and, most recently, Fallout: New Vegas.
I was actually surprised, no, amazed with how relatively stable and bug free NV was the first couple of days I played it. There was some AI wonkiness, some clipping issues, my male player character having a female voice for some reason, but nothing game breaking like in every other Obsidian game - until I was about twenty hours into the game. Little did I know my fate had already been sealed days earlier when I completed a seemingly benign request involving killing someone over a debt on the New Vegas Strip - seems like a pretty standard quest for a game about post apocalyptic Las Vegas. Or modern day Las Vegas for that matter. Attempting to reenter The Strip after killing this deadbeat cowboy left me with a black screen of death and a corrupted autosave. Upon further investigation it appeared everyone who had killed the guy in that location (instead of luring him to another zone) experienced the issue and some had success fixing it by dismissing companions. Not being terribly attached to mine I sent them on their way and journeyed further alone, content I had averted what seemed like a very serious bug.
How wrong I was.
After checking out the Lucky 38 casino I find myself with the same error attempting to leave the lobby of the building to walk back out onto The Strip - this time with no companions to dismiss. I've since learned this issue is related to the dead guy outside's cowboy hat, picked up and delivered to the creditor to complete the quest. If there is no "Old Cowboy Hat" outside on The Strip the area will black screen of death you ever time (unless you dismiss an NPC follower apparently). Some fans have figured out you can avoid any issue by getting another "Old Cowboy Hat" from a vendor or building and wearing it when entering or exiting The Strup, which is pretty clever. Unfortunately it doesn't help me since all my saves are in this damn Lucky 38. Yep I'm an idiot, oh well.
Here's hoping the next patch fixes it - and a PROTIP for Bethesda/Obsidian: a patch that requires people who've already experienced the glitch to retart or reload anyway is no patch at all. Get off your asses and stop releasing broken games. I am not your bug testing department - unless you want to start paying me; instead of the current arrangement where I pay retail price for games then throw them against the wall in rage because you just don't care.
Obsidian + notoriously glitchy engine = something that gives me nightmares. Sorry to hear that you got screwed like that, but damn if it wasn't telegraphed a bit with Alpha Protocol.
How can people make excuses for this kind of shit? If this wasn't Fallout everyone would hate this game and it wouldn't have reviewed well.
Because Obsidian has excellent writing, and the bugs aren't really entirely their fault beings as the engine itself is broken." How can people make excuses for this kind of shit? If this wasn't Fallout everyone would hate this game and it wouldn't have reviewed well. "
@Soap said:
Your done with Obsidian because their game on a half broken engine is half broken? You realize Fallout 3 was quite broken as well, and a lot of the bugs that are in New Vegas are also in Fallout 3.(Or were before patches)" I couldn't agree more with you. I'm done with Obsidian now, I got burned on Alpha Protocol pretty badly, didn't think they could screw up Fallout but they managed it. I'm going to treat there name and logo as an instant no go zone on games from now on. "
Not to be that guy, but this is why you keep multiple save files. Every 5th-10th save I do I make a new one, just in case.
It's not like it wasn't well known that this was going to have a ton of bugs. The game lost a star in Jeff's review because of that. Every other Gamebryo game has been like that...
" Not to be that guy, but this is why you keep multiple save files. Every 5th-10th save I do I make a new one, just in case. It's not like it wasn't well known that this was going to have a ton of bugs. The game lost a star in Jeff's review because of that. Every other Gamebryo game has been like that... "I know, I don't see why people expect games on this engine to have nearly no bugs. The engine is notorious for being half broken all the time.
