Fallout: New Vegas Is Genius, And Here's Why

(Spoilers for New Vegas, obviously)
My Twitter: / hbomberguy
My Patreon: / hbomb
My Twitch: / hbomberguy
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:52 - Part One: Creating Player Engagement
9:27 - Part Two: Died To Live
26:40 - Part Three: Difficulty and Progression
40:44 - Part Four: Finding the Fun
47:34 - Part Five: Player Control is Good, Actually
54:05 - Part Six: Beyond Good and Evil
1:14:17 - Part Seven: Making Fallout Fallout
1:27:20 - Part Eight: Sticking The Landing
1:30:41 - Conclusion
1:33:28 - Credits
Thanks to:
Kat Lo, my producer @lolkat
Poon Senook for the art - @sneksucks
Shaun for doing a reading from Tacitus- @shaun_vids
Mandy for giving me the line lol - @Lord_Mandalore
Civvie11 for watching and giving notes - @Civvie11

[@quynlanvuorensyrja5484]

Thinking about it, Caesar ironically made two of the biggest mistakes Rome ever faced. He tried to expand farther than he could actually govern, and he didn’t set up a clear line of succession (even though he knew he was dying). It’s actually depressing that he read all that history and, instead of truly learning from it, he just repeated it, glaring flaws and all, on a smaller scale.

[@anarchisticauthoritarian228]

Well the non expanding/looting empire had to handle gigantic monetary problems of inflation and tax dodging wich pretty much bankrupted the state. And the successors of the Cesar had a 50% chance to be totally nuts... So I don't think there were just a few key reasons, its just entropy that destroys empires.

[@willnash7907]

Can we also talk about how he interpreted the clash of ideas in Hegelian dialectics as a literal club to the face contest. As in, we literaly just fight and hope that somehow produces the best society to survive... and not a severely weakened manic warrior state that will eat eatself within ten years.

[@luxither7354]

I do agree that he's a fucking idiot to not set up a line of succession, but he wasn't claiming too much land for him to handle. His territories, according to the one trader we meet who trades inside it, says the territory is well maintained. Its speculated that after New Vegas, when the legion enters California they'll be spread thin due to a lack of raiders/tribals to reinforce their ranks but even than, without a confirmed sequel, we cannot say either what would happen.

[@114927jarka]

He also tried to replicate imperial rome simultaneously throwing out everything thing good about the republic of rome. And also failed to understand that the Roman's also had a technology advantage a lot of the time back then if it wasn't a physical advantage almost always strategic or tactical.

[@bruhguy2356]

I think Caesar’s whole plan was to take Vegas and then reform the Legion. Think about it, in the game it says its his Rome. I know this is headcanon nonsense but he gave me the impression of someone who planned for this. Until one Courier fucked it all up.

[@libenhagos9335]

in the fallout universe bisexuals are known for their ability to deal 10% extra damage to everyone.

[@Argusthecat]

Just like in real life!

[@Argusthecat]

@@I_hate_you_8--D Friend, if I could cancel people on Twitter, there wouldn't be anyone left.

[@critrabbit8975]

AH HA! NOBODY EXPECTS THE FLIRTY INQUISITION!

[@acekabogen]

Can confirm I passively harm everyone around me by about 10% of their will to live. Not exactly how the mechanic works in fallout, but they got pretty close.

[@mattblack9161]

I’m the greatest gunslinger in the west: and it’s all because I’m bi

[@cliveowen334]

Rest in Peace Matthew Perry, thanks for shooting us in the head

[@Oldass_Deadass_dumbass_channel]

Ring-a-ding-ding :(

[@Sentinel_White]

the courier got to him in the end

[@thecurticus6318]

I’m currently doing a play through where I sleep with Benny. After I found out about Perry I said I’d do this play through in honor of him, figured Benny had earned it at this point. He sure enjoyed himself.

[@C1ockwork]

​@@thecurticus6318 *Wild Wasteland noises aight...

[@DoctorProph3t]

@@thecurticus6318 I always killed Benny in awesome action hero ways, but my recent playthrough, and I burst through the suite doors to ambush him, didn’t feel the same. Think I lost my taste for superevenging murder. Rest easy Mat

[@jinjowatts]

The water quest goes even deeper. When you investigate the cistern, there's even another party affected. Vault dwellers. And if you choose to save them, you actually find them later and they're very thankful.

[@hamzahnurreez8420]

How do you find them and start their quest.

[@AhrkFinTey]

@@hamzahnurreez8420 talk to one of the farmers at ncr sharecroppers, they'll tell you that their water has been getting contaminated. the quest is called hard luck blues

[@socomply5963]

​@hamzahnurreez8420 I'm p sure I just did this, it's one of the early game ones you get, it's the mystery behind the place (can't remember the name fully) but at the end of the mission you find out that fixing the water filter for the NCR will sacrifice a bunch of dwellers that required the power you would rerout

[@LordDaret]

Eh, that is one of the few quests that gets criticized. There is no reason for 4 dwellers to survive trapped in a HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE vault for over 50 years. I only picked the option dooming them because I didn’t believe they were even still alive.

[@Ficmon]

​@@hamzahnurreez8420aerotech park

[@TempleofSolomon]

Did you know, In the British version it’s called the “platinum crisp”

[@deprogramclips4409]

Can confirm, am Bri'ish.

[@metetural9140]

@@deprogramclips4409 what mate you stoopid

[@finlaywallbanks7304]

All these replays and this comment make me cringe, so hard

[@metetural9140]

@@finlaywallbanks7304 same but I just play along for the non-existent laughs

[@tonsofsodium6641]

Aw hey pompey I loved your, uhh, bar in that ERB song

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Even the caps that are in the game aren't just nuka-cola caps -- they're predominately sunset sarsaparilla caps which was more popular in Nevada before the war, making New Vegas feel like it has it's own distinct subculture and they're not just trading in generic wastelander money.

[@FixYourGameplay]

Wow, that's genius

[@Soroboruo]

The Blue Star caps are so neat too, since there's a low chance of getting one from drinking a Sarsparilla - that further tires lore and gameplay together. Plus they usually aren't radioactive so Sunset Sarsaparillas are my healing item of choice for a lot of the game.

[@GamingWithHajimemes]

@@Soroboruo I legit had existential crises when managing my inv and debating whether to throw away a minigun or all my sunset sasparillas. They just heal so well.

[@cymond]

@@Soroboruo I sell the Nuka and drink the Sunsets. I think it's a little weird that the radioactive Nuka Colas are worth significantly more caps than Sunset Sarsaparilla.

[@mixis1931]

@@cymond I think Nuka Cola is more expensive, because it's much rarer in the Mojave, since the main drink there is Sunset Sarsaparilla.

[@Toradoshi12]

I've put well over 500 hours into new vegas and I've never discovered the sewer people, so that just goes to show you that there's always more to explore in these games.

[@foxinabox5103]

There's also a unique variant of the lead pipe in one of the sewers segment. This game is amazing

[@gunslinger4958]

You get a really nice gift when completing all quests for red lucy :D

[@bobbyjohnson1086]

Bro I'm 1000 hours in & I just noticed novac is short for the no vacancy sign at the hotel 😂

[@foxinabox5103]

@@bobbyjohnson1086 the town arefu in FO3 came from a fading "careful" sign

[@bobbyjohnson1086]

@@foxinabox5103 I didn't know that either cool

[@CCrew42]

“Using bluff to convince [Lanius] there’s a trap up ahead” The best part about this particular moment is all the things you’re pointing out are like “Do you really think the NCR was this incompetent?” and he agrees “Hmm, you’re right, it was too easy.”, when really, yes, the NCR was just that incompetent. It ties back to how little the NCR leadership cared about the whole Mojave campaign, that all their issues with lack of manpower and supplies were so bad, you can convince an enemy general they were strategic choices.

[@Soroboruo]

One of the best parts of how the Courier interacts with the world is you just get stuff done by virtue of not having to care about red tape. The NCR is hobbled by its own bureaucratic processes and vying objectives, to the point that one (1) person can just walk into some area and get something done that a whole squad wasn't allowed/able to accomplish in a month. It's both a brilliant bit of ludonarrative harmony, and a really compelling critique of the NCR. The Legion isn't quite as strong in that category I think (a lot of their writing/quests got rushed iirc) but having an agent who doesn't have to adhere to their strict lifestyle also helps them, so there's that.

[@Creekfull]

What Bethesda never realized is Fallout is a world where people are rebuilding society after an apocalypse. Not just wallowing in the ruins.

[@Breached18]

To be fair, fallout 3 is in DC, a huge target for nukes. It will be empty

[@Creekfull]

@@Breached18 Well yeah, but it takes place 200 years after the war and for some reason people are still living in torn down ruins with moldy walls, leaking ceilings and broken windows. Surely someone would have had the brilliant idea to clean up the house you live in, right?

