Aristes

I found a new weapon a while back. It must count as a heavy weapon, unfortunately, since I can't target anything worth a damn. Too bad, though. It looks like an energy weapon.

I have found tons of those stealth things. I've even used one once, but I haven't been stealthing so I've sold them. Like all these games, you're filthy stinking rich by the mid game. You just have to be a complete-nic, ~Di. You'll get so many of those Stealth thingies that you'll create your own black market.

I missed the cannibal one, so I'll go back and look. I haven't read much of the tenpenny tower stuff because I haven't done that one yet. As a rule, I disagree with options that take away from my karma when I think that a reasonable person of good will would make the choice. This karma stuff is always hard to get right. ...But helping a guy woo some chic doesn't seem like it warrants bad karma.

Playing at Medium and doing a bunch of sidequests still gets you to level 20 before the end. Playing on hard gets you to 20 super fast. I really don't care about game difficulty, though, so it's a non-issue for me. ...But the game is still plenty hard enough of hard in certain fights. I agree that the fps aspect can make it a bit easy since you can dance around people and avoid damage during most of the fights. For my low endurance person wearing combat/ranger armor, it's not like I'm a tank wading through people. If you want the bards to tell stories about your exploits through the ultra tough game of the century, this won't be your chance without some modding. I rarely play games for the challenge anymore though. Even easy, I find Fallout 3 addictive. I agree with aram about enjoying a mod that makes the whole game about saving your own skin rather than the wasteland. ...But I don't think the fact that I could see myself enjoying a game of aram's description as detracting from the current game. I think it's got a great mix of campy humor and gritty wasteland feel. ...And both Fallout 1 and 2 got to the same point where the PC has essentially unlimited funds, ammo, and weapons. Fallout 3 is no different. At least in Fallout 3 we have some incentive to spend a good chunk of caps. So it's all good. Yeah, it doesn't take itself as seriously as Fallout 1. *shrug* That wasn't an issue for me at the time. Unlike some folks, I played the games in order when they each hit the street and I still think Fallout 2 is probably my fave of the 3.

This is the sort of stupid crap I hate about these kinds of games. Okay, so in the Nuka-Cola quest, a fetching young lady wants to have 30 nuka-cola quanta in order to fill her nuka-cola machine. She intimates that he male friend (not a romantic interest) has protected her in the past and that he's been a great guy to her. When you leave, he accosts you and (at least playing a male) insists on knowing what you were doing. If you're even halfway decent about it, he'll then confide that he wants to have sexual relations with the young woman. At that time, an optional quest to get the 30 bottles of quantum for him instead. So, since I didn't get an answer here, I decided to save and try it. I didn't figure that was cheating since the whole idea of karma one way or the other is pretty damned slim in this quest anyhow. Yep, you lose karma for giving the colas to the horny guy. Now, I don't think we should take a karma hit from helping him. It's not like he's a raider. ...And he really did get the colas for her. He commissioned me to get them, I gave them to him, and he gave her the colas. Hell, I would have put in a good word for him. He saves her, doesn't insist on sexual relations, doesn't rape her, and protects her. So, the young man is trying to soften her heart and sleep with her? Good Lord, men everywhere are EVEEEEEL! How stupid can you get. For what it's worth, I think the ploy should succeed. The only thing about it that I don't like is that he's too damned stupid to approach her in a straightforward manner. ...But that's not evil, it's just immature. I guess I've been pretty happy with how the karma mechanic has worked in the game, so I can't complain too much.

You could play hitman in FPS mode, but running through that like a shooter is a waste of the game.

That's weird. I have yet to find a permanent companion. I'm level 20 and I'm just the point where I have moved the At this point, I don't even know if I'd want a companion, although dogmeat might be cool I guess. Dogmeat is bad, though, because I can't stomach losing him. Maybe I could let other companions die, this being Fallout and all and the AI being stupid as hell. I don't relish trying to keep dogmeat alive in places like that old town where the deathclaws are all over the place. I mean, they're gone there, but who the hell knows what else I'll find and the stupid pooch will run up to the first bruiser we see and the game will turn into reload heaven after that, which is hell for me.

