Man, I go away to college and this happens! The neglect!

I have had very little time to play so far, so my character is still only level 5. Having fun though.

Like:
-The small cosmetic changes are great. Feels like there's more "stuff" in the world (tumbleweeds, plants etc) and the waste is a little less drab. The guns look better and have better reload animations.
-Seems like the story is actually somewhat interesting so far. There's a nice sense of mystery and right now all I'm trying to do is find the guy who tried to kill me, which is exactly the kind of thing I want to do in an RPG. There's still plenty of time for this to devolve into more ~savior of the wastes~ bullshit, but right now it's nice that I feel I can role play effectively.
-Repair is less vital because you can get your weapons up to good condition even with a low skill. This is really important. In Fallout 3 you were almost forced into building repair, which I don't think should be the case for any skill.
-More radio stations (although they still don't have nearly enough songs.)
-Seeing skill checks in dialogue for skills other than speech.
-Combining big and small guns into one skill. This is such a huge improvement over every game in the series. Big guns has always been a weak skill in Fallout because there's no use in developing it early and so ideal characters always wind up tailored to small guns, since there is no actual need for it if you have high small guns. Now you can develop a gun-oriented character and choose to focus on big or small and it's fine.
-In fact, pretty much all the skills are useful early on in this game, which is another first for the Fallout series. Dynamite is everywhere so building your explosives skill is actually useful (I'm not doing it, but if I was I would actually be seeing a benefit from it.) Overall the skill balance is really excellent. Even the most useless ones like Survival and Medicine at least have some tangible benefits.
-Haven't seen any Brotherhood douches yet though I'm sure that will change. I would love a Fallout with no power armor... guessing this is not gonna happen though.
-The addition of gambling that's actually interesting. This has never happened in a Fallout game, so even though I don't think I'll be using it much, I'm glad it's there. Maybe my next character will be a big gambler.

Dislike:
-GETTING A PERK EVERY TWO LEVELS. WTF. Getting a perk every level was the absolute best thing Fallout 3 did. Taking that away was dumb. Perks are the whole point of leveling up in Fallout, and picking them is the only fun part. Let me keep doing that.
-Already encountered an obnoxious glitch where a bad guy turned invisible for no reason and trying to target him in VATS got me a blank screen I couldn't get out of. Reloading didn't fix it, but restarting the Xbox did. Not a big deal but was definitely annoying.
-VATS is still way too powerful. I'm playing on hard and I've yet to encounter a battle I couldn't win in two or three tries at the most. I've been thinking of going up to Very Hard but honestly, I just don't think there is even a point. I will still just wait behind cover and critical everyone in the head when they get close. In fact, I'm considering moving down to normal, just to expedite the process, since I don't feel I'm going to encounter anything genuinely hard anyway.


So overall most things are an improvement over Falllout 3 imo, which can only be good since Fallout 3 was good. The perks thing is really pissing me off though. The other problems I have are minor.

Post your thoughts plz!

Are you playing with Wild Wastelands and hardcore mode? Those two things make the game a lot more fun. I like having to be more cautious while exploring. I also like that I can't be a packrat with hardcore mode on (which I always am, given my urge to loot everything) since I need to carry around food, water and weighted ammo. I've only got 1 Strength, so I can't loot much at all anymore.

I made a decision to play a character with high points in Barter and Speech, since I've never done that before. I'm glad I did, because there are lots of speech checks in this game. I've also got the two early perks that offer different speech options with certain people and they make a pretty major difference in quests. I agree about Repair though, I invested a bunch of points in it and I kind of regret it now (I also regret putting points in Science and Medicine =/).

The whole area seems much more civilised than the Capital Wasteland. There were hardly any towns in FO3 and there were lots of Raider camps. It's the opposite here, with towns all over the place and the Fiends (which are pretty much just Raiders) stuck inside a vault because the NCR is watching them. Even better is the fact that there's no group other than the Fiends who will attack you for no reason. So far I've managed to be well liked by the NCR while staying neutral with the Legion and that suits me just fine.

I don't know what else to add really. The writing in New Vegas is a good deal better than the writing in FO3. The main story is a lot more intriguing than "go find your Dad", but it still seems a bit short. I haven't touched on it much but already I seem to be about halfway through. It doesn't matter really, since I'm having a great time with the huge amount of sidequests that are in this game. I think I've played for about 20 hours now and I've only explored about half of the wasteland and I've hardly put a dent into all the quests I've found.

I actually spent a really long time debating whether I should try wild wastelands and hardcore. In the end I decided to play a "normal" game first, and that on my second playthrough I would turn on both, so it would make things extra fresh on my second play. I'm starting to think maybe I should have gone ahead and done it though and now I think so more. I definitely will turn them on next time though.

