Here at PAX you are showing off Fallout: New Vegas how is it different from Fallout 3 or other post apocalyptic video games, especially in terms of style?

Pete Hines: Well I think from a style standpoint we want Fallout: New Vegas to feel like Fallout 3 which is to say a big open world where you can go where you want and do what you want. Where we give the player a ton of choices of how they want to play it and the things that they want to do. At the same time we want it to feel like a different location. Obviously setting it in the West, where Fallout 1 and 2 took place, gives us a chance to revisit some of that. Dramatically to change the color pallet, I think if you spent some time playing Fallout: New Vegas, it will feel both familiar and different.

The colors are a lot warmer than in DC, you are not talking about a destroyed world you are talking about one that has undergone some decay but it has also a city that is thriving and it is kind of rebuilding. You know, power works and the Vegas strip lights up at night. So it feels both familiar and very different and Fallout on its own feels different than anything else post apocalyptic because its got that 1950's pop Americana vibe to it that makes Fallout, Fallout.

In previous gameplay footage we've glimpses of new shooting mechanics like iron sights and modifications, are there any other new elaborate or streamline combat features?

Pete Hines: I don't think there is anything you would call elaborate, there has been a lot of stuff done where the sum total is greater than the parts. On its own, being able to modify weapons is not a huge change, being able to make your own chems and stimpacks, being able to use iron sights, adding the fast replay mechanic to real time combat earned for kill shots and such. None of those things on their own are very dramatic, but put them all together on top of what was already there and then it starts to feel both familiar but very new and different. So I think our focus has been on going through and trying to add and implement changes that make sense. Where all of them combined has had a big impact on how the game feels.

It's not going to feel dramatically different, if you've played Fallout 3 the combat will feel familiar when you play Fallout: New Vegas. But there is a lot of new stuff to uncover and play with like adding new melee attacks for VATS, so that there are special moves you can do with melee weapons to guys that you weren't able to do in Fallout 3. All those things combine adding up to bigger and better changes.