Fallout: New Vegas

Jason_McCullough · 2011-09-21T09:23:42.000Z

Gus_Smedstad:

They’re clearly references, but I’m not sure to what.

Clint Eastwood! Unforgiven for “I Ain’t Like That No More.”

Sarkus · 2011-09-21T14:03:14.000Z

Soma:

I’ve finished the main quest, IMO the end is a bit underwhelming.
ahoy!

The main quest is pretty much a “goto X1 then X2, X3 etc.” quest, spliced with EDE background and Ulysses interactions. Both narratives are not that interesting. We already know EDE is enclave tech trying to reach Navarro, from the vanilla game, and the new stuff in Lonesome Road just didn’t add much. In the end, Ulysses’ motivation is a simple grudge, his cameos in the other DLCs overstated his intelligence.

It will be interesting to see if the choice you make at the very end will have material effects on the Mojave, like Broken Steel did to the vanilla Fallout 3 ending.

The new weapons are a bit hit and miss. The new rocket launcher is pretty much a no-go for hardcore mode because the ammos are so heavy. The new unarmed weapon is pretty good though.

On the whole I would rate this DLC maybe the worst of the bunch, on par with Honest Hearts in terms of disappointing narratives. Just as they failed to flesh out the Burned Man, Ulysses here is just boring. It is solid without being memorable.

I’m not to the end, but it feels like I’m pretty close. If so, then its pretty short, though its possible I missed a few things. Not sure what to think about the story at this point.

I did just give the SMMG a try and its not bad at all. I had my doubts given its use of 10mm, but it took down some deathclaws pretty handily.

scharmers · 2011-09-21T15:48:44.000Z

Obsidian probably should have released Old World Blues last. It just stands so much taller compared to the rest of the FNV DLC.

Dawn_Falcon · 2011-09-21T16:00:42.000Z

Eurogamer.net

Fallout New Vegas: Lonesome Road

The final DLC instalment of Bethesda's apocalyptic RPG promises to bring the Courier's story to a close, but does it end with a bang or a whimper?

5/10. Ouch. (Spoilers)

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2011-09-21T16:04:47.000Z

Dawn Falcon:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-21-fallout-new-vegas-lonesome-road-review

5/10. Ouch. (Spoilers)

Woah. Sounds like I’ll be skipping this one. Linear and no sidequests is not why I play a Fallout game.

Dhruin · 2011-09-21T16:09:22.000Z

To be fair, Chris Avellone did say it is intended to be linear:

Fallout 76

Fallout 76 | Our Future Begins

Bethesda Game Studios, the creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76, the online prequel where every surviving human is a real person. Work together, or not, to survive. Under the threat of nuclear annihilation, experience the...

"When setting out, the goal was to deliver a Zelazny-style Damnation Alley experience in the Fallout universe (if you haven’t read Damnation Alley, I highly recommend it, and recommended the same with our DLC team). Marvel did a more recent take on it with Old Man Logan, and that was a great spin on Damnation Alley as well.

In short, the idea for this last DLC would be the player would be contracted to travel one of the most dangerous roads in the wasteland, the goal a linear one - head for the setting sun, starting at point A, and try to survive to reach point B."

Dogar · 2011-09-21T17:35:40.000Z

Just got out of the first underground area and listened to some stoned guy rant about “old world ghosts” for a couple of minutes. Does it get any better from this point on, folks?

mrmolecule88 · 2011-09-21T18:57:34.000Z

Dhruin:

In short, the idea for this last DLC would be the player would be contracted to travel one of the most dangerous roads in the wasteland, the goal a linear one - head for the setting sun, starting at point A, and try to survive to reach point B."

That actually sounds like a nice change of pace from the sprawling mojave, but I think I’m still going to wait for a before I pick this one up.

Dawn_Falcon · 2011-09-21T19:20:27.000Z

Dhruin:

To be fair, Chris Avellone did say it is intended to be linear:

Yes, but for that kind of journey to work, the story needs to be tight, and to properly use literary devices. Think Planescape:Torment. The review description…does not encourage me in that respect.

The trailer half-delivers, which is why I was worried about the actual DLC when that came out. Seems I might have been right too; nuts.

Soma · 2011-09-21T20:18:22.000Z

That eurogamer review is fair, but I always wonder where they magically pull out a score.

I thought about the ending a bit.
aplenty

[spoiler]Ulysses is a different version of Caesar. Both rightly see NCR (and by extension, the US government that led to the nuclear apocalypse) as corrupt, but their solutions are equally cruel. One is to nuke the NCR, the other is to pillage, rape and enslave its way to NCR.

Oh yeah, if your rep with the Legion is high enough, he will freely admit he is with the Legion.

Ulysses likes to talk about history, but it seems like he (or the writers) doesn’t want to learn from history: the most humane, non-violent way forward isn’t a revolution, but evolution. You take what is best from the past, apply the lesson to fix the present, and create a better future.