" @RE_Player92 said:No i'm done with them because there last two games have been utter shit and while Fallout 3 was semi broken it was at least fun and showed some creativity. New Vegas might as well be a fucking paint by numbers.Because Obsidian has excellent writing, and the bugs aren't really entirely their fault beings as the engine itself is broken." How can people make excuses for this kind of shit? If this wasn't Fallout everyone would hate this game and it wouldn't have reviewed well. "
@Soap said:Your done with Obsidian because their game on a half broken engine is half broken? You realize Fallout 3 was quite broken as well, and a lot of the bugs that are in New Vegas are also in Fallout 3.(Or were before patches) "" I couldn't agree more with you. I'm done with Obsidian now, I got burned on Alpha Protocol pretty badly, didn't think they could screw up Fallout but they managed it. I'm going to treat there name and logo as an instant no go zone on games from now on. "
I'm so sick of everybody whining over the glitches. Reviewers and players alike are utterly roasting the game on account of it being a technical embarrassment. All of these people are fools. The game is buggy, but not to the point people are making it seems. I'm 30 hours in and Haven't experienced anything major ( 2 crashes and some scripting stuff). If people would stop whining about the little things they would find one of the best games released this year. My advice is to hop of the QQ band wagon and actually experience the game. /End rant.
Also this inst really directed to you OP that does sound like it sucks, but I haven't ran into anything like that. I'm just sick of all these idiots whining about how utterly broken the game is, when in reality it's fine.
If I was the type who felt inclined to type in all caps for this, I would. But to retain effect, I will underline:" I'm so sick of everybody whining over the glitches. Reviewers and players alike are utterly roasting the game on account of it being a technical embarrassment. All of these people are fools. The game is buggy, but not to the point people are making it seems. I'm 30 hours in and Haven't experienced anything major ( 2 crashes and some scripting stuff). If people would stop whining about the little things they would find one of the best games released this year. My advice is to hop of the QQ band wagon and actually experience the game. /End rant. Also this inst really directed to you OP that does sound like it sucks, but I haven't ran into anything like that. I'm just sick of all these idiots whining about how utterly broken the game is, when in reality it's fine. "
The guy lost 20 hours of gameplay. What the eff kind of fine game does that?
Anyone who plays a gamebryo engine game without saving every hour or so in a new slot is asking for trouble.
Anyone who plays an obsidian game without saving every 30ish min in a new slot is asking for trouble.
Would be like Kojima making a final fantasy game then complaining about cutscene length, just the combo it was basically guaranteed to be fucking busted. Not to mention impressions/reviews told you, yo shit's broken.
When I get GOTY version a year from now with DLC etc even with patches or renting this through gamefly damn sure I'll be saving literally every time I complete anything.
OP doesn't say but if you didn't have a save pre that quest that was fairly recent you were kinda asking for it (not that it makes broken games ok, just that common sense could have prevented this).
" @KyleDaniels said:uh, not saving properly? I don't know why you would save in one specific location all the time, that seems like your asking for trouble.If I was the type who felt inclined to type in all caps for this, I would. But to retain effect, I will underline:" I'm so sick of everybody whining over the glitches. Reviewers and players alike are utterly roasting the game on account of it being a technical embarrassment. All of these people are fools. The game is buggy, but not to the point people are making it seems. I'm 30 hours in and Haven't experienced anything major ( 2 crashes and some scripting stuff). If people would stop whining about the little things they would find one of the best games released this year. My advice is to hop of the QQ band wagon and actually experience the game. /End rant. Also this inst really directed to you OP that does sound like it sucks, but I haven't ran into anything like that. I'm just sick of all these idiots whining about how utterly broken the game is, when in reality it's fine. "
The guy lost 20 hours of gameplay. What the eff kind of fine game does that? "
but sorry for your loss (I guess) OP
Now you know to always buy your Gamebryo games on a home computer. So, at least you got something out of the experience.
Now, excuse me while I use the command console to give myself 300 old cowboy hats, just to spite you.
Sorry for being an asshole. That sucks dude. For real.
I save at least every hour or two to make sure this doesn't happen. So far Im 20 hours in and have had 1 crash and some Ai small glitches. Buggy game? yeah. Great game? Yes
More buggy than Fallout 3? Damn. I guess me not being able to buy it at this time is good, when I finally can buy it maybe Obsidian will have released an update or something.
