Fallout: New Vegas

[bankz5152]

Hey Guys,

 

Supprised there isnt a thread on this already!

 

Got the collectors edition of Fallout New Vegas which i was very happy with 1700 out of 8000 .

 

Played Fallout 3 so knew what to expect really, but im happily supprised! Its 10x better!

 

Im currently 18 hours in on level 13, all i can say is it gets better and better. First game ive played since Fallout 3 where ive actually sat all day because i cant stop playing! I mean I play COD, Halo, Gears and the such but never played them this solidly before.

 

So much that is just exellent which makes it 'realistic' like the reloading benches, gun repair kits, etc...

 

How are you guys finding it? Dull and long? or exciting?

 

Anyone doing it on hardcore mode thats played FA3 before?

 

Thanks

 

Josh

[frogfish]

I've had major woes with it, I did probably about 5 or 6 hours of the game with Boone MIA, in party, but nowhere to be found, I did not tell him to wait anywhere, I check everywhere where he is automatically told to wait, and I went to novac and lucky 38 with no avail. Turns out the game will randomly remove party members at load screens. I also had about four hours of trying over and over again to get into the tops without having benny clip through the floor. The most recent patch fixed those two issues. I've also had it freeze about once an hour. This is the 360 version. Other than that I like the game.

[aznriptide859]

25 hours in - still love it. The bug issues are way too common - unfortunately I can't patch it since I downloaded my copy XD. Once I get my 360 running I'll go back to FO3 and finish up the DLC's.

 

Also, semi spoiler, but I think someone at Bethesda is a VLTOR/Magpul fan.

 

[Horsem4n]

ah, the all-american is a nice rifle.

 

if you see a black kid chasing after a girl in the strip, talk to the black kid.

[Abelius]

About 20 hours into it, having a kind of mixed feeling.

 

The good:

- MUCH more dialogue and choices.

- More complex storyline.

- Workbenches etc.

- Geckos!

 

The bad:

- The wasteland feels dead alive. In Fallout 3, the wasteland felt alive dead, if you know what I mean. There isn't a big amount of holotapes to discover for instance.

- No illusion of a huge world. In Fallout 3 I could imagine the area as DC, mostly because I've never been there in real life though.

- Heaps of bugs.

 

All in all, Vegas is definately a step forward. Nevertheless, somehow the feeling you get from playing isn't as epic as with Fallout 3. I literally played that game 30 hours straight when it came out, with Vegas I don't seem to have the patience to play more than one to two hours at a time.

[frogfish]

ah, the all-american is a nice rifle.

 

if you see a black kid chasing after a girl in the strip, talk to the black kid.

 

 

Th marksman carbine is much more prolific at the end. Whatever you do finish everything before you undertake the last quest, when it's done, the game is over.

[frogfish]

I hate to double post but I was running out the door when I wrote that and it won't let me edit anymore.

 

 

 

 

*Spoilers* kinda

 

If your speech skill is at 100 expect an very anti-climatic end.....

 

I was expecting so much more from the story, a reason why I could not play past the ending. I also feel like I was forced into my decision at the end, and I really didn't like any of the options. Mr. House was not really up to negotiation to keep the brotherhood of steel, I liked Cesar's idea of what had to happen but I did not want to support forced slavery (if people willing went into servitude, fine, but captured and enslaved, no). I also wanted to support the NCR, but I felt as though they put up an un-compelling argument for their side, I almost felt like it was a "well this game is forcing us to accept your help so here's a mission otherwise *fruitcage* off". The Desert rangers I saw maybe 8 of the entire game, 4 with the general at the end and 4 at kimball's speech, considering they were on the cover of the game I thought I'd see more of them, and that they would be the badass organization to join, like the brotherhood or enclave was in FO3.

