Fallout New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas is a role-playing game (RPG) that junks the swords and sorcery often associated with the genre in favour of a bleak but often darkly humorous vision of a post-nuclear America.

An indirect sequel to the highly successful Fallout 3, it looks and works in much the same way. But, while the previous game centred around a bombed-out Washington DC, New Vegas relocates the action to the other side of the continent.

You play an unnamed courier, rescued from the brink of death by a kindly doctor who patches you up and sets you on your path to finding out who tried to kill you and why. Not that you necessarily need to do so right away. New Vegas positively encourages you to distract yourself with random side quests as you progress. Indeed, you could easily spend months playing the game and still find yourself discovering new locations and hidden missions.

Apparently having weathered Fallout’s fictional apocalypse somewhat better than the east coast, New Vegas’s environments aren’t quite so relentlessly stark as they were in Fallout 3. The Vegas Strip itself remains largely untouched by the devastation and when you eventually reach this lively setting you will find further diversion in the shape of gambling mini games.

Other additions include factions with whom you can ally yourself and companions to whom you can issue basic commands. A 'hardcore' mode is available for those who are up for a real challenge.

Improved ‘iron sights’ aiming means that combat feels very similar to something like that of a first-person shooter, such as Call of Duty, even though the accuracy and power of your shots are, in fact, governed by a series of complicated role-playing statistics. A completely alternative, more strategic combat system is also available.

On the downside, the graphics can look a little outdated and we encountered a few gameplay glitches, though downloads should be available to fix these by the time you read this. Minor grumbles aside, Fallout New Vegas is a deeply impressive game and a worthy successor to our favourite RPG of 2008.