[@Breached18]

@@Creekfull they're just last I guess

[@blarg2429]

@@Breached18 As hbomberguy mentions in one of his other Fallout videos, there's a person in FO4 who hasn't bothered to clean out the _pre-war corpses_ from her house/shop. They're just there, intact skeletons posed as if giving her their patronage. The bones not decaying into dust and nature not utterly reclaiming the setting's many ruins are acceptable breaks from reality; no-one ever building anything new under any circumstances unless it's a setpiece, a weapon, or a MacGuffin is not.

[@TheSoulHarvester]

@@blarg2429 There is not one single broom in the entire Fallout 3 universe. I feel like they learned from this & went WAY too far the other way, by making the player in FO4 able to deconstruct & rebuild any object instantly with the power of their mind.

[@TheoStimac]

The thing that lives forever in my memory of New Vegas is my wife almost bricking our console by finding as many of the little plastic dinosaur toys as she could, bringing them to her hotel room, and dropping them one at a time. Once she finished, going into that room required almost half an hour of loading and everything in the room exploded in dinosaurs , often damaging her character with accelerated loose physics objects. What a good game.

[@stalfithrildi5366]

Makes you wish for a nuclear winter

[@ZorotheGallade]

@@stalfithrildi5366 Or for the Chicxulub meteor

[@Methus3lah]

Emergent gameplay

[@Lucifersfursona]

I can find no fault with her whimsy and only in the engine for not allowing this absolutely raw human activity

[@tortis6342]

That is so worthy of respect.

[@jinjowatts]

Fun fact: I actually stumbled upon the violin before meeting Agatha and didn't know what it was for so I donated it to the Rivet City archive guy. I lost karma but had no idea why. Once I finally met Agatha, I learned what I had done and felt so bad.

[@Nathan-zc4db]

I have never once played New Vegas without Hardcore mode. Best addition ever. Especially in the early game, food goes from being disappointing to, "Thank God I'm not gonna die!" and purified water becomes as valuable as it should be in the wasteland.

[@youforget1000thingsaday]

Man, hardcore mode is a meat grinder if you're a wimp like me, LMFAO. My companions are always the first to die. 😂

[@calvinisvibin]

I don't mind the aspects of hardcore mode, except for the fact that ammo has weight. I'm not a fan of that because it makes me have to manage my inventory like 60% of the game. I just want to use weapons I want to use without worrying about ammo.

[@Katie-hj5eb]

New Vegas has one of my favorite jokes "They asked me if I had a degree in Theoratical Physics. I told them I had a theoretical degree in Physics. Got the job"

[@taranhase7057]

is that legit or did u make this oke up

[@manjitmishra410]

@@taranhase7057 it's legit, I just played the game a few months ago

[@manjitmishra410]

Btw, what did you choose in that quest, did you use the big bad mysterious weapon?

[@katiecat9353]

Same.

[@JohnLennonJohnRus]

You gotta love Mr. Fantastic.

[@LackingSaint]

actually it's pronounced caesar

[@genieglasslamp5028]

Actually as someone who did take three years of Latin, its pronounced Caesar.

[@nathanielhaven3453]

So it's pronounced caesar?

[@marybean2231]

@@nathanielhaven3453 No, like Caesar.

[@Greystorm1619]

Omg it’s jack! I was just watching your Christmas with cranks video 👍🏾

[@Cheyne_TetraMFG]

Edward Sallow is Stalin, here’s why

[@Jaxck77]

A prime example of just how good New Vegas actually is: You can clear Quarry Junction at extremely low level, basically as soon as you defeat the powder gangers, by using the landmines the gangers have all over their base. Turns out Deathclaws have legs too, and they get crippled quickly when they try sprinting over landmines. The game gives you have insane challenge right in your face, and a novel solution that requires engaging with the story and paying attention.

[@LVoidtheEndless]

There’s a similar exploit for Cazadores, if you shoot them in their antennas, then they become frenzied and attack other enemies which gives you more breathing room to die of poison

[@PanTrimtab]

Jorge "Obscuro" Salgadob is the real reason that game was amazing. He was an epic level modder. He spent years making and polishing the most popular overhaul for Oblivion, OOO. He was noticed by Obsidian and they recruited him to work on New Vegas. I think the addition of him to the team helped, not only due to his high level of coding skill and understanding of game design, but as a kind of interlocuter/mascot for the modding community.

[@MrBenjarming]

Does anyone remember when IGN said that New Vegas felt more like Fallout 3 dlc then a new game? I do, I'll never forget.

[@sceptile6375]

GAME JOURNALISTS MUST BE PURGED.

[@helter1234]

Black Ops 1 came out around the same time and hearing games journalists say Fallout NV was just more Fallout 3 but Black Ops was new and innovative was a moment of awakening for me.

[@zm1786]

@@helter1234 black ops 1 was a good game though . I miss split screen online multiplayer

[@helter1234]

@@zm1786 Black Ops 1 was fine. Nothing wrong with liking Black Ops or COD. I'm just juxtaposing what I remember games journalists saying about them in 2010.

[@zm1786]

@@helter1234 true , gaming "journalists" deserve the rope . Wtf is 84/100

[@CrabShoe]

Game design example: they put a bunch of loading screens between you and the ncr embassy to encourage you to choose any other faction.

[@robertschnobert9090]

Thank you for your feedback, Joseph. Take care and stay healthy 🌈

[@leon6777]

I thought about denying this but was then like... "camp McCarran and the strip is like this. Damn" To be fair with the Legion you have to walk a half marathon up a hill to get to caesar

[@Dazork04]

@@leon6777 All factions are hard to access to encourage "fuck-it I'll just kill everyone problem solved" playthroughs. That way, you fix all the problems in the game's setting by force, and you only have to go to each faction base once!

[@brentkirkland3597]

@@leon6777 I hated that half marathon

[@randomplaceinruralamerica9618]

@@Dazork04 you then leave the Mojave leaderless and make it so bandits can invade far easier than if any faction was up

[@Foxtrot6624]

The fact you can make a feature film length video about New Vegas, and still completely leave out my favourite moment (the lottery) really shows just how incredible the game really is. Most games would be blessed to create just one moment of that calibre and this game has so much incredible stuff going on that it can easily be skipped over.

[@gouger4532]

RIP Matthew Perry, really made Benny a good ass character

[@urthofthenewsun8465]

My favourite part about Caesar is how he is the only member of the Legion who doesn’t speak in a formal dialect, he swears more than any other NPC in the game.

[@zeallust8542]

Never really thought about it but youre 100% right

[@Lolavs]

How dare you go after my man Boxcars like that.

[@fpedrosa2076]

@@Lolavs "And then the guy with the dog on his head, he go on and on about how we bad people."

[@jigenstoklasa7737]

"Relax, I'm fucking with you" -Caesar

[@Soroboruo]

I know, right?? You hear about this game for over half the story and all the Legionnaires basically worship him, everyone's got their weird cobbled Ren Faire dialects going, and then he's just a guy. Brilliant writing.

[@DoctahDome]

Yeah, yeah "The Gary vault is so funny, haha!" My name is Gary. That vault was terrifying

[@jacobford3452]

Hahaha! Gary!

[@nomukun1138]

you need to get a mod get it

[@k.morningstar7983]

ahh a piece of the hell i went through the other day when my partner found my name listing on urban dictionary and b/c he's a prick he kept reading from it endlessly after i begged him to stop. endless definitions, likely added by people with my name.

[@thedawsonator1628]

In a You might be one of the Garys way or like you feel it's speaking to you through the fourth wall

[@TheMadTurtle]

My name isn't, and it still terrified me.

[@lauram5905]

I really wish you'd had a chance to cover the DLCs too. The Sierra Madre is easily one of the most difficult existential problems I've ever sat and thought about (once I was done getting wrecked by Ghost People). Living with unchecked desire and greed, and learning how to let things go before they consume you is something almost everybody has to go through in their lifetime in some way. Then exploring the tribal groups of Utah, and exploring the difficult moral choices of missionary work, whether or not you're actually helping anybody even if your holy book and your own seemingly more enlightened people say you are. Plus Old World Blues is just a legendary B-Movie put in game form. And then finally there's Lonesome Road, which ties back into the previous three by exploring the lingering ties to the past and present that have to be understood and let go of before we can really say we're moving towards a different future. New Vegas might be running on a clapped out engine under unfortunate constraints that even creativity couldn't quite get past, but the fact that actual honest to god storytellers wrung that much out of it that it's still being debated just means so much to me.

