Damn you Fallout New Vegas

[Pip Boy]

Its coming out tomorrow and I'm extremely excited. Looking forward to the Realistic mode they're adding where stimpaks take effect over time, ammo has weight, and I'm pretty sure I heard something about requiring food and water to survive. Anybody else psyched for it?

[Bard The 5th LW]

I am so pumped up you wouldn't even believe.

Been playing Oblivion and Fallout 3 a bunch to help relieve the anticipation.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

My computer will not be able to run it. So: Damn you Fallout New Vegas, indeed.

I'd have to buy a new graphics card and upgrade my RAM. And I'm just too damn lazy for that. Also: poor.

[Bard The 5th LW]

I'd love to get it on PC, but my comp sucks as well.

Console it is. :/ I bet it'll still be awesome though.

[greed]

Really really excited here. And it's not coming out til the end of the week. Actually bought Metro 2033 yesterday entirely to offset the post apocalypse jonesing (it's pretty good so far BTW).

Was watching a live playthrough Bethesda put up, the station run by the ghoul's got soem catchy stuff (the one about the marshall with the big iron on his hip) and it's as glitchy as expected. The one I was watchig got cut off when the guy playing it ran into a questgiver who was stuck clipping into the roof of the hotel. Oh Gamebryo :3:


Its coming out tomorrow and I'm extremely excited. Looking forward to the Realistic mode they're adding where stimpaks take effect over time, ammo has weight, and I'm pretty sure I heard something about requiring food and water to survive. Anybody else psyched for it?

From what I understand you need to regularly eat and drink, eating at least once a day, drinking more frequently(it is a desert) or your condition worsens. Also you need to sleep at least several hours every 24 hours or so.

[Geminex]

I'm only just playing fallout 3, but that sounds fairly awesome. Might buy it once I'm done with all the other games I'm playing.

[Krylo]

So guys... it's my birthday tomorrow. Someone steam gift it to me.

[Mannix]

So guys... it's my birthday tomorrow. Someone steam gift it to me.

If i scratch your back, how does mine get scratched?

[Krylo]

If i scratch your back, how does mine get scratched?

The innocent sound of a child's laughter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxGcIVhH-Is).

[Azisien]

Tomorrow? Damn, it comes out Tuesday here...

[Marc v4.0]

Tomorrow here only technically because of midnight release

[Aerozord]

Its coming out tomorrow and I'm extremely excited. Looking forward to the Realistic mode they're adding where stimpaks take effect over time, ammo has weight, and I'm pretty sure I heard something about requiring food and water to survive. Anybody else psyched for it?

what but... that sounds awesome! but, I got a con in less then two weeks, and a car and, no money, but, awesome game, I http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v135/aerozord/2n6byv.jpg

[Sithdarth]

I get to pick up my preorder at the local Gamestop at 12:01 am like I did for Mass Effect 2.

[Mannix]

The innocent sound of a child's laughter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxGcIVhH-Is).

Dang, I was hoping for a couple of tasteful nudes of yourself or to be made a mod or something. Ah well, pm me the email you use for steam.

[Krylo]

Nah. I was just kidding.

I'd actually feel a little bad if one of you actually bought me a birthday present.

Edit: Also, all my nudes are pretty tasteless.

[Mannix]

Nah. I was just kidding.

I'd actually feel a little bad if one of you actually bought me a birthday present.

Edit: Also, all my nudes are pretty tasteless.

Meh, I'm a working professional so it's not a big deal, but I can see feeling bad about getting something like that from one of our many forum teenagers.

[DFM]

Mannix if you buy me New Vegas I'll do a Let's Play of it.

(Shut up I think I might be able to get a thing going here)

[Mannix]

Mannix if you buy me New Vegas I'll do a Let's Play of it.

(Shut up I think I might be able to get a thing going here)

I've never really enjoyed the Let's Plays. What else can you give me?

[DFM]

I'll write you a haiku.

[Mannix]

I'll write you a haiku.

$50 worth? That is a shit load of haiku.

[DFM]

To a working man? Fifty dollars is nothing. To me? It's Vegas.

[Mannix]

To a working man? Fifty dollars is nothing. To me? It's Vegas.

I'm just saying, your average haiku is like a buck fifty. A fifty dollar haiku ought to be able to powder my hiney and put me to bed. You know, I'm thinking of actually doing this just to see what one looks like.

[Krylo]

I'm just saying, your average haiku is like a buck fifty. A fifty dollar haiku ought to be able to powder my hiney and put me to bed. You know, I'm thinking of actually doing this just to see what one looks like.

It looks like the thing you just quoted.

[Pip Boy]

I'm just saying, your average haiku is like a buck fifty. A fifty dollar haiku ought to be able to powder my hiney and put me to bed. You know, I'm thinking of actually doing this just to see what one looks like.

Haiku is good fun
But sometimes it makes no sense
Refrigerator

[Mannix]

It looks like the thing you just quoted.

Oh, snap! I didn't even notice that was a haiku. HA! I got it for free! Better luck next time DFM.

[DFM]

Grand Theft Haiku

[Mannix]

Let's see if I can get that into a haiku.

Oh snap! I got it
For free. Better luck next time.
Suck it D F M.

[CABAL49]

My birthday is in two weeks. I'll give you as many nudes as you could possibly want.

[Krylo]

Let's see if I can get that into a haiku.

Oh snap! I got it
For free. Better luck next time.
Suck it D F M.

That's uh... real good.

Just... just don't quit your day job to become a freelance haikuist or anything, alright?

[EVILNess]

My birthday is on Halloween. I would totally love me some Fallout New Vegas from random internet friends.

[Mannix]

My birthday is on Halloween. I would totally love me some Fallout New Vegas from random internet friends.

My birthday is in two weeks. I'll give you as many nudes as you could possibly want.

Dear heavens, what have I started!?

Also, too late Krylo; the Japanese emperor has already hired me on as the court haikuist. Specifically, he said he's paying me for the haiku of silence, whatever that means.

[Arcanum]

So has this turned into an official "Beg for Fallout New Vegas" thread?

But for serious, I've somehow managed to convince myself not to get this game on Tuesday. Maybe it has something to do with the two midterms I have this week. Apparently this is called being responsible? I dunno, I'm new to the whole thing.

[DFM]

I've convinced myself
to wait two days for Gamefly
to send my copy.

[akaSM]

I spent my birthday at a hospital, do I get anything free?

Also, didn't Fallout New Vegas have low minimum requirements compared to other modern/recent games?

[Doc ock rokc]

Ok, Look. All of us our poor all of us have birthdays
So here is what you do. For YOUR OWN birthday go buy the game FOR YOURSELF.

(by the way mine was the other day and I wasn't expecting a gift from any of you)

[Mannix]

Ok, Look. All of us our poor all of us have birthdays
So here is what you do. For YOUR OWN birthday go buy the game FOR YOURSELF.

(by the way mine was the other day and I wasn't expecting a gift from any of you)

What should those of us who aren't poor and don't have a birthday within striking distance do?

[DFM]

I spent my birthday at a hospital, do I get anything free?

Also, didn't Fallout New Vegas have low minimum requirements compared to other modern/recent games?

Gamebryo looks like ass so probably.

[Mannix]

Gamebryo looks like ass so probably.

I was kind of disappointed when I saw they were using the same engine. Hopefully Obsidian will have more than five voice actors.

[Melfice]

I was convinced not to get this.
Then I heard about this realistic mode.

I'm still not gonna get it, because between a shitty job, Fable III, Rock Band 3 (and Mustang guitar) AND LittleBigPlanet 2 in January (I hope) I'm simply at my budget.

But dammit, now I want it.

[Marc v4.0]

But guys! GUYS! Obsidian is made up of members of the team that developed the original games! They can do no wrong and will free us from Bethesda's horrid, horrid popular and successful re-animation of a completely dead series!

[Professor Smarmiarty]

If anyone buys me this game and a computer capable of running it I will fly to whatever shithole you live in with a barrel of whiskey, get you shitfaced and pontificate till the small hours of the morning about why the greatest writer who ever lived is a multi-psuedonymed madman operating out of a cafe frequented by Stalin and Jodie Foster (though reports may possibly be fabricated).

[DFM]

But guys! GUYS! Obsidian is made up of members of the team that developed the original games! They can do no wrong and will free us from Bethesda's horrid, horrid popular and successful re-animation of a completely dead series!

If you want to be sarcastic it helps to say things that aren't true.

[Marc v4.0]

So...It's true that Bethesda made a successful and popular re-animation of dead series, and we need to be freed from that popularity and success?

I don't even

[Krylo]

So...It's true that Bethesda made a successful and popular re-animation of dead series, and we need to be freed from that popularity and success?

I don't even

Successful and popular but also bland and not particularly good. What we need be saved from is not popularity and success but rather Bethesda's bland and not particularly good spin on the franchise.

Which we can't really blame Bethesda for. They're good at making blandish but hugely popular games.

Edit: Thankfully they understand this and make them easily moddable too, so I guess we can't hate too hard.

Edit 2: In fact what you said was so true I didn't even register it as sarcasm until DFM quoted it. I was just like, "Yup," and moved on.

[DFM]

I hear Justin Bieber is pretty successful and popular that's why I know he's a good singer.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Well what other method do you propose to judge quality of works Mr Cleverface? Criticism is dead! The only judge is the vicious rubric of popular demand.

[greed]

It's true that popularity and success are not measures of quality.

That said Fallout 3 was a good game. Just severely flawed particularly in the writing department. God that was some shitty plotting, dialogue and characters. Only writing that was good was the apocaylptic notes you'd find in dungeons.


Whoa Ninja'd so goddamned hard. Slow post was slow.

[Marc v4.0]

I didn't really find it bland and uninteresting at all.

I had never heard of Fallout before, though, so that may be why I didn't find it bland at all.

Then again, I didn't find Oblivion bland either...

[Pip Boy]

Its a good thing we're all the kind of upstanding citizens that would never turn to illegal means of acquiring this game rather than begging for it, because I would weep for humanity were I to hear one of you pirated it.

[EVILNess]

Its a good thing we're all the kind of upstanding citizens that would never turn to illegal means of acquiring this game rather than begging for it, because I would weep for humanity were I to hear one of you pirated it.

Its only through Steam.

[greed]

That doesn't make it impossible Ness. After release Steam's no barrier, and the file can get leaked without the stuff Steam puts in to prevent pre-loaders from playing (which actually apparently is very hard to break).

Also there is a 360 and PS3 release too.

[Pip Boy]

No, Im not gonna lie, a steam-only release makes it really hard to crack. Could this be the future of DRM?

Cuz, I mean steam is a lot less annoying than a lot of things DRM could be, y'know?

As it stands, unless I come into some good money sometime soon, I may wait a month on this one to see if it goes on a Black Friday special.

EDIT: Y'know, unless one of you has a GIANT PILE OF MONEY they don't mind sharing. Y'know. Pretty please?

[Nikose Tyris]

Wait, wait. I've been ignoring this game because I figured it was going to be just like fallout 3. From what I've been reading it's apparently not?

I need more details. Different publisher? Different engine? I'm suddenly interested in this game, damnit.

[Melfice]

Wait, wait. I've been ignoring this game because I figured it was going to be just like fallout 3. From what I've been reading it's apparently not?

I need more details. Different publisher? Different engine? I'm suddenly interested in this game, damnit.

