Fallout: New Vegas - Interview @ Gaming Union

A site called Gaming Union has a pretty good interview with J.E. Sawyer, discussing the improvements to the environment, combat, progression and more:

GU: It strikes me that this is a series with a lot of history to it. So when you make this game you have to think about the people that loved the original games, as well as those who love Bethesda's approach to Fallout 3. How do you juggle those expectations?

JS: One, ignore some people. I mean flat out, there are people that are reasonable and people who are unreasonable. And then there are people that are completely reasonable, but in a small minority.

So for us, really the way that I approached it was - there are two camps of people. There are the big fans of the original games, the characters of the original games and the factions of the original games. And then there are people that are more into the experience they had with Fallout 3.

So with our story we try to have a lot of characters and organisations from the first two games. You are not required to play those games to appreciate them, but I think that the fans really appreciate things life the California Republic is back, characters like Marcus from Fallout 2, even minor organisations like the Gun Runners of the Apocalypse. People appreciate all that stuff.

But people coming to it from Fallout 3, there are no barriers to them getting into it because it's so fundamentally similar to it.

And then in terms of difficulty, we've done things like add a new hardcore mode, which is separate from normal difficulty, and it really does ramp up the challenge for people that want a more hardcore experience.

So hopefully those two major contingents will find that Fallout New Vegas has something for them.