So, I have a shameful secret to confess:
I have never finished New Vegas.
I have no idea why, because I love Fallout in all it's variations, I love Obsidian, bug-riddled mess that they are, and I did, in fact, love New Vegas. I plugged about twenty fun hours into it, put it down for something, and then never went back for some reason.
So anyway, I saw the Ultimate edition the other day when it caught my eye, did the math and bought it, because it's cheaper than buying all of the DLC for my regular copy.
And now I'm 150 hours (the Play Time display is hour.minute.second, right?) in on one single character and all of my free time has disappeared into a sandy hole and I have a bunch of stuff I want to talk about in no particular order and with no regards to thoroughness.
Spoilers follow, obviously:
1) The bugs. Ye gods. I know I said Obsidian was a bug-riddled mess, but this is maybe the buggiest game of theirs I've played and it's gotten way worse since I hit the Strip. I've crashed a couple of dozen times so far and there was at least one case where all of my saves got stuck on the loading screen.
2) Obsidian fucked up in their portrayal of the Legion, assuming that they're supposed to be presented as a somewhat viable alternative to the NCR. Talking to Caesar, it sounds like the Legion is supposed to be the "ends justify the means" faction.
Buuuut they're not. As you learn more about the Legion, it becomes clear that their entire history is just a long string of atrocities. They are pure evil and unless you're the fucking Joker, there is absolutely no reason to support them, doubly so if you're a women, because the Legion is horrifyingly misogynistic.
3) Is it just me, or is Honest Hearts pretty racist? When I was presented with the situation at hand at the beginning of the game, I was expecting some sort of discussion or deconstruction of the elements involved. But, no, it's pretty much just two white Christian dudes leading a group of noble savages against a group of evil savages. You even go a fucking vision quest. It's pretty
.
4) In Honest Hearts, the tale of the Survivalist is fantastic and the most compelling thing in the expansion, I think. They really should have worked it into the main plot, because it provides some really important information on the area and the tribes.
5) I actually liked Graham and his story, but the entire slideshow is all about how mysterious and spooky the legend of the Burned Man was, and then literally two minutes in you get taken to meet Graham. Uuuuh.
6) Vault 3 is pretty interesting, because it's basically a super-dark reprise on the Vault from the first game. Water chip fails, Vault decides to send people out to fix it, EVERYONE DIES.
7) Sniping is awesome in this game, even if it makes everything pretty much easy-mode. Taking out the entirety of Nelson by myself with Ratslayer was really cool.
8) Getting to some places is a gigantic pain in the ass, due to loading screens. McCarran, the Strip, all of those places. When I was doing the quest with Contreras, I was considering whether or not to turn him in, because he's a great merchant, and then I realized I would have to sit through
five damn loading screens to reach him, plus all of the time it takes to run across those areas.
9) Hardcore mode swiftly became an entirely tedious micromanagement game, rather than an added layer of challenge. Having to drink water isn't fun, it just means I turn to ED-E and pull out one of the twenty bottles of purified she's toting around. I'm keeping it on for this playthrough, but I'll ditch it next time around.
10) Caps are hilariously easy to get. By the time I hit the strip, I had 24k+. I blew 20k of that on implants and ten hours later I was right back up to that same level, and I haven't even touched the ever-growing stockpile of loot that's accumulating in my motel room.
11) The railroading that goes on in the first half of the game is kind of annoying. You're forced into a rough U-shape by the game and it only starts to open up a bit by the time you hit Novac.