Tigranes

food/water/sleep meters are very, very, very relaxed.

Yeah, I think it would really have helped if the Legion were less 'graah har har we kill people and take slaves' throughout the game. Nipton at least had an eery sense of an invisible hand dictating what happened. One problem might be that you don't really get a lot of mouths for the Legion compared to the NCR, etc. We see very strict set of rules in the Legion, actually. Whereas with the NCR you have bureaucracy and knowing noncompliance.

I know. This has been a long debated topic in the FO community, esp. regarding FO3. My point is that they still wanted to tell a story where the pre-war, both in memory and in such physical ways, still looms over wasteland life, and they seem to have made a conscious decision to 'freeze' the wasteland, if you like, for a bit longer for that sake. You can argue they should have set it earlier, for FO3 or FNV, and I'd agree. But clearly they wanted to show a more advanced form of postwar civilisation whilst the prewar is still dominant physically, and decided the value of such a setting is worth a little time fudging. I think it's a good idea, I'm not sure it would still feel Fallouty otherwise.

I won't say how, but you can sneak and rob the BOS armoury without triggering any alarms... the only question is, how to carry all the power armour out? Harlequin, there's a nice in-game explanation for why Vegas structures (which would be the most fragile) are so well kept. As for other buildings, well, it is indeed a stretch, but if you want to tell the story of people who are still tied to pre-war stuff, then you have to assume that some things are still standing. But there are some nice touches; vegetation coming back in a couple of areas , ingame NPCs researching medicine as they realise prewar caches of stimpack are running out , etc.

What *is* Caesar's 'noble goal' though? I killed him because my character genearlly approved of the NCR (though bureaucracy is death) and even when he went all the way to the fort he was just getting pushed around and wasn't getting no real explanation. I never went to Nelson except to attack it with the NCR, btw, but I expected Caesar would have something to say when I met him. Anyway, main reason I didn't want to kill Benny was because I didn't want to shoot him just because Caesar said. It wouldn't be my revenge or justice or whatever, just Caesar confirming his authority. I'll do a don't-care-about-this-bloody-wasteland playthrough after this one and see if I get more out of Caesar. I never found the place to hand in the caps at the factory, oddly. I think I have dozens of those.

Was at the Fort. On one hand I was very disappointed not to get an exposition from Caesar about what the Legion was about, but on the other hand I liked the feel of the place and loved how I was put on the spot of killing Benny. I couldn't bring myself to, so trapped the entire tent with a dozen C4, barely survived killing Caesar & Co., released Benny (who promptly got himself killed anyway) then Stealth Boy'd it out of there just barely. Of course, then I had to go BACK there for the quest to persuade the Great Khans, but with a Legion disguise most people seemed not to notice. I think it does get a bit bugged when the various reputations get so convoluted - X asks for alliance with Y and you have a quest going on with Y about that already and you need to go to faction Z and so on - but then, I think of this game as pretty Gothic-style in that way and with so much faction reactivity going on you can't help but get some wonkiness. I've been helping the NCR all the way, though I wavered on one point when I didn't want to turn in the Rangers' boss (didn't think he'd shoot hisself, either), but then I'll probably want to take Vegas for myself. About to do some BOS quests then take out Mr. House, though again I hope I get to find out more about his motivations and plans before he crocks it.

As someone who's never been to any of FO's settings I couldn't care less about that angle, but reading up it's really nice how much effort each game, to varying degrees, makes to match the RL setting. I did think some areas of FO3, like the Museums, were very nicely done. But in the end what's important is whether a location has interesting in-game story & stuffs to do. I do think some FNV areas are fairly write-in stuff for the universe by now (Ghoul Cult was arguably the low point), but overall I think FNV is so markedly superior in two very important areas; 1) In general, each area has so much more stuff to do, more fun things to do, and more meaningful things to do; 2) In general, the world as a whole is knitted together so much better - while some of the 'go to 4 locations all around the wasteland' quests can be annoying, you quickly see that all these NCR depots and forts and towns strung across each other are all positioned in a meaningful way, the reason they are there, have that many men, have X types of difficulties, etc all make sense, so on and so forth. Anyway, reaching 40 hours now and it does look like it's not over yet, and I know I've missed huge swathes of the wasteland. I went to the Fort, and that was pretty well done, though I can see why the Legion is not as compelling as it could be. Nearly Level 30 now and think I can see the final confrontation building up.

