Fallout New Vegas

[Fanatical Meat]

Holy balls its a great game. I should have listened to everyone here and picked it up earlier. I'm going in old school no restarts.
Unfortunately I should have put more points into lock pick.

 

[Revolution 11]

For me, half the fun is getting a optimized build, running all the way to New Vegas after the prologue to get all the implants, and blasting all the enemies with easy headshots for the rest of the game. But there are many paths to this game so you are not completely wrong.

Welcome to the game. It is really good until the late middle game but picks back up at the endgame.

 

[Lil Frier]

I'm waiting for the next Steam sale, then I'll probably grab the Ultimate Edition, along with the GotY Edition of Fallout 3 (which I have on 360 already, but I might be selling my 360 soon).

 

[werepossum]

Holy balls its a great game. I should have listened to everyone here and picked it up earlier. I'm going in old school no restarts.
Unfortunately I should have put more points into lock pick.

There're also tons of great upgrades to make it prettier, harder, and add more content.

 

[shortylickens]

Holy balls its a great game. I should have listened to everyone here and picked it up earlier. I'm going in old school no restarts.
Unfortunately I should have put more points into lock pick.

You should have started with a Intelligence of 10, then got the perks for extra skill points as early as possible.

 

[Mopetar]

You should have started with a Intelligence of 10, then got the perks for extra skill points as early as possible.

With all of the expansions you don't need 10 Intelligence to max things out. I think that with all of the skill books you can even max almost everything out by level 30. Also, if you have 10 Intelligence it means you can't get the implant.

 

[Rakewell]

Yup... Great game indeed.

Second time you play it through, mod up!

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yep, play through once with the "vanilla" game. The only mod you might want is Mission Mojave Ultimate Edition (MMUE) for all of the bug fixes.

nexusmods.com for thousands of FO3 and FONV mods.

 

[shortylickens]

Yep, play through once with the "vanilla" game. The only mod you might want is Mission Mojave Ultimate Edition (MMUE) for all of the bug fixes.

nexusmods.com for thousands of FO3 and FONV mods.

Definitely one playthrough without crap.
But eventually you will come to appreciate things like automated sorting, and a hundred new weapons, and restored recipes for all the ammo. More perks. Better textures.

Cool shit like more locations and new quests should probably come later.

 

[Moe Zart]

It's an okay game.
I thought Fallout 3 was better.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

After playing through the main Fallout 3 campaign and Broken Steel again with Tale of Two Wastelands that's my opinion as well.

I'd use YUP over MMUE for fixes. MMUE makes all my games saved while using it crash if I try to load them with it disabled.

 

[Revolution 11]

It's an okay game.
I thought Fallout 3 was better.

For me, Fallout 3 was actually more scary, more intimidating, and harder. It felt more like I was in a post-nuclear war America. The atmosphere was nailed perfectly.

But New Vegas's story is better fleshed out, more and better side quests, more references to the original Fallout games, better game balance, and more character development (relatively). Aiming down sights is fantastic, I can't go back to Fallout 3 just for this alone.

And New Vegas actually tries to explain how the people in its world survive in a lightly irradiated post-nuclear desert. You see farm animals and crops and running water and supply caravans and regular zones of military or gang control. In Fallout 3, there is just static locations with people in the middle of nowhere surrounded by zones of evil monsters.

"How did you get past all the super-mutants that kills entire conveys to set up a town that requires building materials from all over the map?" is a question that ruins game immersion for me.

 

[DefDC]

Played this game through on it's release, and I keep coming back. I just started a new playthrough with YUP and the "Afterschool Special" mod. Seems very interesting, but I haven't completed the school mission though. If it does, what it says it does, I'll be very happy! (The school becomes your home and personal science/crafting lab)

I love Bethesda exploration games, and I really love the Fallout universe. FNV is one of the best games of all time, IHO. I loved FO3, but FNV is just more, bigger, better. Maybe FO3 had a slightly better atmosphere, but NV has so much more.

I can't wait to see FO4.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Funny I am honestly sad there was not an option to save the kid napped ranger from the outpost. I'm doing my best to avoid reading about the quests, I think I'll wander the wasteland tonight around Nippon to see if I can find her.

 

[Moe Zart]

For me, Fallout 3 was actually more scary, more intimidating, and harder. It felt more like I was in a post-nuclear war America. The atmosphere was nailed perfectly.

But New Vegas's story is better fleshed out, more and better side quests, more references to the original Fallout games, better game balance, and more character development (relatively). Aiming down sights is fantastic, I can't go back to Fallout 3 just for this alone.

And New Vegas actually tries to explain how the people in its world survive in a lightly irradiated post-nuclear desert. You see farm animals and crops and running water and supply caravans and regular zones of military or gang control. In Fallout 3, there is just static locations with people in the middle of nowhere surrounded by zones of evil monsters.

"How did you get past all the super-mutants that kills entire conveys to set up a town that requires building materials from all over the map?" is a question that ruins game immersion for me.

I don't know, the Fallout 3 quests felt more meaty, there was less of them but they felt higher quality and more engaging.

And though some things didn't make sense at all, like the Pulowski Preservation shelter, the writing and dialogue overall felt smarter.

Also about the Iron sights, it was originally a mod for Fallout 3, they just ported it into New Vegas:
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/6938/?

 

[werepossum]

For me, Fallout 3 was actually more scary, more intimidating, and harder. It felt more like I was in a post-nuclear war America. The atmosphere was nailed perfectly.

But New Vegas's story is better fleshed out, more and better side quests, more references to the original Fallout games, better game balance, and more character development (relatively). Aiming down sights is fantastic, I can't go back to Fallout 3 just for this alone.

