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+ <title>Fallout New Vegas, 15 Years On</title>
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+ <h3 class="blog-title">Fallout New Vegas, 15 Years On</h3>
+ <h3 class="datestamp">11/03/2025</h3>
+ </div>
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+ <div class="content">
+ <p>Let it never be said I can't admit where I was wrong.</p>
+ <p>
+ Earlier this year I played Obsidian's Pentiment, which I
+ adored. Fabulous little game with choices that really mattered
+ and a genuine reverence and love for history.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I've tangled with Obsidian's games a few times to varying
+ degress of success. Their South Park games are a good laugh,
+ the Outer Worlds is weird and awkward and well, New Vegas.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I've played an awful lot of Fallout 3 and 4. Bethesda's games
+ have a certain je ne sais quois that really makes them a
+ delight, despite not being particularly good in... well, any
+ respect. Fallout, especially, has a real magic in it; between
+ the fantastic tech assets (the Pip-Boy, of course, but all the
+ vault mechanisms, the terminals... they all feel so suited to
+ the setting), the sublime score and radio that set the mood
+ and some very moody storytelling in each location, it's easy
+ to get lost in it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Despite that, mind, I'd never managed to get into New Vegas,
+ although not for lack of trying. Every year or so, I'd go
+ 'maybe this time it'll take' and then, without fail, I'd bail
+ around Primm. There was a fair amount of stuff that didn't gel
+ with me in it, most notably the fact that early doors it's a
+ <i>damn</i> hard game if you don't have Guns as a tag skill. I
+ knew, of course, that a lot of the quests can be solved
+ non-violently, so I'd usually put all three tag skills in
+ non-violent skills too.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Not this time, though. This time I finished a playthrough, and
+ smashed through the DLC, too. I tagged Guns, Science and
+ Speech, which was a massive help. A massive help, really -
+ tagging GUns makes the early game less brutal, and I still had
+ plenty of points in skill check stats for early-game speech
+ challenges.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Which, honestly, made the game an awful lot more fun. Suddenly
+ I wasn't doing chip damage on every single enemy and counting
+ down the bullets till I was punching them. It made that
+ initial journey to Primm and beyond a lot less gruelling.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Anyway, turns out everyone who wasn't me was extremely right
+ about this game. It's <i>delightful.</i> The shooting is still
+ the same as in Fallout 3, which is to say, it's kind of
+ rubbish, but everything around it rules. Being able to level
+ Speech to 100 and talk down everyone in the game, even the
+ Legion's Turbo Nazi? THRILLING. Meeting a guy at a solar farm
+ and using your high science skill to correctly deduce he has
+ no idea what he's doing? Phenomenal.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The sheer possibility landscape in the game kind of beggars
+ belief, to the extent that you kind of wonder how they even
+ fit it all in. And <i>especially</i> how they managed to put
+ it all together in just 18 months. How are there three
+ different major factions you can side with on the strip, each
+ with full-featured and intertwined storylines? How is there an
+ ADDITIONAL 'no thanks' questline that lets you take Vegas
+ independent? How come every place you go to in the Mojave has
+ at least two or three quests attached to it, even if it's a
+ single-purpose location like a Vault?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It's the kind of elegant design you simply don't see, really.
+ Bethesda certainly don't do it. Baldurs Gate 3 kind of came
+ close, at least in terms of density of quests, although it
+ definitely doesn't have the same quality in its choices. Even
+ Obsidian don't seem to have matched it, although granted I've
+ not played Avowed much or ever touched Pillars of Eternity.
+ Maybe they've cracked that nut again in those.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Anyway, yeah. Good game! The DLC is pretty mediocre, although
+ I really loved Old World Blues. That one specifically is
+ buoyed by the Think Tank being so weird and fun and tragic?
+ Maybe that's just me having 'old world blues,' myself, though
+ - I do think the best writing in all of the Fallout games is
+ when it's confronting the pre-war world and contrasting it
+ with the current wasteland.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But yeah. All this to say: if you were waiting for a sign to
+ finally play New Vegas, this is it. It's ruddy bloody
+ brilliant.
+ </p>
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+ <item>
+ <title>Fallout New Vegas, 15 Years On</title>
+ <description>Let it never be said I can't admit where I was wrong.</description>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+ <link>https://athene.gay/entries/newvegas.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/newvegas.html</guid>
+ </item>
<item>
<title>Music I've Made</title>
<description>Sometimes I make music. Then I upload it here.</description>
<link>https://athene.gay/diversions/musicivemade.html</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/diversions/musicivemade.html</guid>
</item>
+ <item>
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+ <description>OK this is a silly post but my friends asked me for a full
+ review of the new kfc zinger double down. So here it is.</description>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+ <link>https://athene.gay/entries/thereturnofthekfcdoubledown.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/thereturnofthekfcdoubledown.html</guid>
+ </item>
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<description>Once upon a time, I was a horny teenage boy. Now, I'm a horny adult woman.</description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/srb2.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
- <title>The Return of the KFC Double Down</title>
- <description>OK this is a silly post but my friends asked me for a full
- review of the new kfc zinger double down. So here it is.</description>
- <pubDate>Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
- <link>https://athene.gay/entries/thereturnofthekfcdoubledown.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/thereturnofthekfcdoubledown.html</guid>
- </item>
- <item>
- <title>It's 2025 and I am playing a D&D Game...</title>
- <description>... and it's not Baldurs Gate 3; it is, however, equally 7/10.</description>
- <pubDate>Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
- <link>https://athene.gay/entries/danddgames.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/danddgames.html</guid>
+ <title>Youbeat</title>
+ <description>A while ago, I wanted to adapt arcade game Jubeat for home play,
+ using a device called a launchpad.</description>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+ <link>https://athene.gay/projects/youbeat.html</link>
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</item>
<item>
- <title>Youbeat</title>
- <description>A while ago, I wanted to adapt arcade game Jubeat for home play,
- using a device called a launchpad.</description>
+ <title>FFXIV Plugins</title>
+ <description>I currently maintain two silly little plugins for Final Fantasy
+ XIV.</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
- <link>https://athene.gay/projects/youbeat.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/projects/youbeat.html</guid>
+ <link>https://athene.gay/projects/dalamudplugins.html</link>
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</item>
<item>
<title>Miku Expo</title>
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/miku.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
- <title>FFXIV Plugins</title>
- <description>I currently maintain two silly little plugins for Final Fantasy
- XIV.</description>
- <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
- <link>https://athene.gay/projects/dalamudplugins.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/projects/dalamudplugins.html</guid>
+ <title>It's 2025 and I am playing a D&D Game...</title>
+ <description>... and it's not Baldurs Gate 3; it is, however, equally 7/10.</description>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
+ <link>https://athene.gay/entries/danddgames.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">https://athene.gay/entries/danddgames.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title>Bringing Static Websites Back</title>
projects / gnargle.github.io.git / commitdiff