The return to the wasteland is way better than just okie dokie. The follow-up to a successful debut is often harder to make than the first, and that goes double when the inspiration for a show comes from the most beloved installment of the underlying franchise . That's precisely the challenge season 2 is facing as the TV series shifts its stage to the irradiated lights of New Vegas when the series returns on December 16 at 9PM ET/6PM PT on Prime Video . However, while other video game adaptations like suffered from a bit of a sophomore slump, continues to get more crass, vulgar and abrasive in the most entertaining ways. Season two picks up directly after the first as Lucy (played by Ella Purnelle) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) make their way across the wasteland in pursuit of Lucy's father.

Amazon's Fallout TV series is pretty good, yeah? Not only is it some darn great television in its own right, this high-budget, high-profile show might just be the most faithful adaptation of a video game ever put to screens big or small. It's so good that the Fallout video games, the most recent of which is almost seven years old, have been shooting back up the charts. But if you're new to the crumbling, irradiated world of Fallout, you might feel a little lost when the credits roll on the last episode. What's this New Vegas place hinted at in the post-credits scene? Why did the pre-war flashbacks look like Marty McFly's 1955, but have nuclear-powered robots? How did people invent Iron Man-style power armor if they can't make a computer smaller than a bread box?

The distaste of many for the new dialogue system is, in most cases, tied to expectations about what a Fallout game should be. In fact, I think nostalgia for previous entries holds "Fallout" 4 back. Common sentiment among fans and critics is that both "Fallout 3" and "New Vegas" rank above "Fallout 4." Fallout is my favorite game franchise, and "Fallout 3" sparked the love affair. Before "Fallout 3," there was no Fallout as we know it today. The game blew the hinges off the franchise in the best way: "Fallout 2," released 10 years before "Fallout 3," had a bird's-eye view a la StarCraft and turn- and tile-based combat.

Ever since Cats of Zero Wing delivered the oddly worded threat "all your base are belong to us" some 30 years ago, the writing in video games has been received with varying levels of enthusiasm. Often, it's denounced as stilted, hackneyed, and just plain nonsensical. At the same time, it has become a much loved, instantly recognizable genre unto itself. While the earliest iconically bad dialog mostly derived from poor translations--like Magneto in the 1992 X-Men arcade game introducing himself as "Magneto, master of magnet!" and shouting "Welcome … to die!"--a lot of it has been terrible all on its own: Peter Dinklage, for example, tried to take a subtle approach to the lines he was fed in Destiny and sounded unmistakably like he'd been drugged. Infamously, Hollywood has spent billions of dollars trying to adapt game franchises into movies and TV shows, yet decades since a goggling Dennis Hopper horrified children across the world with his turn as Nintendo's Bowser, it still hasn't succeeded.

At first glance you could be forgiven for seeing The Outer Worlds as another wacky space opera, complete with eccentric characters and off-beat humor. But to leave it there would be to belie a game with over 20 years of history behind it. The team behind The Outer Worlds has worked on some of the most popular RPGs in the world. Producers Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky are credited with the creation of the prestigious Fallout franchise, with Cain working as creator, producer, and lead programmer, and Boyarsky serving as the lead artist responsible for Fallout's signature 1950's style, in addition to helping oversee the game's overall direction. Yet despite being billed by Boyarsky himself as the spiritual successor to Fallout, specifically Obsidian Entertainment's last entry in the series, the much-loved Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds is most definitely its own mad-cap experience.

It might be set in space rather than on an Earth ravaged by nuclear war, but there is a strong argument that The Outer Worlds, a forthcoming first-person role-playing game (RPG) by storied developers Obsidian, is spiritually a Fallout game. Not only is it directed by Fallout creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, it shares a lot of DNA with Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas – a spin-off with a reputation as the best in the series. New Vegas earned particular praise for its dialogue, and a world-building background that makes it feel like more than a thin justification for firing mini-nukes at super-mutants. New Vegas was Obsidian's first and last game set in the Fallout universe, but The Outer Worlds places similar importance on freedom of choice in dialogue and gameplay. In this world, where mega corporations are starting to take over alien planets, you can act like a hero, an opportunistic mercenary, or a total idiot.

With the next generation of gaming consoles on the horizon, Microsoft Studios has been gobbling up high-profile developers, and it's continuing that trend today with the acquisition of Fallout: New Vegas studio Obsidian Entertainment and Wasteland 2 company inXile Entertainment. Obsidian and inXile represent some of Microsoft Studios' most notable acquisitions yet, especially when taken together. Obsidian is responsible for Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, South Park: The Stick of Truth and the Pillars of Eternity series, while inXile is behind Fantastic Contraption, Torment: Tides of Numenera and the upcoming Wasteland 3, which raised more than $3 million via crowdfunding platform Fig in 2016. There's rich history between Obsidian and inXile, as both studios are the product of a 2003 developer exodus from original Fallout house Interplay. They have an agreement to share tools and technology with each other, and Obsidian even helped inXile develop Wasteland 2. "While they do share a common heritage, the two creative teams at Obsidian and inXile are very different," Microsoft said in a statement. "They will continue to operate autonomously and bring their unique talents, IP, and expertise to Microsoft Studios as they build new RPG experiences for our players and fans."

It's time for the Steam Summer sale, when a collection of purchases for prices so low they seem negligible end up adding up to something that threatens your ability to pay rent. There are a ton of games out there: some of them fantastically cheap, some of them just regular cheap, and some of them somewhere in the middle. We're going fantastically cheap for this particular list and whittling it down to some surprisingly excellent games, all of which can be had for under $5. Keep reading for a great way to spend somewhere just south of $55. Dishonored: Dishonored is an amazing game, and much better than the somewhat self-involved Dishonored 2. It's a sandbox-based first-person supernatural assassination game, where you control a loyal soldier to a murdered empress sworn to take revenge on those that caused her death. Loopy experimentation, wide-open levels and genuinely engaging lore make this one that's easy to come back to.

Here's the weirdest bit of gaming news I've seen in a while: Francis Ford Coppola's film studio American Zoetrope is making a video game. Weirder: It's a video game based on Coppola's classic 1979 film Apocalypse Now. "Forty years ago, I set out to make a personal art picture that could hopefully influence generations of viewers for years to come. Today, I'm joined by new daredevils, a team who want to make an interactive version of Apocalypse Now, where you are Captain Benjamin Willard amidst the harsh backdrop of the Vietnam War. I've been watching videogames grow into a meaningful way to tell stories, and I'm excited to explore the possibilities for Apocalypse Now for a new platform and a new generation."