Obsidian's Josh Sawyer (the Project Director for Fallout: New Vegas) has been answering a selection of fan questions about the forthcoming title over at the Bethesda forums.
Details are brief, but moderately juicy. The game's level cap (a source of some annoyance in pre-DLC Fallout 3) has been confirmed as level 30, and Sawyer explains that a few of the old animations have been freshened up: "We have already changed some of the core combat animations (for example, all first-person firearm aim animations have been revised) as well as creature animations (our "West Coast" Super Mutants have new idles, walk, and run cycles)."
Speaking of Super Mutants, many of the ones we've been seeing in early screenshots are just placeholders. "Our early Super Mutant and Nightkin models were placeholders" says Sawyer, "All of them have been re-textured, slightly remodeled, and re-animated to more closely resemble the Mariposa Super Mutants [as seen in Fallout 1 and 2.]"
Companions will be handled the same as in Fallout 3, with players able to recruit one humanoid and one "non-humanoid" chum. Sawyer is coy about whether this will include Dogmeat, saying only "The Mojave Wasteland is full of dogs. Who knows who will want to be your pal this time around?"
One critter confirmed for the game though, is the Cazador. According to Sawyer, these beasties are "mutated tarantula hawk wasps that have found their way north from the Sonoran Desert. They aren't very durable, but their poison is deadly and they are very creepy looking."
Decide for yourself how creepy they are, by looking at the concept art below.
