FalloutNow!

Are there any nods to Fallout 3 in New Vegas, crossovers maybe where fans will go “holy crap, I remember that from Fallout 3!?”
There are a few small references here and there, but New Vegas is its own story.

From what we’ve seen so far, the engine looks untouched from a visual standpoint. Is there anything you’re trying to do to make New Vegas a better visual package from Fallout 3 or is it more of the “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mantra? I see we have blue skies now!
We did not want to delve too deeply into the rendering technology because of the relatively short development cycle. One element that we have changed is how the level of detail system works for distant objects. Specifically, they can now support material shaders, including emissives. We also implemented an "imposter" system that allows us to more convincingly represent distant buildings and effects. This was important for us because light pollution from casinos is such an important element of seeing Vegas from the desert.

Is there anything you’ve taken out the engine for the simple reason it didn’t work? Or is it Fallout 3’s engine in its entirety and then some?
There are some behind-the-scenes formulae used for weapon condition that we changed to help normalize the progression of weapons, but for the most part we've just tried to build on the engine.

The weapon customisation system is new as well we assume, can you tell us a little about that and what sort of advantages players will be able to take from this? Can we expect to be making a number of wacky contraptions?
We've tried to avoid wacky contraptions for the most part.  In the Fallout universe, the western portion of the United States is a lot more industrialized and generally "with it" than the east.  As a result, most of the mods are of the traditional variety.

We have a large number of traditional firearms in the game and there are a lot of mods for those weapons: extended magazines for pistols, larger ammunition drums for submachine guns, custom high-speed actions for lever action rifles, silencers, suppressors, and so on.  We also have mods for energy weapons and explosives, like focus optics for the laser rifle (increases damage), and the "Little Boy" kit for the Fat Man, which drastically reduces its weight.

What else have you added to New Vegas gameplay wise that will add to the experience, other than the reputation system and the weapon customisation?
A ton of stuff, honestly.  We've changed the SPECIAL system so the ability scores have more impact on your character.  As an example, weapons now have Strength requirements.  If you don't meet the weapon's requirements, your aim will suffer (for firearms) or it will attack more slowly (if a melee or unarmed weapon).  Strength also affects how far you can throw weapons like grenades.  On the more "cerebral" side of things, Charisma affects a statistic called Nerve that is applied to companions as a combat bonus.

We created a new crafting interface for the game that is quite extensive.  Initially it was only going to apply to the Survival skill, but we expanded it to use a variety of skills at different locations.  Crafting ranges from cooking raw meat into steak at a campfire to hand loading custom ammunition from spent shell casings at a reloading bench.  I think people will really enjoy it.

FEV-Infizierter wrote: Jo aber die Gunrunner sind für mich der Inbegriff der Gäng mit den fettesten Wummen, dem besten Hightechmordgerät und explosivesten Demolierwerkzeugen, abseits der BoS. Da kann man schon spekulieren wie man das so steigern kann. Ich behaupte ja gar nicht das es so kommen wird, trotzdem steigert die Info über Fatmans und Granaten-MGs meinen Pessimismus bezüglich FOV

Kaiser Augustus wrote: Nur so als Info, selbst in F3 hat kein NPC irgendwelche Fatmans benutzt. Der Fatman war im ganzen Spiel genau 2x zu finden und ne reine Spielerwaffe. Warum sollten in FNV jetzt alle damit rumlaufen? Allein schon vom Waffendesign sind Granaten-MGs und Fatman überhaupt nicht NPC tauglich, weil die KI mit solchen AoE-Waffen nicht umgehen kann.