Fallout: New Vegas improves gameplay

Set in the vast wasteland of the Mojave desert, Fallout: New Vegas, voted 2010's best role-playing game by IGN and Gamespot, debuts on Oct. 19 and is the latest installment in the Fallout video game series.

Fallout: New Vegas, developed by Obsidian Entertainment, is a postapocalyptic role-playing game set about 200 years after a cataclysmic nuclear war between the U.S. and China.

The game is a direct sequel to its predecessor, Fallout 3, and takes place four years after the events of that game.

Fallout: New Vegas, like its predecessor, features an open world environment where the player's decisions throughout the game affects the ultimate outcome of the storyline. Because of this, no two players will experience the exact same storyline.

Video previews on Bethesda Softwork's YouTube channel show that the player's first task in the game is to deliver a package to New Vegas.

However, the package is never delivered because the character is shot in the head and left for dead.

Immediately following this, the player's character is taken to the town of Good Spring to see a doctor.

During this scene the player goes through the character development stage where players can customize their character. The menu options are mostly unchanged from Fallout 3, however game developers introduced a new character menu called "Traits." Traits are similar to the perks option given in Fallout 3, and players are allowed to select up to two traits that give their character advantages but they also have disadvantages.

One example of this is a trait called Fast Shot which gives the character the ability to fire guns and energy weapons 20 percent faster but at the same time makes the character 20 percent less accurate.

Among the changes in Fallout: New Vegas, game developers announced earlier this year at E3 that the game will incorporate a new hardcore mode where stimpacks and rad-aways takes longer to take effect, ammunition has weight and dehydration is a factor in the game.

Fallout: New Vegas will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC. A Digital Collector's Edition will also be available. It includes All Roads, the 48-page digital graphic novel by Chris Avellone that was created in conjunction with Dark Horse comics.

Fallout: New Vegas takes everything fans loved about Fallout 3, including its open world environment, numerous side quests and character and weapons customization, and steps them up to the next level. Fans of the series will not be disappointed by this.