There is an eternal debate amongst Fallout fans over which game is the best. Some consider Fallout 2 the best with its unprecedented level of freedom to roleplay, while some fans consider Fallout: New Vegas the cream of the irradiated crop with its great story and well-written quests.
Fallout: New Vegas is the most interesting of the main entries due to its absurdly short 18-month development cycle. Even with this massive restriction, Obsidian Entertainment went on to create a game with twice the content of Fallout 3 that was supported with masterful writing. Thing is, they planned to do more. Many pieces of content were cut before this game released, including more quests and zones. Here are 10 pieces of Fallout: New Vegas cut content that we wish we got in its retail release.
10 Ulysses As A Companion
Ulysses is one of Fallout: New Vegas's most iconic characters. He is frequently mentioned throughout the base game and DLCs thought notes until players finally meet him in Lonesome Road.
Not only was he meant to appear in the base game, but Ulysses was originally meant to be a companion. Remnant scripts reference the player finding Ulysses at Wolfhorn Ranch. He would have been the only companion in the game that supports Caesar's Legion. It's a shame he was cut as a companion, but at least players can still talk to him through the game's final DLC.
9 Fiend's Dialogue
The Fiends are a group of raiders that players will frequently face in New Vegas. They have three notable leaders outside of Freeside but are hostile on sight. These characters seem to have dialogue that has been cut, however.
Driver Nephi talks to the player about his high kill-count with his club, arguably the most boring of the bunch. Cook-Cook talks about his proficiency in making meals for the group of raiders. Violet is the most interesting, having a great obsession with her dogs and becoming hostile at the thought of the player harming them. These inconsequential NPCs have a surprising amount of character that players will never experience since this dialogue is inaccessible.
8 Becoming A Great Khan
Faction reputation is a good indicator of where you stand with others in New Vegas. That is why it's so strange that the Great Khans have faction reputation yet they serve no purpose as a faction.
Becoming a Great Khan was a planned feature, including an initiation that players would need to undergo. This would involve stowing your weapons in a locker and fighting other Khans in unarmed combat to earn your place. Of course, players can simply earn their trust by respecting the Great Khan's traditions during the main questline.
7 Merged Freeside
It isn't surprising that most of the Strip and Freeside are smaller than Obsidian depicted in concept art, but, surprisingly, Freeside was meant to be one continuous zone.
Freeside would have included both sections present in the final game as well as Mormon Fort. Many more NPCs would have wandered the streets in this iteration. Besides this much larger depiction of Freeside, many side NPCs and certain dialogue branches with locals didn't make it to retail.
6 Benny's Escape
Benny is arguably one of the most annoying characters in all of Fallout. He chastises the player for their decisions yet constantly ends up in bad situations throughout the game. Unsurprisingly, he had many encounters cut.
Most people know of this final confrontation with the player after you rescue him from Caesar's camp, but did you know there was a chase sequence planned? Once the player interacts with Benny at The Tops casino, he would originally head by Yes Man's room and run through a serious of corridors rigged with explosives. The end of this pathway looks surprisingly similar to Vault 21, likely Benny's main method of secretly entering and exiting the Strip without Mr. House knowing.
5 Brotherhood Of Steel's Training Simulation
Fans of Fallout 3 were likely disappointed to see the Brotherhood of Steel's VR Pods were non-interactive. These were used in the Operation Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3 to simulate a pre-war combat encounter.
There are certain references in Fallout: New Vegas that refer to a VR Pod minigame and scoring systems. What the game mode would have revolved around is a mystery, although it was likely fighting against the "Red Menace" and seeing who could score the highest body count using assets from Fallout 3.
4 Primm
Primm is one of the most underwhelming towns in all of New Vegas. This zone has a lengthy quest revolving around finding a sheriff to oversee the town, but there is little else to this town besides that.
That is because nearly everything relating to this town was cut at some point in development. Multiple sheriffs could have been elected to oversee the town based on cut scripts and dialogue. More interesting, it seems the Vikki and Vance casino has scripts to reveal corpses and bloodstains. This heavily implies that the convicts or NCR soldiers would butcher the denizens of Primm once a sheriff was elected, but we'll never know for sure.
3 Expanded New Vegas Strip
Just as Freeside was split into quadrants during development, so too was the New Vegas Strip. While it would have been technically impossible to replicate all of Las Vegas as a zone in New Vegas, the small street fans did get was nothing short of disappointing.
Old E3 footage and trailers show a Strip with no junk barriers blocking the street into two sections, and the famous junk walls that guard the Strip are replaced with concrete walls with sniper towers. There was also frequent mention of many more casinos residing in the zone, but the retail version of this zone only has 3 when not including The Lucky 38.
2 Caesar's Legion Content
Caesar's Legion is one of the major factions in Fallout: New Vegas, acting as the main antagonistic force of the game. Their morals are revealed to be more grey than evil when talking to Caesar himself, but no content in New Vegas reflects this.
Players can see a large encampment upon arriving at Caesar's camp, but it can not be explored. It seems it was planned, however, judging by the number of unique navmeshes that lead to this zone. Joshua Sawyer, the game's lead director, expressed the team's interest in including more Legion-controlled zones to the east of the map during development. Of course, Obsidian couldn't find the time to include this in the retail game.
1 Post-Game Content
Many fans have praised Obsidian's endgame slides for Fallout: New Vegas with their lengthy explanations of what the world turned into based on your actions. It's a great way to cap off a great RPG, but this pales in comparison to what the developers were planning.
Originally, players could play after the battle of Hoover Dam and experience unique quests. Various locations would change based on choices throughout the main game, and the quests available would be based on the faction you sided with. Dialogue set post-Hoover Dam is still present in the game but is never used.