Let's kick this off right!

I was tempted to leave my welcome message up for a day or two before writing my first post, but I have ditched that notion, since I already have something to say. Now that I have this platform and I don't feel like I am pissing off my facebook friends with video game chat, look out! I'm wearing my 'I Have Opinions!' pants and I want to show them to you! My opinions, that is, not the pants. Unless you really want to see the pants. They aren't very exciting though, it's not like they are see through or crazy John Daly golf pants, but again, I digress. (Expect a lot of that...)

Also it should be noted that I am currently playing games on an Xbox 360. I had a PS3, but it shit the bed and I haven't the cash to buy a new one yet. I do not tend to play games on PC. This is not against PC gamers, it's just not my thing, so please don't attempt to convert me. I prefer sitting on my reclining leather couch than at my computer desk to play, since most of my playing is done after a long day of sitting at a computer at a desk at work.

So now that that is settled, on we go!

So today's topic is Bethseda Softwork's Fallout: New Vegas. I will do my best to avoid spoilers for those of you that have not yet played this game, but are planning on doing so.

I bought this game on release day. As it is with most games that you buy on release date, you can expect a certain amount of glitchiness. My game has frozen enough times that I feel like I deserve a 'Walt Disney's Head' achievement or something for it. This is annoying, but I have found that if you remember to save every few minutes and use rotating save slots, this is only a minor annoyance. In all honesty, saving often and in rotating save slots is just smart gaming, no matter what game you are playing. Games that don't give you this option are substandard in my opinion. (I'm looking at YOU, Fable II.)

Now, leaving the freezing behind, I also have found items floating in mid air, including rocks, spoons, and weapons, but again not a deal breaker. I am hearing grumbles about some really awful problems, but thus far I have been lucky enough to avoid them.

I would first like to say that a game has never raised so many moral questions and conundrums for me in my life. I am truly amazed by the ethical gray zone BethSoft has been able to create with this story. Most games that give you a choice of good and evil, the choices are pretty black and white. There is a good way to do something and a bad way to do something. Not in FO:NV!

So far New Vegas has given me numerous ways to complete any given mission, creating a story web that had repercussions and consequences for almost everything I do. I don't think I have ever played a game where upon completing one mission I got almost ten "Mission Failed" alerts, because I had closed my door of opportunity for doing those missions by going down the route I chose. I understand that it would have failed missions regardless of which side I picked, since you can only do missions for the faction you are supporting after a certain place in the game, but it still amazed me just how deep they made the storyline, depending on who's side you took.

Also in the occasions that you are following the 'good' path, sometimes you have to do things that compromise your Karma negatively. For example, I wanted to save someone, but to do that I had to hack an owned computer. Since you get negative karma points for that, I had to take the negative hit on my karma scale, though I was still doing the 'right' thing. It became a sort of Robin Hood issue. Hurting one party to help another party still means I hurt someone. Which party did I think was in the right? Oh, the dilemma!!

Also deciding who's side to be on was REALLY hard. I really thought about it, walking around the wastelands, doing piddly side quests while weighing my options. It wasn't obvious. Everyone had upsides and downsides. Rarely is a game so engaging in this way. Granted games have been striving to become less about white hats versus black hats, but this is the first occasion where I was really torn about what was the best decision. To be completely honest, I am still not sure I made the correct decision but I am going to let my character deal with the fallout (pun fully intended) from his actions.

So far it's amazingly well done. Yes, the game is glitchy, yes my game freezes, yes there are problems that they should have patched before release. Yet, I am 40+ hours into it and can't wait to go home and play some more. That should tell you right there, that despite the technical shortcomings, there is something there. A gem coated in radioactive desert sand.