Vegas baby! Vegas

[Jeff Kelly]

Finished it...
Liked it...
...a lot.
...had to much exposition though, too much talking.
...wonder if they made Ulysses obnoxious on purpose.
...seemed to speak in elliptical sentences only. Damn elliptical sentences...
...made me tired just listening to him...
...his monotonous raspy voice...
...yammering on about myth and fact, past and present...
...so damn boring.
<low-pitched humming>
...got to nuke stuff though, has to count for something.

[Ingmar]

Ulysses's delivery was really irritating, he had a great voice but the pauses were Shatnerrific.

[Fabricated]

I felt like I was be berated by a smooth jazz DJ.

[Ruvaldt]

Playing through Dead Money currently, and it's been one of the most un-fun gaming experiences in recent memory.  I'm currently running through the final section and I've seen the same frustrating head-blowing-off death animation so many times that I've seriously considered ditching it all and just reverting to a previous save.

If you haven't played Dead Money and are tempted to, my suggestion is just to skip it.  It's hard for me to believe, after enjoying Fallout: New Vegas so much, that the same people who created that fantastic game also made this tedious garbage.  I can't wait for it to be over.

[caladein]

I'm currently running through the final section and I've seen the same frustrating head-blowing-off death animation so many times that I've seriously considered ditching it all and just reverting to a previous save.

If you were/are playing on PC, there's a mod for that.  Really wouldn't bother with Dead Money without it.

[rk47]

lol exactly how i felt. I quit Dead money right 5 mins in cause i gave up finding the radio signals.

[Ruvaldt]

That mod is fantastic.  It's saved me a serious headache.  I hope the praise the other DLCs have gotten was well deserved because I want something to redeem my opinion of the game after this debacle.

[Zetor]

Meanwhile, Lonesome Road still isn't available in the Eastern European region. I'd have someone gift it to me or use a VPN, but I'm kind of apathetic about this entire 3rd world business by now.

[Ingmar]

That mod is fantastic.  It's saved me a serious headache.  I hope the praise the other DLCs have gotten was well deserved because I want something to redeem my opinion of the game after this debacle.

The others are nothing like Dead Money, have no fear.

[Fabricated]

Dead Money is well written and atmospheric. It is also retarded and focuses on all the weakest aspects of the game (melee, stealth, traps). I didn't disable the poison or collar but fuck if I didn't hate it by the end.

[CmdrSlack]

I have now finished all of the DLC, so I finally finished the main storyline.

I have issues with the choices given. I managed to have perfectly awesome faction with NCR right up until the end. I ended up at "Wild Child," which is apparently still somewhat positive. I think if I'd used some stealth boys during one part of the final mission, I'd have managed to keep my NCR faction at Idolized.

Given that, I was really surprised that there wasn't a fourth/fifth option for an otherwise Legion or NCR-aligned player to run an independent Vegas, but with something along the lines of "selling power to the allied side."

Great fun overall, but that just bugged me for some reason. I get the logic behind NCR and the Legion being all-or-nothing, but it would have been neat to have that other means to an end. Dave Foley as Yes Man made it feel like Fallout: Kids In The Hall, and that made me happy.

As to the DLC, Dead Money was the absolute worst of them all. I managed the fog and the stupid speakers/radios pretty well. But FFS, that last bit before the vault was absolutely ridiculous. Some parts captured survival horror pretty well. That last part captured annoying as fuck really well.

[kildorn]

The last bit of Dead Money is just way too much "okay game, what EXACTLY do you want me to do. Just tell me, and I'll fucking do it."

[Khaldun]

Yeah, ok. I guess with Dead Money what I liked is that the unpleasantness of the whole situation is what makes me really really fucking hate the bad guy. Normally I just want to kill the foozle for his good shit but this time I would have chased that fucker down and killed him even if he only dropped a Nuka-Cola. But that's why the end is annoying: you don't really get to hang around and gloat or enjoy what the entire xpac has been steering you towards.