[@lauram5905]

There are also mods that restore altered/patched out content to the game as well with more advanced memory management tech, such as making Freeside and the Strip their original one-map size each, it's almost staggering what a scale things were meant to exist on in FNV. The casino models themselves are actually scaled down from their original intended sizes shown in the pre-alpha press-releases

[@tudoproductions]

There's a way to get the gold bars in Sierra Madre. I guess my desire for greed is not curable ;(

[@HonestTrueflight]

This video inspired me to replay New Vegas. I'm 2 hours in, threw a random stick of dynamite at an ant, AND FUCKING MALCOM HOLMES RAN IN TO EAT THE EXPLOSION AND DIED

[@Soroboruo]

The last time I started a new file he ran into the middle of the Goodsprings-Gangers fight and right into my shot 💀

[@lucianwong420]

I remember the first time I met Malcolm at the Boomers entrance, when they shoot rockets at you. He ran right into their line of sight. 😂

[@ashleywilliams4896]

✨Emergent Gameplay✨

[@PickleJello]

The discussion with Caesar, the main villain of the game, about his motivations, is especially jarring when the equivalent discussion with the villain of Fallout 4 is just basically him saying "you wouldn't understand if I told you."

[@VanessaMagick]

It could just be that the writers didn't have a clue, but Fallout 4 doesn't respect your intelligence. It assumes you want an open world looter-shooter. New Vegas assumes you want a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game, and thus actually care about the villains motivations.

[@White_Tiger93]

@@VanessaMagick in most RPGs nerd eyes, Fallout 4 is basically Borderlands 2 mish-mash Diablo clone because Bethesda don't want that morality of war in actual authentic life situation, it shown how political corruption among humanity from beginning, till the end, taught us how if humans never learn from the history itself, it will repeat over and over. And Bethesda being Bethesda, they don't want their adopted Fallout games to be that kind of game that gave hope in real-life, Bethesda want it to be 'fun' and theme park experience.

[@basilofgoodwishes4138]

Well to be fair, the player is the parent of the villian, so maybe he wanted to get an taste of puberty conflicts he was denied when growing up.

[@therandomdickhead5744]

Apples and oranges :/ just wish more people cared about writing in games

[@tonycampbell1424]

@@therandomdickhead5744 Delicious apples and rotten, mushy, moldy oranges.

[@Alforbia]

I genuinely love the fact that Mr. House doesn't have a super high intelligence. He has a super high LUCK stat.

[@ivosantinogonzalezchamorro3275]

Trust me, his luck run over the moment he lay eyes on me

[@duskpede5146]

@@ivosantinogonzalezchamorro3275 this reads like legion dialogue

[@TheTimestreamer]

Luck has beem recontextualized in this game as "the ability to understand and influemce chance". He isn't smart so much as he is clever, can spot a pattern, follow sland influence it. Intelligence is more accumulated knowledge. Or retardatiom, if under 3.

[@b3nl555]

You shouldn't really rely on NPC SPECIAL stats. Most of the time, they don't really correlate to their character.

[@duskpede5146]

@@b3nl555 what are they for then

[@Izithel]

1:17:48 Even funnier way to get in to the bunker, if you got the password and looted a set of brotherhood faction armor from the corpses, AND you've done Arcade Gannon's quest to get power armor training, you can wear the faction armor and they'll let you in. At which point you cam just stay undercover and try to arm the self-destruct, or start blasting.

[@Soroboruo]

Oh, that's great. Arcade's quest terminates so close to the end game that I never would have considered that, love that somebody did.

[@Wayte13]

I think it's worth mentioning a lot of the people who say they don't "like politics" in their games also think "politics" is when a woman or minority is a major character

[@sleeepy181]

Spot on.

[@kotasake]

Genuinely correct

[@nothanks39]

factually accurate

[@Mr_Jish]

Sad, but so, so true.

[@joanmoriarity8738]

There are two races: white and political. There are two body types: athletic and political. There are two genders: male and political. There are two sexual orientations; straight and political.

[@admiralpellaeon631]

“My favorite game ever, 84/100” That’s both a great joke and incredibly true.

[@mirkoruhl9324]

Can you explain the joke or it's a spoiler?

[@ralyks-vw5pm]

@@mirkoruhl9324 i'm pretty sure the joke is just that they spend over an hour cheering on the positives of a game, then decide 84/100 (which is only about 4/5, which many people would for some reason consider a bad/mediocre score)

[@Hairballllllll]

@@mirkoruhl9324 Metacritic PC score. Lots of stories about pay bonuses etc tied to it.

[@megamike15]

@@mirkoruhl9324 thats the score nv got on Metacritic

[@ArtyIF]

@@mirkoruhl9324 new vegas got 84/100 on metacritic due to all the bugs on launch. what makes it funnier is that bethesda promised obsidian extra bonuses if their games gets 85/100 on metacritic. well yeah they were one point short and they didn't get it

[@elrondhubbard7059]

I love that the town Novac is called Novac because the 'No Vacancy' sign at the motel has broken lights in it so it just says 'Novac'

[@charliebat]

literally in my year of playing i noticed it on like my 500000th playthrogh

[@ElPolloLoco7689]

when I noticed it, I was like that meme of a dude pointing at a TV screen with a "yo hold up !" face

[@IstvanEgri-zr5sp]

I am just happy that I noticed this on my first playtrough :)

[@ZRV13]

In fallout 3 the Pitt is in Pittsburgh

[@madkoala2130]

Interesting, "Novac" also in Croatian means money (i dont know if thats intentional or no, but having town indirectly called Money is low key funny to me)

[@faffywhosmilesatdeath5953]

Fallout: New Vegas taught me a few important things. One: I'm actually a woman Two: Eat the rich Three: Bisexuals have +10% to damage on everyone

[@Kaanfight]

Same lol

[@temporalmao]

Girl same! It also taught me that only gay people can use power armour (The only two companions with Power Armor Training in the base game are homosexual)

[@Flamme506]

Make sure to know who the rich are.

[@LeleiTheTigress]

Those are three things I apply on an everyday basis

[@Sky-nq9pw]

How many trans women played this damn game.... me too

[@thisrandomdude2880]

What I adore about Caesar going on about Hegalian dialects, and how fallout societies are basically recreations of a previous state of human development, is that Marx basically already broke down and criticized all of this. "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce". CAESAR IS LITERALLY THIS FARCE JUST HOW NAPOLÉON III WAS A PITIABLE AND GROTESQUE PANTOMIME OF HIS CONQUEROR UNCLE! "Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living." The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte is literally a seminal work when it comes to analyzing the Fallout universe lmfao.

[@TooFatTooFurious]

"You might call it a horrible way to die. I call it "good game design"." - from now on I will ask ppl to write this on my gravestone

[@leonamvonborowsky7559]

"death by intentional game design" vibes

[@SirHarryDave]

I didn’t really think about how insane it is having the ability to kill literally anyone in the game and still have the story progress in a manageable way until you spelled it out

[@RoyalFusilier]

It's easy to see why Bethesda just made three-quarters of all named characters immortal in 3, considering this challenge, and yet to see another studio ace it so flawlessly, in less time, in the same engine and with the same series...

[@RobinTheBot]

@@RoyalFusilier to be fair, they had less problems to work out overall, and could focus on the high minded problems. They didn't have to decide how VATS would work in real time, for example.

[@snipeuminusthesniper]

@@RobinTheBot true they didnt have to change their game from a top down game to an fps and make all the things work accordingly, and perhaps since 3 was their first crack at the series we can be a bit more nice and lenient, however this wasnt their first time making and open world RPG and while both games very much differ on how things work, they couldve done a lot better with the story honestly

[@RobinTheBot]

@@snipeuminusthesniper to me it looks like a classic case of running out of time. We know they cut a LOT of good story content, like Danse as a rival Elder, most of the minutemen story, and a lot of rail road content. It is kind of obvious the new engine and systems created a backlog, and they had to choose 2: Stability (by bethesda standards), gameplay, and story. Skyrim taught them that the larger market wants a stable and fun to play game, even if story is weak, so they took that route and left the story mostly incomplete. You can see this in the way environments peter out and how desolate the mid game is.

[@snipeuminusthesniper]

@@RobinTheBot that could be true but it also feel really weird the content they finished and then cut, and if was for stability issues maybe?? but modders seem to not have to many issues putting the stuff back into FO4, so i find it hard to believe a huge triple A company like Bethesda couldnt get it all to work, becasue i know theres that tringle of you can only ever get 2 never 3 points but feels like they only really put any effort into the gameplay, as theres been constant stability issues since launch

[@RileyLulich]

Watching this now makes me realize how many great things Baldur's Gate 3 does that are also major elements of New Vegas, and also part of what makes Outer Worlds great too.

[@coreylineberry8557]

And hopefully Avowed, and it's a place that Starfield, as much as I thought it was good, failed.

