It’s been one of those months. At the beginning of the month I was snowed under with work getting ready to go on vacation. Then I went on vacation, and that was pretty fantastic, but I caught some sort of virus on the plane ride home and have now spent the last few days pretty under the weather, with a head cold and fever and all the aches and pains generally associated with being sick.

As a result of the sinus congestion, I haven’t been sleeping very well, however that did afford me some otherwise unavailable time to play some Fallout: New Vegas yesterday morning.

After a few hours with the game, it’s an incredibly simple title to give my opinion on. If you liked Fallout 3, you’ll probably like New Vegas, because it’s exactly the same thing.

While it has all new people, places and quests, enough to elevate it above a simple “expansion pack”, from a technological standpoint New Vegas really does nothing to establish itself as a true sequel. The gameplay changes are minor and few and far between. This is very much the same game you played two years ago, just in a different location.

I mean, if you absolutely loved Fallout 3, you’ll be a pig in shit with New Vegas. It’s solid in that regard. So much so that you’ll probably wander around the Mojave at points and think to yourself “hrmm… this looks an awful lot like DC…”

The graphics and animations are looking a little dated. I was disappointed to see even more bugs than Fallout 3 had, including the infamous item float that we’ve seen in Bethesda games since Oblivion. Steal an item off the table and everything else magically levitates an inch or so off the surface. Little things like that remind you that you’re not really playing a new game, you’re playing an old game in a new setting.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m having fun. Because I enjoyed Fallout 3. But there’s no “wow” factor here.

Hopefully next week’s Fable 3 and TFU2 will bring a little more of that traditional sequel “upgrade” feel.