Same engine, different developer.
Same publisher, I think? Bethesda's still publishing, yeah?

Obsidian's the dev for this game. Make of that what you will, but from what we've seen, they've done a pretty good job of improving Fallout 3.

[greed]

No, Im not gonna lie, a steam-only release makes it really hard to crack. Could this be the future of DRM?

Cuz, I mean steam is a lot less annoying than a lot of things DRM could be, y'know?

As it stands, unless I come into some good money sometime soon, I may wait a month on this one to see if it goes on a Black Friday special.

EDIT: Y'know, unless one of you has a GIANT PILE OF MONEY they don't mind sharing. Y'know. Pretty please?

But it's not Steam only, there are physical copies, including ones for consoles, and Steam verification is breakable. There are people already playing and posting spoilers of pirated, leaked, stolen and in some cases legally bought but delivered early/bought from shops that broke the street date copies and have been since Friday.

You are correct in that the actual download pre-load version from Steam is probably uncracked, I've heard pre-loads have been cracked, but it was so much effort that they only got it cracked like an hour or two before the game went live anyway so the team that did it basically said "fuck this".

[Nikose Tyris]

Same engine, different developer.
Same publisher, I think? Bethesda's still publishing, yeah?

Obsidian's the dev for this game. Make of that what you will, but from what we've seen, they've done a pretty good job of improving Fallout 3.

Read through on Wiki to see what we're looking at.

Gonna stick with my "I'll wait for the Oblivion Mod" arguement, like before.

[DFM]

What is the "I'll wait for the Oblivion Mod" argument and is it something that will make me hurt you, Nikos? I don't want to hurt you but I will if you make me.

[Magus]

I think the "wait for the Oblivion mod" argument is that one should wait until somebody releases a mod that fixes all the wrong things with the game, which is apparently everything if they are talkin' about that Nehrim mod for Oblivion that came out recently.

Game looks cool but have to play Fallout 3 "first" (don't really but it will probably be cheaper faster). Waiting for the Game of the Year edition to get cheap before I buy. Also need my own PS3 or nice computer so I can put the time into it that is required (for example, GTA IV is easy to play on somebody else's but something as big as New Vegas would probably require me to have my own console/comp).

[DFM]

Why would you have to play Fallout 3 first?

Edit: N/M MY BAD

Also WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS GAME, NIKOSE?

[Donomni]

I've got way too many games and I'm still playing Fallout 3, so I'm skipping New Vegas for now.

Also, Costume Quest comes out this week but that's neither here nor there.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Its a good thing we're all the kind of upstanding citizens that would never turn to illegal means of acquiring this game rather than begging for it, because I would weep for humanity were I to hear one of you pirated it.

Do you know how to pirate a computer? PM me...

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Do you know how to pirate a computer? PM me...

Step one) Find a ship that has a computer on board

Step two) Board

Step three) Pirate

Step four) Yar har fiddle dee gee

[DFM]

Gamefly just phoned and this game is on its waaaaaaaaaaaaay I should have it Wednesday or Thursday FFFFFFUCK YES I'M SO EXCITED.

[Mannix]

When I went to bed Steam said I had about one day til the unlock. When I woke up it said about three days. Why must steam toy with me like this?

[Wigmund]

I'm gonna grab a copy of New Vegas later this week and I'll use my imagination to play the game until my PS3 returns from being repaired sometime next week.
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs23/f/2007/349/1/a/IMAGINATION_by_RDCarneiro.jpg

[Overcast]

And I've already been playing for a few hours. It is far too early to have a real impression yet on everything. Though I did find an Indiana Jones hat in a refrigerator.

That is a good sign I think.

[Pip Boy]

Never doubt the power of the fedora. It can be your greatest ally or your worst enemy.

[Krylo]

Guys, I don't have that much money or a steady income but I want this game but I don't want to spend money on this game but I also don't want/expect anyone to just give it to me.

What I do want is for some of you guys in the next couple of days to post some spoiler free impressions of how you like it/if it's worth the money/how much better it is than 3/etc. Talk about gameplay, VA, and shit.

In this way I can make an educated guess as to whether it's worth it or not.

[Viridis]

So... little buggy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKIkw3LIoQ)?

[Marc v4.0]

No noteworthy bugs for me, yet. Really, after the midnight release I had heard so many reports, one after the other of the graphics being no better, the voice-actors all being really lame, running problems over the broken ground causing you to stutter around, Fable 2 load-times.

All of that just wasn't true...so...review-reader beware?

Best part about all of it, though, is everyone is still blaming it on Bethesda, because the developer obviously has nothing to do with any bugs that may occur.

ANYWAY

The voice acting is much better, a lot of variation because they literally got 3-4 times as many total voice actors as Beth had regular and special voice actors in FO3. That wonderful green glow saturation on everything in FO3 isn't present at all, with different times of day having colors more varied then "light gray-green to dark gray-green". The aiming is far improved, so you don't always have to use VATS if you want to hit the target with anything other then a shotgun. The combat can be a bit of a challenge from time to time, things don't seem to be scaling with you so much as some stuff is always scaled ahead of you. There is a more classic return to the type of story and humor from the first two games in the Fallout series with a lot of the really goofy stuff, like the joke encounters from FO2, being made optional by the existence of a free Trait you can pick up at character creation. (Protip: The Fedora in a bombed out Fridge is one of those, and I've heard rumors of the return of the Holy Hand Grenade). The textures look vastly superior in most cases, and there are lots of bright colors and rustic views. Stats and Skills play much bigger roles, I've had a ton of skill checks in conversations, which display how much of the skill you need to actually pass the check.

Oh, and the Cowboy music is just great.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Ain't seen hide nor hair of any bugs, save the radroaches and a few o' them mantis whatchamacallsits.
Combat's lookin' mighty fine so far. And I certainly feel as though I'm bein' coerced into makin more tactical choices rather than just spammin the VATs to win, which is nice. I also enjoy that there ammunition system, which lets me break those ole useless 12 gauge shells I got for somethin' more useful, like 20 gauge shells.

Edit: Also I got a cowboy hat, a pair of sunglasses and a six shooter.
FUCK YEAH.

[Overcast]

I took my typical path of activating every possibility of difficulty I could, aka very hard and hardship mode along with being a pugilist with almost no sneaking ability.

The result is amusing since I find myself holding onto the different kinds of fist weapons so that when a certain situation comes up I can have the proper tool to beat it with. Aside from my fist. I also always find myself noting the food and water I can get at every merchant, keeping my health up to full when outside of battle rather than as I go and trying to figure if fast traveling is worth it compared to running there myself. It is all rather immersive.

The story is, as of yet, still beyond my touch, and I am getting some crashes here and there. Otherwise no notable bugs.

I do find myself saddened by how little jazz and big band they have in comparison to the country. I know it is Nevada...but dangit it is also VEGAS!

More to the story as I really start to feel it.

Oh yeah and the ability to take a perk that activates the latent homosexuality in other men is a fun addition.

[Aerozord]

So... little buggy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKIkw3LIoQ)?

if I wasn't so desensatized, I'd find this deeply disturbing. Looks like something you see while on an acid trip

[Revising Ocelot]

Considering it's made by Bethesda and Obsidian, there are actually less bugs than should be reasonably expected.


I should get around to playing Fallout 3 properly... I gave up shortly after Megaton, due to having at my disposal only terrible 5% durability pistols (which only kill if you make ~3 headshots at point-blank range) and no ammo since the random bandits only dropped 2-3 rounds each (and it takes much more than that to kill each one).

Also I ran into a Deathclaw on the way to Washington DC. With 10 rounds of ammo. Blech.

[Donomni]

Have you been doing quests and searching everywhere?

If you're just killing random dudes, you won't get very far.

Were you repairing your weapons?

[Sithdarth]

So I got the ridiculously expensive collectors edition and the collectors edition game guide at 12 am Tuesday morning. I had about enough time to open both and see what was inside. Haven't had time to play yet (goddamn graduate school) but my last class of the day on Thursday has been canceled and I don't ever have classes on Friday which means I have most of 4 days to play this weekend. I'll get back to you as to what I think of it after that.

[EVILNess]

YES I OWN THIS GAME. I WILL ACHIEVE NOTHING IN THE REAL WORLD THIS WEEKEND.

[Melfice]

Next week when I trade in a shitload of games to pay for Rock Band 3, if I have enough credit left, I might get this after all.

[Aerozord]

rock band 3, is higher on your list?

[Melfice]

rock band 3, is higher on your list?

Yes. Yes, it is.
I mean, I already ordered the Mustang controller to go with it.

And I do believe I already posted earlier in this thread that I had little interest in the game from the start. Only recently did I get just a little bit more interested.

[Krylo]

So DFM and I had a heart to heart last night and I ended up getting the game.

I'm like ten minutes in, doing hardcore. Already loving it.

...I died to radscorpion poison. There's poison.

[greed]

You got some weird priorities there Melfice.

Got this yesterday myself. Also one thing I love that I wasn't expecting(I was expecting the awesome writing, better world and increased complexity) unarmed is awesome now. Found this out in desperation when ambushed without enough ammo. Killed like 3 radscorpions and a ghoul with only my spiked knuckles despite having 4 STR and 18 unarmed skill. It made me seriously consider restarting and doing an unarmed run. Totally doing that next anyway, unarmed and explosives.

I'll be a grenade toting gay cowboy(they've got gay and lesbian versions of blackwidow/ladykiller BTw just so you know) boxing champion.

[Toast]

I decided to bite the bullet and got this a few hours ago. Still downloading/ installing, just over 1gb to go.

I ended up with the caravan pack because there's no Best Buy within 30 miles. How do you guys like the packs that you have?

Looking forward to being a sneaking sniper as much as possible.

[EVILNess]

The classic pack from gamestop isn't bad, you get an armored vault suit from vault 13 (Same vault as Fallout 1 and 2) and of course free stimpacks. The pistol is good but it uses a different ammo than the regular pistol. We'll see if I can get some more.

Not sure what the canteen does.

EDIT: I looked up the caravan pack and I'd much rather have it. Shotgun > Pistol

[greed]

The classic pack from gamestop isn't bad, you get an armored vault suit from vault 13 (Same vault as Fallout 1 and 2) and of course free stimpacks. The pistol is good but it uses a different ammo than the regular pistol. We'll see if I can get some more.

Not sure what the canteen does.

As I understand the classic pack comes with the 10mm pistol. You'll get 10mm ammo later. It replaces the 9mm a ways into the game. The canteen gets automatically fills when you drink from a large water source and regularly quenches your thirst meter in hardcore mode. In regular mode I think it's useless.

As for me, no pack I buy my games from a local chain that didn't have a pack. On the plus side I got it for like $30 less than elsewhere in Aus so yeah.

[EVILNess]

As I understand the classic pack comes with the 10mm pistol. You'll get 10mm ammo later. It replaces the 9mm a ways into the game. The canteen gets automatically fills when you drink from a large water source and regularly quenches your thirst meter in hardcore mode. In regular mode I think it's useless.

As for me, no pack I buy my games from a local chain that didn't have a pack. On the plus side I got it for like $30 less than elsewhere in Aus so yeah.

Hell I'd have skipped the pack for 30 bucks off.

[Wigmund]

Got the game at Best Buy and redeemed the code for the Mercenary Pack. The grenade launcher is a lovely weapon except when I use it on geckos who are five feet away and I blow off my arms.

