“What did he say? ‘Spit lead?’ What, like pencils?”

Release Date: 19^th July 2011

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Genre: RPG

Mode: Single

Old Worlds Blues is the third and latest Downloadable Content (DLC) expansion available for Fallout New Vegas. It is set in Big Mountain (Big MT), colloquially known as the Big Empty since the scientists blew the mountain up. It is a pre-war research area you are brought to as a lab rat/guinea pig. You have to decide if you want to turn on your scientific captors or ally with them against a bigger threat.

The core thing about Old World Blues is the tongue-in-cheek Science Fiction setting in a “stand back we’re going to try science” kind of way. It exploits a great deal of the silliness of this genre such as roboscorpions, brains in jars, lobotomy, experiments gone awry. If you love this kind of humour or setting you are going to love Old World Blues as it does the job so well. If it sets your teeth on edge, Old World Blues may not be for you.

Old World Blues is better than the last two DLC offerings Dead Money and Honest Hearts in my opinion. It too, offers 5 more levels for your gaming and more of the usual monsters, characters, perks, quests and so on. You cannot bring companions to Big MT.

The primary offering of Old World Blues, apart from the setting, is the Sink. A new upgradable home. It’s very compact, useful with all three crafting stations as well as having objects with personalities. I would love to talk about them but I think discovering their little quirks for yourself is more fun. One has bartering and one is a doctor so all your needs are covered. It’s also much easier to access than the Lucky 38 but I find the water in it does not reduce your water needs enough if you happen to play in hardcore mode.

The new area to explore, is perhaps ¼ the size of the main game though I think a bit more densely packed. No equipment restrictions exist when coming to Big MT. These locations can also be revisited after completing the DLC main quests so Old World Blues gives more of an expanded area than the other two DLC offerings. However, before the main quest series is complete, you cannot leave and the only vendor never refreshed their caps or goods for me. Fortunately you can store all your stuff at the Sink for later sale.

Old World Blues also comes with new traits and you can, once and once only, change your traits.

New implants with no endurance (END) restriction are available.

Old World Blues explains some of the main game monster origins such as the cadazors.

There are a few leads into the next DLC expansion called Lonesome Road.

To be fair, parts of Old World Blues can be quite difficult. There are several of the harder creatures from the original New Vegas area such as nightstalkers and cadazores. Newer creatures, especially roboscorpions definitely give you a bit of a go. Roboscorpions are tough as nails and often come at you in groups. I’d wait till level 15-20 before giving it a go.

The main degree of positive entertainment value in Old World Blues is via the fresh setting and the personalities in the Sink.

I found Old World Blues much the same graphically as the main game. A few nice new Jazz sons are added to the game. I also found the ambient noise in the Sink rather soothing for some reason.

Plenty of the usual kind of crash and other type of bugs which seem common for Fallout New Vegas but for the first time my saves were not permanently corrupted by a new patch or DLC.

Old World Blues requires Fallout New Vegas and is available on all the same platforms, namely Windows, Xbox 360 and PS3. You can get if from Steam for $US12.99.

Old World Blues is a very entertaining and relatively generous DLC for Fallout New Vegas. Fans of bad sci-fi movies won’t want to miss it.

Game: 4/5    Positive: 

The adventure update gets more and more intriguing.

This post has spoilers for the upcoming Minecraft’s Adventure update 1.8

Click read more if you still want to see.

Update 3: Now Humble Bundle #3 has hit 1.5 millions dollars and there are over 1/4 of a million purchases.  Also given for free is Atom Zombie Smasher.  If you pay more than the average of $US5.45 you also get all the games in Humble Bundle #2.  That’s a lot of games altogether.  There’s 4 days left.

Update 2: Not only has humble bundle hit 1 million bucks it has added another game Steel Storm Burning Retribution!  Those who bought the bundle get the game automatically.

Update: The humble bundle 3 also allows access to play Minecraft for free until August the 14th 2011.

Humble Indie Bundle 3 is out.

Humble Bundle is where you pay what you like for a bundle of games and charities. This time we have platform-puzzle games.  There’s 13 days left.

Crayon Physics Deluxe – Imaginative puzzle game based around drawing your solutions
COGS – Nifty 3D slider puzzle game based around things like gears and pipes
VVVVVV – Platform game based around the ability to change gravity but not jump
Hammerfight – Physics-based platform game centred around swinging a flying hammer
And Yet it Moves – Physics-based platform game with titling of the world.

The charities are EFF and Child’s Play.

All games are cross platform working natively on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. All are DRM free and can be redeemed on Steam and Desura. Several of these games are having their Mac and/or Linux debut.

One of the more interesting features of Steam are the global statistics for achievements. Namely it shows what percentage of players reach those achievements.  There are achievements for all sorts of things done in games, though not all games in Steam use the achievement system.

Only 49.8% of people completed Portal. So over half never got that far. I think we all knew many people don’t get around to finishing all their games. Most gamers have quite a few we have never completed even if we may have enjoyed them.

But there’s a more interesting story hidden under the numbers.

Take Fallout New Vegas for example. The most basic quest involving the absolute start of the game mostly about character creation and leaving the very first house of the game is “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”. This is before even the tutorial-like beginning town of Goodsprings is completed.

94.5% of people who paid good hard money for Fallout New Vegas on Steam completed this quest and achievement. But that means that 5.5% didn’t even get that far.

Looking further only 59.8% of people reached level 10.

In Civilization V, 90.4% of people have found an ancient ruin so then 9.6% haven’t and this is also a very simple early thing to do in game, usually within the first few moves.

In Portal, only 74.7% got the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device which is the actual portal device required early in the game. So 25.3% of people didn’t get that far.

For Defense Grid: The Awakening 95.1% of people killed an alien and for a game about killing swarms of aliens that’s a very basic thing to do. So 4.9% of people didn’t get that far. Those who completed the “boot camp” achievement of completing the first three easy tutorial-like missions was only 76.2%. So 23.8% had thrown in the towel already by then.

The picture is of a substantial number of people who buy games but don’t actually play them. I really wonder why. One reason might be quite basic. Bugs and other gameplay stopping issues. I suspect though the greater number are simply turned off at the early look or play of the game. If that was so though I’d expect the game quality to be more telling.

I hope it’s not the same reason some buy books they have no intention of actually reading.

That’s it for the 3D series. The following articles were released under the 3D Series besides this one.

• 3D Sound
• 3D TV
• 3D Printing
• 3D Holograms
• 3D Games
• Figureprints
• Nintendo 3DS Release
• Fun Technology
• 3D is Coming

What I have attempted to show is the incredible breadth of 3D technology and that the current push for 3D is reinforced by the different demand areas. For example, in games, TV and games and so this time 3D technology is likely to move past the gimmick nature of the past and as it becomes integral and useful to the overall entertainment experience we will see more and more quality 3D entertainment and 3D becomes accepted as the norm.

One of the interesting things about 3D technology is its role in the change in focus from taking ourselves to places and experiences, to taking places and experiences to ourselves.

What I mean by this is traditionally we used to go to the movies, or go to our holidays or our workplace, or to the shops and so on. What I see for the future, which is already beginning, is all these places coming to us instead. In a way that could mean the old sci-fi dream of teleporting might be irrelevant in reality.