Needless to say, Honest Hearts has been a refreshing change of pace :)
My favorite DLC. Too easy if you put it off too long, but the environment, the story, the meaningful expansion of places in the Fallout universe that people can actually live, the persistent shout outs to that great Mormon weapons engineer John Browning, the voice-acting...
It's about the only DLC that doesn't feel like a total tonal disconnect from the main story- despite the notion of the Courier swanning off to Utah in the middle of things being a mite odd.
That... and speaking as an agnostic, its handling of devoutly religious characters was pretty refreshing.
I am going to stomp it, if I ever get out of here, making my way to Mobius's's dome now, not necessarily leaving per se but it would be nice to have the option.
We'll see, I found a few more missiles in test building X-12 (the building with super mega harness).
Do I leave my brain behind, it's kind of an ungrateful a&&%**#.
Got stuck on a glitch talking to it the first time.
Do I leave my brain behind, it's kind of an ungrateful a&&$%%+.
Got stuck on a glitch talking to it the first time.
you can leave your brain at Big MT if you want, you get to keep the Brainless perk
also beware the Giant Robo-scorpion with its atomic lasers
Bah! He was a b~~#&, when faced with the awesome might of my pulse gun, didn't even move, only ran thru 4-6 Stimpaks. I used 4, God only knows what my armor was doing to me, when I get back to the wastelands I'm going to have a sit down with my equipment and automated companions, and have a frank discussion about what's acceptable, and when they're crossing the line.
So in the end I had a nice enlightening discussion with Doctor Mobius which went great, I kept my brain, tho I'm leaving the other organs, although not before hitting on it (black widow!).
So back to the think tank I went, where things didn't go so well, and in the end, like most of my social situations, Annabelle had the last word.
I plan on continuing my exploration, but I wanted the option of being able to leave.
Found the toaster module, that guy cracks me up! Got a present for Veronica, all heated up.
Next time I'm going in as a laser packing science nerd, not that I didn't come in as a science nerd this time, but the lack of ammo is taxing when you specialize in guns and explosives, never got to bring out Esther tho, yet.
I usually take all of my organs back... the "perks" offered by the artificial ones are mostly wasted on someone who doesn't fight that many robots (especially by the time you get the option!) and who doesn't make heavy use of chems.
I like the extra strength, mo muscles, mo hoarding.
You get MORE strength if you take back your spine.
Really! Well, I might need to make myself whole then.
Okay, after playing thru all the DLCs, I would have to rate them as follows.
1. Old World Blues, I really liked this one the most by the end, so very charming, it really shines if you hit it at slightly above where it says you should.
2. Lonesome Road, it's all about the atomic war is hell setting and imagery, Ulysses is just there to narrate.
3. Would be number two, or even maybe one, if it weren't for all the f#*$ing speakers and radios.
4. The other one, sure it was pretty, but to me, it seemed, predictable and boring, and being quaker, I find myself around religious but not dicks about it type people fairly often, so they just seemed like regular people, and there's no way running off is ever the answer. It was good, but not very memorable.
See... for me?
Old World Blues doesn't feel like it belongs in the story in quite the same way.
Lonesome Road and Honest Hearts both have direct, meaningful ties to the primary story of New Vegas.
The White Legs, following Ulysses' urging on behalf of Caesar,go after the Burned Man's people.
Ulysses suffers a crisis of faith with his own actions.
Old World Blues is fun, kinda campy, and gives you a lot of excellent mechanical options... but it just doesn't feel like it's part of the same story. And without Dead Money (ew) and/or Lonesome Road, it has absolutely NOTHING to anchor it to the other things you're doing. I kinda think it would have been a fun stand-alone short game packaged with something else-it feels less like an expansion than even Dead Money Does.
And Dead Money, well, we've kicked it around here before, but for the sake of completeness, it combines a punishing (not challenging-punishing) mechanical design with a similar "what does this have to do with everything else?" narrative problem. Its linkage is slightly better than Old World Blues, since it ties to Veronica's backstory... in only the most unsatisfying ways.
But generally, when my weird west hardcase has to pretend to be playing either "1950s-1960s Sci-Fi extravaganza," or "heist movie tethered awkwardly to a stab at survivial horror," I'm just not as into it- particularly when its links to the main plot basically swing from solo characters you may not even encounter.