Is it wrong that I want to find a stuffed gecko doll? They are just adorable.

[Azisien]

I'm hearing about a good deal of glitches and mediocre frame rate, at least with my hardware, so I'm kind of glad I haven't started playing yet.

[Sithdarth]

I'm kind of disappointed that I cleared out Primm on my own with the crappy weapons I found lying around when the NCR guy right next to it was all "Their weapons are too powerful for poor little us to handle." Other than that it's Fallout 3 but better so far.

[EVILNess]

Other than that it's Fallout 3 but better so far.

Which despite the amazing amount of unjustified flak Fallout 3 gets from the internet, is not a bad thing.

Also, anyone found one of the recharging laser weapons that don't use ammo?

[Toast]

I'm hearing about a good deal of glitches and mediocre frame rate, at least with my hardware, so I'm kind of glad I haven't started playing yet.

Unfortunately, I'm already having problems. Game's crashing every 10-20 minutes. I believe, but can't be certain, that it's an audio issue. The one time I got an error message it had something to do with my audio drivers. All the other times it's crashed it didn't give any messages.

I spent a half hour looking for new audio drivers. The one I found is newer than what I had, but I can't tell if it's the newest or not. Dell's support page is no help, as I can't directly download even though they say I should be able to, and their download manager pops up a message saying there are no drivers to download and auto closes.

[Krylo]

I'm kind of disappointed that I cleared out Primm on my own with the crappy weapons I found lying around when the NCR guy right next to it was all "Their weapons are too powerful for poor little us to handle." To be fair: Incinerator.

To be more fair: everything after killing that dude with the incinerator was the best thing ever.

Other than that it's Fallout 3 but better so far.

On hardcore it feels like a perfect combination of old school isometric Fallout and new school Bethsoft Fallout.

Love the faction armor, local reputations, etc. as well.

[EVILNess]

SUPER LOL @ the super mutant companion.

[Pip Boy]

Which despite the amazing amount of unjustified flak Fallout 3 gets from the internet, is not a bad thing.

Also, anyone found one of the recharging laser weapons that don't use ammo?

Go to the Silver Rush energy weapon store in vegas. Look on the shelf to your left as you walk in. Try not to get shot.


I think there is one available for purchase as well, but that could cost all your monies.

[Overcast]

But by then you should be able to gamble. I entered New Vegas with 1000 caps, I left with 40k.

Is it wrong that I want to find a stuffed gecko doll? They are just adorable.

They have always been adorable. In the game I would personally have captured an egg just for the sake of raising a born killer for myself.

I'm kind of disappointed that I cleared out Primm on my own with the crappy weapons I found lying around when the NCR guy right next to it was all "Their weapons are too powerful for poor little us to handle." Other than that it's Fallout 3 but better so far.

I will reiterate that I am playing an unarmed character in very hard+hardcore. I heard that then ran into town and took them out with my bare hands. Because that is what real men do. It was funny seeing the guy with the incinerator cause I closed the distance quick and then slapped it out of his hands before beating him to a bloody pulp.

Further, I am starting to get into the main storyline finally. It has this refreshing shift from the Bethesda foray that drags me back to the original two. There is a mission you are expected to do, like the GECK in 2 or water in 1, and then there is the situation that is currently affecting the wasteland at large. Every given bit of choice doesn't have to wait for the end of the game to have an effect, I can see it almost immediately after I start dealing in it. I am not a born hero, but I have the potential to be...and that is great.

On a side note I still don't know which way my first guy is leaning in terms of loyalty. I don't trust Yes Man.

[EVILNess]

First off, automatics hurt. On hardcore fast amounts of incoming damage from more than one target is almost guaranteed death. Same with letting any group of animals swarm you.

Certain weapons feel much less powerful than they should while others feel very powerful, often more than they should. Weapon impressions:

9mm Pistol - VERY Useful, and very powerful. I usually end up whipping out this bad boy for most situations. It's accurate at a long distance and has a fast rate of fire. Not to mention the fast reload speed. Great for 1-3 targets.

10mm Pistol - Haven't really used it yet. I assume its similar to the 9mm.

Varmint Rifle - My second favorite gun after you get the expanded clip upgrade. Very good range and very good damage. Works very well against animals I find, while I reserve the 9mm for humans. Does really good critical dmg it seems.

Silenced .22 Pistol - Useless. I have yet to get a single sneak attack critical. Maybe it's based on your stealth skill now instead of you being in stealth and them not seeing you?

9mm SMG - Not very good as of yet, but the one I have is almost broken and I haven't found any replacements. It did good against the geckos though.

Single shotgun - Useless. One shell then reload. Not good in a fire fight.

Caravan Shotgun - Slightly Better, but still only two shots.

Laser pistol - Seems very weak. Maybe it's just me though. I had trouble killing things with it.

Dynamite - A slightly harder to use grenade, but still good to use in vats if you got a clusterfuck on enemies going. I killed all the powder gangers that attack the starting town in one shot.

Melee - The one handed weapons seem very good, and the two handed not so much.

Unarmed: Sweet jesus, its like the wrench in Bioshock. You would think that doing only this would be a challenge, but as soon as you get an unarmed weapon things die. Horribly. And then there are an incredibly large amount of perks for unarmed!

[Overcast]

Unarmed, in further detail.

Fist: Weak, fast, and meant to be improved upon, I still find myself killing folks with them to save myself on repairs.

Boxing Gloves: A good choice around the beginning when certain enemies are going to have you outclassed in the way of armor. It comes with the advantage of knocking them the hell out, and the disadvantage of incredibly low damage.

Knuckledusters(aka spiked and brass knucks): Oddly enough not the first weapon for my hands that I bought. They are wickedly powerful when in full condition and combined with good skill. Their additional damage with their reliable speed just KILLS. Not to mention they can be sneaked into locations.

Bladed Gauntlet: A useful thing against enemies with gigantic health bars that you are having some trouble breaking around the beginning. The first weapon I bought for the fists it has the advantage of dealing extra critical damage, making it a great addition for those sneaky sorts.

Power Fist: Default. A good raw damage sort if a bit slow at times. Another good one for the big health bars, if a bit more expensive.

Ballistic Fist: My current guy. Imagine a power fist with a shotgun on it and you are about right. I suddenly feel incredibly overpowered.

Only advice: Never leave home without a healthy supply of stims.

[Wigmund]

I'm sad that neither of y'all listed the Shovel. It's a weapon and it lets me loot people's graves. Perfect!

I found a Cowboy Repeater while clearing out those damned convicts in Primm, between the repeater, wearing a cowboy hat with the Merc Adventurer gear and using the Magnum; it almost feels like I'm playing post-apocalyptic Red Dead Redemption.

[Pip Boy]

Fun information for anyone interested in Energy Weapons or the companion Cass. If you go to the Silver Rush store in Vegas, you can ask for work. First you'll be given a silly little guard duty quest where you just talk to people, shoot one guy, and try to pass a speech challenge. After that, they ask you to go find a girl named Cass. You have to do another quest to get her to agree to come back with you. Its kind of a pain. Anyways, if you take Cass back to the store the guy tries to kill her. If you like having her and her Rose Whiskey perk, I'd suggest you try to avoid this happening. Anyways, if you try to tell them not to kill her in the dialogue options, they attack you as well, giving you the opportunity to kill all the guards in the store (fucking hard fight, only won because of my trusty Marksman Rifle and lots of stims) and then you're free to take...

1) A metric fuckton of armor the guards were wearing. Massive sell value.
2) A metric fuckton of weapons and ammunition the guards were carrying. Massive sell value, or usefulness for you nerdy types out there.
3) Two metric fucktons of weapons and ammo set visibly all throughout the store.
4) Since you were defending yourself, no consequences of any kind after the guards are all dead.

You should consider doing this only if you're great at fighting already, want a ton of caps and arms, and don't want the Cass companion.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

I got the wild card ending.
I'm pretty happy that given the choice between the NCR, Mr. House or the Legion, the programmers put enough forethought in to say "Wait, what if the player wants to screw them all over?"

[Sithdarth]

Holy crap Veronica is dangerous. Due to having the game guide I looked up the location of Pushy for her. Boy was that ever I good idea. She turned a ghoul into an ash pile with a punch. I picked up the unique Gauss rifle for myself. We are now essentially invincible.

[Pip Boy]

I got the wild card ending.
I'm pretty happy that given the choice between the NCR, Mr. House or the Legion, the programmers put enough forethought in to say "Wait, what if the player wants to screw them all over?"

Arguably the best option because every faction is DICKS. Game's ending kind of depressed me because I sided with NCR thinking I was going with the least of many evils and it turns out they're just a bit less dicky than all the other dicks.

[Toast]

Well, I seem to have fixed my audio issue and played for about 2 hours without crashing.

I really hate radscorpions. And I hate giant radscorpions even more.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Arguably the best option because every faction is DICKS. Game's ending kind of depressed me because I sided with NCR thinking I was going with the least of many evils and it turns out they're just a bit less dicky than all the other dicks.

I dunno, comparing the NCR which imposes itself on others bringing a bit of security but also hardships and oppression at times to THE LEGION

THE LEGION
THE FUCKING SLAVER ARMY THAT WANTS TO MURDER AND RAPE EVERYBODY
THAT LEGION

I think it's a bit more than a bit less dicky.
Dr. House seemed sorta alright though, just a bit self centered.
Unfortunately he's a self centered 174 year old with an army of robots.

[Overcast]

I had characters set up for just about every ending. My first guy is going the wild card, because he is so lost in the buildup that he can't imagine serving anyone.

Got my second guy, a kind of memetic sex god, who is working with House. Who altogether seems like an immortal plotter. The kind of man who set up all the pieces far before anyone even knew there was a game.

Got a musclebrained machete wielding handlebar mustached latino for the Legion. Decided just so having Trejo around feels more fluid. And from what I understand the slavery is like an enforced working class, and in fact there isn't all that much murder and rape from most folks, mostly just enough to get people to stop resisting...except Vulpes, that guy is one cold motherfucker. And Lanius too. But talk the C man himself or Lucius(the head Pretorian) and you can see it is just because it is so alien that makes it so off.

Close with the classic man with no name gunslinger who pushes to aid the NCR. Lost in the illusion of the obvious good, but not seeing the great troubles that could come to follow.

And I still haven't finished it once. I swear I am terrible at this stuff.

[Marc v4.0]

Holy crap Veronica is dangerous. Due to having the game guide I looked up the location of Pushy for her. Boy was that ever I good idea. She turned a ghoul into an ash pile with a punch. I picked up the unique Gauss rifle for myself. We are now essentially invincible.

She won't stop punching the heads off of things before I get a chance to line them up. I've had to resort to long-sniping to get any kills in myself.

Gotta love her, though

[Wigmund]

So yeah, I was trying to reach New Vegas by heading north from Goodsprings. Hit that quarry town and had the head guy tell me "Don't go that way, there be Deathclaws" I was all like, "Fuck Deathclaws, I can take 'em".

Ran into a group of em...where the fuck is my dart gun...OH GOD THEY'RE EATING MY FACE...

Respawn, I'm gonna loop around.

[Azisien]

Damn this game is gorgeous. I am finding some weird framerate drops as warned though. Often coming out of a shop, I'll drop to like 10FPS unless I alt-tab. Same with using a bench. I wonder if its at all like some other games that dislike my SLI, or something.

