Stolen Pixels #246: New Vegas, Part 1

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 3, 2010

Filed under: Column 34 comments

I had this idea that I should do a comic about New Vegas and it seemed like a good idea and so I made the comic and then I sent it in and now it’s up and you can totally read it.

Am I the only one who wonders if the “inkblots” test in new Vegas is some sort of strange shout-out to the “inkspots”, who did the music for previous games? Yes? Okay then. It’s just me.

 


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34 thoughts on “Stolen Pixels #246: New Vegas, Part 1

  1. Nyaz says:

    One of the weirdest parts about the Fallout: New Vegas beginning to me was actually none of these things. The weirdest thing to me was that you are NOT a vault dweller this time around, you’re a person from the surface… and… this doctor-guy hands you a Pip-boy? How…. what… bwuh?!

    1. Cezar says:

      Yeah…I think this was a bit forced…but hey…go PipBoys!

      I still don’t understand why people don’t go like in Fallout 3 with “Oh you have a PipBoy! Are you from the vault?”

      1. Michael says:

        Honestly, Fallout’s the only game where you play a genuine vault dweller. Fallout 3, *Redacted for spoilers* In Fallout 2 and Tactics you’re playing a tribal. Van Buren would have had you playing a prisoner.

        I don’t know, or care about the PS2/XBox title.

        EDIT: Shamus, for some reason the site is trimming the spoiler tags out of my post.

        1. X2-Eliah says:

          Not really. In fallout 3, you were living in the vault since very early childhood, and your whole upbringing was sahped by Vault standards – so you were a vault dweller.

          Besides, weren’t the pip-boys supposed to be fused to the carrier’s body? (Recall how the BoS tried to saw off Gary’s hand just to get his pipboy) How come the doc just hands his old one over to you?

          1. Keeshhound says:

            Fallout 3 might have had the pip-boy grafted on to the user’s arm, but I don’t recall any mention of such a procedure in any of the other games.

            The Operation Anchorage bit makes no sense whatsoever; remember, the player receives theirs on their tenth birthday party, and eight years later their left hand has not shriveled up and fallen off, despite what is ostensibly a set of indestructible, impossible to remove bands strapping it to their forearm which should incidentally cut off all circulation.

            …Unless all dwellers of vault 101 have their left hands ceremonially amputated and replaced with cybernetic duplicates as part of the ninth birthday festivities. Maybe they cook that and eat it instead of cake.

            1. acronix says:

              But then every vault dweller should have the bionic hands of a nine year old kid in their adult arms.

              Let´s just handwave it saying these vaults had, for some reason, another Pipboy model or something.

          2. PurePareidolia says:

            I think they said something about a biometric lock – it’s just impossible to remove if you’re not the wearer, hence why nobody could get if off Gary.

            1. Audacity says:

              Actually any decently sharp cutting implement, a knife, hatchet or pointy rock for example, would allow one to bypass any such retention measures rather easily. That’s how you steal those special shiny briefcases — they make such wonderful stack-able closet organizers — those suited government types always have handcuffed to their wrists… not that I know this from experience mind you.

        2. Sumanai - a grouchy ball of bile and cynicism says:

          Use [strike]-tags instead. Does the same thing.

    2. Hitch says:

      If you pay attention to all of Doc Mitchell’s dialog, it seems he must have started out as a vault dweller. That’s where he got it. As far as the “unable to ever be removed” status of a pip-boy, I guess Obsidian decided that was stupid and ignored it.

      1. Someone says:

        You can actually find some other people from his vault, come back to him and ask him about it.

    3. Crowbar says:

      The weirdest thing for me was that if you play as a woman, he basically dresses you up like his deceased wife.

      Uh…okay.

  2. PhilWal says:

    Not just the previous games, The Ink Spots have “It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie” on the New Vegas soundtrack.

    1. Jan says:

      In the original Fallout (quick! take a shot), the Inkspots were also featured: “Maybe” was used in the opening and the closing cinematic.

      edit: And then I see “games”, not “game”…

      Anyway, useful information to somebody maybe.

  3. Mari says:

    That kind of sounds more like the beginning of a horror movie to me. Main character is shot in the face. Fade to black. Fade back in to see protagonist stripped down to underwear in a shack. Psychological tests are administered. Protagonist is then tied up and subjected to torture. Rest of the movie becomes torture porn with escape attempts and pseudo-psychobabble about Stockholm Syndrome. I’m sure somebody, somewhere had made that movie.

  4. Factoid says:

    I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one who abused poor Doc Mitchell’s hospitality.