Also, I really like your idea of playing a 1 strength character. I'm always tempted to be a packrat as well and it ends up bothering the hell out of me. I just feel like I have to collect and sell everything, but I always have more than enough money anyway. I also always find myself thinking "I want to have OK strength if I get stuck with no ammo and I have to use melee to fight" but I don't know why I haven't gotten over this yet, since I've never ever made a character in any Fallout game who wasn't constantly loaded with guns and ammo to use. I really like the idea of cutting strength and just relying on what you already have instead of trying to keep a million items "just in case" and never actually using them.

I'll probably try to complete the main quest "early" with this character and start a new game with a more fun character later. My biggest complaint about the new Fallout style is that it's so big, I don't have time to do a million playthroughs with every conceivable character, which is what I did with Fallout 1 and 2 and was part of why I loved them so much.

---------- Post added at 01:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:59 AM ----------

One thing I would really love to see someday is a Fallout game that's super minimalistic, where carry weight is diminished heavily for even high strength characters, and guns are as rare as they realistically would be and when you get them they actually function like guns would in real life (i.e. you shoot someone in the head and they pretty much die, rather than you shoot them 3 times in the head and probably get a critical so there's a good chance they die). In this situation a 9mm pistol would be an extremely valuable and potent weapon, which is really more how things would actually be in a true post apocalyptic wasteland. It would mean that melee weapons would actually have value, explosives if you could get them would be far more useful etc. Maybe someone can make a mod like this someday.

I'd heard about the 'perk every two levels' deal...but seriously, you're complaining about that TK? Be thankful they didn't move it back to Fallout 1 or 2 mode, where you got a perk every three levels(four if you took a particular trait). And in all honesty, your character became far too broken with taking a perk every level unless you were REALLY stupid with your perk picks(and Broken Steel made it so even stupid choices would work out once you picked Almost Perfect). Now, I'm hoping you really have to think about your perk choices, adding an extra element of thought to building your character(unless you're RPing an archetype, as you seem to be doing TK).

Question to FSMITO, though...does the story end abruptly, or can you continue exploring after finishing the main quest?

I actually spent a really long time debating whether I should try wild wastelands and hardcore. In the end I decided to play a "normal" game first, and that on my second playthrough I would turn on both, so it would make things extra fresh on my second play. I'm starting to think maybe I should have gone ahead and done it though and now I think so more. I definitely will turn them on next time though.
Another thing about hardcore mode that I like is that now it's worthwhile for me to drink irradiated water from a sink or toilet because of the dehydration debuffs. I never had to use rad-x in Fallout 3 because I could easily avoid drinking contaminated food and water.


Also, I really like your idea of playing a 1 strength character. I'm always tempted to be a packrat as well and it ends up bothering the hell out of me. I just feel like I have to collect and sell everything, but I always have more than enough money anyway. I also always find myself thinking "I want to have OK strength if I get stuck with no ammo and I have to use melee to fight" but I don't know why I haven't gotten over this yet, since I've never ever made a character in any Fallout game who wasn't constantly loaded with guns and ammo to use. I really like the idea of cutting strength and just relying on what you already have instead of trying to keep a million items "just in case" and never actually using them.
The only time I use melee weapons (spiked knuckles, usually) is to quietly kill civilians for keys or cool clothes they're wearing. With sneaky crits, 1 Strength and something like 10 points in Unarmed is enough to one hit kill them. I'd never use melee weapons in battles. I still have about 6 different guns in my backpack despite my limited carrying capacity.


Question to FSMITO, though...does the story end abruptly, or can you continue exploring after finishing the main quest?
Not sure, I've still got a little ways to go in the main story. I am pretty sure they made it so you can continue playing after finishing the game though.

I'd heard about the 'perk every two levels' deal...but seriously, you're complaining about that TK? Be thankful they didn't move it back to Fallout 1 or 2 mode, where you got a perk every three levels(four if you took a particular trait). And in all honesty, your character became far too broken with taking a perk every level unless you were REALLY stupid with your perk picks(and Broken Steel made it so even stupid choices would work out once you picked Almost Perfect). Now, I'm hoping you really have to think about your perk choices, adding an extra element of thought to building your character(unless you're RPing an archetype, as you seem to be doing TK).

Yes of course I am complaining. Making something worse isn't not worth complaining about just because they didn't make it even more worse than they did make it!

Perks weren't the problem with Fallout 3's difficulty, it was VATS. Which is still there, unchanged. The game is easy as shit either way, so why not allow a perk every level? It's just more fun like that.