I bought New Vegas the first day it was out but, after hearing all the stories of messed up bugs. I'm waiting for the patches to come out before I play it.
Pro tip: Make 10 save files. When you need to save, save over the oldest save file. By the time you save over that same save file again, a good portion of time will have passed. Easiest way to manager multiple saves for instances like this.
Luckily, 12 hours in, I haven't had to go back to a previous save.
"@nemt: So let me get this straight. You knew of Obsidian's past in terms of quality. Then, you refused to read any review for it as they all decried the bugs in the game. So you bought the game anyway and now you're frustrated by the bugs and deficiencies in quality that the game has? Sounds to me like you shouldn't be angry at Obsidian / Bethesda you should be angry for dropping out of elementary school. The product didn't buy itself, you bought it in complete ignorance. Caveat Emptor. "
No previous Obsidian game had anything that made the game completely unplayable, barring save game corruption. Jeff's review on this site gave it four stars and didn't mention game breaking bugs. As far as I can tell no professional review mentioned anything this bad, despite it being a widespread issue, not saying they dropped the ball but to claim HURR DURR U DUM is really pretty stupid on your part.
I think maybe you're the one who dropped out of elementary school, you seem to lack basic manners and common sense. As you're an insufferable jackass please refrain from replying to my threads/blogs in the future.
Jeff's review does happen to mention bugs IN THE FIRST GODDAMN LINE" @BunkerBuster said:
"@nemt: So let me get this straight. You knew of Obsidian's past in terms of quality. Then, you refused to read any review for it as they all decried the bugs in the game. So you bought the game anyway and now you're frustrated by the bugs and deficiencies in quality that the game has? Sounds to me like you shouldn't be angry at Obsidian / Bethesda you should be angry for dropping out of elementary school. The product didn't buy itself, you bought it in complete ignorance. Caveat Emptor. "
No previous Obsidian game had anything that made the game completely unplayable, barring save game corruption. Jeff's review on this site gave it four stars and didn't mention game breaking bugs. As far as I can tell no professional review mentioned anything this bad, despite it being a widespread issue, not saying they dropped the ball but to claim HURR DURR U DUM is really pretty stupid on your part. I think maybe you're the one who dropped out of elementary school, you seem to lack basic manners and common sense. As you're an insufferable jackass please refrain from replying to my threads/blogs in the future. "
Wow, this thread didn't degenerate quickly or anything, did it?
Maybe the reviews didn't mention game breaking bugs because the reviewers didn't experience any? I mean, a lot of us aren't experiencing game breaking bugs. Just minor inconveniences. And while it's a bit silly to put all the blame on the OP for not saving often enough, there's certainly some blame to be placed there. After all, if you're encountering problems it makes sense to be extra careful. And he wasn't. The bud needn't have caused him to lose 20 hours of gameplay if he'd been saving regularly, as one almost always does in this sort of game, whether or not it's made by Obsidian.
Anyway, there was a patch this afternoon on the Xbox. I don't know what it fixed, since I'm not having any problems. Anyone else have any ideas?
That is truly unfortunate, nemt. I don't blame you for any of it. Perhaps you should try to get a refund... oh, wait, the stupid game market considers a played game a used one, so, unlike any other broken media, you can't get a refund for bugs.
That aside, your detractors on here are committing two basic fallacies:
One: Mean Exposure Fallacy: What one person, or even a couple, experienced does not define the general experience. If the game did not fuck you over, that does not deny the poor experience of others. Nor does their poor experience deny your good one. Indeed, if you haven't had a bad time, why are you on here bitching out people that did? Shouldn't you be playing your unbroken game?
Two: Victim Blaming: Advice for how a victim could have avoided being hurt is not advice--it cannot help the already committed offense. Someone compared it to stubbing a toe. Let me go a bit more sensational. If a beaten woman comes to you describing her abuse, do you chide her about dating such a violent guy? Do you blame her for not seeing him for what he was? Or, worse, for not just keeping her mouth shut? Why are we defending a developer that clearly doesn't care about its customers, just their money? Some of you need to seriously think about your allegiances.