    He has a real nice 9mm SMG next to his lab table…a 10mm pistol, tons of medical supplies and enough random crap to build a doctor bag at a workshop bench…very important if you’re playing hardcore mode.

    I felt so guilty for stealing all his stuff and selling it back to him (and then buying it all back and pickpocketing my money again) that he’s pretty much the ONLY npc I won’t steal from anymore.

    Everyone else I have a pretty standard tactic…buy anything good they have on them. Steal my money back, no matter how many reloads it takes.

    1. Michael says:

      I don’t remember the 10mm pistol…

      1. MAtthias the elf jedi (Cheddar knight) says:

        IF you tag Small Guns, he gives you it, maybe it doesnt show up if you don’t tag small guns

        1. M says:

          No that was a 9mm pistol i was talkin about.I don’t remember a 10mm pistol, but you get one from the start with the Classic pack.

    2. Someone says:

      I shot the guy in the face with a bunch of Powder Gangers and didn’t feel guilty. Does that mean I’m a terrible person?

      I did regret killing Sunny Smiles…or her dog anyway.

    3. Bodyless says:

      stealing the caps from vendors is pretty pointless as soon as you got more stuff to sell then they got caps.

      i usually run out of inventory space but not of of caps. except for the early game, the only money sink seems to be repairing your expensive gear by a npc.
      i played on hardcore btw.

      1. Simon says:

        Have you gotten any implants though? They’re the mayor money sink of the late game, 4-12k each. It’s strange that they’re so poorly advertised though.

  5. Christopher M says:

    I would’ve thought it was a “Did you get brain damage from that headshot?” test.

  6. Someone says:

    I love that Doc’s reaction to your test results changes depending on your answers (tip: try answering “mother-human shield” for a few giggles).

    Although I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what gameplay purpose is served by that psychological test.

    1. acronix says:

      People like to get psyco-analyzed, even if its fake. Just look all those psycological tests that roam the net like tiny bugs!

    2. Zukhramm says:

      Neither do I but the point got almost as I wanted them so I guess it worked.

    3. krellen says:

      It’s the GOAT-like “choose your tag skills” segment. I’m not sure how it matches a choice to a skill, though (but I was never sure how it matched them in the GOAT, either.)

      1. Leyic says:

        Basically, each choice gives a point towards a skill. After answering all the questions, whichever combat, gate-unlocker, and miscellaneous skills have the most points get tagged. It also applies points based on your highest stat, and adds some points for bias if stealth gets tagged. This assumes it actually works; the script responsible for tagging skills (VCG01TestSCRIPT) is bugged.

        The odd thing is after spending all that time in the interview to determine your tag skills, it lets you manually change the results. It’d be better if you had the choice to just skip straight to the manual selection.

        1. krellen says:

          I meant logically, not mechanically.

        2. Nyaz says:

          But then you’d miss out on answering the questions as if you were a sociopath!

  7. Samkathran says:

    Aw, poor Doc Mitchell. I stole from him too… but I was kind enough to not sell him back his own junk. I let him keep that stuff, and only took all the food, water, weapons, and medical supplies for myself. Seemed fair at the time…

    Honestly, what I try to avoid thinking about is how he performed brain surgery on you in a dirty shack with meager supplies. I suppose he did it the same way you fix your own head with in-game mechanics, he just threw stuff from a doctor’s bag at it until it healed. Medicine!

    1. Sumanai - a grouchy ball of bile and cynicism says:

      Gotta love the RPG-hero -morality.
      “It’s fair as long as I only steal what I personally need and leave the useless crap alone.” (No, it doesn’t matter if the crap is valuable.)

      Surely it’s only an attempt to be consistent in-game? After all, having Medicine! fits well with the existing Science! and, at least in Fo3, Stealth!

  8. Swimon says:

    I think the weidest part is that the game never establishes wether you have amnesia or not. You don’t seem to recognise anyone and no one has ever seen you before which is weird, it makes it seem like you never existed before you got shot in the head.

    1. decius says:

      The Mohave Express guy recognizes you. Not that he has anything useful to say.

      And if you ignore the main plotline you can get to Vegas without any of the knowledge you ‘should’ have. It is clearly broken when House tells you that Benny shot you.

      Also, why don’t the securitrons outside the Vegas entrance know you, when the ones just inside recognize you right away? It’s not like the first thing they ask you to do (enter the lucky 38) is low-key.

      Note the <s> tags seem to be being stripped out, while the <strike> tags work. &lt; and &gt; and &amp; work.

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