Edit: Nope, not an SLI thing.

[greed]

Got a musclebrained machete wielding handlebar mustached latino for the Legion. Decided just so having Trejo around feels more fluid. And from what I understand the slavery is like an enforced working class, and in fact there isn't all that much murder and rape from most folks, mostly just enough to get people to stop resisting...except Vulpes, that guy is one cold motherfucker. And Lanius too. But talk the C man himself or Lucius(the head Pretorian) and you can see it is just because it is so alien that makes it so off.



Yeah but then you have Boone as an NPC for a while to put a face on it. I'm gonna have trouble doing a Legion playthrough, I like evil runs but I don't like evil runs where I work for dicks.

Speaking of Boone motherfucker is awesome. Dude oneshots enemies outside the goddamn draw distance sometimes. I'll just be walking along and suddenly gunshot and 20EXP. Boone and Ed-E are my companions and I'm working on either Wild Card or Mr House ending.

Edit: Also anyone else notice the whole soundtrack is in MP3 files in the Pc version. and that the soundtrack inlcudes the entirety of Fallout 1 and 2s ambient music(which you'll hear sometimes ingame)?

Chills to Big Iron.

[Pip Boy]

Did anyone else have to turn down the difficulty to have any chance at surviving the final battle? When I went with the Wild Card ending and General Lee had his people open fire on me at the very ending on Normal difficulty, I was always dead before I even had full control of my character back from the dialogue. No time to find cover or anything, just nigh-instantaneous death. Then I turned it down to easy and barely survived when the robots vaporized them with lasers, grenades, and rockets.

Anyone else think the fact that you can't play after the ending hints at an expansion, much like you couldn't keep playing after the end of Fallout 3 without Broken Steel?

EDIT: Jury Rig is great.

[Overcast]

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101013021103/fallout/images/thumb/6/63/S29.jpg/45px-S29.jpg

I didn't go wildcard(I found House far too cool not to side with) but here are my variables. Level 21 in very hard/hardcore, T-51b power armor, on med-x, buffout, psycho, stimpack, super stimpack, and many different kinds of food(mostly because you told me you had such a hard time) With a crippled damn near everything after the Legate fight and I barely saw my healthbar move before everything was dead.

Anyway, onto the sex god to see the wildcard way of living, checkout all the companion quests and moreover to get the hell out of very hard/hardcore. I've had quite enough of suffering that degree of hardship with no severe gain aside from that image.

Also the hand to hand character has no hope of ever killing a Deathclaw that is within close proximity of another Deathclaw. No matter how many steroids I have(except stealth boys, but nobody sells those).

[Roland]

Damn it guys, quit making this game sound so awesome. I've got to move in like six days and I won't have time to pack if I break down and buy this game.

[BitVyper]

Ugh, invisible walls, Bethesda? Seriously?

[Marc v4.0]

Ugh, invisible walls, Obsidian? Seriously?

Obligatory Fixed That For You, Seeing as how that had to have been a development call, and Obsidian is the developer.


EDIT: I swear, every other place I look at for information, I have to wade through a waist-high sea of "<bad thing about the game>. Damn you, Bethesda!" or "<Good thing about the game>. Great Job, Obsidian!"

The. Fuck.

[Osterbaum]

I think I will get this game next weekend. I will have a hard time during the following week though, not being able to play and all while haven gotten a taste during the weekend.

[Eltargrim]

It's sitting on my hard drive right now...taunting me...god damnit, Fallout, I have Laplacians to solve!

[BitVyper]

Obligatory Fixed That For You, Seeing as how that had to have been a development call, and Obsidian is the developer.


*Shrugs* Whatever.

If it were so bad as to be a dealbreaker, I'd be more concerned about having the names right. As it is, I don't really give a shit.

What's annoying is that they seem to be in places they really don't need to be in.

[Sithdarth]

Ok so one of my companions disappeared and I'm pretty sure that it is probably just waiting around somewhere for me to give it orders to follow me. Any idea how to find it and/or force it to find me without scouring the entire wasteland for it?

[BitVyper]

Ok so one of my companions disappeared and I'm pretty sure that it is probably just waiting around somewhere for me to give it orders to follow me. Any idea how to find it and/or force it to find me without scouring the entire wasteland for it?

Is it Veronica? According to the wiki...

If you go to hidden valley she may glitch and stay at the intercom which will force you to return to a earlier save.

[Krylo]

Veronica can also glitch at the end of her quest, for more detailed information (including how to avoid the glitch) click the following spoiler thinger: At the end of Veronica's quest when you go outside you are attacked by 4 BoS paladins. If, like me, you made your character squishy figuring you'd use tactical advantage and what not to just not be shot, this can be an issue being as there's no time to find cover/kill them/whatever else before they turn you into chunky salsa. Now, the one thing you CAN do is enter the base.

Here's the problem with that (and possibly other strategies), if the battle ends Veronica will talk to you and complete her quest. All will be good. However, if there's still some of them left alive to attack you again, when you finish killing them she will try to talk to you and complete the quest again causing a scripting error that causes her to stop moving FOREVER. Using console to reset her doesn't even fix it.

To fix, go back to an earlier save, get some armor or something, pop some med-x, and tough it out. She'll work fine so long as you kill them all in one clean fight.

Also, to be more helpful to Sith's problem: This is still on the FO3 engine, as a result FO3 console commands still work. Go to an earlier save, click them in console, write down the code after their name (or just look up the code if it's out there yet), and then use the proper console commands to summon them to you.

Unless you have it on a console, in which case, um... try the Lucky 38 if you have that unlocked. They auto wait in the casino if you go certain places in there, and may return to the room. Or you could try going back to wherever they were recruited in the first place.

[greed]

EDIT: I swear, every other place I look at for information, I have to wade through a waist-high sea of "<bad thing about the game>. Damn you, Bethesda!" or "<Good thing about the game>. Great Job, Obsidian!"

The. Fuck.

Because most bad things about the game (invisible walls, limited combat, awkward models and dated graphics) are the result of Bethesda's choices (the fucking XBOX generation Gamebryo engine and the 13 month dev cycle) and most good things about the game are the result of Obsidian (excellent writing, coherent and canon adhering world building, decent VA).

Also Sith if you're on PC there is a workaround. Go back to a save where you had them open up the console and clik on them. Write down the code after their name. Then reload the save where you've lost them, open up the console and then type "prid THE CODE" then hit enter. This will select the NPC remotely. Now type "moveto player". Of coure using the console invalidates achievements but eh.

Edit:Bah didn't see Krylo's post.

[Marc v4.0]

Because most bad things about the game (invisible walls, limited combat, awkward models and dated graphics)

The invisible walls are completely Obsidian's doing, as stated, because they make the call to throw that sort of BS in there when there are alternatives. Bethesda's engine didn't force them to not apply a little more creativity.

I'm talking about bad scripting, missing data, bugged quests, vanishing NPCs, shit the people doing all the work are responsible for making sure doesn't happen.


But no, yeah, totally Bethesda

[greed]

The invisible walls are completely Obsidian's doing, as stated, because they make the call to throw that sort of BS in there when there are alternatives. Bethesda's engine didn't force them to not apply a little more creativity.

I'm talking about bad scripting, missing data, bugged quests, vanishing NPCs, shit the people doing all the work are responsible for making sure doesn't happen.


But no, yeah, totally Bethesda

And if you look a lot of that shit is found in Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3. Hell my copy of NV is less buggy than my copies of those three. The issue there is Gamebryo is really fucking unstable and hard to debug leading to bugged quests, vanishing NPCs, clipping issues and other stupidity. Which comes back to 1.Bethesda's choice of using an engine they should have replaced after Oblivion or even after Morrowind. 2. Bethesda giving Obsidian 13 months to make the damn thing.

As afar as I'm aware there is a grand total of one really bugged quest (the Veronica one), one error that's can be fixed using 2 minutes in the GECK and will be hit by the next patch(namely Veronica's level is set to 12) and no show stopping bugs.

The walls and the Veronica issues are Obsidian's fault yeah. I imagine they might not exist if they had a full development cycle to rectify them though. Hell the walls might be DLC related in which case they ARE Bethesda's fault as they're handling the DLC on their own.

Seriously though why you defending Beth so hard? I mean yeah Obsidian has crappy QA but so does Beth (every game they've ever made has had massive meory leak issues, is ultra sensitive to fragmentation and shit, The Pitt anyone?). The reason it seems so likely that this an engine issue is that most of the bugs in NV are the same as were in all Beth's Gamebryo games, and that even huge levels of community modding done with years of debugging and reports fails to eradicate them completely in the previous games. It really seems obvious that the blame for most of these issues is some inherent flaw in an engine that needs to be retired. Plus it was Beth's choice to give them 13 months to make and debug the thing. At least this time the game sold well enough that they'll get to support and patch it unlike Alpha Protocol and Bethesda to their credit are not colossal dicks like LucasArts.

So yeah that's why people blame Bethesda. Don't get me wrong I like Bethesda's games, but they are just as buggy as New Vegas and sometimes worse. And never anywhere near as well written.

[Krylo]

Beat it. Went Wild Card.

I was going to side with House because my character didn't really care about ruling shit, and was just a courier that got wrapped up in all this other shit. Didn't even really want to get wrapped up in all the other shit, but damn House's silver tongue. Unfortunately for Mr. House he absolutely insisted that I wipe out the Brotherhood and Veronica is too awesome for me to do that to her.

Last battle was awesome. "I wish I had a million of you to just throw over the east like jacks and give those plumed bastards what for," "Haha, yeaaaah... Hey about that, how'd you like to meet my army of friends =D" "Wut?" "Get out." "Uh. No." "Please?" "Nope." "Alright, murder them." AND THEN THE SECURITRONS DID.

Also, Blade of the East is amazing. VATS hit = dude goes flying. Don't know if other larger melee weapons do that or not as I was all energy weapons all the time, but I loved it. Too bad you only get to use it for that very last battle, and I only used it then because I was running low on MF cells and wasn't sure how much fighting was left.

Other highlights: No essentials. At least none that I found in the whole game. I really didn't think they'd let me kill Caesar, but I totally rolled into his fort with my Q35 Matter Modulator spitting plasmic death like it was flesh melting christmas. And murdered him. Dead.

Basically I'm extremely satisfied, and look forward to doing a melee play through with barely disguised giddiness.

[Pip Boy]

For those of you whores out there who like to cheat, I've found that the "~" console commands for most or all of the items in fallout 3 still work in New Vegas. So if you're like me and you're really disappointed that the Death Claw gauntlet is gone, you should try using "player.getitem 0000432B". A quick warning, once you've used a console command such as this steam achievements will be disabled, and even if you don't care about achievements, you shouldn't cheat like this during your first few playthroughs or you'll make God cry.

EDIT: I've only personally done this with a few simple weapons that aren't in Fallout: New Vegas. I haven't tried it with any of the armor, and it wouldn't shock me if the armor was all gone considering the changes they made to damage (resistance vs threshold).

[BitVyper]

Man, there are a lot of places where you can get stuck.

[Eltargrim]

Man, there are a lot of places where you can get stuck.

~tcl
Move forward
~tcl
Done!

