Make the right choice
New additions look set to make combat all the more in-depth with the introduction of a weapon modification system allowing you to, among other things, change the size of magazine clips or add a scope or silencer to your weapon. Crafting will also feature and in addition to being able to create ammunition from objects you find you can also harvest plants and create various medicines and chemicals to help you out.Like Fallout 3, New Vegas will be full of dialogue with strange characters that affect the missions you take and your reputation in the game. One of the first objectives that you embark on takes place in Goodsprings, a Wild West town complete with a saloon and unfriendly locals. You meet the ironically named Sunny Smiles who gives you a 22. Varmint Rifle and tasks you into the wilderness to test out your shooting skills by killing some troublesome geckos. This all leads to the first main mission where you have to protect a local tramp called Ringo who is hiding from the local bounty hunter. Cobb. This is your first choice in a game that is full of moral dilemmas that will affect your reputation depending on what you decide to do. The bar owner is sheltering Ringo from Cobb and it's up to you to decide whether to take him out, join him in causing havoc in the town, or ignore the whole problem completely.
Providing you help Ringo out you'll begin to experience the sort of depth that we can expect from New Vegas. With the correct skill tag, you can barter and purchase explosives from a nearby store and changes to your reputation when the mission is complete bring with it perks that aid you throughout your journey. It's here that you also get re-introduced to the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S) system from the first game, which pauses real-time combat and action is played out from varying camera angles creating a combat system that Bethesda has described as a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat. Shooting outside of V.A.T.S mode has been overhauled with a new ‘Ironsights’ feature enabling you look right down the sights of your weapon in third person view, like a traditional shooter. This should make using V.A.T.S a preference rather than a necessity.
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