4) Fallout: New Vegas

Many consider New Vegas to be superior to Fallout 3, mainly because of the writing. And sure, it’s good. Who can forget all-time greats like Mr. House and Fisto. There’s nothing like having the Widowmaker perk and fucking Benny just to kill him in a crush of revenge. At the same time, New Vegas’ entire schtick with the casinos and gambling has been done already! Fallout 2 had New Reno, remember?

I’ll quote PC Gamer’s Richard Cobbett on why New Vegas is disappointing when compared to New Reno, as he puts it well:

While I enjoyed Fallout: New Vegas, the actual town of New Vegas—to be more exact, the Strip—was a bitter disappointment. You spend a good third of the game waiting to get into this fabled gambling utopia, only for the gates to finally open and reveal four deserted casinos squatting amongst post-apocalyptic debris. No texture, no threat, no soul. Not so in New Reno.

Gaining control of the Vegas strip is cool in theory, but it feels inconsequential to the degree of control that you have over Reno in Fallout 2. Yeah, I appreciate that New Vegas is a more refined RPG experience than Fallout 3, and I love how much your character build/skills actually matter in this world. I’m definitely not saying it’s a bad game or anything. But, big picture, New Vegas didn’t manage to wow me to the same degree Fallout 3 did, nor did it explore particularly new territory. I do miss how much the franchise has moved away from the hardcore RPG elements in New Vegas, though. At least now we have The Outer Worlds, an RPG which continues the New Vegas spirit in a different name.