[@slynt_]

It's called being an RPG. Used to be common, but we don't get many RPGs any more. No player choice, not an RPG.

[@lordelon9955]

​@coreylineberry8557 Well it's made by the same studio so here's to hoping.

[@bigdaddydan_xo]

RIP Matthew Perry. I cannot imagine Benny with any other voice than his.

[@bigbrother6505]

I can't believe after all this time that I didn't notice Dinky the dinosaur holding a goddamn thermometer.

[@somanken]

me too, every time I interact with new vegas there's always just one little extra thing I find out.

[@gavinmann1341]

It’s ok I never realized it either. So many times traveling to and from and never saw the thermometer

[@Harry_S._Plinkett]

Patrolling the Mojave made Dinky wish for a giant thermometer.

[@TheBrazilRules]

Yeah, It makes you feel kinda stupid considering it is a giant thermometer

[@zeynaviegas5043]

Me having just finished this game with Novac being the location visited before the battle of hoover dam, realizing that GIANT ASS THERMOMETER WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME GODAMN IT

[@sentientbakedziti]

Broke: Cyberpunk is the hot discourse. Woke: Let's talk about a 10 year old Masterpiece.

[@AlternateAlternative]

Josh Sawyer (one of NV creators) was talking about it on Twitter today too. lol weird Edit: for those interested twitter.com/jesawyer/status/1340371031781855232?s=19

[@PittsburghSonido]

Cyberpunk is going to be about as good as 76.

[@idnyftw]

now that's (cyber)punk

[@startrekmike]

@@PittsburghSonido Hyperbolic nonsense. There is no debate that the current gen console release is pretty awful all around and the PC release is generally buggy (though perhaps not as severe as the internet outrage machine wants us to think). Still. Assuming you are playing on a semi-okay PC, you are going to get a pretty fantastic experience. 76 had no real strengths while Cyberpunk most certainly (like the Witcher titles before it) gives a solid narrative experience with great character development, well done gameplay sequences, and solid (if not super innovative) mechanics. When CDPR fixes up the bugs, the controversy will die down and people will start talking about how much the game gets right. Fallout 76 won't ever have that.

[@davideleuterius6465]

the witcher 3 also currently has problems with consoles.

[@printaboy]

In the shoot the dog scene, the first dog is called Drei (german for three) and second Vier (german for four). This is reference to dog from Cowboy Bebop (dog was called Ein, german for one) and dog from Rwby Zwei (german for two). So this is a reference to a reference. But it can also referecne RWBY video that came later. So it was also a foreshadowing and could beinterpreted as reference to reference to a reference. Welcome to hbomberguy cinematic universe.

[@pickleman_has_urges]

my mind hurts

[@aplix747]

As someone who loves Cyberpunk 2077, so much of these design decisions are similarly seen there too. Things like an immersive world, surprising quests (many of the best quests and gigs sound basic at first, like helping a polititian deal with a home intruder), unique and interesting items, diverse and fun gameplay (after a few years) and a compelling, straight up cinematic main quest that makes you feel like you're in a movie and presents some really interesting moral or philosophical questions (can technology rival life itself). I think the biggest thing rpgs should focus on above all else is IMMERSION. Make players feel like they're in a real place, make the world live and breathe on its own. The best stories are cinematic, just like a movie, but you can actually interact and change the outcome. Rpgs where you get lost down a rabbithole for hours. You'll know you're playing a good RPG when its suddenly 3am and you'd much rather explore and discover more than go to sleep. Rpgs are by far, the best possible medium for any sort of world building. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS BETHESDA PLEASE! JUST DO SOMETHING INTERESTING!

[@kotasake]

Too bad cyberpunk isn't an rpg

[@rennytothe4727]

"Gamers love politics. And those who said they dont actually like it even more, they just wish they were seeing different politics" this is your best video

[@spacehitler4537]

We want fun fictional politics that make us big think to distract us from REAL BORING politics that are covered in shit.

[@stonecat676]

unlike the "Gamers" who constantly whine about sjws and identity politics even when it has little to do with the game new vegas does it right: great writing, is inclusive, and has actual complex politics

[@euroryder1978]

What gamers dislike is getting the political ideas of the devs shoved down their throats, in other words, plain bad writting. Fallout NV doesnt have that.

[@legion999]

@@spacehitler4537 ...And that's what games give you. But there will be parallels to real world stuff, you can't escape that. The "fun fictional politics" will always remind you of some irl issues.

[@spacehitler4537]

@@legion999 There's a difference between waxing on about the efficacy of various political systems which could apply to any time period within context, and people just inserting easily parroted identity politics and obvious poorly aging political jokes to give the illusion of political discourse.

[@nanth6480]

Roll playing bisexuality in the form of being better at killing everyone is very funny to me

[@annaw1861]

Bisexual people really are 10% more deadly

[@Lucifersfursona]

Things I believe to be true about myself that I will hopefully never find out: bi lethality perk

[@tortis6342]

That's because it is based in reality. Bisexuals are deadly... deadly cute!

[@realdaggerman105]

Oberyn Martell.

[@spicybreadproductions1972]

⁠@@tortis6342😳🫠🤯💥💀

[@austinpittman1599]

New Vegas is chemistry. It's hundreds of different chemicals in a dirty, radioactive vial battling it out for dominance of solution, and you, the protagonist, are the catalyst that will bring one of those reactants to power. Fallout 3 is water, and you get to choose whether or not it's consumable.

[@kotasake]

Genius comment 😂

[@AmberWilkins-ft6ti]

in a post BG3 gaming industry I really hope more games look to fallout NV to learn about reactive story and quest structures

[@Grayfox176]

Even now, the "84 out of 100" line is simultaneously the funniest, saddest, and most infuriating thing ive heard in a long time.

[@CyroTheSpider]

I'm usually naturally skeptical about conspiracy theories, but every time I hear this it makes me very suspicious. Hard to believe Bethesda wasn't involved in some conflicts of interest with the journalists.

[@hoilst265]

It's a testament to Obsidian's leadership that they weathered that storm and remained independent, at least until MS bought them - though at this stage I trust MS more than Zenimax.

[@hoilst265]

@@CyroTheSpider I'm of the opinion that Bethesda/Zeni tried to do what they did with Human Head: put Obsidian in dire financial straits and then casually offer to buy them out, so they get to collect another studio and, in Obsidian's case, remove a major threat to Bethesda Games Studios.

[@GuyInAJacket]

I came to the comments to say how GENIUS that joke was, true New Vegas fans caught that IMMEDIATELY and it's hilarious!

[@sirdurpalot8984]

Is that the rating it was given then? This was and is the best game ever made

[@godorninja8079]

Hbomberguy: releases video talking about how fallout new vegas is incredible Fallout 3 fans: you again

[@pabloborroto4692]

lol, honestly if I was a Fallout 3 fan seeing this i'd probably be happier seeing this than his other video, since here (although I love his Fallout 3 video) actually treats the game more fairly. In the other one he was doing his best to take away any worth the game could have because he really disliked it, failing to mention a lot of the very interesting sidequest and acting like they never existed. He actually acknowledges them this time which I really appreciate even if my sentiments that 'Fallout 3 isn't good' is the same as him I apologize for sending this long as comment to your joke *sobs*

[@reksraven6909]

strange, didn't know FO3 fans and FO:NV fans have to be mutually exclusive. Edit: i got the joke, just want to throw some salt :P

[@user-xb7tb9rz4j]

I enjoyed both. However I will admit I don't tend to think about games in such great detail! Sometimes a game is just a game! I do thoroughly enjoy listening to H break down every single aspect of a game though!

[@elliemadison9914]

@@reksraven6909 I just love all of the games. Obviously New Vegas is the most well written and therefore fun (especially for politically minded people like me), but I’ve enjoyed playing all of them. But in New Vegas it there’s an early game quirk that lets you be gay so it’s obviously superior.

[@reksraven6909]

@@elliemadison9914 don't argue with that i personally like nv bette especially if you consider the dlcs. but Fo3 has a certain charm to it for me.

[@KuueenKumi]

Fallout New Vegas came to me a couple years late as a college student struggling with her terrible decision to major in graphic design. I was miserable. But I came home, diligently did hours of creative work I no longer loved, and then fired up the PS3 and took out my pent up frustration in New Vegas. The little creative expression I did of my own volition at this time was fanart of some kind. This game is a personal comfort game of mine, and helped me through what was probably a more traumatizing existential crisis than I remember it being. I love hearing someone whose creativity and opinions I respect preach its virtues, thanks Harris

[@brijones7827]

fun fact about arcade gannon, he was based on one of the story guy's (josh sawyer) dnd character during the campaign that helped create Van Buren, the scrapped obsidian fo3. there's a lot of elements of van buren scattered across new vegas (joshua graham and the legion being the most obvios) and its just so interesting to me to think about how so many elements of one of the greatest games of all time (new vegas obv) came from some devs playing dnd

[@cyberbrunk]

As a child, I noticed that I had a +10% damage bonus to everyone I came across. It wasn't until I played this game years later that I realized that I was bisexual

[@Seriona1]

Honestly though, it's kind of hard not to justify doing a Bi-sexual build. I looked at the pure math of it, I get extra dialog and I always do 10%, that just seems like a good combat build.