Old World Blues provides some more backstory for House (one of the scientists was a rival), and explains the presence of a lot of other things you find elsewhere in the Mojave (some of which, yes, are in Lonesome Road and Dead Money, but also other things like cyberdogs and cazadores). The antagonizing force of science without ethics also carries forward a similar theme found in other Fallout games and backstories, e.g., Vault experiments, West-Tek, the Institute (mentioned in Fallout 3), etc.
Yeah, but those are broad and essentially meaningless ties to the actual story of New Vegas- it's "more of the same," without any particularly good reason for the Courier to be involved.
Where did Cyberdogs, Cazadores, and Nightstalkers come from? Well, it's a nice bit of trivia, but, "they all come from the same amoral think-tank" is shrug-worthy, at best when you're already playing a game where humanity's technical knowledge so outstripped their judgment that we nuked ourselves into a post-apocalypse.
I guess your mileage varies. It's meaningless to you. Not to me. That it explained a lot of what goes on in the background of the world was important to me (I felt much the same about, say, the backstory of the sporepeople in Vault 22, which were in prior games and then showed up in DLC), and I felt like it made a for a great story both stand-alone and part of something larger that my character was doing. The main unifying force in any of these stories is the Courier her (or him) self, so ultimately it's about how you connect to it or not. I also feel like the 50s sci-fi just took Fallouts Retrofuturism and ran with it, and to me that was fun and appropriate and thematic, not from out of nowhere.
Anyway, I'd much rather engage in bizarre experiments and breathe for Dala than listen to that pointless jackass Ulysses ramble on while getting lost in endless, samey ruins any day of the week. Hell, I'd rather be slave-collared and fight an army of radios while I'm at it.
I have an odd perspective for looking at it, my dad being a Quaker "minister" (quakers don't have ministers, per se, but he has a ministry license, and is deeply involved in the quaker community, so) he was also a robot programmer in the seventies, and deeply opposed to the proliferation of nuclear power/weapons thru the world, so much so, most weekends we were protesting something or other (btw, chicks dig protesters).
So, really they all have something to tug at the old heartstrings, even Sierra Madre does, as I was a huge fan of pulp fiction and horror film as a kid, to say nothing of my love for the heist and western genres.
Trufax, as they say in Riddley Walker?
If OWB coupled with Fallout 3, I would have considered it a far better fit, 'cause the Lone Wanderer can be as dumb as a box of rocks depending on build, but the theme of science from the time before the war is baked into just about every scrap of the main storyline.
Probably some sort of insane mod out there that does almost exactly that...
So what's up with the Westside, is it all whore houses and farmers, seems like they got s~+! figured out.
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Whores, farmers, and sewer access, mostly. Oh, and a tongueless super mutant who scares the Fiends.
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I think Westside in the sewers has a great place you can get lai- that is, engage in an interesting and dangerous side quest that is offered you by a rather fascinating individual. If I am remembering the right place.
OT: Cap'n, does your dad do traveling ministry?
Not much anymore, I don't think, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's last summer, so he didn't travel much, the medication seems to be working for him tho, so I wouldn't bet against it, with winter set in tho he pretty much sticks to the Wausau area, with occasional forays down by us (where they're still active, occasionally.
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I liked how in Fallout 2 if you bangs enough hookers, transients, mob boss wives, shotgun wives or husbands, and other degenerates you got a bonus perk for it.
I was quite displeased to find that not a thing in New Vegas, with Gomorrah, the West Side, Benny, the girl in the Vault Hotel, the Atomic Wrangler, and so many more options, there's no bonus.
I think it was a HP buff or something to do with endurance in pt 2, but that may have been the one for being a...actor...in such videos...
I think I'll stick to the wastelands, and whatever Rex and my armor do to me in my sleep, that I can only assume Veronica is taping.
Note to self: next time I see one, pick up a teddy bear for Rex.
I think I'll stick to the wastelands, and whatever Rex and my armor do to me in my sleep, that I can only assume Veronica is taping.
Note to self: next time I see one, pick up a teddy bear for Rex.
Do it right, take "Sergeant Teddy" from that jerk in the Fort!
It would seem I wasn't as straight with the NCR as I thought, g$&*~@n dick bags sent a hit squad after me, they are annoyingly tough too, looks like I'm just gonna have to take s&$+ over myself, none of these other a~!+&$!s can be trusted.
But first I'll work on the Khans, get them on my side.
