So, Fallout.  Gotta be one of my all-time favorite game series, fallout 1 being the first game I ever owned myself.  First off, if you have played Fallout 3, you have a pretty good idea of how this one works.  its the same game engine, and all the same mechanics are there, tho some have been tweaked and optimised.  

For the uninitiated, Fallout: New Vegas (NV) is a first/third person shooter RPG.  You awaken in a central(ish) location in a very large sandbox world, and can proceed in any direction you choose.  There is a "main" story, but it is completely determined by your own actions. (i think there are something like 176 different possible endings). Or, you can completely ignore the main quest line, and wander off in any direction to kill, loot, befriend, enslave, con, or otherwise interact with the inhabitants of the wasteland.

A word of caution: this game is tied in with Steam and uses the Steam Cloud backup service, to back up your save games.  however, I get the feeling that this wasn't well tested before launch, as I got 12 hours in, did a hard save, logged off for the night, and returned to find that all my saves except for the tutorial one (17 min into the game) had been overwritten by a patch...    So, after many tears of nerd rage, and a thorough trolling of the Bethesda support forums, I found a work around that ensures that future saves are not over-written.  In essence, it stops steam from being able to write saves to the save folder.

So, now I'm 5 hours into my second play-through.  I'd say that my continued play, despite the annoyance and having to start over, is the best answer to what I think about this game.

SSG.Braxis*BK*

This is the work around I found on the Bethesda Support page, worked for me.

"Here's an easier fix than the batch file. In the ...Steam/userdata.../22380 folder, delete the contents of the /remote folder, then turn off Write Access (for all users and administrators) for the /22380 folder in the Properties/Security tab. That way, no new autosaves or quicksaves get backed up there, and there is nothing for your saves to revert to."

so is the game worth the money or is more like it should be a add-on pack. does it have sufficient new feature and game play to justify the money etc

well... i've seen posts from people who have almost 40 hours into the game already, so in terms of content, there is a TON of new stuff. there's no repeat characters or factions as far as i can tell, so story is all new.

gameplay... about 60% of the weapons are new, with a new class of weapons (throwing melee - i.e. spears and hatchets) coming into play.  But mechanic-wise, its pretty much the same as Fallout 3 and all its expansions.  

So, if you loved fallout 3 and could never wait for the next DLC to come out, GET NEW VEGAS
If you got bored with doing quests in Fallout 3, and couldnt wait for the main story to end, pass on NV.

ive been playing for like 30ish hours or so now... the game stands its ground! Its nothing like an expansion pack. There is literally so much new stuff this game can stand to be its own game. Im a huge fan of the fallout series ;P

There are TONS of side quests to do so you wont find yourself beating the game in a mere 4 hours like another game i can think of cough cough moh.... cough cough lol

I just started a game myself... Looking forward to exploring the wasteland. Fallout 3 was a good distraction.

AA

hah i love the dino sniper part  she got owned

What about cars and stuff? Can you get a car or other form of trasportation lying around and take it to drive/fly?

not as far as i have seen, tho that would be a nice addition, considering how bloody massive the Mohave wasteland is...

no but they have the q button so walking is a think of the past!

Ah ok just wondering