 

I didn't like the fact that I was given what seemed to be a choice but in the end was a problem, there was an obvious solution, one of the 4 present options was better than the rest no matter how you put it. I mean yes you could kill house, however; when the game says "A tragedy has befallen man" when he dies, it's obvious that that was not the intended action. All in all I feel the focus was shifted off of wasteland exploration as it was in FO3, there were a few key locations with dense questing, but the spaces in between were barren, with a few scattered mobs, but other than killing those mobs there wasn't anything to do. Not like in FO3 where you could wander into whole villages with rooms and sewers to explore, that had been over run by deathclaws and there was no reason to be there other than to kill deathclaws and loot, now there was just a cluster of deathclaws in some hills, same experience, minus the loot, and buildings.

 

This is what abelius is trying to convey, in FO3 the wastes were dead, radiation, toxins, dangerous creatures, yet, for some reason there was a lot going on, random people, villages, loot, lots to do. In NV, the wasteland wasn't really a wasteland, it was like a desert with scattered junk some live plants, and some mobs, but there wasn't anything to do outside of populated areas or specific quest locations. It was almost like we got the wastes as a travel minigame a "you can play this shoot 'em up game while the next quest zone loads". Speaking of loading, I had 4-10 minute load screens often, anyone else notice this?

 

I also feel like the weapons broke down much more rapidly, my thermic lance was a delicate piece of equipment, as was my anti-material rifle, repairs were exorbitantly expensive and items were rare enough that doing them yourself only happened once and a while. I can understand if these were 200+ year old weapons, however they are not, the "gun runners" and van graffs made a majority of the weapons in the Mojave, and my damned Euclid E-clip which was 200 years old outlasted everything else. I understand that this is kinda part of the "fallout series" but I wish we could turn this feature on and off, as sometimes, I just want to enjoy the story and not spend 2 hours looking for another gauss cannon/t-51b/xxxxx or spend half my caps (with 100 barter) just to fix the one I have.

 

I did like that the level cap starts at 29 (or 30? I finished at 29), and that the whole game can be played outside of VATS, personally I hate vats, I hated it in FO3 and I did in this. Why the hell would i get a FPS RPG and want to turn on turn based gaeplay, what is this FF7? In FO3 I found that in order to really be effective you had to use VATS, otherwise things just didn't go down, in this I found that at range, VATS didn't hit *suitcase* (guns at 80 and the sniper perk I still didn't get an over 40% chance to hit peoples head unless they were 10 feet away), and up close it would but my enemy would be able to come up and hit me while it did it's cinematic. I'd rather just be able to aim and move.

 

I do find myself wanting more, the plot didn't feel resolved to me, the game told me I left the boomers alone, which is not the case they idolized me, I also want to know what happens next with the legion as I feel we only saw a small portion of their forces, and the NCR as I doubt no matter how House calculated it a forced surrender doesn't feel good.

 

 

 

On another note, those who sided with the NCR, legion or yourself what was the endgame like?

[aznriptide859]

Frog, I had the thought that there were three different endings - one where you support House and his robots, one where you kill him and take over Vegas, and one where you support the Legion and take over Vegas that way.

[frogfish]

yeah there are actually 4 different endings, as I asked about, but they depend very much on how things play out earlier on in the game, and you don't have up until the last second to decide on thigns. If I had know house was going to remove the NCR from the Mojave I wouldn't have helped him, but I was unaware he was expanding until I was forced to force the NCR to surrender. My impression was that house was only taking the dam and the strip, not the mojave, as he said "The NCR are my best customers". However; the three alternates to what I did required me to kill or remove Mr. House from power. Upon killing or disabling Mr. House the game will announce "A tragedy has befallen man" it seems pretty clear to me that that is not the course of action the game intended for you to do unless you decide to play a chaotic evil personality type, this leaves any form of good or lawful personality type pretty much only one option, help Mr. House. If you decide you are always going to *try* to do the right thing the game is much more of a problem with very narrow paths to follow, if you play as an evil or selfish character type your options are much more open. The problem for me is that the "good" option didn't seem good at the very end, as house told you what he was doing, but left some key things out. His logic is also very flawed if he thinks he can force a surrender out of an american style culture with no consequences, they should and probably will retaliate, which is not something I wanted my character to be on teh receiving end of.