And New Vegas actually tries to explain how the people in its world survive in a lightly irradiated post-nuclear desert. You see farm animals and crops and running water and supply caravans and regular zones of military or gang control. In Fallout 3, there is just static locations with people in the middle of nowhere surrounded by zones of evil monsters.

"How did you get past all the super-mutants that kills entire conveys to set up a town that requires building materials from all over the map?" is a question that ruins game immersion for me.

Me too. One of the "towns" in Fallout 3 was merely some houses on an overpass. Food plots in New Vegas may be laughably small in most cases, but at least they are making the attempt. Voice acting (with the notable exception of Three Dog and Falkes whom I loved) was also much better in New Vegas.

 

[werepossum]

Funny I am honestly sad there was not an option to save the kid napped ranger from the outpost. I'm doing my best to avoid reading about the quests, I think I'll wander the wasteland tonight around Nippon to see if I can find her.

Both games had a lot of things that made no sense, like the Fallout 3 ghouls who were turned back from the Underground by the supermutants. You have no way to tell them the way is now clear or to take them there, so they just hang around until inevitably they die one by one.

 

[shortylickens]

None of the towns in Fallout 3 or New Vegas felt very big. That has something to do with the post-apocolyptic wasteland feel, but is mostly due to the gamebryo engine and its limited ability to have a butt ton of NPCs on screen at one time.

All the mods I've seen that add people to the game make it chug along like a slide show. And its not the graphics, its the AI that needs loads of processing power.


Skyrim was no better. The biggest town in the land only had about 40 residents. Thats considerably smaller than most college frat houses.

Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 had more people, but they have few if any scripts, so its not like the CPU was being taxed.

 

[Bateluer]

None of the towns in Fallout 3 or New Vegas felt very big. That has something to do with the post-apocolyptic wasteland feel, but is mostly due to the gamebryo engine and its limited ability to have a butt ton of NPCs on screen at one time.

All the mods I've seen that add people to the game make it chug along like a slide show. And its not the graphics, its the AI that needs loads of processing power.


Skyrim was no better. The biggest town in the land only had about 40 residents. Thats considerably smaller than most college frat houses.

Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 had more people, but they have few if any scripts, so its not like the CPU was being taxed.

Thats a limitation of the console hardware they built the games on. You can't do a massive city filled with buildings, people, quests, and other assets when the console only 256MBs of RAM and another 256MBs of VRAM. There are mods for Skyrim, such as Interesting NPCs and Inn mods that add many NPCs to the game without any slow downs, provided your hardware isn't a complete turd.

 

[Revolution 11]

None of the towns in Fallout 3 or New Vegas felt very big. That has something to do with the post-apocolyptic wasteland feel, but is mostly due to the gamebryo engine and its limited ability to have a butt ton of NPCs on screen at one time.

All the mods I've seen that add people to the game make it chug along like a slide show. And its not the graphics, its the AI that needs loads of processing power.


Skyrim was no better. The biggest town in the land only had about 40 residents. Thats considerably smaller than most college frat houses.

Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 had more people, but they have few if any scripts, so its not like the CPU was being taxed.

If I remember correctly, KOTOR 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1-3, and Witcher 1 and 2 all had a lot of NPCs. I hope Fallout 4 has proper towns, at least on the level of its competitor games, and a much less buggy game.

 

[shortylickens]

Yeah but again most of the civilians you saw standing around in KOTOR did absolutely nothing.
The people in Skyrim not only walk around and talk to each other but also work on whatever is handy, and occasionally engage in arguments and fights. Sometimes random bandits jump random people way out in the middle of nowhere.

Unnamed thieves will also try getting away with the odd crime in public, but for some reason I only noticed that happening in Riften.

 

[futurefields]

I really hope thats one of the areas they are able to improve next-gen is NPC's.

The RAM is there but who knows if the CPU's are up to it.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I really hope thats one of the areas they are able to improve next-gen is NPC's.

The RAM is there but who knows if the CPU's are up to it.

Ultima 7 had the best NPC AI and that was 20 years ago. They would go to work, go to the local inn, go to bed but before doing that they would walk around the house closing windows and extinguishing candles etc. Hell, some of them would bake their own bread (with raw ingredients)

20 years later and we've gone backwards.

 

[shortylickens]

Ultima 7 had the best NPC AI and that was 20 years ago. They would go to work, go to the local inn, go to bed but before doing that they would walk around the house closing windows and extinguishing candles etc. Hell, some of them would bake their own bread (with raw ingredients)

20 years later and we've gone backwards.

Not backwards. They just didnt put as much effort into it as the graphics and sound.

MOST games have shit AI these days. The big money is in online play and publishers make devs focus on that cuz it gets more sales. Sadly even single player games take that attitude.
We COULD have amazing freakin AI nowadays if someone would actually put try hard.

 

[Revolution 11]

One barrier to good AI is that the complexity and sophistication of the AI code is not linked closely with the effectiveness and "cleverness" of the AI. Instead, smart AI is more closely linked to game design and environment. Developers often don't get this distinction and make the mistake of putting countless hours into AI coding which results in a mediocre AI instead of considering how the design of the game affects AI.

For example, take Rome 2 Total War. Supposing that this POS was actually worked on like a real AAA game, the AI code must be very complex to deal with a fully 3D battlefield. Yet the AI brain is quite horrible, unable to perform even basic maneuvers.

On the other hand, a Paradox game like Hearts of Iron has AI parameters that can be simple. A code line to make divisions attack empty provinces, to attack provinces where the enemy is weaker, to defend provinces surrounded by stronger armies. All of this can be done easily. Yet the end result is far more compelling and realistic.

AI tends to improve per hour of developer time if the game design is limited in some way, Hearts of Iron being effectively turn-based on a micro scale with set provinces, no free movement, and set lanes of movement. Something like Rome 2 Total War's free unrestricted is harder to code for.