Fallout - New Vegas

I'm trying to eek out every bit of New Vegas. I'm picking up all the companions I never used in the game. I was right - Lucy is very annoying. But she can carry so I finally cleaned out Vault 3 and finally got enough suits to make the Vault 21 lady happy. I think the only quest left undone is Boone's mission and I need to use a console command to get it. I did find out that if you leave Cassidy at the casino, go and clear out the Van Graffs, she will eventually make her way there on her own and then walks off.

I also went all around the border to search for hidden bits, but outside of a single shack in the center north east that isn't in any playing guide I know of, it's just nothing - no hidden things, no hidden places, no hidden paths further out. Not even badguys except for some around the giant crater north of the dam. At the end of the game the wastes are sooooo desolate and empty, much more than at the start of the game.

 

To me it seemed that Fallout 3 had more places to explore compared to Fallout: New Vegas.

 

Well, it's mainly due to the setting. But it is true, at least for non-map marked stuff.

Old World Blues will be out on the 19th. Or on Friday. The Steam site says both, which doesn't make sense. That is, if they mean this year - in 2013, July 19 will be on a Friday. Anyway, here's the new trailer. Looks like a cheesy 1950's horror theme. I don't like themes.

There was a giant patch recently, and one thing that really bugs me is now when you have a stack of items, it displays the weight of the whole pile, not just one example in the pile. I really don't like it - if you are balancing on the edge of your weight limit, you need to know how much you save by dropping one item or can carry by picking one up. Now if you have 19 of something and you are 2 pounds over your limit, you have to figure out what is 1/19th of your stack to know how many you should drop. They also made weapon repair kits not repair to 100%. Lame.

 

Just bought Old World Blues. I'll report in the next day or so what it is and how it is.

 

I'm not going to spoil anything - I'm just going to give a few tips for others about to install the DLC:

First, after you get it, confirm the integrity of the STEAM download. Like the first DLC, the updates to Fallout New Vegas will probably give you a corrupt game with missing textures which crashes when trying to do anything related to Old World Blues.

Second, you can bring anything. You should leave at least 20lb free for things you get right at the start, but I'm sure you will be picking up lots of things in the game so leave a hefty margin. Don't bother bringing construction supplies or repair kits and don't bother bringing wimpy guns. It says right off the bat not to enter the DLC if you are less than level 15.

Third, don't start playing it unless you have at least two hours free. No joke. The opening part is extremely dialog heavy, and it will take you that long to get through it. You don't even get to a point where you can save things and quit in the first hour. You actually get 10-15 quests (how many depends on your stats and persistence) in the opening dialogs and solve all but 6 without leaving the main room. Take some Mentats before talking - it will help. Intelligence is most important (up to 9 for some things) as is science (because this is all a '50s sci fi theme) , but barter will get you lots of trinkets and money, speech will let you learn more, guns will get you guns and ammo, and a perk that lets you seduce women may come in handy as well. Well, not so much handy as disturbing.

In the main talk, each speaker has a different type style (one guy all caps, one guy with asterisks around the text and so on). The static is another speaker. There are 5 different speakers in total. I didn't figure this out until much later, which made things confusing. Also, those of you that watch Dr. Venture will recognize one of the voices.

I did not find the "humor" at all humorous. And I'm exhausted after all the talking. But you get a fantastic view of a large flat area to explore, and I'm very optimistic about getting out there and finding things. Just not now.

 

It is a nice area to explore. It's certainly not Point Lookout big, but it's way bigger than Honest Hearts. And there's lots of stuff to see and the buildings are big and densely packed. There's an infinite amount of the stuff you need for weapon repair kits and probably other stuff which I would know if I ever built anything besides weapon repair kits and I don't.

It's really hard. I die a lot. And that really, really sucks because I get a bug where every time I die and it tries to reload, the game crashes. And it's hard not to die. If you get a pack of some kinds of bad guy surrounding you, you can easily lose about 200hp every second. If you are a melee fighter, you are going to have a seriously difficult time. Not that long distance sniping helps - you get one shot, they lose 5% of their health, they alert to you, run super fast during which time you get another two shots max, and they are on you. Some guys you can run away from - I recommend doing that.

There is a bit in a high school which is the scariest thing since the Dunwich Building in Fallout 3 (which is one place I am never going back to. Never. Never ever. Not if you paid me.)

 

Still playing. Not even half way through finding CRASH

stuff. Very, very hard. And so damn buggy. It will crash about three times in an hour of play. It's seriously slowed down my play. I absolutely CRASH

recommend getting this, but just not now. Not until they fix it more.

If it didn't crash so much, I'd say it's probably the best DLC except for Point Lookout. Childish humor? Yes. Forced to CRASH

do someone's bidding? Yes. Contrived setting? Yes. It's still great. Maybe getting to the end of this will change CRASH

my view of it (because the end is important in all things), but so far it is CRASH

captivating.

 

Finished Old World Blues, and I'm much less impressed now then I was early on.

Spoilers ahead.

The issue is that early on you go to the large science buildings at the North, South, East, and West corners, and those are interesting with science stuff you can do, places where you are the experiment, and interesting hints at the history of those places. But the problem is that every other place you find out there lacks those things. They are all the same: small building with interesting name, some bad guys with a head bad guy with a interesting name, and nothing else. No history on computers, no ongoing story, no one to talk to, no explanation of purpose, nothing. For example, the biological experimentation building has a tough spore carrier named "Patient Zero". You can make a cool story around that. It's just begging for one. But you get nothing. Another example: you find a little Potemkin Village in a warehouse that could have been fascinating. I mean, remember what the similar Tranquility Lane construct in Fallout 3 did. But this was absolutely zero. No explanation. No history. No goings on. No one to talk to. Some weird things without a narrative. Not even anything to shoot. It's so disappointing. Really, this thing has so much of what made New Vegas worse than Fallout 3, and none of what made it better.

