So when we betray the loyalty of the New California Republic by activating the Helios One plant's generator to reroute power to the Archimedes II orbital laser, only to rain florescent laser death upon the NCR troops below, they'll remember it and will potentially never trust you ever again. This is part of the new reputation system that has overarching consequences across all of New Vegas, so incurring the wrath of one faction will delight another and vice-versa.
Upon completing this mission for the people of Goodsprings and taking out Joe Cobb, we earn the acceptance and trust of the townsfolk. Incidentally, Cobb's head went flying off in classic VATs style outside of VATs, demonstrating the dynamic kill cam which can now be triggered at any moment. This one is called 'Fore!' and is – as you'd expect – a swift, (dis)graceful golf swing to the plums of your targeted victim. Along the way, our hero gets hold of the game's new 9-iron and enters the trusty VATs mode showing that a press of Y now initiates a specialised weapon specific move, designed to add “spice” to melee combat. After a quick talk with Ringo, Sunny, Chet from the general store and Easy Pete (who also gives us a few sticks of dynamite thanks to a dialogue option unlocked due to our 25 point explosive skill), we're good and ready to tackle the gang. A fellow called Joe Cobb is causing trouble in the town with a gang of so-called 'powder gangers', so the bar's owner, Trudy, calls upon you to round up a gang to go tackle Cobb and his cronies. This is preparation for the first main mission, which is to protect a weird guy called Ringo who lurks in the saloon toilets. After this you answer a few questions with the Doc and go through the Vit-O-Matic vigour test to assign your abilities, Then you're good and ready to embark upon a brand new quest, blinking out into the sunlight as you did when you first left Vault 101.Īvellone proceeds to show us a pistol he's augmented with a scope, barrel and larger magazine, and it looks far meaner than its vanilla counterpart. This smartly introduces you to the character creation interface as Doc Mitchell makes sure he put everything back in the right place and that you remember your name, which you can input or use the default title of 'Courier' – your character's job role. This is where our hands-off demo lead by Senior Designer Chris Avellone commences, as your character awakens to the benevolent visage of the good Doc, who has selflessly reassembled your head for you. Fallout: New Vegas begins with your apparent death, which might not seem like the most promising of starts, but don't worry because even though you've been shot twice in the head(!) and left to rot in a shallow grave out in the Mojave desert, you're soon rescued by Vegas Vic – a mysterious robot – and taken to the kindly Doc Mitchell, who patches you up.