New Vegas is "hundreds of hours" deep

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 February, 2010

Plus, you can still gamble on the Strip.

Bethesda Softworks' Pete Hines has described Fallout: New Vegas as "a massive game world that will take you hundreds of hours to explore every nook and cranny".

"Vegas is up and running. It is not a ghost town. It still exists and thrives," Hines told USA Today (thanks VG247).

"There are casinos, and you can go down onto the Strip. It will have a very different feel from that standpoint."

There will be no direct connection to the events of Fallout 3, apart from a few hints here and there, but you still start out customising your character's gender, age, race, skills and attributes.

You also begin outside the Vault. As previously revealed, you're a courier who is robbed and left for dead before being nursed back to health. "Part of the story is finding out what you had and what they took."

The news comes at the same time as magazine reveals which have already spilled onto the internet, talking up the returning VATS system, different conversation options and other new elements.

Fallout: New Vegas is due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this autumn and you can check out the first trailer on Eurogamer TV.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • menage #1 2 years ago

    need ... more ..... fallout

  • TonyCocaCola #2 2 years ago

    Will the gambling establishments be on par with Gizmo's?

  • Antaios #3 2 years ago

    don't ... need ... more ... fallout.

    Really, I don't. One was fun, but I fear another one will get boring really soon.

  • SAMagic #4 2 years ago

    @Antaios: Because you'll be forced to play it? Bioware has several of the original creators behind it, if anyone are the best people to improve on FO3 then they are.


    I hope the gambling is more involving than in the first two games, it could be more of a mini-game than a series of virtual dice rolls and a stat check.

  • BBIAJ #5 2 years ago

    BioWare!? Do you mean Bethesda Softworks perchance?

  • Antaios #6 2 years ago

    @ SAMagic: No, I won't be forced to play it, no need to make snappy remarks like that. Was just expressing a sentiment, the same way you are.
    Edited by 2 at 17/02/10 @ 09:12

  • thegamesthething #7 2 years ago

    1st DLC could include a train station in both games, characters could travel back and forth - you could be your own sidekick. Or that could be really stupid, haven't had a coffee yet.
    Edited by 1 at 17/02/10 @ 09:21

  • deadmonkeyuk #8 2 years ago

    Loved Fallout 3, but in a post Mass Effect 2 gamining world I hope New Vegas improves on FO3 character models

  • Meho #9 2 years ago

    It's not BioWare and Bethesda is just a publisher, the game is made by Obsidian, who indeed feature a bunch of Black Isle guys who made the Fallout the first time round. I am pretty psyched about this. I loved Fallout 3 for what it was (and didn't hate it for what I could imagine it could be) but having Chris Avellone and the crew work inside the parameters set by Bethesda might actually turn out GREAT.

  • YoungPayters #10 2 years ago

    why cant it be out this summer, im doing nothing this summer. and i cant afford to waste 3 days of my life in autumn! not fair!

  • seanthejackal #11 2 years ago

    @deadmonkeyuk they look pretty much the same man, though the hardcore mode sold it right away for me lol. check out FalloutWiki for screenshots

  • schnide #12 2 years ago

    @Antaios

    Yes you can express your opinion, but I think what he was getting at is that if you're not interested in the game, expressing just that sentiment is pretty pointless and no-one cares what you think. No offence.

    Personally, I'm starting to get really excited about this game after Fallout 3, even if it does scare me how much of my life it will absorb. Again.

  • SAMagic #13 2 years ago

    @Antaios:
    What schnide said. I'm all for freedom of speech, but if everyone posts "I don't like this game" in every news post, the comment sections wouldn't be worth reading.

  • robg #14 2 years ago

    if everyone posts "I don't like this game" in every news post, the comment sections wouldn't be worth reading

    You must be new here

  • DaemonSpawn #15 2 years ago

    3 EarlBassett
    I think absolutely everyone is aware of this by now, so anyone who fancies coming into a future Fallout comments section to drop this stunning nugget of info at the first opportunity - don't.

    If you read above posts you'll see that many people still don't know the difference between developer and publisher. I doubt many Fallout 3 players ever heard of Black Isle, Troika or Obsidian, so no - this stunning nugget of info should be dropped at the bottom of all New Vegas-related news.

  • Antaios #16 2 years ago

    @ schnide: perhaps I should have expressed myself a little clearer then. I'm certainly interested in the game and I hope it'll be good, I only have a feeling it's just going to be more of the same, only in a different setting although I hope I'm wrong.

    Is that better? ;)

    @ SAMagic: if you're only able to post 'I like this game' you might as well just close the comment section.

  • FeralGamer #17 2 years ago

    New Vegas is one of the games I'm most excited about.

  • bratmandu #18 2 years ago

    We need the Chryslus Motors Highwayman back in Fallout, or a motorbike. If Obsidian could incorporate driving without fucking it up, this could be a worthy sequel.

  • mg1011 #19 2 years ago

    I so want to like fallout but I just hasn't worked of me. Maybe vagas will change all that.

  • chrisola #20 2 years ago

    117 hrs on Fallout 3, still not done the last Alien expansion, and i have a couple of locations to explore on the map.

    I was addicted to Fallout and Fallout 2 aswell...looking forward to another week off work for New Vegas!

  • Murton #21 2 years ago

    Unfortunately after many contradictory and downright arrogant Fallout 3 related announcements, both before and after release I have a very hard time believing a word that Pete Hines says.

    Here's hoping that Obsidian talk this game up themselves for the most part. That and that Bethesda don't sell out fans of the series when it comes to expansion content yet again, its when discussing what could be called "bad news" that Hines is at his worst.