Care in choosing perks was still a factor in Fallout 3 if you wanted to create a character who was optimized. If you didn't, you could pick whatever sounded the most fun, so it was a win win situation. And I never try to create archetypal characters on my first playthrough of anything. I always just make sure I have some decent combat skills and then pick whatever I think seems the most fun. Then, on subsequent playthroughs I will try to create characters who are optimized for certain things. I beat Fallout 2 with just about every kind of character you could possibly dream up. I even tried a character whose main combat skill was throwing. Never finished, of course, since throwing in the first two Fallout games is the most useless combat skill in any RPG ever.

Anyway if they were really concerned with fixing the difficulty, they should have made VATS less power first, and then instead of cutting down the number of perks they could simply have made the game harder so the perk are less potent. Really thought I don't think they were too powerful in Fallout 3, and getting to pick the next one was always what made me excited about leveling up.

My Pip-Boy 3000 just got replaced by a Pimp-Boy 3 Billion.

im dying to play this game, but im gonna wait for the inevitable GOTY edition. or, if its not GOTY, a compilation disc.

I'm gonna wait for a patch. The game must be really buggy right now.

PLAYTESTING! Have you heard of it Obsidian?

My Pip-Boy 3000 just got replaced by a Pimp-Boy 3 Billion.



holy shit this is awesome.

---------- Post added at 03:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:43 PM ----------


I'm gonna wait for a patch. The game must be really buggy right now.

PLAYTESTING! Have you heard of it Obsidian?

Only bug I've encountered is the one mentioned in OP, and like I said, while it was annoying, it was no big deal.

People are reporting new bugs daily. Hundreds of them. Multiple crashes, freezes, texture popping, save files lost, and far more. This game is no way, shape or form ready for launch.

Believe me, the first time I played Alpha Protocol I didn't encounter many problems, but the second time it was like glitch heaven. You got lucky so far.

People are reporting new bugs daily. Hundreds of them. Multiple crashes, freezes, texture popping, save files lost, and far more. This game is no way, shape or form ready for launch.

Believe me, the first time I played Alpha Protocol I didn't encounter many problems, but the second time it was like glitch heaven. You got lucky so far.

Funny you should mention that...second playthrough of AP, I was told I killed marines when I didn't. Funny thing was, this was supposed to prevent me from getting one of the endings...which I got anyway.

Been the same thing with Fallout 3...people said that was glitch heaven, and the only one I came across was having the skyline get funky(requiring me to save, reset the 360, and then it was fixed).

Call me crazy Smarty, but I don't see luck extending that long...and I'd much rather have the kind that lets me win a $50 million lotto jackpot, thankyaverahmuch!

Last night my game kept crashing in the Ultra-Luxe bathhouse. This is the first major problem I've encountered in my entire time playing. I'm going to install the updates and see if it helps.

People are reporting new bugs daily. Hundreds of them. Multiple crashes, freezes, texture popping, save files lost, and far more. This game is no way, shape or form ready for launch.

Believe me, the first time I played Alpha Protocol I didn't encounter many problems, but the second time it was like glitch heaven. You got lucky so far.

I was hearing this exact same thing about Fallout 3 when that came out and I had no significant problems with it either. I experienced the sky glitch once or twice, which doesn't actually matter and is fixed by restarting the system, and I also had a freeze once or twice, which is definitely annoying but not horrible since the game autosaves so often.

Maybe the PC version has more bugs. I dunno, so far the experience has been fairly smooth for me.

I think the PC version has less bugs, actually.

People are reporting new bugs daily. Hundreds of them. Multiple crashes, freezes, texture popping, save files lost, and far more. This game is no way, shape or form ready for launch.

Believe me, the first time I played Alpha Protocol I didn't encounter many problems, but the second time it was like glitch heaven. You got lucky so far.

So people who buy the game are actually paying to be beta-testers! Awesome!
This is kinda a tradition for Bethesda games, isn't?

Well this was developed by Obsidian, not Bethesda. Obsidian are known for releasing buggy games too though.

I imagine the majority of people don't encounter anything major though.

Obsidian the same who made nwn 2 and kotor 2?
I'll rent it just for curiosity then.

Yep, they made those games. They also made Alpha Protocol, but that was a pretty bad game.

