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[Fallout] New Vegas: Ultimate Edition is now out on Steam! Now you have no excuse.
Posts
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
The Pitt is a good one to tackle at this point, as it's pretty linear, and it has a decent story. Nowhere near the level of F:NV DLCs, but it's one of the two I like in FO3 (the other is Point Lookout).
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
I guess I should try the Pitt at some point, but I don't really feel like going for the collect-a-thon bullshit cheevo. How bad is it?
Bad. Not bad as "collect 100 of the thing" quests go, but those are always bad. Use a walkthrough.
Although why it offends me there when they were just as blatant and stupid in ME2's Overlord I'm not sure...
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
That said, as far as I'm concerned, the only truly good FO3 DLCs are The Pitt and Broken Steel (and those two have significant downsides as well). Operation Anchorage is a terribly dull slog through terribly dull areas, all for a boring final setpiece battle (which can easily be exploited for infinite XP) and some game-breaking loot. Point Lookout is one that most people seem to like, but the bullet sponge enemies, teeth-grinding side quests, and the main plot featuring a choice between two characters I absolutely despised left me completely cold. After I finished that I was eager to get out and never go back.
Mothership Zeta was probably the worst game experience I've had in the better part of a decade. Bethsoft tried to really close out Fallout 3 by gunning hard for the Fallout kitsch, but since this was Bethsoft doing it, it was pretty bad. The entire place was too long, too windy, and every corridor looked the same. Every third or fourth enemy was a bullet sponge and enemies were everywhere. Anyone who wasn't an Energy Weapons user was kind of fucked. None of the NPCs ever stirred even the slightest hint of give-a-fuck in me. And to top it off, the final setpiece battle was just awkward and embarrassing.
Edit: And the Pitt steel bars aren't that bad. They're kind of obnoxious, but you'll find most of them through normal playing. The wiki guide for it is really good if you hate doing collect-a-thons and just want the stuff. I'd consider consoling the bars in acceptable too.
Steam | TF2 inventory
New Vegas is smaller in every way, but it feels more coherent and the dialog doesn't make me cringe.
I enjoyed the hell out of Saints Row the Third, which is so sexist it's funny, but there's a level of awareness about it. Fallout 3 comes off as if it was written by people whose only interactions with a female came from movies. And the quests don't even make sense.
Bethesda put together a staggeringly large game with an impressive level of detail, but man I wish they'd invested in some decent writers.
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
I'm playing it now, and I'm not really feeling it. It has failed to grab in quite the same way. Might be the general atmosphere or the setting.
All know for sure is I don't much care for the main quest line at all. None of the major factions appeal to me much.
I've enjoyed the side quests, the improved gunplay and crafting system, and the companions. The DLC I've played so far (Honest Hearts, Old World Blues) has been fantastic, but there's just something that's keeping from liking the game as much as FO3.
Maybe I'm just a fool.
It's more like 10 or 20 years after the fall than 200...but fuck realism. We have SCIENCE!
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
NV definitely uses terrain to funnel the player, such that it's not always viable to just pick a direction and go until you hit something. I know complaining about invisible walls is just nit-picking, but I did notice them more often in NV. Not that much, mind you, and random acts of cazador were a more serious threat to exploring, but I digress.
I've jumped into this topic before - NV has more logical design whereas FO3 has an inherently more interesting setting, to summarize my opinion - but I would like to add that I like the core gameplay so much that you could probably copy-paste it into other settings and I would still buy the shit out of it. Like, even the mediocre-to-bad DLC got me to replay the games because the games themselves are still fun as hell. "Ah, the DLC's a wash. Oh well, I guess I'll go back to launching piles of hats into the sky with chains of explosives."
In hindsight, this may explain why a big chunk of my backlog originates from early 2009 to mid 2011. D:
I write for these people. Just reviewed: Drox Operative
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Guys, I've completely cleared out the entire building. You can waltz on down using the stairs. You don't need to sweat the elevator!
Argh.
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
According to the Fallout Wikia, Vulpes Inculta is supposed to approach you when you leave The Tops. But this didn't happen. Do you have to finish Ring-A-Ding-Ding! first? Or is something broken? (And no, I never killed Vulpes Inculta.)
Yeah, I believe you have to finish Ring-A-Ding-Ding! first before you can get that. The wiki says he's supposed to approach you because it assumes you did something to resolve RADD while you're in the Tops.
Steam | TF2 inventory
I feel exactly the opposite: F3 did the least interesting possible thing with the setting. It was full of interesting little set pieces areas and dungeons that were often compelling (although even there, the limited quality of the writing hampered them some), but the world as a whole was as paint by the numbers a post-apocalypse as possible. (And as I've said before, I'm not a big fan of Skyrim either. It feels incredibly shallow to me, like a rain slick the size of the pacific ocean).