And NOT press the reset button. When you press the reset button, it is usually a recipe to disaster, e.g. communism “reset” pushing back Eastern Europe and Asia for 50+ years in economic development. (Kind of like the ancient idiotic IT solution to every IT problem: REINSTALL WINDOWS! LULZ!) But also not hold the past as sacred, like some Americans who hold their Constitution as perfect and refuse to evolve. Only God is perfect. Men are not, and by extension, men-made structures can never be perfect. They must change to become better.[/spoiler]

Sarkus · 2011-09-22T02:00:29.000Z

Gus_Smedstad:

Woah. Sounds like I’ll be skipping this one. Linear and no sidequests is not why I play a Fallout game.

Dhruin:

To be fair, Chris Avellone did say it is intended to be linear:

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/vault/diaries_diary15-9-20-11.php

"When setting out, the goal was to deliver a Zelazny-style Damnation Alley experience in the Fallout universe (if you haven’t read Damnation Alley, I highly recommend it, and recommended the same with our DLC team). Marvel did a more recent take on it with Old Man Logan, and that was a great spin on Damnation Alley as well.

In short, the idea for this last DLC would be the player would be contracted to travel one of the most dangerous roads in the wasteland, the goal a linear one - head for the setting sun, starting at point A, and try to survive to reach point B."

I’m not yet done with the game as it has proven to be longer then I thought earlier today. As such, it looks like the length will end up being reasonable.

As for the story, I think there are two problems here, at least based on my current perspective. As I noted before this was released, they have a problem of expectations. The question of Ulysses was set up in the main game and then mentioned in each of the DLCs. Without ruining too much, he is very much involved in all the DLCs in some way. So they have to some how pay that off, but they also have to do that in a way that feels complete. So its linear, yes, but it almost has to be for them to make this seem as epic as they’ve tried to setup.

The other problem, simply put, is that you either “get” Ulysses and care about what he has to say or you don’t. I don’t think the reviewer cared, either because he hasn’t really played all the DLCs or because he simply isn’t enjoying the story for its deeper meaning.

I may have a completely different view when I’m done, of course.

Edit: Finished it, still have the same view. This is a DLC so I don’t expect it to have the same options as the game as a whole. After all, this is effectively an additional sidequest. And there were options at the end that my high speech character was able to use. Granted, the journey from A to B is pretty linear (though there is plenty of stuff you can bypass as well). So I get that complaint, but then again many of the Fallout DLCs can be said to have the same issue. On the whole this was worth my $10.

Sarkus · 2011-09-22T13:15:15.000Z

Soma:

That eurogamer review is fair, but I always wonder where they magically pull out a score.

I thought about the ending a bit.
aplenty

[spoiler]Ulysses is a different version of Caesar. Both rightly see NCR (and by extension, the US government that led to the nuclear apocalypse) as corrupt, but their solutions are equally cruel. One is to nuke the NCR, the other is to pillage, rape and enslave its way to NCR.

Oh yeah, if your rep with the Legion is high enough, he will freely admit he is with the Legion.

Ulysses likes to talk about history, but it seems like he (or the writers) doesn’t want to learn from history: the most humane, non-violent way forward isn’t a revolution, but evolution. You take what is best from the past, apply the lesson to fix the present, and create a better future.

And NOT press the reset button. When you press the reset button, it is usually a recipe to disaster, e.g. communism “reset” pushing back Eastern Europe and Asia for 50+ years in economic development. (Kind of like the ancient idiotic IT solution to every IT problem: REINSTALL WINDOWS! LULZ!) But also not hold the past as sacred, like some Americans who hold their Constitution as perfect and refuse to evolve. Only God is perfect. Men are not, and by extension, men-made structures can never be perfect. They must change to become better.[/spoiler]

My thoughts:

different take

I’m admittedly not clear on the timeline of Ulysses history, but a lot of his reasons simply seem to be about revenge over the Couriers apparently accidental destruction of the community that had built up around the ruins of Hopeville. I was able to use my speech skill to talk him out of launching the missiles at the end and the argument was basically that the Courier couldn’t be held accountable for what happened and that the NCR wasn’t a bad place. That he accepted that nuking the NCR wasn’t the best way to go suggests that his committment to the Legion was not 100%, though I grant that he was clearly intending to do something that would have favored the Legion over the NCR.

Soma · 2011-09-23T00:29:21.000Z

Sarkus:

My thoughts:

different take

I’m admittedly not clear on the timeline of Ulysses history, but a lot of his reasons simply seem to be about revenge over the Couriers apparently accidental destruction of the community that had built up around the ruins of Hopeville. I was able to use my speech skill to talk him out of launching the missiles at the end and the argument was basically that the Courier couldn’t be held accountable for what happened and that the NCR wasn’t a bad place. That he accepted that nuking the NCR wasn’t the best way to go suggests that his committment to the Legion was not 100%, though I grant that he was clearly intending to do something that would have favored the Legion over the NCR.

"

[spoiler]Yes, revenge is supposedly a factor, but then when he hijacked EDE, he pretty much said “LULZ, that revenge angle is just to bait you to bring EDE to me so I can use it to launch an ICBM.” The story here is just weak.