You can find Vera wandering the ship. She's a young woman in a summer dress. I take it this is all after the ants? Also, does anyone know if we can reach any better status than "Savior of the Wasteland?" If not, I'm going to start sending my scrap metal to the Undercity instead of Megaton. I figure I want both to do well. I've probably given over a hundred scrap metal to Megaton for free. I'm sure way over a hundred. Finally, I was thinking of giving that desperate guy who wants to get laid the 30 nuka-cola quanta for the Nuke Cola Challenge quest. Will that cost me karma? I don't see why. He's desperate, but I'm not doing anything underhanded and, hell, if she sleeps with him for getting her the cola, why is that bad? One of the bad things about these games is that they're sometimes so random in what they consider good or bad. Overall it's made sense so far, but I don't trust it.

Anyone know if there's any use for red and blue pass cards? What about those old metro tickets?

Raising taxes in a recession is simply something we cannot afford. It would be much better to run deficit spending, within limits, until the economy is back in the black and then cut spending.

I actually find this statement quite irritating. However, rather than view it as intellectually dishonest, I will explain that this thread is two pages long and so does not have a lot of anything in it. In the previous two threads that led up to the current discussion, there was plenty of talk of racism. Since I can only surmise that folks who speak out against racism are doing so from what they deem a stronger moral position, then I thought it was perfectly legitimage to respond. Furthermore, there have been prominent Europeans who have spoke out about American racism over the years. Yes, I think that many Europeans have assumed, because of our history, that America is a cesspool of racism. I'm not unsympathetic to the idea that America has an ugly history in these matters, but it is no different than human history in that regard. On the other hand, I appreciate the comment about how England looks at the issue. Like I said in the previous thread, I didn't vote for Obama, but I still celebrate the accomplishment. It really is about damned time. Now, Obama, go out and prove that I'm wrong and be the best damned President of all time! Go out there and make our country safer and stronger and the crow I'll eat will be the best meal I've ever had. It will be fit for a king, but cooked by a president.

If you meant it as a bit of levity, then I'll take it as such, Meshugger. It was cute anyhow. As for the socialism thing, I'm not one of the folks pushing the socialism argument. I think it's a losing argument since it is technically untrue. However, the non-white populations of some European countries are not entirely small. Black Englishmen? Maybe not. Indian Englishmen? I saw quite a few while I was there. The point isn't to draw an equivalency between Europe and the United States in terms of race relations. The point is to a few holes in what I perceive as our European friends' tendency to see Americans as inherently more racist than themselves. I don't believe this is true. I believe racism, with the attendant habit of seizing on visible differences between people, as a human rather than cultural dilemma. Some cultures handle it better, but bigotry exists/has existed in every culture. Once again, taking it the way you meant it, I really did like the montage.

Does anyone know if these red and blue pass cards and metro tickets are useful for anything?

That's not socialism. That's propaganda. Neat montage, but silly as an argument for socialism. By the way, it's nice that the racist United States can join the color-blind Europeans. We've got a black American president just like the black French president, the black Prime Minister of the Unite Kingdom, and the black Chancellor in Germany.

I think most Americans are going to have a hard time with that name because "y" is sort of the bastard child of english. Putting it in the middle of a word like that will probably confuse some folks. You can never be sure of how to say it. Not only that, rekyl just looks strange. That's my guess for America at large, but I don't think it's such a bad name. I agree with Amentep that folks will pronounce it "Rehk il," but who cares? Since English tends to make vowels pull double/triple/multiple duties, you're bound to have a bunch of ways to prounce foreign words. The benefit of rekyl is that it's short and, once folks relize what it means, some of them will probably just pronounce it recoil anyhow.

Painkiller is still one of my favorites. So much so that I keep it around just to play every now and then. The ending on trauma is silly, but it's still fun to do.