 

I sometimes try to play games as an evil personality type but I just can't do it, I still feel for the characters and doing wrong by them angers me, for example geting rid of the brothers of steel, I did not want to do that, but if you help Mr. House, or the NCR it comes up at some point.

 

I was also never met by a currier to met the NCR ambassador and start his mission campaign, I was met by the legion delegate, and found the ideals of the legion likable, but, I did not want to see people who were not slaves getting sold and kidnapped in the night as Boone's wife and wilkenson's family were, and I did not want to see whole villages burned to the ground and their inhabitants crucified, simply to send a message. With the NCR I saw more of a maintenance of the status quo, and if I let "Yes man" take over the strip I could just see the ensuing chaos as someone who can't say no takes over the area.

 

I have a couple of saves at key points I'll go back and try some other things and see what happens. I did not explore much of the north west I want to find the enclave and jacobstown.

[Horsem4n]

in terms of the load screens, the longer you play the game in one sitting, the longer they get. the game has some sort of cache' saving problem where is doesn't clear the cache' of places you have been. so 5 to 6 hours in and the loading screens get ridiculously long. the only fix is to just restart your console every few hours.

 

since i do a *suitcase* ton of exploring, there is still some reason to do so. while there isnt a LOT of loot, there are those sunset sarsaparilla star bottle caps. if you collect the 51 you need, you'll gain access to a secret vault where you'll find the PEW PEW laser gun and a *suitcase* ton of useless sheriff badges.

 

as for other cool stuff, there was a perk at the beginning of the game which changes a few things so that a lot of funny weird *suitcase* happens. because of it, i got the Pimp-Boy 3BILLION (its solid gold and diamond studded). there is also this EMP plasma pistol thing (or some *suitcase*, i cant remember the name) that does 3 damage, but it kills people with power armor and robots pretty instantaneously. i could have used that thing in vault 23(or whichever one had that sacrifice thing going on where the people there voted for the worst person in their community to be the overseer). its also worth visiting every random location and doing quests to find rare guns.

 

anybody go Brahmin tipping? the first time i did it, i thought i was just going to pet the damned thing, not push it over! it was an lol moment.

 

im just liking it because its much more fluid than the last game. im much more into the combat and exploration experience than the RPG aspects.

[aznriptide859]

Hmm....I was met by both Couriers, but then when I was at the Fort stupid Boone attacked a Legion member, so now they hate me. Now I can't complete the section where you have to convince that girl to get the Great Khans to ally with the NCR lol.

 

Speaking of Boone, it seems companions don't really listen to you what you say. When I fixed up Rex, he attacked the Silver Rush guard when I was in Freeside, so then Silver Rush hated me...though I did get a bunch of plasma weapons for free at like level 10 XD.

 

Yea screw Mr. House - I want Vegas

[Horsem4n]

yeah, i had some problems with Boon. set him to passive and keep him that way.

 

sometimes he took people heads off before he pulled his damned rifle out.

[frogfish]

If you get to fort McCarrn tell boone to wait outside the room where you interrogate the legion centurion. He will follow you in, he will get stuck inside, you can not get him out. I had to revert to a save after that whole process.

 

Boone is automatically hostile to legion, he says that's the reason why he's going with you, to kill legion. I have no idea about Rex I didn't get him, but killing all the van graffs is a viable option, the loot stays in the shop and you can get back in there, you just can't sell anything. But I think the BoS have the best weapons available.

 

I also got the feeling this game pushed you hard to use energy weapons and not guns or melee. My favorite weapons in the game are the modified hunting rifle, the thermic lance and the super sledge.

[Horsem4n]

i got rid of the lance after i found that it just wasnt fun to use. it was just; poke, death, poke, death, ect...

 

the rest of the melee weaps are much funner.

[aznriptide859]

Rex you're supposed to return to the King after you fix his brain, but if you don't talk to King afterwards you can keep him as a companion lol. I think it's similar w/ FO3, where you could have an extra companion on top of Dogmeat.

