3941

The survivalist stuff is good, but it isn’t something the vanilla game had not done. What I want to know is, why did the Burned Man become Caesar’s Legate. The in-game explanation given during dialogue isn’t convincing. A translator won’t automagically become a commander. Also given that he is a committed Mormon, or at least some sort of Christian, I just don’t believe at some point during the pillaging and enslaving, he didn’t say to himself ‘this is not what I signed up for, this isn’t the way of God’ and quit right away. He kind of put the blame all on Caesar, but to me, he was as much responsible for the monster that is the Legion as Caesar.

Of course after Caesar set him on fire he became disillusioned and returned to the Mormons, that much is convincing, but this DLC is kind of disappointing because they missed the opportunity to flesh out (hur hur hur) the Burned Man.

3942

I don’t disagree with that - it is not the most convincing explanation. And one thing I continue to notice is the degree to which Obsidian tends to recycle the same basic story ideas in their games. For example, the story in New Vegas about how the NCR Rangers drew the Legion into Boulder City and then blew up the city around them to defeat the Legion forces, suffering some losses of their own in the event. Which is the same idea Obsidian used in KOTOR2 with the whole thing about Revan and Malak drawing the Mandalorians to a planet for battle, then blowing up the planet to defeat them, sacrificing their own forces in the process.

3943

Well, the Burned Man seems like a variety of religious zealot; his spiel is pretty much bog-standard “kill the heathens for their own good and the glory of God” stuff. He does pack a really nice .45 auto though.

3944

PSN’s Qore program has a piece about the next DLC up that has inevitably also made its way to YouTube. It looks like a pretty sizeable facility with above and below ground areas to explore and fun thing like a talking light switch.

Supposed to be out sometime this month, but that date hasn’t been announced and it looks like it will be the latter half of the month.

3945

Finished it. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Thought it was more enjoyable than Dead Money, but they are VERY different approaches. Place was very real. Ending was very satisfying. I like that you can return any time you want.

Honest Hearts has a very different feel and different pace than New Vegas as well. In general, I thought it was more leisurely and relaxing, but there were a few consistently challenging enemies. Unfortunately these harder fights continue to underscore the weakness of the combat system and how there aren’t any drawn-out fights beyond “run backwards and keep shooting”.

I also like the return of the tribals, and appreciate they’re not too Sulik-y.

My companions’ incidental dialog grows old quickly. These guys could learn a lot from Valve’s way of having characters say variations on the same thing (or different things) rather than hammering the same 2 lines over and over.

Having visited Zion canyons as a kid, it was fun to see them again in this way.

3946

;)

3947

FINALLY!

3948

“oh yessss! turn me on. You do it so well…” XD

3949

I think I’m going to finally start playing this tonight when I get home from work.

It has probably already been gone over in this thread before, but I couldn’t find anything:

Is it worth it playing this in the Hardcore mode? I absolutely steamrolled through Fallout – I played on the highest difficulty and I demolished pretty much everything in my path. I would like more of a challenge, but not something that’s going to be an artificial challenge, like the game cheating in the background. What has been the general consensus of the hive-mind regarding the Hardcore more in F:NV?

I’m also looking for some good character builds for a Hardcore playthrough. In the original Fallout 3, I made a sneaking sniper/guns character, and as I said, I didn’t have any problems. I wouldn’t mind playing the same type of character, but I didn’t know what skills to tag and where to distribute my stats if I were to play on Hardcore. I’ve been hearing that you should pump up your STR so that you can carry more (since ammo now has a weight statistic) and END so that you survive more.

I was thinking of tagging something like Medicine, Guns and Sneak, or perhaps throwing Speech in there somewhere, because I never messed with that skill in the Fallout 3. In fact, I think I had my CHA at 1 and just pumped up everything else.

Any thoughts, recommendations or tips on a good build to play through hardcore?

