Despite the fact that it’s still a blend of the first-person and role-playing genres, and that it uses the V.A.T.S. system, Fallout: New Vegas has a few features to set it apart from Fallout 3.
The latter was developed by Bethesda Softworks, who are better known for their work on the Elder Scrolls games, while New Vegas, developed at Obsidian Entertainment, includes several members of the original Fallout team from Black Isle Studios.
One of New Vegas’s new features is the game’s optional “Hardcore Mode,” which affects your character’s basic abilities profoundly. The game’s senior producer, Jason Bergman, sheds some light on the mode over at the PlayStation blog:
“Hardcore Mode can be turned on or off at any time, although if you want the Hardcore trophy, you have to turn it on when initially prompted and leave it that way all the way to the end of the game. When it’s on, players will have to eat, sleep, and drink water every day. In addition, ammo has weight, companions can die, Stimpaks heal over time, and damaged limbs can only be healed with a Doctor’s Bag.
While you can fast travel in Hardcore Mode, you can’t if the time it would take to get you there would result in the player dying from dehydration/exhaustion/starvation.”
So, effectively, Hardcore Mode makes New Vegas much less of a game and more of a simulation. The game’s due out next week on October 19th in North America and on the 22nd in Europe.
