Fallout: New Vegas is the sixth game in the Fallout series, developed by Obsidian Entertainment and produced by Bethesda. Released in 2010, it chronologically takes place 4 years after Fallout 3, but is not the next numbered entry in the main series, instead being officially considered a Spin-Off. A good chunk of the development team were exiles from the late Black Isle Studios — responsible for Fallout 2 and the canceled Van Buren — and as such, the game returns to the West Coast setting of the "classic" Fallout games rather than the East Coast setting that Fallout 3 started. Thus, in a way, New Vegas serves as more of a direct sequel to Fallout 2 than the actual Fallout 3, as it spends time wrapping up the region's Myth Arc while opening up new possibilities for future stories. Like its predecessor, New Vegas is a first-person (with optional third person) Action RPG.
It's 2281, and the Mojave Wasteland is an okay place to live. It doesn't have as many problems as most places do, largely thanks to the efforts of Robert House (voiced by René Auberjonois), a pre-War business mogul who allegedly saved Las Vegas from the devastation of the Great War centuries ago. Some even say he rules the resurrected Vegas, now "New" Vegas, to this day, from atop his shining tower at the Lucky 38 Casino upon the luxurious New Vegas Strip. But that may not be the case forever; two regional superpowers, the expanding federation of the New California Republic from the west, now led by President Aaron Kimball (voiced by Monte Markham), and the marauding hordes of Caesar's Legion from the east, led by, well, Caesar (voiced by John Doman), have begun staking claims in the region, most prominently seeking control of the Hoover Dam as a source of electrical power. They've already clashed over the dam once before, and they're about to do it all over again, with New Vegas and its citizens caught in the crossfire.
That's all somebody else's problem, though. You? You're just a courier for the Mojave Express. You're the best messenger this side of the Grand Canyon, as long as the package isn't too big. And this one really isn't. It's almost boring, even. But hey, you get to bring it to New Vegas, the biggest, brightest city in what's left of America. Should be pretty fun, right? Wrong. Only a few days into your trip, a mysterious man in a checkered coat (voiced by Matthew Perry) and his posse of leathered-up thugs shoot you in the head and take your package, leaving you for dead in a shallow grave.
Normally, this would spell the end of your delivery run, but luckily, you manage to cling to life just long enough for a friendly cowboy robot to dig you up ahead of your imminent death. The robot drops you off at the local doctor, and within a few days you're back on your feet, with most of your brain intact and three clear goals: find out what was in that unassuming little package, get it back, and deliver it — after all, it's your paycheck on the line. Besides, it's not for naught that they call you The Courier.
But here's the rub: Once you find out what your cargo truly is... where, exactly, will you deliver it?
The game has four Downloadable Content add-ons:
- Dead Money: The Courier visits a legendary pre-war ruin, the Sierra Madre Casino, in a Survival Horror-style map with scarce supplies, enemies that run the gamut from nigh- to complete invulnerability, and many environmental hazards.
- Honest Hearts: The Courier travels north to Zion National Park, finding themselves caught in the middle of a tribal war along with two Mormon missionaries with differing ideas on how to settle the conflict.
- Old World Blues: The Courier is abducted by a gang of insane scientists who need help to escape the boundaries of their lab, which is full of amazing but horrific scientific advancements.
- Lonesome Road: The final add-on, the Courier answers an "invitation" to travel to the Divide, a hellish wasteland ravaged by recent nuclear detonations, confronting the mysterious Ulysses, a man with a deeply personal grudge against them.
The four add-ons are advised to be played in the order they were originally released, as listed above. Together, they form a Myth Arc, along with potentially-overlooked details in the main game, foreshadowing events and characters in later add-ons, all building up to the confrontation with Ulysses in the Divide.
Two more small DLCs were released on September 27, 2011:
- Courier's Stash: A bundle of the four
pre-order equipment packs. - Gun Runners' Arsenal: Adds more weapons, mods, ammo, and crafting recipes to the game.
Finally, in February 2012, the game's Ultimate Edition was released - the game and all of its downloadable content in one package.
As its predecessors, Fallout: New Vegas benefits from a lot of content crafted by the community, from silly inoffensive content
to complete new questlines. Between those two points, name it (new companions, superbosses and Bonus Dungeons, cosmetic graphical overhaul, new clothes, new weapons, drivable cars, fixes to weird developer’s decisions, smokable cigarettes, new perks, etc), you’re almost sure to find it. note
The following mods have their own pages:
- Autumn Leaves
- A World of Pain
- Beyond Boulder Dome
- Dog City Denver
- Fallout: Dust
- Fallout Who Vegas
- Five Nights at Vault 5
- For the Enclave
- The Frontier
- Hell on Earth (Fallout: New Vegas)
- Honest Hearts Reborn
- Mikeburnfire's NPCs and Quests
- More Perks Mod
- New California
- The Rockwell Series
- Silver Peak Bunker
- The Someguy Series, with New Vegas Bounties and Russell having their own pages on top of that
It also spawned an Affectionate Parody series, Courier's Mind: Rise of New Vegas, as well as a Fan Film, Fallout: Lanius.
