Fallout: New Vegas/Gameplay

Character creation
After the introduction scene shows the courier shot, he wakes up in the doctor's house. After some speech, you will get a screen showing your character's appearance. Of the choices here, the Sex will have minor impact on gameplay as some characters may react differently to some optional feats described later. There are also presets, and an option to randomize the cosmetic appearance.

Doc Mitchell will then walk you to the Vit-o-Matic tester. Here you will assign base S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points - you have give points to assign, and can obtain extra points if you reduce some of the stats by 1. These attributes affect various game mechanics, as described in S.P.E.C.I.A.L. page. When assigning points, keep in mind that you can increase the attributes later with the Intense Training perk. Additionally,

After the test results, he will bring you to a couch to start a questionnaire. You can safely answer questions according to your preferences - when it's complete, the game presents you with three tagged skills, which you can change. The tagged skills receive a minor starting bonus, and also affects your starting equipment.

The last part is presenting you with a choice of traits. These traits have both a positive and negative effect, influencing how you may play your character. Of the choices, Wild Wasteland causes in-game events in the style of the older Fallout games to appear.

When Doc brings you to the door, characters receive their starting equipment: 4 stimpacks, 18 caps, 6 bobby pins, one weapon, and DLC items. Characters with Lockpick get 6 more bobby pins. By default, a 9mm pistol with 1-30 rounds are given, and one of the skills may either change this or give an alternate weapon. Guns skill gives extra starting ammo, explosives will give 8 sticks of dynamite, Energy Weapons gives a laser pistol and 20 energy cells, Melee weapons adds a straight razor, and unarmed adds boxing gloves.

The last prompt is hardcore difficulty. If enabled, it adds survival elements to the game, making it more challenging, although it's recommended to keep it off for the first playthrough.

Once you exit, you can find Sunny Smiles to start the quest Back in the Saddle for a quick tutorial.

Finally, you will have a chance to change your character after leaving the Goodsprings area, changing your appearance, assigned attributed and tagged skills.