Fallout: New Vegas

[Krusader]

No Honest Hearts DLC then.

Been playing Fallout: New Vegas a lot these last days and enjoying it much more than Fallout 3.
Though, I've seen that the saying about Obsidian games is true. "Good story, poor QA". Had the game crash numerous times, seen numerous glitches and had some quests bugged. I've actually started to read the quest walkthroughs on the Fallout wiki to make sure I won't bug anything. Also, the NCR Ranger combat armor which I really want has a potentially gamebreaking bug

[Secura]

I really enjoyed Honest Hearts; the main questline may have been somewhat short, but it was a telling story of Graham's conflict between his old days as Caesar's enforcer and his road to redemption since that time. His character portrayal was great, I particularly enjoyed his opening up to me about:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The need to remove his bandages every morning and apply new ones, the sensation of which is like being burnt all over again... I like the contrast of this to the sins of his past life, which he is still trying to overcome and which the player can assist with when confronting the leader of the White Legs tribe.

In comparison, I wasn't too fond of Daniel, he seemed like a bit of a whiny pacifist, preferring to run away than stand and fight for his friend's ancestral grounds... nor was I much keen on the two tribal followers that you are helped by, their characterisation was a little low compared to the two New Canaanites. However, the best characterisation had to be Randall Dean Clark... you never actually meet the guy properly, but his characterisation through computer diaries was fascinating and some of the best writing I've seen in the series.

The range of equipment is good, though I have to say that one delightful little weapon that you get is beyond broken; A Light Shining In Darkness, a unique variant of the DLC's .45 Auto Pistol, which is FO:NV's equivalent to the Browning M1911, something that Graham mentions himself when saying a Mormon ancestor made it four centuries prior.

Coupled with it's special handloaded .45 Super ammo (30% more damage, -4 DT to target, increased wear and tear) and the new Grunt perk, my DPS with the weapon is 291~ at 100 Guns skill and Lvl.33, which is beyond anything else I've managed to find, including the Survivalist's Rifle (272) and All-American (227), both of which are buffed by Grunt too.

With 10 Luck, appropriate perks (Finesse, Better Criticals, Action Girl, Gunslinger) and equipment (JG's armour, 1st Recon Beret)... well, what I don't kill with Sneak attacks is destroyed with VATs instead. I rarely find myself using my sniper rifle as a result, and it feels awesome to take out deathclaws with a handgun. xD

EDIT: It seems that the 45 Auto SMG has superior DPS (479!), but I'm not really fond of it eating through my handloaded ammunition. >.<

[naut]

Old World Blues?

[Lemur]

Getting fantastic reviews:

Fallout used to be funny. Like, properly laugh-out-loud funny. There are certainly moments of levity in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but the endearingly surreal streak of humour that once made the series stand out has been notably absent since Bethesda took it over. So here's the good news: Old World Blues brings funny back. [...]

The tone of the add-on is evident right from the start, when you're summoned to a desolate drive-in for a midnight show. More than any other modern Fallout episode, this one revels in the sci-fi and 1950s fantasia. It's a tongue-in-cheek romp, part Buck Rogers, part Mystery Science Theater 3000.

This opening scene is incredibly funny, featuring such wonderful dialogue as "Fully erect hand penises!" and "The FORBIDDEN ZONE! Where no brain has EVER entered!" [...]

Usually with these downloadable packs, it's easy to summarise the goodies that players will take away at the end, but in the case of Old World Blues there's simply too much to consider. There's a small, automated apartment, The Sink, that contains nine appliances, each with its own personality and benefits. Revive and upgrade the toaster and it will somehow create a fearsome melee weapon for you. [...]

It all adds up to the strongest expansion in the relaunched series, across both Fallout 3 and New Vegas. The story alone takes a good six or seven hours to play through, and even then there's still enough juice in the tank to warrant a few more just poking around and finding new things. Best of all, it fleshes out the past and teases about the future, setting the stage for Lonesome Road and the end of the Courier's journey.

[naut]

Yey for massive bug in Old World Blues!

My reputation with NCR (idolized), BoS (accepted), Caesar (vilified), Khans (idolized) and Powder Gangers (vilified) all reset back to neutral and using the console to fix it has only a temporary effect. xD xD xD

I love this bug, it's ruined my game. xD

[Greyblades]

I think I'm in love with old world blues. I dont realy have anything else to add.