Did you read anything I wrote, either?
I hadn't been experiencing any major bugs up to this point I thought I made that pretty clear in the original post.
and I was using multiple saves, like in every RPG. I acknowledged I should've used even more saves and spread them out further - but I can hardly be blamed for Obsidian's laziness and/or incompetence. That's a pretty shitty defense and I doubt that would be the response from OE or Beth.
It would be like Steve Jobs telling iphone users they aren't holding it right.
You aren't using the broken phone right.
You aren't playing the broken game right.
same shit
I'm about 20 hours in and so far I've had the game lockup once and had to reload a save because a quest couldn't be completed (there were two guys that I needed to kill that were completely frozen in place and could not be damaged). Of course that's in addition to the general AI oddities and inconsistent framerate.
However, I find myself thoroughly enjoying this game in spite of those issues. Hopefully some patches will be coming to alleviate some of these problems, but more importantly, hopefully Obsidian will make enough money off of this game that they'll be able to afford to make some drastic improvements to their coding practices by retraining their current staff or hiring some new top notch software engineers.
I'm pretty sure Obsidian has made a good amount of cash on every project they've worked on save Alpha Protocol (their only original title, as far as I know). They remain very talented on the creative end of game development, but they're easily some of the worst programmers/debuggers on the planet - and have been for some time. It's not a money issue.
I was enjoying the game even more than Fallout 3 up until now, but there are parts I'd never want to play through again, hence my reluctance to start over. If there isn't a patch to make my current game playable and not glitch out upon entering the strip I think that's it for me, with this game and Obsidian in general.
I'll be amazed if a patch comes out. The major issues were obviously known about prior to launch and prior to yesterday's patch - they've chosen to ignore them for whatever reason.
Well...for the two days that I played the game nonstop, it was awesome. But after the patch I can't load any of my saves (and I saved on a dozen different files at different sections of the game just in case something happened) and I'm not starting over. I'm going back to Kirby: Epic Yarn and Enslaved.
Who cares if it's the same as Fallout 3? The pacing, and the story is far better then that of Fallout 3, Obsidian has great writers. But I don't feel like arguing with you, because judging by your posting history from the last few hours...all you want to do is hate on the game." @CL60 said:
No i'm done with them because there last two games have been utter shit and while Fallout 3 was semi broken it was at least fun and showed some creativity. New Vegas might as well be a fucking paint by numbers. "" @RE_Player92 said:
Because Obsidian has excellent writing, and the bugs aren't really entirely their fault beings as the engine itself is broken." How can people make excuses for this kind of shit? If this wasn't Fallout everyone would hate this game and it wouldn't have reviewed well. "
@Soap
said:Your done with Obsidian because their game on a half broken engine is half broken? You realize Fallout 3 was quite broken as well, and a lot of the bugs that are in New Vegas are also in Fallout 3.(Or were before patches) "" I couldn't agree more with you. I'm done with Obsidian now, I got burned on Alpha Protocol pretty badly, didn't think they could screw up Fallout but they managed it. I'm going to treat there name and logo as an instant no go zone on games from now on. "
5 hours, 57 minutes ago - New Vegas is empty.... Empty
5 hours, 4 minutes ago - Fallout New Vegas is my game of the year 2008! :D oh... Wait.
3 hours, 34 minutes ago - Will I be able to return fallout new Vegas to hmv for the reason that it's just crap?
3 hours, 4 minutes ago - a 1 star review
So yes, I'm not arguing with you anymore, because clearly all you want to do is hate on the game all day.
