Are you a people-pleaser? Then god help you in the wilds of Fallout: New Vegas, where military types (NCR) are clashing with ruthless slavers (Caesar’s Legion), who are at odds with psychotic bands of chem-addicted Fiends. You can please some of the many conflicting factions some of the time, but there’s no way in hell you can ever please all of them all of the time. Prepare to be considered a jerk by at least someone in the sprawling, irradiated Mojave Desert.

This dynamic of winning over countless groups puts a nifty Wild West filter over Fallout 3’s already brilliant post-apocalyptic Capitol Wasteland. At its heart, this is still completely Fallout — you remain a somewhat solitary wanderer of the outback, plugging holes in Radscorpions and no-goodniks (or do-goodniks, depending on how you play it) while spelunking 100-plus locales for bottle caps and loot across a mostly barren landscape. But we didn’t mind — that original formula still feels plenty magical.

As the game opens, you’ve been shot in the head and left to bleed out in a half-dug ditch, only to be rescued and revived by a kindly doctor. From that point on, you’re on the hunt to find out who targeted you and why. Your revenge tale takes you all over, under, and through the Mojave Desert, including the grungy yet glittering capitalist oasis of The Strip with all of its time-honored vices. But chasing your assassin is only one piece of New Vegas’ well-wrought tale. We found ourselves up to our eyeballs in the hard-fought scrabble between the desert’s numerous warring factions…and loving every minute of it.

In the end, who should you really sympathize with? The Great Khans (the tough, quasi-indigenous thugs scrapping with the military might of the NCR)? Or do you think the NCR’s “protector of the people” motto entitles them to as much land as possible? And what about the rumors that the Brotherhood of Steel still haunts certain corners of the desolate wastes? Everyone’s got a story to tell in New Vegas, and each one is hugely engrossing, sending you in a million different directions to run down quests ranging from the mundane fetch-variety to heartbreaking recon on loved ones being snatched by slavers. In fact, we spent 60 hours of playtime sniffing out all corners of the desert before we even set foot on the Strip and back on the critical path!

Though you can still opt to go completely solo on your adventures, potential companions make a return in New Vegas, and they’re way better this time, with much-improved pathfinding and no permanent deaths (except in the new Hardcore mode, which ratchets up the game’s difficulty). And because a bevy of meaningful sidequests accompany each sidekick, you won’t always worry about telling them to “Wait here” when you enter dangerous territory. Ultimately, these heartier comrades make your journey a lot less lonesome — especially in the few cases where you can have two of them simultaneously.

Yet, we still can’t shake the feeling that New Vegas is simply Fallout 3 in better-told clothing — with all those same annoying glitchy bits and strings attached. If you never quite “got” Fallout 3, New Vegas won’t be the epiphany that shows you what you’ve been missing. But for anyone who adored the frantic post-apocalyptic, choose-your-own-path vibe of Bethesda’s original sprawling stunner, this trip to the sin-soaked West is one hell of a kickass homecoming.

On Xbox 360

+ Meaty journey packed with lots of sites, drama, and secrets.

+ The ability to be villain or hero to various factions adds interesting shades of gray.

- Pretty much Fallout 3 redux; some non–game-ending glitchiness.

? Where do the less-clothed ghouls store their caps?

9.5