[Marc v4.0]

For those of you whores out there who like to cheat, I've found that the "~" console commands for most or all of the items in fallout 3 still work in New Vegas. So if you're like me and you're really disappointed that the Death Claw gauntlet is gone, you should try using "player.getitem 0000432B". A quick warning, once you've used a console command such as this steam achievements will be disabled, and even if you don't care about achievements, you shouldn't cheat like this during your first few playthroughs or you'll make God cry.

EDIT: I've only personally done this with a few simple weapons that aren't in Fallout: New Vegas. I haven't tried it with any of the armor, and it wouldn't shock me if the armor was all gone considering the changes they made to damage (resistance vs threshold).

Actually, they only ADDED DT, they didn't remove DR (Which is now called "AR" when viewed in the GECK. DR works as a % reduction, same as before, and DT is of course the straight up minus damage.

A few items actually give DR still, and your DT display will change back and forth between DT and DR if you have any (The Rebreather gives 3 DR for some reason)

[EVILNess]

EDIT: I've only personally done this with a few simple weapons that aren't in Fallout: New Vegas. I haven't tried it with any of the armor, and it wouldn't shock me if the armor was all gone considering the changes they made to damage (resistance vs threshold).

Which is odd since there is an equivalent to it in the game.

The Mantis Gauntlet.

EDIT: Actually I have found a few of the custom weapons from Fallout 3, but it appears they are all purchasable or found and the only weapon you can make I have seen so far is the Bottlecap Mines.

I found a Rock-it Launcher in Nellis Airforce Base

A Railway Rifle on the wall of Mick's secret weapon stash. Although I'm not sure if you can use it.

A Shishkebab from several merchants.

Also, Chainsaws suuuuuuucck on hardcore. I've been decapitated several times.

Double also, I have not decided if the grenade machinegun is the most impractical or awesome weapon ever.

[Overcast]

Yeah the Mantis Gauntlet is sweet. Though I think I only saw it like once in a store somewhere.

[Pip Boy]

Which is odd since there is an equivalent to it in the game.

The Mantis Gauntlet.

...

Also, Chainsaws suuuuuuucck on hardcore. I've been decapitated several times.

There is and never will be a replacement for the deathclaw gauntlet. You will get nowhere with me using your cheap imitations. I also don't know why people are telling me that "Insert challenge here" is harder on Hardcore mode. All hardcore does is change how you heal and that you need food/water, ammo has weight, and a few other things. The only way it could possibly affect combat is if you're starving to death when you go into a fight or you rely on constantly shoving down stimpacks between being hit to keep you alive, in which case its really more realistic that you do die.

[Overcast]

Have you ever met a Cazador? In the typical way I could stop between stings and pop a stim or two and life would be simple when the swarm dropped by. In Hardcore I had to drop a stim, a super stim, and a shit ton of food so that the healing per second was keeping up with the unreal damage their combined sting and poison did to my health bar.

In a more story related fashion there was the final battle against Legate. Imagine if you will one guy with a big ass high damage sword, two guys with high damage unarmed weapons, about ten little dudes with machetes and two random motherfuckers with rifles. DOT healing has a serious effect on your strategy when this is happening. Because in a scene like this healing is INEVITABLE.

[Pip Boy]

I have to admit, I had to turn the difficulty down to easy when I was fighting Legate at the very end my first time because I wasn't heavily armored enough to take him. The second time, however, I had maxed guns, a silenced carbon-fiber sniper rifle in perfect condition, a hundred armor piercing rounds, and some stealth boys. When you use a stealth boy, you "reroll" your stealth check with a bonus, meaning you can use it to escape detection when you're already at caution or danger. If you get an AP sneak attack crit on him, stealth boy, crit him again, Legate dies without ever summoning most of his ads. His two guards will will come, but its not as big a deal as fighting his endless hordes.

[EVILNess]

The Chainsaw and the Ripper are used differently by the NPCs. Rather than use the thrust attack, they use the VATS downward slash. This really, really sucks since it does an insane level of damage, and if you are on hardcore you can't stop the massive influx of damage since stimpacks heal over time. You die.

[Pip Boy]

My solution to the "Chainsaw wielding NPC" problem is usually to kill them from so far away that the game doesn't even render them without the use of binoculars or a scope. Makes their chainsaw seem kind of silly and weak in comparison.

Fun fact:

~: player.modav speedmult 500

undo it with

~: player.modav speedmult -500

EDIT: Oh yeah, and you'll need to stow or get out a weapon to have it update to the new value every time you change it.

[Overcast]

My first encounter with a chainsaw was Motor-Runner. I did not have that choice, ignoring that I was an unarmed guy.

Also I don't cheat, just debug. xB

[Krylo]

Alternatively, you could just call down the hand of god with the Helios One's ARCHIMEDES II system.

You'd be amazed at the problems it can solve.

[BitVyper]

What does it mean when you notice the Coke bottle caps on your desk and your immediate thought is "ooh! Caps!"

[Marc v4.0]

What does it mean when you notice the Coke bottle caps on your desk and your immediate thought is "ooh! Caps!"

That I already started a Cap collection with a goal to fill my leather satchel with riches

[Pip Boy]

I'm going to try and make some Nuka Cola Quantum at home. I've seen several recipes on the internet, but they were all stupid so I'm making my own. To get an interesting flavor, I'm simply going to experiment with a combination of clear and translucent soft drinks to get the right blue color. I'll get a few glass bottles from somewhere, probably just buy some drinks at a gas station and drink them, then replace the labels with some that I've printed off. As for the soft drink combination, I'm looking mainly to Mountain Dew Voltage as a base, maybe adding Sprite or Seven-Up to get it to a bit lighter color. It is, sadly, lacking one important thing: Strontium 90, for that glowing effect. Since its probably unhealthy and illegal to actually put radioactive fallout into a drink, I'm trying to find a suitable substitute. Does anyone know of anything that is edible and glows in the dark without the aid of a black light?

[Eltargrim]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: at this point a safe, edible phosphorescent compound would have been exploited to hell and back. If you want it to glow, find a non-chemical solution. I would suggest finding a frosted bottle and have an appropriately coloured LED attached to the bottom (properly sealed, of course).

[Pip Boy]

Thats like saying we should stop looking for Atlantis, the Holy Grail, and Bigfoot because "Someone would have already found it". We just need to ask a scientist!

[EVILNess]

The ingredients of Nuka-Cola are carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), natural flavors, citric acid, and caffeine. What gives it the unique flavor is the essence of seventeen different fruits mixed in just the right proportion to give the beverage its trademark taste.

You could always use what the Fallout lore says they use, strontium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strontium).

[Pip Boy]

It is, sadly, lacking one important thing: Strontium 90, for that glowing effect. Since its probably unhealthy and illegal to actually put radioactive fallout into a drink, I'm trying to find a suitable substitute.

Totally thought of that, but I don't think that resulting in blindness and insanity in "an acceptably low number of cases" is actually acceptable at all.

[BitVyper]

You could try a barium compound, but I'm not sure it can be made to glow under normal lighting conditions. Plus it tastes horrible.

Edit: Like I mean really bad.

[Eltargrim]

We just need to ask a scientist!

I am a scientist. Phosphor- and-chemiluminescent compounds don't tend to be food-grade. That was part of your criteria.

Barium is toxic in its soluble form. Also, doesn't really glow. It's X-ray opaque though!

[BitVyper]

Your face is toxic in its soluble form.

[Eltargrim]

Damn straight. Kick-ass defence mechanism against the face-drinkers.

[Sithdarth]

You could always use Quantum dots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot) and a UV light source at the bottom of the bottle. Of course you'd want to stay away from the Quantum Dots containing heavy metals. Although even when you cut out the heavy metals sometimes you still end up with things like arsenic. Give them a few years they might come up with a compatible quantum dot that glows bright blue under UV excitation.

[Pip Boy]

Its actually not very hard at all to make a drink that will glow under a UV light, so that might be the ideal solution. However, a UV light would probably only make it visibly glow when the surroundings are dark, so an LED light might be more noticeable. I would need to make something opaque enough that you can't see the light itself through the liquid, but only the glow coming from it. Probably just a few drops of blue food coloring could do the trick there. Anybody know where I can get an LED light small enough to fix to the bottom of a glass bottle?

[Sithdarth]

Don't confuse what is happening with those quantum dots with shinning a light through a colored liquid or the effect a black light on light colors like yellow and white. They actually absorb UV light and then emit at a lower frequency but at a higher intensity. A UV LED at the bottom would have no visible effect aside from making the drink emit copious amounts of light. We're talking emitting light at an intensity that would make you think someone spread tiny LEDs into the liquid. You know that white coating on florescent tubes? That is responsible for about 90% of the visible light from a florescent light. It operates on the same principle in that the gas inside the florescent light glows mainly in the UV and this excites the coating creating the visible light. Quantum dots could be engineered to be as bright if not brighter. If the UV LED you put at the bottom was bright enough it'd probably glow visibly even in strong light. Heck it might even glow visibly in nothing but direct sunlight due to the UV content of sunlight. Plus since it contains quantum dots you'd have reason to call it Nuka Cola Quantum. Unfortunately good luck finding some quantum dots not made out of toxic materials (which is theoretically possible) that a scientific lab is willing to part with for a decidedly unscientific reason.

[Melfice]

Unfortunately good luck finding some quantum dots not made out of toxic materials (which is theoretically possible) that a scientific lab is willing to part with for a decidedly unscientific reason.

30% of the profits sounds like a very good unscientific reason to me. ;)

[Overcast]

Had an amusing moment today. Was playing my Legion guy, he ain't the brightest bulb at about 4 INT, but that just means he is a little thick. So when I saw one of the more amusing effects from the first two Fallouts(me no talk good) I was a bit shocked. Because I hadn't had any sort of social disabilities before then. Though then I found out I was suffering from Med-X withdrawals, which made me just stupid enough to make hitting on other men seem much more awkward than it should be usually.

[Sithdarth]

Holy crap Death Claws. They were bad enough in Fallout 3 when you got maybe two or three of them at a time. Now you get whole packs of like 6-7 plus the young ones and the alphas and the mothers. If the pathing in this game wasn't so messed up that jumping onto a rock outcropping resulted in utter AI confusion and aimless wandering those things would have eaten me alive.

[Krylo]

Try fighting them with a melee dude, Sith.

[BitVyper]

Just finished the game (having done most of the sidequests too). Kinda... eeh.

Plot was good, the writing was good, but overall it just didn't really do it for me. I enjoyed Fallout 3 more.

[Krylo]

You hate joy, don't you, Bit?

Edit: Writing was better, plot was better, VA was better, gameplay was extended/better, perks were more interesting/better, side quests were more fun/more interesting/better, combat was more difficult/better.

It had everything FO:3 had, but better.

Edit 2: There even seems to be fewer game breaking bugs, which is odd considering Obsidian.

Edit 3: Then again, maybe not so odd considering Bethseda.

[BitVyper]

It had everything FO:3 had, but better.

Except the part where I had more fun playing FO:3. Which is pretty much all I said.

Not that it matters much, but as far as bugs go, I encountered way more in NV than I did in 3. Definitely a lot more of party members getting stuck in places/randomly disappearing. I'm guessing they were about the same though.

[Overcast]

I think what he is getting at is that we'd love to know why. That way it feels like perspective.

[Azisien]

While I've encountered no game breaking bugs, I encountered more sluggish and all around glitchy, immersion-snapping gameplay in my 30 minutes of New Vegas then my entire 85 hour save file of Fallout 3.