Reputation IS a bit weird on some things. With my psycho character I pretty much killed everything and everybody that looked at me crosseyed, especially the NCR, but I could still walk into NCR facilities where I hadn't killed anyone there yet and they'd be, "Hai, would you like to do some missions for us?"  I ended up with a positive reputation in general, when I was almost entirely unredeemable and traitorous.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Okay so I started playing this awhile back because people kept saying it was better than Fallout 3, and I gotta say so far I am seriously underwhelmed. I've been playing for probably 5-10 hours and I have yet to meet a single interesting person that I care about. The comparison to 3 seems particularly apt here, where the very first thing you do (after the awesome character-generation/vault intro) is encounter what is probably the most interesting town in the whole game, where you are given the opportunity to set off a nuclear weapon. It's like night and day compared to NV -- everything feels more generic, including my protagonist. The most interesting thing I've come across so far is, unsurprisingly, an abandoned Vault (the human sacrifice one), but all the main plot stuff is like mind-stuffingly uninteresting so far. My companion is a robot who literally has no personality at all (I assume there must be other options, eventually.)

Of course, I haven't actually gotten to New Vegas proper yet -- is that where the game starts taking off, awesome-wise?

Also, maybe it's just because I'm playing on Hard but my god does everyone take forever to kill. Standing there emptying ten shots from my cowboy repeater into a dude's seemingly-unarmoured face from five feet away -- while he presumably does the same thing to me -- is really not provoking a sense of thrilling danger. And I seem to be at the point where I've pissed off the Legion enough that they send assassin squads after me, and that is seriously annoying. I guess I shouldn't have killed that asshole in Lottery-town and his asshole entourage, even though he asked me to?

[rk47]

You're right, Fallout 3 trumps them all. Even 1 & 2 doesn't have any awesome scenes like the Megaton device.

[Fabricated]

Okay so I started playing this awhile back because people kept saying it was better than Fallout 3, and I gotta say so far I am seriously underwhelmed. I've been playing for probably 5-10 hours and I have yet to meet a single interesting person that I care about. The comparison to 3 seems particularly apt here, where the very first thing you do (after the awesome character-generation/vault intro) is encounter what is probably the most interesting town in the whole game, where you are given the opportunity to set off a nuclear weapon. It's like night and day compared to NV -- everything feels more generic, including my protagonist. The most interesting thing I've come across so far is, unsurprisingly, an abandoned Vault (the human sacrifice one), but all the main plot stuff is like mind-stuffingly uninteresting so far. My companion is a robot who literally has no personality at all (I assume there must be other options, eventually.)

Of course, I haven't actually gotten to New Vegas proper yet -- is that where the game starts taking off, awesome-wise?

Also, maybe it's just because I'm playing on Hard but my god does everyone take forever to kill. Standing there emptying ten shots from my cowboy repeater into a dude's seemingly-unarmoured face from five feet away -- while he presumably does the same thing to me -- is really not provoking a sense of thrilling danger. And I seem to be at the point where I've pissed off the Legion enough that they send assassin squads after me, and that is seriously annoying. I guess I shouldn't have killed that asshole in Lottery-town and his asshole entourage, even though he asked me to?

I did the same thing as you really for the legion. Also on hard shit will be tough to kill. On normal it's pretty ridiculous killing stuff until you get a fair amount of points into your weapon of choice and a decent weapon.

You can get your first real companion pretty soon. One is in Novac, the other is on some bridge overpass I can't recall. For me the game really picked up about when I got the huge NCR outpost in the southwest. The first stretch of road with Primm and the prison and whatever was kinda boring.

[Zetor]

One month after the 'global' release of Lonesome Road, and it's still not out in my region due to publisher fuckups; it's not going to be out in the foreseeable future either. I guess I could pirate it if I cared enough to do that...

To those who played - is LR fun / was it worth the money compared to say, OWB (my favorite so far)?

[Ingmar]

I would put LR at about Honest Hearts level of quality. OWB was by far the best one really.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

You can get your first real companion pretty soon. One is in Novac, the other is on some bridge overpass I can't recall. For me the game really picked up about when I got the huge NCR outpost in the southwest.