[@NaimHrustanovic]

@@Seriona1 In real life or in the game?

[@Seriona1]

@@NaimHrustanovic Yes. But it's different if you're a man or woman.

[@rachow2371]

this comment deserves so many more likes

[@StandOnGuard4Thee]

Oh my gooooooooooooooooodddd

[@tomasparant8901]

Fun fact about Benny in the Legion Camp: When choosing how he dies, you can actually try to give him the tools to escape (a Stealth Boy and a bobby pin). Instead of waiting for you to leave and then make his exit, the asshat inmediatly activates the Stealth Boy and leaves you with the entire legion to hunt you down.

[@Pay2pray]

I believe even with the stealth boy, there is no way for him the escape. Even after leaving the main gate, he gets immedeately capped by the 2 guards. Fuck Benny

[@sethwinters3556]

@@Pay2pray yeah there was some cut content where you could meet up with him after he got away. And he pulls his gun on you immediately and tries yet again to kill you. Definitely fuck that guy 😂

[@andyspruce9307]

You can also if female and with the manhunter perk, seduce him and sleep with him, my female pc did this up until the act and then took him out with a blade, or you can let him have you and kill him while he sleeps.

[@janNowa]

@@andyspruce9307 I watched my friend play and he also did this, then used brass knuckles to punch him to death while everyone in vc cheered.

[@kinagrill]

Benny is such a great character. No matter what you try to do to remain diplomatic with him, he will backstab you. He is the literal 2nd-in-command mobster that is so ruthless he do not care what you try to do to keep him happy and loyal. If he sees the chance, he will screw you over. He is suave, he is charismatic and he is shown to be a massive dick from the first cutscene before the gameplay starts. He shoots you in the head when he dun really need to after having taken the platinum chip. You don't even have a chance to TRY to offer something like working for him or any such thing.

[@oliverhoodless7470]

lets be honest you can choose 1 trait because the other one should always be wild wasteland

[@purplecobra5218]

Nuh uh

[@user-cz8nh6jz9k]

“He just thinks he’s got a right to rule the world because he knows what a ‘rubicon’ is.” Is actually a pretty concise summation of Caesar’s ‘modus operandi’, as he would say, before smirking.

[@joeytansey8466]

Can we just appreciate that a "villain" of New Vegas is someone who 1. Literally shot you and so you have personal reasons to hate 2. Has understandable reasons why he shoots you because it's actually in his own self interest, you have something incredibly valuable he wants not just because he's evil. 3. Can be, killed, freed, bargained with, but regardless of how high your speech or if you seduce him, he won't fundamentally change who he is, because he exemplifies the self interested, embodiment of a Vegas high roller who wants to own the whole town, and is willing to cheat, lie, and risk his own life to get it? (Edit) But ultimately his fierce individualism means their is no one to save his ass in the end, and drives home the point to the player that to navigate the Mojave successfully, you need allies, or at least play nice with factions until you have enough power to destroy them. 4. he's not even the "final boss ", and (edit) still can be explored more deeply than any character in fallout 3

[@NeoKingGhidorah]

5. Is Chandler Bing

[@PKEin]

6. What in the goddamn

[@Spaced92]

I don't think there is a great villain to be honest, Benny is a nobody with a ton of gambling puns. Caesar, Ulysses and House are great characters don't get me wrong, as legendary as New Vegas is I don't think the game really nailed a villain like the Master and his army or the Enclave/Horrigan/Richardson. They have understandable reasons for what they do as well, but cast a real shadow over their respective games. The fact that there are a bunch of characters saying the Legion will kill itself no matter what happens, kinda lessens their threat a bit, whereas the Master is self defeating as well but would wipe out humanity before it happened.

[@TrueToonNinja]

You know the shame of it is that Benny was originally going to be a companion if you spared him again at Caesar's Fort, one who supported the independence route and was totally willing to admit that you beat him and act as your lieutenant. Unfortunately that and a lot of other companions who explicitly favored non-NCR paths got cut.

[@joeytansey8466]

@@Spaced92 I agree benny isn't as deep and complex as someone like the master, but the fact that he isn't the final boss makes it even more remarkable that he is written as well as he is. I get what you're saying that he's like a cliche, gambler, cardpuns, but he is willing to risk everything and go to the legion camp on his own to try and take over vegas, Benny is a testament to how a pure, individual pursuit of success is largely a fantasy. He eventually fails in every version of the story to hit it big, because he is a high roller, and if you always gamble everything, you will eventually roll snake eyes and lose it all.

[@a.monach7602]

"Fallout: New Vegas might sometimes run out of memory and crash, but that's only because there's so many moments worth remembering."

[@Lemino101]

Cringe

[@BulletShaba]

Would be nice to see them...

[@Nazhussain07]

@@Lemino101 No u

[@raptorpeep2622]

@@Lemino101 okay, if you say so.

[@ProsecutorValentine]

@@Lemino101 Please sit on the couch... great. Now tell us, how does that make you uncomfortable and embarrassed?

[@enkephalin07]

I did not feel like a badass for taking the shortcut to Vegas; that took grueling hours of evasion and save-scumming. However, accessing the alternate story from back-treading the intended path made it rewarding.

[@elgordobondiola]

* you take a sip of your trusty vault 13 canteen *

[@____Jon____]

We won't go quietly. The legion can count on that.

[@Artemi22]

oh no this again

[@bigsmacked]

Read this as the line was being read.

[@sorberus3139]

might as well go out with a bang amirite

[@blakebarrett1519]

If the legion breaks through our defenses, I've got one bullet im saving just for me

[@ree-8003]

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

[@asteroidrules]

Something I thoroughly enjoyed in Fallout New Vegas was how the radio announces the things you've done. In Fallout 3 every time a story about you comes on the radio the annoying announcer prominently declares "THE LONE WANDERER DID THIS" that absolutely never happens in New Vegas, instead Mister New Vegas tells you what's happening because of your actions without mentioning you directly, making you feel like you're a part of the world who can be influential, but not the focal point around which it revolves.

[@MLPDethDealr32]

"im Mister New Vegas, And im here to say, i have Spurs that go Jingle Jangle Jingle". Radio new Vegas is my favorite station.

[@shadysam7161]

@@MLPDethDealr32 I love it when Radio New Vegas says that "you're a nobody, until somebody loves you, and that somebody.. is me; I love you!"

[@zakunick1]

I just wish there was more content on the radio. The Mr New Vegas lines and songs repeat so often.

[@amphioxusanniversary]

@@zakunick1 That's why I'm so grateful there's a mod that adds 300 new songs to Mr New Vegas's rotation. That said, the ambient soundtrack is pretty great, too.

[@zakunick1]

@@amphioxusanniversary Which mod? When not in game I listen to A Bomb Radio on my personal time.

[@mannco9458]

“Fetch some eggs” is the best way to describe Lucy’s quest especially the reward afterwards

[@captainpandabear1422]

Obsidian wanted to do more. Bethesda said no. Because they know that this game overshadowed their own game so much, and it humiliated Todd. We don't have another masterpiece like this, like we deserve, because of Todd's fragile pissbaby ego.

[@kisaknight626]

They are called "Death Claws" for a reason, not "Moderately-Difficult Claws"

[@PlebNC]

And Stay Back perk: *Laughs in ragdoll stunlock* I beat the legendary Deathclaw by simply never allowing any Deathclaw to stand up.

[@El_Descarriado]

@@PlebNC You beat a boss by speccing your character and picking appropriate perks? Egads!

[@willaroberts134]

THANK YOU

[@Free_Palestine_0419]

Fuck Fallout 3! You can't even join the Enclave!!!

[@spiraljumper74]

PlebNC Haha I used to love going to that bank on the Colorado that has like 12 of them and just sprinting around on that implant GRX, bullying the deathclaws with beanbag rounds outta my riot shotty. The build focused on max possible movement speed and shotgun crits, so much fun.

[@Tinkererer]

"I genuinely don't understand how they made this in 18 months." There's a real answer here: it's made on the back of Fallout 3, meaning they had to do a lot less programming and had a ton of assets they could already use. It is very much a testament that it's worth doing recycling: other examples of games that have done this are The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (which does something really strange with 95% Ocarina of Time assets), or LARGE parts of the Yakuza series that reuse assets, characters and locations through multiple games to tell new and interesting stories.