3950

I haven’t played FO3, just New Vegas. I like Hardcore mode for the fact that there is no instant heal, and it also gives a purpose to having some of the Survival and Medicine skills. However, it does make inventory management a bit of a pain. If you can hold off on picking up useless shit to sell (because honestly it’s only worth selling guns that you’re not using), then it does feel like you have some choices to make.

However, I think you have to use one of the interface mods that shows your H20 and Hunger/Sleep status levels on the screen. It’s annoying checking the Pip Boy for that.

I don’t see the point of putting up Sneak… the Stealth Boy item drops like candy and I haven’t found a real need to use it since you can just blow people away. If I were to do a sneaky character, it’d be Melee Weapons/Thrown Weapons/Sneak, or Unarmed/Thrown/Sneak for a challenge.

Other than that I don’t know what else to suggest. I’m only like level 13 or so.

3951

I did my first complete run through on Hardcore. My next forays were without it. I’d suggest starting Hardcore, as you can always drop out of it (but of course not the other way around). Ultimately, the good (non-instant heals, making food and water somewhat important, boosting the utility of Survival) was outweighed by the bad (fiddly inventory management, weight issues, hoarding issues) for me. It didn’t make the game any harder, really, just more annoying. YMMV.

3952

So far at level 16 it hasn’t made the game harder or more annoying for me. It provides just a smidgen more urgency and atmosphere to the game. You have to remember to find water if you’re running low, and getting some rest lets the game breathe a little before zipping to the next fast travel location.

It probably works best if you mostly ignore it early on. That’s what I did and I was always low on water. Don’t try to steamroll it right away.

3953

There is a bit of conflict between Fallout NV hardcore and the weight/inventory. It comes from the fact that is Fallout… but on top of the structure of the Elders Scrolls games: big place with dozens of places to visit, every one of them bursting out with stuff to loot.

There was also a decent amount of loot in the old Fallouts, but not so much.

3954

If I have a gripe about F:NV, it is loot:
There’s too much
It’s stashed in all the fiddly little boxes
The inventory screen is painful

Aside from the lack of realism (really, after 100 years, nobody found this? it still works? is still edible? etc.),

I liked the idea behind hardcore, but it wasn’t hardcore enough for me. Water was the biggest challenge (particularly the weight vs. availability issue) but that’s not saying much.

But I still think hardcore is the way to play.

In my experience, nearly every type of character is viable to play. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed being a melee/unarmed character, because the combat is so sudden (you win or lose very quickly), but it’s at least doable.

3955

It’s 200 years, actually. ;-)

The problem is that there is a conflict between the idea of scavenging in a post apoc setting and Obsidian’s desire to advance the history of the New California Republic. The lead designer admitted that they are beyond a real post apoc setting at this point, but finding pre-war loot is part of the Fallout experience so there you go. Which is why Bethesda tried to “reset” the series by taking it to the east coast and trying to make it all fit under the idea that that part of the world was only just now recovering. Though it still doesn’t really make a lot of sense.

I honestly hope that we are done seeing the west coast in the Fallout world. Its beyond post apoc.

3956

I’d love to see Fallout done at a more immediately post-apocalyptic time point, such as when the vaults were first re-opened. Maybe in the Midwest or NYC or something.

3957

So would I but it doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen anytime soon. Bethesda decided when they took over the franchise that they would start 200 years later and they nixxed proposals by Obisidian to do their game (which wasn’t necessarily always going to be set in Vegas) at an earlier time. Bethesda said it had to take place after Fallout 3.

3958

Are more Fallout games expected? Will they inherit Skyrim engine updates?

3959

Yeah, so I’ve heard. I wonder if that’s to “preserve” the canon or because Bethesda wants to set something in the earlier time period? Ah well.

3960

Why wouldn’t there be? The plan all along has been for Bethesda’s main development team to alternate between Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles. So presumably we will see a Fallout 4 in a few years using the Skyrim engine.