A tangental note to Smarty and FSITO: I'd be willing to argue(to a certain extent) over Alpha Protocol...but as Dwayne says on Tool Time, "This is neither the time nor the place!":D

To stay on topic for the thread, I'm seriously leaning towards buying this with my next paycheck(or the one after...Ninja Storm 2 is also catching my eye). All told, how is the exploration and discovery? When you get near/hit level cap, are you still in fear for your life, or are you pretty much King of the Wastes? And mind you, this is for the standard mode...I know hardcore's gonna be a whole 'nother bucket of whoop-ass I might also try at some point... Finally, the story...I think I might have been spoiled about the big reveal(why you were shot), but I'm sure that's hardly the only twist in the story. So, is that also worth the price?

Hardcore mode doesn't actually make you weaker or the enemiesi stronger. It just makes you have to eat, drink and sleep as well as giving ammo weight. Also, your companions can permanently die in hardcore mode. There's probably some other changes I can't remember.

The Mojave Wasteland is much more interesting than the Capital Wasteland. There's more variation between towns and there's a lot of hidden details around. The game is never really hard, not with VATS. Some enemies like Deathclaws or maybe high ranked NCR/Legion dudes will give you trouble even at level 30, though. I don't know if enemies scale with your level like they did in Fallout 3 (and Oblivion). As for the story, why you were shot isn't a secret for very long.

I agree with everything FSITO said pretty much and also, I was curious about difficulty scaling too and was pleased to find out the game mostly does not scale. As I understand it only things directly relating to the main quest scale in difficulty. Enemies you encounter in the wasteland and during non-required quests (so the vast majority of them) are always the same. This is the way it always should be, imo. I always hated the scaling in Fallout 3.

But yeah, this game just flat out is not hard (although it is harder than Fallout 3). I'm still playing on hard and still beat everything really easily.

Also, I feel like it's even easier than it was in Fallout 3 to have plenty of caps and ammo. I always have thousands of caps and I just keep getting more and more and barely spending any and I've never been worried about running out of ammo at all. I've stopped even keeping one of every type of gun because it's just so unnecessary.

Yeah, I knew enemies stayed the same (which is a good thing) but I'm pretty sure they get stronger as you level up.

Yeah, I knew enemies stayed the same (which is a good thing) but I'm pretty sure they get stronger as you level up.

It's been like this on every Bethesda game I think. At least Fallout 3 and Oblivion have.

In Fallout 3 and Oblivion, newer enemies showed up as you got stronger. For example, when you reached a certain level in Fallout 3, Deathclaws would start to appear. In New Vegas, you can encounter Deathclaws at level 1 not far east of where you start the game.

So apparently a patch got relesed recently that fixed most of the issues. Is this true?

Two patches have been released, but I don't think they even come close to fixing all the issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__KZ9j8X6IE

Got the PC version and barely started a new game.

Gotta say the beginning is way better than Fallout 3.

The first time I heard that the team who created fallout 1 & 2 (except for the key members) were making New Vegas I thought it'll be the same Fallout 3 only with a dull story and shorter - a candy to keep fallout 3 fans entertained before before Bethesda releases Fallout 4. But I must say I'm very glad I was wrong. Not only Obsidian fixed all the flaws that were in Fallout 3, but also brings back a lot things from Fallout 2 and finds time to introduce something new too. Here's something I's like to add.