[@fpedrosa2076]

Also, I think they took/recycled a lot of ideas from the Van Buren project? The planned fallout 3 game that never was.

[@guyunderwood2297]

This is also why modding is such a great concept. It lets people who don't have access to the resources to make a game engine recycle that engine and assets into something new and compelling.

[@LordHengun]

Not to mention Fallout 2.

[@eccentriastes6273]

Another example: Portal recycled a lot from Half Life 2.

[@cxeroannuki2840]

I think you've unintentionally undermined the amount of work that went into writing, designing, and building a game with a massive open world filled with hundreds of branching quests and fully-voiced NPCs, and retooling the core gameplay enough to somehow satisfy both the classic Fallout crowd and the new fans hungry for an experience like Fallout 3. Yeah, having an engine ready to use with a bunch of pre-made assets helped a lot for sure, but this is Bethesda we're talking about here. They've got one of the most buggy, taped-together game engines out there and that's saying a lot in this industry. Not to mention all the hard work that went into creating and retooling old assets. Fallout 3 based off of Oblivion and was made by a larger studio that actually had prior experience with the engine but it still took them years to push out a lackluster product. Bethesda is full of very talented people and the game was actually kinda polished - most of the problems seem to come from poor design and bad priorities. Still, I'm not disagreeing with you, I think most people already understand that New Vegas is filled with recycled content seeing how it was a pretty common gripe on release. Even with all the reuse, it's still fucking amazing that they managed to release it in 18 months even if they had to do a lot of patching after the fact.

[@joeo6378]

I keep coming back to rewatch this one, not because I love Fallout NV or anything but listening to someone speak so passionately and lovingly about something that has brought them tons of joy ... brings me joy.

[@kaiharris514]

This is one of my comfort videos, and I'm incredibly grateful that you posted it. Whenever I get overstimulated, but I can't sit in silence, this video is the perfect amount of controlled chaos. I've probably watched it 10 times since you've posted it. Thank you for your work.

[@1dr_wall769]

Not ONCE did Mr. Bomberman reference The Kings, a gang of Elvis impersonators that I placed in a hysterically high position of power by the end of the game, and I'm not mad... just disappointed.

[@Galloglaigh.]

He did, it was a visual reference.

[@FR33Willi]

There's just so many things in this game that could be their own video. Each DLC alone could take up like half an hour of runtime. I'm impressed hbomb fit as many things into one video as he did.

[@giseliogozelio]

im a king and will die as a king

[@daraghmalone8321]

Sounds like you're all shook up

[@RandomGameCritic]

"Fallout: New Vegas is objectively the best game of all time. And for that, it gets my highest score ever: 84/100." That nearly killed me holy shit.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

I died as well. Oh god if there was ever an argument that Metacritic ruined criticism its that.

[@SimuLord]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez Criticism ruined itself. Metacritic just put numbers on it.

[@simonwyzik8661]

Fallout 3 is filled both bugs, lacks an interesting story, and has crap balancing, 91/100

[@meatisomalley]

I always think about if one of those critics raised their score by just a few points, bringing the average up to 85, where Obsidian would be today.

[@Brick_Eater_]

Fun fact: Bethesda promised to give Obsidian extra royalty money for the game if they game got an 85 or more on Metacritic. It got 84/100.

[@AlexDeLarge1]

Whenever I hear "X got cut for time", I get slightly depressed but then the video is so good I'm not sad anymore.

[@foxinabox5103]

46:31 my first ever exposure to the fallout franchise (2020) is FNV. And the fondest memory ive got of it is finishing the dead animal quest in novac and finding that this game had a group of INVISIBLE MUTANT WITH HEAVY WEAPONERIES.

[@SteveReasonable]

You didn't even mention how each of the four major DLC campaigns is thematically, mechanically, and artistically different from each other and the base game in fascinating ways! Please tell me there's another 1.5 hour long DLC video on the way. For each of them.

[@coolboysupermega7455]

I hate how all fallout new vegas videos skim over the DLC. That shit was easily some of the best parts of New Vegas, with the coolest and most compelling characters/stories and that's even considering the really good base game.

[@othellogoldsman452]

I enjoyed Dead Money for the story, but the gameplay of it was painfully tedious. It was a crime to not mention the DLCs in this video, but we did see the Holorifle more than once, so maybe it's coming as a part 2.

[@RoguSpanish]

Omg yes! I kept watching this thinking, when is he gonna get to the DLCs? No mention of Graham or Ulysses? The Siera Madre or the Divide? Too many people completely forget about the DLCs when talking about how great F:NV is, they have some of the best characters and plot lines, I think he could easily do another video just on them.

[@the_rabidsquirel]

@@othellogoldsman452 I definitely get the criticisms of Dead Money's gameplay, and I feel like it's probably the most criticized of the DLC. I actually liked it though, especially on hardcore. I liked that it felt more like a survival horror, and I liked the traps waiting around pretty much every corner. Maybe because on my first playthrough I played most of it late in the night, but I remember creeping around every corner, being on the edge of my seat as I constantly checked for all the various traps, and was genuinely scared of the ghost people a good number of times.

[@Burger_Nun]

Not mentioning Joshua Graham in a Fallout New Vegas video should be a crime. Fucking love my crispy boi.

[@adamandom]

And you didn't even mention the phenomenal DLC that actually ties everything together. Like how Elijah the main antagonist of Dead Money is the reason Dr Klein in Old World Blues speaks so loudly. Elijah messed around with his volume and given that he has no hands, he can't change it back. Or how Ulysses left markings in all the areas in Big Mountain, indicating the threat level. My favorite though is how people pronounce Big Mountain as "Big MT" but over time its transitioned to "Big Empty". Given that the "mountain" in question was destroyed by the bombs, it makes perfect sense nobody would put two and two together - or more likely, they heard about it through word of mouth, and MT degraded into "Empty". Idk I found that really clever. God New Vegas is so fucking good. edit 2 years later: Elijah messed with 0 and 8, not Klein. He's the reason 8's voice module doesnt work properly, and he used 0 to destroy one of the tunnels to make an escape. Another thing that I completely forgot was how the White Legs, the hostile tribe during Honest Hearts, was trained by Ulysses to kill the New Canaanites (Joshua Grahams tribe). The White Legs also adopted his method for painting marks on areas to denote danger, usefulness et cetera, which is why you can find markings throughout Zion too. Also really neat detail is some of the foreshadowing. Like how theres a RALPHIE poster above the bed in The Sink in OWB, hinting towards Lonesome Road. Or how Dean Domino appears in posters in the main game. Or how you can find all the labs that created the monstrosities that plague the Sierra Madre and The Divide within Big Mountain. A specific cool detail I feel like most other games would mess up is that you can hear Christine and Ulysses talking on holotapes in Big Mountain, and she has an entirely different voice actor to Dead Money. Because duh, this was before her vocal cords were swapped out by Dean. OWB is probably my favorite DLC in any game ever, its such a fun little romp through unregulated science. I love how the writers made it canon that Mobius literally named himself and his lair after Forbidden Planet because hes a huge dork, and how the entire story is just the Wizard of Oz

[@pewdiepiepewdiepie9148]

Good old politics into a game? Yay

[@reputablerascal1657]

Didn't notice the "big mt" one. Same vibes as novac just being whats left of a "no vacancy" sign.

[@23GreyFox]

I somehow managed to finish old world blues without killing the scientists. They told me few things about Elijah.

[@barthalamulevondwark7524]

All the dlc is really good (but dead money is so frustrating for the first half)

[@CrackaLack1n]

@@barthalamulevondwark7524 I got so frustrated with dead money that I turned god mode on but otherwise I loved the dlc story just not the gameplay lmao

[@lucgillibert4446]

As a former Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 players I tend do favor the NCR in my Fallout New Vegas game sessions. Because in Fallout 2 the NCR was a real positive force (and also, I love the idea that Tandi, the teen you saved in the first game, was its founder). I am also pragmatic, and I think that a certain level of stability and unity is needed before people can really be free (I mean, at least there are no slaves in the NCR). But I love the moral ambiguity of Fallout New Vegas and I do acknowledge that a free Vegas also makes sense.

[@MrPooleish]

Not only did this masterpiece convince me to give New Vegas another shot (I was dumb when it first came out), but it also put me on the scent of Agricola, a book that has legitimately changed my views on the world as it was and as it is. I cannot thank you enough for this.

[@back2onett]

"Fallout: New Vegas Is Genius, And Here's Why" >over 97 mins This video is my spiritual home

[@vidgamarr5126]

EarthBound & New Vegas are my favourite two games.