And considering Fallout 3 was already kinda ennnnhhhh in terms of polish and the engine being outdated as hell, New Vegas is just digging the hole deeper.

The writing and perks ARE better, though.

[Sithdarth]

Try fighting them with a melee dude, Sith.

That actually would probably be easier. The only way I do melee is with 100 sneak, a Chinese Stealth Suit, and stealth boys just in case. Combine that with Ninja, better criticals, silent running, and something like Pushy or that named super sledge and you are the most dangerous thing that nothing ever sees coming. Alternatively, with any sneaky melee character I carry a silenced ranged weapon as back up. My old stand by was the dart gun because it was silent, caused DOT, and made things really slow and thus easy to get away from if things went south.

[Krylo]

Well that's just cheating.

I cleared Gypsum Death Claw Valley with a melee character with under 20 sneak about 25 guns, and using no stealth boys, and just a normal poorly repaired super sledge/full repair bumper sword and a hunting rifle for pulling.

Granted I brought Boone and ED-E but the latter is useless and the former only killed ones I already knocked down with Mauler.

While I've encountered no game breaking bugs, I encountered more sluggish and all around glitchy, immersion-snapping gameplay in my 30 minutes of New Vegas then my entire 85 hour save file of Fallout 3.

And considering Fallout 3 was already kinda ennnnhhhh in terms of polish and the engine being outdated as hell, New Vegas is just digging the hole deeper.

The writing and perks ARE better, though.Sluggishness has been a problem from time to time, and as I recall you and I have more or less the exact the same set up (I think the only difference is you have a little more RAM) and there is NO EXCUSE FOR THAT, but the immersion breaking bug I've encountered is Rad Scopions clipping into the ground, which also happened constantly on FO:3, so I'm not sure what else you were seeing?

Had lots of crashes too (thank god for auto-saves) but FO:3 used to do that a lot when it was new as well. I think it still does but I haven't played in awhile so I'm not 100% on that.

[Azisien]

so I'm not sure what else you were seeing?

When I went to shoot geckos with that tutorial chick, she was clipping in and out of the ground at super-sonic speeds while she ran. Then while shooting the geckos, I think maybe half of the VATs kill-shots actually had me, or a gecko, in them.

Okay the F3 VATs camera wasn't really that great either but for first impressions these are rough.

I finally toned down the graphics after much, MUCH muttering, so the sluggishness at least is almost nonexistent.

[Krylo]

Yeah, I didn't get any of that.

Well, I do on the cinematic kills, but as you said, shitty camera is shitty.

I did update my drivers very quickly upon noticing sluggishness though, because, as you said, much muttering. I'm pretty sure it was before I did gecko killing.

Did you try that?

[Marc v4.0]

Man, fuck the Deathclaw Promontory

[Sithdarth]

That's the place that prompted my first post about Deathclaws. Protip, find a rock they can't path unto and shoot the crap out of them if you're not well enough equipped to take them on.

Also, even on the PS3 I'm noticing a lot more small issues than I did with Fallout 3. Things like clipping issues, freezing, frame rate drops, textures not transitioning from that far away and blurry to the close up high resolution texture etc. It's like I'm playing Fallout 3: KOTOR II edition except without the half finished plot lines and the rushed ending.

[Krylo]

To be honest, the only one I REALLY had trouble with was the Alpha Male. The normal death claws you can sidestep if you time it just right on their lunges and then beat the piss out of them before they can attack again, and the mother/children I just fire a missile at, followed by blindsiding her with a super sledge when she tried to attack Boone.

Alpha was too fast/had too large a reach to side step, however, and had a pretty good record for one shotting ED-E and Boone.

[Azisien]

Did you try that?

I updated my drivers after trying the game for about 30 seconds and realizing the frame rate drops of just looking around. It helped a bit but considering the last set of drivers updated StarCraft II, I imagine significant New Vegas performance upgrades will come next turnaround.

[EVILNess]

Install this. (http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34778) It seriously makes the game perform better. I went from stuttering on Low graphics to running smoothly on High.

It also limits the NPC lag. It doesn't get rid of it, but it really really helps.

[Overcast]

Yeah that helped me as well in the whole frame rate issue.

And yeah the alpha was the only thing my melee meathead had issues with, every other deathclaw would fall under the might of the OH BABY! within seconds. But then alpha would come out of left field and ruin my day. Ain't yet tried the Promontory, really I've just been afraid of it. But I might find the time with my explosives guy. He eats just about everything for breakfast.

[Pip Boy]

I have a minigun that I pack around with me everywhere I go just for deathclaws. Its like the deathclaw president got them a special ambassadorial suite at my hotel in hell, and they've even got their own private elevator to take them there.

[Marc v4.0]

See, for me, the Alphas aren't a big deal. The Mothers one-hit kill me in power armor at level 28.

Also, never berserk one...

To note, on the Console, I haven't run into any problems at all that weren't my fault to begin with. No problems at all on the PC version.

Of course, I never encountered any problems on FO3 or Oblivion other then basic little graphical titches (If you hit a deer in the ass with a fireball just right they go spasming into the air and their tails stretch out into the sky, tested multiple times). So I have never been one for believing horror stories out right. Of course, graphics card compatibility issues are another story, guess i just got lucky that everything meshed well for me on the PC.

[Pip Boy]

You're one of the lucky few with a perfect install of it then Marc, because glitches have always been quite frequent for me when playing Bathesda's games. Dead bodies flying through the air in some kind of physics rainbow, quest NPC's bring in the wrong places for no reason, NPC's not having certain dialogue options when they're supposed to, etc.

[Marc v4.0]

I think every Bethesda game I've played since Morrowind has been trying to make it up to me for playing Morrowind. You play that for about 120 hours and it basically becomes "Walk Two Steps: The Loading..."

Since you bring up corpses flying into the air on death, or locking into stasis on death as well, that's something I do encounter but always at the funniest moments in my game play.

Like the Nightkin who jumped down an inclined path at me with a super sledge. Aimed right at his head, fired, and his body went spinning off like a rocket into the sky. I found him a few hours later, too.

FO3 I'd occasionally get dead Scorpions falling from the sky.

[Sithdarth]

Like the Nightkin who jumped down an inclined path at me with a super sledge. Aimed right at his head, fired, and his body went spinning off like a rocket into the sky. I found him a few hours later, too.


I had something similar happen at the Deathclaw Promontory. One jumped at me and I got him with a head shot with the named Gauss Rifle. He didn't fly as far as your Nightkin but he did go several stories above me and flew far enough away it was about a 30 second walk to get his corpse.

[EVILNess]

Anyone else having a much harder time not stepping on mines in this game compared to FO3?

It doesn't help that the Legion likes to put mines under bodies as well.

[Marc v4.0]

I had something similar happen at the Deathclaw Promontory. One jumped at me and I got him with a head shot with the named Gauss Rifle. He didn't fly as far as your Nightkin but he did go several stories above me and flew far enough away it was about a 30 second walk to get his corpse.

I had one freeze in place in mid-air, head gore in various states of everywhere. It was rather poetic and creepy.

[Krylo]

Anyone else having a much harder time not stepping on mines in this game compared to FO3?

It doesn't help that the Legion likes to put mines under bodies as well.

Yes. Low explosives seems to punish you much harder on mine exploding time. And they actually conceal mines occasionally, the only evidence they are there being a little mound of ground the same color as the surrounding area.... and of course trapped bodies (though you quickly learn to z drag bodies out of the way if the Legion has been through to check for traps).

My melee character uses a .44 to shoot mines from across the room rather than attempt to disarm at this point.

My energy weapons character had enough explosives to disarm them relatively frequently.

[Pip Boy]

I dont find myself stepping on mines more often, but its more of a punishment when I do. Hardcore mode makes repairing crippled limbs serious business.

[EVILNess]

First of all, drinking water out of toilet bowls to stave off dehydration sickness is probably the second most degrading thing I have ever had to do in a Fallout game.

Overall I would say that most everything about Hardcore reminds me of the older Fallout titles. The way your companions die, the way a crippled limb or one of the myriad of ways you can be poisoned (Dehydration, Starvation, Rad, or fucking Cazadors) can fuck up your day, the way everything in the entire wasteland, from the lowly bloatfly to the irradiated toilet water, is trying to murder you horribly.

EDIT: Also, I would like to give you guys a tip: How to rob the Silver Rush Blind with zero retaliation!

1. Press z to pick up what you want to steal.
2. Take it to the bathroom.
3. Profit!

This will actually work for any store with a back room where you can't be seen.

[Pip Boy]

Yeah, and you could also type ~: player.forceav chameleon 100 to become completely invisible and buttsex them all without being seen (or felt?). Or even better, you could just use player.additem 0000000F 999999 to get like a bozillion caps and not need to rob places. Those seem just as meta and cheaty to me as bathroom stealing. Honestly, after I got a ways into my "stathacks lol" file, I got bored and deleted it to play on a normal, legitimate file. Its just more fun to play fallout when you don't cheat. The console is still good to have though, in case a quest breaks, I just hate hate how the Fourth Wall gets DP'd by two giant Simoan guys every time you use it.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

I found a unique powerfist thing called Pushy.

I punched A Death Claw, and it went flying to the next state.

[EVILNess]

Yeah, and you could also type ~: player.forceav chameleon 100 to become completely invisible and buttsex them all without being seen (or felt?). Or even better, you could just use player.additem 0000000F 999999 to get like a bozillion caps and not need to rob places. Those seem just as meta and cheaty to me as bathroom stealing. Honestly, after I got a ways into my "stathacks lol" file, I got bored and deleted it to play on a normal, legitimate file. Its just more fun to play fallout when you don't cheat. The console is still good to have though, in case a quest breaks, I just hate hate how the Fourth Wall gets DP'd by two giant Simoan guys every time you use it.

How the fuck is bathroom stealing even in the same league as using console commands?

I mean people do it in real life all the time!

[Marc v4.0]

It isn't, he's just so jelly you thought of it first.

Anyway, I was doing this to steal energy weapons to play with in the Silver Rush cause that bitch had all that neat shit all over the place but was actually only selling ONE laser pistol and a handful of MF Cells.

[Eltargrim]

Rather than the bathroom trick, I used a stealth boy. Much faster.

[Sithdarth]

I found a unique powerfist thing called Pushy.

I punched A Death Claw, and it went flying to the next state.

That is actually a unique displacer glove and apparently can result in ash piles on occasion which is just sweet.

[Funka Genocide]

I am 30 seconds from completing the install!

I should be asleep!

I don't know if I'm hardcore enough for hardcore, I am still struggling through my first playthrough of Fallout 3 on normal mode and I can't imagine a world that doesn't include miraculously weightless ammunition. My minigun is a hungry fella.

[Sithdarth]

Actually it seems like in New Vegas Unarmed and Melee are much more viable ways of doing damage then they used to be. Damage Threshold makes low damage high fire rate weapons like the minigun almost useless against well armored foes. On the other hand melee weapons and some of the special unarmed weapons offer both high damage and moderately high dps which is actually pretty hard to come by in a ranged weapon until much later in the game. I took out a room of 6 people in combat armor 4 or 5 were using plasma rifles and one was using a tribeam laser rifle with a super sledge called Oh Baby! wearing T 51b power armor without having to heal once. Exploded a lot of limbs and heads too and my melee weapon skill is really low. The point is don't neglect close quarters combat in New Vegas because they've kinda balanced it out.

