Fallout: New Vegas

with a varmint rifle.|alt=A large creature is running on two legs. An unseen person is pointing a gun at the creature. Fallout: New Vegas is an action role-playing game that can be played from either a first-person or a third-person perspective. It is set in the Mojave Desert, 204 years after a nuclear war that decimated much of the United States. In addition to the main quests, the player can participate in optional, unrelated side quests. The player is equipped with the Pip-Boy 3000, a wearable computer that serves as a menu and allows them to access items they have acquired, view detailed character statistics and active quests, and look at the map. They can also use the Pip-Boy to fast travel to previously discovered locations, and listen to makeshift radio broadcasts. They can then allocate points into seven primary attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. An optional difficulty level in Fallout: New Vegas is Hardcore Mode, which adds survival mechanics the player must keep track of. Ammunition has weight, which necessitates careful inventory management, and companions can permanently die. but if the player completes the entire game with it enabled, they unlock an achievement. ==Plot==

Setting , based on the Flag of California|alt=A drawing of a bear with two heads. To the left is a red star. Underneath the two-headed bear are the words NEW CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC. Fallout: New Vegas takes place in 2281, 204 years after a devastating nuclear war between the United States and China, known as the Great War. Three major factions vie for control of the Mojave Desert, known in-game as the Mojave Wasteland: the New California Republic (NCR), a democratic republic attempting to restore representative government and maintain law and order; Caesar's Legion, a violent totalitarian army of tribal slavers inspired by the Roman legion; and Mr. House, a reclusive New Vegas businessman who commands an army of Securitron robots and rules as the city's technocratic dictator. As part of an eastward expansion from California, the NCR took control of the Hoover Dam, which provides electricity to the surrounding area. Both Caesar's Legion and Mr. House seek to control the Hoover Dam for themselves and advance their own plans for the region. Minor factions include the Boomers, a heavily armed xenophobic tribe at Nellis Air Force Base; the Powder Gangers, escaped convicts from an NCR correctional facility; the Great Khans, a tribe of drug dealers; and the Brotherhood of Steel, a militant organization that aims to secure and hold old-world technology. Story While delivering a data storage device known as the Platinum Chip to New Vegas, the courier is ambushed by mobster and casino owner Benny, who steals the Platinum Chip and shoots the courier in the head. A Securitron named Victor digs out the courier from a shallow grave, and physician Doc Mitchell nurses them back to health. The courier departs to search for Benny and the Platinum Chip. They confront Benny in a casino on the New Vegas strip; the courier can either kill Benny and recover the Platinum Chip or let him escape. The courier's actions attract the attention of the NCR, Caesar's Legion, and Mr. House, and the three groups each attempt to recruit them to aid in their efforts. It is revealed Mr. House survived the nuclear apocalypse in a life-support chamber. He created the Platinum Chip, which contains a program capable of upgrading his Securitron army; the device was initially meant to protect Las Vegas during the Great War, but the war began before the Chip could be delivered. After the Platinum Chip was located, the courier was tasked with delivering it to Mr. House. Benny stole the Platinum Chip as part of his plan to usurp Mr. House with the assistance of a reprogrammed Securitron called Yes Man. Hoover Dam becomes the center of the conflict between the NCR and Caesar's Legion. The player can choose which faction to support, resulting in one of four endings. If the player supports the NCR, they successfully repel the Legion's attack at Hoover Dam and annex the Mojave Wasteland into the Republic. If the player supports Caesar's Legion, they force the NCR to retreat as the Legion conquers New Vegas and the surrounding area. If the player supports Mr. House, the overwhelming Securitron army forces both the NCR and the Legion out of the area, securing control of the region for House alone. Alternatively, the player can usurp Mr. House and take control of the Securitron network themselves with the help of Yes Man, establishing an independent New Vegas. ==Development==