@Dork_Metamorphosis said (from another thread):
Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me." @nemt said:
It took amateur programmers a handful of man hours to fix almost every bug/glitch in Kotor 2. Obsidian [b]just doesn't care[/b]. They're lazy or incompetent or both. "Well, when people buy their games regardless of the state they're released in ... "
@Kierkegaard said:
"Two: Victim Blaming: Advice for how a victim could have avoided being hurt is not advice--it cannot help the already committed offense. Someone compared it to stubbing a toe. Let me go a bit more sensational. If a beaten woman comes to you describing her abuse, do you chide her about dating such a violent guy? Do you blame her for not seeing him for what he was? Or, worse, for not just keeping her mouth shut? Why are we defending a developer that clearly doesn't care about its customers, just their money? Some of you need to seriously think about your allegiances. "With a company he obviously knows throws out shovelware on release date, this is nowhere close to akin to simple rape. This is dating a convicted rapist, liquoring him up and then drugging your own drink. Shitty products HAVE ALWAYS been the fault of the consumer.
I'm so sick of everybody whining over the glitches. Reviewers and players alike are utterly roasting the game on account of it being a technical embarrassment. All of these people are fools. The game is buggy, but not to the point people are making it seems. I'm 30 hours in and Haven't experienced anything major ( 2 crashes and some scripting stuff). If people would stop whining about the little things they would find one of the best games released this year. My advice is to hop of the QQ band wagon and actually experience the game. /End rant.How are 2 crashes nothing major? I've played many games, and the majority have no problems that even resemble something so drastic. In reality, it sounds like the furthest thing from fine.
Also this inst really directed to you OP that does sound like it sucks, but I haven't ran into anything like that. I'm just sick of all these idiots whining about how utterly broken the game is, when in reality it's fine.
In a good game I don't mind AI weirdness, clipping issues, texture pop in, etc. I can even overlook more serious things like broken skills/items. I expected all this when I bought a game by Obsidian.
I didn't expect to be permanently stuck and unable to progress further based on a random item in an area.
And if you can exercise a bit of inductive logic, it should be obvious that the best choice is to wait for the bloody game to get patched. There are hundreds of good games that exist, surely you don't have to buy the new shit just because it's new?
Let's also keep in mind that open-world RPGs are extremely hard to code and bug-test. Even Red Dead Redemption had some massive bugs, and that is nowhere near as complex a world as an Oblivion-style one.
" @Soap said:I was only hating on it because it had made me so angry, I was trying to see if I was the only person who felt that.Who cares if it's the same as Fallout 3? The pacing, and the story is far better then that of Fallout 3, Obsidian has great writers. But I don't feel like arguing with you, because judging by your posting history from the last few hours...all you want to do is hate on the game. 5 hours, 57 minutes ago - New Vegas is empty.... Empty 5 hours, 4 minutes ago - Fallout New Vegas is my game of the year 2008! :D oh... Wait. 3 hours, 34 minutes ago - Will I be able to return fallout new Vegas to hmv for the reason that it's just crap? 3 hours, 4 minutes ago - a 1 star review So yes, I'm not arguing with you anymore, because clearly all you want to do is hate on the game all day. "" @CL60 said:
No i'm done with them because there last two games have been utter shit and while Fallout 3 was semi broken it was at least fun and showed some creativity. New Vegas might as well be a fucking paint by numbers. "" @RE_Player92 said:
Because Obsidian has excellent writing, and the bugs aren't really entirely their fault beings as the engine itself is broken." How can people make excuses for this kind of shit? If this wasn't Fallout everyone would hate this game and it wouldn't have reviewed well. "
@Soap
said:Your done with Obsidian because their game on a half broken engine is half broken? You realize Fallout 3 was quite broken as well, and a lot of the bugs that are in New Vegas are also in Fallout 3.(Or were before patches) "" I couldn't agree more with you. I'm done with Obsidian now, I got burned on Alpha Protocol pretty badly, didn't think they could screw up Fallout but they managed it. I'm going to treat there name and logo as an instant no go zone on games from now on. "
And I'm going to have to disagree with you about the story, the first section of the game is so painfully slow, following tiny hint from dead empty town to dead empty town for hours on end.
It's got slightly better now and I'm not trying to cause any friction here, simply stating my opinion which is obviously very different to yours. (which again, thats all good!) lol
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