[EVILNess]

I would say that between all of the special Unarmed perks (Beautiful Beatdown, Ranger Takedown, Scribe Counter, Khan Trick, and the Legion Assault), the regular Unarmed perks (Piercing Strike, Paralyzing Palm, Slayer, Ninja), and the special unarmed weapons like the Paladin Toaster (For killing Machines), Love and Hate (Almost as much DPS as the Ballistic Fist, but less ap cost to use in Vats), Pushy (GET OUTTA MY GRILL SON), and the Ballistic fist (SHOTGUN HAND) that Unarmed is actually the best option in the game.

[Geminex]

Makes up for unarmed in FO3. It wasn't entirely useless, but damn. It wasn't all that good either unless you took perks especially for it. And even then, you weren't very good.

[Krylo]

Pfft. Unarmed was RIDICULOUSLY over powered in FO:3 once you took paralyzing palm.

Just walk right up to super mutant behemoths, death claws, ANYTHING and pull off a single VATS and it's on the ground until you're done beating it to death.

[Funka Genocide]

Yeah I rolled a test character to see how things were working out and ended up ditching my peashooter for a straight razor, it handled the miscellaneous little monsters in one or two hits and took care of the human targets typically within a single round of VATS. I might go ahead and try to create a wasteland samurai.

[Overcast]

It is a fun path, though I was saddened that at some point I had to ditch one handed weapons for two handers just to stay competitive. I mean I could still kill the hell out of people with my machete, but when five vet rangers are are your ass you want them dead faster.

Also, I am in love with No Gods, No Masters. So far my favorite ending.

[Funka Genocide]

How the freak do you guys beat these games so fast?

[Krylo]

It's been out for awhile now, man.

I've already got 83 hours logged.

[Azisien]

Didn't you like, beat Mass Effect 2 in one sitting practically on the launch date? Let's not use you as the benchmark!

[Sithdarth]

So I found out sneak attack melee kills are undetectable even to people standing right next to each other. I killed all the guards in the Silver Rush and that trigger happy brother than had I much easier time looting the place with only the sister left to keep an eye out. I also killed some NCR mercenaries that were harassing some peaceful super mutants without losing any fame. It's becoming just a tad bit broken at this point. I have immunity to kill anyone I want as long as I can sneak up to them.

In other news the remote rangefinder and the Archimedes system are the greatest thing ever even if I can only use it once per day.

[Krylo]

Didn't you like, beat Mass Effect 2 in one sitting practically on the launch date? Let's not use you as the benchmark!
Kay, but I've only beaten NV once. I know folks what have beaten it three times already.

It's been out for what? Two weeks now?

So I found out sneak attack melee kills are undetectable even to people standing right next to each other. I killed all the guards in the Silver Rush and that trigger happy brother than had I much easier time looting the place with only the sister left to keep an eye out. I also killed some NCR mercenaries that were harassing some peaceful super mutants without losing any fame. It's becoming just a tad bit broken at this point. I have immunity to kill anyone I want as long as I can sneak up to them.Stealth has always been like this in Bethsoft games.

Which is to say totally overpowered.

But it's still way cooler to just use terrifying presence on Jean Baptiste when he wants to kill Cass and then murder everyone in a rage.

Also used it on the NCR mercs.

In other news the remote rangefinder and the Archimedes system are the greatest thing ever even if I can only use it once per day.

Yes.

Yes it is.

[Sithdarth]

I am a little disappointed that a direct orbital laser strike to my head won't kill me. It basically crippled all of my limbs and got me down to about 1/5 of my health but I survived it. The real trick is getting the timing down to kill your enemies. Though now that I know I can survive it I might just use it Kamikaze style. I almost regret taking the gun from the little boy. Imagine the devastation he could have wrecked on Freeside because I powered up the Archimedes before I had it. Next time he went out to play with it he could have killed half the town. Of course I'm thinking the game isn't smart enough to allow that to happen. Too bad it would have been fun to watch.

[Krylo]

Yeah, the game isn't smart enough to allow it to happen.

It's quite unfortunate.

[Overcast]

"You activated ARCHIMEDES for weaponry use."
"Freeside reputation is now Vilified."

[Krylo]

Nah. The game is pretty smart about not letting you get negative rep if no one sees you do it.

Plus, no one in Helios One knows that's what you did when you do it. They're just like, "Well we can't figure out where the power is actually going..."

[EVILNess]

Nah. The game is pretty smart about not letting you get negative rep if no one sees you do it.

Plus, no one in Helios One knows that's what you did when you do it. They're just like, "Well we can't figure out where the power is actually going..."

Which is not surprising considering Mr. "I have a theoretical degree."

[Krylo]

Well his underling actually knows what's up.

The one who works for the Followers.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Which is not surprising considering Mr. "I have a theoretical degree."

Hey, he knows what he's doing.
He just doesn't have any clue what effect what he does is going to have.

[EVILNess]

Hey, he knows what he's doing.
He just doesn't have any clue what effect what he does is going to have.

Theoretically.

[Krylo]

So I've got all my companions.

Haven't really used Lily or Raul much, yet, buuuuuuut:

Combat effectiveness:

Boone (long range) = Arcade (mid range) = Veronica (close range) > Rex = Lily > Raul >= Cass = ED-E.

Boone does ridiculous damage from long range even with his default weapon, and has decent, if not great HP. Further his default armor after completing the quest actually has some DT on it. He also has one of the better combat perks if you're a ranged character.

Arcade is like Boone but at mid-range with a plasma defender, and with less DT. He fires his weapon faster, however, and there's little need to ever upgrade him or give him ammo (while with Boone eventually you'll probably want to give him an actual sniper rifle or anti-materiel rifle). Being mid-range, he also manages to avoid damage pretty easily. His perk is pretty all around useful, as well. Everyone needs healing at some point.

Veronica starts powerful with a powerfist, and can be given more powerful weapons yet without any worry of her running out of ammo. Not only that, but she can roll with Brotherhood power armor. She's a tank with a shotgun tied to hand (or a disruptor if you go with Pushy). Not much more to say. Her perk isn't too useful in combat, though... but in general utility is one of the best.

Rex does great damage and causes some knock back/down quite often. He'd rate equal to the A-List but you can't really give him better armor or weapons and he kinda gets in the way/knocks enemies out of the way a bit more often than I'd like. Still one of the best combat additions to the team, especially for a ranged character. Perk is basically useless.

Lily is a tank, but she does less damage than Veronica and has semi-limited equipment. Plus the hulking form gets in the way more than I'd like. Need to use her more to judge, though. She might move up. Her perk doesn't seem useful, though... but then I'm not a stealth orientated character.

Raul seems a little squishy and not particularly powerful. I really haven't spent enough time with him to properly judge, though. His perk is pretty cool, I guess, though the character I grabbed every companion with has jury rigging soooooooo.

Cass does well offensively but is basically the squishiest of all. She almost died to giant mantises not long ago. Her perk is also basically useless.

ED-E is terrible offensively and defensively. Squishy little bastard with shitty lasers. Her defense gets pretty good if you go the BoS route on her quest, but her offense always sucks. Her perk is great if you have a low perception character, though.

Character Awesomeness:

Veronica > Cass > Boone > Arcade > Raul > Lily > Rex = ED-E

Veronica is hilarious AND voiced by Felicia Day. "Well he would have died of old death eventually anyway, probably." "Does jumping up and punching them count as ranged?" Her quest is also pretty great, and she's just all around awesome to have around.

Cass: "Shhh, we're hunting shit heads." Really not much more to say than that.

Boone feels a bit personality-less, but he has some great lines if you go along with his legion killing crusade, and his quest is the best so far (Not far enough in the game yet to see about Arcade's).

Arcade just amuses me. I can't really say why. He's just so delightfully cynical and antisocial. Like his stealth quotes too. Just the way he says "Okaaaay".

Raul I only find mildly amusing, and only when he's being a dick to me. The constant 'boss' thing kinda gets on my nerves.

Lily... well, I'm sure she's gonna be someone's favorite, but that particular brand of humor isn't my style. She's silly though, and I do like her back story.

Rex and ED-E just don't really have much personality. I can't really decide whose back story I like more, either. ED-E has some nice call backs to FO:3 in it, but Rex is a cyborg dog so.


But, really, I guess Veronica is my favorite human companion, being both fun to have around and powerful in a fight, and non-human depends on if I'm ranged or melee. Rex gets in the way too much with melee.

[Melfice]

Is it just me, or can Radscorpions go die in a ditch, alone and unloved?

Tough sons of bitches. At least in FO:3, if you threw your entire stock of ammo at it, they'd die.
Now, all I get is a broken limb and no ammo. And a still alive Radscorpion!

I don't even want to know what it'll take to kill a Deathclaw...

[Krylo]

It's the DT. You're dinging them for like one damage a pop.

You need a higher damage weapon, or armor piercing rounds.

[Melfice]

It's the DT. You're dinging them for like one damage a pop.

You need a higher damage weapon, or armor piercing rounds.

I've tried AP rounds. Not a lot of difference.
But yeah, I'm aware of the DT.

They still suck, though.

[Pip Boy]

I've made my sniper rifle my all-purpose weapon for killing everthing ever since I got Jury Rigging, and even with maxed condition and guns skill, and using armor piercing rounds, it takes several shots to kill a Gaint Radscorpion. I find I rarely have problems with the smaller ones, I usually just get those with 2-3 shots from my Marskman's Carbine.

Really, if you think Radscorpions are hard, go fight the Legendary Deathclaw. I got a sneak attack critical (Sniper Rifle; AP) on that thing, used the fact that it spotted me to lure it onto a giant pile of every mine and explosive that I owned, used a stealth boy to hide again, got another sneak attack critical in, and still had to devolve to Run and Shoot kiting it around corners to help me avoid the giant claw swipes.

[Overcast]

Boone is the guy to have when haphazardly wandering the wasteland, the guy just kills things. I stuck a sniper rifle on him and didn't have to deal with an encounter for quite some time. Nobody can question that bit.

Raul is actually pretty strong, if you hand him the right gear. He has a preference for old school type weapons, so hand him a revolver and the trail carbine and he'll show off some fair skill. I also enjoyed the story of his past, though I agree about the boss thing.

Cass is pretty sqishy, but I was able to get a boost to her health when I took the law abiding route to her quest. And then she became my go-to for close range what with the hunting shotgun and the chainsaw.

Lily is like having another Rex in the party. Her addition to Stealth Boys is cool for when you are really trying to suck all you can out of them, but is nullified since she can't enter stealth properly and thus CONTINUALLY REPEATS the "your companion is letting you know they have entered stealth" comment. Thus, she is low damage and tank.

Veronica and I had a falling out on Black Mountain, when I realized she was squishier than everyone else. Her health never upgrades, and she just kept dying. Over and over and over. And it wasn't that she was dying, it was just I couldn't keep up with healing her. For an unarmed character I couldn't have that. Still love her personality though.

Arcade was my favorite. Combine that cynical attitude, a fairly interesting side quest, a reasonable skill with energy weapons, and the ability to wear power armor and I just had fun with him. He also had the unfair advantage of being queer, which I will admit is just something that always does well with me, see Veronica. He was squishy though, in my case the second squishiest next to Veronica, but it isn't as crippling since he isn't stuck in close range.

