Game Informer is running a preview with a lot of new info.
- One of the new followers is an ex-NCR soldier named Craig Boone whose wife has been kidnapped. All followers will have sidequests, take a guess as to Boone's.
- New weapons are shown: a machete, a pair of boxing gloves, razors, a SMG-looking gun, C4 with an included detonator.
- The Mad Max-looking leather jacket of Fallout 1/2 apparently makes a return, with a host of other outfits that the poster of Beth's forum didn't describe.
- Some new animations, like a new reload animation that show the bullets you're putting into the gun have been included.
- Combat is apparently much more enjoyable now outside VATS and the previewer found himself purposely not using it. Enemies will react to hits, etc.
- First look at the Strip. Apparently it looks a lot like 50's Vegas, with neon-lit Casinos and everything.
- The Casinos will have their very own gambling mini-games. Luck (the SPECIAL stat) will of course play a big role in them. Blackjack, Poker, Roulette and Slot Machine are some of the games you can play.
- The city of New Vegas was not hit by nukes in the war, and is being run by a figure calling himself "Howard Hughes". It's strongly implied that he is not human - no one has ever gone into the building in which he resides, The Lucky 38, and it's apparent that he's responsible in some way for the lack of destruction during the war. He's probably either a ghoul or a supercomputer. I'm going to guess he's a ghoul, since there was a very similar character in Van Buren.
- Hughes takes care of business in the city via his police robots (similar to the sort in the teaser, I'm guessing, but with a policeman face on the monitor instead of a cowboy). Thus, no mob families in Vegas. It will disappoint some and make a lot of hardcore fans who complained about New Reno happy.
- New Vegas will have 4 types of currency : Caps, paper NCR money, casino chips and Caesar's Legion money (apparently mentioned as 'coins' in some parts of the preview). There will be an exchange rate between currencies and using the right currency with the right vendor will bring price benefits.
- There is one confirmed Vault in the game, Vault 21, whose Vault-Tec sanctioned experiment had something to do with gambling. It has been refitted to be an underground casino in the game.
More if / when I get it.