Fallout: New Vegas

The best of the series by far. The 2D Fallout games are great, but as far as modern titles are concerned FO3, FO4, and F76 don't even hold a candle to New Vegas; it is the ULTIMATE shooter RPG experience. FNV takes everything FO3 did, modernizes it a little, and improves upon it a lot. Is the movement clunky? Sure, but it's completely serviceable. Is the gunplay complex? Nope, but it's good, and you can finally ADS. These issues are beside the point. Fallout New Vegas is a uniquely designed post apocalyptic uranium-punk cowboy roleplaying game that manages to immerse you in itself with ease. New Vegas will make you love, hate, and want to crucify its characters while crafting your own to be the exact hero (or psychopath) you always wanted to be in a game. It's the game you'll always want to keep coming back to, again, and again; FNV is a bit unstable at times, you WILL get crashes, but I promise you that you'll immediately open it up again because that's just what New Vegas is - it keeps you hooked when the others don't. Why? Because the game was rigged from the start.

I can say with complete certainty that this is the best game I have ever played. I have put about 180 hours into this game. ill probably put in another 120. and I payed about £10 for it. so why is it so good. well for one it understands fallout in a way Bethesda unfortunately does not. That is essentially that Obsidian understands that a good Fallout game is not defined by its world first but first by its story (though it does help that FNV has one of the best crafted worlds I have ever seen). the difference between F3 and FNV is like night and day. one is a shallow story with uninteresting characters (and liam neeson for some reason) whilst the other is unironically the best interactive story currently available. this games story doesn't treat you like an idiot. it introduces to really complex ideologies and asks you to judge them on their merits and its not as simple as good v evil. all sides have both positives and negatives. and the best part. you decide what are the positives and what are the negatives. Ignoring the karma system (which makes no sense) , this game doesn't really entertain the idea of objective morality. if you think complete authority by dictatorial enforcement is the best way to rule ( and by proxy save ) the Mojave then that's entirely up to you. One of the great lines in the game retaining to democracy describes how their use has lead to near extinction and in-game the argument is pretty understandable. this world portrays humanity in its direst consequence so perhaps the the world can't just go back to what it had before. Now onto the world. it looks pretty crap. which is both a shame (please remaster this game Betheda) and brilliant. when you get to New Vegas for the first time its breath-taking because for the last 10 hours you've been surrounded by awful looking homes and ruins. it actually looks really cool. The world design is even more attractive. the game presents 3 paths to New Vegas. Some are harder to follow than others. The world in this game doesn't try to help you. If you meet an enemy that is higher level than you you will die. The progression in this game is so meticulous that if you just follow the intended path set out for you by the game you will have the tools required to face the enemies you have to fight. Also even if you are at risk of getting into a fight you can't win then more often then not you will be able to achieve your goals without fighting. New Vegas showed Bethesda that Fallout is so much more than power armour and shallow storytelling but also perfectly integrated the armour into their game at the same time. all in all 10/10