Haha, Hurlshot. You're the MoleAgonizer!

I really enjoyed portal. I thought the half-life episode were a lot of fun. Bioshock was a lot of fun, but the endless respawns were a bummer. STALKER wasn't a bad game. I didn't go gonzo over it like some, but it had its moments, that's for sure.

People don't win primaries for being moderate. I seriously doubt McCain won for being a "moderate," although I agree with Wrath that McCain isn't so much moderate as unpredictable. McCain's "moderate" reputation did help him some in the primaries for one reason, though. A lot of folks thought, because he's a so called moderate, that he had the best chance to win. That might be true, considering the atmosphere. Obama was the clear winner, and he tore off a huge chunk of the electoral and popular vote pie. However, many pundits assumed it would be worse. Now, Obama, should he have a successful four years, might have a Reagan level victory next election. If that happens, then the country is probably doing pretty well, though, which will be a silver lining no matter how you cut it. Oh, and Obama's march to the center did not occur until after he had essentially won the primary. He backed off on a number of stances between the final days of the primary and the beginning of the general election campaign. That's common, and it also goes to put paid to the silly idea that moderates tend to win that pary's nomination. Yeah, fringe elements don't tend to win the party's nomination, but people to the right or left within a party generally win the primary. The moderates who win usually do so by making concessions to the base, and then they'll try as best they can to move more to center. As far as Palin baiting goes, it's over. I was unhappy that McCain made the move. I was unhappy every time I heard her speak, but mostly I feel sympathy for Palin. McCain, out of sheer desperation, brought her to the majors before she was ready and might have destroyed her career at the national stage. That's politics, but I couldn't care less about the behind the curtain gossipping campaign.

Or just play the game you downloaded off of steam and it does it for you before you even knew there was a patch.

I did that with the book also. ...And my intelligence was either 8 or 9 during that time, depending on when I found the bobblehead. So the bood had a lot of real insight. One of the best quest lines. The quests for Fallout 3 are really great

As a conservative, I will say that I was not happy with the Palin decision. I mostly didn't care, but I was not happy about it. I think it's important for a president to have the capacity to communicate. One of the reasons that Obama has become and remained so popular among our friends around the world is that he is able to articulate broad ideas. I don't think he's got a grand vision, but he does have a vision that he conveys grandly. That's a plus. No matter what else, he must be able to communicate plans and policies to the American people. I agree with Guard Dog and Wrath of Whatzits, though. Meaning is best derived from use, and socialism in this country is a term that reflects a broad spectrum of ideas. However, for the sake of clarity, we should agree to use the classical definition for it. Either that or use Marxism or some such so we can differentiate. Finally, I don't think Obama is a hard lefty. He truly is an opportunist. That's not necessarily a bad thing. If Obama's start rising equates to an increase in our fortunes, then I'm happy to put him squarely in the middle of the sky. This is my biggest beef with people. If their guy loses, they'd rather see the country spiral downward to prove them right than be proved wrong by increased prosperity.

I thought the super hero thing was clever. Not only that, but I was able to use Child at Heart twice in that quest. ...And the second time on an adult. It was cool to use Child at Heart on an adult and I've been impressed at how well they implemented dialogue perks throughout the game. it's not over the top, but enough to be useful.

First time I heard them was following your link. Galaxy News Radio -- Fallout 3.

I've been wondering the same thing, Monte Carlo. I enjoyed Oblivion, but it just seemed empty and the fantasy world was so remote. It really seems to me that Bethesda was desperately in need of a real world setting to take advantage of their talent. This isn't just a pretty game. It's a sandbox game where the scenery is its own reward and the exploration has real meaning. The tidbits of American history and perspective are real treasures. I laughed out loud at the line about Abraham Lincoln being a great president and Madison being a mediocre president. ...Or the fact that I walked around with Button's wig on my head for so long, switching it around between talking and combat. Bethesda did a great job with this title.