It’s definitely a game that just grabs you by the lapels and shakes you around saying, you will explore! I have had a copy of New Vegas for a couple of months but I held out on starting a game, partly because of the bugs I had heard about and partly because Fallout 3 ate up so much of my time. But once I finally did fire up NV I remembered – oh yeah, that’s why I spent a hundred hours in the wasteland. There’s just so much to do and see, you just have to get out and wander.
Exploring is definitely worth doing. At the very least do every side quest, even the “unmarked” ones. Trying to clean out the quarry is very challenging, for example.
That said, there really isn’t nearly as much in the way of stuff to explore as Fallout 3. There’s nothing like the Dunwich Building, nor are there things like the school house and Bethesda Softworks Ruins every where you turn.
Probably because the best content and world interaction is concentrated in that 1/3rd.
That is some weak-ass trolling, son.
Squee
3745
Just finished Dead Money, great stuff. Took me somewhere around 8-10 hours to get through, listening to all voiceovers and exploring fairly heavily. Slightly disappointing that you lose all your gear, but it made for a tense moment or two. At first I thought I was completely loaded on equipment from scavenging, but as I got deeper into the adventure things got trickier. Villain was great, up to snuff with Fallout 1’s Master and FNV’s Caesar. The party members were quite well done too. My only real complaint is there seems to be less choice than in most of FNV, though I suppose that could be just because of the circumstances too.
Overall I’d say it was better than any of the Fallout 3 DLC, Point Lookout included. Even with Dead Money taking your gear away, I liked the area design, the difficulty, the story behind the area, the villain, the whole shebang. Excited for the next 3 DLC.
I don’t eat every item at a buffet either.
Regardless, 30% out of a big sprawling game is pretty good. I got 33% in JC2 and was happy with that.
How do you know what fraction of locations you’ve revealed? Is this an in-game stat?
In Fallout or JC2? In Fallout I figure people are estimating it. In JC2 it’s a stat on the screen.
Just finished Dead Money, after about 6 hours of playtime. I really enjoyed it overall. The “city of the dead” environments were suitably creepy and I thought the characters were really well done. Some of the gameplay got a bit annoying, particularly the beeping collar stuff and the ghost people, but it wasn’t hard enough that it made me want to rage quit. I did end up just running past the ghost people in some spots because I didn’t want to fight them without a companion.
Dead Money is well worth the time and $$$, and I’m really excited for the next 3 DLC packs!
Where is Arcade Gannon?!
I need to find him so I can tell him to go away so I can get Boone back. Game isn’t enjoyable without Boone. :(
Generally Arcade is found at the old Morman fort in Freeside.
Nawid_A
3753
Oddly enough Arcade was glitched outside of a Freeside gate. Got Boone back so the game is enjoyable again. I guess I just really dislike Fallout combat.
Sarkus
3754
Boone’s story was my favorite, though it is oddly paced. That made it hard for me to part with him and try other companions later in the game.
Boone has the most interesting, complex side quest, though the reward is neigh-worthless - you really want to do it just for the experience of doing it. Cass’s is #2, but all her booze-hound talk irritated me so I went back to Boone immediately. Arcade’s quest, despite being time consuming, is also remarkably boring.
I went with Boone for the first half the game. Then I decided to try Cassie. I love her! She is blood thirsty and quite good with a rifle. I armored her up, gave her a bad ass rifle and we did her side quest the dirty way. I felt kind of bad, but sometimes revenge is good!
I could never go back to Boone now. He is just so silent and boring.
Kunikos
3757
I have to say that not allowing you to bring your companions seems like a pretty big limitation of how they are implementing it. I noticed on the Fallout Wikia that Veronica has a whole bunch of things you have to talk to her about after Dead Money.
Sometimes silence is golden. After about the 40th time that Arcade said “don’t treat me like a pack Brahmin,” I wanted to tattoo “I AM a pack Brahmin” on his forehead.
What I love about Cass is the Whiskey Rose perk. With the amount of booze lying around in the game, it’s like having a permanent strength and charisma boost.
Not really. If by “whole bunch of things” you mean a few lines, then yes Veronica has a lot to say after Dead Money. Companions make combat too easy (which is fine in the Nevada desert), but would completely undermine the stealth and difficulty of larger self-contained missions like Dead Money.
I never once wanted Veronica with me when I was at the Sierra Madre.
