New Vegas is the post-War remnant of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, deep in the Mojave Desert. Unlike most of the other major cities of the United States, Las Vegas was not critically hit by atomic weapons during the Great War. Most of the damage was done by the fall of society and government across the United States, background radiation or the general decay of post-atomic society. The city itself is walled off by the tattered remains of billboards, which makes access the city difficult. New Vegas takes up a large portion of the Mojave Wasteland, but there are plenty of nearby settlements as well as large numbers of raiders.