Fallout: New Vegas

Outside, in the beautiful French surroundings, the sky is blue and the sun is shining. And I'm pretty surprised when we see the same thing inside, where Obsidian's Chris Avellone is about the guide a group of game journalists through the roleplaying game veterans' version of the Fallout 3 universe.

"We're experimenting with color in Fallout: New Vegas, because we want to give the game another atmosphere than the one in Fallout 3", Avellone says, while we watch a newly created character take his first trembling steps in the small town of Goodsprings, where your journey through New Vegas starts.

In Fallout 3 everything looked like it was covered by a thin layer of green, radioactive dust. That's not the case in New Vegas, because the nuclear war never hit the Nevada-area. In New Vegas you can enjoy the blue skies, and find a healthy flora that had (more or less) been nuked to extintion in Fallout 3.

Despite the colors, New Vegas is hardly a pleasant place. The game begins with two bullets to your head, and being left for dead. Luckily your found by Victor, a robot with a TV screen that shows a happy cowboy as a face, who carries you to the local doctor who gets you back on your feet.

If Fallout 3 was a post-apocalyptic version of a USA in the 30's, then New Vegas is a Western. Goodsprings looks like something straight out of a Eastwood or Wayne-movie and the dust that blows through the street of the small streets finds its way even into the game's interface where everything has a dry, yellow tint.

You'll recognize a lot from Fallout 3, though: the fighting system where you can stop time at the press of a button so you can choose where to aim, the way you build your character through some simple attributes and the way you develop different traits through the SPECIAL-system.

But New Vegas does have its own twists on the Fallout 3-formula. Close combat weapons get special attacks when you reach a certain level of proffession. A golf club can be used as if you're trying to get a golf ball out of a bunker, and break someone's ribs.

Inspired by craft fan's work with Fallout 3, New Vegas will allow you to modify your weapons with parts you find out in the wilderness. A regular 9mm Colt can be modified with a large magazine and a sniper scope on top, for example. Also, the way you choose to develop your character will play a much larger role in Fallout: New Vegas than it did in Fallout 3.

What I saw in France put a lot of my worries to rest, and it feels like Obsidian know what they are doing with the Fallout-name. They've taken what worked in the last game and added some of their own good ideas on top so it won't just feel like more of the same. My roleplaying heart is pounding already.