Giantbomb.com Fallout New Vegas Review - 4/5 Stars

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AlgaeEater

Senior member
May 9, 2006
960
0
0
Playing Very Hard & Hardcore mode - anyone else find melee weapons and unarmed to be suicide? It seems to me that the necessary perks needed to make it "decent" don't come into way later roughly in your 20's, at which point any person with Gun or Energy Weapon skills would have (and still do) pwn face with reckless abandon.

Also since VATS now does not reduce damage (which is actually a nice touch imo) it seems even more crazy to go Melee in hardcore mode.

Survival is also overrated. Seems to me food is plentiful, radiation removal a breeze (a trip to your local doctor makes it even easier), and the HP recovered from food can be stacked regardless of your skill. (Instead of eating one thing, eat 8 things and see your regen rate skyrocket)
 

lord_emperor

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2009
1,380
1
0
Playing Very Hard & Hardcore mode - anyone else find melee weapons and unarmed to be suicide? It seems to me that the necessary perks needed to make it "decent" don't come into way later roughly in your 20's, at which point any person with Gun or Energy Weapon skills would have (and still do) pwn face with reckless abandon.

Also since VATS now does not reduce damage (which is actually a nice touch imo) it seems even more crazy to go Melee in hardcore mode.

Survival is also overrated. Seems to me food is plentiful, radiation removal a breeze (a trip to your local doctor makes it even easier), and the HP recovered from food can be stacked regardless of your skill. (Instead of eating one thing, eat 8 things and see your regen rate skyrocket)

Yeah melee is useless, on Very Hard just about anything is capable of one-shotting the player.
 

TraumaRN

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2005
6,893
63
91
So a little spoiler but you HAVE to do the quest for the Garrets in Atomic Wrangler where you recruit 'escorts' OMG I won't spoil it for you but it involves sex and a robot. The lines were PURE genius. I was laughing my ass off.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,234
142
106
Was crash free for about 41 hours, now it's crashed 3 times in the last 30 minutes. Nothing has changed since the last time I played it except that I'm exploring a part of the map I've never been to before.
 

HybridSquirrel

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2005
6,161
2
81
Was crash free for about 41 hours, now it's crashed 3 times in the last 30 minutes. Nothing has changed since the last time I played it except that I'm exploring a part of the map I've never been to before.

my game is screwed up for good. i've tried all known patch fixes, driver reinstalls/rollbacks/upgrades. even deleting game cache, verifying on steam, ect.

Going to have to reinstall, in which case I might not even bother....since I was 45 hours in
 

Praxis1452

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2006
2,197
0
0
Decided to make my character have high perception and agility, and specced to energy weapons, sneak, and speech(because I love extra dialogue options).

Anyone know where to grab good energy weapons? The first laser pistol and plasma pistol suck against anything with armor so while I'm specced for energy weapons I pretty much resort to using rifles heh.
 

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
At least they seem to be fixing these issues, unlike with Fallout 3!

Good job patching team :)
 

spaceman

Lifer
Dec 4, 2000
17,616
183
106
Decided to make my character have high perception and agility, and specced to energy weapons, sneak, and speech(because I love extra dialogue options).

Anyone know where to grab good energy weapons? The first laser pistol and plasma pistol suck against anything with armor so while I'm specced for energy weapons I pretty much resort to using rifles heh.

take over Van Graafs in Freeside
chem up and go insane..it was tough but the rewards are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i hate this game
im 35hrs in
:(
:)
 

skace

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
14,488
7
81
My char is so lolweak on hardcore/hard. It probably has to do with the 0 DT armor I'm running around in and non-raised weapon skills.
 

slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
I restarted and made it to Primm. Not sure where to go exactly, but I climbed up on a roller coaster and went into what appears to be an apartment building. Killed a few people, took their clothes, and am wandering around aimlessly right now. My best weapon is the 9 mm but it sucks, even though my main specialty is guns.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,234
142
106
I restarted and made it to Primm. Not sure where to go exactly, but I climbed up on a roller coaster and went into what appears to be an apartment building. Killed a few people, took their clothes, and am wandering around aimlessly right now. My best weapon is the 9 mm but it sucks, even though my main specialty is guns.

