Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas is a 2010 action role-playing game that was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game, which was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, is set in the Mojave Desert 204 years after a devastating nuclear war. The player controls a courier who survives an assassination attempt, and becomes embroiled in a conflict between different governing factions that are vying for control of the region. Fallout: New Vegas features a freely explorable open world, and the player can engage in combat with a variety of weapons. The player can also initiate conversations with non-player characters in the form of dialogue trees, and their responses determine their reputation among the different factions.

After the release of Fallout 3 in 2008, Bethesda contracted Obsidian to develop a spin-off game in the Fallout series. The developers chose Las Vegas, Nevada, and the surrounding Mojave Desert as the setting because they evoked the 1950s imagery the series was known for, as well as the post-apocalyptic setting of Mad Max. Project director Josh Sawyer wanted the story to focus on greed and excess, and used the history of Las Vegas as an inspiration. To design the game's map, Obsidian used data collected by the United States Geological Survey and reference photographs taken by Sawyer. Bethesda gave Obsidian 18 months to develop New Vegas, which several journalists have noted is a very short time in which to develop a Triple-A game.

Fallout: New Vegas was a commercial success and is estimated to have sold 11.6 million copies worldwide. Critics praised the writing and quests, but questioned the lack of significant gameplay changes when compared to Fallout 3, and criticized the numerous glitches present at launch. Six pieces of downloadable content for the game, including four story-based add-ons that added new areas for the player to explore, were released. Since its release, fans and journalists have re-evaluated New Vegas and it is now regarded as one of the best games in the Fallout series and as one of the greatest video games ever made.

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. The player controls a courier who survived an attempted killing by an unknown assailant. The goal of the game is to complete a series of quests to find the assailant; the game eventually culminates in a war between governing factions that are vying for control of the Mojave Desert. In addition to the main quests, the player can participate in optional, unrelated side quests. Kristinie Stiemer of IGN estimates completing every quest in the game takes around 100 hours.

New Vegas features a freely explorable open world map. The player can explore locations ranging from small settlements and abandoned buildings to large locations like the Hoover Dam and the city of New Vegas, which was built from the remnants of Las Vegas. 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. The player can use the Pip-Boy 3000 map to fast travel to previously discovered locations, as a radio, and listen to songs from the 1940s to the early 1960s on makeshift radio broadcasts.

The player can engage in combat with non-player characters (NPCs). The weapons in the game include standard guns, energy-based guns, melee weapons, and explosives. Guns can be equipped with additional modifications such as a scope. While in combat, the player can use a gameplay mechanic known as VATS, which pauses the game and allows the player to target specific body parts of an enemy. VATS is dictated by a statistic known as Action Points. Attacks made using VATS cost Action Points; when the player runs out of Action Points, they must wait a short period before they can use VATS again. Some NPCs can be recruited as companions, and will accompany the player and assist them in combat.

At the start of the game, the player can customize the courier's appearance by choosing their gender, age, and race. They can then allocate points into seven primary attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. These attributes are known as SPECIAL stats. There are 13 secondary attributes whose point totals are affected by SPECIAL stats: barter, energy weapons, explosives, guns, lockpick, medicine, melee weapons, repair, science, sneak, speech, survival, and unarmed. If the player has a high intelligence stat, for example, they will be more proficient in the medicine, repair, and science skills at the beginning of the game. The player can add more points into skill stats whenever they earn enough experience points to level up. Experience points can be earned through several methods, such as killing an enemy or completing a quest. When the player reaches an even-numbered level, they can select a permanent, beneficial upgrade known as a perk. For example, the perk Rapid Reload increases the reload speed for guns by 25 percent.

The player's decisions made throughout the game have an impact on the development of the story and game environment, representing a high degree of player choice and freedom. The player can initiate conversations with NPCs in the form of dialogue trees. For example, early in the game a doctor tells the player that they nursed them back to health and looked through their belongings for identification. The player can then choose to respond with one of the following dialogue options: "Thanks for patching me up, Doc.", "You shouldn't have gone through my stuff.", and "What do I do now?" Some response options are only available if the player has enough points in a certain stat, such as 50 points in the Barter stat to ask a shopkeeper for a discount. The responses the player chooses during conversations with NPCs as well as any previous actions determine their reputation among the in-game factions. For example, if the player decides to help a faction, they may be given new armor or access to a secret base. If the player's actions are perceived as detrimental, a faction might send assassins to try and kill the player. Some factions dislike one another; if the player is helpful to one faction, they may be unable to complete quests for another faction. Reputation extends to companions; some companions will leave the player if a specific faction dislikes the player.