It's a free wasteland

The title is a quote graciously taken from Veronica, my in-game companion in Fallout: New Vegas. Each time the player asks to know more about her, that is her first response. I find that much like "War never changes" is a perfect fit for Fallout 3, her line is an excellent fit for its sequel. The Fallout series has always been about choices, and while I have not (yet) played the first two and a half games in the series, I feel as though New Vegas upped the ante over 3 and pushed the limits of how far a decision making RPG can go.

Before I get into my outpouring of love for New Vegas, I want to get my gripes out of the way. The bugs and glitches in this game are through the roof. I have come across so many glitches, it makes Enter the Matrix look like a well programmed game. While I haven't kept track, I'd say the game has froze on me about six times, twice happening today. It isn't like there is one particular reason why the game keeps freezing/crashing. The first time I was just wandering the wasteland when it froze. Twice more it got stuck on the loading screen between areas (with the loading bar still rolling - quite funny seeing as how the point of a moving text or object during a loading screen is to show that the game is still running and has not froze). Both times today it happened after the loading screen, when the screen goes black for a moment as the player hears the door shut behind them. While I have learned to cope with the freezing by saving often - usually every few minutes - it is still frustrating.

How about a save file not loading? Trust me when I say that that almost ended the game for me. Luckily people online found that loading a previous save file and then pausing and loading from that game will resolve the issue. What is with the programming in the game? I haven't even mentioned the other non-threatening bugs, such as floating objects, companions and npc's getting stuck in the environment, wacky character animations, etc. Ever see a person type at an invisible computer? How about a chair spinning inside an empty room? It saddens me that I sometimes need to alter my gameplay just to continue playing the game. Just a few days ago I walked into an area with ground textures that hadn't loaded. I quickly turned around and decided to take a different path around the mountain. No point in walking into a literal well-laid bug.

But frustrations aside, I have to admit that this is an amazing game. After finishing Fallout 3, I craved for more. I played through all five download content content packages, and while they were mildly entertaining (especially Point Lookout, which I highly recommend to any Fallout 3 enthusiasts), they were too short and random to satisfy that craving. Months went by, and eventually Fallout: New Vegas was released. After hearing about the staggering amount of bugs, and how it just wasn't as good as 3, I decided to pass. By then my craving had subsided, and thought my Fallout days were over. Obviously that wasn't true, with a friend continually urging me to play it, trying to explain how different it was from 3, but staying true to the almost-perfect game mechanics. I eventually gave in after finding the game for $5 used. After about an hour, I was hooked once again.

Gone are the days of a linear story with just two sides: good and kinda-bad-but-still-an-okay-idea (the Brotherhood vs. the Enclave). Yes, New Vegas still has a pretty linear story, but even if many of the sidequests and other factions don't have much to do with the overall ending to the game, the developers sure made it feel as though they do. Gaining fame or infamy with different factions and within important places is a fresh take on the choice progressing RPG genre. Join one faction, piss off another. Kill npcs of one of the factions, and gain infamy. Many quests with factions lead to destroying your reputation with another faction. While I haven't had a chance to mess up the main story yet, I feel like I have already made enemies with a couple groups.

Which leads me to my current choices. The Powder Gangers just seem like idiots. They're a bunch of criminals who have ganged up to take on anyone who faces them, especially the NCR, the ones who put them in prison in the first place. I too am a criminal, but at least I have a goal. I have yet to see them come up with a true goal in mind, besides hijacking caravans for weapons and other items. For some reason I'm still hated by them, just because I killed four of their men in the first mission of the game. I even killed a small hoard of NCR men who stormed their prison facility. I'll leave them be for the time being in the game.

The Great Khans haven't even made an appearance in my game, so I don't know what their ideals are yet.

The NCR and Caesar's Legion. I still haven't hit the turnaround of the story, so I can't say I know much about the motives of these two groups. But I can say that I'm not a fan of the NCR. Killing those six or seven men at the Powder Ganger's prison gave me high infamy within the NCR faction, putting me at vilified on their list. The reason why I was happy to see this, to be an enemy of theirs, is that I find their goals to be pointless, and the faction falling apart. Wherever I go, I hear stories of how while they're smarter than their enemies and have better weapons, they still have less men. Stories about how the NCR is the "sheriff" of the west, and yet the faction is falling to pieces. And their motives? They're still fighting for the Hoover Dam, or so I'm told since I haven't been there yet, for power. Literally, power, like the generator. We'll see how true that is later. They ran the Brotherhood out of Helios One for what reason? Power. So far I have heard of them claiming two areas, both for the sake of power. Luckily they didn't know (or rather didn't believe in, same as the Brotherhood) of the secret weapon at Helios One. I made sure to put it to good use by targeting the local NCR men at the facility, and putting them out of their misery. Too bad the player isn't allowed to target other locations like the missile silo in Fallout 3. The NCR also comes across as a big group of bullies. They mean well by trying to play sheriff, but so far just push other groups around for their own means. At least the Brotherhood in Fallout 3 had a means to their ferocity.