[rajpoot]

Yey for massive bug in Old World Blues!

My reputation with NCR (idolized), BoS (accepted), Caesar (vilified), Khans (idolized) and Powder Gangers (vilified) all reset back to neutral and using the console to fix it has only a temporary effect. xD xD xD

I love this bug, it's ruined my game. xD

Probably this is what you tried with the console, but incase you didn't

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Posting this since I did not see anything to suggest it was temporary.

The syntax is "setreputation factionid x y" where x = is either 1 or 0 (1 for positive, 0 for negative) and y = the percentage of reputation. Example; setreputation FFAE8 1 0 would set the Boomer Faction to Neutral. setreputation FFAE8 1 100 would make them Idolized. setreputation FFAE8 0 100 would make them Villinized.

Boomer Faction - FFAE8
Brotherhood of Steel - 11E662
Caesars Legion - F43DD
Followers of the Apocalypse - 124AD1
Freeside - 129A7A
Goodsprings - 104C22
Great Khans - 11989B
NCR - F43DE
Novac - 129A79
Powder Ganger - 1558E6
Primm - F2406
The Strip - 118F61
The White Glove Society - 116F16

[LeftEyeNine]

I grab the first 2 DLCs on sale drooling over the thought of when to start off but here comes another DLC.

I can't even get frustrated with my wasteland and its cancerous radioactivity.

[Greyblades]

Ok, I do have something to gripe about, I dont like the weapons much.
The K9000 is way too innacurate to warrant a scope and it's rate of fire is too slow for me to want it over a minigun.
The LAER is just too weak for my taste and well I dont realy like energy weapons to begin with.
The sonic emitter is way, way too easy to dodge and dissapates after 10 meters so using it at range is impossible and using it on a melee enemy is hard enough to hit (The ring is pointless you have to hit the enemy square on for it to work) but I had the robot scorpion varient on and it exploded in my face.
The proton axe is a nice damage dealer but just doesnt feel right, it looks like it should be a non leathal stun weapon so its a bit jarring when a lobotomite's arm comes off with a vwum sound effect.
The throwing proton axe explodes on impact, nice damage, but if you miss you cant get the axes back so you wasted an axe as its seems to have a very small area of effect, not good when finding them is a pain, especially annoying with the unique version which you can only get 5 of.
The scientist gloves are just meh, an oversized rubber glove that doesnt realy feel like it's doing anything when you hit things, still if you are looking to cosplay as the medic from TF2 its awesome.
The X-2 antenna is an electric supersledge with a bonis against robots which is nice when up against the robo scorpions in close quarters.
I didn't use the saturnite fist so I dont have an opinion about it.

Edit: Ok apparantly there are more of the special throwing axes but I never fouind the others still I dont realy like expendable weapons that have limited amount in the entire world.

[Secura]

I adored Old World Blues, definitely the best add-on yet; try running around with Wild Wasteland and taking on those skeletal harness things, nice little Dr. Who reference. :P

The K9000 is way too innacurate to warrant a scope and it's rate of fire is too slow for me to want it over a minigun.

The K900 has a mod that increases it's rate of fire considerably, and can also take .357s JFPs that have reduced spread, negating both of your qualms with the weapon; there is no 5mm equivalent for the Minigun to use, leaving you to choose between Armour Pen or Hollow Point.

This is the reason why I have stopped using All American, because the weapon's DPS with 5.56mm Hollow Point (there is no 5.56 hand load recipe) isn't much better than A Light Shining in Darkness (and the .45 Submachine Gun) using .45 Super Hand Load, which is more readily available since I can simply buy tonnes of normal .45 ammo and then convert it at a weapon's bench. Same applies to the Survivalist's Rifle and it's ammo, it lacks a hand load recipe, so I don't use it.

The LAER is just too weak for my taste and well I dont realy like energy weapons to begin with.

Did you try it with 100 skill in Energy Weapons? While I preferred the Holorifle, it's a good weapon, particularly if you snagged Elijah's own model (of which there are at least two of, out in the Big MT).