Wait, you mean the vaguely-psychotic sniper with the missing wife? I was supposed to consider that guy companion material?!

I mean I do now remember that there was some dialogue option to be like 'come look into the middle distance in a PTSD sort of way with ME, instead of wandering off on your own to die' -- but come on. That guy rated a -5 on the likeability scale, maximum, and mostly he was just kind of boring.

[rk47]

Yeah, New Vegas is really missing romance NPC like Mass Effect. Even Amata would've done better in F3 if she makes a reappearance. I guess the whole NV falls apart on the interesting scale and offers nothing to do when people are looking for something awesome to accomplish in a gritty desert wasteland. They really should just go for broke an introduce the whole cowboy thing throughout the whole journey. Instead after finishing the western town, I move into some kind of quasi-military vs roman legion conflict that hardly interest me.

Not to mention Novac main quest kinda suck..

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Eh, I'm not talking about romance, specifically. I just mean, where are the people to whom I am supposed to relate? Whose fates I am supposed to care about? It's not that everybody is actively unpleasant, they just seem really flat overall. Probably this was the case to some degree in Fallout 3 and I am just remembering the better parts, but as mentioned that game at least managed to frontload some of the best stuff in there, to get you hooked. Most of the people I run into in NV are entirely shrugworthy -- and in fact, in terms of voice acting, most of them seem to share my opinion about themselves. Not exactly exciting people.

[Ingmar]

I would say FO3's characterization was noticeably more boring than that in F:NV personally.

There were all of two characters that really stood out for me in FO3, 3 if you count Liberty Prime. (The other two being the super mutant who sounds like Barney from the Simpsons, and Dukov (the CLOWN SHOES guy, and that was probably half because that is now what I assume Schild is like in real life.)

[Malakili]

Eh, I'm not talking about romance, specifically. I just mean, where are the people to whom I am supposed to relate? Whose fates I am supposed to care about? It's not that everybody is actively unpleasant, they just seem really flat overall. Probably this was the case to some degree in Fallout 3 and I am just remembering the better parts, but as mentioned that game at least managed to frontload some of the best stuff in there, to get you hooked. Most of the people I run into in NV are entirely shrugworthy -- and in fact, in terms of voice acting, most of them seem to share my opinion about themselves. Not exactly exciting people.

Yeah, I didn't really feel sympathetic towards any of the major factions.  I went with an independent vegas.  I think I'd probably go NCR next time, if there is a next time.  Having those rangers on my ass was a pain through the mid levels.

[rk47]

Three Dogs > Radio NV

[caladein]

I'm on the record as disliking almost everything about FO3, especially its characters.

As for interesting companions in New Vegas: Cass, Arcade, and Veronica are all pretty solid.  Arcade's probably my favorite but that may have more to do with my own sensibilities and the fact that it felt like he had a good deal more dialogue than anyone outside of Boone than anything else.

Outside of him though, I definitely didn't care about many others as characters.  Most everyone (especially Veronica) just felt like they were there only to provide exposition about "the world".

[Ice Cream Emperor]

I guess when I think about it, there's not a ton of great standout characters from FO3 -- but you know, 'one or two' is a lot more than zero.

I think the main difference is actually that in FO3 I care about my character. The prelude in the Vault -- and the fact that the central plot is about finding your dad -- is so vastly superior to the ultra-generic cutscene/background of my character in F:NV that I think it made all the rest of the interactions in the game more meaningful as well. The choices I am making (so far) in F:NV seem less interesting by comparison, but it's impossible to determine how much of that is the writing of the choices themselves and how much of it is the (lack of) writing for my protagonist.

I mean, some guy tried to kill me and I am chasing him down why? I walk ten feet in this place and someone tries to kill me... yes, the other guy had a fancy suit and it was part of a job, but really? I don't understand why my character cares so much about her job, or why she's so motivated by revenge, or what. The main plot feels like it's just something to do, like to pass the time or whatever.

