This isn’t about the content or experience of playing the game per se, that has its own thread of course. No, this is instead about the experience I had today following on from my time playing FONV.
For those of you that don’t know me I’m a Brit and I live in the UK, I’ve never been to Las Vegas and don’t know a vast amount about it (watched a bit of CSI Las Vegas and obviously know about the casinos, but that’s about it). So upon playing FONV it was like entering a total fantasy land, I just assumed everything I was encountering was a figment of the designers’ imagination (plus it’s set in a post apocalyptic future and how likely is it that what’s in that future will have survived from today?)
So anyway, I’m a good way through FONV now and have visited virtually all the main sites, done the lap of the map to get to New Vegas itself as well as the major outlying landmarks. So today, purely out of curiosity, I decided to look at a map of Las Vegas to see what the actual reality looks like.
Well fuck me… Pretty much EVERY location in the game actually exists. I spent best part of an hour using google maps to do virtual tours of Goodsprings, Nipton, Primm (I actually shouted “oh my god!” when I went to street view and straight away saw the roller coaster), Nellis AFB, Boulder City and of course the strip itself. Another OMG moment was recognising the distinctive Stratosphere tower on the sky line - tell me this isn’t the Lucky 38, I dare you.
So my respect for Bethesda/Obsidian has just gone from “very high” to “through the roof” for making not only an amazing and compelling game, but one that actually mimics reality so close that I, someone who has never set foot in Nevada, could probably navigate Las Vegas and its environs purely from playing FONV.
Has anyone else had this experience? What about people who have been to Vegas in reality? Better yet, have any actual Vegas dwellers played the game? I’d love to know what you think!
[killjoy]Well, the Stratosphere Casino was built decades after the Fallout timeline diverged from real life, so I don’t think it’s a big deal that it looks kinda different.[/killjoy]
Hehe I know what you mean. I was kind of disappointed they didn’t quite go to Laughlin and I’m not really sure why,
But for no reason at all I had assumed any apocalyptic Vegas adventure had to start with semi-normal Laughlin, before descending into whatever the wretched hive of scum and villainy that Vegas would become.
My first thought was that you could probably see them rebuilding St. Paul’s, for the 37th time.
Nah, I gotta go for the Irony. Fallout Detroit is a gleaming paradise, That has restored lost technology into build a city of peace and efficient public transport through clean, perfectly maintained streets. And the cops are generous and polite.
It had actually come as a surprise to me the first time that I read that the original Fallout map corresponded to places in California. I just hadn’t even thought about it, even though I think somebody in-game mentions that The Boneyard was originally L.A.
And of course, since Fallout 3, everytime I see a shot of one of D.C.'s historic buildings on TV, I think “Man, that joint is lousy with supermutants.”
There was a brief glimpse of the Fallout Chicago at the beginning of Fallout: Tactics, but even though I got my name in an easter egg, I don’t consider that game cannon. Plus, their Chicago looked not a goddamned thing like the real town.
Great thread. I’m still fumbling around in the wastelands and am interested to see how New Vegas will match up with my hazy mental map of the real thing. Up 'till now, I thought Primm was just a play on “prim and proper” like “Novac” is a play off of the hotel sign in that town.
Here’s the Pioneer saloon from Goodspring’s Wikipedia site:
[And a picture of the Prospector Saloon from the game:
Yeah, you’re right. Plus there’s the fact that the Lucky 38 is on the other side of the strip to the Stratosphere.
Holy shit! If that isn’t attention to detail I don’t know what is. :eek: Do you think Obsidian sent a mapping team to Vegas to build as an authentic replica as they could? I mean, even the famous Welcome sign is in exactly the same spot on the map as it would be in reality (although I deduced that from google maps).
I agree, but I’m not sure what the weapon choices would be like. I mean, I don’t think “Jolly Good Talking To” or “Strongly Worded Letter To The Editor” are going to do much good in VATS against one’s enemies, after all.
Seriously though, all the Fallout games are based on “real” (but fictionalised) locations- Fallout 3 was set in Washington DC, for example, and the first two games covered Southern California east to Reno.
Having been to the area covered by Fallout: New Vegas in real life I can say it does add a certain something to the game.
What impressed me was the attention to detail with the firearms- all the “new” (ie not in FO3) guns are based on real ones- the 9mm pistol is a Browning High-Power, the various lever-action firearms are Winchesters or Marlins, the .357 Magnum revolver is a Colt Peacemaker clone, the Service Rifle is a wooden-stocked AR-15, etc. It’s quite impressive IMHO.
Fallout 1 & 2 had mostly weapons drawn from real life, it seems. Not knowing about guns myself, I found myself surprised from time to time to see to see a reference to a gun I knew only from Fallout. Of course, it turned out that 10 mm pistols are not nearly so ubiquitious. I don’t know how actual enthusiasts felt, but for me 10 mm and .223 FMJ are still strongly associated with Fallout.
In New Vegas, though, they seem to have gone even further in making weapons drawn from real-life, only they don’t use the actual names.
I’ve been impressed so far that in New Vegas, they clearly have somebody on the staff who is informing somebody about the classical pronunciation of Latin, and other Roman topoi. This is something that most game makers wouldn’t bother with. I haven’t been to the Legion camp, but so far there has been a mention of Caesar as “Kigh-sar” and a villain named Sīlus, pronounced with the long-i unlike the way you’d do it in English. There’s a dog later on named Lupa, and I’m curious if they’ll pronounce it with the short-u, contrary to the way ‘lupus’ is pronounced in English.
The calibres are real, but (most) of the guns in FO3 had no direct real-world counterpart, with a handful of exceptions- things like the Chinese Pistol (Mauser C96, not chambered for 10mm in RL), the Chinese Assault Rifle (AK-47 or near enough to it, anyway), the .32 revolver (various S&W/Iver Johnson .32 revolvers), the Combat Shotgun (Used the design for the RL PPSh-41 SMG, which was not a shotgun), and Lincoln’s Repeater (Henry Rifle/Winchester 1866, not capable of firing .44 Magnum in RL).
As you observe, 10mm isn’t actually that common in RL (.40 S&W is the more common calibre)- although when the first Fallout game was released 10mm was a “new” calibre and looked like it might displace 9mm In The Future (where the Fallout games are set, remember!), but .223 is an incredibly common calibre IRL- it’s the “Civilian” version of the military 5.56x45mm NATO round and the differences between them are pretty much for serious, dedicated gun enthusiasts to argue over and everyone else not to worry about, basically.
I had an interesting discussion with one of my colleagues, who was ranting about the “funny way they were pronouncing Roman words” and would not believe me when I was insisting that the “strange” pronunciations of those Latin words was, in fact, closer to the “Correct” one than the “Anglicised” versions most people (who aren’t Latin Grammar Sticklers) would use today.
