Vegas baby! Vegas

[Rendakor]

[Slyfeind]

I really don't see how you could find this to be too linear. There seem to be at least 4 major paths you could take for the main story.

Well bear in mind I'm only 3 hours into it, but it seems so far that the game traded side quests for faction paths. After going to Megaton in FO3, you ended up with a zillion things to do. But after Goodsprings, it's just one thing to do, but several ways to do it. For example, as soon as I left town I came across the first camp of an opposing faction, and right then I could see the game unfold differently.

Yeah, what's this complaint about? Linear is one of the last words I'd use to describe FO:NV.

OMG IT'S NOT A COMPLAINT.

Way too linear, but that's my only complaint.

NOT A CRIPLING COMPLAINT ANYWAY.

[Hawkbit]

Bought it used today for PS3.  I played F3 on PC, so this will be interesting.  An hour or so in, no problems yet. 

I'm used to the graphics on PC, so this looks a little ruddy.  But it's on a 42" and I get to relax on the couch, so we'll see.  Not sure why they had to fiddle with some of the really basic things like skill books and bobbleheads, but w/e.  Maybe it was to take away the min/max side of the first one?

[CmdrSlack]

There are still skill books. The magazines are quite useful in the early game, especially as I somewhat gimped myself by tagging repair. I had debated lockpick, and now wish I'd tagged that. The comprehension perk is doubleplus useful now because it also increases magazine duration.

[Rendakor]

Found my first major bug, regarding the Brotherhood of Steel quest Still in the Dark.

[Tarami]

This game is pretty dark in places. In Vault 3 there's a several guys who have very explicitly OD'ed on his their bed.

[Azazel]

I really want to play this... but.. Obsidian. 

Must.. wait.. for.. goty...

[Nightblade]

So... I can't rebind keys. The game doesn't tell me why, it just says It cant. OKAY... Oh, and the mouse acceleration makes the game unplayable for me, THATS OK TOO. Game works for all of 10 minutes before it crashes... GAME OF THE FUCKING YEAR.

[Rendakor]

Can't rebind keys as in you can't find the option? Or the option is actually broken?

[veredus]

So... I can't rebind keys. The game doesn't tell me why, it just says It cant. OKAY... Oh, and the mouse acceleration makes the game unplayable for me, THATS OK TOO. Game works for all of 10 minutes before it crashes... GAME OF THE FUCKING YEAR.

I heard you can disable mouse acceleration in the ini file. Or do what I do and just use a wired xbox controller, you really don't need the precision of a mouse for this game imo.

[gimpyone]

I really want to play this... but.. Obsidian. 

Must.. wait.. for.. goty...

You'll be happier if you wait.

[Nightblade]

Can't rebind keys as in you can't find the option? Or the option is actually broken?

When I try to rebind keys it just tells me "THIS KEY CANNOT BE RE-BOUND!" except it doesn't actually yell at me.

I heard you can disable mouse acceleration in the ini file. Or do what I do and just use a wired xbox controller, you really don't need the precision of a mouse for this game imo.

I found a fix on overclock.net that didn't work, maybe I'm not looking hard enough?

Mass Effect 2 had some shit like this too; but at least Mass Effect 2 actually let me rebind keys and it... worked.

Though, to fix mouse acceleration in ME2, it required a lot of stupid ini file tweaking whilst staying within the character limit so the game wouldn't flat out reject the changes.

[Ingmar]

Still having absolutely zero technical problems at all, about 14 hours in now. I have like 20 uncompleted quests and I just keep finding more. 

[Kitsune]

I've had two crashes and the occasional glitch on PC thus far, which is pretty much identical to FO3's behavior.  So, it's not a shuddering wreck like KotOR2 in my experience, but it's also showing a lack of improvement over the original in the technical issues department despite being years newer.

Gamewise, I still think the people are more interesting than in FO3, but I'm more fond of DC as a setting, as it had tons of fairly big office buildings to wander around in, while my experience in Vegas has been mostly desert, mountain, or small single-story building.  While that's certainly realistic for what one would expect in a desert, I miss the bounty of tunnels and buildings to explore.

[jakonovski]

For me Vegas is much more stable than FO3 ever was. Vegas works straight out of the box without modifying any files, and can survive alt-tabbing (this one drove me nuts in FO3).