I just don't know which to use. D:
Steam | TF2 inventory
*trollface*
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
Steam | TF2 inventory
LOOKS LIKE ILL HAVE TO PLAY THROUGH NEW VEGAS AGAIN
Maybe I'll actually get around to modding the game. It just felt...wrong not playing as intended? Maybe I'm way into the mindset of old console JRPGS where you powergamed with what you were given so it feels more legit to make due with the vanilla game
its a powerful urge to fight
LoL: Nerf Love
Steam: TIFunk
I mean it's your game that you (presumably) paid money for, and the Fun Police isn't going to come knocking on your door to sentence you to 400 hours of playing unmodded Oblivion for not doing it The Way It Was Meant To Be™ or anything.
Steam | TF2 inventory
Vanilla runs for the first time is good to see what the game is, but after that..You must serve the wall.
All glory to the wall, Blessings upon its every filled hook.
Take solace in the fact that you'd have a hideout with The Greatest Wall ever to put your weapons on, that sorts your stuff and shelves them, and isn't some ramshackle Motel 6 like your friends are using, all drinking radioactive toilet water and storing their weapons next to the free bible in the Nightstand. You add an awesome Hideout mod, and you won't be forced to drink from the toilet, you'll be all upper class and will only drink from it when you feel like it.
Buttcleft has the right of it. The first run or two, yeah, definitely do vanilla for the experience. Afterwards, what's stopping you from adding the really neat things, getting rid of the vanilla annoyances and bugs, or whatever your heart desires
*cough*nudemods*cough**cough*shiny guns*cough*.I agree. It's been a long time since I've played fallout 3, but the vaults there were the worst. Vault 11 was HOLY SHIT AWESOME, Vault GARRRY GARRRY not so much.
#FreeScheck
#FreeSKFM
I hold my pinky out when I drink from the toilet. I also swirl the water around to sniff its bouquet first. Sometimes I even flush it because it doesn't have the right notes of shoe leather, tobacco, and muti-fruit.
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
Wait, Skyrim is shallow, but New "Makes me wish for a nuclear winter." Vegas isn't?
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Remind me to look for top hat, monocle, and teacup mods later. That'd make an excellent screenshot.
With the disclaimer that I haven't played Skyrim, but I expect it's similar to Fallout 3 and Morrowind...Bethesda does immense, detailed, but shallow worlds very well. Excellent for dudes that like exploration (I like exploration). They suck at story-telling and characters; the writing is dreadful. New Vegas has its ups and downs, but they were able to put together coherent stories, the dialog's decent, and it feels like a one world, not just random places plopped down in the middle of a map. Of course, New Vegas isn't nearly as large as Fallout 3--there's a price you pay for spending money on writing.
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
Skrim is actually pretty deep. I mean, I've never played a game before were random NPCs will comment on my armor and berate me for dumping my weapons on the ground. The writing is alright, with a few standouts. Certainly better then Oblvion and definitley better at pacing then Morrowind. The world feels quite cohesive as well, with the land naturally flowing from one landscape to another, with settlements in logical places.
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I haven't played skyrim either, but Fallout 3 was a nicely designed large world, without a lot of well written content. Some of the content was (Little Lamplight, Big town, all of the vaults) facepalmingly terrible.
#FreeScheck
#FreeSKFM
I dunno, I liked Vault 101 and Raven Rock. I think 3 had a more interesting map to explore thanks to a larger prevelance of landmarks, and better captured the retro futuristic feel that I love about Fallout as a setting. I know the main plot of 3 was weak, but frankly, so is the main plot of NV. NV especially had a really weird, disjointed quality to it. For the first half of the game, it's a really cool chase. A story of revenge against the man that tried to kill you. It matters to you. A man in a checkered suit fled across the desert, and the Courier followed. But once that's done the plot shifts to political bullshitting and fetch quests bouncing you from one location to another. That really doesn't matter to me, personally. Whoever runs New Vegas means jack shit to the Courier as a character. At least in 3 the Wanderer always had a reason to go out and do the main quest.
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http://diogenes-lamp.info/jsawyer_fnv_mod.zip
These comparisons don't make any sense to me. Well, Satan does "somewhat" if we replace Cesar with Lanius but even that seems weird.
Though, that comes down to with what someone associates with these three names in the first place sooo YMMV.
I would certainly agree though that certain parts surrounding the main choice were the weakest in the game.
The 2012 issue of Fornax. | Steam and Origin: Espressosaurus
Looking forward to the changes he decided to make
LoL: Nerf Love
Steam: TIFunk