Similarly, while the Faction system is in theory more complicated than Karma, I have a feeling it's contributing a lot to the lack of 'individual people' feeling I am getting. The whole moral landscape of the game just feels way more normalized -- you have X group who are fascists, and Y group who are nicer fascists, and Z group who are mean badasses, and they like electricity a lot so they're fighting. So just like pick one or pick none but that's pretty much the choice? At least so far I haven't seen a lot of fun stuff come out of that, though the Lottery Town had a nice edge to it, and certainly made me enjoy killing the condescending dick in charge.

Even though, now that I think about it -- for reasons beyond human comprehension, you are not able to take the people down off the crucifixes. Like, really? Nobody thought that someone might want to have their character do that? They just figured we would leave them there, but were kind enough to have it display a 'this person is totally going to die soon, there is nothing you can do' message when you try to talk to them? I went around and shot all the crucified dudes in the head, to put them out of their misery. For all I know that probably lost me faction with the Powder Gang or something absurd.

[rk47]

Even though, now that I think about it -- for reasons beyond human comprehension, you are not able to take the people down off the crucifixes. Like, really? Nobody thought that someone might want to have their character do that? They just figured we would leave them there, but were kind enough to have it display a 'this person is totally going to die soon, there is nothing you can do' message when you try to talk to them? I went around and shot all the crucified dudes in the head, to put them out of their misery. For all I know that probably lost me faction with the Powder Gang or something absurd.

No you don't. No faction loss or gain is always declared in this game.

I mean, some guy tried to kill me and I am chasing him down why? I walk ten feet in this place and someone tries to kill me... yes, the other guy had a fancy suit and it was part of a job, but really? I don't understand why my character cares so much about her job, or why she's so motivated by revenge, or what. The main plot feels like it's just something to do, like to pass the time or whatever.

You're right again. They shd've put that your father IS the courier. And you're the son. That would move away from the 'Thanks doc' introduction and let you get into the action quick. Saying good bye to your mom as you sling dad's .357 silver revolver in your arm and wear his cowboy hat would've been quite something. And I think Obsidian missed out on the horse riding aspect...it would've been cool if I could ride in the wasteland. Maybe a brahmin or something.

[Ingmar]

Three Dogs > Radio NV

But Black Mountain Radio > Three Dog

[caladein]

I think the main difference is actually that in FO3 I care about my character. The prelude in the Vault -- and the fact that the central plot is about finding your dad -- is so vastly superior to the ultra-generic cutscene/background of my character in F:NV that I think it made all the rest of the interactions in the game more meaningful as well.

Only if you give a shit about your Dad.  Which the game tries, really hard to make you do, and in the process makes character creation an obtuse pain in the ass.

The opening to New Vegas makes me interested to learn more about this place.  I really can't be bothered about the guy in the suit in particular, but he's interesting.  The opening to Fallout 3 kicks me out of an interesting place for no reason and dumps me into a brown shithole.

[Teleku]

Three Dogs > Radio NV

But Black Mountain Radio > Three Dog

Heh, pretty much agree with that.  I really enjoyed the radio in NV overall though.  Got a lot of old timey country songs I didn't know existed!

[Furiously]

I couldn't connect to the NV character in any meaningful way. I think it was the expectation that all fallout characters should be from a vault.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

The opening to Fallout 3 kicks me out of an interesting place for no reason and dumps me into a brown shithole.

Well yeah, that's sort of the point.

[Ingmar]

Green shithole, really. FO3 becomes much more tolerable visually if you install a mod to take the green filter off of everything.

[lamaros]

I quit playing FO3 about halfway through because I didn't give a shit about my dad and the game descended in to a grey-green shithole of DC that meant nothing to me at all despite supposedly being "awesome" because it was somewhat accurate. The whole blowing up megaton stuff gave the game a lot of mileage, but that ran out pretty quick (aided by retarded "karma" and faction systems). I don't recall anything else that was nearly as fun.

Still hesitant to buy NV, despite all the glowing comments, though.

[rattran]

I enjoyed F:NV much more when I installed conelrad radio. And ThreeDog was so annoying, I shot him in the face in FO3. The old lady was a less obnoxious radio host.

Both games were decent enough, I think OWB is the standout of the two + dlc