I didn’t fight him and talked him out of nuking NCR, but then the designers still decide to throw combat at me in terms of 10-20 Marked Men.[/spoiler]

This DLC is just a BORE compared with other DLCs in terms of narratives. DLC1 has that sad story with Sinclair and Vera Keyes, DLC2 has the survivalist diaries, DLC3 is awesome all round. DLC4 got nothing in comparison.

The DLC armours are pretty good though, the advanced riot gear is just the best armour in the game, better than desert ranger combat armour because it has skill/stat modifiers. But then the mod community has no trouble making good armours anyway.

Sarkus · 2011-09-23T01:48:35.000Z

Soma:

This DLC is just a BORE compared with other DLCs in terms of narratives. DLC1 has that sad story with Sinclair and Vera Keyes, DLC2 has the survivalist diaries, DLC3 is awesome all round. DLC4 got nothing in comparison.

don’t disagree, really

Having spent some time letting it sink in and reading a bit on the official boards so I could get some things straight, I don’t really disagree on the whole. I have to admit that my heart sank a bit when early on Ulysses says you two have never actually met because I knew then they were going to have a very hard time making a story that I (or my character) would care about. The ED-E side story is interesting and reasonably well done, but it also feels like something they did because the vanilla version of that companion is so uninteresting to begin with.

My biggest post-completion bitch about this DLC is that once you fast travel anywhere from the entrance, the only way back is to go up through the first silo because the lower entrance to that is the closest marker to the exit back to the Mojave. And which now has respawned enemies. Every. Damn. Time. Makes going back for any real exploration or follow up a pain in the ass.

mrmolecule88 · 2011-09-23T09:08:29.000Z

So I’m playing an NCR character to work up to these DLCs, but I just bugged up the Great Khan quest and am completely stuck. They’re all dead (hee hee!) but my previous attempts at reconciliation simply didn’t work and now I have no clue how to fix it. Help?

Sarkus · 2011-09-23T11:57:44.000Z

mrmolecule88:

So I’m playing an NCR character to work up to these DLCs, but I just bugged up the Great Khan quest and am completely stuck. They’re all dead (hee hee!) but my previous attempts at reconciliation simply didn’t work and now I have no clue how to fix it. Help?

Killing them all is considered an acceptable conclusion to the NCR, so simply going back to talk to the quest giver should end the whole thing as a positive from their point of view.

mrmolecule88 · 2011-09-23T13:31:27.000Z

I thought I had done that and I wasn’t getting a chance to complete it, but then I realized I had left one of them alive. Whoops! Thanks.

Jafisob · 2011-09-23T17:35:33.000Z

I loved playing through HH ,OWB, and the base FNV. LR, not so much.

I just finished Lonesome Road yesterday. I found it to be short and linear with a poorly plotted story. I find it telling that I tired of both the dialogue for Ulysses and the tilted floors less than half way through this short dlc. This is despite having a good voice actor for Ulysses and good production values for the levels. The main new critter that was supposed to give me chills? Hahaha, try again.

You may ask, what about the loot dude? The SMMG seems pretty weak, even fully upgraded. If you want to spray bullets, there are better weapons. I never tried the LR rocket launcher. Then again, once you have shotgun surgeon, a riot shotgun, magnum rounds, blood mess, and a good crit build–it’s raining men, literally, parts of men that is. I guess you can’t beat that with dlc weapons without going overboard. The Riot Armors are pretty darn good though. Is the main payoff for this dlc is a nice set of armor and not much else?

I do have one question, can you turn off the damn sneak sight on the helmet?

Jason_McCullough · 2011-09-28T10:46:18.000Z

Gun Runner’s Arsenal is out and has some wacky weapons.

Jason_McMaster · 2011-09-28T10:53:24.000Z

Soma:

That eurogamer review is fair, but I always wonder where they magically pull out a score.

I thought about the ending a bit.
aplenty

[spoiler]Ulysses is a different version of Caesar. Both rightly see NCR (and by extension, the US government that led to the nuclear apocalypse) as corrupt, but their solutions are equally cruel. One is to nuke the NCR, the other is to pillage, rape and enslave its way to NCR.

Oh yeah, if your rep with the Legion is high enough, he will freely admit he is with the Legion.

Ulysses likes to talk about history, but it seems like he (or the writers) doesn’t want to learn from history: the most humane, non-violent way forward isn’t a revolution, but evolution. You take what is best from the past, apply the lesson to fix the present, and create a better future.

And NOT press the reset button. When you press the reset button, it is usually a recipe to disaster, e.g. communism “reset” pushing back Eastern Europe and Asia for 50+ years in economic development. (Kind of like the ancient idiotic IT solution to every IT problem: REINSTALL WINDOWS! LULZ!) But also not hold the past as sacred, like some Americans who hold their Constitution as perfect and refuse to evolve. Only God is perfect. Men are not, and by extension, men-made structures can never be perfect. They must change to become better.[/spoiler]

Eurogamer doesn’t actually seem to like most games.