Fallout: New Vegas, Fresh Combat And Hardcore Mode Details

30 Apr 2010 at 19:50:59 by Peter Parrish

A few more details about combat and the so-called 'hardcore' mode in the forthcoming Fallout: New Vegas have emerged.

An article at IGN offers a fairly extensive rundown of how hardcore mode will function. Players will need to consume food and water to stay alive, bullets will contribute to encumbrance, broken bones will need the attention of a doctor and stimpaks will only heal gradually over time.

As an extra incentive, Obsidian promise a special treat for anybody tough enough to make it through the game in this manner.

Living up to its reputation as a centre for organised crime, Vegas will introduce new weaponry - plus the ability to mod weapons with scopes and special ammo types.

Players who steered clear of VATS in Fallout 3 may be pleased to learn that the real-time combat in Vegas has been tweaked a bit. New camera angles, iron sights for weapons and the option of switching on VATS-style slow motion kills are all set to be included.

All this firepower will be necessary, because it seems that even more enemy types will be resistant to certain types of projectile. We saw fire ants being resistant to (wait for it ...) fire in Fallout 3, but it appears that players will need even more flexibility in their armoury to properly deal with the dangers of the Nevada deserts.

Some returning enemies from the Fallout universe like the Super Mutant Nightkin will also present fresh challenges. Nightkin can become practically invisible, making them impossible to target in VATS.

With news of locations like the Hoover Dam and the infamous Vegas strip appearing in the game, we're eager to see if we can cash our bottle caps at the roulette table and then pick up a weird, radioactive disease from a robo-prostitute.

Fallout: New Vegas is scheduled for an autumn release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

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