[frogfish]

oh see I had ed-e through the whole thing thats probably why I never

got Rex.

[bankz5152]

Just to say I havnt read any of the above.

 

Make sure you guys put spoiler alerts in your posts!!

[L4byr1nth]

Ok, so, I went from 'meh', to loving it, and now I'm just frustrated.

 

There's a quest about a third of the way through the main story that locks you to whichever faction you prefer. I chose NCR, and so my experience and first run through of the game is based on this.

 

The reputation system is poor. It's great that you can be thought of differently in various areas or by the different factions, but the system itself is unpredictable, and you can go from being held in high regard to being shunned or hated for doing a quest you thought was in the best interests of your faction.

 

If you do this, you get people following you trying to kill you, or telling you to do things to raise your reputation in a certain time period, else they'll kill you (pffft yeah, I doubt that, Anti-Materiel Rifle + AP rounds + Sneak Attack = YOU DEAD, SUCKA!). Caesar's Legion Assassins, or Desert Rangers spring to mind...

 

The big thing that annoys me is the still-not-improved-from-F3 fast travel system.

 

So I'm trying to get around the strip, but I can't fast travel to different casinos. Thus I have to go through about 5 loading screens to do one quest. Annoying.

 

You still can't fast travel inside buildings - why the heck not? Do you walk in a building, go up the stairs and through a door, then forget the way back, as if by magic?

 

The indoor map/waypoint markers are next to useless - what happened to Oblivion, where if you needed to go to a trader or an inn, you could ask a guard and not only would he give you directions, he'd put a waypoint on your compass. Great. Does no-one in New Vegas know where they are, then? Hmmmm... You'd think they would.

 

The different quest paths for the factions are confusing, and you never know if the quest you're on will help your standing with the faction. Which brings me to another gripe...

 

Is anyone else bored of this game mechanic? Go to settlement. People there initially do not like you. Do three different quests for different people to raise your reputation. People now trust you enough to let you solve their main problem. Get given big quest by head of settlement. People now love you. Snore.

 

Ben.

[abbadon101]

Has anyone had the problem with the game being very buggy? I have heard so games are almost unplayable due to the bugs.

[aznriptide859]

It's playable, but the bugs hinder the game from being 100% enjoyable.

[bankz5152]

Havnt had any bugs personally, did get stuck on a wall but thats because i was trying to get somewhere i wasnt ment to

 

And did get stuck with some guy but he eventually vanished. The fast travelling in buildings annoys me, at least you should be able to fast travel to the exit. I hate going down into Vaults getting right the bottom and not having somthing i need! like a higher lock pick skill etc..

[Shardik]

The General bugs dont annoy me as such, its the fact my *fruitcage* game freezes and corrupts the autosave, everytime i try to enter the Vegas Strip. Xbox version needs a bloody patch, and soon!

 

[aznriptide859]

^THAT. Oh my jesus my most recent two saves in Vegas and Freeside have both been corrupted, and my last save after that is when I was 10 levels below :(

 

Otherwise, yes most bugs come from actual hard crashes - there are not really significant ingame bugs.

[Shardik]

Indeed, ive seen a few enemys get caught in the ground, No name NPCs sort of floating accross the ground, but nothing that im pedantic about to even care about, but yes...THE *fruitcage* CORRUPTING SAVES

 

I have not lost 10 levels yet, luckily Ive always saved many times, But I did loose around 4 hours of gameplay the first time it happened.

 

Using the ingame 'Wait' feature and spawning from day to night, or night to day, may actually solve this, I was trapped in one of the casinos and it crashed everytime i tried to step back out onto the strip, I tried this and it then worked, apparantley its a spawning issue, so try that !!

[bankz5152]

Oooo im worried now! Will be saving 10x more frequently!

 

Just remembered, when i first got the game, it wouldnt run kept saying disc error read. Burnt it on to the drive solved the issue.