[@sexyashleighgrl]

@@vidgamarr5126 omg EarthBound is amazing.

[@seirra_madre]

New Vegas and the division

[@poprocks6576]

All his positive videos game reviews are my comfy zone

[@BlueZirnitra]

If your video game review is longer than most feature length films you're just enjoying the sound of your own voice.

[@ChristmasCrustacean1]

"you have to recruit the boomers who all pretend to remember woodstock even though none of them actually went" I chortled.

[@jjcoola998]

And then change their phone background 😅

[@EduardoMartinez-iq8qc]

I do not recall, do they mention woodstock in-game or is that something harris made up?

[@ehogg421]

@@EduardoMartinez-iq8qc it's making a joke that the boomers are like baby boomers who claim that they've been to Woodstock

[@EmpressSerenityOfBrittany]

I swear I almost thought I somehow missed that. I laughed so hard while looking up whether it was a joke Hbomber made or not.

[@sponge1234ify]

I am a millenial from Asia; Who is Woodstock and why does western boomers like to wax poetic about "going" there?

[@kuelf123]

who's here after the show?🎉

[@gilangwahyuagung2530]

Admit it, we all made the mistake of underestimating Cazadors when we first met them in our playthrough

[@d.n5287]

"You can even tell a child her teddy bear is dead" That's as close as we're gonna get to killing kids in Fallout without mods isn't it?

[@zekun4741]

mister sandman perk

[@immajustuseafakename2159]

You can eat a baby in one of the FNV DLC

[@d.n5287]

@@immajustuseafakename2159 not a child, not good enough

[@TheBreakingBenny]

@@zekun4741 Infinite Mister Sandman grinding

[@marraer481]

@@immajustuseafakename2159 how

[@PMZaphod]

I'm still really mad Fallout 3 won so many awards and New Vegas wasn't even nominated for any

[@Markmaben17]

Need a retrospective "best of the 2010s" game awards, and have New Vegas sweep

[@akundaruratkalalupa9710]

the game was so broken on release. Even 10 years after it still have bugs here and there (though with around 4 mod it remove like 90% of them). Im not that surprised its not nominated since its not stable as a game. However, through years it gets better and finally show its colour

[@thomaslichman5365]

@@akundaruratkalalupa9710 wasn't 3 just as broken on release?

[@pipdog9929]

@@thomaslichman5365 im pretty sure 3 was terrible on pc but stable for consoles

[@gokushkameha-ha-ha9344]

Bc fallout 3 was amazing and new Vegas was basically a stand alone dlc of it with some improved mechanics, and a much, much less interesting storyline.

[@keepitclean8791]

It feels like Fallout 3 is a poorly made sequel to Fallout 1, and Fallout: New Vegas is a well designed sequel to Fallout 2.

[@JaredCaraway]

I’m a recent hbomberguy convert and I’m so pleased to see how deep the vault of quality content runs

[@Maxarcc]

It's quite astonishing. I remember when this game came out, people were like: "it's okay I guess." and now it's slowly becoming a cult classic as a staple for good game design. Really interesting.

[@ArchiveTheMyth]

I basically play FNV every year everytime someone releases a new retrospective on why its so great

[@PlebNC]

I remember alot of criticism of how buggy it is and killing anyone with a name would cause cascades of failed quests due to those NPCs being important or reputation drops. And how save file size bloating killed the framerate. In the moment it felt like any other Bethesda RPG. Only after some time passing have the memelords moved on and proper discussion on the game can occur. Perhaps maybe we'll have videos in a decade talking about despite its bugs and management issues Fallout 76 has, at least partially, redeeming qualities like it having a persistent world, genuinely cool multiplayer interactions, one of the most geographical varied and fun to navigate maps in the series and how the Camp system's ability to build a small settlement workshop almost anywhere is a game changer I hope returns in single player Fallout games. But then again the community's still in the "saying anything positive about Fallout 76 means that person an ignorant, blind fanboy" phase so it'll be a while before some meaningful balanced discussion on the game happen. Probably when The Elder Scrolls 6 comes out or Fallout 5.

[@corncobjohnsonreal]

If game companies stuck to making good games we wouldn't be pointing out the hype sh🐀t from a decade ago, we'd be saying "yeah the new fallout games are always good, each game improves on the one before it and overall it's a great franchise."

[@willaroberts134]

I was lucky enough to have a friend in high school who was like "this game is the way the truth and the life" and it made such an impression on me that when I got my first computer for college it was one of the first games I played and I fell in love forever

[@MrKILLINOOBZ]

Mainly because of how unstable the game was at launch and how much there was to explore that people didn't truly get a full on experience until years later after beating it several times.

[@Rad-Dude63andathird]

Killing Vulpes Inculta is something I've done so often as a natural reaction to meeting the Legion for the first time that I forget he's actually part of the main quest at all.

[@cymond]

It's like a reflex. Apparently you have to option to NOT kill him. Huh, who knew?

[@oedipamaas2067]

but what about the boone relationship points!!!!!!!!!??????

[@fatty1040]

Same, that's honestly my only problem with new vegas. Everything is a checklist in order, if it had the random chance encounter it would be gorgeously chaotic.

[@forstianideal4459]

@@fatty1040 you could do a legion playthrough and not kill him, or an independent one and delay till you feel like ending him, or spare him for the chance that lanius and vuples oppose each other once caesar dies and tear the legion apart, or just ignore him. Random encounters are nice but they don't measure up to a massively branching main quest line.

[@kinagrill]

Same for me.... His whole 'you must show and tell of the horrors we did here!' - I just went all 'yeah fuck you dude' and blew head head into smithereens and 'nade the shit out of his men. I just dislike him with a passion, but in the 'great character you can enjoy disliking'. I've even tried doing Legion playthroughs a few times... but I always run sour in them cuz I just dun enjoy being a psychotic dick that enjoys the idea of a slavery-society. Hell I prefer the NCR and feel by helping them you can still help do a functional favor to them post-game in some way.... cuz they have become a flawed society and corrupt through the natural expansion of government and layers of 'responsibility giveaway' since it was on someone else's order, or cuz of the slog of things they can get away with things.

[@theguywhosnothere]

I know it's not the main topic but I would LOVE a game based in vault 22 before everything happened. To slowly have your friends disappearing and not knowing why, having your character try to figure it out? I think it would make for a really fun game! Maybe not a full title, possibly just a dlc or even just a small spinoff game

[@silverstorm3729]

Funny story: As a kid, I couldn't tell Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas apart very well based off their discs and titles (I know, I know, I'm dumb) But hilariously, when I wanted to play "Fallout" and popped in Fallout 3, I would start up a new game, get the opening cinematic, realize I had picked the "boring" one, and swap games. Every single time. Even as a kid who loved Fallout 3, once I had played New Vegas, it immediately became THE Fallout I remembered and wanted to replay.

[@Nolan65775]

The fact that you can actually use the Barter skill to talk the big bad out of the fight by explaining that they will ultimately destory their nation because of poor logistics is a testament to the fact that they really wanted you to have the freedom to play any character you want...and then you get Fallout 4 where you literally get characters that hand you control of their entire faction and if you try to ask questions about it, they literally say 'you wouldn't understand.'

[@isenokami7810]

That sounds incredibly stupid. Unless you’re just gonna be a figurehead, it’s really important that you, as the new leader, know all this stuff to properly lead. That goes beyond Hbomb’s Fallout 3 complaints and is just terrible writing. Unless…please don’t tell me that’s how Bethesda is run.

[@Nolan65775]

@@isenokami7810 It really doesn't help that even when you do become the leader, you spend most of the time following the orders given to you by other people. Or how one of the factions is just a straight hidden, secretive cabal of scientists and alleged geniuses and actually lead by your own son who wants you to take his place. So when he's fucking dying and gives you complete control of the faction and you try to ask anything about it, he just pulls the same shit. "You wouldn't understand."

[@charliebat]

the thing that pisses me off the most about fallout 4 is that i love paladin danse but i hate how he is still brotherhood aligned after his betrayal quest. my dude they tried send your closest friend to murder you and ur still mad if i try to go for some of the best shit in the game (elder maxsons stuff) because of that?? like he knew it was all a lie too and he still hates synths and super mutants stuff like that

[@Michael-rk9iw]

Fallout 4 was a terrible game because it made no sense. F03's world made sense due to the lack of water which resulted in a lack of food. People scraping by on any little scraps they could find, and dying of radiation in the process. It made sense that there were raiders and insane people running around in that world. By contrast, in F04 clean water food, and power is everywhere and easy to produce. Its silly.

[@yakobsoulstorm5187]

@@Michael-rk9iw It's also 210 YEARS AFTER THE BOMBS DROPPED. It's absurd that the best they've done is Diamond City.