Caesar's Legion seems like a good fit for me. I'll be honest, I started playing New Vegas with the thought that I wanted to play as the bad guy this time in a Fallout universe. Here's my story to the introduction to the Legion. As I walked into a random town, a man comes running out, and as he spots me, claims he won the lottery. Now, each time I've come across a random NPC in the wasteland, I've let them be, and run on their way (though the last two turned around and shot me after they walked away, but I didn't take that into account with this man). But I wanted to be a little evil, and wanted that lotto ticket. As soon as he ran past me, one bullet. I happily took the lotto ticket and anything else of value off of him. As I walked into town, the Legion who had taken over approached, and told me their story of fooling both the NCR and Powder Gangers into coming into the town at the same time, captured both sides, and killed most of them. They held a lottery for who died how. One lucky winner got to leave town unscathed. I now how that lottery ticket. I knew then that this was the group for me.

And so I listened to their ideals, about how they hate the NCR for pushing them back West (or East? I've gotten quite confused about where the Legion resides or came from), and how the Powder Gangers are just a bunch of fools to them. The NCR seemed too uptight and nice for me, and knew that to stay in good faith with the NCR, would have to hold back on my killing. Sure there are plenty of Powder Gangers and Legion members to kill out there, but the NCR has their own base. I know that one day, I will take down that base as one man versus a small army (though most likely with a companion). So I decided to do a quest for them. They sent me to kill three NCR officers in a large camp. When I got there, the NCR didn't look kindly upon me, but did not shoot either. By that point I went from being Vilified to a Merciful Thug, so I don't know how I gained trust in their eyes. I did one mission for them, and during the second realized that by helping them, I was gaining fame. As much I wanted the achievements, exp and items from completing the mission, I couldn't help but turn on them. Killing the three officers wasn't enough for me. The whole camp had to be exterminated. One by one I took out unsuspecting NCR members, many with a literal knife in their back. I then proceeded to steal everything from the camp and sell it for money elsewhere. I've killed a good 15-20 NCR members during that attack, and yet still only held a Merciful Thug title. As easy as it would be to kill random NCR members around the wasteland, I'm keeping them alive in case they're needed for quests.

Before I get into the final faction feelings, I would like to say that Bethesda did a good job incorporating time into New Vegas. In 3, time was just used for two things: sleeping to recover health, and when shops opened and closed. The same applies to New Vegas, but the developers made sure to have missions use the clock as an element. Certain objectives cannot be completed during some times of the day. For example, the Helios One weapon cannot be activated during the night, because the solar panels need the sun in the right spot to "detonate." I hope other missions incorporate the clock as well. The best use so far has been the NCR rangers. Soon after I became vilified, three NCR rangers, the best of the best for weapon handlers, randomly ran up to me in the desert, and told me I had three days to live, lest I change my image within the NCR. The first time I saw them I attacked, because I hated the NCR. They demolished me. Three hits and I was dead. I reloaded and decided to let them keep talking for two more days. Every 24 hours they would find me, wherever I was in the desert, and check up on me. Since I hadn't changed my title (Merciful Thug at the time), they kept counting down the time, two days, then one day. During the final day I destroyed the camp I previously spoke of. Let me tell you, those final 24 hours were nerveracking. After having been demolished the first time, I really didn't want to try to face them again. I had no idea how I was going to kill them. They only thing I had my side was that during the final 24 hours, I hid in a vault. As I emerged, I realized that I had probably spent about 48 hours inside the vault, well past the time frame of when I was to be killed. At that point I knew I had little time to plan for an attack. Every few minutes I would save my game, knowing that they could strike at any moment, from any direction. As I was turning frantically in every direction, watching to see them run up from a certain direction (since the player has a few seconds to see them running up from the distance), still just outside the vault, I decided that a nearby rock was my best plan. So there I stood for a good ten minutes in real time, waiting for certain death. When they arrived, they said one sentence, and started firing. That rock was my saving grace...well, and a good fifteen stimpacks. But the rock made for good cover, and they weren't smart enough for the first few minutes of the fight to just walk around it and run up the backside of the hill. By the time they realized this, I had already taken out one ranger, and grievously wounded the head ranger. Many in-game weeks have passed since the attack, and I have yet to receive another ultimatum from the NCR. Maybe later when I decline to join them. I will say that I'm pissed that I was offered a quest to help the NCR, and for completing it, would be absolved of all acts of violence against the NCR. I obviously declined the offer, yet the game still glitched and was absolved of my acts. I just realized this earlier today, as my rank went back to neutral. Very unhappy that the game did this.

So finally, I come to the quest I've been working on lately, which has been to help out the Brotherhood of Steel. I was happy to see them return to the game, after what I thought was just myths of them living in the west. The first companion I came across turned out to be a Brotherhood member, and after she stated that she hates the NCR, I knew we would quickly become friends. Her and I have done much together, and so I'm trying to help her figure out her path. I just completed her mission today, and while it was disappointing, I at least tried. After checking online, it looks as though both endings to her quest are sad, yet I chose the correct route for future gameplay. I still need to figure out how to help the rest of the Brotherhood, and whose side I should take. Unfortunately while looking at my companion notes online, I read about a later mission in the game, which made my stomach sink. It may be a free wasteland, but it doesn't make it any less harsh.