The main quest is way too thin. The place is really nice to walk around, and there is logic to the structure placement and vehicle wreckage, but there is no logic to the placement of boxes and dufflebags - it's more like the placement of health and ammo in Doom as opposed to the results of past events.

And the so-called humor just gets stupider and stupider. You populate your base with AI's (and one not-so "A" I) and they are all excruciating. And worst of all, you get 15 minutes of forced exposition from every single entity on finishing the main quest.

One thing the game does is explain lots of the things that were going on in in Dead Money. They tell you why things were the way they were around that casino, and what the guys in the mist are. You get lots of hints about the next DLC. You also get a device to teleport to and from Big MT whenever you want, but, again, without any continual play offered by the main game this doesn't mean much.

This is still the best DLC for New Vegas, but it could have been so much more. They get one more chance with Lonesome Road.

 

Lonesome Road just came out. I've been playing a few hours. So far it has an interesting setup and environment. I've been walking around the main area a while, but it isn't really open and it is an absolute mess (underground nukes or earthquakes or something - the ground is upheaved and cars tossed everywhere like toys). It's hard to tell where you've been and where to go and you end up going in circles or leaving buildings unseen. This isn't Point Lookout / Old World Blues.

There isn't much to learn about the history of the place, either. There is one element of past Enclave involvement, and evidence of NCR and Caesar forces, but that's it. Maybe there'll be more later. Ulysses is a long-winded crazy guy. I don't get what the heck he's on about.

Bring guns that work at extreme range. Wear the best armor you've got. You are going to get hits from extreme range by surprise a lot. Locksmith skills are a big benefit. Look in every cranny.

 

Lonesome Road is actually just a lonesome road. No one to talk to (Ulysses just talks at you). No quests. Just keep moving down the path. Deathclaws are Fallout 3 style - fast, jumpy, and one swipe will remove 500HP through power armor. If you don't have the shotgun knockdown perk and a rapidly shooting 12 guage, I have no idea how you can possibly do this. The new super powerful weapons aren't.

I haven't gotten any big answers yet, but it all seems very depressing for the hope of continued human habitation of the western US. Be sure to use your local map feature to not miss things. I used it to find a hidden basement. I was sorry I did. Disturbing and disgusting just for the sake of being disturbing and disgusting .

They were all disappointing for completely different reasons. If you could combine the companions from Dead Money and the newness of the environment and characters of Honest Hearts and the openness and exploration of Old World Blues and the mystery of Lonesome Road, you would get one decent DLC. It still wouldn't be as good as Point Lookout.

If you combine the map of Dead Money and the difficulty and flexibility of Honest Hearts and the characters and companions of Old World Blues and the quests of Lonesome Road, you would get absolute hell.

 

I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out, but I will tell you exactly what Lonesome Road is. It's a First Person Shooter. It's Obsidian's version of Call of Duty or Half Life or Halo or whatever else. There's no base of operations, no freedom, no RPG elements at all. Just a path to follow with trinkets hidden in corners. The only things you meet are things to shoot. And like most of those games, it comes to a place in the story where it totally screws you over in terms of the stuff you are carrying.

It's a difference in story philosophy. The thing is that this is very well polished. It has a new look and intensely complicated design because everything is upheaved. And it's done right because you don't find places where you get stuck, unlike rough areas in F3 and New Vegas (and Lonesome Road is all rough).

Also, it hasn't crashed once.

 

I just wish Obsidian's games weren't notoriously buggy. I would have played FNV a lot more if I didn't have to constantly worry about it crashing.

 

I finished Lonesome Road and it was pretty disappointing. The end didn't really answer anything even though the DLC opens up tremendous questions about your past and the past of the ex-American Southwest. Frustration upon frustration. It was the worst possible way to write a level. I actually missed a big place in the Divide map, and I have no desire to go back and see it (unlike the exploratory based Honest Hearts and Old World Blues, where I made sure I saw everything there was to see). I know it won't mean anything to go there.

And the conversations with Ulysses were horrible. It is the worst example of Obsidian style conversation "trees" that are actually just trunks. Your choices don't mean anything in what he says. And he talks in that psudo-poetic style that sounds profound but doesn't actually say anything.

And what's the point of giving the player stuff for use in the main New Vegas map (like sending you to level 40 just as you return and giving you perks and stat upgrades and stuff at that time)? There's no continual play value in the main New Vegas map for high level players.

It's better than Operation Anchorage, and that's about it.

 

The patch that came out with Old World Blues fixed all the crashing in the main game (although ironically Old World Blues itself crashed a lot).

 

I purchased Fallout 3 GOTY and absolutely loved it and was hoping that Fallout New Vegas will have similar GOTY package, but now I wonder if waiting to play the game is a mistake. I've been dying to play New Vegas, but have been patiently waiting to play to save money - by only buying the GOTY version (when it comes out).

However, I have made it this far - it has to be only a couple months away now, right?

 

Fans of Fallout: New Vegas have something to look forward to - a new fan-made prequel called Fallout: New California. It should be available in month or so. It takes place just before the events of New Vegas, and it takes place in the center of the New California Republic where a civil war is brewing. This really looks exciting.

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/45138/?

Oh, and if you feel like revisiting New Vegas, be sure to get this mod. She is the bestest companion there is.

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/57141/?