14 DAY TRIAL // Fallout: New Vegas is a post apocalyptic role playing game from developer Obsidian and publisher Bethesda, taking the player to a relatively intact Vegas area and in the middle of a fight for power between Caesar's Legion, the New California Republic and the Brotherhood of Steel.
I am playing this game using the Hardcore mode, which adds more realism oriented features, like heavy ammunition and healing which takes place over time, alongside a need for food and water.
One of the big additions introduced in Fallout: New Vegas is the addition of a crafting system which allows the gamer to create quite a bit of new stuff, ranging from ammunition to complex drugs and chems.
It might be a very cool system, allowing the gamer to be pretty much self sufficient out in the desert, tending his own wounds, creating his own food and drink and even building better munitions that can turn the tide of a fight.
It blends well with the post apocalyptic feel of New Vegas and is a sign of the more Western oriented feel of the Obsidian game.
The problem with the system is that it's much too opaque for the average gamer.
The recipes can only be seen when a work area, like a bench or a campfire, is active, which means that I end up carrying a lot of things around, even using my companions as pack mules, but I rarely have everything I need to create the super powerful ammunition and those very nice Super Stimpacks.
And then, just as I drop my entire Misc object set somewhere in my room, I get to a quest which specifically requires something from the pile (thank God for fast travel).
It's true that fast travel reduces moving around time significantly but it's a pain not to have some handy recipes that can be consulted any time and anywhere in order to come up with a plan and then create those objects that have a clear impact on the game.
After this small rant on piece of advice: be sure to keep those rocket and dinosaur toys around, they can be very useful.