Between now and Thursday, the latest title update for Fallout: New Vegas will deploy across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. In addition to adding support for New Vegas’ next DLC, Old World Blues, the update will bring improvements to performance and stability, as well as a new feature that automatically creates a save before the endgame sequence.

• New feature: system save is automatically created prior to endgame sequence. After credits, user is prompted to load save game. This will allow single save players to play DLC without creating a new game.
• Fixed issue where Minigun audio could get stuck/keep playing indefinitely when fired out of VATS.
• Script fix to restore destroyed ED-E. This should address issues players have with attempting to use certain companions (e.g. Rex) or when the player needs to clear his or her companions before entering an area (e.g. Zion / Honest Hearts).
• New “Companion Dismissal Terminals” added to Gun Runners and Lucky 38. These will allow players with lost companions from earlier patches to force-fire if they are experiencing problems attempting to get into DLC or areas that prevent companions from entering.
• Arms no longer lifted above head when sneaking with certain weapons.
• Fixed sound cutting out after extended playthroughs.
• Massive world optimizations in major areas for better stability/performance with multiple DLCs installed.
• Players can now have six or more DLCs installed without encountering an infinite “loading DLC” message on startup.
• Navmesh fixes/NPCs no longer getting stuck.
• Scripts added to keep certain NPCs who were marked as dead from respawning.
• Extensive world optimizations for Hoover Dam.
Read More

GunSmith is simply a Recipe Based Engineering WorkShop set in Novac.There is one main difference between this Recipe Mod and Vanilla, I have not used any of the basic Vanilla Benches for the recipes. Its done with some new content and any benches I did use are customized.

In the WorkShop there are two new activators, I have used the Mesh and Tex (Models) from the Static's at the Quarry and Repcon.This means at last there are now a Lathe and Milling Machine that can do recipes. I've also added three custom workbenches, armor repair stand, a working oven and a grinding wheel that has its own little recipe.

They all have Modified Scripts, Recipe Categories and Lists, each Machine or Bench just does its own Recipes. I've tried where possible to keep everything as similar to a real life Workshop as I can. None of the GunSmith Machines or Benches do Vanilla Recipes, GS-Recipes are not on Vanilla benches.

This makes the Mod totally self contained, and the Recipe Lists are shorter than if I had just added them to Vanilla Benches. Doing it this way turned out to be a very good idea because with the amount of New Recipes added by these Mods the Vanilla lists would have been totally bloated out.

The Fallout series is a gritty and darkly humorous set of tales about a world gone wrong. We've taken several treks through the massive wastelands, meeting interesting characters and forging our own legends. But would the world even be livable after such a widespread attack, and would humanity really be able to work together and trust each other after such devastation? To find out, we talked to two experts in their fields: Dr. Curtis Miyamoto, chairperson of the radiation oncology department at Temple University School of Medicine; and Dr. Karen Cerulo, chair of the sociology department at Rutgers University.

In very general terms, Dr. Miyamoto says the world would be livable. "Most of the isotopes would be gone and the half-life would have expired, so they would be safe," Miyamoto told 1UP. Most major fallout products have relatively a short half-life as compared to the dozens of years before vault-dwellers explore the wastes.

On the other hand, it's hard to predict how a body might react if sealed away in a vault, as the plot of Fallout games often requires. "People are exposed to radiation every day, normally, going outside," he said. "You're exposed to more radiation living in Denver [Colorado] than living in New Jersey. So to compare to someone who has never been exposed to radiation, we don't know. What we do know is that the body has innate repair mechanisms. Would those mechanisms be impaired by not having them stimulated at a young age? That scenario doesn't actually exist, so just as conjecture: probably not. Our own body's defense system would be intact and passed on genetically from our parents."

This western-style RPG from Bethesda Game Studios took on one of PC gaming’s biggest franchises. The setting: a frightening, post-apocalyptic landscape that’s the end result of a massive nuclear exchange between the United States and China. Focused in an obliterated Washington, D.C., players are cast as the Wastelander, a character that grew up in the safety of an underground vault only to be launched into the realities of a dystopian landscape where everyone is out for their own self-interest. In terms of size and scope, few games hold a candle to Fallout 3. It was easy to spend hundreds of hours questing and exploring, and the experience got more rewarding the more you played. If anything, Fallout 3 is the digital representation of “bang for your buck.”