[naut]

Probably this is what you tried with the console, but incase you didn't

That's what I tried, it lasted until I fast travelled... =(

Luckily I've got lots of back-up saves and one from 4 or 5 hours beforehand is still hunky dory, but it's supremely frustrating to do a bunch of stuff all over again.

[Prussian to the Iron]

That's what I tried, it lasted until I fast travelled... =(

Luckily I've got lots of back-up saves and one from 4 or 5 hours beforehand is still hunky dory, but it's supremely frustrating to do a bunch of stuff all over again.

Once all my saves except for a few got corrupted; I was level 25 and tricked out where I last stopped, and I had to reload to level 5.

A bit more frustration there I think :P, Though I'm sure we all know that feel.

[naut]

Once all my saves except for a few got corrupted; I was level 25 and tricked out where I last stopped, and I had to reload to level 5.

A bit more frustration there I think :P, Though I'm sure we all know that feel.

That's exactly why I back-up my saves.

Much better going back to level 35 from 38 than all the way back to level 5 (ouch man, ouch).

[johnhughthom]

I haven't even been able to get that far, I've started three times and every one has become unplayable by level 15-16 with constant freezes and crashes, I don't know why as they are always rock solid up to that point. It isn't even as if I can tie it down to a specific location/quest/character/item as I've gone a totally different route each time. I'm going to try again with the new patch and hope that's sorted whatever my issue was.

[Secura]

Currently I've got two bugs that are really irritating me; firstly, I cannot find Loyal anywhere for his contribution to Raul Tejada's personal quest. For some reason, he's apparantly teleported from Nellis to Black Mountain, but he's stuck inside a rock and cannot move, nor can I reach him to even engage conversation. If it wasn't for the fact I still have Caesar's quest to win the Boomers over/kill them, I wouldn't have a clue he was here. >.<

The second bug prevents me from progressing through Veronica's personal quest; when trying to enter the Gibson Shack to access Elijah's notes on the C-Finder/Vault 22/Pulse Gun, the game freezes during the loading phase. It's done this around five or six times now, so I've kinda given up with these two companions for the time being.

EDIT: Alright, found a way around the second one. Once I dismissed Rex, I was able to get inside with no freezing. Darn mutt. :P

[Greyblades]

The K900 has a mod that increases it's rate of fire considerably, and can also take .357s JFPs that have reduced spread, negating both of your qualms with the weapon; there is no 5mm equivalent for the Minigun to use, leaving you to choose between Armour Pen or Hollow Point.

Well now I just feel silly, I wish I had known that before I finished.

Did you try it with 100 skill in Energy Weapons? While I preferred the Holorifle, it's a good weapon, particularly if you snagged Elijah's own model (of which there are at least two of, out in the Big MT).

Eh, I've never really been a fan of energy weapons, any gun that can be dodged mid flight is annoyingly unreliable when shooting at fast melee enemies like cyber dogs. Still, I like a good laser pistol every now and then and a plasma rifle when I'm fighting a slow robot like a securitron but I prefer guns overall.

[Secura]

Well now I just feel silly, I wish I had known that before I finished.

No need to feel silly, I'm just trying to help a fellow New Vegas enthusiast! If you follow the Sink-orientated quests that send you across the Big MT to collect the various upgrades for the place, you'll find the data tapes that allow that big map thing to sell you the mods for the LAER and the K900.

Anyways, I checked online for the Hollow Point numbers for both the K9000 and the Minigun to see which one was actually better:

K900 w/ Mentat Chow & Resla Roil (+40% RoF, +2 DAM)
.357 HP: 50 DAM, 687 DPS

Minigun w/ High Speed Motor & Damped Subframe (+50% RoF, 0.35 spread)
5mm HP: 21 DAM, 670 DPS

The K900 is better against heavily armoured foes since the higher DAM is enough to punch through those increased damage thresholds (due to the Hollow Point's darn x2 DT modifier), but the Minigun's HP ammo is easier to come by than the .357 equivalent since 5mm is sold in larger numbers at Hoover Dam/Gun Runners.

As for the CZ57 Avenger, that tops out at 697 DPS or so with 5mm HP; feels a bit like overkill to me, though. :P

[johnhughthom]

Nerd.

[Secura]

Nerd.

Correction, incredibly bored nerd.

[johnhughthom]

You say big gun go BOOM BOOM?


