Now would be the time when I say something about how war never changes. I don't really think I need to at this point. We all know that Ron Perlman's iconic opening line of dialogue personifies what the Fallout series is known for: bleakness and despair warping the familiar. It is a Fallout tradition to use the "War never changes" line as the opening of the game (or game review.) It is also tradition to play a Fallout game as a vault dweller. So it was quite surprising to learn that Fallout: New Vegas honors the spirit of the past while simultaneously dropping a few sacred cows. It is a great blend of old and new and in many cases actually feels more like the proper sequel to the PC originals than Fallout 3.

Many celebrity voice talents signed on to make New Vegas special. I already reported on the big news a few months back, but I will say that I was very impressed with the end result. From nerd favorites like Felicia Day and Michael Dorn to more mainstream talent like Matthew Perry and Zach Levi, the entire cast of New Vegas doesn't miss a beat and seamlessly blends their characters into the world. My personal favorite is Wayne Newton serenading listeners over the radio waves as Mr. New Vegas, a radio DJ that offers a glint of hope in a time of darkness.

If you find it difficult to distinguish between screenshots from Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, you wouldn't be the only one. New Vegas shares much more than the visual aesthetics of Fallout 3. I wouldn't knock anyone for using the backhanded "Fallout 3.5" moniker at first glance. New Vegas may use the same engine as Fallout 3... and the same textures... and the same character models... and the same gameplay systems. Ok! It is largely the same damn game, but the time and effort that was spent on the game engine and world of Fallout 3 is now transferred to the writing and story of New Vegas and to be honest, there are many cases where the glitz and glam of New Vegas often shines brighter than the doom and gloom of Fallout 3.

The benchmark was set high when Fallout 3 hit store shelves in 2008. An enormous open world with seemingly infinite potential was beset by buggy gameplay and somewhat lackluster storytelling in its prime moments. While New Vegas never reaches to mind-blowing heights of its predecessor's groundbreaking debut, the storytelling and character interaction far surpass most of the elements in Fallout 3 by a good margin.

In the promised land of sin and vice in the middle of the Mojave desert, you play a courier traveling to the New Vegas Strip to deliver a mysterious poker chip when suddenly... BANG! You are shot in the head and left for dead by a few gang members that have a bad reputation even in the post-apocalyptic wastes. Your fresh cadaver is dug up by a overprotective robot and brought to a backwater doctor to patch you up and get you on your way. After a quick fix-up, you set out to find the man that killed you and reclaim the mysterious poker chip that was stolen after your explosive cranial exam.

The world of the Mojave waste serves as the battleground for many different warring factions. The New California Republic (NCR) is a police state pushing its way East to claim the Hoover Dam for itself. Directly opposed to the NCR is Caesar's Legion (often pronounced as "Kaiser.") The legion is ruled by a tyrant with a bronze fist. The Legion often invades towns, captures the citizens as slaves and crucifies any resistance. While the NCR and Caesar's Legion are the two biggest factions battling over a valuable water supply, you will also run into cannibal casino owners, the tech-obsessed Brotherhood of Steel, at least half a dozen small-time gangs, and maybe a few extraterrestrial beings.

Not surprisingly, New Vegas follows all of the beats that create a traditional Fallout experience. Karma, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills, perks, and a Pip-boy will jog your memory within the first hour of how much time can potentially be spent wandering the Mojave Wasteland. In short order, you will receive the necessary equipment and training to ensure your survival throughout your journey while also introducing you to some of the newer elements in New Vegas.

As if to say previous games were child's play, Fallout: New Vegas adds systems and feature to the gameplay that actually makes it DEEPER than Fallout 3. A more improved companion system allows for greater flexibility of your small adventure seeking party (that may or may not contain a cyborg-dog.) Weapons can be outfitted with custom mods that improve their accuracy outside of V.A.T.S. and true iron sights while aiming make all of the weapons much more useful to your play style. The biggest change is the subtle karma replacement, your reputation. "Reputation" is earned by assisting small towns or groups in their endeavors. Help one group too much and you lose reputation with their rival faction, making you a high profile target. While karma stills plays a role to some extent with particular individuals, it is nicer to see a big-picture scenario of your actions. Just because you might have told a little girl her stuffed animals didn't love her and died a horrible death doesn't make you a bad person when you saved the entire town from the brink of starvation moments before. Right?