[greed]

Boone is the guy to have when haphazardly wandering the wasteland, the guy just kills things. I stuck a sniper rifle on him and didn't have to deal with an encounter for quite some time. Nobody can question that bit.

Raul is actually pretty strong, if you hand him the right gear. He has a preference for old school type weapons, so hand him a revolver and the trail carbine and he'll show off some fair skill. I also enjoyed the story of his past, though I agree about the boss thing.

Cass is pretty sqishy, but I was able to get a boost to her health when I took the law abiding route to her quest. And then she became my go-to for close range what with the hunting shotgun and the chainsaw.

Lily is like having another Rex in the party. Her addition to Stealth Boys is cool for when you are really trying to suck all you can out of them, but is nullified since she can't enter stealth properly and thus CONTINUALLY REPEATS the "your companion is letting you know they have entered stealth" comment. Thus, she is low damage and tank.

Veronica and I had a falling out on Black Mountain, when I realized she was squishier than everyone else. Her health never upgrades, and she just kept dying. Over and over and over. And it wasn't that she was dying, it was just I couldn't keep up with healing her. For an unarmed character I couldn't have that. Still love her personality though.

Arcade was my favorite. Combine that cynical attitude, a fairly interesting side quest, a reasonable skill with energy weapons, and the ability to wear power armor and I just had fun with him. He also had the unfair advantage of being queer, which I will admit is just something that always does well with me, see Veronica. He was squishy though, in my case the second squishiest next to Veronica, but it isn't as crippling since he isn't stuck in close range.

Veronica's bugged, she never moves from level 12 (which makes her super powerful if you get her at like level 3 as she'll murder any of the leveled enemies). On PC with a mod to fix this she actually gets as tough as you'd expect a unarmed specialist to be. It's a pretty obvious bug so the next patch should deal with it for consoles.

But yeah Veronica and Boone are my favourites though the rest are pretty great too, can't complain about the companion selection in this at all.

Love Boone's Nelson comments, or more accurately your reply to them "That's not a problem, that's a solution".

[EVILNess]

Also, give Veronica Power Armor since she is like the only companion who can use it.

[Marc v4.0]

When I gave Raul the suit of remnants power armor to carry for me he put it on.

[Krylo]

Yeah, Veronica is ridiculously tanky if she levels with you properly.

For whatever reason I didn't run into that bug in my play through. Had her going toe to toe with Legate and Caesar and his Praetorian guard with no real issue.

[Sithdarth]

Her addition to Stealth Boys is cool for when you are really trying to suck all you can out of them, but is nullified since she can't enter stealth properly and thus CONTINUALLY REPEATS the "your companion is letting you know they have entered stealth" comment. Thus, she is low damage and tank.

That's why there is a wait command. Really if you're sneaking you shouldn't need a companion anyway because everything should be dead in one hit.

[Overcast]

This guy was a capable sneaker, but TERRIBLE at combat. I mean that I never put a single point into any combat skill in the entire game. NOTHING was dead in one hit.

[Sithdarth]

Well I can't help you if you are going to play wrong from the very beginning.

[Overcast]

How was I playing wrong? It was a whole new feel. You know how it feels like sneaking through the Hoover Dam by the skin of your teeth, barely getting by in the disguises of fallen enemies and cleverly making it to the Lagate and talking him into running away? It feels fucking sweet.

[Sithdarth]

How was I playing wrong? It was a whole new feel. You know how it feels like sneaking through the Hoover Dam by the skin of your teeth, barely getting by in the disguises of fallen enemies and cleverly making it to the Lagate and talking him into running away? It feels fucking sweet.

1) Sarcasm

2) A proper high damage weapon like a Gauss rifle or the Oh Baby even with 20 energy weapons or 20 melee with a sneak attack critical should one hit anything short of some of the more serious things like Deathclaw alphas. At the very least it should put a huge dent in whatever you attacked.

[Overcast]

The character is thematic my friend. He never wore armor. He was almost completely reliant on his companions, and if they failed, he typically either became a drug juggernaut or ran like a little girl. Assured, he could wait without his companions, but once they are not there to save his ass, if it so happens that they do survive the first hit he is dead. Something I learned oddly quick my first time to Hoover Dam, when even the drugs couldn't save me from the automatic weaponry.

Also apologies on the sarcasm, understand that without proper voice inflection to serve as a guideline it is sometimes difficult to tell it from being a prick.

[Sithdarth]

I treat all my characters as mathematical optimization problems but to each his own I guess.

[Overcast]

And I treat all my characters like roleplays. Shit is as it is.

[Funka Genocide]

So I spent like an hour sniping every last convict in the NCR prison yard from the surrounding mountains, with a service rifle using the iron sights.

Yeah this game is pretty much obscenely awesome.

[Wigmund]

Hunting Rifle + Scope + Bloody Mess. I can confirm kills by the red explosions at the edge of my visual range.

Also, who else ignored the instructions for sneaking through the Boomer's artillery range and just ran for it through there?

[Toast]

Also, who else ignored the instructions for sneaking through the Boomer's artillery range and just ran for it through there?

I did. I started out looking for the train tunnel the note talks about, found the wrong end and didn't realize it. Then ran back and made the mad dash out to where the Brotherhood paladin's body was. Then I made it back to cover among the ravines until I hit the fence.

I'm just kinda miffed that I can't sneak across that whole area without being spotted.

[Pip Boy]

Hunting Rifle + Scope + Bloody Mess. I can confirm kills by the red explosions at the edge of my visual range.

Also, who else ignored the instructions for sneaking through the Boomer's artillery range and just ran for it through there?

I just stuck to the cliff on the left and ran between shots. It was still really fast.

[Overcast]

I had some spare turbo that I used to tear ass across the no man's land, dodging every shot like some kind of agent.

[Pip Boy]

Turbo makes you run faster?

[Krylo]

Technically it makes everything else (including bullets) move slower while you move the same speed.

[Funka Genocide]

Does anyone else feel like the bad guy when they play Fallout games?

Like, I know we're supposed to be the protagonist and all that, but I can't help but feel bad about the fuck-awful things I do to pretty much everything that looks at me funny. By level 10 you're pretty much an implacable force of mutated nature only limited by the locus of unimaginable power that serves as your physical vessel, which is to say that if you had a helicopter you'd pretty much be rad-Jesus.

Pretty much.

[BitVyper]

Technically it makes everything else (including bullets) move slower while you move the same speed.

Doesn't it slow you down a bit too? Not as much, but I could have sworn in the couple times that I used it I was moving somewhat slower.

I could be totally wrong.

Winners don't do drugs.

[Krylo]

Doesn't it slow you down a bit too? Not as much, but I could have sworn in the couple times that I used it I was moving somewhat slower.

Nope.

You move the same speed.

Even when falling.

[BitVyper]

Nope.

You move the same speed.

Even when falling.

Well, that's not what I'll say when I wage my political war on drugs in the Wasteland.

Of course, my version of politics doesn't really require that sort of thing. Mostly I have a group of securitrons called Liberals and a group of securitrons called Conservatives, and they always vote unanimously to shoot people who don't do what I say in the face.

[Marc v4.0]

So...business as usual for America, then?

[Overcast]

I've finally had to admit that murderous rampage character can only be done in casual. While it was fun taking in that hour with EVERY limb crippled, not a doctor's bag in sight and not a new one spawning since I've pretty much killed every doctor in the game. At some point I had to admit that at some point all the penalties that come with it are a bit too much.

[Azisien]

Can we just.....never upgrade from the Morrowind engine? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZUFezkE6yY)

[Aerozord]

Finished my first playthrough and on hardcore. Gotta say my character, while he had positive karma, was definitely evil. I only helped people because it suited my interests and backstabbed them the moment it suited me. What I dont get is why my sniper companion was so upset at me "helping the legion" when I just told them I did what they wanted and really activated my own private army to later wipe them out

Figured he'd be patting me on the back for it.

So yea I took independent route, and while awesome awww come on yes man, cant I for once play a game like this where I can be an evil dick, usurp those that bossed me around, and declare myself absolute ruler without it all blowing up in my face? But no you had to elude to making yourself capable of freewill and just screwing over my, screw everyone, plan.

[BloodyMage]

Did anyone else come across the NCR trooper with no limbs east of Camp Fortlorn hope? There's no dialogue options, so are we meant to put him out of his misery or what?

[Marc v4.0]

I've seen several of them over that way, and some of them have exploded.

[Krylo]

They're laying in their own mine field, victims of not watching where they were going. You could put them out of their misery if you like, or you could just toss grenades and watch the mines they're laying in blast their corpses awaaaaaaay.

[Marc v4.0]

See, i always thought they were traps set up by the Legion to blow up more NCR troopers that come to help them, because i always run in to the Legion milling around there too. It also fit with the idea of the Legion exploiting the weaknesses of their foes

[Krylo]

Well, the thing is there's mines in places other than the bodies, and it's, literally, RIGHT outside of the NCR camp if you follow the road out toward Nelson. Legion planting mines there would be easy sniper pickings.

Now if it had been just a bunch of crippled NCR troops sitting on top of mines moaning for help, I could go with that, but being an entire mine field, and being as close to Forlorn Hope as it is, I have to assume it's the NCR's own defensive perimeter.

I'd also assume someone in Forlorn Hope would have said something about how the Legion were booby trapping injured NCR troops just outside their walls if that was the case. That's the kind of thing soldiers complain about in this game.

It is possible the Legion forced captured NCR soldiers into their own mine field, though. I could see that.

[Marc v4.0]

Remeber, Forlorn Hope is under staffed with troops and supplies, so they might not just start an all-out open conflict with every Legion troop that wanders in range.

The last bit seems most viable, the Legion does love to conduct a good trolling now and then.

[Overcast]

Well it is also right outside of Nelson. The fighting between the groups in the field had me established that this was a kind of No Man's Land WWII style between the two groups.

Seeing as Nelson is the less established of the two camps it isn't unusual that the Legion would be using such tactics(they have done so before, as seen in Nipton) to kill the already low morale at Forlorn Hope, and thus gain the advantage when they finally get a chance to strike.

[Aerozord]

While I do find it unrealistic they'd manage this so close to a fort, its also unrealistic that not only a soldier would survive, but would just happen to be atop mines.

Whole thing stinks of those old baby carriage bombs from Fallout 3

[EVILNess]

While I do find it unrealistic they'd manage this so close to a fort, its also unrealistic that not only a soldier would survive, but would just happen to be atop mines.

Whole thing stinks of those old baby carriage bombs from Fallout 3

I always thought that they were missing limbs because of the Machetes having bonus limb damage and since the Caesar's Legion is known for using this weapon as one of their soldier's primary weapons.

Not to mention, the Liberator is in Nelson on the head of the Legion Camp.

Now as to why they have mines under them... well the Legion are dicks.

[Aerozord]

I always thought that they were missing limbs because of the Machetes having bonus limb damage and since the Caesar's Legion is known for using this weapon as one of their soldier's primary weapons.

Not to mention, the Liberator is in Nelson on the head of the Legion Camp.

Now as to why they have mines under them... well the Legion are dicks.

umm my post was about how I thought it was the legion.

[BloodyMage]

Good thing is that shooting them doesn't make the NCR troops at Forlorn Hope hostile. It does make the other limbless troopers hostile, but that's not really much of a problem.