[jakonovski]

Holy shit, I just got attacked by  

I love you Wild Wasteland.

[Jimbo]

My kid got first dibs on this (he got all A's on his midterm) and I said okay, he keeps saying wow dad check this out...I'm like no! don't tell me yet!  Too many good video games, not enough time.

[Bunk]

I admit, I didn't know what that flock of butterfly thingies in the distance was. Then they closed on me and Boone. Then Boone was dead. I didn't even have time to yell what the fu...

I didn't know companions were mortal in Hardcore. Gonna mean a lot of reloading once I find Felicia Day.

Also - "So tell me, best friend Tabitha..."

Couldn't resist dropping in a couple mods already (newvegasnexus.com). They have a radio station on there with 55 era suitable songs and commentary - quite good.

[Khaldun]

One annoying glitch for me involves the UltraLuxe & other stuff on the Strip

[rk47]

Seems like following the main quest is the only way to keep the game interesting. Nothing but random combat and not much to salvage ruins in the wilderness. I took a detour after finishing Novac's quest which didn't grab me at all. What was that rocket launch for actually? It felt like Obsidian was going out of their way to inject a little bit of wackiness after subjecting the player to darker post-apoc theme.

Places I visited:

[Lantyssa]

So... I can't rebind keys. The game doesn't tell me why, it just says It cant. OKAY... Oh, and the mouse acceleration makes the game unplayable for me, THATS OK TOO. Game works for all of 10 minutes before it crashes... GAME OF THE FUCKING YEAR.

In "FalloutPrefs.ini" set "bBackground Mouse=1".

Make sure you have write permissions to the file.  That's probably why its failing.  Possibly why it's crashing, too, if other important files are being blocked.

[Rendakor]

Finished the game last night, went the Wild Card route. I was level 22, without ever having found a companion. Overall I'm very satisfied. Still have a bunch of side quests I'm gonna take care of before I reroll and go through a new way. Might do NCR this time; playing Legion seems like it would be very challenging. I'm also probably gonna throw on Hardcore.

[Spiff]

Think I'm about 20-30hrs into it (just met House for the first time and otw to give Benny his come-upins now), and I'm slightly underwhelmed.
I like it (I'm physically unable to not like a Fallout game though), just isn't grabbing me like 3 did.
Roaming feels less interesting (and more guided by the main story as well)
and the crafting ... meh: 2 dozen types of food I'm never going to cook and I can't care about a dozen different ammo-types + all the variations.
I miss my self-made nailgun  

Also, it puzzles me why every time I get 5+ NPC's on screen it stutters, which I never experienced with 3 and I can't see any graphical improvement in New Vegas.

As an anecdote: I still remember a moment in 3 when I was rummaging around a town (the one filled with mines where you found the old-cook sniper guy), just kicking down doors. I walked up to a bedroom and I saw a couple of skeletons lying on the bed, spooning each other; it choked me up a bit that (although I blamed it on the dust at the time). It was full of dark/melancholic little nuggets that game, I'm just not finding a lot of that in New Vegas.

It feels lighter and not just in a cooky fun way, sort of realised my fear of being Fallout 3.5 Light actually.

[Shrike]

360 version finally showed up. 8 hours in and I"m having a blast. It really reminds me of FO2 (The Hub!).

So far, no virtual insect infestation is apparent, but I'm sure some will show up. Obsidian is involved and it took awhile for the nastier ones to appear in FO3. Visually, it looks damned good. Better than FO3 on the 360. No complaints there. From what I"ve seen of combat, I can see where the PC would have an advantage on the shootier aspects of the game. In FO3, what was pretty much the case as well. 360 owners will tend to rely more on VATS and the abilities that support it. In the PC version, I did more FPS style play and didn't bother with a lot of the AP regen and whatnot. Wasn't necessary there, allowing other sorts of abilities to be taken.

I guess I can kiss off the rest of this week and coming weekend in regards of getting anything construtive done around the house.

