Location 32: Red Rock Canyon

We're at Red Rock Canyon! Which was always going to be a difficult one.

It's set in stone

There was no need for the FNV design team to match rock for rock (we all know they hate mountains anyway, since so many are cut down to size in the game) and with such large rocks the game's forced perspective knocks everything out of whack anyway.

Any reason it looks like a tomb?

I'm not pretending there was any exploring involved here. Unlike The Devil's Throat this bit of the American landscape is an easy drive from Vegas, and the route is a paved thirteen miles of scenery with plenty of parking and rest stops.

But the canyon IRL takes your breath away, and the game conjures up exactly the same feeling: the sense of space, the distances, the majesty of the geology. OK, I'll stop.

The only thing that could hurt
this rock is a nuclear holocaust

The game graphics give a better sense of colour than my camera; there's a richness to the reds, especially later in the afternoon, that the game captures perfectly.

Damn!

Even if the mountains are a bit truncated - even the Great Khans, hardasses that they are, don't want to walk a dozen miles just to feed their Bighorners...

A handy path to stroll along

Now these two pics are interesting: I bet you thought the game inserts all those handy dirt tracks and scrambling routes to guide the player between locations?

Stimpaks aid fall recovery

Well, at least some of them exist naturally - as can be seen from the ledges on the left.

Here's another vid, taken from a different parking lot. Next time you're in Las Vegas, make sure you get out to see it - it's a refreshing change from the neons.

My journey is nearing its end. My penultimate stop: Cottonwood Cove.