You can find a single shotgun in one of the houses in Goodsprings. It was pretty helpful for me in that building.
 

JoshGuru7

Golden Member
Aug 18, 2001
1,020
1
0
That Machine is also an excellent weapon available really early simply by visiting the Gun Runners shop. You can get there just following the road and avoiding combat for the most part, and you'll unlock the fast travel so you can warp back to Primm once you're properly outfitted.
 

Rakewell

Platinum Member
Feb 2, 2005
2,418
1
76
That Machine is also an excellent weapon available really early simply by visiting the Gun Runners shop. You can get there just following the road and avoiding combat for the most part, and you'll unlock the fast travel so you can warp back to Primm once you're properly outfitted.

"That Machine"?
 

slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
You can find a single shotgun in one of the houses in Goodsprings. It was pretty helpful for me in that building.

Looked to me like it would count as stealing so I didn't take anything from the homes.
 

AlgaeEater

Senior member
May 9, 2006
960
0
0
My char is so lolweak on hardcore/hard. It probably has to do with the 0 DT armor I'm running around in and non-raised weapon skills.

I hear you.

Having a low DT is bad but I'm not digging heavy armor right now in any shape or form. Regular and Light armor allow me to move around and circle strafe most opponents outside of Deathclaws and Calzors (or whatever those giant flies are called). Med-X is also a lifesaver, since +25DT is god like versus most enemies for a brief time. Add some psycho and you can clear a dungeon if you run around like mad while they're both up.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,234
142
106
Looked to me like it would count as stealing so I didn't take anything from the homes.

I steal everything. So far it doesn't seem to have affected anything. My karma goes down but I don't think that does anything.
 

JoshGuru7

Golden Member
Aug 18, 2001
1,020
1
0
My karma goes down but I don't think that does anything.
When your second character starts out as a bark scorpion you'll see the error of your ways, and the first PC character you stumble across who took the Entomologist perk is going to harvest your poison.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,234
142
106
I don't think Jury Rigging is really as good as it seems, or at least at the point where I am in the game. Right now I'm using the Light Machine gun, the Gobi rifle, and the dinner bell/riot shotgun. Apparently this game considers them in a higher class than most weapons and they can basically only be repaired with other unique/rare/expensive weapons.
 

JoshGuru7

Golden Member
Aug 18, 2001
1,020
1
0
It's extremely useful for me. I use it for things like merging T45d armor into T51b power armor, laser rifles into tri-laser rifles (then selling), etc. The Light Machine Gun and Anti-Materiel rifle can both be repaired with the very cheap Service Rifle, and the Gauss rifle can be repaired with any laser rifle.
 

Rakewell

Platinum Member
Feb 2, 2005
2,418
1
76
OK,

So last night, I sniped a puppy coyote.

Anyone else feel kind of bad about doing this?

:'(
:p
 

AlgaeEater

Senior member
May 9, 2006
960
0
0
I don't think Jury Rigging is really as good as it seems, or at least at the point where I am in the game. Right now I'm using the Light Machine gun, the Gobi rifle, and the dinner bell/riot shotgun. Apparently this game considers them in a higher class than most weapons and they can basically only be repaired with other unique/rare/expensive weapons.

Kinda have to agree, I took it out on my 2nd character. As long as your friend's (or neutral) with the NCR, you basically have quick travel access to someone who has 100% repair rate nearly at the start of the game and for the rest of your journey. I rarely go through 2 weapons through an entire dungeon below 30% quality.

With a measly Barter skill of 30, I still was / is flowing in caps to boot.
 

Gunslinger08

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
13,234
2
81
I played for like 8 hours in my last session and I feel like I got almost nowhere. Wow this is a big game. I can waste an hour or two just exploring a new town and talking to everyone.