Major Nelson Podcast interviews Jason Bergman

O

OakTable

Vault Senior Citizen
Major Nelson Podcast interviews senior producer Jason Bergman, revealing a few new tidbits on Dead Money.<blockquote>-Takes 4-6 hours to beat
-Each companion has their own perk, can only take 1 at a time
-Veronica has new dialogue options after you beat the DLC and can get 1 of 2 new perks depending on what you say.
-Ghost People apparently need to be decapitated or gibbed to be killed; Shooting them elsewhere stuns them.
-The Nightkin companion is schizophrenic and has two personalities, Dog and God. Both have their own perk.
-The human companion is named Christine, and is described as mute but intelligent.
-The ghoul companion is a lounge singer named Dean. You may have seen him on posters or load screens in the main game.
-New weapons include the Holo-Beam and the Beartrap Fist.</blockquote>
 
Oh man, could anyone who has listened to the podcast quickly summarize anything important? Any news on what the "aesthetic" version of the ghoul is?
 
depends how straight forward the nature of this DLC is. You can only do so much in long corridors or maps with a clear line pointing in only one direction ...

On the other side 4-6 ours ... that is embarrasingly short in my eyes. But it all depends on the price in the end.

Though the visuals so far (like the hotel/casino on the hil ?) looks totally flat and uninteresting. Even if I would buy dlcs (which I dont) this one not like something interesting. Sorry Obsidian :(
 
So the DLC has its own beginning and ending slideshows? I'm not sure if I'll like the "game within the game" effect, but we'll see.
 
-The Nightkin companion is schizophrenic and has two personalities, Dog and God. Both have their own perk.
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I hope the game doesn't explain it this way, and that it's Bethesda, not Obsidian, that cannot into mental illness. Schizophrenia is not Dissociative Identity Disorder. Undoubtedly it's going to be more mental illness for the lolz :| (flat affect)
 
They called Tabitha "schizophrenic" too pre-release (not to mention a cross-dresser) but in-game her specific mental illness wasn't explained/mentioned. I think Marcus mentions the Nightkin as generally "schizophrenic" and that's it. So yeah, I doubt they'll mention Dog as specifically schizophrenic in-game.
 
4 - 6 hours does seem short but, if it is similar in price to the Fallout 3 DLC's at 800 MS points, it equates to just over $10. For whatever reason, I always translate my entertainment value ratios vs. movie tickets; which sell for $10 here (12.50 for 3D) with a rough average of 1 hour & 45 minutes of entertainment.

4 - 6 hours of entertainment for the cost of one movie ticket seems like a fair exchange. If, by chance, there are at least two distinct ways to make it through Dead Money, it becomes closer to 8 - 12 hours of entertainment and the value increases dramatically for me.

Still... waiting on reviews to get a better idea how it plays.
 
Err... that's pretty short... only 4-6 hours? I hope that only means the main quest and that there are side quests to add a little fat to the dlc
 
Faceless_Stranger said:
Err... that's pretty short... only 4-6 hours? I hope that only means the main quest and that there are side quests to add a little fat to the dlc
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Chris Avellone tweeted:
Dead Money depends on how much time you spend exploring, there's lots to find. I never did a speed run myself.
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Granted, his point of view is obviously biased but he seems to hint that there are opportunities to explore too and it's not completely linear.
 
Innawerkz said:
4 - 6 hours does seem short but, if it is similar in price to the Fallout 3 DLC's at 800 MS points, it equates to just over $10. For whatever reason, I always translate my entertainment value ratios vs. movie tickets; which sell for $10 here (12.50 for 3D) with a rough average of 1 hour & 45 minutes of entertainment.

4 - 6 hours of entertainment for the cost of one movie ticket seems like a fair exchange. If, by chance, there are at least two distinct ways to make it through Dead Money, it becomes closer to 8 - 12 hours of entertainment and the value increases dramatically for me.

Still... waiting on reviews to get a better idea how it plays.
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I like the way you think. I've long used a similar litmus for determining the worth of my time and money (we economists call it an opportunity cost analysis).

I'm just curious how they plan to keep low level characters from falling into this DLC (I'm unsure whether it was itemized above but I've seen a dev quote stating this DLC has been built for lvl 20 and above characters).
 
Innawerkz said:
For whatever reason, I always translate my entertainment value ratios vs. movie tickets; which sell for $10 here (12.50 for 3D) with a rough average of 1 hour & 45 minutes of entertainment.
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Yeah, game publishers always try to sell people on that too when justifying DLC pricing. It's bullshit. Going to the cinema is simple another type of social experience. It is nonsense to translate different experiences for prices especially when measured in hours.

Here's the relevant question: how long is it compared to New Vegas, and how much does it cost them to make? DLCs in general are shorter in hours played and cheaper in manhours invested than videogames at similar price-points. That's why it's bullshit.
 
Keepe in mind that there are many full-price games out there that don't last more than 4-6 hours, and which then sell boring add-on missions that are over within the hour, for the same price as these guys are charging for theirs. Still, I hate the pricing for the majority of the DLC's out there, so I'm not exactly on their side. I'm just saying it's usually much, much worse. Assuming it's a well-designed and thoroughly entertaining 4-6 hour experience you get for your ten dollars, I'd at least consider buying it. It would be more than you'd get for the same price (or even a higher one), for the crappy DLC's that make up 90% of the market.
 
I think that $10 for a DLC is a little bit of a ripoff, but I also think that if it's entertaining and if buying it supports the possibility for Obsidian to work on future Fallouts I'm probably not going to quibble over 5 or 6 extra bucks.
 
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