is fallout new vegas the BEST GAME EVER????

In all my travels across the vast and uncaring series of tubes that is God’s own internet, no single game has proven quite as divisive as Fallout: New Vegas. Seemingly self-enlisted in the war for the Fallout franchise’s soul, New Vegas stands in diametric opposition against Fallout 3 – both a title that is New Vegas’ immediate predecessor, forming the foundation for most of its core gameplay features, and a title that New Vegas is hopelessly embarrassed by, hoping to wallpaper over its writing and worldbuilding flaws and earn itself the honour of being the “real” Fallout 3. Depending on who you ask, New Vegas has either accomplished exactly that, or it’s a total insult to an enormous, lovingly made open-world RPG that, no matter how you slice it – no matter how far it diverges from the creative aspirations of the originals – catapulted the Fallout franchise into true pop cultural relevance for the first time.

Despite playing a little bit of it in 2008, I never actually finished Fallout 3 for almost a decade – and despite giving it quite a few goes, I never actually finished Fallout: New Vegas until just this month. So my perspective on the two games feels… detached, somehow. I consider myself more of an observer than a player, in that respect – like I’m looking back on a moment in history, rather than actually living through it – so I figure I’m uniquely positioned to comment on New Vegas without the baggage of either hype or familiarity. I, like the Courier herself, am an outsider, come to shape this discourse, and I alone can truly ask and answer the most inflammatory of questions: is Fallout: New Vegas the real Fallout 3? Is it, in fact, the best game ever??

I Mean, Doctor Who Has Had Quite A Few Video Games, So Technically, This Is On-Topic

I’ve not really played any Doctor Who video games. I played a lot of the Doctor Who segments in Lego Dimensions, and I have a very faint recollection of visiting the Doctor Who website circa 2010 to play some sort of janky point-and-click-style episodic adventure game, but I haven’t ever bought or played one of those “real” Doctor Who games, like Eternity Clock, or The Edge of Time, or Return to Earth. Which, considering their phenomenally icy critical reception, is no real loss! But it does make me distinctly unqualified to talk about Doctor Who video games with much authority, or in any considerable detail. So I guess I’ll have to offer my opinions on the recently released 60th anniversary television specials instead.

Look, as much as I enjoy predominantly reviewing games from 15 years ago that nobody much remembers or cares about, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to offer some timely hot takes for once. And it’s technically on-topic! I talked about video games for a whole paragraph! And, y’know, as uncharacteristic as it is, I neither want to play, nor talk about, piece of crap Doctor Who platformers for the Wii. I’m sure you’ll forgive me that discretion, at least.

FULL SPOILER WARNING FOR DOCTOR WHO: THE STAR BEAST, DOCTOR WHO: WILD BLUE YONDER, AND DOCTOR WHO: THE GIGGLE

This Copy of Super Mario 64 is Randomised: Speedrunning, Beyond Control or Design

Find enclosed, for your approval – amateur Twitch streamer CoolCatCammy. He’s well-adjusted – he has a job, and a wife, and even a motorcycle. Why, if you caught a glimpse of him walking down the street, you could barely tell something’s amiss about him. You might even stop to say, “hey, cool beard!” (He has a cool beard.) But beyond all appearances of mundane normalcy, Cam has a peculiar predilection – one that may shock and fascinate you! He likes to – get this – occasionally speedrun Super Mario 64 in a weird way!

Well. Okay. It’s not that dramatic. But, y’know, if you’re only already familiar with “Super Mario 64” and “speedrunning”… the “weird way” may well intrigue you as much as it intrigues me!

Opinion as Personality: In Search of Anncore

A long time ago – back when Twitter wasn’t quite as incessantly hostile an environment for fans and creators to interact with each other as it is now – I got to speaking with the girlfriend of a moderately prolific indie game developer. And from memory, we had friendly conversations! Friendly for Twitter, anyway, if you can imagine that.

We mostly talked about the games she’d been playing (being the girlfriend of a game developer, it was very much the basis of our coming together), and it got to a point where she asked me what games I’d been playing recently, and I listed all the games I’d been playing recently, and she stopped me – “that just sounds like a list of big new releases,” she bemoaned. And, yeah, I really kinda had just been keeping up with the big new releases – I admitted as such. And a version of what she said next has lived with me ever since – I wish I could recall the exact words, but paraphrasing from a hazy recollection will have to do – “…don’t you have your own taste in games?”

Five Bowsers

I have five Bowsers.

I will now show you my five Bowsers.

PSA: You’re Allowed To Play The Transphobic Wizard Game

You’re likely going to be seeing a lot of think pieces, soon, surrounding the release of Hogwarts Legacy, and how the continued cultural relevance of the Harry Potter franchise only goes to embolden its transphobic author to spread shamefully hateful ideas to a slowly dwindling, yet nonetheless frightfully huge, audience. You’ll read about how the fight for trans rights will regrettably involve doing everything you personally can to dampen the impact of these kinds of creative products, often in the form of outright boycotts, and you’ll be urged to reconsider your ongoing media consumption habits if you truly consider yourself to be an ally to the trans community.

But here’s a little something they won’t tell you: you’re actually allowed to buy and play Hogwarts Legacy.

That’s actually an okay thing to do!

Does The PlayStation 3 Live Up To The Hype (in 2022)? Part 2: The Living Up To Of The Hype

So!

How about that Cell processor, huh?

Does The PlayStation 3 Live Up To The Hype (in 2022)? Part 1: The Hype

It’s the one that got away.

Let’s Play Well: A Self-Indulgent Tour Through My Collection of Video Game Lego

In trying to describe its appeal, I have come to refer to Lego as “autistic catnip”. As a building toy, it is conceptually an exercise in reverse entropy – taking small, disconnected pieces from a pile, and following clearly illustrated visual instructions to create a whole, cohesive, ingeniously engineered and meticulously designed model or toy. On top of that, you add the subjects Lego most frequently designs their products around – cars, spacecraft, trains, architecture, Star Wars – and it’s really no wonder it’s such an appealing proposition for neurodivergent kids and adults alike.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that Lego is a reliable and familiar brand, which scratches a lot of compulsive itches, for collectors especially. It’s not only a brand in and of itself – one that tends to avoid otherwise well-earned corporation-averse pessimism, if Lego’s general success with multimedia projects is any indication – but they frequently secure the licenses to other huge brands, be they for film franchises or children’s cartoons or Ikea or Adidas. (No, really.) With that said, Lego dabbling in video game licenses is actually a relatively recent occurrence in the company’s 90-year history – and likewise, relatively fascinating – and as long as I have a bunch of it laying around my house, I might as well share a long overdue glimpse into a hobby that, for quite some time, has been running parallel with gaming as one of my primary special interests. Thankyou in advance for indulging me!

A Game A Day For A Year, Week 23

Elite agent ninjas trade in their teenage party cards for a curious night cruise atop a mutant turtle.