Van Buren and Bethesda purchase Fallout: New Vegas began with the cancellation of Van Buren, which was intended to be the third game in the mainline Fallout series. Black Isle Studios was set to develop a real-time game with turn-based combat set across Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Prior to Van Buren cancellation, former Black Isle and Interplay staff cofounded Obsidian Entertainment. In 2007, Bethesda Softworks purchased the Fallout intellectual property. The following year, Bethesda released Fallout 3, which was well received by critics and sold over five million copies in 2008. Prior to the release of Fallout 3, Bethesda had already started development on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda wanted to support Fallout 3 with more content and decided to contract another developer to create a large expansion pack. Sawyer wanted the story of Fallout: New Vegas to focus on greed and excess. One of the working titles for the game was Fallout: Sin City. Obsidian used the Las Vegas Beltway as a point of reference while designing the map because they felt circling the map with a road network would help the player navigate. Bethesda requested the inclusion of large structures to serve as visual landmarks for the player. Obsidian instead focused on making minor adjustments, such as giving the player more tactical options while in combat. Zur was inspired by the soundtrack for the film There Will Be Blood; he worked with audio director Scott Lawlor to compose music for a string quartet. The game also includes celebrity voice acting from Rene Auberjonois, Felicia Day, Dave Foley, John Doman, Michael Dorn, Kris Kristofferson, Zachary Levi, Wayne Newton, Ron Perlman, Matthew Perry, William Sadler, and Danny Trejo. When asked about the hastened development, Sawyer said: "We were working somewhere between forty and fifty hours a week, which is not too crazy ... It was a really tight schedule, but I don't think we had a point where we all thought 'this is crazy we can't do it.'" Obsidian's lack of experience with the Gamebryo engine hindered development. Little work had been put into designing post-story content once the beta stage of the development cycle had been reached, and Obsidian decided to prioritize optimization instead of adding content into an already unstable game. Designer Chris Avellone noted that the post-story content would have been small, such as additional dialogue options with NPCs and changing the location of NPCs in accordance with the ending the player chose. ==Release and downloadable content==

Fallout: New Vegas was announced in April 2009, and the first trailer was shown in February 2010. Four pre-order bonuses were available for players who pre-ordered the game from Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Steam, and Walmart. Each pre-order bonus included weapons and items the player could access at the beginning of the game. Pre-order sales for Fallout: New Vegas were higher than those for Fallout 3 in North America and the United Kingdom. Fallout: New Vegas was released in North America for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on October 19, 2010; October 21 in Australia; and October 22 in Europe. By November 8, the game had sold five million copies worldwide and garnered $300 million in revenue. The market-research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research estimated by 2015, the game had sold 11.6 million copies worldwide. Fallout: New Vegas suffered from numerous glitches upon release, including crashes, corrupted saved games, and frame rate issues. Fallout: New Vegas was supported with six downloadable content (DLC) add-ons, whose development was led by Avellone. The second DLC was Honest Hearts, which is set in Zion National Park and revolves around the courier's involvement in a conflict between several tribes. The final story-driven DLC was Lonesome Road, in which the player tracks another courier named Ulysses, who rejected the job of delivering the Platinum Chip to Mr. House. Two additional, non-story-driven DLC add-ons were released: ''Courier's Stash granted access to items that were originally released as pre-order bonuses; and Gun Runners' Arsenal'' added new weapons, firearm modifications, and new types of ammunition. ==Initial reception==

Upon its release, Fallout: New Vegas received positive reviews from critics. New Vegas missed the threshold by one point; Metacritic assigned it a weighted-average critic score of 84/100 for the Windows and Xbox 360 versions, and an 82/100 for the PlayStation 3 version. Bethesda's decision to use Metacritic's rating as a determinant for bonus payment was criticized; journalists said Metacritic lacked the objectivity needed to measure the quality of a game. Fallout: New Vegas story and writing were well received, and were consistently highlighted in reviews. Fallout: New Vegas won the 2011 Golden Joystick Award for Role-Playing Game of the Year, and the 2010 IGN award for Most Bang for Your Buck. The game was also nominated for the Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year award during the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards but the award went to Mass Effect 2. ==Re-evaluation and legacy==

Since its release, fans and journalists have re-evaluated Fallout: New Vegas, and the game's reception has become significantly more positive. Eurogamer Emma Kent wrote: "It felt like even the smallest story was carefully crafted to maintain interest and deliver a rewarding kicker ... on the macro scale, New Vegas took a more serious tone by weaving a complex power struggle that mirrors many current real-world conflicts." Part of the game's re-evaluation comes from patches that fixed many of its glitches. Kat Bailey of VG247 noted once the discourse regarding the technical aspects subsided, players grew to appreciate the game for what it is. PC Gamer Dominic Tarason wrote: "Years of dedicated community efforts have culminated in New Vegas being a better game than ever." Notable mods for the game include Tale of Two Wastelands, which fully combines the games of Fallout 3 and New Vegas; Fallout: New California, which serves as a prequel and expands on the Courier's backstory, and others. Journalists have noted that New Vegas harbors a passionate fanbase within the Fallout fandom. Journalists have also noted that some fans negatively compare Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 with New Vegas. When compared with New Vegas, fans commonly criticize 3 and 4 for uninteresting storylines, downgraded role-playing mechanics, and limited options for player expression. Rebellion Developments designer Ben Fisher remarked that New Vegas served as a reference point for Atomfall, a 2025 game set in an alternate history after the Windscale fire. When Bethesda director Todd Howard clarified the issue, PC Gamer published an article with the headline New Vegas is a very, very important game to us,' says mildly exasperated Todd Howard, who will never stop getting grilled about New Vegas". The season takes place 15 years after the events of the game, and features flashbacks of Cooper Howard's character interacting with Mr. House before the Great War. ==Notes==