  • Rubarack #22 2 years ago

    Uh oh, I was rather hoping Obsidian would have gone for something more tightly focussed. Have Bethesda been teaching Grandma to suck eggs?

  • sarcasmoidosis #23 2 years ago

    "still not done the last Alien expansion"

    Don't. Just... don't.

  • EmiliasHorse #24 2 years ago

    Love Fallout3 so much that I completed the 360 version then bought the PC GOTY edition just to see what the grass was like on the other side. It is a wasteland...a beautiful wasteland.

    Looking forward to New Vegas very much.

  • kangarootoo #25 2 years ago

    I'm not sure I need 300 hundred hours of gameplay. I put about 120 into Oblivion, and that was over the course of maybe a year + and a couple of different characters.

    Fallout 3 on the other hand, I put less hours into and I didn't finish it (I'm like tapping at the door, but I tottled off to do other side quests instead of ending the game whilst I waited for the DLC that would remove the level cap, and I just sort of lost interest).

    If Fallout Vegas gave me "just" 100 hours of gripping gameplay I'd be more than happy. Exploring nooks and crannies for hours on end isn't really my idea of fun (and getting from A to B along the various brokwn street in FO3 was almost as mind-numbing as the bloody Oblivion gates in the game of the same name).

    I'm all for choice, and I expect good things, but waving the "we have more hours of activity than anyone else" banner isn't impressing this gamer.

  • 1471 #26 2 years ago

    @Rubarack
    Fallout was always about exploration, it was never tightly focused. That's part of the whole point of it.

    @kangarootoo
    Sounds like you don't get on with the open-world stuff. I played through Morrowind once and while I enjoyed it at the time, I kind of look back on it as basically tedium. I never played Oblivion or Fallout 3 for that reason. The thing with the old Black Isle games is they had a knack for dialogue and characterisation, and the isometric view allowed for a massive world with towns being days of travel apart rather than just down the road or on the other side of a mountain. Hopefully Obsidian can at least enliven their world with some good writing.

  • kangarootoo #27 2 years ago

    @1471

    "Sounds like you don't get on with the open-world stuff"

    You know, its hard to say dude. I loved wandering around Oblivion, just tootling about a horse and watching the vistas change from green woodlands to pastel moorland to snowy peaks. I loved it, it was genuinely like sight seeing, watching the sun set after a long journey.

    But I've winged in a previous thread about Fallout 3, for all its greatness, having bland brown environments (don't care whether they are realistic or not... which they aren't - lets not have that discussion again here please). Maybe its that I only find exploring nooks and crannies interesting if they don't all look the same?

    I played Morrowind through to completion back in the day. No idea how many hours it took - somewhere between shit loads and even more than that. But I revisited it recently after bagging a copy off eBay, and boy had it aged badly. I got about 2 hours into it before I got bored, I kid yee not. Horses for course I know, so maybe my tastes have just slowly changed over the years (I double loved Daggerfall, and that was ludicously enormous).

    The main thing about Vegas that sounds interesting is the location. I can take a fair amount of wandering through a barren landscape if there is a neon cityscape sat waiting for me on the horizon. I know FO3 had a few towns, but still all felt like they were made of dustbins glued together with mud, and 'all' the underground areas were either caves or vaults. Vegas sounds it might really have some groovy variety, so I am by no means dismissive.

  • trip919 #28 2 years ago

    Information I wanted to hear. Glad it’s not going to be a weedy 20hr romp.

  • Collymilad #29 2 years ago

    Going to be awesome

    Comment disclaimer: hopefully

    :p

    As for open world. I've always been baffled by how many people love oblivion but find fallout boring. Oblivion is so samey. It almost all looks the same and even the dungeons are split between about 5 styles just with different layouts. I had no drive to explore the game world at all. Fallout had far more unique and interesting locations imo.
    Edited by 1 at 17/02/10 @ 18:03

  • knightmt #30 2 years ago

    I enjoyed Fallout 3 more than I thought I would I try to avoid these big games but they keep calling me back.
    I finished Fallout 3 by acident I wish I had avoid the main story more.

  • TheBrow #31 2 years ago

    Sounds great; can't wait!


    (poet and knows it)

  • Mr.DNA #32 2 years ago

    Fallout 3 had a few snags here and there, like all games do, but for my money it's Bethesda's finest work yet. I absolutely gobbled up everything that the game threw at me, including all of the DLC (although some of the DLC, especially "Mothership Zeta", was utter cack), and if the one and only Mr. Avellone has managed to pry himself away from Alpha Protocol for long enough to have a say in the proceedings then I have high hopes for this next iteration.

    EarlBassett: Can you go a solitary day in the comments section without amassing a whole wad of negative rep?
    Edited by 1 at 17/02/10 @ 18:50

  • Lamb #33 2 years ago

    Sweet bring on the super mutants, retro music, bobble heads and nuka cola!

    I didn't complete Fallout 3 either but I did enjoy it immensely and I had completed all the side quests. Although I was probably two hours from the end I had already read what the ending was so I felt a little disappointed. Then something else came up, I wonder whether I still have my saves somewhere.

    For Vegas they should add some pizza parlours :p and a better more positive ending.

  • Rubarack #34 2 years ago

    @1471

    Sounds like you've got a faulty memory there, yes Fallout was big on exploration but only very few areas were mapped and those areas were painted with a very high level of detail. It's a game where exploring every nook and cranny wouldn't take a terribly long time, but doing so was very rewarding. You could argue that technology has allowed them to further dilute that content now and certainly that's what Fallout under the Fallout 3 engine would look like, but their best work has never been "and in cave #7654 you can find a toaster"