[@mrogormand1]

"Fallout: New Vegas uses a radical new technique called 'game design' ... "

[@swagismund]

When i first played fallout 3 i didn't even know deathclaws were supposed to be all that scary and i just considered them another random monster that i could usually fight without all that much effort put in. When i met the blind deathclaw in new vegas for the first time i ran at it with the same attitude and even more confident because it was blind only to get my shit rocked. I think it says a lot about Bethesda that they took one of the most intimidating monsters in the franchise and just made it so forgettable

[@0hpossum]

I think my favorite part of new Vegas will always be the characters. I don’t know if I could reliably name more than maybe 5 from any Bethesda fallout game, but with new Vegas, I have trouble picking a favorite. I love that it feels like I could run into these characters in the real world, they have hopes and dreams and fears and live their own lives that you can see play out. I especially love that you don’t pick what they do from a list. You ADVISE Veronica on what to do, she makes her own decision based on how you’ve interacted with her, you HELP Arcade come to terms with the legacy of his father and how he is connected to the Enclave. Even the “bad guys” like Caesar, Lanius and even Mr. House feel real. I’ve spoken to people who cosplay Ancient Rome the same way Caesar does, I’ve seen people like Lanius who are so set on their own goals potential failure is the only thing that gives them pause. Mr. House, in all his kooky hyper-capitalist ways, has moments where I can see him as an actual person, despite the fact that he is both narratively and literally not alive.

[@michaellabonte6390]

I don't m3ant to take from your overall point but I'm pretty sure House is alive in that pod no? I've never fully understood hid suspended animation

[@user-rw1ft1sp2e]

"is a libertarian, so he wants to lower the age of consent--" JFHDHSJ YEAH

[@PRO100Dreik]

Боюсь эту отсылку они не поймут

[@user-rw1ft1sp2e]

@@PRO100Dreik кто именно? у него довольно специфичная аудитория, да и либертаринцы не только у нас существуют лол

[@agitwap6413]

@@PRO100Dreik we get it bby

[@PRO100Dreik]

@@user-rw1ft1sp2e все либертарианцы педофилы? Я думал что это исключительно касается Светова, но ладно

[@user-rw1ft1sp2e]

@@PRO100Dreik да лол, шутка про впринципе часто встречающийся стенс на эту тему

[@CrabShoe]

hbomberguy "Eventually, players lose interest in picking through empty buildings full of locked safes in case there's something interesting in them." Todd Howard "So you're saying the loot should be randomized?"

[@RoyalFusilier]

"You'll be richly rewarded with infinite chests, full of rusty daggers and used pregnancy tests..."

[@pantonearqm2791]

Isn't loot already was randomized in F3?

[@CrabShoe]

@@pantonearqm2791 Fallout 3 didn't have all of the unique weapons and armor randomized like it was in fallout 4. Fallout 4 is a game where a bunch of ideas that look and sound very good on the surface are actually incredibly repetitive and get old fast. It seems like they have a bunch of brilliant people designing a game, but almost no quality testing to verify the ideas.

[@pantonearqm2791]

@@CrabShoe I really doubt that the were bunch of brilliant people, more likely one or maybe two of them.

[@BelCamryn]

@@CrabShoe because funny enough, having different things in chests doesn't make for l that different an experience.

[@serperiorkal8142]

My sibling ended up tricking me into doing the Dead Money DLC first. Best thing I have ever done in this game. Dead money has such a good story. Plus I went back to Primm and made the powdergangers run away from me in fear while I swung a bunch of kitchen knives on a stick at them.

[@foxinabox5103]

Finally someone who liked dead money! I feel like some ppl hated it bcuz they were stripped of their gear, and/or they're doing an energy weapon run. I really love the tragic story of Vera and i love the scavenger playstyle of dead money, where you are making weapons from scraps you found around you.

[@dooperdooper6679]

@@foxinabox5103 I just did an explosives/energy run and scrounging for ammo got intense, but it was honestly way better. Guns builds get to mooch off the vending machines. This time I actually felt helpless for most of the dlc. Loved it

[@foxinabox5103]

@@dooperdooper6679 your comment is exactly why its a divided opinion for it. Its basically like a different genre from the other DLCs (and main game).

[@dooperdooper6679]

@@foxinabox5103 I mean yeah. It’s obviously a survival horror dlc. If you don’t treat it like one you probably won’t have as much fun.

[@reaperking2121]

For me the coolest thing is not just the big differrences in the ending but the small one's. Choosing which major faction to support rocks of course as each vision of New Vegas has geniune merit behind them. But what I love most is the small stuff. My first run I chose to play as the wastelands bringer of democracy. I worked to fix the NCR from the inside doing all quests to support them. Whether it be support the troopers at camp golf, raiding legion camps or working with Cass to bring down the Van Graffs. But apart from that I chose to bring peace and cooperation wherever possible and in return when I fought at hoover dam I barely had to lift a finger. Why ? Cause thanks to my actions, I had not betterred the wasteland, but united it in a way never before seen. I had Enclave remnants, providing support for NCR Rangers and Brotherhood paladins while above a restored bomber let the wastleland feel the fury of the old world once more. It was exhilirating. To see my effort at trying to play the roll of mediator not only validated in the credits but also in the battle itself. I could see the effect I had on the wasteland and nothing has ever been as satisfying.

[@tonycampbell1424]

" . . . Just need to defeat these tiny flies." Sephiroth choir: *INHALES*

[@trashrabbit69]

Australians during winter be like:

[@tentavision5019]

Those flies have more than one wing, h

[@tonycampbell1424]

@@tentavision5019 They are also emphatically NOT angels. Hold on. Someone get me the spear of Longinus.

[@ERIKBGOOD]

"10 % bonus damage to everyone." >Mom, dad I'm coming out I'm bisexual.

[@matthewferguson9683]

"Look, 10% damage is 10% damage."

[@I_Think_Its_Kaiden]

We get the best of both worlds 😉

[@yurigagarin9765]

Sorry, but in order for that to work, you have to be hot as well as bisexual.

[@tranhanam0027]

@@yurigagarin9765 Look, you're killing them either way, might as well make that 10% faster.

[@viniciusdesouzamaia]

In the real world it's the opposite and bigots do way more damage. ..

[@TheMikeyP_]

With how many casinos are around the map, I’d argue chips should be considered a currency as well. It’s only used in the areas in and surrounding new Vegas and has a guaranteed value only in the new Vegas area. I think it checks every “currency” box. If anything it’s the most trustworthy and consistent form of non caps currency in the game.

[@frenzy2061]

The Dead Money and Old World Blues DLCs are my absolute favourite parts of New Vegas. The characters they introduce in them are so interesting.

[@potatoprodutions7871]

"Politics is objectively fun and all gamers love it all the time, and the people who say they hate seeing them in games actually love politics even more; they just wish they were seeing different politics." Yearbook material

[@abysswatcher9172]

@Greed1914 Or politics that doesn't suit/make sense for the setting ingame

[@MarkFin9423]

Politics can indeed be fun and people who say otherwise are not exactly making the right argument. Ingame politics is what makes the game. After all nothing beats an independant ending where you tell NCR the frick off after pretending to help them the entire time before the epic payoff 123 hours in. What people don't want in their game is real life politics which is the most toxic kind of politics as it always devolves in either a lecture about how having a different opinion makes you a bad person or bashing one side cause of course those guys are pure evil.

[@tonycampbell1424]

@@MarkFin9423 Okay, but New Vegas is RIDDLED with real life politics. So . . . not really sure what you're getting at.

[@Benbeasted]

@@MarkFin9423 Have you not seen the video? The reason that the debates between which side is the right choice remain heated to this day is because they draw incredibly heavily from real world politics.

[@fcoomega7734]

@@MarkFin9423 then you have to explain why people like shows like animaniacs and the simpsons even tho they are FULL of real life politics, and if we are going to videogames is even worst, like GTA, COD, TF2, Deus ex, Half life, etc. Are games that everyones likes in one way or another, and they are FULL of mordernday real life politics.

[@belegl.7721]

"Disco Elysium is Genius, and heres Why" when?

[@frederikfoss4594]

YES

[@snakeemur]

Everyone knows why anaway

[@ph1lmaker]

Check out Noah Caldwell-Gervais's video meanwhile, it's very good

[@couchpotato2222]

When the Final Cut comes out

[@kloggmonkey]

i'd recommend renegade cut's video on disco elysium.

[@art-eroflore]

i love watching videos on fallout because all my knowledge about it is from Fallout: Equestria

[@fauxrowsdower7610]

the way those two words unlocked some ancient memories for me just now

[@verybored1261]

29:55 the need to have alliteration so bad you had to say "sss-difficulty" to complete it was amazing