Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition

If you never played Fallout and want to know what it's like, but are put off by the dated 2d graphics and mechanics of the originals (which would be a huge mistake, btw, but I digress) - play this. Or simply disregard all of the above and PLAY THIS. It's highly recommended to get the Mods which merge all the small shitty compartments (necessary due to the consoles then) of Freeside and the Vegas Strip into coherent areas and add a few NPCs. Apart from that the Vanilla version gets my nod for first timers. You can still mod the sh*t out of the game later.

"Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter." One of the most cohesive and internally consistent open world RPGs ever made, and also one of the best. It's initial release was marred somewhat by a rushed development period, but years worth of patching has turned it into a classic beloved by its fans. If you haven't played it yet, you're doing yourself a disservice. This game draws plenty of inspiration from the first two fallout games, marrying their writing, setting and prior world-building to an improved version of Fallout 3's gameplay. The result is something very special. I could go on about all the fantastic characters, the interesting locations and unique factions all day but they are better experienced ingame. I will add that the ultimate edition contains some of the best DLC made in the last decade the new locations, items, characters and story arcs added to the world feel like worthy additions to the game, rather than chunks of content that were cut out before release. Its continued appeal is proven by it's thriving modding community and I encourage you to explore it to enhance this great game further. If anything I have written sounds intriguing to you then please, play this game, and remember to watch out for cazadores.

FO:NV is the extraordinary, brilliant lovechild of two of the greatest gaming studios: Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment. Let me explain what this means: Bethesda, known for Skyrim, Morrowind and the Fallout Series, is a studio that makes games which are set in + huge open worlds with an abundance of locations, + fantastic for hours of exploration, + with excellent RPG character development elements and in an engine that is + highly moddable, meaning you can customize and add almost everything you can imagine via nexusmods.com and there are free DLC-mods, which makes for + amazing replay value. You will create at least half a dozen characters to see how things play out best. What most their games lack though, sadly, is an engaging story, simply because they are too big. This is where Obsidian comes in. If you felt both Fallout 4 and Skyrim felt a tad bit lackluster when it came to the main plot, Obsidian has you covered with + an excellent, engaging storyline, unconventional characters and plot twists, better than in any other Fallout game. If you like RPGs, a post-apocalyptic Western setting and exploration to the max, this classic is the game for you. If you are afraid of shooters, there is VATS... To the bad: The game war riddled with bugs when it came out, accounting for many bad reviews at the time. Luckily, the bugs have been fixed and what you don't like you can mod. The main problem today is, as so often, - mediocre graphics. Unmodded, FO:NV looks like Fallout 4 on lowest settings. Modded, it's quite a bit prettier. - mediocre FP Shooting. If you love First person shooters and don't like the in game VATS aim assist, the shooting is certainly not the smoothest you've come across. - time. You'll need a lot of it, potentially. Whilst it is possible to steam through the game in about 20 hours, you're more likely to take 120 - 200, all DLC included. TL;DR: It's a classic for a reason. With extremely strong character building and story, it's an RPG more than an (action) shooter. It used to be underrated because of early bugs and issues, which are resolved now. Replay value is immense, because of them sweet sweet mods. Finally on GOG - buy it, it is fantastic. Caesar approves.

After a cripplingly disappointing Fallout 3 who else could fix the system but the people who had experience on working on the classic Fallout games at Obsidian? (Sadly, Troika wasn't a thing anymore by then) New Vegas addresses everything that could be addressed. Open world still feels a bit cramped, but now tries to cover a much tinier area making the lack of overworld map from F1 and 2 much less noticeable and world more alive. Story, dialogue, characters, interactions are actually interesting and well written and the main criticism of F2 (the constant pop references) is now an optional trait. A lot of ideas from Van Buren (original F3 concept) and classic titles are reused. The variety of ways you can play is probably the biggest ever and all skills have use not just directly, but also in dialogue checks, making them even more useful. Of course, the core of the game, that being Fallout 3, is still deeply flawed, buggy and quite ugly looking. No mod or fanpatch since then could fix/change/rebalance in a really smart way that either. It is also still arguable (especially after the release of such projects like Wasteland 2) if going for a (probably) much cheaper to produce classic looking isometric spin-off wouldn't have lead to a better game in the end overall. It is also worth noting that the DLCs for the game were sadly quite disappointing, with only Old World Blues feeling more or less complete and balanced, while others feeling too short, or too unbalanced or too boring. But all that said, New Vegas is definitely the best Fallout game to come out since Fallout 2 and the only since then to try to stick to the original concepts of freedom of choice and exploration in an exciting adventure. And it does it incredibly well.