I don't want to bash, I just want to jump in and ask: Castillon? Really? :/

I tackled them on properly when I was about level 24, with Boone, after picking up a Sniper Rifle from the Gun Runners. The great thing was because they're so fast and tough, if you're surprised by them then they could still tear me apart, but if I got the drop on them I could take down 3,4 within seconds. I have the perk thati ncreases sneak attack critical damage by 20%, so after a while, with AP ammo I was one-shotting young deathclaws as soon as they came into field of vision. The bloody cadazors are a different story - I found about ten of them near the I always think about going for a melee/unarmed character but just can't get into it, in any Fallout. It just doesn't make any sense to me that you'd go kung-fu fighting against people with machine guns and come out tops. I'm thinking explosives then pyromaniac perk next time, then go full evil - FNV quests seem to give you a lot of options to royally screw over several communities.

There are a lot of quests for the Boomers, though you don't need to do all of them. I'm pleasantly surprised that even after finding the Strip and doing everything I can do there, there are tons and tons of quest hubs and towns and whatnot going on. Seriously, this game is more full of real content than pretty much any RPG in the last 5 years. On approach, I used up all my locksmith readers to get through the nearby tunnel, thinking it would give me a safe way to reach them, but

Same, of course, being in New Zealand. This is on my list to buy once I get through FNV a bit, maybe around Christmas time. Impressions anyone?

Whether you like Steam or not, this was always in the cards and was coming a mile away. Steam has a very clearly defined and very blatantly pursued growth strategy of conquering this new and emerging market. It got many gamers on its side by avoiding more controversial or obstrusive features in its early years and offering lots of sales, and then gradually began to make stronger moves, into exclusives, Steamworks, etc. OP is unclear because it seems to talk about "retailers" as direct download services, as opposed to brick and mortars? Which is it talking about? In any case, the latter are fast becoming irrelevant for anyone who really likes games. They are slow, they are often not friendly, their selection is almost idiotically poor and their pricing is uncompetitive. The real question now is whether, no matter whether you like Steam or not, you are happy with Steam steamrolling (haha) its competition aside in the near future and becoming the one and only stop-shop for PC gaming. Because that's what it's trying to do. I can think of one instance where Steam is preferable, by the way, even though you all know I hate it - when the developers make their in-house solutions even more annoying (Bioware is getting close). But seriously, if you look at it with any kind of medium/long-term view, DD places like Gamersgate are infinitely more worthwhile to preserve than Steam. People are fine with Steam for now because it seems convenient (unless your gaming habits don't coincide with the exact templates that Steam has laid out for you...) and gets you good sales. i.e. it's pretty much buying your goodwill to shoot down its competition. And as it gets stronger, it's getting happier to make more and more restrictions to the way we buy and play games.

Huh. Only ever heard the Republicans stuff at Nellis.

Vault 34 seemed a little bugged to me, the quest popups were not backed up by much in-game explanation and I never got to even see the end result of my decision. The were a big pain for my revolver-based PC and Boone, even at L24.

By the time it happens, it's much more likely that bigger textures, models, etc., etc., mean that games won't actually be any bigger or longer. It'll just take more gigabytes to deliver the same length/size with... better graphics.

That would involve a *lot* of tracking back and forth, that game carried more easter eggs than FO1 & 2 combined. It has stuff where you need to talk to a random person on the street and answer something meaningless, then 20 hours later halfway across the world pick up a dusty book, NOT do a certain thing that most people would do, then find an obscure area nobody knows exists, fight some impossible battles, then end up with a bunny ear, or something ridiculous like that. Anyhow, FNV will probably take me ~40 hours, and given how I seem to play quicker than most players that's fine with me. That's around as long as the NWN2 campaign, but it feels less of a drag.

Well as my first playthrough I followed the main path until Boulder City, stopping by anything interesting I saw on the horizon and poking my head in. Pistol, picking up Boone then ED-E soon after. Nightkin were nearly impossible, although they drop so many stealth boys that you're almost meant to use them, and there were a few hairy moments, but I'd argue that it got way too easy after picking up Boone. I stuck with him to see the companion content, but I think the game would have been much better balanced without companions on Hard/Hardcore.