Sorry, I've been playing with a 1 Intelligence and Charisma character, obviously it's rubbed off on me...

[Secura]

Sorry, I've been playing with a 1 Intelligence and Charisma character, obviously it's rubbed off on me...

I've always wanted to try a 1 Int character, but I always wimp out in the end; I guess the lack of skill points always puts me off. :P

[johnhughthom]

That's the very reason I did it! With the three DLCs pushing the level cap up you can probably easily max your character out, which I find pretty boring.

[Drunk Clown]

About that guy stuck in a rock, can't you just move it with console? Search his character code and then move him to where you are.

I do not own Vegas but I do remember moving people back to Megaton once they are at the center of the map (where they go to when they disappear; you can jump over the wall in Megaton and then find them)

[naut]

Currently I've got two bugs that are really irritating me; firstly, I cannot find Loyal anywhere for his contribution to Raul Tejada's personal quest. For some reason, he's apparantly teleported from Nellis to Black Mountain, but he's stuck inside a rock and cannot move, nor can I reach him to even engage conversation. If it wasn't for the fact I still have Caesar's quest to win the Boomers over/kill them, I wouldn't have a clue he was here. >.<

If you are playing on PC you can fix Loyal's issue, type the following into the console:

prid 000ff26a [enter]
moveto player [enter]

As for the CZ57 Avenger, that tops out at 697 DPS or so with 5mm HP; feels a bit like overkill to me, though. :P

That weapon is boss.

That's the very reason I did it! With the three DLCs pushing the level cap up you can probably easily max your character out, which I find pretty boring.

Easily, especially when you take into account that there are approx 5 skill books for every skill.

[Secura]

That's the very reason I did it! With the three DLCs pushing the level cap up you can probably easily max your character out, which I find pretty boring.

I love the statements that Doc Mitchell comes out with once you've run the Vigor Tester; I think my favourite is "you're so lucky, I'm surprised those bullets didn't look at you and climb back into the gun" or something to that effect, think it requires >7 Luck.

About that guy stuck in a rock, can't you just move it with console? Search his character code and then move him to where you are.

I play the game on 360, so there's no console usage for me; I've just got to put up with it unfortunately. :<

That weapon is boss.

It looks cool, but I find it eats through tonnes of bullets with little extra benefit over some of the more economical choices; for me, ALSiD covers all my short-mid range needs, with Christine's COS Silenced Sniper Rifle for long range. :P

Easily, especially when you take into account that there are approx 5 skill books for every skill.

There's six now, I believe; four in the base game, one in Dead Money and a recipe that allows you to craft one more in Old World Blues.

[Lemur]

Decent video review:

[naut]

Finally a free weekend to actually try the DLC!! xD

[naut]

What's with everything in Old World Blues being soooooooooooooo strong? I'm chewing through rounds, food, stims and chems at a ridiculous rate.

Even nightstalkers are nigh impossible to kill. I don't mind a challenge, that's why I play on very hard, but the pacing seems a little off...

[Kekvit Irae]

A little late to the party, but I definitely agree that Old World Blues is the best DLC for the game, with Dead Money (for the gameplay and stealth) a close second. Honest Hearts is pretty meh unless you are playing on Hardcore mode and raise your Survival (but really, all I needed was 45 Survival for Travel Light). Two-Bears-High-Fiving (via Wild Wasteland) was a brilliant nod to a community modder, and I chuckled at the Advice Dog meme reference from White Bird, but otherwise HH was as stale as 200 year old brahmin steak.

I played as an Energy Weapons girl when I went through OWB, and I'm pretty conflicted about the LAER (and the unique). High damage (especially with Laser Commander), but it has one of the lowest weapon HPs in the game. A couple of shots and I have to repair it again. There is also a major problem with the iron sights being off. I usually stick to the Holorifle for sniping and switch to the LAER when I get in VATS.

But thanks to OLB, I finally got off my butt and made a few mods of my own, including one that makes environmental traps glow brightly. Mines and powder charges not included to avoid making using these weapons unappealing, so be careful around the NCRCF and Ranger Station Charlie.

[naut]

Lonesome Road?

I'm hesitant to say the least. I loved the feel of Dead Money. Was indifferent to the setting of Honest Hearts. And disliked the completely unbalanced enemy strength of the Big Empty. This one could go either way...