The catch is that all of the new systems: companion orders, mods, survival skills, expanded repair skills, and reputation all feel loosely tacked on to the original game. The integration of all these choices and options is rather clumsy and the trial by fire approach to teaching you about most of the new systems means the enjoyment is directly related to how much you put in. Fallout fans are a patient and persistent bunch, but for casual audiences or for people who have a passing interest in what all the fuss is about will be downright intimidated by the litany of menu screens and dialog boxes briefly explaining the new features in the first hour alone.

Unfortunately, New Vegas also seems to follow a tradition set by Fallout 3 in that New Vegas is buggy as hell. Not everyone will experience the glitches and bugs the same way and some might not experience any at all after the most recent title update from the developers, but it would be wise to save often. Then save again. While this might also fall into the category of "How much will fans mind?," the problem with Fallout 3's glitches and bugs were performance related or visual in nature, New Vegas trades those for something far more annoying; missing quests and broken dialogue. Sometimes quests point you in the wrong direction, and sometimes dialogue trees start to loop back on themselves without a proper exit, but considering I have already poured 30-ish hours into a 100+ hour without losing more than fifteen minutes, you learn to adjust.

And learning on your own is more or less the the unspoken rule of New Vegas. New companions, new skill abilities, and new quests are frequently given out and constantly prevalent during your playtime, but the visibility and accessibility of most of the features is the sharpest curve ball New Vegas throws at you. Be prepared to spend at least half of any play session deep in dialogue menus or item screens. I'm not suggesting this is a bad thing, but it is certainly not the action-heavy experience it leads you to believe at times.

For seasoned veterans of the wasteland, a new "Hardcore" difficulty option is available from the outset. In Hardcore, all ammo has weight which severely limits your carrying capacity, you must keep tabs on food and sleep meters at regular intervals or you will slowly die, and healing items do not work instantaneously, but rather increasingly over time. My initial reaction to the thought of Hardcore mode was "Hell No!" But the more time I spend patrolling the wastelands and meeting new characters and tribes, the more I warm up to the idea. I realized it is actually a clever way to immerse yourself in the character even more than before. You will have to forage for food and hunt creatures to sell the hides to traders to make money. You will also be mindful and careful not to upset the wrong people because your life is hard enough as it is without assassination squads breathing down your neck.

Since Fallout: New Vegas is largely the same game, at least mechanically speaking, as Fallout 3 I won't waste time explaining all the systems and features. That could be an entire article all on its own (and you can read the original reviews below.) Instead, I would rather highlight one new mechanic that shows great potential, but suffered from poor implementation: the companion wheel.

You are only allowed two party members at a time in New Vegas (one humanoid and one pet), but you have free reign over their actions and behaviors through a radial menu system. You can open their inventory, change their battle tactics, assign them basic instructions to "Wait here" or "Back up a bit," and (obviously) talk to them about their own back stories. The content is great, but the method to engage the companion wheel requires that you actually talk to your party directly which is often impossible when one of the many pervasive glitches causes one of your party members to get stuck in the terrain.There is a much more elegant solution to the problem: make all the companion options available through the Pip-boy. You could issue commands from a remote location, engage in dialogue, and access inventories through the high tech super computer permanently attached to your wrist. While the system in place works well enough, the problems it faces are indicative of the larger issues New Vegas suffers from. Namely, grand ideas not given the proper treatment they deserve.

In every way, Fallout: New Vegas is an absolutely amazing game full of deep characters and rich storylines that often times surpasses the efforts of Fallout 3 in many ways. Traditionally, Fallout fans agree that each game comes with its own set of problems and being able to look past them is necessary to really embrace the franchise. It's too bad that New Vegas has such big problems to look past, like a buggy quest system. At the end of the day, the best recommendation that I could offer New Vegas is the fact I spent nearly 30 hours just to write this review and I am eager to jump back in right away and get lost in the wastelands all throughout the next month. You won't find a deeper or more engrossing game this year and the time spent surviving the New Vegas Strip is time well spent.