I've been able to use it four or five times so far, I think, and that's fine given how it's pretty much a magic ticket to Speech success. You can use it with And heck, I know I've missed heaps of things - I haven't even found the location with Veronica yet, missed it somehow.

I'm going at my first playthrough with Hard/Hardcore and no, it's still too easy. On anything less it probably feels like you're swimming in XP. Due to similar mechanics, FNV suffers from the same disease as FO3 and Oblivion, where after Level 10 you hit that point where you have heaps of money, can get past most skillcheck challenges and can kill most things, and basically the challenge is sapped out of the game. Oblivion had it worst with the bad levelscaling, FNV seems to be slightly better, but still, it's way too easy. And the thing with that is, in an exploration game, a lot of the anticipation, tactical planning, adrenaline, enjoyment, immersion and ultimately reason to keep going really suffers when you are just a God. You don't need to loot that corpse or chest, you already have tens of thousands of caps. You don't care about a quest reward of 200 XP, you're max level and there's 1/3 of the game to go. You don't even bother with your best weapons because you can shoot everything to dead in seconds anyway, etc... Anyway. Despite that FNV is awesomely addictive so far. I've just finished my first round of going through the Strip's families diong all the quests, now going to tackle the outlying regions in the North. Level 22, and to be honest, I should be level 15 or so at this point, I feel. I think a 30% reduction in all XP would do it... or, to do it better, halving the kill & skillcheck XPs, then quarter reduction in quest XPs, then eliminating the stupid Challenge XPs. Bug-wise five or six random crashes in 25-30 hours, but hell, given how bloody instant saving, loading and game starting is, I think it's pretty benign. I might have run into a quest bug with Cass, which might be more annoying if there's more of them, but generally game runs great.

Slowtrain, FNV rate is equally absurd, though improved by getting a perk every other level. Luckily it's a quick adjustment on the GECK, sounds like, so am planning to knock it down a lot afte rmy first playthrough.

I told you. However, since a civil post deserves a civil response; Volo, I get all that. And quite a few times I agree with your reality checks. My point is, generally, you are so concerned about telling people how things work in the 'real world', that instead of just balancing things out or being pragmatic, you end up being an advocate of the way things are. Without wasting a thousand words on this, it's like there's a war on and people are dying, and some people are complaining that it shouldn't be this way, and you come along and say look it's war, people are gonna die. Which is fine. But then you go so far with it and make so much effort to stress how lamenting the deaths is completely pointless, that after a while, effectively, you end up being an advocate of war killing people. We all know how it works with publishers and profit and target sales. Doesn't mean we should say "oh good on ya SEGA for calling Alpha Protocol a failure" or whatever. Especially since its' not just daydreaming - brands and market perception drives investment. Maybe not as much as cold hard cash, but it certainly is a factor.

They weren't low, they met/exceeded targets. That's why they want to put it on consoles too to maximise returns on the franchise.

To be honest I'm just in the strip, I'm level 18 with 8 INT, and I have 75+ in Guns, Science, Sneak, Lockpick and Speech. Combine that with skill books and I think I haven't been stopped by a skill check the entire game except for a couple of barter/repair-only ones. Next game i think I'll go with 3 or 4 INT (3 gets you dummy talk right?), it's just too much. Bethforums have a lot of complaints about nerfed explosives, I'm not sure - with 25 explosives I found the range bad, but not unuseable.

From what I remember the 700k figure was accurate as of a month or two ago. It will likely creep over a million at some point, but then publishers hardly care about sales after the first few weeks. I'm waiting for Volourn to one day realise the irony in dedicating thousands of posts to declaring how people's opinions don't matter, only the publisher's, thereby actually helping spread the publishers' interpretation of things, but it just wouldn't be fun without it, I guess.

Just realised that the Commonwealth PhD Scholarship app needs not just recommendations from your side, but also recommendations from potential supervisors. Due in about 10 days. Which sucks, because I've been putting off actually emailing potential supervisors because it's scary And from experience, academics to reply to a strange email in 10 days, let alone positively? Also a bunch of other idiotic stuff like "leadership statement", but I guess that's just the requisite posterior muscle flexing exercise.