[LK]

I've been following the path around the south that the game directs you on. The game feels smaller yet larger. I can't really describe it better than that. It feels like I could just walk over to New Vegas with no issues if I wanted, but I don't feel the obligation. Besides, supposedly I have to deliver something to New Vegas that is in the possession of the guys who killed me (the chip they flashed), so that's been my priority, although
I have felt less incentive to wander and for good reason. I'm on Very Hard so certain fights are beyond my capabilities and merely showing up to the fight space could result in death. I once came across an army of 5 or 6 droids and they ripped me to shreds. Another pack of Feral Ghouls tore me into pieces; they move so fast there isn't any escape. Lacking good defensive skills... yeah I know I have it coming.

So I've stuck to story progression and the immediate areas around them. I have taken a bit longer to get places because I am being hyper-efficient with the supplies I'm carrying and the materials I'm stashing away. I know eventually I'm going to not need any of this stuff but I'm savoring each moment of the game. I was close to Novac after spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with things in the south-west block (I like to clear every house and check every interesting area out for stuff) and managing the massive amounts of junk items I come across that COULD be turned into something useful if I just had the skill.

Overall I still am not sure what the story is since Nipton was really a ghost town to introduce the Legion, Mojave was flavor, and Primm was a stalling tactic, but I have seen hints dropped which actually feels really nice. "WHO IS COURIER 6?" There is intrigue that keeps me moving forward and hints at a larger story that I have yet to know the details of. However seeing NCR / Legion, I haven't felt a strong desire to pick a side just yet, (Legion's methods are brutal but for some reason, in this Survivor wasteland, not altogether unexpected) though I am hated by Powder Gangers cause, y'know, criminals.

Also I need levels like mad for a Very Hard playthrough so I'm doing my best to get the most out of every area I'm in. I just finished Camp Searchlight (Radscorpion Queen, lol) and am about to head towards Novac.

[Rendakor]

I never even knew you could find things out about the other couriers. Did you find enough of the Dog Tags for Camp Searchlight? I've cleared the area out and went back a few times looking for respawns, and only ever found 7 tags.

Edit: The bug I had with the Brotherhood also glitched the I Could Make You Care quest. I didn't have Veronica, but the quest started when I got the Euclid gun; it told me to go talk to the Brotherhood elder, but he still said the same shit he's been saying since I broke the quest.

[Ingmar]

[Rendakor]

[Khaldun]

[Ingmar]

[fatboy]

I have felt less incentive to wander and for good reason. I'm on Very Hard so certain fights are beyond my capabilities and merely showing up to the fight space could result in death. I once came across an army of 5 or 6 droids and they ripped me to shreds. Another pack of Feral Ghouls tore me into pieces; they move so fast there isn't any escape. Lacking good defensive skills... yeah I know I have it coming.

That's been my take thus far (and I am not on Very Hard).  In FO3, I believe the enemies "levels" were loosely based on your character's level.  For example, at low levels, you saw Baby/Small Radscorpions, then Regular Radscorpions, then Giant Radscorpions, then finally those god awful Giant Albino Radscorpions.

I'm at a mere level 6, and just got my ass handed to me being jumped < at least > 3 Giant Radscorpions as I wandered off to do some random exploring.  I guess I need to stay on the straight and narrow until I level up some more, or at least get some better firepower to handle the tougher mobs in the world.

[Rendakor]

I actually like how Vegas does it better; FO3 (and Oblivion) scaled the monsters to your level which made the world feel less immersive to me.

[Reg]

[Khaldun]

When you're first leaving Goodsprings and then even more Primm, stay close to the road. Just beyond Primm there are some ghoul and radscorpion packs off the road that are fast and likely deadly with your gear and skills at that moment. I kind of like this--they're not there to block you from moving forward, but they do make just idly wandering around more dangerous. It's a principle the game employs throughout: going well off roads closer to Vegas is pretty much "hey, look at the cazadors and/or deathclaws".

[Bunk]

I walked in to the area where you pick up the radiation suit, and despite the obvoius warning of the dead body - decided to look around. Oh look, a golden gecko. And his fourteen brothers. I was level six.

After a quick reload, I ventured in again, and this time tried the old Oblivion (and every other 3d game) tactic of perching against melee monsters. At first it felt a little cheezy, but I just found I had far too much fun watching geckos fly accross the landscape as I tossed dynamite amongst them.