- The game has a major improvement in performance, so if Fallout 3 worked slower, then New Vegas will work just fine (of course I'm talking about the PC version here).
- As TK mentioned repair is not vital anymore. You can fix your weapons to best condition even if your skill is only 10, but its still a useful skill in the game, especially in the hardcore mode.
- Survival. This skill is back. And what it does is... help you prepare meals. Playing in casual mode this skill is useful as much as barter. But in hardcore mode is extremely useful. Since in hardcore mode stimpaks do not instantly heal you, but only slowly regenerate hp., having a few meals help you generate hp much faster in combat. Also you can create poison which you coat melee weapons, so it's useful in more ways than one.
- Difficulty. The biggest flaw in Fallout 3 was difficulty, because of it I never did bother to finish the game. And it's good to know that Obsidian fixed. Anyone to who Fallout 3 was way to easy like to me, choose very hard and the hardcore mode. Not only enemies are much stronger, but you also won't get more experience if you kill them like in Fallout 3. Anyone who think this game is very easy in normal mode, you are more than welcome to try and kill the Deathclaw mother early in the game. There were plenty times when I encountered enemies who easily kicked my ass, and even now, when I reached level 20 having some of the strongest weapons in the game still got my ass kicked when I tried to take down a Brotherhood of Steel patrol. And that's a good thing, because the game keeps reminding you that just going against 4 thinking that you only need VATS beat 'em won't always help you.
- Weapons. Stab 'em, shoot 'em, slice 'em, crush 'em, fry 'em, flame 'em, blow 'em, and now you've got twice as more weapons than in Fallout 3 to do all that, all which can be modified (some of the weapons from Fallout 2 also reintroduced)
As far as I am playing now I noticed some melee weapons I found are much stronger than my strongest energy weapons.
Explosives isn't just grenades, mines, and dynamite. Now there's also C4 and time bombs from fallout 2. So if you want to cause some serious shit and watch from afar, knock yourselves out (that's what fallout was all about in the first place). And if that doesn't interest you how about a grenade minigun.
- Companions. I already found 5 and I think there's more, but you are allowed to have one (two actually, but I don't want to spoil). Now,since there is difficulty they aren't just mules and if you actually want them to be good help in combat, spend more points on charisma. You get a companion perk whenever somebody joins and you get different perks with different companions. Their perks are quite useful and also help you build your type of character. For instance, with one companion who joined me I got the spotter perk. With it all enemies are colored when you aim. So if you're a sniper type character it's very useful, because you can easily kill enemies who are a mile away from you.
- Perks. As TK mentioned you get one every two levels, but what he didn't mention was that you also get perks when you do certain things. For instance, when you kill certain amount of insects you get the bug stumper perk (with it you do slightly more damage to insects). If you use certain amount of drugs, you get a different perk and etc. You also get perks when you talk to people, so be aware. These perks make the game slightly less harder, but they don't ruin the difficulty if that's what some people might be worrying about.
- Traits from Fallout & Fallout 2 are also returning. To bad there aren't that much choose from.
- Quests. There's lots of 'em. Some are boring, but some are quite interesting. From guarding shops, to finding prostitutes, extortion and bounty hunting. Right now I'm in the middle of a quest were I have to get to a town while being bombarded by a howitzer. So yes, from time to time you'll have fun doing them.
- Mini games. Play the roulette, poker, or slots at a casino. There also a card game called caravan if you want to. Nothing special, but still, it's better than nothing.

So far that's what I noticed. I'm halfway through, and the game doesn't even get slightly boring. I must say Obsidian deserves a pat on a back for New Vegas and I hope they'll get a chance to make another Fallout in the future.

Yeah, I knew enemies stayed the same (which is a good thing) but I'm pretty sure they get stronger as you level up.

The post I read on the Bethesda forums from one of the Obsidian guys basically said there is no difficulty scaling at all outside of the main quest, unless I drastically misunderstood him.

Regarding mods, are there any out there anyone recommends? I know the game is still young, but it doesn't hurt to ask ._.

You could have a look through this list Fallout New Vegas Nexus - New Vegas mods and community (http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/top/)

There's not much yet, really. There's a few people porting over Fallout 3 projects and there's some simple lighting/texture mods, but that's about it.

Damn, too bad there isn't anything there that fixes problems in saves.

TK and Chewey's posts make me more exited for this each time. But, like a lot of people, I'm waiting for the patches. For PC people it might not be so bad cause it takes less time for patches to arrive, but I'm on PS3 and the bugs I had with FO3 make me paranoid about getting this right now.

So, Christmas for me. I'm already counting the days! (Black Ops is out soon so I've got something new to keep me busy until then)

You would get Black Ops...

Homo

Hey I've recently given up my competitive COD addiction in favour of going back to being an all rounder. I've also become a trophy whore. I'm getting it for �20, 2 days early thanks to some nice pre-order codes from a friend who works at a catalogue. I'll do the campaign but the online won't be receiving much of my time. 30days I have on MW2! I bet I don't reach 10 on Black Ops. New Vegas, Altelier Rorona, Assassin's Creed : Brotherhood, Ico/SOTC HD pack < These are all of higher priority than Black Ops.

What happend wioth your PS3 anyway?


Edit* Why does it keep double posting?

Okay, posting here JUST under the wire(30 day limit).:D

Just rented this from my local mom 'n pop's vidya store, and I have to say, I'm LOVING it. I agree that the beginning is a lot better than Fallout 3, and unlike it, there's a REASON for all the brown in this game. lol

Only got up to...Novac, I think it is? Had my first encounters with the NCR(check this out, clear this road, ya know), Caesar's Legion(wait, his name is pronounced KAI-SAR? What the...?) and of course, the Powder Gangers.

Biggest thing that's gotten me to smile is that all of the guns actually SOUND like guns. Really hard to get in the mood of gunning down a swarm of radscorps when you sound like you have a cork popgun in your hands. On the flip side, I'm not too happy with the whole "if you steal at all, even from purist douchebags like the Legion, you lose karma". *sigh* Ah well.

Hope people are still interested in the game...glitches and all(of which I have yet to notice any...why do I always have that luck? Seriously...)