NCR hit squads are annoying because they tend to favor hard-hitting long-range weaponry-the Legion at least has their melee fetish to broaden your options for dealing with them.
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Although the Legion sometimes couples their melee folks with a sniper, so you have to be careful you don't get tagged while the melee dudes keep you busy. Legion drops some surprisingly good loot tho.
Khan quest is a little buggy, be warned--but it is worth getting their help. That you don't have positive rep with NCR might make things easier for you, actually.
OT: Captain Yesterday, sorry to hear about your dad's illness; I pray the medication continues to do its work. I was just curious; I'm clerk of our YM's intervisitation committee so I like to hear about other Friends' travels.
Thanks for the well wishes, dad is a naturally positive person, I'm sure that helps
Man, I missed so much s~&* in lonely roads the first time I went through, I won't make that mistake this time, I am looting the s+@$ out of this b~$+!.
Yeah! I am f+$$ing s!$~ up this time, ain't no b&%&$ ass deathclaw gonna get the drop on me!
I'm pretty sure my number of rockets is in the hundreds by now, and because I've been looting the s~%# out of everything and flipping ot regularly at commissaries, my Mininuke collection is beginning to enter Jerry Seinfeld orbit, I have all kinds, you want Tiny Tots, got several dozen.
Wish I liked the Red Glare more... but the SMMG is my MVP off of Lonesome Road.
All-American and Christine's Sniper rifle are getting quite the workout, but when i left off i was entering Deathclaw territory, so Annabelle, Red and Thump-Thump are ready for a workout.
Red Glare is somewhat underwhelming, I wish they did more damage, this time tho I'm way better off financially, so I might get some upgrades to go with my special snowflake rockets (like high explosive or hive).
Hypothetically speaking, what happens if I assault the Gunrunners factory.
I probably won't, but I might.
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Red Glare is rapid fire and has huge range. Mod it out and you become a nuke sniper. Unlike Annabelle, where you miss and have to wait like eight seconds to reload, with Red Glare you can turn into Piccolo on DBZ and Hellzone Grenade those mother f***ers.
Damn it, now I need to start a new explosives character tonight in addition to my energy sniper and melee brute.
Damn you captain.
I never got much out of Red Glare either. I think part of the problem is I was on hardcore with JE Sawyer's mod and the rockets were just too heavy.
Current stockpile of heavy ammo
Missiles: 35
High explosive: 64
High velocity: 33
Hive: 16
Mininuke: 1
Big kid: 22
Low yield: 6
Tiny tots: 7
25 mm grenades (grenade machine gun): 220
25 mm high explosive: 52
3 holy frag grenades (found in Searchlight)
Rockets: 302
High explosive: 81
40 mm grenades (Thump-Thump b#@%~es!): 139
Incendiary: 28
Ulysses who now.
Yes that's the place, just curious how far I can take everything over.
And keep in mind with my artillery, I use Annabelle and Thump-Thump on a fairly regular basis.
Does nuking NCR or Legion at the end of lonesome road have an appreciable effect on the game map at large, or is it more like a background thing.
The Legion area is in the SE part of the map, but I just don't know how to get to it. Supposedly, you can get a boat there from Cottonwood Cove, but the boat doesn't appear for me. :-/
The boat's "discovery area" is tiny- like, literally about as wide as one of those rowboats.
The irradiated Legion Camp is fun to stomp on, and there's a pretty good piece of non-Power armor on the named Legion guy there, but it counts as faction armor- really, the fun there is just in smashing the Legion's face in a little more.
It's also very buggy (surprise, surprise)-I can usually get Rex or ED-E to come with me, but despite wanting to give Boone more Legion scalps for his belt, the friggin' galoot just sits parked at Cottonwood Cove every time I try to bring him.
Hmm, the NCR has been pissing me off, might have to nuke them, but then Caesar is such a piece of s+@+, I certainly can't let him live, looks like it's me and robot Dave Foley against the world again.
This time, no mercy.
Probably... maybe..
You know you can nuke both, right? And then just get them both to forgive you after and piss off whoever you don't side with again after you do the extra zone nuking them unlocks.
Or just nuke 'em, both, flip 'em the bird, and plow through Hoover Dam over the shattered remains of both armies.
I feel worse for the NCR rank and file than I do for the Legion, but if they're trying to kill you? Kill now, cry later.
There is no place for crying in Vegas.